· 6 years ago · Aug 21, 2019, 05:06 PM
1Folger Shakespeare Library
2
3http://www.folgerdigitaltexts.org
4 Contents
5
6
7
8From the Director of the Folger Shakespeare
9Library
10Front
11Textual Introduction
12Matter Synopsis
13Characters in the Play
14
15
16Prologue
17
18
19Scene
20Scene
21ACT Scene
22Scene
23Scene
24
25
26Chorus
27Scene
28Scene
29ACT Scene
30Scene
31Scene
32Scene
33
34
35Scene
36Scene
37ACT Scene
38Scene
39Scene
40
41
42Scene
43Scene
44ACT Scene
45Scene
46Scene
47
48
49Scene
50 ACT Scene
51Scene
52 From the Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library
53
54
55It is hard to imagine a world without Shakespeare. Since their
56composition four hundred years ago, Shakespeare’s plays and poems
57have traveled the globe, inviting those who see and read his works to
58make them their own.
59
60Readers of the New Folger Editions are part of this ongoing process
61of “taking up Shakespeare,” finding our own thoughts and feelings in
62language that strikes us as old or unusual and, for that very reason,
63new. We still struggle to keep up with a writer who could think a mile
64a minute, whose words paint pictures that shift like clouds. These
65expertly edited texts are presented to the public as a resource for
66study, artistic adaptation, and enjoyment. By making the classic texts
67of the New Folger Editions available in electronic form as Folger
68Digital Texts, we place a trusted resource in the hands of anyone who
69wants them.
70
71The New Folger Editions of Shakespeare’s plays, which are the basis
72for the texts realized here in digital form, are special because of their
73origin. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is the
74single greatest documentary source of Shakespeare’s works. An
75unparalleled collection of early modern books, manuscripts, and
76artwork connected to Shakespeare, the Folger’s holdings have been
77consulted extensively in the preparation of these texts. The Editions
78also reflect the expertise gained through the regular performance of
79Shakespeare’s works in the Folger’s Elizabethan Theater.
80
81I want to express my deep thanks to editors Barbara Mowat and Paul
82Werstine for creating these indispensable editions of Shakespeare’s
83works, which incorporate the best of textual scholarship with a
84richness of commentary that is both inspired and engaging. Readers
85who want to know more about Shakespeare and his plays can follow
86the paths these distinguished scholars have tread by visiting the Folger
87either in-person or online, where a range of physical and digital
88resources exists to supplement the material in these texts. I commend
89to you these words, and hope that they inspire.
90
91
92Michael Witmore
93
94Director, Folger Shakespeare Library
95 Textual Introduction
96By Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine
97
98
99Until now, with the release of the Folger Digital Texts, readers in
100search of a free online text of Shakespeare’s plays had to be content
101primarily with using the Moby™ Text, which reproduces a late-
102nineteenth century version of the plays. What is the difference? Many
103ordinary readers assume that there is a single text for the plays: what
104Shakespeare wrote. But Shakespeare’s plays were not published the
105way modern novels or plays are published today: as a single,
106authoritative text. In some cases, the plays have come down to us in
107multiple published versions, represented by various Quartos (Qq) and
108by the great collection put together by his colleagues in , called
109the First Folio (F). There are, for example, three very different
110versions of Hamlet, two of King Lear, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet,
111and others. Editors choose which version to use as their base text, and
112then amend that text with words, lines or speech prefixes from the
113other versions that, in their judgment, make for a better or more
114accurate text.
115
116Other editorial decisions involve choices about whether an unfamiliar
117word could be understood in light of other writings of the period or
118whether it should be changed; decisions about words that made it into
119Shakespeare’s text by accident through four hundred years of
120printings and misprinting; and even decisions based on cultural
121preference and taste. When the Moby™ Text was created, for
122example, it was deemed “improper” and “indecent” for Miranda to
123chastise Caliban for having attempted to rape her. (See The Tempest,
124.: “Abhorred slave,/Which any print of goodness wilt not
125take,/Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee…”). All Shakespeare
126editors at the time took the speech away from her and gave it to her
127father, Prospero.
128
129The editors of the Moby™ Shakespeare produced their text long
130before scholars fully understood the proper grounds on which to make
131the thousands of decisions that Shakespeare editors face. The Folger
132Library Shakespeare Editions, on which the Folger Digital Texts
133depend, make this editorial process as nearly transparent as is
134possible, in contrast to older texts, like the Moby™, which hide
135editorial interventions. The reader of the Folger Shakespeare knows
136where the text has been altered because editorial interventions are
137signaled by square brackets (for example, from Othello: “ If she in
138 chains of magic were not bound, ”), half-square brackets (for
139example, from Henry V: “With blood and sword and fire to win your
140right,”), or angle brackets (for example, from Hamlet: “O farewell,
141honest soldier. Who hath relieved/you?”). At any point in the text,
142you can hover your cursor over a bracket for more information.
143
144Because the Folger Digital Texts are edited in accord with twenty-first
145century knowledge about Shakespeare’s texts, the Folger here
146provides them to readers, scholars, teachers, actors, directors, and
147students, free of charge, confident of their quality as texts of the plays
148and pleased to be able to make this contribution to the study and
149enjoyment of Shakespeare.
150 Synopsis
151
152
153The prologue of Romeo and Juliet calls the title characters “star-
154crossed lovers”—and the stars do seem to conspire against these
155young lovers.
156
157Romeo is a Montague, and Juliet a Capulet. Their families are
158enmeshed in a feud, but the moment they meet—when Romeo and his
159friends attend a party at Juliet’s house in disguise—the two fall in love
160and quickly decide that they want to be married.
161
162A friar secretly marries them, hoping to end the feud. Romeo and his
163companions almost immediately encounter Juliet’s cousin Tybalt, who
164challenges Romeo. When Romeo refuses to fight, Romeo’s friend
165Mercutio accepts the challenge and is killed. Romeo then kills Tybalt
166and is banished. He spends that night with Juliet and then leaves for
167Mantua.
168
169Juliet’s father forces her into a marriage with Count Paris. To avoid
170this marriage, Juliet takes a potion, given her by the friar, that makes
171her appear dead. The friar will send Romeo word to be at her family
172tomb when she awakes. The plan goes awry, and Romeo learns
173instead that she is dead. In the tomb, Romeo kills himself. Juliet
174wakes, sees his body, and commits suicide. Their deaths appear finally
175to end the feud.
176 Characters in the Play
177
178
179ROMEO
180MONTAGUE, his father
181LADY MONTAGUE, his mother
182BENVOLIO, their kinsman
183ABRAM, a Montague servingman
184BALTHASAR, Romeo’s servingman
185
186JULIET
187CAPULET, her father
188LADY CAPULET, her mother
189NURSE to Juliet
190TYBALT, kinsman to the Capulets
191PETRUCHIO, Tybalt’s companion
192Capulet’s Cousin
193SAMPSON
194GREGORY servingmen
195PETER
196Other Servingmen
197ESCALUS, Prince of Verona
198PARIS, the Prince’s kinsman and Juliet’s suitor
199MERCUTIO, the Prince’s kinsman and Romeo’s friend
200Paris’ Page
201FRIAR LAWRENCE
202FRIAR JOHN
203APOTHECARY
204Three or four Citizens
205Three Musicians
206Three Watchmen
207CHORUS
208
209Attendants, Maskers, Torchbearers, a Boy with a drum, Gentlemen,
210Gentlewomen, Tybalt’s Page, Servingmen.
211 THE PROLOGUE
212
213
214Enter Chorus.
215
216Two households, both alike in dignity
217(In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),
218From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
219Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
220From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
221A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;
222Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
223Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.
224The fearful passage of their death-marked love
225And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
226Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove,
227Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;
228The which, if you with patient ears attend,
229What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
230Chorus exits.
231
232 ACT
233
234
235Scene
236Enter Sampson and Gregory, with swords and bucklers,
237of the house of Capulet.
238
239SAMPSON Gregory, on my word we’ll not carry coals.
240GREGORY No, for then we should be colliers.
241SAMPSON I mean, an we be in choler, we’ll draw.
242GREGORY Ay, while you live, draw your neck out of
243collar.
244SAMPSON I strike quickly, being moved.
245GREGORY But thou art not quickly moved to strike.
246SAMPSON A dog of the house of Montague moves me.
247GREGORY To move is to stir, and to be valiant is to
248stand. Therefore if thou art moved thou runn’st
249away.
250SAMPSON A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I
251will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague’s.
252GREGORY That shows thee a weak slave, for the weakest
253goes to the wall.
254SAMPSON ’Tis true, and therefore women, being the
255weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall. Therefore
256I will push Montague’s men from the wall and
257thrust his maids to the wall.
258GREGORY The quarrel is between our masters and us
259their men.
260SAMPSON ’Tis all one. I will show myself a tyrant.
261When I have fought with the men, I will be civil
262with the maids; I will cut off their heads.
263
264Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
265
266
267
268
269GREGORY The heads of the maids?
270SAMPSON Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads.
271Take it in what sense thou wilt.
272GREGORY They must take it in sense that feel it.
273SAMPSON Me they shall feel while I am able to stand,
274and ’tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh.
275GREGORY ’Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou
276hadst been poor-john. Draw thy tool. Here comes
277of the house of Montagues.
278
279Enter Abram with another Servingman.
280
281SAMPSON My naked weapon is out. Quarrel, I will back
282thee.
283GREGORY How? Turn thy back and run?
284SAMPSON Fear me not.
285GREGORY No, marry. I fear thee!
286SAMPSON Let us take the law of our sides; let them
287begin.
288GREGORY I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it
289as they list.
290SAMPSON Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at
291them, which is disgrace to them if they bear it.
292He bites his thumb.
293ABRAM Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
294SAMPSON I do bite my thumb, sir.
295ABRAM Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
296SAMPSON , aside to Gregory Is the law of our side if I
297say “Ay”?
298GREGORY , aside to Sampson No.
299SAMPSON No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir,
300but I bite my thumb, sir.
301GREGORY Do you quarrel, sir?
302ABRAM Quarrel, sir? No, sir.
303SAMPSON But if you do, sir, I am for you. I serve as
304good a man as you.
305ABRAM No better.
306 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
307
308
309
310
311SAMPSON Well, sir.
312
313Enter Benvolio.
314
315GREGORY , aside to Sampson Say “better”; here comes
316one of my master’s kinsmen.
317SAMPSON Yes, better, sir.
318ABRAM You lie.
319SAMPSON Draw if you be men.—Gregory, remember
320thy washing blow. They fight.
321BENVOLIO Part, fools! Drawing his sword.
322Put up your swords. You know not what you do.
323
324Enter Tybalt, drawing his sword.
325
326TYBALT
327What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?
328Turn thee, Benvolio; look upon thy death.
329BENVOLIO
330I do but keep the peace. Put up thy sword,
331Or manage it to part these men with me.
332TYBALT
333What, drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word
334As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.
335Have at thee, coward! They fight.
336
337Enter three or four Citizens with clubs or partisans.
338
339CITIZENS
340Clubs, bills, and partisans! Strike! Beat them down!
341Down with the Capulets! Down with the Montagues!
342
343Enter old Capulet in his gown, and his Wife.
344
345CAPULET
346What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!
347LADY CAPULET
348A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a
349sword?
350
351Enter old Montague and his Wife.
352 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
353
354
355
356
357CAPULET
358My sword, I say. Old Montague is come
359And flourishes his blade in spite of me.
360MONTAGUE
361Thou villain Capulet!—Hold me not; let me go.
362LADY MONTAGUE
363Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe.
364
365Enter Prince Escalus with his train.
366
367PRINCE
368Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
369Profaners of this neighbor-stainèd steel—
370Will they not hear?—What ho! You men, you beasts,
371That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
372With purple fountains issuing from your veins:
373On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
374Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground,
375And hear the sentence of your movèd prince.
376Three civil brawls bred of an airy word
377By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
378Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets
379And made Verona’s ancient citizens
380Cast by their grave-beseeming ornaments
381To wield old partisans in hands as old,
382Cankered with peace, to part your cankered hate.
383If ever you disturb our streets again,
384Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
385For this time all the rest depart away.
386You, Capulet, shall go along with me,
387And, Montague, come you this afternoon
388To know our farther pleasure in this case,
389To old Free-town, our common judgment-place.
390Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.
391All but Montague, Lady Montague,
392and Benvolio exit.
393 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
394
395
396
397
398MONTAGUE , to Benvolio
399Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?
400Speak, nephew, were you by when it began?
401BENVOLIO
402Here were the servants of your adversary,
403And yours, close fighting ere I did approach.
404I drew to part them. In the instant came
405The fiery Tybalt with his sword prepared,
406Which, as he breathed defiance to my ears,
407He swung about his head and cut the winds,
408Who, nothing hurt withal, hissed him in scorn.
409While we were interchanging thrusts and blows
410Came more and more and fought on part and part,
411Till the Prince came, who parted either part.
412LADY MONTAGUE
413O, where is Romeo? Saw you him today?
414Right glad I am he was not at this fray.
415BENVOLIO
416Madam, an hour before the worshiped sun
417Peered forth the golden window of the east,
418A troubled mind drove me to walk abroad,
419Where underneath the grove of sycamore
420That westward rooteth from this city side,
421So early walking did I see your son.
422Towards him I made, but he was ’ware of me
423And stole into the covert of the wood.
424I, measuring his affections by my own
425(Which then most sought where most might not be
426found,
427Being one too many by my weary self),
428Pursued my humor, not pursuing his,
429And gladly shunned who gladly fled from me.
430MONTAGUE
431Many a morning hath he there been seen,
432With tears augmenting the fresh morning’s dew,
433Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs.
434 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
435
436
437
438
439But all so soon as the all-cheering sun
440Should in the farthest east begin to draw
441The shady curtains from Aurora’s bed,
442Away from light steals home my heavy son
443And private in his chamber pens himself,
444Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out,
445And makes himself an artificial night.
446Black and portentous must this humor prove,
447Unless good counsel may the cause remove.
448BENVOLIO
449My noble uncle, do you know the cause?
450MONTAGUE
451I neither know it nor can learn of him.
452BENVOLIO
453Have you importuned him by any means?
454MONTAGUE
455Both by myself and many other friends.
456But he, his own affections’ counselor,
457Is to himself—I will not say how true,
458But to himself so secret and so close,
459So far from sounding and discovery,
460As is the bud bit with an envious worm
461Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air
462Or dedicate his beauty to the same.
463Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow,
464We would as willingly give cure as know.
465
466Enter Romeo.
467
468BENVOLIO
469See where he comes. So please you, step aside.
470I’ll know his grievance or be much denied.
471MONTAGUE
472I would thou wert so happy by thy stay
473To hear true shrift.—Come, madam, let’s away.
474Montague and Lady Montague exit.
475 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
476
477
478
479
480BENVOLIO
481Good morrow, cousin.
482ROMEO Is the day so young?
483BENVOLIO
484But new struck nine.
485ROMEO Ay me, sad hours seem long.
486Was that my father that went hence so fast?
487BENVOLIO
488It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo’s hours?
489ROMEO
490Not having that which, having, makes them short.
491BENVOLIO In love?
492ROMEO Out—
493BENVOLIO Of love?
494ROMEO
495Out of her favor where I am in love.
496BENVOLIO
497Alas that love, so gentle in his view,
498Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!
499ROMEO
500Alas that love, whose view is muffled still,
501Should without eyes see pathways to his will!
502Where shall we dine?—O me! What fray was here?
503Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
504Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.
505Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate,
506O anything of nothing first create!
507O heavy lightness, serious vanity,
508Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
509Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,
510Still-waking sleep that is not what it is!
511This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
512Dost thou not laugh?
513BENVOLIO No, coz, I rather weep.
514ROMEO
515Good heart, at what?
516 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
517
518
519
520
521BENVOLIO At thy good heart’s oppression.
522ROMEO Why, such is love’s transgression.
523Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,
524Which thou wilt propagate to have it pressed
525With more of thine. This love that thou hast shown
526Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.
527Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs;
528Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes;
529Being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears.
530What is it else? A madness most discreet,
531A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.
532Farewell, my coz.
533BENVOLIO Soft, I will go along.
534An if you leave me so, you do me wrong.
535ROMEO
536Tut, I have lost myself. I am not here.
537This is not Romeo. He’s some other where.
538BENVOLIO
539Tell me in sadness, who is that you love?
540ROMEO What, shall I groan and tell thee?
541BENVOLIO
542Groan? Why, no. But sadly tell me who.
543ROMEO
544A sick man in sadness makes his will—
545A word ill urged to one that is so ill.
546In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.
547BENVOLIO
548I aimed so near when I supposed you loved.
549ROMEO
550A right good markman! And she’s fair I love.
551BENVOLIO
552A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.
553ROMEO
554Well in that hit you miss. She’ll not be hit
555With Cupid’s arrow. She hath Dian’s wit,
556And, in strong proof of chastity well armed,
557 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
558
559
560
561
562From love’s weak childish bow she lives uncharmed.
563She will not stay the siege of loving terms,
564Nor bide th’ encounter of assailing eyes,
565Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold.
566O, she is rich in beauty, only poor
567That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store.
568BENVOLIO
569Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?
570ROMEO
571She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste;
572For beauty, starved with her severity,
573Cuts beauty off from all posterity.
574She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair,
575To merit bliss by making me despair.
576She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow
577Do I live dead, that live to tell it now.
578BENVOLIO
579Be ruled by me. Forget to think of her.
580ROMEO
581O, teach me how I should forget to think!
582BENVOLIO
583By giving liberty unto thine eyes.
584Examine other beauties.
585ROMEO ’Tis the way
586To call hers, exquisite, in question more.
587These happy masks that kiss fair ladies’ brows,
588Being black, puts us in mind they hide the fair.
589He that is strucken blind cannot forget
590The precious treasure of his eyesight lost.
591Show me a mistress that is passing fair;
592What doth her beauty serve but as a note
593Where I may read who passed that passing fair?
594Farewell. Thou canst not teach me to forget.
595BENVOLIO
596I’ll pay that doctrine or else die in debt.
597They exit.
598 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
599
600
601
602
603Scene
604Enter Capulet, County Paris, and a Servingman.
605
606CAPULET
607But Montague is bound as well as I,
608In penalty alike, and ’tis not hard, I think,
609For men so old as we to keep the peace.
610PARIS
611Of honorable reckoning are you both,
612And pity ’tis you lived at odds so long.
613But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?
614CAPULET
615But saying o’er what I have said before.
616My child is yet a stranger in the world.
617She hath not seen the change of fourteen years.
618Let two more summers wither in their pride
619Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.
620PARIS
621Younger than she are happy mothers made.
622CAPULET
623And too soon marred are those so early made.
624Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she;
625She’s the hopeful lady of my earth.
626But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart;
627My will to her consent is but a part.
628And, she agreed, within her scope of choice
629Lies my consent and fair according voice.
630This night I hold an old accustomed feast,
631Whereto I have invited many a guest
632Such as I love; and you among the store,
633One more, most welcome, makes my number more.
634At my poor house look to behold this night
635Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light.
636Such comfort as do lusty young men feel
637When well-appareled April on the heel
638Of limping winter treads, even such delight
639 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
640
641
642
643
644Among fresh fennel buds shall you this night
645Inherit at my house. Hear all, all see,
646And like her most whose merit most shall be;
647Which, on more view of many, mine, being one,
648May stand in number, though in reck’ning none.
