Mirza Sahiba

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Like most teachers of his time, the maulvi who taught Mirza and Sahiban was a stickler for pedagogical rules, and his golden rule was: Spare the rod and spoil the child. As a tool of punishment, he used what in Punjabi is called a chimmak. It is a long, thin, green twig or branch of a tree, shorn of the leaves or any thorns. When struck on any part of the body it sends a flaming sensation through the body — and the soul, too, I guess.In a village called Khewa, near present day Jhang, a woman named Nooran gave birth to a boy. Nooran died when the child was still in infancy. Therefore, the boy was wet-nursed by another woman who had a suckling daughter. Thus, according to the traditions of the time, the boy and the girl became siblings. The boy grew up to become the chief of his village and also of the Sayyal tribe, which inhabited the area. He came to be known as Khewa Khan. His “sister” grew up to become Fateh Bibi and was married to a man named Wanjal (or Banjal), of the Kharral tribe, who lived in village Danababad, which, today, is in Tehsil Jarranwala, district Faisalabad.

The towns, Khewa and Danabad, were short of a day’s ride apart on horseback.

Mirza, the hero of our story, was born to Fateh Bibi and Wanjal while Sahiban, the heroine, was the daughter of Khewa Khan. As already explained, since Fateh Bibi and Khew Khan were suckled by the same woman, Mirza and Sahiban ended up being “cousins” according to the prevailing traditions.

Mirza must have been 8 or 9 when his parents decided to send him to Khewa to live with his “maternal uncle”, Khewa Khan. It was not unusual those days for parents to send their children to live with their mother’s or father’s relatives for education or for other reasons.

Khewa Khan enrolled both Mirza and Sahiban at the local mosque, the usual place for basic education those days. A student would start off with alphabet, or patti as it was called, and then graduate to reading the Quran, chapter by chapter, and then to other subjects, if any, depending on the interest of the student and his/her parents. The imam of the mosque, commonly called maulvi or qazi, would be the sole teacher.


Years passed, and both Mirza and Sahiban advanced into adolescence and to adulthood. They discovered that they liked to be in each other’s company. Actually, Mirza and Sahiban had fallen head over heals in love with each other — a love that was honest, blind and reckless. Often in the “class”, they would be more absorbed into each other than to paying attention to the maulvi. The maulvi had to resort to the use of chimmak to get their attention.

According to the story, Sahiban, once, when struck by the maulvi for not memorizing her lesson correctly, addresses him thus:



Na maar qazi chimkaaN, na day tatti nooN taa
Parrhna sada reh gaya lay aaye ishq likha


O qazi, don’t beat me with the stick; don’t burn me. I am already burning [with love]. Books are of no use to us, for love is now writ in our destiny.

Sahiban had grown into a beautiful young woman. Piloo, the poet, describes her beauty with the usual poetic exaggeration. He says, when Sahiban went shopping, the grocer would be so distracted by her beauty that he would place wrong weights in the weighing scale (tarakri), and that instead of oil she wanted he would pour honey for her. At another place the poet says, when Sahiban walked past the fields the farmers would stop plowing and would stand transfixed by her beauty.

Mirza also grew into a strapping, handsome young man. He had shoulder length hair, was a good horseman, was known for his physical courage, and was a deadly shot with his bow and arrow. His marksmanship was legendary.

Mirza and Sahiban’s love affair soon became the talk of the town. When Sahiban’s father heard of it, he was mad. He would have none of it, and soon packed Mirza off to his home in Danabad. Also, a suitable young man, named Tahir Khan, from the same tribe, was found to marry Sahiban, and a date was set for the wedding.

Sahiban, when she came to know of her imminent marriage, sent an emissary to Mirza asking him to come and get her before she was bundled off to a new home.

