· 6 years ago · Aug 30, 2019, 04:20 AM
1THE TRAGEDY OF ROMEO AND JULIET
2
3by William Shakespeare
4
5Dramatis Personae
6
7 Chorus.
8
9 Escalus, Prince of Verona.
10
11 Paris, a young Count, kinsman to the Prince.
12
13 Montague, heads of two houses at variance with each other.
14
15 Capulet, heads of two houses at variance with each other.
16
17 An old Man, of the Capulet family.
18
19 Romeo, son to Montague.
20
21 Tybalt, nephew to Lady Capulet.
22
23 Mercutio, kinsman to the Prince and friend to Romeo.
24
25 Benvolio, nephew to Montague, and friend to Romeo
26
27 Tybalt, nephew to Lady Capulet.
28
29 Friar Laurence, Franciscan.
30
31 Friar John, Franciscan.
32
33 Balthasar, servant to Romeo.
34
35 Abram, servant to Montague.
36
37 Sampson, servant to Capulet.
38
39 Gregory, servant to Capulet.
40
41 Peter, servant to Juliet's nurse.
42
43 An Apothecary.
44
45 Three Musicians.
46
47 An Officer.
48
49 Lady Montague, wife to Montague.
50
51 Lady Capulet, wife to Capulet.
52
53 Juliet, daughter to Capulet.
54
55 Nurse to Juliet.
56
57 Citizens of Verona; Gentlemen and Gentlewomen of both houses;
58 Maskers, Torchbearers, Pages, Guards, Watchmen, Servants, and
59 Attendants.
60
61 SCENE.--Verona; Mantua.
62
63
64
65 THE PROLOGUE
66
67 Enter Chorus.
68
69
70 Chor. Two households, both alike in dignity,
71 In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
72 From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
73 Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
74 From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
75 A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
76 Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows
77 Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
78 The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
79 And the continuance of their parents' rage,
80 Which, but their children's end, naught could remove,
81 Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
82 The which if you with patient ears attend,
83 What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
84 [Exit.]
85
86
87
88
89ACT I. Scene I.
90Verona. A public place.
91
92Enter Sampson and Gregory (with swords and bucklers) of the house
93of Capulet.
94
95
96 Samp. Gregory, on my word, we'll not carry coals.
97
98 Greg. No, for then we should be colliers.
99
100 Samp. I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw.
101
102 Greg. Ay, while you live, draw your neck out of collar.
103
104 Samp. I strike quickly, being moved.
105
106 Greg. But thou art not quickly moved to strike.
107
108 Samp. A dog of the house of Montague moves me.
109
110 Greg. To move is to stir, and to be valiant is to stand.
111 Therefore, if thou art moved, thou runn'st away.
112
113 Samp. A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I will take
114 the wall of any man or maid of Montague's.
115
116 Greg. That shows thee a weak slave; for the weakest goes to the
117 wall.
118
119 Samp. 'Tis true; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels,
120 are ever thrust to the wall. Therefore I will push Montague's men
121 from the wall and thrust his maids to the wall.
122
123 Greg. The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.
124
125 Samp. 'Tis all one. I will show myself a tyrant. When I have
126 fought with the men, I will be cruel with the maids- I will cut off
127 their heads.
128
129 Greg. The heads of the maids?
130
131 Samp. Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads.
132 Take it in what sense thou wilt.
133
134 Greg. They must take it in sense that feel it.
135
136 Samp. Me they shall feel while I am able to stand; and 'tis known I
137 am a pretty piece of flesh.
138
139 Greg. 'Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou hadst
140 been poor-John. Draw thy tool! Here comes two of the house of
141 Montagues.
142
143 Enter two other Servingmen [Abram and Balthasar].
144
145
146 Samp. My naked weapon is out. Quarrel! I will back thee.
147
148 Greg. How? turn thy back and run?
149
150 Samp. Fear me not.
151
152 Greg. No, marry. I fear thee!
153
154 Samp. Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin.
155
156 Greg. I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as they list.
157
158 Samp. Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; which is
159 disgrace to them, if they bear it.
160
161 Abr. Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
162
163 Samp. I do bite my thumb, sir.
164
165 Abr. Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
166
167 Samp. [aside to Gregory] Is the law of our side if I say ay?
168
169 Greg. [aside to Sampson] No.
170
171 Samp. No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir; but I bite my
172 thumb, sir.
173
174 Greg. Do you quarrel, sir?
175
176 Abr. Quarrel, sir? No, sir.
177
178 Samp. But if you do, sir, am for you. I serve as good a man as
179 you.
180
181 Abr. No better.
182
183 Samp. Well, sir.
184
185 Enter Benvolio.
186
187
188 Greg. [aside to Sampson] Say 'better.' Here comes one of my
189 master's kinsmen.
190
191 Samp. Yes, better, sir.
192
193 Abr. You lie.
194
195 Samp. Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy swashing blow.
196 They fight.
197
198 Ben. Part, fools! [Beats down their swords.]
199 Put up your swords. You know not what you do.
200
201 Enter Tybalt.
202
203
204 Tyb. What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?
205 Turn thee Benvolio! look upon thy death.
206
207 Ben. I do but keep the peace. Put up thy sword,
208 Or manage it to part these men with me.
209
210 Tyb. What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word
211 As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.
212 Have at thee, coward! They fight.
213
214 Enter an officer, and three or four Citizens with clubs or
215 partisans.
216
217
218 Officer. Clubs, bills, and partisans! Strike! beat them down!
219
220 Citizens. Down with the Capulets! Down with the Montagues!
221
222 Enter Old Capulet in his gown, and his Wife.
223
224
225 Cap. What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!
226
227 Wife. A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword?
228
229 Cap. My sword, I say! Old Montague is come
230 And flourishes his blade in spite of me.
231
232 Enter Old Montague and his Wife.
233
234
235 Mon. Thou villain Capulet!- Hold me not, let me go.
236
237 M. Wife. Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe.
238
239 Enter Prince Escalus, with his Train.
240
241
242 Prince. Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
243 Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel-
244 Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts,
245 That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
246 With purple fountains issuing from your veins!
247 On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
248 Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground
249 And hear the sentence of your moved prince.
250 Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word
251 By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
252 Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets
253 And made Verona's ancient citizens
254 Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments
255 To wield old partisans, in hands as old,
256 Cank'red with peace, to part your cank'red hate.
257 If ever you disturb our streets again,
258 Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
259 For this time all the rest depart away.
260 You, Capulet, shall go along with me;
261 And, Montague, come you this afternoon,
262 To know our farther pleasure in this case,
263 To old Freetown, our common judgment place.
264 Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.
265 Exeunt [all but Montague, his Wife, and Benvolio].
266
267 Mon. Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?
268 Speak, nephew, were you by when it began?
269
270 Ben. Here were the servants of your adversary
271 And yours, close fighting ere I did approach.
272 I drew to part them. In the instant came
273 The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepar'd;
274 Which, as he breath'd defiance to my ears,
275 He swung about his head and cut the winds,
276 Who, nothing hurt withal, hiss'd him in scorn.
277 While we were interchanging thrusts and blows,
278 Came more and more, and fought on part and part,
279 Till the Prince came, who parted either part.
280
281 M. Wife. O, where is Romeo? Saw you him to-day?
282 Right glad I am he was not at this fray.
283
284 Ben. Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun
285 Peer'd forth the golden window of the East,
286 A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad;
287 Where, underneath the grove of sycamore
288 That westward rooteth from the city's side,
289 So early walking did I see your son.
290 Towards him I made; but he was ware of me
291 And stole into the covert of the wood.
292 I- measuring his affections by my own,
293 Which then most sought where most might not be found,
294 Being one too many by my weary self-
295 Pursu'd my humour, not Pursuing his,
296 And gladly shunn'd who gladly fled from me.
297
298 Mon. Many a morning hath he there been seen,
299 With tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew,
300 Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs;
301 But all so soon as the all-cheering sun
302 Should in the furthest East bean to draw
303 The shady curtains from Aurora's bed,
304 Away from light steals home my heavy son
305 And private in his chamber pens himself,
306 Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight
307 And makes himself an artificial night.
308 Black and portentous must this humour prove
309 Unless good counsel may the cause remove.
310
311 Ben. My noble uncle, do you know the cause?
312
313 Mon. I neither know it nor can learn of him
314
315 Ben. Have you importun'd him by any means?
316
317 Mon. Both by myself and many other friend;
318 But he, his own affections' counsellor,
319 Is to himself- I will not say how true-
320 But to himself so secret and so close,
321 So far from sounding and discovery,
322 As is the bud bit with an envious worm
323 Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air
324 Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.