649Come go with me. To Servingman, giving him a list.
650Go, sirrah, trudge about
651Through fair Verona, find those persons out
652Whose names are written there, and to them say
653My house and welcome on their pleasure stay.
654Capulet and Paris exit.
655SERVINGMAN Find them out whose names are written
656here! It is written that the shoemaker should
657meddle with his yard and the tailor with his last, the
658fisher with his pencil and the painter with his nets.
659But I am sent to find those persons whose names
660are here writ, and can never find what names the
661writing person hath here writ. I must to the learned.
662In good time!
663
664Enter Benvolio and Romeo.
665
666BENVOLIO , to Romeo
667Tut, man, one fire burns out another’s burning;
668One pain is lessened by another’s anguish.
669Turn giddy, and be helped by backward turning.
670One desperate grief cures with another’s languish.
671Take thou some new infection to thy eye,
672And the rank poison of the old will die.
673ROMEO
674Your plantain leaf is excellent for that.
675BENVOLIO
676For what, I pray thee?
677ROMEO For your broken shin.
678BENVOLIO Why Romeo, art thou mad?
679ROMEO
680Not mad, but bound more than a madman is,
681 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
682
683
684
685
686Shut up in prison, kept without my food,
687Whipped and tormented, and—good e’en, good
688fellow.
689SERVINGMAN God gi’ good e’en. I pray, sir, can you
690read?
691ROMEO
692Ay, mine own fortune in my misery.
693SERVINGMAN Perhaps you have learned it without
694book. But I pray, can you read anything you see?
695ROMEO
696Ay, if I know the letters and the language.
697SERVINGMAN You say honestly. Rest you merry.
698ROMEO Stay, fellow. I can read. (He reads the letter.)
699Signior Martino and his wife and daughters,
700County Anselme and his beauteous sisters,
701The lady widow of Vitruvio,
702Signior Placentio and his lovely nieces,
703Mercutio and his brother Valentine,
704Mine Uncle Capulet, his wife and daughters,
705My fair niece Rosaline and Livia,
706Signior Valentio and his cousin Tybalt,
707Lucio and the lively Helena.
708A fair assembly. Whither should they come?
709SERVINGMAN Up.
710ROMEO Whither? To supper?
711SERVINGMAN To our house.
712ROMEO Whose house?
713SERVINGMAN My master’s.
714ROMEO
715Indeed I should have asked thee that before.
716SERVINGMAN Now I’ll tell you without asking. My
717master is the great rich Capulet, and, if you be not
718of the house of Montagues, I pray come and crush a
719cup of wine. Rest you merry. He exits.
720BENVOLIO
721At this same ancient feast of Capulet’s
722 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
723
724
725
726
727Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so loves,
728With all the admirèd beauties of Verona.
729Go thither, and with unattainted eye
730Compare her face with some that I shall show,
731And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.
732ROMEO
733When the devout religion of mine eye
734Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fire;
735And these who, often drowned, could never die,
736Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars.
737One fairer than my love? The all-seeing sun
738Ne’er saw her match since first the world begun.
739BENVOLIO
740Tut, you saw her fair, none else being by,
741Herself poised with herself in either eye;
742But in that crystal scales let there be weighed
743Your lady’s love against some other maid
744That I will show you shining at this feast,
745And she shall scant show well that now seems best.
746ROMEO
747I’ll go along, no such sight to be shown,
748But to rejoice in splendor of mine own.
749They exit.
750
751
752Scene
753Enter Lady Capulet and Nurse.
754
755LADY CAPULET
756Nurse, where’s my daughter? Call her forth to me.
757NURSE
758Now, by my maidenhead at twelve year old,
759I bade her come.—What, lamb! What, ladybird!
760God forbid. Where’s this girl? What, Juliet!
761
762Enter Juliet.
763 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
764
765
766
767
768JULIET How now, who calls?
769NURSE Your mother.
770JULIET
771Madam, I am here. What is your will?
772LADY CAPULET
773This is the matter.—Nurse, give leave awhile.
774We must talk in secret.—Nurse, come back again.
775I have remembered me, thou ’s hear our counsel.
776Thou knowest my daughter’s of a pretty age.
777NURSE
778Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.
779LADY CAPULET She’s not fourteen.
780NURSE I’ll lay fourteen of my teeth (and yet, to my teen
781be it spoken, I have but four) she’s not fourteen.
782How long is it now to Lammastide?
783LADY CAPULET A fortnight and odd days.
784NURSE
785Even or odd, of all days in the year,
786Come Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen.
787Susan and she (God rest all Christian souls!)
788Were of an age. Well, Susan is with God;
789She was too good for me. But, as I said,
790On Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen.
791That shall she. Marry, I remember it well.
792’Tis since the earthquake now eleven years,
793And she was weaned (I never shall forget it)
794Of all the days of the year, upon that day.
795For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
796Sitting in the sun under the dovehouse wall.
797My lord and you were then at Mantua.
798Nay, I do bear a brain. But, as I said,
799When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
800Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,
801To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug.
802“Shake,” quoth the dovehouse. ’Twas no need, I
803trow,
804 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
805
806
807
808
809To bid me trudge.
810And since that time it is eleven years.
811For then she could stand high-lone. Nay, by th’
812rood,
813She could have run and waddled all about,
814For even the day before, she broke her brow,
815And then my husband (God be with his soul,
816He was a merry man) took up the child.
817“Yea,” quoth he, “Dost thou fall upon thy face?
818Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit,
819Wilt thou not, Jule?” And, by my holidam,
820The pretty wretch left crying and said “Ay.”
821To see now how a jest shall come about!
822I warrant, an I should live a thousand years,
823I never should forget it. “Wilt thou not, Jule?”
824quoth he.
825And, pretty fool, it stinted and said “Ay.”
826LADY CAPULET
827Enough of this. I pray thee, hold thy peace.
828NURSE
829Yes, madam, yet I cannot choose but laugh
830To think it should leave crying and say “Ay.”
831And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow
832A bump as big as a young cock’rel’s stone,
833A perilous knock, and it cried bitterly.
834“Yea,” quoth my husband. “Fall’st upon thy face?
835Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age,
836Wilt thou not, Jule?” It stinted and said “Ay.”
837JULIET
838And stint thou, too, I pray thee, nurse, say I.
839NURSE
840Peace. I have done. God mark thee to his grace,
841Thou wast the prettiest babe that e’er I nursed.
842An I might live to see thee married once,
843I have my wish.
844 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
845
846
847
848
849LADY CAPULET
850Marry, that “marry” is the very theme
851I came to talk of.—Tell me, daughter Juliet,
852How stands your disposition to be married?
853JULIET
854It is an honor that I dream not of.
855NURSE
856An honor? Were not I thine only nurse,
857I would say thou hadst sucked wisdom from thy
858teat.
859LADY CAPULET
860Well, think of marriage now. Younger than you
861Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,
862Are made already mothers. By my count
863I was your mother much upon these years
864That you are now a maid. Thus, then, in brief:
865The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.
866NURSE
867A man, young lady—lady, such a man
868As all the world—why, he’s a man of wax.
869LADY CAPULET
870Verona’s summer hath not such a flower.
871NURSE
872Nay, he’s a flower, in faith, a very flower.
873LADY CAPULET
874What say you? Can you love the gentleman?
875This night you shall behold him at our feast.
876Read o’er the volume of young Paris’ face,
877And find delight writ there with beauty’s pen.
878Examine every married lineament
879And see how one another lends content,
880And what obscured in this fair volume lies
881Find written in the margent of his eyes.
882This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
883To beautify him only lacks a cover.
884The fish lives in the sea, and ’tis much pride
885 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
886
887
888
889
890For fair without the fair within to hide.
891That book in many’s eyes doth share the glory
892That in gold clasps locks in the golden story.
893So shall you share all that he doth possess
894By having him, making yourself no less.
895NURSE
896No less? Nay, bigger. Women grow by men.
897LADY CAPULET
898Speak briefly. Can you like of Paris’ love?
899JULIET
900I’ll look to like, if looking liking move.
901But no more deep will I endart mine eye
902Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.
903
904Enter Servingman.
905
906SERVINGMAN Madam, the guests are come, supper
907served up, you called, my young lady asked for, the
908Nurse cursed in the pantry, and everything in
909extremity. I must hence to wait. I beseech you,
910follow straight.
911LADY CAPULET
912We follow thee. Servingman exits.
913Juliet, the County stays.
914NURSE
915Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.
916They exit.
917
918
919Scene
920Enter Romeo, Mercutio, Benvolio, with five or six other
921Maskers, Torchbearers, and a Boy with a drum.
922
923ROMEO
924What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse?
925Or shall we on without apology?
926BENVOLIO
927The date is out of such prolixity.
928 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
929
930
931
932
933We’ll have no Cupid hoodwinked with a scarf,
934Bearing a Tartar’s painted bow of lath,
935Scaring the ladies like a crowkeeper,
936Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke
937After the prompter, for our entrance.
938But let them measure us by what they will.
939We’ll measure them a measure and be gone.
940ROMEO
941Give me a torch. I am not for this ambling.
942Being but heavy I will bear the light.
943MERCUTIO
944Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.
945ROMEO
946Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes
947With nimble soles. I have a soul of lead
948So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.
949MERCUTIO
950You are a lover. Borrow Cupid’s wings
951And soar with them above a common bound.
952ROMEO
953I am too sore enpiercèd with his shaft
954To soar with his light feathers, and so bound
955I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe.
956Under love’s heavy burden do I sink.
957MERCUTIO
958And to sink in it should you burden love—
959Too great oppression for a tender thing.
960ROMEO
961Is love a tender thing? It is too rough,
962Too rude, too boist’rous, and it pricks like thorn.
963MERCUTIO
964If love be rough with you, be rough with love.
965Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.—
966Give me a case to put my visage in.—
967A visor for a visor. What care I
968What curious eye doth cote deformities?
969Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me.
970 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
971
972
973
974
975BENVOLIO
976Come, knock and enter, and no sooner in
977But every man betake him to his legs.
978ROMEO
979A torch for me. Let wantons light of heart
980Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels,
981For I am proverbed with a grandsire phrase:
982I’ll be a candle holder and look on;
983The game was ne’er so fair, and I am done.
984MERCUTIO
985Tut, dun’s the mouse, the constable’s own word.
986If thou art dun, we’ll draw thee from the mire—
987Or, save your reverence, love—wherein thou
988stickest
989Up to the ears. Come, we burn daylight, ho!
990ROMEO
991Nay, that’s not so.
992MERCUTIO I mean, sir, in delay
993We waste our lights; in vain, light lights by day.
994Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits
995Five times in that ere once in our five wits.
996ROMEO
997And we mean well in going to this masque,
998But ’tis no wit to go.
999MERCUTIO Why, may one ask?
1000ROMEO
1001I dreamt a dream tonight.
1002MERCUTIO And so did I.
1003ROMEO
1004Well, what was yours?
1005MERCUTIO That dreamers often lie.
1006ROMEO
1007In bed asleep while they do dream things true.
1008MERCUTIO
1009O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
1010 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1011
1012
1013
1014
1015She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
1016In shape no bigger than an agate stone
1017On the forefinger of an alderman,
1018Drawn with a team of little atomi
1019Over men’s noses as they lie asleep.
1020Her wagon spokes made of long spinners’ legs,
1021The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
1022Her traces of the smallest spider web,
1023Her collars of the moonshine’s wat’ry beams,
1024Her whip of cricket’s bone, the lash of film,
1025Her wagoner a small gray-coated gnat,
1026Not half so big as a round little worm
1027Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid.
1028Her chariot is an empty hazelnut,
1029Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
1030Time out o’ mind the fairies’ coachmakers.
1031And in this state she gallops night by night
1032Through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love;
1033On courtiers’ knees, that dream on cur’sies straight;
1034O’er lawyers’ fingers, who straight dream on fees;
1035O’er ladies’ lips, who straight on kisses dream,
1036Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues
1037Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are.
1038Sometime she gallops o’er a courtier’s nose,
1039And then dreams he of smelling out a suit.
1040And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig’s tail,
1041Tickling a parson’s nose as he lies asleep;
1042Then he dreams of another benefice.
1043Sometime she driveth o’er a soldier’s neck,
1044And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
1045Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
1046Of healths five fathom deep, and then anon
1047Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes
1048And, being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two
1049And sleeps again. This is that very Mab
1050That plats the manes of horses in the night
1051 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1052
1053
1054
1055
1056And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,
1057Which once untangled much misfortune bodes.
1058This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
1059That presses them and learns them first to bear,
1060Making them women of good carriage.
1061This is she—
1062ROMEO Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace.
1063Thou talk’st of nothing.
1064MERCUTIO True, I talk of dreams,
1065Which are the children of an idle brain,
1066Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,
1067Which is as thin of substance as the air
1068And more inconstant than the wind, who woos
1069Even now the frozen bosom of the north
1070And, being angered, puffs away from thence,
1071Turning his side to the dew-dropping south.
1072BENVOLIO
1073This wind you talk of blows us from ourselves.
1074Supper is done, and we shall come too late.
1075ROMEO
1076I fear too early, for my mind misgives
1077Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
1078Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
1079With this night’s revels, and expire the term
1080Of a despisèd life closed in my breast
1081By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
1082But he that hath the steerage of my course
1083Direct my sail. On, lusty gentlemen.
1084BENVOLIO Strike, drum.
1085They march about the stage
1086and then withdraw to the side.
1087 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1088
1089
1090
1091
1092Scene
1093Servingmen come forth with napkins.
1094
1095FIRST SERVINGMAN Where’s Potpan that he helps not
1096to take away? He shift a trencher? He scrape a
1097trencher?
1098SECOND SERVINGMAN When good manners shall lie
1099all in one or two men’s hands, and they unwashed
1100too, ’tis a foul thing.
1101FIRST SERVINGMAN Away with the joint stools, remove
1102the court cupboard, look to the plate.—
1103Good thou, save me a piece of marchpane, and, as
1104thou loves me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone
1105and Nell.—Anthony and Potpan!
1106THIRD SERVINGMAN Ay, boy, ready.
1107FIRST SERVINGMAN You are looked for and called for,
1108asked for and sought for, in the great chamber.
1109THIRD SERVINGMAN We cannot be here and there too.
1110Cheerly, boys! Be brisk awhile, and the longer liver
1111take all. They move aside.
1112
1113Enter Capulet and his household, all the guests and
1114gentlewomen to Romeo, Mercutio, Benvolio, and the
1115other Maskers.
1116
1117CAPULET
1118Welcome, gentlemen. Ladies that have their toes
1119Unplagued with corns will walk a bout with
1120you.—
1121Ah, my mistresses, which of you all
1122Will now deny to dance? She that makes dainty,
1123She, I’ll swear, hath corns. Am I come near you
1124now?—
1125Welcome, gentlemen. I have seen the day
1126That I have worn a visor and could tell
1127A whispering tale in a fair lady’s ear,
1128Such as would please. ’Tis gone, ’tis gone, ’tis gone.
1129 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1130
1131
1132
1133
1134You are welcome, gentlemen.—Come, musicians,
1135play. Music plays and they dance.
1136A hall, a hall, give room!—And foot it, girls.—
1137More light, you knaves, and turn the tables up,
1138And quench the fire; the room is grown too hot.—
1139Ah, sirrah, this unlooked-for sport comes well.—
1140Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin Capulet,
1141For you and I are past our dancing days.
1142How long is ’t now since last yourself and I
1143Were in a mask?
1144CAPULET’S COUSIN By ’r Lady, thirty years.
1145CAPULET
1146What, man, ’tis not so much, ’tis not so much.
1147’Tis since the nuptial of Lucentio,
1148Come Pentecost as quickly as it will,
1149Some five and twenty years, and then we masked.
1150CAPULET’S COUSIN
1151’Tis more, ’tis more. His son is elder, sir.
1152His son is thirty.
1153CAPULET Will you tell me that?
1154His son was but a ward two years ago.
1155ROMEO, to a Servingman
1156What lady’s that which doth enrich the hand
1157Of yonder knight?
1158SERVINGMAN I know not, sir.
1159ROMEO
1160O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
1161It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
1162As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear—
1163Beauty too rich for use, for Earth too dear.
1164So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows
1165As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows.
1166The measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand
1167And, touching hers, make blessèd my rude hand.
1168Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight,
1169For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.
1170 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1171
1172
1173
1174
1175TYBALT
1176This, by his voice, should be a Montague.—
1177Fetch me my rapier, boy. Page exits.
1178What, dares the slave
1179Come hither covered with an antic face
1180To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?
1181Now, by the stock and honor of my kin,
1182To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.
1183CAPULET
1184Why, how now, kinsman? Wherefore storm you so?
1185TYBALT
1186Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe,
1187A villain that is hither come in spite
1188To scorn at our solemnity this night.
1189CAPULET
1190Young Romeo is it?
1191TYBALT ’Tis he, that villain Romeo.
1192CAPULET
1193Content thee, gentle coz. Let him alone.
1194He bears him like a portly gentleman,
1195And, to say truth, Verona brags of him
1196To be a virtuous and well-governed youth.
1197I would not for the wealth of all this town
1198Here in my house do him disparagement.
1199Therefore be patient. Take no note of him.
1200It is my will, the which if thou respect,
1201Show a fair presence and put off these frowns,
1202An ill-beseeming semblance for a feast.
1203TYBALT
1204It fits when such a villain is a guest.
1205I’ll not endure him.
1206CAPULET He shall be endured.
1207What, goodman boy? I say he shall. Go to.
1208Am I the master here or you? Go to.
1209You’ll not endure him! God shall mend my soul,
1210 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1211
1212
1213
1214
1215You’ll make a mutiny among my guests,
1216You will set cock-a-hoop, you’ll be the man!
1217TYBALT
1218Why, uncle, ’tis a shame.
1219CAPULET Go to, go to.
1220You are a saucy boy. Is ’t so indeed?
1221This trick may chance to scathe you. I know what.
1222You must contrary me. Marry, ’tis time—
1223Well said, my hearts.—You are a princox, go.
1224Be quiet, or—More light, more light!—for shame,
1225I’ll make you quiet.—What, cheerly, my hearts!
1226TYBALT
1227Patience perforce with willful choler meeting
1228Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.
1229I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall,
1230Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt’rest gall.
1231He exits.
1232ROMEO, taking Juliet’s hand
1233If I profane with my unworthiest hand
1234This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
1235My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
1236To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
1237JULIET
1238Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
1239Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
1240For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,
1241And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.
1242ROMEO
1243Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
1244JULIET
1245Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
1246ROMEO
1247O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do.
1248They pray: grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
1249JULIET
1250Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake.
1251 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1252
1253
1254
1255
1256ROMEO
1257Then move not while my prayer’s effect I take.
1258He kisses her.
1259Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged.
1260JULIET
1261Then have my lips the sin that they have took.
1262ROMEO
1263Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged!
1264Give me my sin again. He kisses her.
1265JULIET You kiss by th’ book.
1266NURSE
1267Madam, your mother craves a word with you.
1268Juliet moves toward her mother.
1269ROMEO
1270What is her mother?
1271NURSE Marry, bachelor,
1272Her mother is the lady of the house,
1273And a good lady, and a wise and virtuous.