Mirza couldn’t and wouldn’t let this happen. He announced his decision to go to Khewa and get Sahiban. His parents and sister tried to dissuade him saying that the Sayyal women could not be trusted, and that he was taking a big risk going to Khewa. His father’s words of advice and warning are quite revealing of the values of the time, some of which persist even today. He says: “To hell with these women. Their brains are in their heels. They fall in love laughing and, later, tell their story to everyone crying.” Strange as it may sound, the father goes on to say: “One should not step inside the house of a woman with whom he is in love.” However, when the father realized that Mirza would not be dissuaded, he relented, saying: “I see you are determined to go. Now, go, but don’t come back without Sahiban. It’s a question of our honor. Bring her with you!”

Mirza readies his horse, collects his bow and quiver and sets off to Khewa on the day Sahiban’s wedding is to take place. He reaches Khewa when the wedding party (barat) has just arrived and is being feasted. Sahiban, decked in her bridal dress, her hands and feet died with henna, is tucked away in a room somewhere upstairs.

Mirza, knowing the layout of the house from the years he had spent in it, quietly slips inside and asks a woman confidante to alert Sahiban of his arrival. He, then, climbs up to her room, brings her down, helps her into the saddle on his horse and, with Sahiban clinging to him, gallops away into the night.

It takes a while for Khewa Khan’s household to find out what has happened. Sahiban’s brother, Shamair, accompanied by his other brothers, the bridegroom and others set off on their horses after the runaway couple.

Confident that he had gained sufficient distance and that it would not be easy for his pursuers to catch up with him, Mirza wants to stop and rest for a while. He was too tired.

Sahiban warns him that her brothers might catch up with them and urges him not to stop. But Mirza boastfully tells her that, first, they won’t be able to catch up with them and even if they did it would take only one arrow to take care of Shamair, and one more to get rid of her betrothed. And that he had sufficient arrows to take care of the whole bunch of the Sayyals. Confident but tired, he lies down under a clump of trees — and dozes off while Sahiban keeps watch.

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In the quiet of wilderness, Sahiban is assailed with doubts. What if they catch up and kill Mirza? What if Mirza, quick and accurate marksman that he was, kills his brothers? Like a typical Eastern sister, her love seem to be divided between her lover and her brothers. She doesn’t want either of them to be killed. Somehow, she believes, or hopes, that this whole thing could end without bloodshed. So, she quietly takes Mirza’s quiver and hangs it on a branch, out of his reach.

Soon, there is the drumming sound of hoofs, and in no time the pursuers appear on the scene. Sahiban shakes Mirza out of sleep. Mirza wakes up with a start and instinctively reaches for his quiver but doesn’t find it there. In that split second, an arrow from Shamair’s bow pierces Mirza’s throat and he falls to the ground. Another arrow pierces his chest. With two arrows stuck in his body, Mirza looks accusingly into the eyes of Sahiban and utters those memorable words, somewhat reminiscent of Shakespeare’s “Et tu, Brute?”:

“Bura kitoyee Sahiban, mera turkish tangiya jand!”

[Sahiban, you did a terrible thing by hanging the quiver away from my reach!]

Sobbing and shaking, Sahiban throws herself over Mirza’s body to cover him from any further hits. A shower of arrows rains on Sahiban. Her body twitches and then lies still, and Miraz and Sahiban enter the world of lore and literature.

In Punjabi literature today, just as Ranjha is identified with his flute and Sohni with her un-fired water pitcher (kacha gharra), Mirza has become a metaphor of courage and marksmanship. This is evident in one of Munir Niazi’s poignant poems when, engulfed in a pall of gloom, the poet invokes Ranjha and Mirza in the following lines:

Jattan karo kujh dosto, toRo maut da jaal
Pharr murli O Ranjhiya, kadh koi teekhi taan
Maar koi teer O mirziya, khich kay wal asmaan



Do something, friends, lift this pall of despair
O Ranjha, take out your flute and play an enchanting tune
O Mirza, shoot an arrow at the sky to pierce this web of gloom

Note: The story is based mostly on Piloo’s ballad of Mirza-Sahiban, as discussed by Professor Hamidullah Hashmi in his book

Sohni Mahiwal

I chose the story of Sohni and Mahiwal for this post because I find it so touching, so tragic, and so real. Even though Sohni and Mahiwal lived, loved and died, relatively recently there is no one consistent account of their story. However, there is an unmistakable common thread that runs through the different versions.

