_Prince._ Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while,[1560] 215 Till we can clear these ambiguities And know their spring, their head, their true descent; And then will I be general of your woes And lead you even to death: meantime forbear, And let mischance be slave to patience. 220 Bring forth the parties of suspicion. _Fri. L._ I am the greatest, able to do least, Yet most suspected, as the time and place Doth make against me, of this direful murder;[1561] And here I stand, both to impeach and purge[1562] 225 Myself condemned and myself excused. _Prince._ Then say at once what thou dost know in this. _Fri. L._ I will be brief, for my short date of breath Is not so long as is a tedious tale. Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet; 230 And she, there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife:[1563] I married them; and their stol'n marriage-day Was Tybalt's dooms-day, whose untimely death[1564] Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from this city; For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined. 235 You, to remove that siege of grief from her, Betroth'd and would have married her perforce To County Paris: then comes she to me, And with wild looks bid me devise some mean[1565] To rid her from this second marriage, 240 Or in my cell there would she kill herself. Then gave I her, so tutor'd by my art, A sleeping potion; which so took effect As I intended, for it wrought on her The form of death: meantime I writ to Romeo,[1566] 245 That he should hither come as this dire night,[1567] To help to take her from her borrow'd grave,[1568] Being the time the potion's force should cease. But he which bore my letter, Friar John, Was stay'd by accident, and yesternight 250 Return'd my letter back. Then all alone[1569] At the prefixed hour of her waking[1570] Came I to take her from her kindred's vault, Meaning to keep her closely at my cell Till I conveniently could send to Romeo: 255 But when I came, some minute ere the time[1571] Of her awaking, here untimely lay[1572] The noble Paris and true Romeo dead. She wakes, and I entreated her come forth,[1573] And bear this work of heaven with patience: 260 But then a noise did scare me from the tomb,[1574] And she too desperate would not go with me, But, as it seems, did violence on herself. All this I know; and to the marriage[1575] Her nurse is privy: and, if aught in this[1575][1576] 265 Miscarried by my fault, let my old life[1575] Be sacrificed some hour before his time[1575][1577] Unto the rigour of severest law.