1274I nursed her daughter that you talked withal.
1275I tell you, he that can lay hold of her
1276Shall have the chinks. Nurse moves away.
1277ROMEO, aside Is she a Capulet?
1278O dear account! My life is my foe’s debt.
1279BENVOLIO
1280Away, begone. The sport is at the best.
1281ROMEO
1282Ay, so I fear. The more is my unrest.
1283CAPULET
1284Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone.
1285We have a trifling foolish banquet towards.—
1286Is it e’en so? Why then, I thank you all.
1287I thank you, honest gentlemen. Good night.—
1288More torches here.—Come on then, let’s to bed.—
1289Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late.
1290I’ll to my rest.
1291All but Juliet and the Nurse begin to exit.
1292 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1293
1294
1295
1296
1297JULIET
1298Come hither, nurse. What is yond gentleman?
1299NURSE
1300The son and heir of old Tiberio.
1301JULIET
1302What’s he that now is going out of door?
1303NURSE
1304Marry, that, I think, be young Petruchio.
1305JULIET
1306What’s he that follows here, that would not dance?
1307NURSE I know not.
1308JULIET
1309Go ask his name. The Nurse goes. If he be marrièd,
1310My grave is like to be my wedding bed.
1311NURSE, returning
1312His name is Romeo, and a Montague,
1313The only son of your great enemy.
1314JULIET
1315My only love sprung from my only hate!
1316Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
1317Prodigious birth of love it is to me
1318That I must love a loathèd enemy.
1319NURSE
1320What’s this? What’s this?
1321JULIET A rhyme I learned even now
1322Of one I danced withal.
1323One calls within “Juliet.”
1324NURSE Anon, anon.
1325Come, let’s away. The strangers all are gone.
1326They exit.
1327 ACT
1328
1329
1330
1331
1332Enter Chorus.
1333
1334Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie,
1335And young affection gapes to be his heir.
1336That fair for which love groaned for and would die,
1337With tender Juliet matched, is now not fair.
1338Now Romeo is beloved and loves again,
1339Alike bewitchèd by the charm of looks,
1340But to his foe supposed he must complain,
1341And she steal love’s sweet bait from fearful hooks.
1342Being held a foe, he may not have access
1343To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear,
1344And she as much in love, her means much less
1345To meet her new belovèd anywhere.
1346But passion lends them power, time means, to meet,
1347Temp’ring extremities with extreme sweet.
1348Chorus exits.
1349
1350
1351Scene
1352Enter Romeo alone.
1353
1354ROMEO
1355Can I go forward when my heart is here?
1356Turn back, dull earth, and find thy center out.
1357He withdraws.
1358
1359Enter Benvolio with Mercutio.
1360
1361 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1362
1363
1364
1365
1366BENVOLIO
1367Romeo, my cousin Romeo, Romeo!
1368MERCUTIO He is wise
1369And, on my life, hath stol’n him home to bed.
1370BENVOLIO
1371He ran this way and leapt this orchard wall.
1372Call, good Mercutio.
1373MERCUTIO Nay, I’ll conjure too.
1374Romeo! Humors! Madman! Passion! Lover!
1375Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh.
1376Speak but one rhyme and I am satisfied.
1377Cry but “Ay me,” pronounce but “love” and
1378“dove.”
1379Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word,
1380One nickname for her purblind son and heir,
1381Young Abraham Cupid, he that shot so trim
1382When King Cophetua loved the beggar maid.—
1383He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not.
1384The ape is dead, and I must conjure him.—
1385I conjure thee by Rosaline’s bright eyes,
1386By her high forehead, and her scarlet lip,
1387By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh,
1388And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,
1389That in thy likeness thou appear to us.
1390BENVOLIO
1391An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him.
1392MERCUTIO
1393This cannot anger him. ’Twould anger him
1394To raise a spirit in his mistress’ circle
1395Of some strange nature, letting it there stand
1396Till she had laid it and conjured it down.
1397That were some spite. My invocation
1398Is fair and honest. In his mistress’ name,
1399I conjure only but to raise up him.
1400BENVOLIO
1401Come, he hath hid himself among these trees
1402 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1403
1404
1405
1406
1407To be consorted with the humorous night.
1408Blind is his love and best befits the dark.
1409MERCUTIO
1410If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.
1411Now will he sit under a medlar tree
1412And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit
1413As maids call medlars when they laugh alone.—
1414O Romeo, that she were, O, that she were
1415An open-arse, thou a pop’rin pear.
1416Romeo, good night. I’ll to my truckle bed;
1417This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep.—
1418Come, shall we go?
1419BENVOLIO Go, then, for ’tis in vain
1420To seek him here that means not to be found.
1421They exit.
1422
1423
1424Scene
1425Romeo comes forward.
1426
1427ROMEO
1428He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
1429
1430Enter Juliet above.
1431
1432But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
1433It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.
1434Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
1435Who is already sick and pale with grief
1436That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
1437Be not her maid since she is envious.
1438Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
1439And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off.
1440It is my lady. O, it is my love!
1441O, that she knew she were!
1442She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that?
1443Her eye discourses; I will answer it.
1444 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1445
1446
1447
1448
1449I am too bold. ’Tis not to me she speaks.
1450Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
1451Having some business, do entreat her eyes
1452To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
1453What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
1454The brightness of her cheek would shame those
1455stars
1456As daylight doth a lamp; her eye in heaven
1457Would through the airy region stream so bright
1458That birds would sing and think it were not night.
1459See how she leans her cheek upon her hand.
1460O, that I were a glove upon that hand,
1461That I might touch that cheek!
1462JULIET Ay me.
1463ROMEO, aside She speaks.
1464O, speak again, bright angel, for thou art
1465As glorious to this night, being o’er my head,
1466As is a wingèd messenger of heaven
1467Unto the white-upturnèd wond’ring eyes
1468Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him
1469When he bestrides the lazy puffing clouds
1470And sails upon the bosom of the air.
1471JULIET
1472O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
1473Deny thy father and refuse thy name,
1474Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
1475And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
1476ROMEO, aside
1477Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?
1478JULIET
1479’Tis but thy name that is my enemy.
1480Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
1481What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
1482Nor arm, nor face. O, be some other name
1483Belonging to a man.
1484What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
1485 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1486
1487
1488
1489
1490By any other word would smell as sweet.
1491So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called,
1492Retain that dear perfection which he owes
1493Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
1494And, for thy name, which is no part of thee,
1495Take all myself.
1496ROMEO I take thee at thy word.
1497Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized.
1498Henceforth I never will be Romeo.
1499JULIET
1500What man art thou that, thus bescreened in night,
1501So stumblest on my counsel?
1502ROMEO By a name
1503I know not how to tell thee who I am.
1504My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself
1505Because it is an enemy to thee.
1506Had I it written, I would tear the word.
1507JULIET
1508My ears have yet not drunk a hundred words
1509Of thy tongue’s uttering, yet I know the sound.
1510Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?
1511ROMEO
1512Neither, fair maid, if either thee dislike.
1513JULIET
1514How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?
1515The orchard walls are high and hard to climb,
1516And the place death, considering who thou art,
1517If any of my kinsmen find thee here.
1518ROMEO
1519With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls,
1520For stony limits cannot hold love out,
1521And what love can do, that dares love attempt.
1522Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me.
1523JULIET
1524If they do see thee, they will murder thee.
1525 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1526
1527
1528
1529
1530ROMEO
1531Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye
1532Than twenty of their swords. Look thou but sweet,
1533And I am proof against their enmity.
1534JULIET
1535I would not for the world they saw thee here.
1536ROMEO
1537I have night’s cloak to hide me from their eyes,
1538And, but thou love me, let them find me here.
1539My life were better ended by their hate
1540Than death proroguèd, wanting of thy love.
1541JULIET
1542By whose direction found’st thou out this place?
1543ROMEO
1544By love, that first did prompt me to inquire.
1545He lent me counsel, and I lent him eyes.
1546I am no pilot; yet, wert thou as far
1547As that vast shore washed with the farthest sea,
1548I should adventure for such merchandise.
1549JULIET
1550Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face,
1551Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek
1552For that which thou hast heard me speak tonight.
1553Fain would I dwell on form; fain, fain deny
1554What I have spoke. But farewell compliment.
1555Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say “Ay,”
1556And I will take thy word. Yet, if thou swear’st,
1557Thou mayst prove false. At lovers’ perjuries,
1558They say, Jove laughs. O gentle Romeo,
1559If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully.
1560Or, if thou thinkest I am too quickly won,
1561I’ll frown and be perverse and say thee nay,
1562So thou wilt woo, but else not for the world.
1563In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond,
1564And therefore thou mayst think my havior light.
1565But trust me, gentleman, I’ll prove more true
1566 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1567
1568
1569
1570
1571Than those that have more coying to be strange.
1572I should have been more strange, I must confess,
1573But that thou overheard’st ere I was ware
1574My true-love passion. Therefore pardon me,
1575And not impute this yielding to light love,
1576Which the dark night hath so discoverèd.
1577ROMEO
1578Lady, by yonder blessèd moon I vow,
1579That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops—
1580JULIET
1581O, swear not by the moon, th’ inconstant moon,
1582That monthly changes in her circled orb,
1583Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.
1584ROMEO
1585What shall I swear by?
1586JULIET Do not swear at all.
1587Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self,
1588Which is the god of my idolatry,
1589And I’ll believe thee.
1590ROMEO If my heart’s dear love—
1591JULIET
1592Well, do not swear. Although I joy in thee,
1593I have no joy of this contract tonight.
1594It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,
1595Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
1596Ere one can say “It lightens.” Sweet, good night.
1597This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath,
1598May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
1599Good night, good night. As sweet repose and rest
1600Come to thy heart as that within my breast.
1601ROMEO
1602O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?
1603JULIET
1604What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?
1605ROMEO
1606Th’ exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine.
1607 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1608
1609
1610
1611
1612JULIET
1613I gave thee mine before thou didst request it,
1614And yet I would it were to give again.
1615ROMEO
1616Wouldst thou withdraw it? For what purpose, love?
1617JULIET
1618But to be frank and give it thee again.
1619And yet I wish but for the thing I have.
1620My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
1621My love as deep. The more I give to thee,
1622The more I have, for both are infinite.
1623Nurse calls from within.
1624I hear some noise within. Dear love, adieu.—
1625Anon, good nurse.—Sweet Montague, be true.
1626Stay but a little; I will come again. She exits.
1627ROMEO
1628O blessèd, blessèd night! I am afeard,
1629Being in night, all this is but a dream,
1630Too flattering sweet to be substantial.
1631
1632Reenter Juliet above.
1633
1634JULIET
1635Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed.
1636If that thy bent of love be honorable,
1637Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow,
1638By one that I’ll procure to come to thee,
1639Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite,
1640And all my fortunes at thy foot I’ll lay
1641And follow thee my lord throughout the world.
1642NURSE, within Madam.
1643JULIET
1644I come anon.—But if thou meanest not well,
1645I do beseech thee—
1646NURSE, within Madam.
1647JULIET By and by, I come.—
1648To cease thy strife and leave me to my grief.
1649Tomorrow will I send.
1650 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1651
1652
1653
1654
1655ROMEO So thrive my soul—
1656JULIET A thousand times good night. She exits.
1657ROMEO
1658A thousand times the worse to want thy light.
1659Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their
1660books,
1661But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.
1662Going.
1663
1664Enter Juliet above again.
1665
1666JULIET
1667Hist, Romeo, hist! O, for a falc’ner’s voice
1668To lure this tassel-gentle back again!
1669Bondage is hoarse and may not speak aloud,
1670Else would I tear the cave where Echo lies
1671And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine
1672With repetition of “My Romeo!”
1673ROMEO
1674It is my soul that calls upon my name.
1675How silver-sweet sound lovers’ tongues by night,
1676Like softest music to attending ears.
1677JULIET
1678Romeo.
1679ROMEO My dear.
1680JULIET What o’clock tomorrow
1681Shall I send to thee?
1682ROMEO By the hour of nine.
1683JULIET
1684I will not fail. ’Tis twenty year till then.
1685I have forgot why I did call thee back.
1686ROMEO
1687Let me stand here till thou remember it.
1688JULIET
1689I shall forget, to have thee still stand there,
1690Rememb’ring how I love thy company.
1691 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1692
1693
1694
1695
1696ROMEO
1697And I’ll still stay, to have thee still forget,
1698Forgetting any other home but this.
1699JULIET
1700’Tis almost morning. I would have thee gone,
1701And yet no farther than a wanton’s bird,
1702That lets it hop a little from his hand,
1703Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,
1704And with a silken thread plucks it back again,
1705So loving-jealous of his liberty.
1706ROMEO
1707I would I were thy bird.
1708JULIET Sweet, so would I.
1709Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.
1710Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet
1711sorrow
1712That I shall say “Good night” till it be morrow.
1713She exits.
1714ROMEO
1715Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast.
1716Would I were sleep and peace so sweet to rest.
1717Hence will I to my ghostly friar’s close cell,
1718His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell.
1719He exits.
1720
1721
1722Scene
1723Enter Friar Lawrence alone with a basket.
1724
1725FRIAR LAWRENCE
1726The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,
1727Check’ring the eastern clouds with streaks of light,
1728And fleckled darkness like a drunkard reels
1729From forth day’s path and Titan’s fiery wheels.
1730Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye,
1731The day to cheer and night’s dank dew to dry,
1732 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1733
1734
1735
1736
1737I must upfill this osier cage of ours
1738With baleful weeds and precious-juicèd flowers.
1739The Earth that’s nature’s mother is her tomb;
1740What is her burying grave, that is her womb;
1741And from her womb children of divers kind
1742We sucking on her natural bosom find,
1743Many for many virtues excellent,
1744None but for some, and yet all different.
1745O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies
1746In plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities.
1747For naught so vile that on the Earth doth live
1748But to the Earth some special good doth give;
1749Nor aught so good but, strained from that fair use,
1750Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse.
1751Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied,
1752And vice sometime by action dignified.
1753
1754Enter Romeo.
1755
1756Within the infant rind of this weak flower
1757Poison hath residence and medicine power:
1758For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each
1759part;
1760Being tasted, stays all senses with the heart.
1761Two such opposèd kings encamp them still
1762In man as well as herbs—grace and rude will;
1763And where the worser is predominant,
1764Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.
1765ROMEO
1766Good morrow, father.
1767FRIAR LAWRENCE Benedicite.
1768What early tongue so sweet saluteth me?
1769Young son, it argues a distempered head
1770So soon to bid “Good morrow” to thy bed.
1771Care keeps his watch in every old man’s eye,
1772And, where care lodges, sleep will never lie;
1773But where unbruisèd youth with unstuffed brain
1774 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1775
1776
1777
1778
1779Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth
1780reign.
1781Therefore thy earliness doth me assure
1782Thou art uproused with some distemp’rature,
1783Or, if not so, then here I hit it right:
1784Our Romeo hath not been in bed tonight.
1785ROMEO
1786That last is true. The sweeter rest was mine.
1787FRIAR LAWRENCE
1788God pardon sin! Wast thou with Rosaline?
1789ROMEO
1790With Rosaline, my ghostly father? No.
1791I have forgot that name and that name’s woe.
1792FRIAR LAWRENCE
1793That’s my good son. But where hast thou been
1794then?
1795ROMEO
1796I’ll tell thee ere thou ask it me again.
1797I have been feasting with mine enemy,
1798Where on a sudden one hath wounded me
1799That’s by me wounded. Both our remedies
1800Within thy help and holy physic lies.
1801I bear no hatred, blessèd man, for, lo,
1802My intercession likewise steads my foe.
1803FRIAR LAWRENCE
1804Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift.
1805Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift.
1806ROMEO
1807Then plainly know my heart’s dear love is set
1808On the fair daughter of rich Capulet.
1809As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine,
1810And all combined, save what thou must combine
1811By holy marriage. When and where and how
1812We met, we wooed, and made exchange of vow
1813I’ll tell thee as we pass, but this I pray,
1814That thou consent to marry us today.
1815 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1816
1817
1818
1819
1820FRIAR LAWRENCE
1821Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here!
1822Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear,
1823So soon forsaken? Young men’s love then lies
1824Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.
1825Jesu Maria, what a deal of brine
1826Hath washed thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline!
1827How much salt water thrown away in waste
1828To season love, that of it doth not taste!
1829The sun not yet thy sighs from heaven clears,
1830Thy old groans yet ringing in mine ancient ears.
1831Lo, here upon thy cheek the stain doth sit
1832Of an old tear that is not washed off yet.
1833If e’er thou wast thyself, and these woes thine,
1834Thou and these woes were all for Rosaline.
1835And art thou changed? Pronounce this sentence
1836then:
1837Women may fall when there’s no strength in men.
1838ROMEO
1839Thou chid’st me oft for loving Rosaline.
1840FRIAR LAWRENCE
1841For doting, not for loving, pupil mine.
1842ROMEO
1843And bad’st me bury love.
1844FRIAR LAWRENCE Not in a grave
1845To lay one in, another out to have.
1846ROMEO
1847I pray thee, chide me not. Her I love now
1848Doth grace for grace and love for love allow.
1849The other did not so.
1850FRIAR LAWRENCE O, she knew well
1851Thy love did read by rote, that could not spell.
1852But come, young waverer, come, go with me.
1853In one respect I’ll thy assistant be,
1854For this alliance may so happy prove
1855To turn your households’ rancor to pure love.
1856 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1857
1858
1859
1860
1861ROMEO
1862O, let us hence. I stand on sudden haste.
1863FRIAR LAWRENCE
1864Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.
1865They exit.
1866
1867
1868Scene
1869Enter Benvolio and Mercutio.
1870
1871MERCUTIO
1872Where the devil should this Romeo be?
1873Came he not home tonight?
1874BENVOLIO
1875Not to his father’s. I spoke with his man.
1876MERCUTIO
1877Why, that same pale hard-hearted wench, that
1878Rosaline,
1879Torments him so that he will sure run mad.
1880BENVOLIO
1881Tybalt, the kinsman to old Capulet,
1882Hath sent a letter to his father’s house.
1883MERCUTIO A challenge, on my life.
1884BENVOLIO Romeo will answer it.
1885MERCUTIO Any man that can write may answer a letter.
1886BENVOLIO Nay, he will answer the letter’s master, how
1887he dares, being dared.
1888MERCUTIO Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead,
1889stabbed with a white wench’s black eye, run
1890through the ear with a love-song, the very pin of his
1891heart cleft with the blind bow-boy’s butt shaft. And
1892is he a man to encounter Tybalt?
1893BENVOLIO Why, what is Tybalt?
1894MERCUTIO More than prince of cats. O, he’s the courageous
1895captain of compliments. He fights as you sing
1896prick-song, keeps time, distance, and proportion.
1897 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902He rests his minim rests, one, two, and the third in
1903your bosom—the very butcher of a silk button, a
1904duelist, a duelist, a gentleman of the very first house
1905of the first and second cause. Ah, the immortal
1906passado, the punto reverso, the hay!
1907BENVOLIO The what?
