What if this is a poison which the friar
has secretly given me to kill me
so that he won't be dishonored by this marriage
since he married me to Romeo earlier?
I'm afraid that's the case. And yet, I don't think so
because he's always shown himself to be a holy man.
What if, when I am laid in the tomb,
I awake before Romeo
comes to save me? That's a terrifying thought!
Won't I be stifled in the tomb
where no wholesome air circulates?
Won't I suffocate there before my Romeo comes?
Or if I can breathe, isn't it likely that I'll feel
the horrible ida of death and night,
along with the terror of the place?
That vault is an ancient tomb
where for hundreds of years the bones
of all my bured ancestors have been stored;
where bloody Tybalt, so recently buried,
lies rotting in his burial cloth; where, sot they say,
at some hours in the night, ghosts live.
Alas, alas, isn't it likely that waking there,
I'll encounter horrible smells
and shrieks like the uprooted mandrakes
which drive people insane?
Or if I wake, won't I be driven mad,
closed in with all these hideous fears,
and play like a madwoman with my ancestors' bones,
and pluck battered Tybalt from his burial cloth,
and in this fit, take one of my great relative's bones
to use as a club and dash out my desperate brains?
Look! I think I see my cousin's ghost
looking for Romeo who stabbed him
with a rapier. Wait, Tybalt, wait!
Romeo, I'm coming. I drink to you!