Sifting through different accounts and glossing over some, here is, briefly, what I could gather of this beautiful and enduring story:

Sometime during the late Mughal period, there lived in a town on the banks of the Chenab, or one of its branches, a potter (kumhar) namedTulla. (The town is identified either as present day Gujrat or one of the nearby towns.) Tulla was a master craftsman and his earthenware was bought and sold throughout Northern India and even exported to Central Asia. To the potter and his wife was born a daughter. She was such a beautiful child that they named her Sohni, meaning beautiful in Punjabi.

Sohni spent her childhood playing and observing things in her father’s workshop. She watched clay kneaded and molded on the wheel into different shaped pots and pitchers, dried in the sun, and then fired and baked. Sohni grew up not only into a beautiful, young woman but also an accomplished artist who made floral designs on the pots and pitchers that came off her father’s wheel.

Sohni’s town was located on the trading route between Delhi and Central Asia, and trading caravans often made a stopover here. One such caravan that stopped here included a young, handsome trader from Bukhara, named Izzat Baig. While checking out the merchandise in town, Izzat Baig came upon Tulla’s workshop where he spotted Sohni sitting in a corner of the workshop painting floral designs on the pots. Izzat Baig was taken by Sohni’s rustic beauty and charm and couldn’t take his eyes off her. In order to linger at the workshop, he started purchasing random pieces of pottery. He returned the next day and made some more purchases at Tulla’s shop. His purchases were a pretext to be around Sohni for as long as he could. This became Izzat Baig’s routine until he had squandered most of his money.

When the time came for his caravan to leave, Izzat Baig found it impossible to leave Sohni’s town. He told his companions to leave, and that he would follow later. He took up permanent residence in the town and would visit Sohni at her father’s shop on one pretext or the other. Sohni also began to feel the heat of Izzat Baig’s love and gradually began to melt. The two started meeting secretly.

Izzat Baig soon ran out of money and started taking up odd jobs with different people, including Sohni’s father. One such job was that of grazing people’s cattle — mainly buffaloes. Because of his newfound occupation people started calling him Mahiwal, a short variation of Majhan-wala or the buffalo-man. That name stayed with him for the rest of his life — and thereafter.

Sohni and Mahiwal’s clandestine meetings soon became the talk of the town. When Sohni’s father came to know about the affair he hurriedly arranged Sohni’s marriage with one of her cousins, also a potter, and, ignoring Sohni’s protests and entreaties, bundled her off to her new home in a village somewhere on the other side of the river.

Mahiwal was devastated. He left town and became a wanderer, searching for Sohni’s whereabouts. Eventually, he found her house and managed to meet her in the guise of a beggar and gave her his new address — a hut across the river. Sohni’s husband, meanwhile, discovering that he could not win Sohni’s heart no matter what he did to please her, started spending more time away from home on business trips. Taking advantage of her husband’s absence, Sohni started meeting Mahiwal regularly. She would swim across the river at night with the help of a large water pitcher (gharra), a common swimming aid in the villages even today. They would spend most of the night together in Mahiwal’s hut and Sohni would swim back home before the crack of dawn. On reaching her side of the river, she would hide the pitcher in a bush to be used for her next trip the following night.

One day, Sohni’s sister-in-law (her husband’s sister) came visiting. Suspecting something unusual about Sohni’s nocturnal movements, she started spying on her. She followed Sohn,i one night, and saw her take out the pitcher from the bush, wade into the river and swim across. She reported the matter to her mother (Sohni’s mother-in-law). Both of them, rather than informing Sohni’s husband, decided to get rid of Sohni. This, they believed, was the only way to save their family’s honor. The sister-in-law quietly took out Sohni’s pitcher from the bush and replaced it with sun-dried, unbaked pitcher.