1908MERCUTIO The pox of such antic, lisping, affecting
1909phantasimes, these new tuners of accent: “By
1910Jesu, a very good blade! A very tall man! A very good
1911whore!” Why, is not this a lamentable thing, grandsire,
1912that we should be thus afflicted with these
1913strange flies, these fashion-mongers, these “pardon-me” ’s,
1914who stand so much on the new form
1915that they cannot sit at ease on the old bench? O their
1916bones, their bones!
1917
1918Enter Romeo.
1919
1920BENVOLIO Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo.
1921MERCUTIO Without his roe, like a dried herring. O
1922flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified! Now is he for the
1923numbers that Petrarch flowed in. Laura to his lady
1924was a kitchen wench (marry, she had a better love
1925to berhyme her), Dido a dowdy, Cleopatra a gypsy,
1926Helen and Hero hildings and harlots, Thisbe a gray
1927eye or so, but not to the purpose.—Signior Romeo,
1928bonjour. There’s a French salutation to your French
1929slop. You gave us the counterfeit fairly last night.
1930ROMEO Good morrow to you both. What counterfeit
1931did I give you?
1932MERCUTIO The slip, sir, the slip. Can you not conceive?
1933ROMEO Pardon, good Mercutio, my business was
1934great, and in such a case as mine a man may strain
1935courtesy.
1936MERCUTIO That’s as much as to say such a case as
1937yours constrains a man to bow in the hams.
1938ROMEO Meaning, to curtsy.
1939 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944MERCUTIO Thou hast most kindly hit it.
1945ROMEO A most courteous exposition.
1946MERCUTIO Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy.
1947ROMEO “Pink” for flower.
1948MERCUTIO Right.
1949ROMEO Why, then is my pump well flowered.
1950MERCUTIO Sure wit, follow me this jest now till thou
1951hast worn out thy pump, that when the single sole
1952of it is worn, the jest may remain, after the wearing,
1953solely singular.
1954ROMEO O single-soled jest, solely singular for the
1955singleness.
1956MERCUTIO Come between us, good Benvolio. My wits
1957faints.
1958ROMEO Switch and spurs, switch and spurs, or I’ll cry
1959a match.
1960MERCUTIO Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase, I
1961am done, for thou hast more of the wild goose in
1962one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole
1963five. Was I with you there for the goose?
1964ROMEO Thou wast never with me for anything when
1965thou wast not there for the goose.
1966MERCUTIO I will bite thee by the ear for that jest.
1967ROMEO Nay, good goose, bite not.
1968MERCUTIO Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting; it is a most
1969sharp sauce.
1970ROMEO And is it not, then, well served into a sweet
1971goose?
1972MERCUTIO O, here’s a wit of cheveril that stretches
1973from an inch narrow to an ell broad.
1974ROMEO I stretch it out for that word “broad,” which
1975added to the goose, proves thee far and wide a
1976broad goose.
1977MERCUTIO Why, is not this better now than groaning
1978for love? Now art thou sociable, now art thou
1979Romeo, now art thou what thou art, by art as well as
1980 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985by nature. For this driveling love is like a great
1986natural that runs lolling up and down to hide his
1987bauble in a hole.
1988BENVOLIO Stop there, stop there.
1989MERCUTIO Thou desirest me to stop in my tale against
1990the hair.
1991BENVOLIO Thou wouldst else have made thy tale large.
1992MERCUTIO O, thou art deceived. I would have made it
1993short, for I was come to the whole depth of my tale
1994and meant indeed to occupy the argument no
1995longer.
1996
1997Enter Nurse and her man Peter.
1998
1999ROMEO Here’s goodly gear. A sail, a sail!
2000MERCUTIO Two, two—a shirt and a smock.
2001NURSE Peter.
2002PETER Anon.
2003NURSE My fan, Peter.
2004MERCUTIO Good Peter, to hide her face, for her fan’s
2005the fairer face.
2006NURSE God you good morrow, gentlemen.
2007MERCUTIO God you good e’en, fair gentlewoman.
2008NURSE Is it good e’en?
2009MERCUTIO ’Tis no less, I tell you, for the bawdy hand of
2010the dial is now upon the prick of noon.
2011NURSE Out upon you! What a man are you?
2012ROMEO One, gentlewoman, that God hath made, himself
2013to mar.
2014NURSE By my troth, it is well said: “for himself to
2015mar,” quoth he? Gentlemen, can any of you tell me
2016where I may find the young Romeo?
2017ROMEO I can tell you, but young Romeo will be older
2018when you have found him than he was when you
2019sought him. I am the youngest of that name, for
2020fault of a worse.
2021NURSE You say well.
2022 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2023
2024
2025
2026
2027MERCUTIO Yea, is the worst well? Very well took, i’
2028faith, wisely, wisely.
2029NURSE If you be he, sir, I desire some confidence with
2030you.
2031BENVOLIO She will indite him to some supper.
2032MERCUTIO A bawd, a bawd, a bawd. So ho!
2033ROMEO What hast thou found?
2034MERCUTIO No hare, sir, unless a hare, sir, in a Lenten
2035pie that is something stale and hoar ere it be spent.
2036Singing. An old hare hoar,
2037And an old hare hoar,
2038Is very good meat in Lent.
2039But a hare that is hoar
2040Is too much for a score
2041When it hoars ere it be spent.
2042Romeo, will you come to your father’s? We’ll to
2043dinner thither.
2044ROMEO I will follow you.
2045MERCUTIO Farewell, ancient lady. Farewell, lady, lady,
2046lady. Mercutio and Benvolio exit.
2047NURSE I pray you, sir, what saucy merchant was this
2048that was so full of his ropery?
2049ROMEO A gentleman, nurse, that loves to hear himself
2050talk and will speak more in a minute than he will
2051stand to in a month.
2052NURSE An he speak anything against me, I’ll take him
2053down, an he were lustier than he is, and twenty
2054such jacks. An if I cannot, I’ll find those that shall.
2055Scurvy knave, I am none of his flirt-gills; I am none
2056of his skains-mates. To Peter. And thou must stand
2057by too and suffer every knave to use me at his
2058pleasure.
2059PETER I saw no man use you at his pleasure. If I had,
2060my weapon should quickly have been out. I warrant
2061you, I dare draw as soon as another man, if I
2062see occasion in a good quarrel, and the law on my
2063side.
2064 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2065
2066
2067
2068
2069NURSE Now, afore God, I am so vexed that every part
2070about me quivers. Scurvy knave! To Romeo. Pray
2071you, sir, a word. And, as I told you, my young lady
2072bid me inquire you out. What she bid me say, I will
2073keep to myself. But first let me tell you, if you
2074should lead her in a fool’s paradise, as they say, it
2075were a very gross kind of behavior, as they say. For
2076the gentlewoman is young; and therefore, if you
2077should deal double with her, truly it were an ill
2078thing to be offered to any gentlewoman, and very
2079weak dealing.
2080ROMEO Nurse, commend me to thy lady and mistress.
2081I protest unto thee—
2082NURSE Good heart, and i’ faith I will tell her as much.
2083Lord, Lord, she will be a joyful woman.
2084ROMEO What wilt thou tell her, nurse? Thou dost not
2085mark me.
2086NURSE I will tell her, sir, that you do protest, which, as
2087I take it, is a gentlemanlike offer.
2088ROMEO Bid her devise
2089Some means to come to shrift this afternoon,
2090And there she shall at Friar Lawrence’ cell
2091Be shrived and married. Here is for thy pains.
2092Offering her money.
2093NURSE No, truly, sir, not a penny.
2094ROMEO Go to, I say you shall.
2095NURSE
2096This afternoon, sir? Well, she shall be there.
2097ROMEO
2098And stay, good nurse, behind the abbey wall.
2099Within this hour my man shall be with thee
2100And bring thee cords made like a tackled stair,
2101Which to the high topgallant of my joy
2102Must be my convoy in the secret night.
2103Farewell. Be trusty, and I’ll quit thy pains.
2104Farewell. Commend me to thy mistress.
2105 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2106
2107
2108
2109
2110NURSE
2111Now, God in heaven bless thee! Hark you, sir.
2112ROMEO What sayst thou, my dear nurse?
2113NURSE
2114Is your man secret? Did you ne’er hear say
2115“Two may keep counsel, putting one away”?
2116ROMEO
2117Warrant thee, my man’s as true as steel.
2118NURSE Well, sir, my mistress is the sweetest lady. Lord,
2119Lord, when ’twas a little prating thing—O, there is
2120a nobleman in town, one Paris, that would fain lay
2121knife aboard, but she, good soul, had as lief see a
2122toad, a very toad, as see him. I anger her sometimes
2123and tell her that Paris is the properer man, but I’ll
2124warrant you, when I say so, she looks as pale as any
2125clout in the versal world. Doth not rosemary and
2126Romeo begin both with a letter?
2127ROMEO Ay, nurse, what of that? Both with an R.
2128NURSE Ah, mocker, that’s the dog’s name. R is for
2129the—No, I know it begins with some other letter,
2130and she hath the prettiest sententious of it, of you
2131and rosemary, that it would do you good to hear it.
2132ROMEO Commend me to thy lady.
2133NURSE Ay, a thousand times.—Peter.
2134PETER Anon.
2135NURSE Before and apace.
2136They exit.
2137
2138
2139Scene
2140Enter Juliet.
2141
2142JULIET
2143The clock struck nine when I did send the Nurse.
2144In half an hour she promised to return.
2145Perchance she cannot meet him. That’s not so.
2146O, she is lame! Love’s heralds should be thoughts,
2147Which ten times faster glides than the sun’s beams,
2148 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2149
2150
2151
2152
2153Driving back shadows over louring hills.
2154Therefore do nimble-pinioned doves draw Love,
2155And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.
2156Now is the sun upon the highmost hill
2157Of this day’s journey, and from nine till twelve
2158Is three long hours, yet she is not come.
2159Had she affections and warm youthful blood,
2160She would be as swift in motion as a ball;
2161My words would bandy her to my sweet love,
2162And his to me.
2163But old folks, many feign as they were dead,
2164Unwieldy, slow, heavy, and pale as lead.
2165
2166Enter Nurse and Peter.
2167
2168O God, she comes!—O, honey nurse, what news?
2169Hast thou met with him? Send thy man away.
2170NURSE Peter, stay at the gate. Peter exits.
2171JULIET
2172Now, good sweet nurse—O Lord, why lookest thou
2173sad?
2174Though news be sad, yet tell them merrily.
2175If good, thou shamest the music of sweet news
2176By playing it to me with so sour a face.
2177NURSE
2178I am aweary. Give me leave awhile.
2179Fie, how my bones ache! What a jaunt have I!
2180JULIET
2181I would thou hadst my bones, and I thy news.
2182Nay, come, I pray thee, speak. Good, good nurse,
2183speak.
2184NURSE
2185Jesu, what haste! Can you not stay awhile?
2186Do you not see that I am out of breath?
2187JULIET
2188How art thou out of breath, when thou hast breath
2189To say to me that thou art out of breath?
2190The excuse that thou dost make in this delay
2191 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2192
2193
2194
2195
2196Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse.
2197Is thy news good or bad? Answer to that.
2198Say either, and I’ll stay the circumstance.
2199Let me be satisfied; is ’t good or bad?
2200NURSE Well, you have made a simple choice. You know
2201not how to choose a man. Romeo? No, not he.
2202Though his face be better than any man’s, yet his leg
2203excels all men’s, and for a hand and a foot and a
2204body, though they be not to be talked on, yet they
2205are past compare. He is not the flower of courtesy,
2206but I’ll warrant him as gentle as a lamb. Go thy
2207ways, wench. Serve God. What, have you dined at
2208home?
2209JULIET
2210No, no. But all this did I know before.
2211What says he of our marriage? What of that?
2212NURSE
2213Lord, how my head aches! What a head have I!
2214It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces.
2215My back o’ t’ other side! Ah, my back, my back!
2216Beshrew your heart for sending me about
2217To catch my death with jaunting up and down.
2218JULIET
2219I’ faith, I am sorry that thou art not well.
2220Sweet, sweet, sweet nurse, tell me, what says my
2221love?
2222NURSE Your love says, like an honest gentleman, and a
2223courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, and, I
2224warrant, a virtuous—Where is your mother?
2225JULIET
2226Where is my mother? Why, she is within.
2227Where should she be? How oddly thou repliest:
2228“Your love says, like an honest gentleman,
2229Where is your mother?”
2230NURSE O God’s lady dear,
2231Are you so hot? Marry, come up, I trow.
2232 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2233
2234
2235
2236
2237Is this the poultice for my aching bones?
2238Henceforward do your messages yourself.
2239JULIET
2240Here’s such a coil. Come, what says Romeo?
2241NURSE
2242Have you got leave to go to shrift today?
2243JULIET I have.
2244NURSE
2245Then hie you hence to Friar Lawrence’ cell.
2246There stays a husband to make you a wife.
2247Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks;
2248They’ll be in scarlet straight at any news.
2249Hie you to church. I must another way,
2250To fetch a ladder by the which your love
2251Must climb a bird’s nest soon when it is dark.
2252I am the drudge and toil in your delight,
2253But you shall bear the burden soon at night.
2254Go. I’ll to dinner. Hie you to the cell.
2255JULIET
2256Hie to high fortune! Honest nurse, farewell.
2257They exit.
2258
2259
2260Scene
2261Enter Friar Lawrence and Romeo.
2262
2263FRIAR LAWRENCE
2264So smile the heavens upon this holy act
2265That after-hours with sorrow chide us not.
2266ROMEO
2267Amen, amen. But come what sorrow can,
2268It cannot countervail the exchange of joy
2269That one short minute gives me in her sight.
2270Do thou but close our hands with holy words,
2271Then love-devouring death do what he dare,
2272It is enough I may but call her mine.
2273FRIAR LAWRENCE
2274These violent delights have violent ends
2275 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2276
2277
2278
2279
2280And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
2281Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey
2282Is loathsome in his own deliciousness
2283And in the taste confounds the appetite.
2284Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so.
2285Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.
2286
2287Enter Juliet.
2288
2289Here comes the lady. O, so light a foot
2290Will ne’er wear out the everlasting flint.
2291A lover may bestride the gossamers
2292That idles in the wanton summer air,
2293And yet not fall, so light is vanity.
2294JULIET
2295Good even to my ghostly confessor.
2296FRIAR LAWRENCE
2297Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both.
2298JULIET
2299As much to him, else is his thanks too much.
2300ROMEO
2301Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy
2302Be heaped like mine, and that thy skill be more
2303To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath
2304This neighbor air, and let rich music’s tongue
2305Unfold the imagined happiness that both
2306Receive in either by this dear encounter.
2307JULIET
2308Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,
2309Brags of his substance, not of ornament.
2310They are but beggars that can count their worth,
2311But my true love is grown to such excess
2312I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth.
2313FRIAR LAWRENCE
2314Come, come with me, and we will make short work,
2315For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone
2316Till Holy Church incorporate two in one.
2317They exit.
2318 ACT
2319
2320
2321Scene
2322Enter Mercutio, Benvolio, and their men.
2323
2324BENVOLIO
2325I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire.
2326The day is hot, the Capels are abroad,
2327And if we meet we shall not ’scape a brawl,
2328For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.
2329MERCUTIO Thou art like one of these fellows that, when
2330he enters the confines of a tavern, claps me his
2331sword upon the table and says “God send me no
2332need of thee” and, by the operation of the second
2333cup, draws him on the drawer when indeed there is
2334no need.
2335BENVOLIO Am I like such a fellow?
2336MERCUTIO Come, come, thou art as hot a jack in thy
2337mood as any in Italy, and as soon moved to be
2338moody, and as soon moody to be moved.
2339BENVOLIO And what to?
2340MERCUTIO Nay, an there were two such, we should
2341have none shortly, for one would kill the other.
2342Thou—why, thou wilt quarrel with a man that
2343hath a hair more or a hair less in his beard than
2344thou hast. Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking
2345nuts, having no other reason but because thou
2346hast hazel eyes. What eye but such an eye would spy
2347out such a quarrel? Thy head is as full of quarrels as
2348
2349 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2350
2351
2352
2353
2354an egg is full of meat, and yet thy head hath been
2355beaten as addle as an egg for quarreling. Thou hast
2356quarreled with a man for coughing in the street
2357because he hath wakened thy dog that hath lain
2358asleep in the sun. Didst thou not fall out with a tailor
2359for wearing his new doublet before Easter? With
2360another, for tying his new shoes with old ribbon?
2361And yet thou wilt tutor me from quarreling?
2362BENVOLIO An I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any
2363man should buy the fee simple of my life for an
2364hour and a quarter.
2365MERCUTIO The fee simple? O simple!
2366
2367Enter Tybalt, Petruchio, and others.
2368
2369BENVOLIO By my head, here comes the Capulets.
2370MERCUTIO By my heel, I care not.
2371TYBALT , to his companions
2372Follow me close, for I will speak to them.—
2373Gentlemen, good e’en. A word with one of you.
2374MERCUTIO And but one word with one of us? Couple it
2375with something. Make it a word and a blow.
2376TYBALT You shall find me apt enough to that, sir, an
2377you will give me occasion.
2378MERCUTIO Could you not take some occasion without
2379giving?
2380TYBALT Mercutio, thou consortest with Romeo.
2381MERCUTIO Consort? What, dost thou make us minstrels?
2382An thou make minstrels of us, look to hear
2383nothing but discords. Here’s my fiddlestick; here’s
2384that shall make you dance. Zounds, consort!
2385BENVOLIO
2386We talk here in the public haunt of men.
2387Either withdraw unto some private place,
2388Or reason coldly of your grievances,
2389Or else depart. Here all eyes gaze on us.
2390 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2391
2392
2393
2394
2395MERCUTIO
2396Men’s eyes were made to look, and let them gaze.
2397I will not budge for no man’s pleasure, I.
2398
2399Enter Romeo.
2400
2401TYBALT
2402Well, peace be with you, sir. Here comes my man.
2403MERCUTIO
2404But I’ll be hanged, sir, if he wear your livery.
2405Marry, go before to field, he’ll be your follower.
2406Your Worship in that sense may call him “man.”
2407TYBALT
2408Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford
2409No better term than this: thou art a villain.
2410ROMEO
2411Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee
2412Doth much excuse the appertaining rage
2413To such a greeting. Villain am I none.
2414Therefore farewell. I see thou knowest me not.
2415TYBALT
2416Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries
2417That thou hast done me. Therefore turn and draw.
2418ROMEO
2419I do protest I never injured thee
2420But love thee better than thou canst devise
2421Till thou shalt know the reason of my love.
2422And so, good Capulet, which name I tender
2423As dearly as mine own, be satisfied.
2424MERCUTIO
2425O calm, dishonorable, vile submission!
2426Alla stoccato carries it away. He draws.
2427Tybalt, you ratcatcher, will you walk?
2428TYBALT What wouldst thou have with me?
2429MERCUTIO Good king of cats, nothing but one of your
2430nine lives, that I mean to make bold withal, and, as
2431you shall use me hereafter, dry-beat the rest of the
2432 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2433
2434
2435
2436
2437eight. Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher
2438by the ears? Make haste, lest mine be about your
2439ears ere it be out.
2440TYBALT I am for you. He draws.
2441ROMEO
2442Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up.
2443MERCUTIO Come, sir, your passado. They fight.
2444ROMEO
2445Draw, Benvolio, beat down their weapons.