325 Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow,
326 We would as willingly give cure as know.
327
328 Enter Romeo.
329
330
331 Ben. See, where he comes. So please you step aside,
332 I'll know his grievance, or be much denied.
333
334 Mon. I would thou wert so happy by thy stay
335 To hear true shrift. Come, madam, let's away,
336 Exeunt [Montague and Wife].
337
338 Ben. Good morrow, cousin.
339
340 Rom. Is the day so young?
341
342 Ben. But new struck nine.
343
344 Rom. Ay me! sad hours seem long.
345 Was that my father that went hence so fast?
346
347 Ben. It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours?
348
349 Rom. Not having that which having makes them short.
350
351 Ben. In love?
352
353 Rom. Out-
354
355 Ben. Of love?
356
357 Rom. Out of her favour where I am in love.
358
359 Ben. Alas that love, so gentle in his view,
360 Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!
361
362 Rom. Alas that love, whose view is muffled still,
363 Should without eyes see pathways to his will!
364 Where shall we dine? O me! What fray was here?
365 Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
366 Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.
367 Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
368 O anything, of nothing first create!
369 O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
370 Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
371 Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
372 Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is
373 This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
374 Dost thou not laugh?
375
376 Ben. No, coz, I rather weep.
377
378 Rom. Good heart, at what?
379
380 Ben. At thy good heart's oppression.
381
382 Rom. Why, such is love's transgression.
383 Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,
384 Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest
385 With more of thine. This love that thou hast shown
386 Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.
387 Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs;
388 Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
389 Being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears.
390 What is it else? A madness most discreet,
391 A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.
392 Farewell, my coz.
393
394 Ben. Soft! I will go along.
395 An if you leave me so, you do me wrong.
396
397 Rom. Tut! I have lost myself; I am not here:
398 This is not Romeo, he's some other where.
399
400 Ben. Tell me in sadness, who is that you love?
401
402 Rom. What, shall I groan and tell thee?
403
404 Ben. Groan? Why, no;
405 But sadly tell me who.
406
407 Rom. Bid a sick man in sadness make his will.
408 Ah, word ill urg'd to one that is so ill!
409 In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.
410
411 Ben. I aim'd so near when I suppos'd you lov'd.
412
413 Rom. A right good markman! And she's fair I love.
414
415 Ben. A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.
416
417 Rom. Well, in that hit you miss. She'll not be hit
418 With Cupid's arrow. She hath Dian's wit,
419 And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd,
420 From Love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd.
421 She will not stay the siege of loving terms,
422 Nor bide th' encounter of assailing eyes,
423 Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold.
424 O, she's rich in beauty; only poor
425 That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store.
426
427 Ben. Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?
428
429 Rom. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste;
430 For beauty, starv'd with her severity,
431 Cuts beauty off from all posterity.
432 She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair,
433 To merit bliss by making me despair.
434 She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow
435 Do I live dead that live to tell it now.
436
437 Ben. Be rul'd by me: forget to think of her.
438
439 Rom. O, teach me how I should forget to think!
440
441 Ben. By giving liberty unto thine eyes.
442 Examine other beauties.
443
444 Rom. 'Tis the way
445 To call hers (exquisite) in question more.
446 These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows,
447 Being black puts us in mind they hide the fair.
448 He that is strucken blind cannot forget
449 The precious treasure of his eyesight lost.
450 Show me a mistress that is passing fair,
451 What doth her beauty serve but as a note
452 Where I may read who pass'd that passing fair?
453 Farewell. Thou canst not teach me to forget.
454
455 Ben. I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt. Exeunt.
456
457
458
459
460Scene II.
461A Street.
462
463Enter Capulet, County Paris, and [Servant] -the Clown.
464
465
466 Cap. But Montague is bound as well as I,
467 In penalty alike; and 'tis not hard, I think,
468 For men so old as we to keep the peace.
469
470 Par. Of honourable reckoning are you both,
471 And pity 'tis you liv'd at odds so long.
472 But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?
473
474 Cap. But saying o'er what I have said before:
475 My child is yet a stranger in the world,
476 She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;
477 Let two more summers wither in their pride
478 Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.
479
480 Par. Younger than she are happy mothers made.
481
482 Cap. And too soon marr'd are those so early made.
483 The earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she;
484 She is the hopeful lady of my earth.
485 But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart;
486 My will to her consent is but a part.
487 An she agree, within her scope of choice
488 Lies my consent and fair according voice.
489 This night I hold an old accustom'd feast,
490 Whereto I have invited many a guest,
491 Such as I love; and you among the store,
492 One more, most welcome, makes my number more.
493 At my poor house look to behold this night
494 Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light.
495 Such comfort as do lusty young men feel
496 When well apparell'd April on the heel
497 Of limping Winter treads, even such delight
498 Among fresh female buds shall you this night
499 Inherit at my house. Hear all, all see,
500 And like her most whose merit most shall be;
501 Which, on more view of many, mine, being one,
502 May stand in number, though in reck'ning none.
503 Come, go with me. [To Servant, giving him a paper] Go,
504 sirrah, trudge about
505 Through fair Verona; find those persons out
506 Whose names are written there, and to them say,
507 My house and welcome on their pleasure stay-
508 Exeunt [Capulet and Paris].
509
510 Serv. Find them out whose names are written here? It is written
511 that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard and the tailor
512 with his last, the fisher with his pencil and the painter
513 with his nets; but I am sent to find those persons whose names are
514 here writ, and can never find what names the writing person
515 hath here writ. I must to the learned. In good time!
516
517 Enter Benvolio and Romeo.
518
519
520 Ben. Tut, man, one fire burns out another's burning;
521 One pain is lessoned by another's anguish;
522 Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning;
523 One desperate grief cures with another's languish.
524 Take thou some new infection to thy eye,
525 And the rank poison of the old will die.
526
527 Rom. Your plantain leaf is excellent for that.
528
529 Ben. For what, I pray thee?
530
531 Rom. For your broken shin.
532
533 Ben. Why, Romeo, art thou mad?
534
535 Rom. Not mad, but bound more than a madman is;
536 Shut up in Prison, kept without my food,
537 Whipp'd and tormented and- God-den, good fellow.
538
539 Serv. God gi' go-den. I pray, sir, can you read?
540
541 Rom. Ay, mine own fortune in my misery.
542
543 Serv. Perhaps you have learned it without book. But I pray, can
544 you read anything you see?
545
546 Rom. Ay, If I know the letters and the language.
547
548 Serv. Ye say honestly. Rest you merry!
549
550 Rom. Stay, fellow; I can read. He reads.
551
552 'Signior Martino and his wife and daughters;
553 County Anselmo and his beauteous sisters;
554 The lady widow of Vitruvio;
555 Signior Placentio and His lovely nieces;
556 Mercutio and his brother Valentine;
557 Mine uncle Capulet, his wife, and daughters;
558 My fair niece Rosaline and Livia;
559 Signior Valentio and His cousin Tybalt;
560 Lucio and the lively Helena.'
561
562 [Gives back the paper.] A fair assembly. Whither should they
563 come?