As usual, Sohni set out at night for her meeting with Mahiwal, picked the pitcher from the bush, as she always did, and entered the river. It was a stormy night. The river was in high flood. Sohni was soon engulfed in water. She discovered, to her horror, that the pitcher had begun to dissolve and disintegrate.

What shall she do now? Different thoughts rushed through Sohni’s mind. Abandon the trip? Or continue trying to swim without the help of a pitcher — and drown? Her inner struggle at this point is best expressed in a saraiki song made memorable by Pathanay Khan in his inimitable voice: Sohni gharray nu aakhdi aj mainu yaar mila gharrya

Roughly translated and paraphrased the song runs as follows:

Sohni (addressing the pitcher):

It’s dark and the river is in flood
There is water all around me
How am I going to meet Mahiwal?

If I keep going, I will surely drown
And if I turn back
I would be going back on my promise
And letting Mahiwal down

I beg you (O pitcher!), with folded hands,
Help me meet my Mahiwal
You always did it, please do it tonight, too

(The pitcher replies):

I wish I, too, were baked in the fire of love, like you are
But I am not. I apologize; I cannot help

Hearing Sohni’s cries, Mahiwal, from the other side, jumped into the river to save her. He barely managed to reach her. As the story goes, their bodies were washed ashore, and were found the next day, lying next to each other.

With their death, Sohni and Mahiwal entered into the world of legends and lore. And, in their death the sinners became saints.

Sassi Punnu

In the southern tip of present-day Pakistan in the Sindh province, there once was a raja that mightily ruled the lands of Bhambour. He had had many children but was blessed with only one daughter. She was named Sassi, meaning the moon, for they thought she was as pure and splendid as the moon. When she was born, the raja and his wife went to an astrologer to learn of their daughter’s fate. The wise astrologer prophesied to the parents that their one and only daughter would bring great shame to her parent’s honor. Saddened, the poor parents had no other choice. Sassi could not stay there. They could not bear to kill their child. Instead, they placed their beautiful daughter in a basket to send down the Indus River. Before placing her in the basket, however, Sassi’s mother tied a taweez filled with a prayer around her daughter’s neck for protection.



Downstream, a poor dhobi was washing clothes, a hard day’s labor for a meager wage. This poor man named Atta had a wife but they could not conceive a child. They had prayed for many years but to no avail. While finishing up the last of the shirts he had in his bundle, the dhobi saw something strange floating on the river. He watched as it got caught in some bushes. It was a basket. He took it out of the river and saw that within was the most precious baby girl he had ever seen. The first name to come out of his mouth was Sassi. He took her home to show his wife the answer to their prayers.



So as it is, Sassi grew up the daughter of a poor dhobi. She was happy. She knew no other life. As she grew older, her beauty grew deeper. She became known for her charming looks throughout the land. Hearing about her, the raja of the land sent for this young woman. As summoned, she went to the palace to be before the raja. There, the raja’s wife saw the taweez still around Sassi’s neck and knew at once that this was her daughter. Happy to be together again, the raja insisted that she stay with them in the palace. However, Sassi could not bear to leave the poor old dhobi and his wife, who raised her all these years. Still, the raja made relentless efforts to win her back.



In another one of the raja’s attempts, the raja invited Sassi to a large garden made by a neighboring raja. As she explored the depths of the garden, she saw the most beautiful painting of a young man. She fell in love with his strong stature and noble appearance. She had to meet this man. Word traveled fast. The man in the painting heard of this beautiful woman wanting to meet him so he disguised his true identity as the Prince Punnu and dressed as a trader of art to meet Sassi. They fell in love and began to blossom as lovers.