2446Romeo draws.
2447Gentlemen, for shame forbear this outrage!
2448Tybalt! Mercutio! The Prince expressly hath
2449Forbid this bandying in Verona streets.
2450Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio!
2451Romeo attempts to beat down their rapiers.
2452Tybalt stabs Mercutio.
2453PETRUCHIO Away, Tybalt!
2454Tybalt, Petruchio, and their followers exit.
2455MERCUTIO I am hurt.
2456A plague o’ both houses! I am sped.
2457Is he gone and hath nothing?
2458BENVOLIO What, art thou hurt?
2459MERCUTIO
2460Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch. Marry, ’tis enough.
2461Where is my page?—Go, villain, fetch a surgeon.
2462Page exits.
2463ROMEO
2464Courage, man, the hurt cannot be much.
2465MERCUTIO No, ’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as
2466a church door, but ’tis enough. ’Twill serve. Ask for
2467me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I
2468am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o’
2469both your houses! Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a
2470cat, to scratch a man to death! A braggart, a rogue, a
2471villain that fights by the book of arithmetic! Why the
2472devil came you between us? I was hurt under your
2473arm.
2474 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2475
2476
2477
2478
2479ROMEO I thought all for the best.
2480MERCUTIO
2481Help me into some house, Benvolio,
2482Or I shall faint. A plague o’ both your houses!
2483They have made worms’ meat of me.
2484I have it, and soundly, too. Your houses!
2485All but Romeo exit.
2486ROMEO
2487This gentleman, the Prince’s near ally,
2488My very friend, hath got this mortal hurt
2489In my behalf. My reputation stained
2490With Tybalt’s slander—Tybalt, that an hour
2491Hath been my cousin! O sweet Juliet,
2492Thy beauty hath made me effeminate
2493And in my temper softened valor’s steel.
2494
2495Enter Benvolio.
2496
2497BENVOLIO
2498O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio is dead.
2499That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds,
2500Which too untimely here did scorn the earth.
2501ROMEO
2502This day’s black fate on more days doth depend.
2503This but begins the woe others must end.
2504
2505Enter Tybalt.
2506
2507BENVOLIO
2508Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.
2509ROMEO
2510Alive in triumph, and Mercutio slain!
2511Away to heaven, respective lenity,
2512And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now.—
2513Now, Tybalt, take the “villain” back again
2514That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio’s soul
2515Is but a little way above our heads,
2516Staying for thine to keep him company.
2517Either thou or I, or both, must go with him.
2518 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2519
2520
2521
2522
2523TYBALT
2524Thou wretched boy that didst consort him here
2525Shalt with him hence.
2526ROMEO This shall determine that.
2527They fight. Tybalt falls.
2528BENVOLIO
2529Romeo, away, begone!
2530The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain.
2531Stand not amazed. The Prince will doom thee death
2532If thou art taken. Hence, be gone, away.
2533ROMEO
2534O, I am Fortune’s fool!
2535BENVOLIO Why dost thou stay?
2536Romeo exits.
2537
2538Enter Citizens.
2539
2540CITIZEN
2541Which way ran he that killed Mercutio?
2542Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he?
2543BENVOLIO
2544There lies that Tybalt.
2545CITIZEN , to Tybalt Up, sir, go with me.
2546I charge thee in the Prince’s name, obey.
2547
2548Enter Prince, old Montague, Capulet, their Wives and all.
2549
2550PRINCE
2551Where are the vile beginners of this fray?
2552BENVOLIO
2553O noble prince, I can discover all
2554The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl.
2555There lies the man, slain by young Romeo,
2556That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio.
2557LADY CAPULET
2558Tybalt, my cousin, O my brother’s child!
2559O prince! O cousin! Husband! O, the blood is spilled
2560Of my dear kinsman! Prince, as thou art true,
2561 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2562
2563
2564
2565
2566For blood of ours, shed blood of Montague.
2567O cousin, cousin!
2568PRINCE
2569Benvolio, who began this bloody fray?
2570BENVOLIO
2571Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo’s hand did slay—
2572Romeo, that spoke him fair, bid him bethink
2573How nice the quarrel was, and urged withal
2574Your high displeasure. All this utterèd
2575With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bowed
2576Could not take truce with the unruly spleen
2577Of Tybalt, deaf to peace, but that he tilts
2578With piercing steel at bold Mercutio’s breast,
2579Who, all as hot, turns deadly point to point
2580And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats
2581Cold death aside and with the other sends
2582It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity
2583Retorts it. Romeo he cries aloud
2584“Hold, friends! Friends, part!” and swifter than his
2585tongue
2586His agile arm beats down their fatal points,
2587And ’twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm
2588An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
2589Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled.
2590But by and by comes back to Romeo,
2591Who had but newly entertained revenge,
2592And to ’t they go like lightning, for ere I
2593Could draw to part them was stout Tybalt slain,
2594And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly.
2595This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.
2596LADY CAPULET
2597He is a kinsman to the Montague.
2598Affection makes him false; he speaks not true.
2599Some twenty of them fought in this black strife,
2600And all those twenty could but kill one life.
2601I beg for justice, which thou, prince, must give.
2602Romeo slew Tybalt; Romeo must not live.
2603 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2604
2605
2606
2607
2608PRINCE
2609Romeo slew him; he slew Mercutio.
2610Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?
2611MONTAGUE
2612Not Romeo, Prince; he was Mercutio’s friend.
2613His fault concludes but what the law should end,
2614The life of Tybalt.
2615PRINCE And for that offense
2616Immediately we do exile him hence.
2617I have an interest in your hearts’ proceeding:
2618My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a-bleeding.
2619But I’ll amerce you with so strong a fine
2620That you shall all repent the loss of mine.
2621I will be deaf to pleading and excuses.
2622Nor tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses.
2623Therefore use none. Let Romeo hence in haste,
2624Else, when he is found, that hour is his last.
2625Bear hence this body and attend our will.
2626Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.
2627They exit, the Capulet men
2628bearing off Tybalt’s body.
2629
2630
2631Scene
2632Enter Juliet alone.
2633
2634JULIET
2635Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
2636Towards Phoebus’ lodging. Such a wagoner
2637As Phaëton would whip you to the west
2638And bring in cloudy night immediately.
2639Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,
2640That runaways’ eyes may wink, and Romeo
2641Leap to these arms, untalked of and unseen.
2642Lovers can see to do their amorous rites
2643By their own beauties, or, if love be blind,
2644 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2645
2646
2647
2648
2649It best agrees with night. Come, civil night,
2650Thou sober-suited matron all in black,
2651And learn me how to lose a winning match
2652Played for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.
2653Hood my unmanned blood, bating in my cheeks,
2654With thy black mantle till strange love grow bold,
2655Think true love acted simple modesty.
2656Come, night. Come, Romeo. Come, thou day in
2657night,
2658For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
2659Whiter than new snow upon a raven’s back.
2660Come, gentle night; come, loving black-browed
2661night,
2662Give me my Romeo, and when I shall die,
2663Take him and cut him out in little stars,
2664And he will make the face of heaven so fine
2665That all the world will be in love with night
2666And pay no worship to the garish sun.
2667O, I have bought the mansion of a love
2668But not possessed it, and, though I am sold,
2669Not yet enjoyed. So tedious is this day
2670As is the night before some festival
2671To an impatient child that hath new robes
2672And may not wear them.
2673
2674Enter Nurse with cords.
2675
2676O, here comes my nurse,
2677And she brings news, and every tongue that speaks
2678But Romeo’s name speaks heavenly eloquence.—
2679Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there? The
2680cords
2681That Romeo bid thee fetch?
2682NURSE Ay, ay, the cords.
2683Dropping the rope ladder.
2684JULIET
2685Ay me, what news? Why dost thou wring thy hands?
2686 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2687
2688
2689
2690
2691NURSE
2692Ah weraday, he’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead!
2693We are undone, lady, we are undone.
2694Alack the day, he’s gone, he’s killed, he’s dead.
2695JULIET
2696Can heaven be so envious?
2697NURSE Romeo can,
2698Though heaven cannot. O Romeo, Romeo,
2699Whoever would have thought it? Romeo!
2700JULIET
2701What devil art thou that dost torment me thus?
2702This torture should be roared in dismal hell.
2703Hath Romeo slain himself? Say thou but “Ay,”
2704And that bare vowel “I” shall poison more
2705Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice.
2706I am not I if there be such an “I,”
2707Or those eyes shut that makes thee answer “Ay.”
2708If he be slain, say “Ay,” or if not, “No.”
2709Brief sounds determine my weal or woe.
2710NURSE
2711I saw the wound. I saw it with mine eyes
2712(God save the mark!) here on his manly breast—
2713A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse,
2714Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaubed in blood,
2715All in gore blood. I swoonèd at the sight.
2716JULIET
2717O break, my heart, poor bankrout, break at once!
2718To prison, eyes; ne’er look on liberty.
2719Vile earth to earth resign; end motion here,
2720And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier.
2721NURSE
2722O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had!
2723O courteous Tybalt, honest gentleman,
2724That ever I should live to see thee dead!
2725JULIET
2726What storm is this that blows so contrary?
2727 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2728
2729
2730
2731
2732Is Romeo slaughtered and is Tybalt dead?
2733My dearest cousin, and my dearer lord?
2734Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom,
2735For who is living if those two are gone?
2736NURSE
2737Tybalt is gone and Romeo banishèd.
2738Romeo that killed him—he is banishèd.
2739JULIET
2740O God, did Romeo’s hand shed Tybalt’s blood?
2741NURSE
2742It did, it did, alas the day, it did.
2743JULIET
2744O serpent heart hid with a flow’ring face!
2745Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
2746Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical!
2747Dove-feathered raven, wolvish-ravening lamb!
2748Despisèd substance of divinest show!
2749Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st,
2750A damnèd saint, an honorable villain.
2751O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell
2752When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
2753In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?
2754Was ever book containing such vile matter
2755So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell
2756In such a gorgeous palace!
2757NURSE There’s no trust,
2758No faith, no honesty in men. All perjured,
2759All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.
2760Ah, where’s my man? Give me some aqua vitae.
2761These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me
2762old.
2763Shame come to Romeo!
2764JULIET Blistered be thy tongue
2765For such a wish! He was not born to shame.
2766Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit,
2767For ’tis a throne where honor may be crowned
2768 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2769
2770
2771
2772
2773Sole monarch of the universal Earth.
2774O, what a beast was I to chide at him!
2775NURSE
2776Will you speak well of him that killed your cousin?
2777JULIET
2778Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?
2779Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy
2780name
2781When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it?
2782But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?
2783That villain cousin would have killed my husband.
2784Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring;
2785Your tributary drops belong to woe,
2786Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy.
2787My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain,
2788And Tybalt’s dead, that would have slain my
2789husband.
2790All this is comfort. Wherefore weep I then?
2791Some word there was, worser than Tybalt’s death,
2792That murdered me. I would forget it fain,
2793But, O, it presses to my memory
2794Like damnèd guilty deeds to sinners’ minds:
2795“Tybalt is dead and Romeo banishèd.”
2796That “banishèd,” that one word “banishèd,”
2797Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt’s death
2798Was woe enough if it had ended there;
2799Or, if sour woe delights in fellowship
2800And needly will be ranked with other griefs,
2801Why followed not, when she said “Tybalt’s dead,”
2802“Thy father” or “thy mother,” nay, or both,
2803Which modern lamentation might have moved?
2804But with a rearward following Tybalt’s death,
2805“Romeo is banishèd.” To speak that word
2806Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,
2807All slain, all dead. “Romeo is banishèd.”
2808There is no end, no limit, measure, bound,
2809 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2810
2811
2812
2813
2814In that word’s death. No words can that woe sound.
2815Where is my father and my mother, nurse?
2816NURSE
2817Weeping and wailing over Tybalt’s corse.
2818Will you go to them? I will bring you thither.
2819JULIET
2820Wash they his wounds with tears? Mine shall be
2821spent,
2822When theirs are dry, for Romeo’s banishment.—
2823Take up those cords.
2824The Nurse picks up the rope ladder.
2825Poor ropes, you are beguiled,
2826Both you and I, for Romeo is exiled.
2827He made you for a highway to my bed,
2828But I, a maid, die maiden-widowèd.
2829Come, cords—come, nurse. I’ll to my wedding bed,
2830And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!
2831NURSE
2832Hie to your chamber. I’ll find Romeo
2833To comfort you. I wot well where he is.
2834Hark you, your Romeo will be here at night.
2835I’ll to him. He is hid at Lawrence’ cell.
2836JULIET
2837O, find him! Giving the Nurse a ring.
2838Give this ring to my true knight
2839And bid him come to take his last farewell.
2840They exit.
2841
2842
2843Scene
2844Enter Friar Lawrence.
2845
2846FRIAR LAWRENCE
2847Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man.
2848Affliction is enamored of thy parts,
2849And thou art wedded to calamity.
2850 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2851
2852
2853
2854
2855Enter Romeo.
2856
2857ROMEO
2858Father, what news? What is the Prince’s doom?
2859What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand
2860That I yet know not?
2861FRIAR LAWRENCE Too familiar
2862Is my dear son with such sour company.
2863I bring thee tidings of the Prince’s doom.
2864ROMEO
2865What less than doomsday is the Prince’s doom?
2866FRIAR LAWRENCE
2867A gentler judgment vanished from his lips:
2868Not body’s death, but body’s banishment.
2869ROMEO
2870Ha, banishment? Be merciful, say “death,”
2871For exile hath more terror in his look,
2872Much more than death. Do not say “banishment.”
2873FRIAR LAWRENCE
2874Here from Verona art thou banishèd.
2875Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.
2876ROMEO
2877There is no world without Verona walls
2878But purgatory, torture, hell itself.
2879Hence “banishèd” is “banished from the world,”
2880And world’s exile is death. Then “banishèd”
2881Is death mistermed. Calling death “banishèd,”
2882Thou cutt’st my head off with a golden ax
2883And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.
2884FRIAR LAWRENCE
2885O deadly sin, O rude unthankfulness!
2886Thy fault our law calls death, but the kind prince,
2887Taking thy part, hath rushed aside the law
2888And turned that black word “death” to
2889“banishment.”
2890This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not.
2891 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2892
2893
2894
2895
2896ROMEO
2897’Tis torture and not mercy. Heaven is here
2898Where Juliet lives, and every cat and dog
2899And little mouse, every unworthy thing,
2900Live here in heaven and may look on her,
2901But Romeo may not. More validity,
2902More honorable state, more courtship lives
2903In carrion flies than Romeo. They may seize
2904On the white wonder of dear Juliet’s hand
2905And steal immortal blessing from her lips,
2906Who even in pure and vestal modesty
2907Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin;
2908But Romeo may not; he is banishèd.
2909Flies may do this, but I from this must fly.
2910They are free men, but I am banishèd.
2911And sayest thou yet that exile is not death?
2912Hadst thou no poison mixed, no sharp-ground
2913knife,
2914No sudden mean of death, though ne’er so mean,
2915But “banishèd” to kill me? “Banishèd”?
2916O friar, the damnèd use that word in hell.
2917Howling attends it. How hast thou the heart,
2918Being a divine, a ghostly confessor,
2919A sin absolver, and my friend professed,
2920To mangle me with that word “banishèd”?
2921FRIAR LAWRENCE
2922Thou fond mad man, hear me a little speak.
2923ROMEO
2924O, thou wilt speak again of banishment.
2925FRIAR LAWRENCE
2926I’ll give thee armor to keep off that word,
2927Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy,
2928To comfort thee, though thou art banishèd.
2929ROMEO
2930Yet “banishèd”? Hang up philosophy.
2931Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
2932 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2933
2934
2935
2936
2937Displant a town, reverse a prince’s doom,
2938It helps not, it prevails not. Talk no more.
2939FRIAR LAWRENCE
2940O, then I see that madmen have no ears.
2941ROMEO
2942How should they when that wise men have no eyes?
2943FRIAR LAWRENCE
2944Let me dispute with thee of thy estate.
2945ROMEO
2946Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel.
2947Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love,
2948An hour but married, Tybalt murderèd,
2949Doting like me, and like me banishèd,
2950Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy
2951hair
2952And fall upon the ground as I do now,
2953Romeo throws himself down.
2954Taking the measure of an unmade grave.
2955Knock within.
2956FRIAR LAWRENCE
2957Arise. One knocks. Good Romeo, hide thyself.
2958ROMEO
2959Not I, unless the breath of heartsick groans,
2960Mistlike, enfold me from the search of eyes.
2961Knock.
2962FRIAR LAWRENCE
2963Hark, how they knock!—Who’s there?—Romeo,
2964arise.
2965Thou wilt be taken.—Stay awhile.—Stand up.
2966Knock.
2967Run to my study.—By and by.—God’s will,
2968What simpleness is this?—I come, I come.
2969Knock.
2970Who knocks so hard? Whence come you? What’s
2971your will?
2972 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
2973
2974
2975
2976
2977NURSE, within
2978Let me come in, and you shall know my errand.
2979I come from Lady Juliet.
2980FRIAR LAWRENCE, admitting the Nurse
2981Welcome, then.
2982
2983Enter Nurse.
2984
2985NURSE
2986O holy friar, O, tell me, holy friar,
2987Where’s my lady’s lord? Where’s Romeo?
2988FRIAR LAWRENCE
2989There on the ground, with his own tears made
2990drunk.
2991NURSE
2992O, he is even in my mistress’ case,
2993Just in her case. O woeful sympathy!
2994Piteous predicament! Even so lies she,
2995Blubb’ring and weeping, weeping and blubb’ring.—
2996Stand up, stand up. Stand an you be a man.
2997For Juliet’s sake, for her sake, rise and stand.
2998Why should you fall into so deep an O?
2999ROMEO Nurse.
3000NURSE
3001Ah sir, ah sir, death’s the end of all.
3002ROMEO, rising up
3003Spakest thou of Juliet? How is it with her?
3004Doth not she think me an old murderer,
3005Now I have stained the childhood of our joy
3006With blood removed but little from her own?
3007Where is she? And how doth she? And what says
3008My concealed lady to our canceled love?
3009NURSE
3010O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps,
3011And now falls on her bed, and then starts up,
3012And “Tybalt” calls, and then on Romeo cries,
3013And then down falls again.
3014 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3015
3016
3017
3018
3019ROMEO As if that name,
3020Shot from the deadly level of a gun,
3021Did murder her, as that name’s cursèd hand
3022Murdered her kinsman.—O, tell me, friar, tell me,
3023In what vile part of this anatomy
3024Doth my name lodge? Tell me, that I may sack
3025The hateful mansion. He draws his dagger.
3026FRIAR LAWRENCE Hold thy desperate hand!
3027Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art.
3028Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote
3029The unreasonable fury of a beast.
3030Unseemly woman in a seeming man,
3031And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both!
3032Thou hast amazed me. By my holy order,
3033I thought thy disposition better tempered.
3034Hast thou slain Tybalt? Wilt thou slay thyself,
3035And slay thy lady that in thy life lives,
3036By doing damnèd hate upon thyself?
3037Why railest thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth,
3038Since birth and heaven and earth all three do meet
3039In thee at once, which thou at once wouldst lose?
3040Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit,
3041Which, like a usurer, abound’st in all
3042And usest none in that true use indeed
3043Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit.