564
565 Serv. Up.
566
567 Rom. Whither?
568
569 Serv. To supper, to our house.
570
571 Rom. Whose house?
572
573 Serv. My master's.
574
575 Rom. Indeed I should have ask'd you that before.
576
577 Serv. Now I'll tell you without asking. My master is the great
578 rich Capulet; and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray
579 come and crush a cup of wine. Rest you merry! Exit.
580
581 Ben. At this same ancient feast of Capulet's
582 Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so lov'st;
583 With all the admired beauties of Verona.
584 Go thither, and with unattainted eye
585 Compare her face with some that I shall show,
586 And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.
587
588 Rom. When the devout religion of mine eye
589 Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires;
590 And these, who, often drown'd, could never die,
591 Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars!
592 One fairer than my love? The all-seeing sun
593 Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun.
594
595 Ben. Tut! you saw her fair, none else being by,
596 Herself pois'd with herself in either eye;
597 But in that crystal scales let there be weigh'd
598 Your lady's love against some other maid
599 That I will show you shining at this feast,
600 And she shall scant show well that now seems best.
601
602 Rom. I'll go along, no such sight to be shown,
603 But to rejoice in splendour of my own. [Exeunt.]
604
605
606
607
608Scene III.
609Capulet's house.
610
611Enter Capulet's Wife, and Nurse.
612
613
614 Wife. Nurse, where's my daughter? Call her forth to me.
615
616 Nurse. Now, by my maidenhead at twelve year old,
617 I bade her come. What, lamb! what ladybird!
618 God forbid! Where's this girl? What, Juliet!
619
620 Enter Juliet.
621
622
623 Jul. How now? Who calls?
624
625 Nurse. Your mother.
626
627 Jul. Madam, I am here.
628 What is your will?
629
630 Wife. This is the matter- Nurse, give leave awhile,
631 We must talk in secret. Nurse, come back again;
632 I have rememb'red me, thou's hear our counsel.
633 Thou knowest my daughter's of a pretty age.
634
635 Nurse. Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.
636
637 Wife. She's not fourteen.
638
639 Nurse. I'll lay fourteen of my teeth-
640 And yet, to my teen be it spoken, I have but four-
641 She is not fourteen. How long is it now
642 To Lammastide?
643
644 Wife. A fortnight and odd days.
645
646 Nurse. Even or odd, of all days in the year,
647 Come Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen.
648 Susan and she (God rest all Christian souls!)
649 Were of an age. Well, Susan is with God;
650 She was too good for me. But, as I said,
651 On Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen;
652 That shall she, marry; I remember it well.
653 'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years;
654 And she was wean'd (I never shall forget it),
655 Of all the days of the year, upon that day;
656 For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
657 Sitting in the sun under the dovehouse wall.
658 My lord and you were then at Mantua.
659 Nay, I do bear a brain. But, as I said,
660 When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
661 Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,
662 To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug!
663 Shake, quoth the dovehouse! 'Twas no need, I trow,
664 To bid me trudge.
665 And since that time it is eleven years,
666 For then she could stand high-lone; nay, by th' rood,
667 She could have run and waddled all about;
668 For even the day before, she broke her brow;
669 And then my husband (God be with his soul!
670 'A was a merry man) took up the child.
671 'Yea,' quoth he, 'dost thou fall upon thy face?
672 Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit;
673 Wilt thou not, Jule?' and, by my holidam,
674 The pretty wretch left crying, and said 'Ay.'
675 To see now how a jest shall come about!
676 I warrant, an I should live a thousand yeas,
677 I never should forget it. 'Wilt thou not, Jule?' quoth he,
678 And, pretty fool, it stinted, and said 'Ay.'
679
680 Wife. Enough of this. I pray thee hold thy peace.
681
682 Nurse. Yes, madam. Yet I cannot choose but laugh
683 To think it should leave crying and say 'Ay.'
684 And yet, I warrant, it bad upon it brow
685 A bump as big as a young cock'rel's stone;
686 A perilous knock; and it cried bitterly.
687 'Yea,' quoth my husband, 'fall'st upon thy face?
688 Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age;
689 Wilt thou not, Jule?' It stinted, and said 'Ay.'
690
691 Jul. And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse, say I.
692
693 Nurse. Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace!
694 Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nurs'd.
695 An I might live to see thee married once, I have my wish.
696
697 Wife. Marry, that 'marry' is the very theme
698 I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet,
699 How stands your disposition to be married?
700
701 Jul. It is an honour that I dream not of.
702
703 Nurse. An honour? Were not I thine only nurse,
704 I would say thou hadst suck'd wisdom from thy teat.
705
706 Wife. Well, think of marriage now. Younger than you,
707 Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,
708 Are made already mothers. By my count,
709 I was your mother much upon these years
710 That you are now a maid. Thus then in brief:
711 The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.
712
713 Nurse. A man, young lady! lady, such a man
714 As all the world- why he's a man of wax.
715
716 Wife. Verona's summer hath not such a flower.
717
718 Nurse. Nay, he's a flower, in faith- a very flower.
719
720 Wife. What say you? Can you love the gentleman?
721 This night you shall behold him at our feast.
722 Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face,
723 And find delight writ there with beauty's pen;
724 Examine every married lineament,
725 And see how one another lends content;
726 And what obscur'd in this fair volume lies
727 Find written in the margent of his eyes,
728 This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
729 To beautify him only lacks a cover.
730 The fish lives in the sea, and 'tis much pride
731 For fair without the fair within to hide.
732 That book in many's eyes doth share the glory,
733 That in gold clasps locks in the golden story;
734 So shall you share all that he doth possess,
735 By having him making yourself no less.
736
737 Nurse. No less? Nay, bigger! Women grow by men
738
739 Wife. Speak briefly, can you like of Paris' love?
740
741 Jul. I'll look to like, if looking liking move;
742 But no more deep will I endart mine eye
743 Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.
744
745 Enter Servingman.
746
747
748 Serv. Madam, the guests are come, supper serv'd up, you call'd,
749 my young lady ask'd for, the nurse curs'd in the pantry, and
750 everything in extremity. I must hence to wait. I beseech you
751 follow straight.
752
753 Wife. We follow thee. Exit [Servingman].
754 Juliet, the County stays.
755
756 Nurse. Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.
757 Exeunt.
758
759
760
761
762Scene IV.
763A street.
764
765Enter Romeo, Mercutio, Benvolio, with five or six other Maskers;
766Torchbearers.
767
768
769 Rom. What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse?
770 Or shall we on without apology?
771
772 Ben. The date is out of such prolixity.
773 We'll have no Cupid hoodwink'd with a scarf,
774 Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath,
775 Scaring the ladies like a crowkeeper;
776 Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke
777 After the prompter, for our entrance;
778 But, let them measure us by what they will,
779 We'll measure them a measure, and be gone.
780
781 Rom. Give me a torch. I am not for this ambling.
782 Being but heavy, I will bear the light.
783
784 Mer. Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.
785
786 Rom. Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes
787 With nimble soles; I have a soul of lead
788 So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.
789
790 Mer. You are a lover. Borrow Cupid's wings
791 And soar with them above a common bound.
792
793 Rom. I am too sore enpierced with his shaft
794 To soar with his light feathers; and so bound
795 I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe.
796 Under love's heavy burthen do I sink.
797
798 Mer. And, to sink in it, should you burthen love-
799 Too great oppression for a tender thing.
800
801 Rom. Is love a tender thing? It is too rough,
802 Too rude, too boist'rous, and it pricks like thorn.
803
804 Mer. If love be rough with you, be rough with love.
805 Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.