Sassi, who had disregarded her royal birth and biological parents, continued to live as a dhobi’s daughter and nothing more. Punnu did not know her past and she would not dare to tell it. To him, she was a dhobi's daughter and to her, he was a mere art trader. When it came time for Punnu to ask for Sassi’s hand in marriage, the only parents he knew to ask were the dhobi and his wife. The dhobi knew the importance of a humble husband, whether he be a prince or a peasant. He decided to test Prince Punnu and told him that if he could correctly wash a shirt, then he would be able to wed his daughter, Sassi. Punnu, who had never washed a single article of clothing, was unable to wash the shirt in the river against the rocks like a dhobi. The shirt came back torn. The prince offered large amounts of gold coins to compensate for his failed attempt and grudgingly the dhobi took it, knowing that his daughter’s heart would only be happy with Punnu.



Next came time for Sassi to gain approval from Punnu’s family. Punnu went to speak with his parents. However, when Punnu spoke with his parents about Sassi, they flatly refused because she was the daughter of a dhobi. No way could a prince marry a daughter of a poor man who washes other people’s laundry for a living. Punnu would not be swayed. His heart was set on Sassi. No one else would do.



Seeing this, Punnu’s family decided to pretend to go on with the wedding. In celebration, Punnu’s brothers decided to take him drinking the night before the wedding. His brothers gave him a large glass to drink. Punnu drank and drank until he passed out. Then, Punnu’s brothers took their brother far away from the wedding celebrations to another village. With Punnu in a different state of mind and place, the wedding could not go on.



Sassi heard the sad news on her wedding night, while she was getting dressed for the ceremony. Afraid of what would become of her Punnu, Sassi, while still wearing her wedding clothes, ran across the desert sands toward the village, calling out to her Punnu. Halfway through her journey, she saw a shepherd and asked for some water. The shepherd saw her beauty. He could not rest until she was his. He grabbed her and she cried out to the heavens for help.



Meanwhile, Punnu had regained his senses back in the village he had been taken to. When he realized that his family had tricked him, he too ran just as Sassi had, across the desert, calling out the name of his love. He was about halfway there when he heard Sassi calling out.



Suddenly, through Sassi’s pleas to the skies, the ground shook underneath them and split into two. The earth swallowed up both Sassi and Punnu. Now, in that same place, there are two mountains that remain together for eternity.


Wow,” replied my mother. Out of all the stories she knew, she could not recall this one. She had vaguely heard of Sassi and Punnu but did not know the details.

“Baba, where are these mountains?” asked Reza.

“There are in the Sindh near Balouchistan. It is said that if you listen closely when you are in the valley of the mountains, you can still hear the names ‘Sassi’ and ‘Punnu’ being whispered,” added my husband rather coolly.

“Come on, kids,” I said. “Time for bed.”

Heer Ranjha

Takht Hazara is a pleasant place on the banks of the river Chenab. It is the abode of the Ranjha clan who lives here in contented luxury. Mauju Chaudhri is the chief landowner and he loves Dhido, lovingly called Ranjha, more than his other sons. After Mauju's death, due to ill treatment of his brothers, Ranjha leaves Takht Hazara. On the riverbank, he accidentally meets Heer, the daughter of Mehar Chuchak Sial of Jhang, who is as lovely as the moon.

Ranjha takes up the job of a herdsman with the Sials, a renowned tribe of the area. He is extremely good at playing the flute and melodious music flows whenever his lips touch the reed. Heer and her friends go to the forest every day to hear the mellifluous music. She becomes mesmerised with the way he plays the flute and soon they are tied in the bond of love. Time passes happily. However, one day the lovers are caught out when Kaido, a crippled uncle of Heer, comes to know of their love after watching them together in the forest. He instigates Heer's father to find a suitable match for her.

Chuchak is determined to marry off Heer to avert disgrace, but the Sials have never given their daughters to the lowly Ranjha tribe. However, soon a suitable match is found. He is Saida of the Kheras who lives in Rangpur.