3044Thy noble shape is but a form of wax,
3045Digressing from the valor of a man;
3046Thy dear love sworn but hollow perjury,
3047Killing that love which thou hast vowed to cherish;
3048Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,
3049Misshapen in the conduct of them both,
3050Like powder in a skilless soldier’s flask,
3051Is set afire by thine own ignorance,
3052And thou dismembered with thine own defense.
3053What, rouse thee, man! Thy Juliet is alive,
3054For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead:
3055 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3056
3057
3058
3059
3060There art thou happy. Tybalt would kill thee,
3061But thou slewest Tybalt: there art thou happy.
3062The law that threatened death becomes thy friend
3063And turns it to exile: there art thou happy.
3064A pack of blessings light upon thy back;
3065Happiness courts thee in her best array;
3066But, like a misbehaved and sullen wench,
3067Thou pouts upon thy fortune and thy love.
3068Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.
3069Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed.
3070Ascend her chamber. Hence and comfort her.
3071But look thou stay not till the watch be set,
3072For then thou canst not pass to Mantua,
3073Where thou shalt live till we can find a time
3074To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends,
3075Beg pardon of the Prince, and call thee back
3076With twenty hundred thousand times more joy
3077Than thou went’st forth in lamentation.—
3078Go before, nurse. Commend me to thy lady,
3079And bid her hasten all the house to bed,
3080Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto.
3081Romeo is coming.
3082NURSE
3083O Lord, I could have stayed here all the night
3084To hear good counsel. O, what learning is!—
3085My lord, I’ll tell my lady you will come.
3086ROMEO
3087Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide.
3088NURSE
3089Here, sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir.
3090Nurse gives Romeo a ring.
3091Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late.
3092She exits.
3093ROMEO
3094How well my comfort is revived by this!
3095 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3096
3097
3098
3099
3100FRIAR LAWRENCE
3101Go hence, good night—and here stands all your
3102state:
3103Either be gone before the watch be set
3104Or by the break of day disguised from hence.
3105Sojourn in Mantua. I’ll find out your man,
3106And he shall signify from time to time
3107Every good hap to you that chances here.
3108Give me thy hand. ’Tis late. Farewell. Good night.
3109ROMEO
3110But that a joy past joy calls out on me,
3111It were a grief so brief to part with thee.
3112Farewell.
3113They exit.
3114
3115
3116Scene
3117Enter old Capulet, his Wife, and Paris.
3118
3119CAPULET
3120Things have fallen out, sir, so unluckily
3121That we have had no time to move our daughter.
3122Look you, she loved her kinsman Tybalt dearly,
3123And so did I. Well, we were born to die.
3124’Tis very late. She’ll not come down tonight.
3125I promise you, but for your company,
3126I would have been abed an hour ago.
3127PARIS
3128These times of woe afford no times to woo.—
3129Madam, good night. Commend me to your
3130daughter.
3131LADY CAPULET
3132I will, and know her mind early tomorrow.
3133Tonight she’s mewed up to her heaviness.
3134CAPULET
3135Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender
3136Of my child’s love. I think she will be ruled
3137 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3138
3139
3140
3141
3142In all respects by me. Nay, more, I doubt it not.—
3143Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed.
3144Acquaint her here of my son Paris’ love,
3145And bid her—mark you me?—on Wednesday
3146next—
3147But soft, what day is this?
3148PARIS Monday, my lord.
3149CAPULET
3150Monday, ha ha! Well, Wednesday is too soon.
3151O’ Thursday let it be.—O’ Thursday, tell her,
3152She shall be married to this noble earl.—
3153Will you be ready? Do you like this haste?
3154We’ll keep no great ado: a friend or two.
3155For hark you, Tybalt being slain so late,
3156It may be thought we held him carelessly,
3157Being our kinsman, if we revel much.
3158Therefore we’ll have some half a dozen friends,
3159And there an end. But what say you to Thursday?
3160PARIS
3161My lord, I would that Thursday were tomorrow.
3162CAPULET
3163Well, get you gone. O’ Thursday be it, then.
3164To Lady Capulet. Go you to Juliet ere you go to bed.
3165Prepare her, wife, against this wedding day.—
3166Farewell, my lord.—Light to my chamber, ho!—
3167Afore me, it is so very late that we
3168May call it early by and by.—Good night.
3169They exit.
3170
3171
3172Scene
3173Enter Romeo and Juliet aloft.
3174
3175JULIET
3176Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day.
3177It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
3178That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear.
3179 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3180
3181
3182
3183
3184Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate tree.
3185Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.
3186ROMEO
3187It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
3188No nightingale. Look, love, what envious streaks
3189Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east.
3190Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day
3191Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain-tops.
3192I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
3193JULIET
3194Yond light is not daylight, I know it, I.
3195It is some meteor that the sun exhaled
3196To be to thee this night a torchbearer
3197And light thee on thy way to Mantua.
3198Therefore stay yet. Thou need’st not to be gone.
3199ROMEO
3200Let me be ta’en; let me be put to death.
3201I am content, so thou wilt have it so.
3202I’ll say yon gray is not the morning’s eye;
3203’Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia’s brow.
3204Nor that is not the lark whose notes do beat
3205The vaulty heaven so high above our heads.
3206I have more care to stay than will to go.
3207Come death and welcome. Juliet wills it so.
3208How is ’t, my soul? Let’s talk. It is not day.
3209JULIET
3210It is, it is. Hie hence, begone, away!
3211It is the lark that sings so out of tune,
3212Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.
3213Some say the lark makes sweet division.
3214This doth not so, for she divideth us.
3215Some say the lark and loathèd toad changed eyes.
3216O, now I would they had changed voices too,
3217Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,
3218Hunting thee hence with hunt’s-up to the day.
3219O, now begone. More light and light it grows.
3220 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3221
3222
3223
3224
3225ROMEO
3226More light and light, more dark and dark our woes.
3227
3228Enter Nurse.
3229
3230NURSE Madam.
3231JULIET Nurse?
3232NURSE
3233Your lady mother is coming to your chamber.
3234The day is broke; be wary; look about. She exits.
3235JULIET
3236Then, window, let day in, and let life out.
3237ROMEO
3238Farewell, farewell. One kiss and I’ll descend.
3239They kiss, and Romeo descends.
3240JULIET
3241Art thou gone so? Love, lord, ay husband, friend!
3242I must hear from thee every day in the hour,
3243For in a minute there are many days.
3244O, by this count I shall be much in years
3245Ere I again behold my Romeo.
3246ROMEO Farewell.
3247I will omit no opportunity
3248That may convey my greetings, love, to thee.
3249JULIET
3250O, think’st thou we shall ever meet again?
3251ROMEO
3252I doubt it not; and all these woes shall serve
3253For sweet discourses in our times to come.
3254JULIET
3255O God, I have an ill-divining soul!
3256Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low,
3257As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.
3258Either my eyesight fails or thou lookest pale.
3259ROMEO
3260And trust me, love, in my eye so do you.
3261Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu, adieu. He exits.
3262 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3263
3264
3265
3266
3267JULIET
3268O Fortune, Fortune, all men call thee fickle.
3269If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him
3270That is renowned for faith? Be fickle, Fortune,
3271For then I hope thou wilt not keep him long,
3272But send him back.
3273
3274Enter Lady Capulet.
3275
3276LADY CAPULET Ho, daughter, are you up?
3277JULIET
3278Who is ’t that calls? It is my lady mother.
3279Is she not down so late or up so early?
3280What unaccustomed cause procures her hither?
3281Juliet descends.
3282LADY CAPULET
3283Why, how now, Juliet?
3284JULIET Madam, I am not well.
3285LADY CAPULET
3286Evermore weeping for your cousin’s death?
3287What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears?
3288An if thou couldst, thou couldst not make him live.
3289Therefore have done. Some grief shows much of
3290love,
3291But much of grief shows still some want of wit.
3292JULIET
3293Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss.
3294LADY CAPULET
3295So shall you feel the loss, but not the friend
3296Which you weep for.
3297JULIET Feeling so the loss,
3298I cannot choose but ever weep the friend.
3299LADY CAPULET
3300Well, girl, thou weep’st not so much for his death
3301As that the villain lives which slaughtered him.
3302JULIET
3303What villain, madam?
3304 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3305
3306
3307
3308
3309LADY CAPULET That same villain, Romeo.
3310JULIET , aside
3311Villain and he be many miles asunder.—
3312God pardon him. I do with all my heart,
3313And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart.
3314LADY CAPULET
3315That is because the traitor murderer lives.
3316JULIET
3317Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands.
3318Would none but I might venge my cousin’s death!
3319LADY CAPULET
3320We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not.
3321Then weep no more. I’ll send to one in Mantua,
3322Where that same banished runagate doth live,
3323Shall give him such an unaccustomed dram
3324That he shall soon keep Tybalt company.
3325And then, I hope, thou wilt be satisfied.
3326JULIET
3327Indeed, I never shall be satisfied
3328With Romeo till I behold him—dead—
3329Is my poor heart, so for a kinsman vexed.
3330Madam, if you could find out but a man
3331To bear a poison, I would temper it,
3332That Romeo should, upon receipt thereof,
3333Soon sleep in quiet. O, how my heart abhors
3334To hear him named and cannot come to him
3335To wreak the love I bore my cousin
3336Upon his body that hath slaughtered him.
3337LADY CAPULET
3338Find thou the means, and I’ll find such a man.
3339But now I’ll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.
3340JULIET
3341And joy comes well in such a needy time.
3342What are they, beseech your Ladyship?
3343LADY CAPULET
3344Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child,
3345 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3346
3347
3348
3349
3350One who, to put thee from thy heaviness,
3351Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy
3352That thou expects not, nor I looked not for.
3353JULIET
3354Madam, in happy time! What day is that?
3355LADY CAPULET
3356Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn
3357The gallant, young, and noble gentleman,
3358The County Paris, at Saint Peter’s Church
3359Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.
3360JULIET
3361Now, by Saint Peter’s Church, and Peter too,
3362He shall not make me there a joyful bride!
3363I wonder at this haste, that I must wed
3364Ere he that should be husband comes to woo.
3365I pray you, tell my lord and father, madam,
3366I will not marry yet, and when I do I swear
3367It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,
3368Rather than Paris. These are news indeed!
3369LADY CAPULET
3370Here comes your father. Tell him so yourself,
3371And see how he will take it at your hands.
3372
3373Enter Capulet and Nurse.
3374
3375CAPULET
3376When the sun sets, the earth doth drizzle dew,
3377But for the sunset of my brother’s son
3378It rains downright.
3379How now, a conduit, girl? What, still in tears?
3380Evermore show’ring? In one little body
3381Thou counterfeits a bark, a sea, a wind.
3382For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
3383Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is,
3384Sailing in this salt flood; the winds thy sighs,
3385Who, raging with thy tears and they with them,
3386Without a sudden calm, will overset
3387 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3388
3389
3390
3391
3392Thy tempest-tossèd body.—How now, wife?
3393Have you delivered to her our decree?
3394LADY CAPULET
3395Ay, sir, but she will none, she gives you thanks.
3396I would the fool were married to her grave.
3397CAPULET
3398Soft, take me with you, take me with you, wife.
3399How, will she none? Doth she not give us thanks?
3400Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blessed,
3401Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
3402So worthy a gentleman to be her bride?
3403JULIET
3404Not proud you have, but thankful that you have.
3405Proud can I never be of what I hate,
3406But thankful even for hate that is meant love.
3407CAPULET
3408How, how, how, how? Chopped logic? What is this?
3409“Proud,” and “I thank you,” and “I thank you not,”
3410And yet “not proud”? Mistress minion you,
3411Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds,
3412But fettle your fine joints ’gainst Thursday next
3413To go with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church,
3414Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
3415Out, you green-sickness carrion! Out, you baggage!
3416You tallow face!
3417LADY CAPULET Fie, fie, what, are you mad?
3418JULIET , kneeling
3419Good father, I beseech you on my knees,
3420Hear me with patience but to speak a word.
3421CAPULET
3422Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch!
3423I tell thee what: get thee to church o’ Thursday,
3424Or never after look me in the face.
3425Speak not; reply not; do not answer me.
3426My fingers itch.—Wife, we scarce thought us
3427blessed
3428 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3429
3430
3431
3432
3433That God had lent us but this only child,
3434But now I see this one is one too much,
3435And that we have a curse in having her.
3436Out on her, hilding.
3437NURSE God in heaven bless her!
3438You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so.
3439CAPULET
3440And why, my Lady Wisdom? Hold your tongue.
3441Good Prudence, smatter with your gossips, go.
3442NURSE
3443I speak no treason.
3444CAPULET O, God ’i’ g’ eden!
3445NURSE
3446May not one speak?
3447CAPULET Peace, you mumbling fool!
3448Utter your gravity o’er a gossip’s bowl,
3449For here we need it not.
3450LADY CAPULET You are too hot.
3451CAPULET God’s bread, it makes me mad.
3452Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play,
3453Alone, in company, still my care hath been
3454To have her matched. And having now provided
3455A gentleman of noble parentage,
3456Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly ligned,
3457Stuffed, as they say, with honorable parts,
3458Proportioned as one’s thought would wish a man—
3459And then to have a wretched puling fool,
3460A whining mammet, in her fortune’s tender,
3461To answer “I’ll not wed. I cannot love.
3462I am too young. I pray you, pardon me.”
3463But, an you will not wed, I’ll pardon you!
3464Graze where you will, you shall not house with me.
3465Look to ’t; think on ’t. I do not use to jest.
3466Thursday is near. Lay hand on heart; advise.
3467An you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend.
3468 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3469
3470
3471
3472
3473An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets,
3474For, by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee,
3475Nor what is mine shall never do thee good.
3476Trust to ’t; bethink you. I’ll not be forsworn.
3477He exits.
3478JULIET
3479Is there no pity sitting in the clouds
3480That sees into the bottom of my grief?—
3481O sweet my mother, cast me not away.
3482Delay this marriage for a month, a week,
3483Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed
3484In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.
3485LADY CAPULET
3486Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word.
3487Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.
3488She exits.
3489JULIET , rising
3490O God! O nurse, how shall this be prevented?
3491My husband is on Earth, my faith in heaven.
3492How shall that faith return again to Earth
3493Unless that husband send it me from heaven
3494By leaving Earth? Comfort me; counsel me.—
3495Alack, alack, that heaven should practice stratagems
3496Upon so soft a subject as myself.—
3497What sayst thou? Hast thou not a word of joy?
3498Some comfort, nurse.
3499NURSE Faith, here it is.
3500Romeo is banished, and all the world to nothing
3501That he dares ne’er come back to challenge you,
3502Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth.
3503Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
3504I think it best you married with the County.
3505O, he’s a lovely gentleman!
3506Romeo’s a dishclout to him. An eagle, madam,
3507Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye
3508As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,
3509 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3510
3511
3512
3513
3514I think you are happy in this second match,
3515For it excels your first, or, if it did not,
3516Your first is dead, or ’twere as good he were
3517As living here and you no use of him.
3518JULIET
3519Speak’st thou from thy heart?
3520NURSE
3521And from my soul too, else beshrew them both.
3522JULIET Amen.
3523NURSE What?
3524JULIET
3525Well, thou hast comforted me marvelous much.
3526Go in and tell my lady I am gone,
3527Having displeased my father, to Lawrence’ cell
3528To make confession and to be absolved.
3529NURSE
3530Marry, I will; and this is wisely done. She exits.
3531JULIET
3532Ancient damnation, O most wicked fiend!
3533Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn
3534Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue
3535Which she hath praised him with above compare
3536So many thousand times? Go, counselor.
3537Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.
3538I’ll to the Friar to know his remedy.
3539If all else fail, myself have power to die.
3540She exits.
3541 ACT
3542
3543
3544Scene
3545Enter Friar Lawrence and County Paris.
3546
3547FRIAR LAWRENCE
3548On Thursday, sir? The time is very short.
3549PARIS
3550My father Capulet will have it so,
3551And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.
3552FRIAR LAWRENCE
3553You say you do not know the lady’s mind?
3554Uneven is the course. I like it not.
3555PARIS
3556Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt’s death,
3557And therefore have I little talk of love,
3558For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.
3559Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous
3560That she do give her sorrow so much sway,
3561And in his wisdom hastes our marriage
3562To stop the inundation of her tears,
3563Which, too much minded by herself alone,
3564May be put from her by society.
3565Now do you know the reason of this haste.
3566FRIAR LAWRENCE, aside
3567I would I knew not why it should be slowed.—
3568Look, sir, here comes the lady toward my cell.
3569
3570Enter Juliet.
3571
3572
3573 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3574
3575
3576
3577
3578PARIS
3579Happily met, my lady and my wife.
3580JULIET
3581That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.
3582PARIS
3583That “may be” must be, love, on Thursday next.
3584JULIET
3585What must be shall be.
3586FRIAR LAWRENCE That’s a certain text.
3587PARIS
3588Come you to make confession to this father?
3589JULIET
3590To answer that, I should confess to you.
3591PARIS
3592Do not deny to him that you love me.
3593JULIET
3594I will confess to you that I love him.
3595PARIS
3596So will you, I am sure, that you love me.
3597JULIET
3598If I do so, it will be of more price
3599Being spoke behind your back than to your face.
3600PARIS
3601Poor soul, thy face is much abused with tears.
3602JULIET
3603The tears have got small victory by that,
3604For it was bad enough before their spite.
3605PARIS
3606Thou wrong’st it more than tears with that report.
3607JULIET
3608That is no slander, sir, which is a truth,
3609And what I spake, I spake it to my face.
3610PARIS
3611Thy face is mine, and thou hast slandered it.
3612JULIET
3613It may be so, for it is not mine own.—
3614 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3615
3616
3617
3618
3619Are you at leisure, holy father, now,
3620Or shall I come to you at evening Mass?
3621FRIAR LAWRENCE
3622My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.—
3623My lord, we must entreat the time alone.
3624PARIS
3625God shield I should disturb devotion!—
3626Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse you.
3627Till then, adieu, and keep this holy kiss. He exits.
3628JULIET
3629O, shut the door, and when thou hast done so,
3630Come weep with me, past hope, past care, past help.
3631FRIAR LAWRENCE
3632O Juliet, I already know thy grief.
3633It strains me past the compass of my wits.
3634I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,
3635On Thursday next be married to this County.
3636JULIET
3637Tell me not, friar, that thou hearest of this,
3638Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it.
3639If in thy wisdom thou canst give no help,
3640Do thou but call my resolution wise,
3641And with this knife I’ll help it presently.
3642She shows him her knife.
3643God joined my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands;
3644And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo’s sealed,
3645Shall be the label to another deed,
3646Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
3647Turn to another, this shall slay them both.
3648Therefore out of thy long-experienced time
3649Give me some present counsel, or, behold,
3650’Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
3651Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that
3652Which the commission of thy years and art
3653Could to no issue of true honor bring.
3654Be not so long to speak. I long to die
3655If what thou speak’st speak not of remedy.
3656 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3657
3658
3659
3660
3661FRIAR LAWRENCE
3662Hold, daughter, I do spy a kind of hope,
3663Which craves as desperate an execution
3664As that is desperate which we would prevent.
