Our Romeo and Juliet Story

Scene one

Romeo enters.

Romeo - If I can trust my dreams, then some joyful news is coming soon. Love rules my heart, and all day long a strange feeling has been making me cheerful. I had a dream that my lady came and found me dead. It's a strange dream that lets a dead man think! She came and brought me back to life by kissing my lips. I rose from the dead and was an emperor. Oh my! How sweet it would be to actually have the woman I love, when merely thinking about love makes me so happy.

Romeo's servant Balthasar enters.

Romeo - Do you have news from Verona! What is it, Balthasar? Do you bring me a letter from the friar? How is my wife? Is my father well? How is my Ciara? I ask that again because nothing can be wrong if she is well.

Balthasar - Then she is well, and nothing is wrong. Her body sleeps in the Capulet tomb, and her immortal soul lives with the angels in heaven. I saw her buried in her family's tomb, and then I came here to tell you the news. Oh, pardon me for bringing this bad news, but you told me it was my job, sir.

Romeo - Is it really true? Then I rebel against you, stars! You know where I live. Get me some ink and paper, and hire some horses to ride. I will leave here for Verona tonight.

Balthasar - Please, sir, have patience. You look pale and wild as if you're going to hurt yourself.

Romeo - Tsk, you're wrong. Leave me and do what I told you to do. Don't you have a letter for me from the friar?

Balthasar - No, my good lord.

Romeo - No matter. Get on your way and hire those horses. I'll be with you right away.

Balthasar exits.

Romeo - Well, Ciara, I'll lie with you tonight. Let's see how. Destructive thoughts come quickly to the minds of desperate men! I remember a pharmacist who lives nearby. I remember he wears shabby clothes and has bushy eyebrows. He makes drugs from herbs. He looks poor and miserable and worn out to the bone. He had a tortoise shell hanging up in his shop as well as a stuffed alligator and other skins of strange fish. There were a few empty boxes on his shelves, as well as green clay pots, and some musty seeds. There were a few strands of string and mashed rose petals on display. Noticing all this poverty, I said to myself, "If a man needed some poison"-which they would immediately kill you for selling in Mantua-"here is a miserable wretch who'd sell it to him." Oh, this idea came before I needed the poison. But this same poor man must sell it to me. As I remember, this should be the house. Today's a holiday, so the beggar's shop is shut. Hey! Pharmacist!

The Apothecary enters.

Apothecary - Who's that calling so loud?

Romeo - Come here, man. I see that you are poor. Here are forty ducats. Let me have a shot of poison, something that works so fast that the person who takes it will die as fast as gunpowder exploding in a canon.

Apothecary - I have lethal poisons like that. But it's against the law to sell them in Mantua, and the penalty is death.

Romeo - You're this poor and wretched and still afraid to die? Your cheeks are thin because of hunger. I can see in your eyes that you're starving. Anyone can see that you're a beggar. The world is not your friend, and neither is the law. The world doesn't make laws to make you rich. So don't be poor. Break the law, and take this money. (he holds out money)

Apothecary - I agree because I'm poor, not because I want to.

Romeo - I pay you because you're poor, not because you want me to buy this.

Apothecary - (gives Romeo poison) Put this in any kind of liquid you want and drink it down. Even if you were as strong as twenty men, it would kill you immediately.

Romeo - (gives Apothecary money) There is your gold. Money is a worse poison to men's souls, and commits more murders in this awful world, than these poor poisons that you're not allowed to sell. I've sold you poison. You haven't sold me any. Goodbye. Buy yourself food, and put some flesh on your bones. I'll take this mixture, which is a medicine, not a poison, to Ciara's

grave. That's where I must use it.

They exit.