The Kheras are overjoyed and ask the Brahmans to consult the stars and to fix the marriage. Virwati (Thursday) in the month of Sawan comes up as the best day for the wedding. Heer opposes the marriage and declares it illegal. Nevertheless, she is married by force. Heer languishes in the house of her father-in-law Ajju Khera. She refuses to put on jewellery or gay clothes, declines food and lies awake all night thinking of Ranjha. Sehti, her sister-in-law, wins her over and makes her tell the secret of her heart. Heer narrates her story and Sehti consoles her saying that she too has a lover, Murad Bakhsh, a camel driver, and that somehow they must contrive to help each other.

After a year, a Jatt girl from Rangpur returns to her home in Jhang Sial. She bears an urgent message for Ranjha: Heer is on the point of death. Ranjha resolves to become a fakir and sets off for Tilla Jogian, the hill where Balnath the Jogi dwells. There he is granted Jog. Once in the village of the Kheras, he takes up a beggar's bowl and goes from door to door crying for alms. Luck brings him to the house of Ajju Khera. A slanging-match with Sehti brings Heer to the courtyard. She glances at the Jogi and behold! It is her lost lover.

After that Ranjha installs himself on a hillock in the garden of Kalabagh where Heer goes to meet him. Later, Sehti and Heer consult how Heer may leave the Kheras and be united with Ranjha. The next day they go to the garden where Sehti bites Heer's foot and they pretend that a snake has bitten her. The Kheras summon fakirs, hakims and enchanters who give her cunning drugs. But Sehti tells them there is a very ingenious Jogi in the Kalabagh garden in whose flute there are thousands of spells. Ranjha is brought and lodged in the hut belonging to the village minstrel. That night Murad takes Sehti on his camel and Ranjha takes Heer. Thus the bridegrooms set forth with their brides.

The Kheras draw up their armies and succeed in overtaking Murad, but the Baloch drive them back. But destiny overwhelms the other pair of lovers for the Kheras find Ranjha and Heer asleep. They take away Heer and give Ranjha a vicious beating. Ranjha seeks justice from the king whose armies bring the Kheras to the court. After hearing both the sides the king hands over Heer to the Kheras.

On hearing the judgment, the lovers invoke curses on the city owning to which it catches fire. The astrologers tell the king to conciliate the lovers. So the Kheras are brought back and he tells Heer that she may go with her rightful husband.

Heer returns to her parents' home, as she desires to enter Ranjha's family with proper marriage rituals. But Kaido makes a resolution to poison her. On the day of Heer's departure, Chuchak embraces her. Over his shoulder she hears Kaido's soft voice urging her to eat a sweetmeat before she leaves.

She responds to his poignancy and takes a piece that he offers. Meanwhile, a messenger arrives in Takht Hazara and breaks the news to Ranjha that Heer has been posioned and therefore dead. He quietly slips into a room and kneels down to pray. Hours slip away, darkness gathers. The crowd in their vigil begins to grow restless. One of them gathers courage and goes inside the room. As he touches Ranjha's shoulder he falls down dead.


Today people come from afar to pay homage to the lovers whose story is a concoction of fact and fiction. They tie strips of cloth to the window of the room chamber hoping that through this act their love will be fulfilled.

Heer and Ranjha lie in eternal sleep in a common grave shaped like a cot and covered with tiles inside a room which, a signboard of the Punjab Auqaf Department says, is the court of Hazrat Izat Bibi alias Mai Heer Sial and Mian Murad //Bakash// alias Mian Ranjha. The dome has an opening in the middle but it is said that rain does not enter into the chamber - a miracle attributed to the lovers - notwithstanding the raindrops found inside after a light shower.