3665If, rather than to marry County Paris,
3666Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself,
3667Then is it likely thou wilt undertake
3668A thing like death to chide away this shame,
3669That cop’st with death himself to ’scape from it;
3670And if thou darest, I’ll give thee remedy.
3671JULIET
3672O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
3673From off the battlements of any tower,
3674Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk
3675Where serpents are. Chain me with roaring bears,
3676Or hide me nightly in a charnel house,
3677O’ercovered quite with dead men’s rattling bones,
3678With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls.
3679Or bid me go into a new-made grave
3680And hide me with a dead man in his shroud
3681(Things that to hear them told have made me
3682tremble),
3683And I will do it without fear or doubt,
3684To live an unstained wife to my sweet love.
3685FRIAR LAWRENCE
3686Hold, then. Go home; be merry; give consent
3687To marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow.
3688Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone;
3689Let not the Nurse lie with thee in thy chamber.
3690Holding out a vial.
3691Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
3692And this distilling liquor drink thou off;
3693When presently through all thy veins shall run
3694A cold and drowsy humor; for no pulse
3695Shall keep his native progress, but surcease.
3696No warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest.
3697 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3698
3699
3700
3701
3702The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
3703To paly ashes, thy eyes’ windows fall
3704Like death when he shuts up the day of life.
3705Each part, deprived of supple government,
3706Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death,
3707And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk death
3708Thou shalt continue two and forty hours
3709And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
3710Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes
3711To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead.
3712Then, as the manner of our country is,
3713In thy best robes uncovered on the bier
3714Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault
3715Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
3716In the meantime, against thou shalt awake,
3717Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift,
3718And hither shall he come, and he and I
3719Will watch thy waking, and that very night
3720Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
3721And this shall free thee from this present shame,
3722If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear
3723Abate thy valor in the acting it.
3724JULIET
3725Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear!
3726FRIAR LAWRENCE, giving Juliet the vial
3727Hold, get you gone. Be strong and prosperous
3728In this resolve. I’ll send a friar with speed
3729To Mantua with my letters to thy lord.
3730JULIET
3731Love give me strength, and strength shall help
3732afford.
3733Farewell, dear father.
3734They exit in different directions.
3735 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3736
3737
3738
3739
3740Scene
3741Enter Father Capulet, Mother, Nurse, and Servingmen,
3742two or three.
3743
3744CAPULET
3745So many guests invite as here are writ.
3746One or two of the Servingmen exit
3747with Capulet’s list.
3748Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks.
3749SERVINGMAN You shall have none ill, sir, for I’ll try if
3750they can lick their fingers.
3751CAPULET How canst thou try them so?
3752SERVINGMAN Marry, sir, ’tis an ill cook that cannot lick
3753his own fingers. Therefore he that cannot lick his
3754fingers goes not with me.
3755CAPULET Go, begone. Servingman exits.
3756We shall be much unfurnished for this time.—
3757What, is my daughter gone to Friar Lawrence?
3758NURSE Ay, forsooth.
3759CAPULET
3760Well, he may chance to do some good on her.
3761A peevish self-willed harlotry it is.
3762
3763Enter Juliet.
3764
3765NURSE
3766See where she comes from shrift with merry look.
3767CAPULET
3768How now, my headstrong, where have you been
3769gadding?
3770JULIET
3771Where I have learned me to repent the sin
3772Of disobedient opposition
3773To you and your behests, and am enjoined
3774By holy Lawrence to fall prostrate here Kneeling.
3775To beg your pardon. Pardon, I beseech you.
3776Henceforward I am ever ruled by you.
3777 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3778
3779
3780
3781
3782CAPULET
3783Send for the County. Go tell him of this.
3784I’ll have this knot knit up tomorrow morning.
3785JULIET
3786I met the youthful lord at Lawrence’ cell
3787And gave him what becomèd love I might,
3788Not stepping o’er the bounds of modesty.
3789CAPULET
3790Why, I am glad on ’t. This is well. Stand up.
3791Juliet rises.
3792This is as ’t should be.—Let me see the County.
3793Ay, marry, go, I say, and fetch him hither.—
3794Now, afore God, this reverend holy friar,
3795All our whole city is much bound to him.
3796JULIET
3797Nurse, will you go with me into my closet
3798To help me sort such needful ornaments
3799As you think fit to furnish me tomorrow?
3800LADY CAPULET
3801No, not till Thursday. There is time enough.
3802CAPULET
3803Go, nurse. Go with her. We’ll to church tomorrow.
3804Juliet and the Nurse exit.
3805LADY CAPULET
3806We shall be short in our provision.
3807’Tis now near night.
3808CAPULET Tush, I will stir about,
3809And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, wife.
3810Go thou to Juliet. Help to deck up her.
3811I’ll not to bed tonight. Let me alone.
3812I’ll play the housewife for this once.—What ho!—
3813They are all forth. Well, I will walk myself
3814To County Paris, to prepare up him
3815Against tomorrow. My heart is wondrous light
3816Since this same wayward girl is so reclaimed.
3817They exit.
3818 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3819
3820
3821
3822
3823Scene
3824Enter Juliet and Nurse.
3825
3826JULIET
3827Ay, those attires are best. But, gentle nurse,
3828I pray thee leave me to myself tonight,
3829For I have need of many orisons
3830To move the heavens to smile upon my state,
3831Which, well thou knowest, is cross and full of sin.
3832
3833Enter Lady Capulet.
3834
3835LADY CAPULET
3836What, are you busy, ho? Need you my help?
3837JULIET
3838No, madam, we have culled such necessaries
3839As are behooveful for our state tomorrow.
3840So please you, let me now be left alone,
3841And let the Nurse this night sit up with you,
3842For I am sure you have your hands full all
3843In this so sudden business.
3844LADY CAPULET Good night.
3845Get thee to bed and rest, for thou hast need.
3846Lady Capulet and the Nurse exit.
3847JULIET
3848Farewell.—God knows when we shall meet again.
3849I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins
3850That almost freezes up the heat of life.
3851I’ll call them back again to comfort me.—
3852Nurse!—What should she do here?
3853My dismal scene I needs must act alone.
3854Come, vial. She takes out the vial.
3855What if this mixture do not work at all?
3856Shall I be married then tomorrow morning?
3857She takes out her knife
3858and puts it down beside her.
3859No, no, this shall forbid it. Lie thou there.
3860What if it be a poison which the Friar
3861 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3862
3863
3864
3865
3866Subtly hath ministered to have me dead,
3867Lest in this marriage he should be dishonored
3868Because he married me before to Romeo?
3869I fear it is. And yet methinks it should not,
3870For he hath still been tried a holy man.
3871How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
3872I wake before the time that Romeo
3873Come to redeem me? There’s a fearful point.
3874Shall I not then be stifled in the vault,
3875To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,
3876And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?
3877Or, if I live, is it not very like
3878The horrible conceit of death and night,
3879Together with the terror of the place—
3880As in a vault, an ancient receptacle
3881Where for this many hundred years the bones
3882Of all my buried ancestors are packed;
3883Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
3884Lies fest’ring in his shroud; where, as they say,
3885At some hours in the night spirits resort—
3886Alack, alack, is it not like that I,
3887So early waking, what with loathsome smells,
3888And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth,
3889That living mortals, hearing them, run mad—
3890O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,
3891Environèd with all these hideous fears,
3892And madly play with my forefathers’ joints,
3893And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud,
3894And, in this rage, with some great kinsman’s bone,
3895As with a club, dash out my desp’rate brains?
3896O look, methinks I see my cousin’s ghost
3897Seeking out Romeo that did spit his body
3898Upon a rapier’s point! Stay, Tybalt, stay!
3899Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here’s drink. I drink to
3900thee. She drinks and falls upon her bed
3901within the curtains.
3902 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3903
3904
3905
3906
3907Scene
3908Enter Lady Capulet and Nurse.
3909
3910LADY CAPULET
3911Hold, take these keys, and fetch more spices, nurse.
3912NURSE
3913They call for dates and quinces in the pastry.
3914
3915Enter old Capulet.
3916
3917CAPULET
3918Come, stir, stir, stir! The second cock hath crowed.
3919The curfew bell hath rung. ’Tis three o’clock.—
3920Look to the baked meats, good Angelica.
3921Spare not for cost.
3922NURSE Go, you cot-quean, go,
3923Get you to bed. Faith, you’ll be sick tomorrow
3924For this night’s watching.
3925CAPULET
3926No, not a whit. What, I have watched ere now
3927All night for lesser cause, and ne’er been sick.
3928LADY CAPULET
3929Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time,
3930But I will watch you from such watching now.
3931Lady Capulet and Nurse exit.
3932CAPULET
3933A jealous hood, a jealous hood!
3934
3935Enter three or four Servingmen with spits and logs
3936and baskets.
3937
3938Now fellow,
3939What is there?
3940FIRST SERVINGMAN
3941Things for the cook, sir, but I know not what.
3942CAPULET
3943Make haste, make haste. First Servingman exits.
3944Sirrah, fetch drier logs.
3945Call Peter. He will show thee where they are.
3946 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3947
3948
3949
3950
3951SECOND SERVINGMAN
3952I have a head, sir, that will find out logs
3953And never trouble Peter for the matter.
3954CAPULET
3955Mass, and well said. A merry whoreson, ha!
3956Thou shalt be loggerhead.
3957Second Servingman exits.
3958Good faith, ’tis day.
3959The County will be here with music straight,
3960Play music.
3961For so he said he would. I hear him near.—
3962Nurse!—Wife! What ho!—What, nurse, I say!
3963
3964Enter Nurse.
3965
3966Go waken Juliet. Go and trim her up.
3967I’ll go and chat with Paris. Hie, make haste,
3968Make haste. The bridegroom he is come already.
3969Make haste, I say.
3970He exits.
3971
3972
3973Scene
3974
3975NURSE, approaching the bed
3976Mistress! What, mistress! Juliet!—Fast, I warrant
3977her, she—
3978Why, lamb, why, lady! Fie, you slugabed!
3979Why, love, I say! Madam! Sweetheart! Why, bride!—
3980What, not a word?—You take your pennyworths
3981now.
3982Sleep for a week, for the next night, I warrant,
3983The County Paris hath set up his rest
3984That you shall rest but little.—God forgive me,
3985Marry, and amen! How sound is she asleep!
3986I needs must wake her.—Madam, madam, madam!
3987Ay, let the County take you in your bed,
3988 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
3989
3990
3991
3992
3993He’ll fright you up, i’ faith.—Will it not be?
3994She opens the bed’s curtains.
3995What, dressed, and in your clothes, and down
3996again?
3997I must needs wake you. Lady, lady, lady!—
3998Alas, alas! Help, help! My lady’s dead.—
3999O, weraday, that ever I was born!—
4000Some aqua vitae, ho!—My lord! My lady!
4001
4002Enter Lady Capulet.
4003
4004LADY CAPULET
4005What noise is here?
4006NURSE O lamentable day!
4007LADY CAPULET
4008What is the matter?
4009NURSE Look, look!—O heavy day!
4010LADY CAPULET
4011O me! O me! My child, my only life,
4012Revive, look up, or I will die with thee.
4013Help, help! Call help.
4014
4015Enter Capulet.
4016
4017CAPULET
4018For shame, bring Juliet forth. Her lord is come.
4019NURSE
4020She’s dead, deceased. She’s dead, alack the day!
4021LADY CAPULET
4022Alack the day, she’s dead, she’s dead, she’s dead.
4023CAPULET
4024Ha, let me see her! Out, alas, she’s cold.
4025Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff.
4026Life and these lips have long been separated.
4027Death lies on her like an untimely frost
4028Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.
4029NURSE
4030O lamentable day!
4031 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4032
4033
4034
4035
4036LADY CAPULET O woeful time!
4037CAPULET
4038Death, that hath ta’en her hence to make me wail,
4039Ties up my tongue and will not let me speak.
4040
4041Enter Friar Lawrence and the County Paris, with
4042Musicians.
4043
4044FRIAR LAWRENCE
4045Come, is the bride ready to go to church?
4046CAPULET
4047Ready to go, but never to return.—
4048O son, the night before thy wedding day
4049Hath Death lain with thy wife. There she lies,
4050Flower as she was, deflowerèd by him.
4051Death is my son-in-law; Death is my heir.
4052My daughter he hath wedded. I will die
4053And leave him all. Life, living, all is Death’s.
4054PARIS
4055Have I thought long to see this morning’s face,
4056And doth it give me such a sight as this?
4057LADY CAPULET
4058Accursed, unhappy, wretched, hateful day!
4059Most miserable hour that e’er time saw
4060In lasting labor of his pilgrimage!
4061But one, poor one, one poor and loving child,
4062But one thing to rejoice and solace in,
4063And cruel death hath catched it from my sight!
4064NURSE
4065O woe, O woeful, woeful, woeful day!
4066Most lamentable day, most woeful day
4067That ever, ever I did yet behold!
4068O day, O day, O day, O hateful day!
4069Never was seen so black a day as this!
4070O woeful day, O woeful day!
4071PARIS
4072Beguiled, divorcèd, wrongèd, spited, slain!
4073 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4074
4075
4076
4077
4078Most detestable death, by thee beguiled,
4079By cruel, cruel thee quite overthrown!
4080O love! O life! Not life, but love in death!
4081CAPULET
4082Despised, distressèd, hated, martyred, killed!
4083Uncomfortable time, why cam’st thou now
4084To murder, murder our solemnity?
4085O child! O child! My soul and not my child!
4086Dead art thou! Alack, my child is dead,
4087And with my child my joys are burièd.
4088FRIAR LAWRENCE
4089Peace, ho, for shame! Confusion’s cure lives not
4090In these confusions. Heaven and yourself
4091Had part in this fair maid. Now heaven hath all,
4092And all the better is it for the maid.
4093Your part in her you could not keep from death,
4094But heaven keeps his part in eternal life.
4095The most you sought was her promotion,
4096For ’twas your heaven she should be advanced;
4097And weep you now, seeing she is advanced
4098Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself?
4099O, in this love you love your child so ill
4100That you run mad, seeing that she is well.
4101She’s not well married that lives married long,
4102But she’s best married that dies married young.
4103Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary
4104On this fair corse, and, as the custom is,
4105And in her best array, bear her to church,
4106For though fond nature bids us all lament,
4107Yet nature’s tears are reason’s merriment.
4108CAPULET
4109All things that we ordainèd festival
4110Turn from their office to black funeral:
4111Our instruments to melancholy bells,
4112Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast,
4113Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change,
4114 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4115
4116
4117
4118
4119Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse,
4120And all things change them to the contrary.
4121FRIAR LAWRENCE
4122Sir, go you in, and, madam, go with him,
4123And go, Sir Paris. Everyone prepare
4124To follow this fair corse unto her grave.
4125The heavens do lour upon you for some ill.
4126Move them no more by crossing their high will.
4127All but the Nurse and the Musicians exit.
4128FIRST MUSICIAN
4129Faith, we may put up our pipes and be gone.
4130NURSE
4131Honest good fellows, ah, put up, put up,
4132For, well you know, this is a pitiful case.
4133FIRST MUSICIAN
4134Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended.
4135Nurse exits.
4136
4137Enter Peter.
4138
4139PETER Musicians, O musicians, “Heart’s ease,”
4140“Heart’s ease.” O, an you will have me live, play
4141“Heart’s ease.”
4142FIRST MUSICIAN Why “Heart’s ease?”
4143PETER O musicians, because my heart itself plays “My
4144heart is full.” O, play me some merry dump to
4145comfort me.
4146FIRST MUSICIAN Not a dump, we. ’Tis no time to play
4147now.
4148PETER You will not then?
4149FIRST MUSICIAN No.
4150PETER I will then give it you soundly.
4151FIRST MUSICIAN What will you give us?
4152PETER No money, on my faith, but the gleek. I will give
4153you the minstrel.
4154FIRST MUSICIAN Then will I give you the
4155serving-creature.
4156 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4157
4158
4159
4160
4161PETER Then will I lay the serving-creature’s dagger on
4162your pate. I will carry no crochets. I’ll re you, I’ll fa
4163you. Do you note me?
4164FIRST MUSICIAN An you re us and fa us, you note us.
4165SECOND MUSICIAN Pray you, put up your dagger and
4166put out your wit.
4167PETER Then have at you with my wit. I will dry-beat
4168you with an iron wit, and put up my iron dagger.
4169Answer me like men.
4170Sings. When griping griefs the heart doth wound
4171And doleful dumps the mind oppress,
4172Then music with her silver sound—
4173Why “silver sound”? Why “music with her silver
4174sound”? What say you, Simon Catling?
4175FIRST MUSICIAN Marry, sir, because silver hath a
4176sweet sound.
4177PETER Prates.—What say you, Hugh Rebeck?
4178SECOND MUSICIAN I say “silver sound” because musicians
4179sound for silver.
4180PETER Prates too.—What say you, James Soundpost?
4181THIRD MUSICIAN Faith, I know not what to say.
4182PETER O, I cry you mercy. You are the singer. I will say
4183for you. It is “music with her silver sound” because
4184musicians have no gold for sounding:
4185Sings. Then music with her silver sound
4186With speedy help doth lend redress.
4187He exits.
4188FIRST MUSICIAN What a pestilent knave is this same!
4189SECOND MUSICIAN Hang him, Jack. Come, we’ll in
4190here, tarry for the mourners, and stay dinner.
4191They exit.
4192 ACT
4193
4194
4195Scene
4196Enter Romeo.
4197
4198ROMEO
4199If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep,
4200My dreams presage some joyful news at hand.
4201My bosom’s lord sits lightly in his throne,
4202And all this day an unaccustomed spirit
4203Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.
4204I dreamt my lady came and found me dead
4205(Strange dream that gives a dead man leave to
4206think!)
4207And breathed such life with kisses in my lips
4208That I revived and was an emperor.
4209Ah me, how sweet is love itself possessed
4210When but love’s shadows are so rich in joy!
4211
4212Enter Romeo’s man Balthasar, in riding boots.
4213
4214News from Verona!—How now, Balthasar?
4215Dost thou not bring me letters from the Friar?
4216How doth my lady? Is my father well?
4217How doth my Juliet? That I ask again,
4218For nothing can be ill if she be well.
4219BALTHASAR
4220Then she is well and nothing can be ill.
4221Her body sleeps in Capels’ monument,
4222And her immortal part with angels lives.
4223
4224 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4225
4226
4227
4228
4229I saw her laid low in her kindred’s vault
4230And presently took post to tell it you.
4231O, pardon me for bringing these ill news,
4232Since you did leave it for my office, sir.
4233ROMEO
4234Is it e’en so?—Then I deny you, stars!—
4235Thou knowest my lodging. Get me ink and paper,
4236And hire post-horses. I will hence tonight.
4237BALTHASAR
4238I do beseech you, sir, have patience.
4239Your looks are pale and wild and do import
4240Some misadventure.
4241ROMEO Tush, thou art deceived.
4242Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do.
4243Hast thou no letters to me from the Friar?
4244BALTHASAR
4245No, my good lord.
4246ROMEO No matter. Get thee gone,
4247And hire those horses. I’ll be with thee straight.
4248Balthasar exits.
4249Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight.
4250Let’s see for means. O mischief, thou art swift
4251To enter in the thoughts of desperate men.
