“Roméo et Juliette” by Charles Gounod libretto (English)

Contents: Roles And Prologue; Act One; Act Two; Act Three; Act Four; Act Five

ACT FOUR

Scene One

Juliet’s room
(It is still night. The stage is lit by a torch.)

No.14 Duet

(Juliet is seated; Romeo is at her feet.)

JULIET
Come, I have forgiven you. Tybalt desired your death;
if he had not died, you would have done so yourself!
Away with sorrow! Away with remorse!
He hated you...and I love you!

ROMEO
Ah, say it again, that word so sweet!

JULIET
I love you, o Romeo! I love you, o my husband!

JULIET, ROMEO
O bridal night!
O sweet night of love!
Destiny
binds me to you for ever.
O sheer delight in living,
O all-powerful charms!
Your gentle gaze fills me with rapture,
your voice ravishes my senses!
Beneath your ardent kisses
Heaven is radiant within me.
1 have given you my heart;
it is yours, yours for ever.
O sheer delight in living,
o all-powerful charms, etc.
O bridal night! etc.
(The first glimmers of day lighten the windowpanes. – A
lark is heard singing.)

JULIET
What is it, Romeo?

ROMEO (rising)
O Juliet, listen!
Already the lark is telling us it’s day!

JULIET
No, no! It is not morn,
’tis not the lark
whose song hath pierc’d the fearful hollow of thine ear,
it is the nightingale, love’s confidant!

ROMEO
It is the lark, alas, herald of morn!
See those envious streaks gliding the horizon;
night’s candles are burnt out and the dawn
breaks smiling
in the mists of the east!

JULIET
No, no, it is not morn,
that fatal gleam
is but the soft reflex of the moon!
Stay! O stay!

ROMEO
Ah, come then, death! I will stay!

JULIET
Ah, you are right: it is morn!
Flee! You must leave your Juliet!

ROMEO
No, no, it is not day!
’Tis not the lark!
It is the gentle nightingale, love’s confidant!

JULIET
Alas, it is the lark, herald of morn!
Go now, my life!

ROMEO
One kiss and I’ll be gone!

JULIET
O cruel decree! cruel decree!

ROMEO
Ah, stay, stay awhile in my entwining arms!
Stay awhile!
One day it will be sweet for our true love
to recall its past torments.

JULIET
Alas, you must go!
You must leave these arms
in which I clasp you
and tear yourself from this passionate joy.

JULIET
Alas, we must part!
You must leave these arms
in which you clasp me,
and tear yourself
from this passionate joy!
Ah, how much
more cruel and barbarous
than death is the fate
which severs me from you! etc.

ROMEO
Alas, we must part!
I must leave these arms
in which I clasp you,
and tear myself
from this passionate joy!
Ah, how much
more cruel and barbarous
than death is the fate
which severs me from you! etc.

ROMEO
Farewell, my Juliet, farewell!

JULIET
Farewell!

ROMEO, JULIET
Ever thine!

JULIET
Farewell, my soul, farewell, my life!
Angels in heaven, to you, to you do I confide him!

No.15 Quartet

GERTRUDE
(entering in great agitation)
Juliet!
(recovering herself)
Ah, heaven be praised,
your husband has gone! Here is your father!

JULIET
God! Can he know?

GERTRUDE
Not a thing, not a thing, I hope!
Friar Laurence is with him!

JULIET
Lord, protect us!
(Enter Capulet accompanied by Friar Laurence.)

CAPULET
What, my daughter! Night is scarce done
and your eyes are open,
and here you are already risen!
Alas, our anxiety, I see, is of a kind
and the same regret speeds our awakening!
Let the wedding hymn succeed the cries of alarm!
Faithful to Tybalt’s last wish,
receive from him the husband he named for you;
smile in the midst of your tears!

JULIET
This husband...who is he?

CAPULET
The most valiant of all,
Count Paris!

JULIET (aside)
Oh, God!

FRIAR LAURENCE
(under his breath, to Juliet)
Silence!

GERTRUDE
Compose yourself! Compose yourself!

CAPULET
The altar is prepared,
the groom hath approbation,
be ye united now
nor invite more delay!
May Tybalt’s wand’ring shade,
approving us today,
be laid then, be laid in final consolation!
The will of the dead
like that of God himself
is a sacred law, a supreme law!
We must respect the will of the dead!

JULIET
Fear thee not, Romeo, my heart is faithful still!

GERTRUDE
Let them slumber,
may the dead rest in peace!

FRIAR LAURENCE
She is trembling
and my heart sad forebodings now fill.

CAPULET
Friar Laurence will be able to dictate your duty to you.
Our friends will be coming; I go to receive them.
(He goes out, followed by Gertrude.)

No.16 Scene

JULIET (to Friar Laurence)
Father! Everything overwhelms me! All is lost!
In obedience to you, I have
concealed my despair and my guilty love.
It is for you to help me,
for you to rescue me from my miserable fate!
Speak, Father,
else I am ready to die!

FRIAR LAURENCE
So then, death does not trouble your conscience?

JULIET
No! No! Rather death than this vile deception!

