o went
up and down the streets of Verona confusedly, exclaiming, A Paris, a
Romeo, a Juliet, as the rumour had imperfectly reached them, till the
uproar brought lord Mountague and lord Capulet out of their beds,
with the prince, to enquire into the causes of the disturbance. The
friar had been apprehended by some of the watch, coming from the
church-yard, trembling, sighing, and weeping, in a suspicious manner.
A great multitude being assembled at the Capulets' monument, the friar
was commanded by the prince to deliver what he knew of these strange
and disastrous accidents.

And there, in the presence of the old lords Mountague and Capulet, he
faithfully related the story of their children's fatal love, the part
he took in promoting their marriage, in the hope in that union to end
the long quarrels between their families; how Romeo, there dead, was
husband to Juliet, and Juliet, there dead, was Romeo's faithful wife:
how before he could find a fit opportunity to divulge their marriage,
another match was projected for Juliet, who to avoid the crime of a
second marriage swallowed the sleeping draught (as he advised), and
all thought her dead: how meantime he wrote to Romeo, to come and take
her thence when the force of the potion should cease, and by what
unfortunate miscarriage of the messenger the letters never reached
Romeo: further than this the friar could not follow the story, nor
knew more than that coming himself to deliver Juliet from that place
of death, he found the count Paris and Romeo slain. The remainder of
the transactions was supplied by the narration of the page who had
seen Paris and Romeo fight, and by the servant who came with Romeo
from Verona, to whom this faithful lover had given letters to be
delivered to his father in the event of his death which made good the
friar's words, confessing his marriage with Juliet, imploring the
forgiveness of his parents, acknowledging the buying of the poison of
the poor apothecary, and his intent in coming to the monument, to die,
and lie with Juliet. All these circumstances agreed together to clear
the friar from any hand he could be supposed to have had in these
complicated slaughters, further than as the unintended consequences of
his own well meant, yet too artificial and subtle contrivances.

And the prince, turning to these old lords, Mountague and Capulet,
rebuked them for their brutal and irrational enmities, and shewed
them what a scourge heaven had lai