806 Give me a case to put my visage in.
807 A visor for a visor! What care I
808 What curious eye doth quote deformities?
809 Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me.
810
811 Ben. Come, knock and enter; and no sooner in
812 But every man betake him to his legs.
813
814 Rom. A torch for me! Let wantons light of heart
815 Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels;
816 For I am proverb'd with a grandsire phrase,
817 I'll be a candle-holder and look on;
818 The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done.
819
820 Mer. Tut! dun's the mouse, the constable's own word!
821 If thou art Dun, we'll draw thee from the mire
822 Of this sir-reverence love, wherein thou stick'st
823 Up to the ears. Come, we burn daylight, ho!
824
825 Rom. Nay, that's not so.
826
827 Mer. I mean, sir, in delay
828 We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day.
829 Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits
830 Five times in that ere once in our five wits.
831
832 Rom. And we mean well, in going to this masque;
833 But 'tis no wit to go.
834
835 Mer. Why, may one ask?
836
837 Rom. I dreamt a dream to-night.
838
839 Mer. And so did I.
840
841 Rom. Well, what was yours?
842
843 Mer. That dreamers often lie.
844
845 Rom. In bed asleep, while they do dream things true.
846
847 Mer. O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
848 She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
849 In shape no bigger than an agate stone
850 On the forefinger of an alderman,
851 Drawn with a team of little atomies
852 Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
853 Her wagon spokes made of long spinners' legs,
854 The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers;
855 Her traces, of the smallest spider's web;
856 Her collars, of the moonshine's wat'ry beams;
857 Her whip, of cricket's bone; the lash, of film;
858 Her wagoner, a small grey-coated gnat,
859 Not half so big as a round little worm
860 Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid;
861 Her chariot is an empty hazelnut,
862 Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
863 Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers.
864 And in this state she 'gallops night by night
865 Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love;
866 O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on cursies straight;
867 O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees;
868 O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream,
869 Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
870 Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are.
871 Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
872 And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;
873 And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail
874 Tickling a parson's nose as 'a lies asleep,
875 Then dreams he of another benefice.
876 Sometimes she driveth o'er a soldier's neck,
877 And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
878 Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
879 Of healths five fadom deep; and then anon
880 Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,
881 And being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two
882 And sleeps again. This is that very Mab
883 That plats the manes of horses in the night
884 And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish, hairs,
885 Which once untangled much misfortune bodes
886 This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
887 That presses them and learns them first to bear,
888 Making them women of good carriage.
889 This is she-
890
891 Rom. Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!
892 Thou talk'st of nothing.
893
894 Mer. True, I talk of dreams;
895 Which are the children of an idle brain,
896 Begot of nothing but vain fantasy;
897 Which is as thin of substance as the air,
898 And more inconstant than the wind, who wooes
899 Even now the frozen bosom of the North
900 And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence,
901 Turning his face to the dew-dropping South.
902
903 Ben. This wind you talk of blows us from ourselves.
904 Supper is done, and we shall come too late.
905
906 Rom. I fear, too early; for my mind misgives
907 Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars,
908 Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
909 With this night's revels and expire the term
910 Of a despised life, clos'd in my breast,
911 By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
912 But he that hath the steerage of my course
913 Direct my sail! On, lusty gentlemen!
914
915 Ben. Strike, drum.
916 They march about the stage. [Exeunt.]
917
918
919
920
921Scene V.
922Capulet's house.
923
924Servingmen come forth with napkins.
925
926 1. Serv. Where's Potpan, that he helps not to take away?
927 He shift a trencher! he scrape a trencher!
928 2. Serv. When good manners shall lie all in one or two men's
929 hands, and they unwash'd too, 'tis a foul thing.
930 1. Serv. Away with the join-stools, remove the court-cubbert,
931 look to the plate. Good thou, save me a piece of marchpane and, as
932 thou loves me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone and Nell.
933 Anthony, and Potpan!
934 2. Serv. Ay, boy, ready.
935 1. Serv. You are look'd for and call'd for, ask'd for and
936 sought for, in the great chamber.
937 3. Serv. We cannot be here and there too. Cheerly, boys!
938 Be brisk awhile, and the longer liver take all. Exeunt.
939
940 Enter the Maskers, Enter, [with Servants,] Capulet, his Wife,
941 Juliet, Tybalt, and all the Guests
942 and Gentlewomen to the Maskers.
943
944
945 Cap. Welcome, gentlemen! Ladies that have their toes
946 Unplagu'd with corns will have a bout with you.
947 Ah ha, my mistresses! which of you all
948 Will now deny to dance? She that makes dainty,
949 She I'll swear hath corns. Am I come near ye now?
950 Welcome, gentlemen! I have seen the day
951 That I have worn a visor and could tell
952 A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear,
953 Such as would please. 'Tis gone, 'tis gone, 'tis gone!
954 You are welcome, gentlemen! Come, musicians, play.
955 A hall, a hall! give room! and foot it, girls.
956 Music plays, and they dance.
957 More light, you knaves! and turn the tables up,
958 And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot.
959 Ah, sirrah, this unlook'd-for sport comes well.
960 Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin Capulet,
961 For you and I are past our dancing days.
962 How long is't now since last yourself and I
963 Were in a mask?
964 2. Cap. By'r Lady, thirty years.
965
966 Cap. What, man? 'Tis not so much, 'tis not so much!
967 'Tis since the nuptial of Lucentio,
968 Come Pentecost as quickly as it will,
969 Some five-and-twenty years, and then we mask'd.
970 2. Cap. 'Tis more, 'tis more! His son is elder, sir;
971 His son is thirty.
972
973 Cap. Will you tell me that?
974 His son was but a ward two years ago.
975
976 Rom. [to a Servingman] What lady's that, which doth enrich the
977 hand Of yonder knight?
978
979 Serv. I know not, sir.
980
981 Rom. O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
982 It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
983 Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear-
984 Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
985 So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows
986 As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
987 The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand
988 And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
989 Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!
990 For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
991
992 Tyb. This, by his voice, should be a Montague.
993 Fetch me my rapier, boy. What, dares the slave
994 Come hither, cover'd with an antic face,
995 To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?
996 Now, by the stock and honour of my kin,
997 To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.
998
999 Cap. Why, how now, kinsman? Wherefore storm you so?
1000
1001 Tyb. Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe;
1002 A villain, that is hither come in spite
1003 To scorn at our solemnity this night.
1004
1005 Cap. Young Romeo is it?
1006
1007 Tyb. 'Tis he, that villain Romeo.
1008
1009 Cap. Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone.
1010 'A bears him like a portly gentleman,
1011 And, to say truth, Verona brags of him
1012 To be a virtuous and well-govern'd youth.
1013 I would not for the wealth of all this town
1014 Here in my house do him disparagement.
1015 Therefore be patient, take no note of him.
1016 It is my will; the which if thou respect,
1017 Show a fair presence and put off these frowns,
1018 An ill-beseeming semblance for a feast.
1019
1020 Tyb. It fits when such a villain is a guest.
1021 I'll not endure him.
1022
1023 Cap. He shall be endur'd.
1024 What, goodman boy? I say he shall. Go to!
1025 Am I the master here, or you? Go to!
1026 You'll not endure him? God shall mend my soul!
1027 You'll make a mutiny among my guests!
1028 You will set cock-a-hoop! you'll be the man!
1029
1030 Tyb. Why, uncle, 'tis a shame.
1031
1032 Cap. Go to, go to!
1033 You are a saucy boy. Is't so, indeed?
1034 This trick may chance to scathe you. I know what.
1035 You must contrary me! Marry, 'tis time.-
1036 Well said, my hearts!- You are a princox- go!
1037 Be quiet, or- More light, more light!- For shame!
1038 I'll make you quiet; what!- Cheerly, my hearts!
1039
1040 Tyb. Patience perforce with wilful choler meeting
1041 Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.