FRIAR LAURENCE
Then drink this potion:
and from your limbs to your heart
will suddenly spread a cold and drowsy humour
in a false likeness of death.
Suddenly the blood will stop coursing in your veins,
presently a ghastly pallor will efface
the roses in your lips and cheeks;
your eyes will close as though in death!
In vain, then, will the cries of alarm break out:
“She is no more,” your weeping companions will say.
And the angels in heaven will make reply:
“She is asleep.”
Then will it be that after one day your body and soul,
like a spent fire bursting into flame again,
will come out of this heavy sleep.
Protected by the darkness your husband and myself
will watch over your awakening,
and you will fly into the arms
of the one who loves you.
Do you hesitate?

JULIET (taking the phial)
No! No! Into your hands
I commend my life.

FRIAR LAURENCE
Till tomorrow!

JULIET
Till tomorrow!

No.17 Scene and Air

JULIET
Heav’n! What a chill doth overrun me!
What if this potion work not at all?
Idle terrors!
They cannot make me wed the count ’gainst my will!
No! no! For this poignard shall be the guard of my vow!
Come! Come!
O love, revive my fond devotion,
and from my heart banish dismay!
Now to doubt, that were to disown thee,
to fear were my love to betray, never!
Never! Rather for dead may he bemoan me!
Ah! for dead bemoan me!

O, my belov’d, I will obey!
But, if tomorrow morn, ere he return,
I waken, amid the lonely chill of the tomb?
Heavenly Pow’rs!
This horrible conceit chills the blood in my veins!
What should I do, lone and forsaken,
if in yon abode of death, none near to heed my
moans,
that the centuries past have replenish’d with bones?
And wherein bloody Tybalt, fest’ring yet is lying,
close at hand, in the gloom espying,
I should view. Heav’ns!
And if his hand were touching mine!
(in bewilderment, as if seeing Tybalt’s ghost)
What is this shade, from the tomb grimly gazing?
It is he! It is Tybalt! He calls me
to depart from the one whom I love,
his fatal blade upraising.
No! Ye phantoms! Vanish away!
Vanish away, oh vision frightful!
Now dawn, oh morn of joy delightful
above the gloom of woes gone by!
Come! Oh love! Revive my fond devotion,
and from my heart banish dismay!
Now to doubt, that were to disown thee!
To fear, were my love to betray!
Never! never! Rather for dead may he bemoan me!
Ah! for dead bemoan me!
O my belov’d, I will obey!

Ballet

Scene Two

No.18 Wedding Procession

A gallery in the palace.
At the back, the doors of the chapel
(An organ prelude is heard; the chapel doors open; a
procession of choirmen and boys comes into view.)

No.18a Epithalamium

JULIET
Heart-rending power, heart-rending power!
Ah! I tremble! Woeful hour!
Hear-rending power! Woe, ah, woe is me!
They have taken him, my treasure!
Oh, heart-rending power! Ah, woe is me!
In him was all my pleasure, my life was he,
yet fortune unkind holds him apart from me!

GERTRUDE
Heart-rending power, heart-rending power!
Woe, ah, woe is me! Oh fairest Juliet! Woeful hour!
Oh, heart-rending power! Ah, woe is me!
From thy bosom hope is banish’d,
yet tho’ joy be vanish’d, resigned be!
What fate hath in store,
our hearts can ne’er foresee!

PARIS, CAPULET, MANUELA, PEPITA, ANGELO,CHORUS
Oh fairest Juliet! Joyful hour!
My/his heart owns thy power
Of fairest Juliet! Joyful hour!
Now my/his heart owns thy power.
and glows for thee!
Since of Heaven ’tis the pleasure
rejoice in the treasure confided thee!
My/his heart for aye to thine shall united be!

FRIAR LAURENCE
O fairest Juliet! Thy heart yet may trust in me!
O fairest Juliet! Joyful hour!
Tho’ darkness may lower, yet trust in me!
Since of Heaven ’tis the pleasure,
ah! rejoice in the treasure confided thee!
Thy heart yet may trust in me
for Heav’n shall protect and shall watch over thee!

CHORUS
O fairest Juliet! Joyful hour!
His heart own thy power!
His heart shall for aye to thine united be!
Chorus and Dance

CHORUS
Let joyful songs rend the air,
wedding songs!
Away with anxious frowns
on this fair day!
Let joyful songs, etc.
We read in your eyes
your good fortune.
Let joyful songs rend the air,
and rise to the heavens!
Let joyful songs, etc.

No.19 Finale

CAPULET
My daughter, yield to the wishes of the bridegroom
who loves you!
Heaven is about to unite you by eternal bonds!
Of this blest marriage now is the supreme moment!
Happiness awaits you at the foot of the holy altars!
(Paris steps forward and prepares to slip his wedding-
ring on to Juliet’s finger.)

JULIET
(withdrawing her hand, and in an undertone, as though
in a dream)
Hatred is the cradle of this fatal love!
Let the grave be my wedding-bed!
(She lifts her hand to her head and unfastens her bridal
chaplet; her hair comes undone and tumbles down
about her shoulders.)

CAPULET
Juliet! Come to yourself!

JULIET
Ah, support me! I am falling!
(People surround her and hold her up.)
What is this darkness enclosing me?
And what this voice calling me?
Is this death? I am afraid! Father! Farewell!
(She falls senseless into the arms of those round about her.)

CAPULET (bewildered)
Juliet! My daughter! Ah!
(horror-struck)
Dead!

GERTRUDE, PARIS, CHORUS
Dead!

CAPULET (despairingly)
Dead!

ALL
Righteous God!

libretto by Joseph Allen, 1969

Contents: Roles And Prologue; Act One; Act Two; Act Three; Act Four; Act Five