Photograph of a tableau re-enactment of Act 5, Scene 3 from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet with Sir Fleetwood Edwards (1842-1910) as Romeo lying on the floor with a dagger through his heart. Juliet, played by Princess Maud of Wales (1869-1938), has woken up to discover Romeo's suicide. Friar Lawrence, played by Mr Müther, looks on.

The final scene of Romeo and Juliet provides the point at which the eponymous lovers are finally united. The tableau depicts the point at which Friar Lawrence enters Juliet's family tomb where he discovers Romeo's body. Juliet awakens from her induced deathlike state and discovers the dead Romeo who, earlier, administered poison by his own hand (the presence of the dagger in this tableau instead suggests that the method of death is from stabbing as opposed to poisoning). Having contemplated life without her husband, Juliet then stabs herself using Romeo's dagger. 

Tableaux vivants represent a playful pastime which became particularly popular during the Victoria era. Members of the royal family engaged in such activity, often from an early age, and they were sometimes joined by friends and members of the royal household. Sir Fleetwood Edwards was Groom-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria, eventually becoming Keeper of the Privy Purse in 1895. Moritz Müther (d. 1912) was Queen Victoria's German Secretary. The tableau was performed on the evening of 6 October 1888 at Balmoral Castle and Queen Victoria, in her Journal entry for that day, writes: 'then went to the Ball Room, for the performance of the last 7 Tableaux: […] Romeo, Maud as Juliet, Sir F. Edwards, Romeo, & Mr Muther, Friar Tuck. […] Romeo was very successful. Maud looked so pretty lying there, & Sir F. Edwards looked painfully real lying on the ground, supposed to be dead'.