1042 I will withdraw; but this intrusion shall,
1043 Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt'rest gall. Exit.
1044
1045 Rom. If I profane with my unworthiest hand
1046 This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
1047 My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
1048 To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
1049
1050 Jul. Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
1051 Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
1052 For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
1053 And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
1054
1055 Rom. Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
1056
1057 Jul. Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in pray'r.
1058
1059 Rom. O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do!
1060 They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
1061
1062 Jul. Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.
1063
1064 Rom. Then move not while my prayer's effect I take.
1065 Thus from my lips, by thine my sin is purg'd. [Kisses her.]
1066
1067 Jul. Then have my lips the sin that they have took.
1068
1069 Rom. Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urg'd!
1070 Give me my sin again. [Kisses her.]
1071
1072 Jul. You kiss by th' book.
1073
1074 Nurse. Madam, your mother craves a word with you.
1075
1076 Rom. What is her mother?
1077
1078 Nurse. Marry, bachelor,
1079 Her mother is the lady of the house.
1080 And a good lady, and a wise and virtuous.
1081 I nurs'd her daughter that you talk'd withal.
1082 I tell you, he that can lay hold of her
1083 Shall have the chinks.
1084
1085 Rom. Is she a Capulet?
1086 O dear account! my life is my foe's debt.
1087
1088 Ben. Away, be gone; the sport is at the best.
1089
1090 Rom. Ay, so I fear; the more is my unrest.
1091
1092 Cap. Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone;
1093 We have a trifling foolish banquet towards.
1094 Is it e'en so? Why then, I thank you all.
1095 I thank you, honest gentlemen. Good night.
1096 More torches here! [Exeunt Maskers.] Come on then, let's to bed.
1097 Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late;
1098 I'll to my rest.
1099 Exeunt [all but Juliet and Nurse].
1100
1101 Jul. Come hither, nurse. What is yond gentleman?
1102
1103 Nurse. The son and heir of old Tiberio.
1104
1105 Jul. What's he that now is going out of door?
1106
1107 Nurse. Marry, that, I think, be young Petruchio.
1108
1109 Jul. What's he that follows there, that would not dance?
1110
1111 Nurse. I know not.
1112
1113 Jul. Go ask his name.- If he be married,
1114 My grave is like to be my wedding bed.
1115
1116 Nurse. His name is Romeo, and a Montague,
1117 The only son of your great enemy.
1118
1119 Jul. My only love, sprung from my only hate!
1120 Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
1121 Prodigious birth of love it is to me
1122 That I must love a loathed enemy.
1123
1124 Nurse. What's this? what's this?
1125
1126 Jul. A rhyme I learnt even now
1127 Of one I danc'd withal.
1128 One calls within, 'Juliet.'
1129
1130 Nurse. Anon, anon!
1131 Come, let's away; the strangers all are gone. Exeunt.
1132
1133
1134
1135
1136PROLOGUE
1137
1138Enter Chorus.
1139
1140
1141 Chor. Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie,
1142 And young affection gapes to be his heir;
1143 That fair for which love groan'd for and would die,
1144 With tender Juliet match'd, is now not fair.
1145 Now Romeo is belov'd, and loves again,
1146 Alike bewitched by the charm of looks;
1147 But to his foe suppos'd he must complain,
1148 And she steal love's sweet bait from fearful hooks.
1149 Being held a foe, he may not have access
1150 To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear,
1151 And she as much in love, her means much less
1152 To meet her new beloved anywhere;
1153 But passion lends them power, time means, to meet,
1154 Temp'ring extremities with extreme sweet.
1155Exit.
1156
1157
1158
1159
1160ACT II. Scene I.
1161A lane by the wall of Capulet's orchard.
1162
1163Enter Romeo alone.
1164
1165
1166 Rom. Can I go forward when my heart is here?
1167 Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out.
1168 [Climbs the wall and leaps down within it.]
1169
1170 Enter Benvolio with Mercutio.
1171
1172
1173 Ben. Romeo! my cousin Romeo! Romeo!
1174
1175 Mer. He is wise,
1176 And, on my life, hath stol'n him home to bed.
1177
1178 Ben. He ran this way, and leapt this orchard wall.
1179 Call, good Mercutio.
1180
1181 Mer. Nay, I'll conjure too.
1182 Romeo! humours! madman! passion! lover!
1183 Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh;
1184 Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied!
1185 Cry but 'Ay me!' pronounce but 'love' and 'dove';
1186 Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word,
1187 One nickname for her purblind son and heir,
1188 Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim
1189 When King Cophetua lov'd the beggar maid!
1190 He heareth not, he stirreth not, be moveth not;
1191 The ape is dead, and I must conjure him.
1192 I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes.
1193 By her high forehead and her scarlet lip,
1194 By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh,
1195 And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,
1196 That in thy likeness thou appear to us!
1197
1198 Ben. An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him.
1199
1200 Mer. This cannot anger him. 'Twould anger him
1201 To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle
1202 Of some strange nature, letting it there stand
1203 Till she had laid it and conjur'd it down.
1204 That were some spite; my invocation
1205 Is fair and honest: in his mistress' name,
1206 I conjure only but to raise up him.
1207
1208 Ben. Come, he hath hid himself among these trees
1209 To be consorted with the humorous night.
1210 Blind is his love and best befits the dark.
1211
1212 Mer. If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.
1213 Now will he sit under a medlar tree
1214 And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit
1215 As maids call medlars when they laugh alone.
1216 O, Romeo, that she were, O that she were
1217 An open et cetera, thou a pop'rin pear!
1218 Romeo, good night. I'll to my truckle-bed;
1219 This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep.
1220 Come, shall we go?
1221
1222 Ben. Go then, for 'tis in vain
1223 'To seek him here that means not to be found.
1224 Exeunt.
1225
1226
1227
1228
1229Scene II.
1230Capulet's orchard.
1231
1232Enter Romeo.
1233
1234
1235 Rom. He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
1236
1237 Enter Juliet above at a window.
1238
1239 But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
1240 It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!
1241 Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
1242 Who is already sick and pale with grief
1243 That thou her maid art far more fair than she.
1244 Be not her maid, since she is envious.
1245 Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
1246 And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off.
1247 It is my lady; O, it is my love!
1248 O that she knew she were!
1249 She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that?
1250 Her eye discourses; I will answer it.
1251 I am too bold; 'tis not to me she speaks.
1252 Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
1253 Having some business, do entreat her eyes
1254 To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
1255 What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
1256 The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars
1257 As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
1258 Would through the airy region stream so bright
1259 That birds would sing and think it were not night.
1260 See how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
1261 O that I were a glove upon that hand,
1262 That I might touch that cheek!
1263
1264 Jul. Ay me!
1265
1266 Rom. She speaks.
1267 O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art
1268 As glorious to this night, being o'er my head,
1269 As is a winged messenger of heaven
1270 Unto the white-upturned wond'ring eyes
1271 Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him
1272 When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds
1273 And sails upon the bosom of the air.
1274
1275 Jul. O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
1276 Deny thy father and refuse thy name!
1277 Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
1278 And I'll no longer be a Capulet.
1279
1280 Rom. [aside] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?
1281
1282 Jul. 'Tis but thy name that is my enemy.
1283 Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
1284 What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
1285 Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
1286 Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
1287 What's in a name? That which we call a rose
1288 By any other name would smell as sweet.
1289 So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
1290 Retain that dear perfection which he owes
1291 Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name;
1292 And for that name, which is no part of thee,
1293 Take all myself.
1294
1295 Rom. I take thee at thy word.
1296 Call me but love, and I'll be new baptiz'd;
1297 Henceforth I never will be Romeo.
1298
1299 Jul. What man art thou that, thus bescreen'd in night,
1300 So stumblest on my counsel?
1301
1302 Rom. By a name
1303 I know not how to tell thee who I am.
1304 My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself,
1305 Because it is an enemy to thee.
1306 Had I it written, I would tear the word.
1307
1308 Jul. My ears have yet not drunk a hundred words
1309 Of that tongue's utterance, yet I know the sound.
1310 Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?