ROMEO JULIET STORY

Romeo and Juliet(an Early Tragedy)

In Verona, Sampson and Gregory (Capulet servants) complain that they will not put up with insults from the Montague family. Abram and Balthasar (Montague servants) appear and the four start quarreling. Benvolio (Lord Montague's nephew) appears and tries to break up the quarrel, but Tybalt (Lady Capulet's nephew) appears and picks a fight with Benvolio. At length, officers try to break up the fight, even while Lord Capulet and Lord Montague begin to fight one another. The Prince of Verona (Escalus) appears and stops the fighting, proclaiming sentences of death to any that renew the fighting. At Montague's house, he, his wife, and Benvolio discuss how melancholy Romeo (Montague's only son) has been lately. Benvolio vows to find out why. Speaking with Romeo, Benvolio finds Romeo is in love with a woman who has sworn to stay chaste (Rosaline). Benvolio suggests pursuing other women, but Romeo refuses. Separately, Paris (a kinsman of the Prince of Verona) talks to Lord Capulet about wooing his daughter Juliet for marriage. Capulet responds that she is too young (nearly 14 years old) and must wait two years to marry, and then only to the man whom she chooses. Still, Capulet invites Paris to a party in the evening. Capulet's servant is sent to invite guests, but he can't read the list so he entreats Romeo to do so. Upon hearing of the party, Benvolio convinces Romeo to attend and compare his unattainable love Rosaline to more beautiful women to get his mind off Rosaline. At Capulet's house, Lady Capulet speaks to Juliet about her feelings for marrying Paris while Juliet's Nurse listens on, telling stories of Juliet's childhood. Juliet, although hesitant, promises to be courteous. Masked, Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio head to the Capulet party. Romeo is still depressed, saying he dreamt a fearful dream of an untimely death that will result because of the evening's events, but Benvolio just makes fun of him. At Capulet's house, the Montagues attend the party (in masks), Romeo spies Juliet, and he falls in love with her. Tybalt sees Romeo and takes up arms, but Lord Capulet attempts to calm him, though Tybalt vows to revenge Romeo's intrusion the next day. Juliet, too, falls for Romeo, but falls into despair when her Nurse informs her Romeo is a Montague, as does Romeo when he learns Juliet is a Capulet.

While leaving the party, Romeo hides in the orchard while Mercutio and Benvolio call for him to come out of hiding and go home with them; yet he will not. After they leave, Romeo appears and speaks to Juliet under her window, saying "But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!" By and by they swear their love to one another. Juliet tells Romeo she'll send a messenger to him the next day to learn the details of their wedding. Having stayed up all night, Romeo visits Friar Lawrence's cell and tells him of this new love for Juliet. Although Lawrence is critical at first, Romeo eventually convinces him to marry them. In the street, Benvolio tells Mercutio that Romeo did not come home that night, and that Tybalt has sent the Montagues a letter challenging Romeo to a duel. Romeo appears and they tease him for hiding from them. Juliet's nurse and servant Peter appear and Romeo tells her to tell Juliet to go to the Friar's cell that afternoon to be married. The Nurse returns to Juliet and, though she skirts around the message, she finally tells Juliet the wonderful news. Soon, at the Friar's cell, he marries Romeo and Juliet, and Romeo plans to visit Juliet's bedroom that evening.

