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

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

ACT FIVE

Scene One

An underground crypt

No.20 Entr’acte

No.20a Scene

FRIAR LAURENCE
’Tis you! Hath Romeo my note?

FRIAR JOHN
His page, set upon by the Capulets,
was wounded there, and borne away,
into the house of his master,
failing so to deliver your message.
Here is the letter!

FRIAR LAURENCE
Oh! untoward return!
Let one this very night bear him the fatal letter!
Away! ’tis a perilous plight!
The sooner he is gone, the better!

Scene Two

The Tomb

No.21 Juliet’s Sleep

No.22 Scene and Duet

(After a while, the sound of a crowbar breaking open
the door is heard. The door gives way noisily. Romeo
appears.)

ROMEO
This is the place!...
(with a feeling of terror)
Hail, gloomy and silent tomb!
A tomb? No, no! O resting place morebeautiful
than the heavenly mansion itself!
How bright thy front! A palace it outvies!
(catching sight of Juliet, and starting forward towards the tomb)
Ah, there she is! It is she!
Come, mournful light,
come show her to me.
(taking up the funeral lamp)

O my wife! O my beloved!
Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath
hath had no power yet upon thy beauty!
No! No! That beauty I worship
on your calm, pure countenance still seems to reign
and to smile to Eternity!
(He sets down the lamp upon the tomb.)
Why do you give her back to me so beautiful,
o ghastly death?
Is it to throw me more swiftly into her arms?
Come! This is the only happiness
for which my heart is eager!
And today your prey shall not escape you.
(looking about him)
Ah, I contemplate you without fear,
you tomb where at last I shall rest beside her!
(bending towards Juliet)
O my arms, give her your last embrace!
My lips, give her your last kiss!
(He kisses Juliet; then, drawing a little metal flask from
his breast and turning towards Juliet:)
To you, my Juliet!
(He empties the flask at a draught and throws it away.)

JULIET (gradually awakening)
Where am I?

ROMEO (turning his eyes towards Juliet)
O, my head reels!
Is this a dream?
Her lips murmured!
(seizing Juliet’s hand)
My trembling fingers
felt in hers the warmth of her blood!
(Juliet turns a bewildered look upon Romeo.)
She looks at me and raises herself!

JULIET (sighing)
Romeo!

ROMEO
Lord God Almighty!
She lives! She lives! Juliet is alive!

JULIET
(gradually coming to her senses)
God! What voice is that whose sweetness
enchants me?

ROMEO
It is I! it is your husband
who, trembling with happiness, embraces your knees!
Who brings back to your heart the intoxicating light
of love and of heaven!

JULIET
(throwing herself into Romeo’s arms)
Ah! ’Tis thou!

ROMEO
Come! Come! Let us flee together!

JULIET
O happiness!

JULIET, ROMEO
Come! Let us flee to the ends of the earth!
Come! Let us be happy,
let us flee together.
God of goodness!
God of mercy!
Be Thou blessed by two happy hearts!

ROMEO (staggering)
Ah, but all our kinsmen have bowels of stone!

JULIET
What are you saying, Romeo?

ROMEO
Neither tears nor entreaty,
nothing, nothing can soften them!
To the gates of heaven,
Juliet, to the gates of heaven and to die!

JULIET
To die! Ah, fever bewilders you!
What delirium seizes upon you?
My beloved, come to your senses!

ROMEO
Alas!
I thought you dead and I drank this poison!

JULIET
Poison! Just heaven!

ROMEO
(clasping Juliet in his arms)
Console yourself, poor heart,
the dream was too beautiful!
Love, a celestial flame,
survives even the tomb!
It raises the stone
and, by the angels blest,
like a wave of light
loses itself in the infinite.

JULIET (distraught)
O anguish! O torture!

ROMEO (in a voice grown weaker)
O Juliet, listen!
Already the lark is telling us it’s morn!
No! No, it is not day, ’tis not the lark!
It is the gentle nightingale, love’s confidant!
(He slips from Juliet’s arms and falls down on the steps
of the tomb.)

JULIET (picking up the flask)
Ah, cruel husband! You have not left me
my share of this poison.
(She throws away the flask, and carrying her hand to
her bosom comes upon the dagger she had hidden in
her dress, and in a swift movement draws it forth.)
Ah, happy dagger,
your help remains!
(She stabs herself.)

ROMEO (half rising)
God! What have you done?

JULIET (in Romeo’s arms)
Ah! this moment is sweet!
(She drops the dagger.)
O infinite, supreme joy
of dying with you! Come! One kiss!
love you!

JULIET, ROMEO
(half-raising themselves with a last effort)
Lord, Lord, forgive us!

(They die.)

libretto by Joseph Allen, 1969

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