1311
1312 Rom. Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike.
1313
1314 Jul. How cam'st thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?
1315 The orchard walls are high and hard to climb,
1316 And the place death, considering who thou art,
1317 If any of my kinsmen find thee here.
1318
1319 Rom. With love's light wings did I o'erperch these walls;
1320 For stony limits cannot hold love out,
1321 And what love can do, that dares love attempt.
1322 Therefore thy kinsmen are no let to me.
1323
1324 Jul. If they do see thee, they will murther thee.
1325
1326 Rom. Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye
1327 Than twenty of their swords! Look thou but sweet,
1328 And I am proof against their enmity.
1329
1330 Jul. I would not for the world they saw thee here.
1331
1332 Rom. I have night's cloak to hide me from their sight;
1333 And but thou love me, let them find me here.
1334 My life were better ended by their hate
1335 Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.
1336
1337 Jul. By whose direction found'st thou out this place?
1338
1339 Rom. By love, that first did prompt me to enquire.
1340 He lent me counsel, and I lent him eyes.
1341 I am no pilot; yet, wert thou as far
1342 As that vast shore wash'd with the farthest sea,
1343 I would adventure for such merchandise.
1344
1345 Jul. Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face;
1346 Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek
1347 For that which thou hast heard me speak to-night.
1348 Fain would I dwell on form- fain, fain deny
1349 What I have spoke; but farewell compliment!
1350 Dost thou love me, I know thou wilt say 'Ay';
1351 And I will take thy word. Yet, if thou swear'st,
1352 Thou mayst prove false. At lovers' perjuries,
1353 They say Jove laughs. O gentle Romeo,
1354 If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully.
1355 Or if thou thinkest I am too quickly won,
1356 I'll frown, and be perverse, and say thee nay,
1357 So thou wilt woo; but else, not for the world.
1358 In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond,
1359 And therefore thou mayst think my haviour light;
1360 But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true
1361 Than those that have more cunning to be strange.
1362 I should have been more strange, I must confess,
1363 But that thou overheard'st, ere I was ware,
1364 My true-love passion. Therefore pardon me,
1365 And not impute this yielding to light love,
1366 Which the dark night hath so discovered.
1367
1368 Rom. Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear,
1369 That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops-
1370
1371 Jul. O, swear not by the moon, th' inconstant moon,
1372 That monthly changes in her circled orb,
1373 Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.
1374
1375 Rom. What shall I swear by?
1376
1377 Jul. Do not swear at all;
1378 Or if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self,
1379 Which is the god of my idolatry,
1380 And I'll believe thee.
1381
1382 Rom. If my heart's dear love-
1383
1384 Jul. Well, do not swear. Although I joy in thee,
1385 I have no joy of this contract to-night.
1386 It is too rash, too unadvis'd, too sudden;
1387 Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
1388 Ere one can say 'It lightens.' Sweet, good night!
1389 This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
1390 May prove a beauteous flow'r when next we meet.
1391 Good night, good night! As sweet repose and rest
1392 Come to thy heart as that within my breast!
1393
1394 Rom. O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?
1395
1396 Jul. What satisfaction canst thou have to-night?
1397
1398 Rom. Th' exchange of thy love's faithful vow for mine.
1399
1400 Jul. I gave thee mine before thou didst request it;
1401 And yet I would it were to give again.
1402
1403 Rom. Would'st thou withdraw it? For what purpose, love?
1404
1405 Jul. But to be frank and give it thee again.
1406 And yet I wish but for the thing I have.
1407 My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
1408 My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
1409 The more I have, for both are infinite.
1410 I hear some noise within. Dear love, adieu!
1411 [Nurse] calls within.
1412 Anon, good nurse! Sweet Montague, be true.
1413 Stay but a little, I will come again. [Exit.]
1414
1415 Rom. O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard,
1416 Being in night, all this is but a dream,
1417 Too flattering-sweet to be substantial.
1418
1419 Enter Juliet above.
1420
1421
1422 Jul. Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed.
1423 If that thy bent of love be honourable,
1424 Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow,
1425 By one that I'll procure to come to thee,
1426 Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite;
1427 And all my fortunes at thy foot I'll lay
1428 And follow thee my lord throughout the world.
1429
1430 Nurse. (within) Madam!
1431
1432 Jul. I come, anon.- But if thou meanest not well,
1433 I do beseech thee-
1434
1435 Nurse. (within) Madam!
1436
1437 Jul. By-and-by I come.-
1438 To cease thy suit and leave me to my grief.
1439 To-morrow will I send.
1440
1441 Rom. So thrive my soul-
1442
1443 Jul. A thousand times good night! Exit.
1444
1445 Rom. A thousand times the worse, to want thy light!
1446 Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books;
1447 But love from love, towards school with heavy looks.
1448
1449 Enter Juliet again, [above].
1450
1451
1452 Jul. Hist! Romeo, hist! O for a falconer's voice
1453 To lure this tassel-gentle back again!
1454 Bondage is hoarse and may not speak aloud;
1455 Else would I tear the cave where Echo lies,
1456 And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine
1457 With repetition of my Romeo's name.
1458 Romeo!
1459
1460 Rom. It is my soul that calls upon my name.
1461 How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night,
1462 Like softest music to attending ears!
1463
1464 Jul. Romeo!
1465
1466 Rom. My dear?
1467
1468 Jul. At what o'clock to-morrow
1469 Shall I send to thee?
1470
1471 Rom. By the hour of nine.
1472
1473 Jul. I will not fail. 'Tis twenty years till then.
1474 I have forgot why I did call thee back.
1475
1476 Rom. Let me stand here till thou remember it.
1477
1478 Jul. I shall forget, to have thee still stand there,
1479 Rememb'ring how I love thy company.
1480
1481 Rom. And I'll still stay, to have thee still forget,
1482 Forgetting any other home but this.
1483
1484 Jul. 'Tis almost morning. I would have thee gone-
1485 And yet no farther than a wanton's bird,
1486 That lets it hop a little from her hand,
1487 Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,
1488 And with a silk thread plucks it back again,
1489 So loving-jealous of his liberty.
1490
1491 Rom. I would I were thy bird.
1492
1493 Jul. Sweet, so would I.
1494 Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.
1495 Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow,
1496 That I shall say good night till it be morrow.
1497 [Exit.]
1498
1499 Rom. Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast!
1500 Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest!
1501 Hence will I to my ghostly father's cell,
1502 His help to crave and my dear hap to tell.
1503 Exit
1504
1505
1506
1507
1508Scene III.
1509Friar Laurence's cell.
1510
1511Enter Friar, [Laurence] alone, with a basket.
1512
1513
1514 Friar. The grey-ey'd morn smiles on the frowning night,
1515 Check'ring the Eastern clouds with streaks of light;
1516 And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels
1517 From forth day's path and Titan's fiery wheels.
1518 Non, ere the sun advance his burning eye
1519 The day to cheer and night's dank dew to dry,
1520 I must up-fill this osier cage of ours
1521 With baleful weeds and precious-juiced flowers.
1522 The earth that's nature's mother is her tomb.
1523 What is her burying gave, that is her womb;
1524 And from her womb children of divers kind
1525 We sucking on her natural bosom find;
1526 Many for many virtues excellent,
1527 None but for some, and yet all different.
1528 O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies
1529 In plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities;
1530 For naught so vile that on the earth doth live
1531 But to the earth some special good doth give;
1532 Nor aught so good but, strain'd from that fair use,
1533 Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse.