At the street, Benvolio and Mercutio encounter Tybalt and Petruchio, leading to Tybalt and Mercutio fighting since Tybalt tries to pick a fight with Romeo, but he refuses. Romeo tries to break up the fight, but Tybalt slays Mercutio under Romeo's arm, then Tybalt flees. As Mercutio dies, he declares "A plague on both your houses," since he is only a friend of Romeo's and not his kinsmen. When Benvolio informs Romeo that Mercutio is dead, Romeo seeks out, fights, and slays Tybalt in revenge. Benvolio convinces Romeo to flee. The prince appears and Benvolio explains all to him, at which the Prince exiles Romeo for slaying Tybalt. At the Capulet's orchard, Juliet waits for Romeo when her Nurse appears and informs her of Mercutio and Tybalt's deaths, and Romeo's banishment. Juliet falls into despair, realizing she would rather Tybalt dead than Romeo, but also that a banished Romeo is virtually dead. At the Friar's cell, he informs Romeo of the Prince's edict of banishment, putting him into despair. Romeo states he would rather be dead than banished. The Nurse arrives and tells Romeo that Juliet is sad too, but forgives Romeo. Still, Romeo pulls a dagger and tries to kill himself, but the Friar stops him and tells him to stay the night with Juliet, then flee to Mantua. At Capulet's house, he and Paris set the wedding date for Paris and Juliet to be three days hence. In Juliet's bedroom, Romeo says a tearful goodbye to Juliet. After he leaves, Lady Capulet appears and, while discussing Tybalt's death, states she will send a henchman to mantua to kill Romeo (though she never does). She then informs Juliet of her impending marriage to Paris. Juliet tells her parents she will not marry, but Lord Capulet commands it will be so. The Nurse, too, tells Juliet she should marry Paris. In private, Juliet decides to no longer trust the nurse and vows to kill herself if the Friar cannot find a way to save her from marrying Paris.

At Friar Lawrence's cell, Paris informs the Friar of his upcoming wedding to Juliet. When Juliet arrives to see the Friar, Paris politely leaves. The Friar, hearing Juliet threaten suicide, tells her of a "distilled liquor" she can take to fake death. He explains the drug will keep her asleep and seemingly dead for 42 hours, during which she can be placed in the Capulet tomb. Then, when she wakes, Romeo can be there waiting for her to take her to Mantua. Friar Lawrence send Friar John to Mantua with an explanatory letter for Romeo. Juliet returns to her father and apologizes for refusing to marry, causing her dad to move the wedding up to the next morning (two days early). In her bedroom, Juliet sends her mother and nurse away, then, after much worrying over the future, she drinks the vial of medicine and sleeps. Later in the early morning, all feverishly prepare for the wedding and Capulet sends the Nurse to wake Juliet. The Nurse wails upon finding Juliet "dead", summoning the others to find her and mourn. The Friar instructs all to prepare Juliet for her funeral.

In Mantua, Romeo's servant Balthasar arrives and tells Romeo that Juliet is dead. Romeo vows to see Juliet in her tomb and poison himself there, buying the poison from a poor Apothecary who illegally sells it to Romeo only because he (the Apothecary) needs the money. At Lawrence's cell, Friar John reports he could not deliver the letter to Romeo since he (John) got stuck in a quarantined house while searching for Romeo. Friar Lawrence heads to the cemetery with a crowbar. At the tomb, Paris and his page arrive and Paris mourns Juliet's death. Paris hides when he hears Romeo and Balthasar approach. Romeo orders Balthasar to leave him alone, no matter what he hears. When Romeo opens the tomb, Paris steps out and tries to stop him by provoking him to fight. Romeo entreats Paris to simply walk away and not fight, but Paris forces Romeo to fight him, resulting in Romeo slaying Paris. In sorrow, Romeo lays Paris in the tomb, while Paris' page secretly leaves to call the watch. Romeo finds Juliet and mourns her death, then drinks his poison and dies. Outside the tomb, Friar Lawrence arrives and meets Balthasar who tells the Friar that Romeo has been in the tomb for one half hour. Lawrence enters the tomb and finds Romeo and Paris dead. Juliet then awakes and spots Romeo. The Friar, upon hearing noises outside flees, leaving Juliet with Romeo. Juliet tries to kill herself with Romeo's poison, but can find none, either in the vial or on Romeo's lips. In desperation, she stabs herself with Romeo's dagger. The watch arrives, having found Balthasar and the Friar. The Prince and Lord and Lady Capulet arrive and learn Paris, Romeo, and Juliet are dead (amazingly to them, Juliet seems to have been alive, and then newly dead again). Lord Montague arrives and reports that his wife has died from grief over Romeo's exile, then learns himself of Romeo's death. Capulet and Montague make peace and swear to never fight again. They vow to build solid gold statues of Romeo and Juliet and place them side by side so all can remember their plight.