4252I do remember an apothecary
4253(And hereabouts he dwells) which late I noted
4254In tattered weeds, with overwhelming brows,
4255Culling of simples. Meager were his looks.
4256Sharp misery had worn him to the bones.
4257And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
4258An alligator stuffed, and other skins
4259Of ill-shaped fishes; and about his shelves,
4260A beggarly account of empty boxes,
4261Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds,
4262Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses
4263Were thinly scattered to make up a show.
4264Noting this penury, to myself I said
4265 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4266
4267
4268
4269
4270“An if a man did need a poison now,
4271Whose sale is present death in Mantua,
4272Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.”
4273O, this same thought did but forerun my need,
4274And this same needy man must sell it me.
4275As I remember, this should be the house.
4276Being holiday, the beggar’s shop is shut.—
4277What ho, Apothecary!
4278
4279Enter Apothecary.
4280
4281APOTHECARY Who calls so loud?
4282ROMEO
4283Come hither, man. I see that thou art poor.
4284He offers money.
4285Hold, there is forty ducats. Let me have
4286A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear
4287As will disperse itself through all the veins,
4288That the life-weary taker may fall dead,
4289And that the trunk may be discharged of breath
4290As violently as hasty powder fired
4291Doth hurry from the fatal cannon’s womb.
4292APOTHECARY
4293Such mortal drugs I have, but Mantua’s law
4294Is death to any he that utters them.
4295ROMEO
4296Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness,
4297And fearest to die? Famine is in thy cheeks,
4298Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes,
4299Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back.
4300The world is not thy friend, nor the world’s law.
4301The world affords no law to make thee rich.
4302Then be not poor, but break it, and take this.
4303APOTHECARY
4304My poverty, but not my will, consents.
4305ROMEO
4306I pay thy poverty and not thy will.
4307 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4308
4309
4310
4311
4312APOTHECARY, giving him the poison
4313Put this in any liquid thing you will
4314And drink it off, and if you had the strength
4315Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight.
4316ROMEO, handing him the money
4317There is thy gold, worse poison to men’s souls,
4318Doing more murder in this loathsome world
4319Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not
4320sell.
4321I sell thee poison; thou hast sold me none.
4322Farewell, buy food, and get thyself in flesh.
4323Apothecary exits.
4324Come, cordial and not poison, go with me
4325To Juliet’s grave, for there must I use thee.
4326He exits.
4327
4328
4329Scene
4330Enter Friar John.
4331
4332FRIAR JOHN
4333Holy Franciscan friar, brother, ho!
4334
4335Enter Friar Lawrence.
4336
4337FRIAR LAWRENCE
4338This same should be the voice of Friar John.—
4339Welcome from Mantua. What says Romeo?
4340Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter.
4341FRIAR JOHN
4342Going to find a barefoot brother out,
4343One of our order, to associate me,
4344Here in this city visiting the sick,
4345And finding him, the searchers of the town,
4346Suspecting that we both were in a house
4347Where the infectious pestilence did reign,
4348Sealed up the doors and would not let us forth,
4349So that my speed to Mantua there was stayed.
4350 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4351
4352
4353
4354
4355FRIAR LAWRENCE
4356Who bare my letter, then, to Romeo?
4357FRIAR JOHN
4358I could not send it—here it is again—
4359Returning the letter.
4360Nor get a messenger to bring it thee,
4361So fearful were they of infection.
4362FRIAR LAWRENCE
4363Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood,
4364The letter was not nice but full of charge,
4365Of dear import, and the neglecting it
4366May do much danger. Friar John, go hence.
4367Get me an iron crow and bring it straight
4368Unto my cell.
4369FRIAR JOHN
4370Brother, I’ll go and bring it thee. He exits.
4371FRIAR LAWRENCE
4372Now must I to the monument alone.
4373Within this three hours will fair Juliet wake.
4374She will beshrew me much that Romeo
4375Hath had no notice of these accidents.
4376But I will write again to Mantua,
4377And keep her at my cell till Romeo come.
4378Poor living corse, closed in a dead man’s tomb!
4379He exits.
4380
4381
4382Scene
4383Enter Paris and his Page.
4384
4385PARIS
4386Give me thy torch, boy. Hence and stand aloof.
4387Yet put it out, for I would not be seen.
4388Under yond yew trees lay thee all along,
4389Holding thy ear close to the hollow ground.
4390So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread
4391(Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves)
4392 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4393
4394
4395
4396
4397But thou shalt hear it. Whistle then to me
4398As signal that thou hearest something approach.
4399Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee. Go.
4400PAGE, aside
4401I am almost afraid to stand alone
4402Here in the churchyard. Yet I will adventure.
4403He moves away from Paris.
4404PARIS, scattering flowers
4405Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew
4406(O woe, thy canopy is dust and stones!)
4407Which with sweet water nightly I will dew,
4408Or, wanting that, with tears distilled by moans.
4409The obsequies that I for thee will keep
4410Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep.
4411Page whistles.
4412The boy gives warning something doth approach.
4413What cursèd foot wanders this way tonight,
4414To cross my obsequies and true love’s rite?
4415What, with a torch? Muffle me, night, awhile.
4416He steps aside.
4417
4418Enter Romeo and Balthasar.
4419
4420ROMEO
4421Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron.
4422Hold, take this letter. Early in the morning
4423See thou deliver it to my lord and father.
4424Give me the light. Upon thy life I charge thee,
4425Whate’er thou hearest or seest, stand all aloof
4426And do not interrupt me in my course.
4427Why I descend into this bed of death
4428Is partly to behold my lady’s face,
4429But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger
4430A precious ring, a ring that I must use
4431In dear employment. Therefore hence, begone.
4432But, if thou, jealous, dost return to pry
4433In what I farther shall intend to do,
4434 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4435
4436
4437
4438
4439By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint
4440And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs.
4441The time and my intents are savage-wild,
4442More fierce and more inexorable far
4443Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.
4444BALTHASAR
4445I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you.
4446ROMEO
4447So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that.
4448Giving money.
4449Live and be prosperous, and farewell, good fellow.
4450BALTHASAR, aside
4451For all this same, I’ll hide me hereabout.
4452His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt.
4453He steps aside.
4454ROMEO, beginning to force open the tomb
4455Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,
4456Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth,
4457Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,
4458And in despite I’ll cram thee with more food.
4459PARIS
4460This is that banished haughty Montague
4461That murdered my love’s cousin, with which grief
4462It is supposèd the fair creature died,
4463And here is come to do some villainous shame
4464To the dead bodies. I will apprehend him.
4465Stepping forward.
4466Stop thy unhallowed toil, vile Montague.
4467Can vengeance be pursued further than death?
4468Condemnèd villain, I do apprehend thee.
4469Obey and go with me, for thou must die.
4470ROMEO
4471I must indeed, and therefore came I hither.
4472Good gentle youth, tempt not a desp’rate man.
4473Fly hence and leave me. Think upon these gone.
4474Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth,
4475 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4476
4477
4478
4479
4480Put not another sin upon my head
4481By urging me to fury. O, begone!
4482By heaven, I love thee better than myself,
4483For I come hither armed against myself.
4484Stay not, begone, live, and hereafter say
4485A madman’s mercy bid thee run away.
4486PARIS
4487I do defy thy commination
4488And apprehend thee for a felon here.
4489ROMEO
4490Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee, boy!
4491They draw and fight.
4492PAGE
4493O Lord, they fight! I will go call the watch.
4494He exits.
4495PARIS
4496O, I am slain! If thou be merciful,
4497Open the tomb; lay me with Juliet. He dies.
4498ROMEO
4499In faith, I will.—Let me peruse this face.
4500Mercutio’s kinsman, noble County Paris!
4501What said my man when my betossèd soul
4502Did not attend him as we rode? I think
4503He told me Paris should have married Juliet.
4504Said he not so? Or did I dream it so?
4505Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet,
4506To think it was so?—O, give me thy hand,
4507One writ with me in sour misfortune’s book!
4508I’ll bury thee in a triumphant grave.—
4509He opens the tomb.
4510A grave? O, no. A lantern, slaughtered youth,
4511For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes
4512This vault a feasting presence full of light.—
4513Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interred.
4514Laying Paris in the tomb.
4515How oft when men are at the point of death
4516 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4517
4518
4519
4520
4521Have they been merry, which their keepers call
4522A light’ning before death! O, how may I
4523Call this a light’ning?—O my love, my wife,
4524Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath,
4525Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.
4526Thou art not conquered. Beauty’s ensign yet
4527Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
4528And death’s pale flag is not advancèd there.—
4529Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?
4530O, what more favor can I do to thee
4531Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain
4532To sunder his that was thine enemy?
4533Forgive me, cousin.—Ah, dear Juliet,
4534Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe
4535That unsubstantial death is amorous,
4536And that the lean abhorrèd monster keeps
4537Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
4538For fear of that I still will stay with thee
4539And never from this palace of dim night
4540Depart again. Here, here will I remain
4541With worms that are thy chambermaids. O, here
4542Will I set up my everlasting rest
4543And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
4544From this world-wearied flesh! Eyes, look your last.
4545Arms, take your last embrace. And, lips, O, you
4546The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
4547A dateless bargain to engrossing death.
4548Kissing Juliet.
4549Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavory guide!
4550Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
4551The dashing rocks thy seasick weary bark!
4552Here’s to my love. Drinking. O true apothecary,
4553Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.
4554He dies.
4555
4556Enter Friar Lawrence with lantern, crow, and spade.
4557 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4558
4559
4560
4561
4562FRIAR LAWRENCE
4563Saint Francis be my speed! How oft tonight
4564Have my old feet stumbled at graves!—Who’s there?
4565BALTHASAR
4566Here’s one, a friend, and one that knows you well.
4567FRIAR LAWRENCE
4568Bliss be upon you. Tell me, good my friend,
4569What torch is yond that vainly lends his light
4570To grubs and eyeless skulls? As I discern,
4571It burneth in the Capels’ monument.
4572BALTHASAR
4573It doth so, holy sir, and there’s my master,
4574One that you love.
4575FRIAR LAWRENCE Who is it?
4576BALTHASAR Romeo.
4577FRIAR LAWRENCE
4578How long hath he been there?
4579BALTHASAR Full half an hour.
4580FRIAR LAWRENCE
4581Go with me to the vault.
4582BALTHASAR I dare not, sir.
4583My master knows not but I am gone hence,
4584And fearfully did menace me with death
4585If I did stay to look on his intents.
4586FRIAR LAWRENCE
4587Stay, then. I’ll go alone. Fear comes upon me.
4588O, much I fear some ill unthrifty thing.
4589BALTHASAR
4590As I did sleep under this yew tree here,
4591I dreamt my master and another fought,
4592And that my master slew him.
4593FRIAR LAWRENCE, moving toward the tomb
4594Romeo!—
4595Alack, alack, what blood is this which stains
4596The stony entrance of this sepulcher?
4597What mean these masterless and gory swords
4598 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4599
4600
4601
4602
4603To lie discolored by this place of peace?
4604Romeo! O, pale! Who else? What, Paris too?
4605And steeped in blood? Ah, what an unkind hour
4606Is guilty of this lamentable chance!
4607The lady stirs.
4608JULIET
4609O comfortable friar, where is my lord?
4610I do remember well where I should be,
4611And there I am. Where is my Romeo?
4612FRIAR LAWRENCE
4613I hear some noise.—Lady, come from that nest
4614Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep.
4615A greater power than we can contradict
4616Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away.
4617Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead,
4618And Paris, too. Come, I’ll dispose of thee
4619Among a sisterhood of holy nuns.
4620Stay not to question, for the watch is coming.
4621Come, go, good Juliet. I dare no longer stay.
4622JULIET
4623Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.
4624He exits.
4625What’s here? A cup closed in my true love’s hand?
4626Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end.—
4627O churl, drunk all, and left no friendly drop
4628To help me after! I will kiss thy lips.
4629Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,
4630To make me die with a restorative. She kisses him.
4631Thy lips are warm!
4632
4633Enter Paris’s Page and Watch.
4634
4635FIRST WATCH Lead, boy. Which way?
4636JULIET
4637Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O, happy dagger,
4638This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die.
4639She takes Romeo’s dagger, stabs herself, and dies.
4640 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4641
4642
4643
4644
4645PAGE
4646This is the place, there where the torch doth burn.
4647FIRST WATCH
4648The ground is bloody.—Search about the
4649churchyard.
4650Go, some of you; whoe’er you find, attach.
4651Some watchmen exit.
4652Pitiful sight! Here lies the County slain,
4653And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead,
4654Who here hath lain this two days burièd.—
4655Go, tell the Prince. Run to the Capulets.
4656Raise up the Montagues. Some others search.
4657Others exit.
4658We see the ground whereon these woes do lie,
4659But the true ground of all these piteous woes
4660We cannot without circumstance descry.
4661
4662Enter Watchmen with Romeo’s man Balthasar.
4663
4664SECOND WATCH
4665Here’s Romeo’s man. We found him in the
4666churchyard.
4667FIRST WATCH
4668Hold him in safety till the Prince come hither.
4669
4670Enter Friar Lawrence and another Watchman.
4671
4672THIRD WATCH
4673Here is a friar that trembles, sighs, and weeps.
4674We took this mattock and this spade from him
4675As he was coming from this churchyard’s side.
4676FIRST WATCH
4677A great suspicion. Stay the Friar too.
4678
4679Enter the Prince with Attendants.
4680
4681PRINCE
4682What misadventure is so early up
4683That calls our person from our morning rest?
4684 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4685
4686
4687
4688
4689Enter Capulet and Lady Capulet.
4690
4691CAPULET
4692What should it be that is so shrieked abroad?
4693LADY CAPULET
4694O, the people in the street cry “Romeo,”
4695Some “Juliet,” and some “Paris,” and all run
4696With open outcry toward our monument.
4697PRINCE
4698What fear is this which startles in our ears?
4699FIRST WATCH
4700Sovereign, here lies the County Paris slain,
4701And Romeo dead, and Juliet, dead before,
4702Warm and new killed.
4703PRINCE
4704Search, seek, and know how this foul murder
4705comes.
4706FIRST WATCH
4707Here is a friar, and slaughtered Romeo’s man,
4708With instruments upon them fit to open
4709These dead men’s tombs.
4710CAPULET
4711O heavens! O wife, look how our daughter bleeds!
4712This dagger hath mista’en, for, lo, his house
4713Is empty on the back of Montague,
4714And it mis-sheathèd in my daughter’s bosom.
4715LADY CAPULET
4716O me, this sight of death is as a bell
4717That warns my old age to a sepulcher.
4718
4719Enter Montague.
4720
4721PRINCE
4722Come, Montague, for thou art early up
4723To see thy son and heir now early down.
4724MONTAGUE
4725Alas, my liege, my wife is dead tonight.
4726 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4727
4728
4729
4730
4731Grief of my son’s exile hath stopped her breath.
4732What further woe conspires against mine age?
4733PRINCE Look, and thou shalt see.
4734MONTAGUE , seeing Romeo dead
4735O thou untaught! What manners is in this,
4736To press before thy father to a grave?
4737PRINCE
4738Seal up the mouth of outrage for awhile,
4739Till we can clear these ambiguities
4740And know their spring, their head, their true
4741descent,
4742And then will I be general of your woes
4743And lead you even to death. Meantime forbear,
4744And let mischance be slave to patience.—
4745Bring forth the parties of suspicion.
4746FRIAR LAWRENCE
4747I am the greatest, able to do least,
4748Yet most suspected, as the time and place
4749Doth make against me, of this direful murder.
4750And here I stand, both to impeach and purge
4751Myself condemnèd and myself excused.
4752PRINCE
4753Then say at once what thou dost know in this.
4754FRIAR LAWRENCE
4755I will be brief, for my short date of breath
4756Is not so long as is a tedious tale.
4757Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet,
4758And she, there dead, that Romeo’s faithful wife.
4759I married them, and their stol’n marriage day
4760Was Tybalt’s doomsday, whose untimely death
4761Banished the new-made bridegroom from this city,
4762For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined.
4763You, to remove that siege of grief from her,
4764Betrothed and would have married her perforce
4765To County Paris. Then comes she to me,
4766And with wild looks bid me devise some mean
4767 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4768
4769
4770
4771
4772To rid her from this second marriage,
4773Or in my cell there would she kill herself.
4774Then gave I her (so tutored by my art)
4775A sleeping potion, which so took effect
4776As I intended, for it wrought on her
4777The form of death. Meantime I writ to Romeo
4778That he should hither come as this dire night
4779To help to take her from her borrowed grave,
4780Being the time the potion’s force should cease.
4781But he which bore my letter, Friar John,
4782Was stayed by accident, and yesternight
4783Returned my letter back. Then all alone
4784At the prefixèd hour of her waking
4785Came I to take her from her kindred’s vault,
4786Meaning to keep her closely at my cell
4787Till I conveniently could send to Romeo.
4788But when I came, some minute ere the time
4789Of her awakening, here untimely lay
4790The noble Paris and true Romeo dead.
4791She wakes, and I entreated her come forth
4792And bear this work of heaven with patience.
4793But then a noise did scare me from the tomb,
4794And she, too desperate, would not go with me
4795But, as it seems, did violence on herself.
4796All this I know, and to the marriage
4797Her nurse is privy. And if aught in this
4798Miscarried by my fault, let my old life
4799Be sacrificed some hour before his time
4800Unto the rigor of severest law.
4801PRINCE
4802We still have known thee for a holy man.—
4803Where’s Romeo’s man? What can he say to this?
4804BALTHASAR
4805I brought my master news of Juliet’s death,
4806And then in post he came from Mantua
4807To this same place, to this same monument.
4808 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4809
4810
4811
4812
4813This letter he early bid me give his father
4814And threatened me with death, going in the vault,
4815If I departed not and left him there.
4816PRINCE
4817Give me the letter. I will look on it.—
4818He takes Romeo’s letter.
4819Where is the County’s page, that raised the
4820watch?—
4821Sirrah, what made your master in this place?
4822PAGE
4823He came with flowers to strew his lady’s grave
4824And bid me stand aloof, and so I did.
4825Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb,
4826And by and by my master drew on him,
4827And then I ran away to call the watch.
4828PRINCE
4829This letter doth make good the Friar’s words,
4830Their course of love, the tidings of her death;
4831And here he writes that he did buy a poison
4832Of a poor ’pothecary, and therewithal
4833Came to this vault to die and lie with Juliet.
4834Where be these enemies?—Capulet, Montague,
4835See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
4836That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love,
4837And I, for winking at your discords too,
4838Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished.
4839CAPULET
4840O brother Montague, give me thy hand.
4841This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more
4842Can I demand.
4843MONTAGUE But I can give thee more,
4844For I will ray her statue in pure gold,
4845That whiles Verona by that name is known,
4846There shall no figure at such rate be set
4847As that of true and faithful Juliet.
4848 Romeo and Juliet ACT . SC.
4849
4850
4851
4852
4853CAPULET
4854As rich shall Romeo’s by his lady’s lie,
4855Poor sacrifices of our enmity.
4856PRINCE
4857A glooming peace this morning with it brings.
4858The sun for sorrow will not show his head.
4859Go hence to have more talk of these sad things.
4860Some shall be pardoned, and some punishèd.
4861For never was a story of more woe
4862Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
4863All exit.
4864