1534 Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied,
1535 And vice sometime's by action dignified.
1536 Within the infant rind of this small flower
1537 Poison hath residence, and medicine power;
1538 For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part;
1539 Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart.
1540 Two such opposed kings encamp them still
1541 In man as well as herbs- grace and rude will;
1542 And where the worser is predominant,
1543 Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.
1544
1545 Enter Romeo.
1546
1547
1548 Rom. Good morrow, father.
1549
1550 Friar. Benedicite!
1551 What early tongue so sweet saluteth me?
1552 Young son, it argues a distempered head
1553 So soon to bid good morrow to thy bed.
1554 Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,
1555 And where care lodges sleep will never lie;
1556 But where unbruised youth with unstuff'd brain
1557 Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign.
1558 Therefore thy earliness doth me assure
1559 Thou art uprous'd with some distemp'rature;
1560 Or if not so, then here I hit it right-
1561 Our Romeo hath not been in bed to-night.
1562
1563 Rom. That last is true-the sweeter rest was mine.
1564
1565 Friar. God pardon sin! Wast thou with Rosaline?
1566
1567 Rom. With Rosaline, my ghostly father? No.
1568 I have forgot that name, and that name's woe.
1569
1570 Friar. That's my good son! But where hast thou been then?
1571
1572 Rom. I'll tell thee ere thou ask it me again.
1573 I have been feasting with mine enemy,
1574 Where on a sudden one hath wounded me
1575 That's by me wounded. Both our remedies
1576 Within thy help and holy physic lies.
1577 I bear no hatred, blessed man, for, lo,
1578 My intercession likewise steads my foe.
1579
1580 Friar. Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift
1581 Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift.
1582
1583 Rom. Then plainly know my heart's dear love is set
1584 On the fair daughter of rich Capulet;
1585 As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine,
1586 And all combin'd, save what thou must combine
1587 By holy marriage. When, and where, and how
1588 We met, we woo'd, and made exchange of vow,
1589 I'll tell thee as we pass; but this I pray,
1590 That thou consent to marry us to-day.
1591
1592 Friar. Holy Saint Francis! What a change is here!
1593 Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear,
1594 So soon forsaken? Young men's love then lies
1595 Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.
1596 Jesu Maria! What a deal of brine
1597 Hath wash'd thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline!
1598 How much salt water thrown away in waste,
1599 To season love, that of it doth not taste!
1600 The sun not yet thy sighs from heaven clears,
1601 Thy old groans ring yet in mine ancient ears.
1602 Lo, here upon thy cheek the stain doth sit
1603 Of an old tear that is not wash'd off yet.
1604 If e'er thou wast thyself, and these woes thine,
1605 Thou and these woes were all for Rosaline.
1606 And art thou chang'd? Pronounce this sentence then:
1607 Women may fall when there's no strength in men.
1608
1609 Rom. Thou chid'st me oft for loving Rosaline.
1610
1611 Friar. For doting, not for loving, pupil mine.
1612
1613 Rom. And bad'st me bury love.
1614
1615 Friar. Not in a grave
1616 To lay one in, another out to have.
1617
1618 Rom. I pray thee chide not. She whom I love now
1619 Doth grace for grace and love for love allow.
1620 The other did not so.
1621
1622 Friar. O, she knew well
1623 Thy love did read by rote, that could not spell.
1624 But come, young waverer, come go with me.
1625 In one respect I'll thy assistant be;
1626 For this alliance may so happy prove
1627 To turn your households' rancour to pure love.
1628
1629 Rom. O, let us hence! I stand on sudden haste.
1630
1631 Friar. Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.
1632 Exeunt.
1633
1634
1635
1636
1637Scene IV.
1638A street.
1639
1640Enter Benvolio and Mercutio.
1641
1642
1643 Mer. Where the devil should this Romeo be?
1644 Came he not home to-night?
1645
1646 Ben. Not to his father's. I spoke with his man.
1647
1648 Mer. Why, that same pale hard-hearted wench, that Rosaline,
1649 Torments him so that he will sure run mad.
1650
1651 Ben. Tybalt, the kinsman to old Capulet,
1652 Hath sent a letter to his father's house.
1653
1654 Mer. A challenge, on my life.
1655
1656 Ben. Romeo will answer it.
1657
1658 Mer. Any man that can write may answer a letter.
1659
1660 Ben. Nay, he will answer the letter's master, how he dares,
1661 being dared.
1662
1663 Mer. Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead! stabb'd with a white
1664 wench's black eye; shot through the ear with a love song; the
1665 very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy's
1666 butt-shaft; and is he a man to encounter Tybalt?
1667
1668 Ben. Why, what is Tybalt?
1669
1670 Mer. More than Prince of Cats, I can tell you. O, he's the
1671 courageous captain of compliments. He fights as you sing
1672 pricksong-keeps time, distance, and proportion; rests me his
1673 minim rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom! the very
1674 butcher of a silk button, a duellist, a duellist! a gentleman
1675 of the very first house, of the first and second cause. Ah, the
1676 immortal passado! the punto reverse! the hay.
1677
1678 Ben. The what?
1679
1680 Mer. The pox of such antic, lisping, affecting fantasticoes-
1681 these new tuners of accent! 'By Jesu, a very good blade! a very
1682 tall man! a very good whore!' Why, is not this a lamentable thing,
1683 grandsir, that we should be thus afflicted with these strange
1684 flies, these fashion-mongers, these pardona-mi's, who stand
1685 so much on the new form that they cannot sit at ease on the old
1686 bench? O, their bones, their bones!
1687
1688 Enter Romeo.
1689
1690
1691 Ben. Here comes Romeo! here comes Romeo!
1692
1693 Mer. Without his roe, like a dried herring. O flesh, flesh, how
1694 art thou fishified! Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch
1695 flowed in. Laura, to his lady, was but a kitchen wench (marry, she
1696 had a better love to berhyme her), Dido a dowdy, Cleopatra a gypsy,
1697 Helen and Hero hildings and harlots, This be a gray eye or so,
1698 but not to the purpose. Signior Romeo, bon jour! There's a French
1699 salutation to your French slop. You gave us the counterfeit
1700 fairly last night.
1701
1702 Rom. Good morrow to you both. What counterfeit did I give you?
1703
1704 Mer. The slip, sir, the slip. Can you not conceive?
1705
1706 Rom. Pardon, good Mercutio. My business was great, and in such a
1707 case as mine a man may strain courtesy.
1708
1709 Mer. That's as much as to say, such a case as yours constrains a
1710 man to bow in the hams.
1711
1712 Rom. Meaning, to cursy.
1713
1714 Mer. Thou hast most kindly hit it.
1715
1716 Rom. A most courteous exposition.
1717
1718 Mer. Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy.
1719
1720 Rom. Pink for flower.
1721
1722 Mer. Right.
1723
1724 Rom. Why, then is my pump well-flower'd.
1725
1726 Mer. Well said! Follow me this jest now till thou hast worn out
1727 thy pump, that, when the single sole of it is worn, the jest may
1728 remain, after the wearing, solely singular.
1729
1730 Rom. O single-sold jest, solely singular for the singleness!
1731
1732 Mer. Come between us, good Benvolio! My wits faint.
1733
1734 Rom. Swits and spurs, swits and spurs! or I'll cry a match.
1735
1736 Mer. Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase, I am done; for
1737 thou hast more of the wild goose in one of thy wits than, I am
1738 sure, I have in my whole five. Was I with you there for the goose?
1739
1740 Rom. Thou wast never with me for anything when thou wast not
1741 there for the goose.
