Tybalt's death was news within no time. A crowd gathered along with the prince himself, who was related to Mercutio. Benvolio was asked to narrate the incident. Lady Capulet, who grieved over her kinsman's death, insisted that the prince be strict and ignore Benvolio's representation. She pleaded against her son-in-law, oblivious of the very fact, that Romeo was Juliet's husband. The prince was unmoved by the exclamations of any of the women, and pronounced his sentence. Romeo was banished from Verona. Juliet sighed. With a heavy heart, she called him a beautiful tyrant, an angelic beast, a blasphemous dove... She cried on her cousin's death, smiled when she thought of Romeo being alive whom Tybalt could have slain, and cried again on the news of his banishment.

Romeo took refuge in friar Lawrence's cell. He could not forget Juliet even for a moment and was sadly struck with grief. The friar calmed Romeo & suggested that he secretly take his leave of Juliet, and thence proceed straightway to Mantua. He was to stay there till the friar found an occasion to declare the marriage. A convinced Romeo set out to seek his lady, proposing to stay with her that night, and by daybreak pursue his journey alone to Mantua.

A Lover's Banishment

That night Romeo passed with his dear wife, gaining secret admission to her chamber from the orchard in which he had heard her confession of love the night before. The pleasures were sadly mixed with the sadness of departure, nevertheless. With the arrival of dawn, Romeo had to leave. He promised to write to her from Mantua every hour in the day. Barely some days after Romeo's departure, old Lord Capulet proposed a match for Juliet, a gallant and young nobleman named Count Paris. Juliet was terrified. She pleaded her youth unsuitable to marriage and the recent
death of Tybalt, which had left her spirits too weak to meet a husband with any face of joy. Lord Capulet turned a deaf ear to her words and ordered that she be ready for marriage the following Thursday. Juliet took her problems to the friar, her counsellor in distress.

He directed her to go home, merrily agree to marry Paris, according to her father's desire, and one night before the wedding drink off the contents of a phial the effect of which would turn her cold and lifeless two-and-forty hours after drinking. As the bridegroom would appear, he would find her to appear dead and she would be uncovered on a bier as the ritual called. She would be buried in the family vault.

Daring Death

The friar mentioned that Juliet would need to be daring to do so putting aside all her womanly fears, and that, by the time she would wake up from her deep sleep, he would have arranged for Romeo to come and take her away to Mantua. She was prepared to do all this, for the sake of her love. The friar handed over the phial. She promised to become the bride of Count Paris making her parents happy. No cost was spared to prepare such festival rejoicings as Verona had never before witnessed. One night earlier, Juliet drank off the potion.

When Paris came early in the morning to awaken his bride, he was greeted by a lifeless body than a beautiful living Juliet. The Capulet household mourned. The sprightly instrument turned to melancholy bells all of a sudden. Now, instead of a priest to marry her, a priest was needed to bury her. Before the messenger of the friar could arrive to mention that it was a mock funeral, the news of Juliet's death reached Romeo at Mantua. And then a messenger came from Verona; he thought surely it was to confirm some good news. But to his dismay! Determined to visit Verona he ordered horses to be ready and offered gold to the apothecary, who after some pretended scruples sold him a poison.

Romeo reached Verona and found the churchyard, in the midst of which was situated the ancient tomb of the Capulets. He tried to break open the monument, when he was interrupted by a voice, the voice of Count Paris, who had come to the tomb of Juliet to strew flowers and weep over the grave of his would-have-been wife. Paris bade him desist and condemned by the laws of Verona to die if he were found within the walls of the city, he would have apprehended him.

A quarrel issued and fight followed. Paris fell. Romeo, by the help of a light, recognized him to be Paris. Juliet's grave now lay opened. She had flawless beauty, whom death had no power to change a feature or complexion. Bidding Juliet his last farewell by kissing her lips, Romeo swallowed the poison. But the dissembling potion, which Juliet had swallowed, had begun getting ineffective. Meanwhile, the friar came to know that his letters, which he had sent to Mantua, had never reached Romeo. So he rushed to the grave armed with a pickaxe and lantern, to deliver the lady from her confinement, but was surprised to find Romeo and Paris lying breathless by the monument.

Juliet awoke out of her trance, and seeing the friar, asked for Romeo. The friar took her to the place of death. A startled Juliet saw the cup closed in Romeo's hand and guessed the reason of his death. Just then, she heard noises of people coming and quickly unsheathed a dagger, which she wore. She stabbed herself and died by her true Romeo's side. The Montagues and the Capulets had reached the place. The friar was summoned and asked to narrate what happened. He told the tale of their unbound love.

The prince turned to the old lords, Montague and Capulet, and rebuked them for their brutal and irrational enmities. He said that the heavens had found means even through the love of their children to punish their unnatural hate. The old rivals, no longer enemies, agreed to bury their long strife in their children's graves. Lord Montague said he would raise a statue of pure gold for Juliet, that while Verona kept its name, no figure should be so esteemed for its richness and workmanship as that of the true and faithful Juliet. Lord Capulet in return said that he would raise another statue to Romeo.