1742
1743 Mer. I will bite thee by the ear for that jest.
1744
1745 Rom. Nay, good goose, bite not!
1746
1747 Mer. Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting; it is a most sharp sauce.
1748
1749 Rom. And is it not, then, well serv'd in to a sweet goose?
1750
1751 Mer. O, here's a wit of cheveril, that stretches from an inch
1752 narrow to an ell broad!
1753
1754 Rom. I stretch it out for that word 'broad,' which, added to
1755 the goose, proves thee far and wide a broad goose.
1756
1757 Mer. Why, is not this better now than groaning for love? Now
1758 art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo; now art thou what thou art, by
1759 art as well as by nature. For this drivelling love is like a
1760 great natural that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in
1761 a hole.
1762
1763 Ben. Stop there, stop there!
1764
1765 Mer. Thou desirest me to stop in my tale against the hair.
1766
1767 Ben. Thou wouldst else have made thy tale large.
1768
1769 Mer. O, thou art deceiv'd! I would have made it short; for I
1770 was come to the whole depth of my tale, and meant indeed to
1771 occupy the argument no longer.
1772
1773 Rom. Here's goodly gear!
1774
1775 Enter Nurse and her Man [Peter].
1776
1777
1778 Mer. A sail, a sail!
1779
1780 Ben. Two, two! a shirt and a smock.
1781
1782 Nurse. Peter!
1783
1784 Peter. Anon.
1785
1786 Nurse. My fan, Peter.
1787
1788 Mer. Good Peter, to hide her face; for her fan's the fairer face of
1789 the two.
1790
1791 Nurse. God ye good morrow, gentlemen.
1792
1793 Mer. God ye good-den, fair gentlewoman.
1794
1795 Nurse. Is it good-den?
1796
1797 Mer. 'Tis no less, I tell ye; for the bawdy hand of the dial is
1798 now upon the prick of noon.
1799
1800 Nurse. Out upon you! What a man are you!
1801
1802 Rom. One, gentlewoman, that God hath made for himself to mar.
1803
1804 Nurse. By my troth, it is well said. 'For himself to mar,'
1805 quoth 'a? Gentlemen, can any of you tell me where I may find the
1806 young Romeo?
1807
1808 Rom. I can tell you; but young Romeo will be older when you
1809 have found him than he was when you sought him. I am the youngest
1810 of that name, for fault of a worse.
1811
1812 Nurse. You say well.
1813
1814 Mer. Yea, is the worst well? Very well took, i' faith! wisely,
1815 wisely.
1816
1817 Nurse. If you be he, sir, I desire some confidence with you.
1818
1819 Ben. She will endite him to some supper.
1820
1821 Mer. A bawd, a bawd, a bawd! So ho!
1822
1823 Rom. What hast thou found?
1824
1825 Mer. No hare, sir; unless a hare, sir, in a lenten pie, that is
1826 something stale and hoar ere it be spent
1827 He walks by them and sings.
1828
1829 An old hare hoar,
1830 And an old hare hoar,
1831 Is very good meat in Lent;
1832 But a hare that is hoar
1833 Is too much for a score
1834 When it hoars ere it be spent.
1835
1836 Romeo, will you come to your father's? We'll to dinner thither.
1837
1838 Rom. I will follow you.
1839
1840 Mer. Farewell, ancient lady. Farewell,
1841 [sings] lady, lady, lady.
1842 Exeunt Mercutio, Benvolio.
1843
1844 Nurse. Marry, farewell! I Pray you, Sir, what saucy merchant
1845 was this that was so full of his ropery?
1846
1847 Rom. A gentleman, nurse, that loves to hear himself talk and
1848 will speak more in a minute than he will stand to in a month.
1849
1850 Nurse. An 'a speak anything against me, I'll take him down, an'a
1851 were lustier than he is, and twenty such jacks; and if I cannot,
1852 I'll find those that shall. Scurvy knave! I am none of his
1853 flirt-gills; I am none of his skains-mates. And thou must
1854 stand by too, and suffer every knave to use me at his pleasure!
1855
1856 Peter. I saw no man use you at his pleasure. If I had, my
1857 weapon should quickly have been out, I warrant you. I dare draw as
1858 soon as another man, if I see occasion in a good quarrel, and the
1859 law on my side.
1860
1861 Nurse. Now, afore God, I am so vexed that every part about me
1862 quivers. Scurvy knave! Pray you, sir, a word; and, as I told you,
1863 my young lady bid me enquire you out. What she bid me say, I
1864 will keep to myself; but first let me tell ye, if ye should lead
1865 her into a fool's paradise, as they say, it were a very gross kind of
1866 behaviour, as they say; for the gentlewoman is young; and
1867 therefore, if you should deal double with her, truly it were
1868 an ill thing to be off'red to any gentlewoman, and very weak dealing.
1869
1870 Rom. Nurse, commend me to thy lady and mistress. I protest unto
1871 thee-
1872
1873 Nurse. Good heart, and I faith I will tell her as much. Lord,
1874 Lord! she will be a joyful woman.
1875
1876 Rom. What wilt thou tell her, nurse? Thou dost not mark me.
1877
1878 Nurse. I will tell her, sir, that you do protest, which, as I
1879 take it, is a gentlemanlike offer.
1880
1881 Rom. Bid her devise
1882 Some means to come to shrift this afternoon;
1883 And there she shall at Friar Laurence' cell
1884 Be shriv'd and married. Here is for thy pains.
1885
1886 Nurse. No, truly, sir; not a penny.
1887
1888 Rom. Go to! I say you shall.
1889
1890 Nurse. This afternoon, sir? Well, she shall be there.
1891
1892 Rom. And stay, good nurse, behind the abbey wall.
1893 Within this hour my man shall be with thee
1894 And bring thee cords made like a tackled stair,
1895 Which to the high topgallant of my joy
1896 Must be my convoy in the secret night.
1897 Farewell. Be trusty, and I'll quit thy pains.
1898 Farewell. Commend me to thy mistress.
1899
1900 Nurse. Now God in heaven bless thee! Hark you, sir.
1901
1902 Rom. What say'st thou, my dear nurse?
1903
1904 Nurse. Is your man secret? Did you ne'er hear say,
1905 Two may keep counsel, putting one away?
1906
1907 Rom. I warrant thee my man's as true as steel.
1908
1909 Nurse. Well, sir, my mistress is the sweetest lady. Lord, Lord!
1910 when 'twas a little prating thing- O, there is a nobleman in
1911 town, one Paris, that would fain lay knife aboard; but she,
1912 good soul, had as lieve see a toad, a very toad, as see him. I
1913 anger her sometimes, and tell her that Paris is the properer man;
1914 but I'll warrant you, when I say so, she looks as pale as any
1915 clout in the versal world. Doth not rosemary and Romeo begin both
1916 with a letter?
1917
1918 Rom. Ay, nurse; what of that? Both with an R.
1919
1920 Nurse. Ah, mocker! that's the dog's name. R is for the- No; I
1921 know it begins with some other letter; and she hath the prettiest
1922 sententious of it, of you and rosemary, that it would do you
1923 good to hear it.
1924
1925 Rom. Commend me to thy lady.
1926
1927 Nurse. Ay, a thousand times. [Exit Romeo.] Peter!
1928
1929 Peter. Anon.
1930
1931 Nurse. Peter, take my fan, and go before, and apace.
1932 Exeunt.
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937Scene V.
1938Capulet's orchard.
1939
1940Enter Juliet.
1941
1942
1943 Jul. The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse;
1944 In half an hour she 'promis'd to return.
1945 Perchance she cannot meet him. That's not so.
1946 O, she is lame! Love's heralds should be thoughts,
1947 Which ten times faster glide than the sun's beams
1948 Driving back shadows over low'ring hills.
1949 Therefore do nimble-pinion'd doves draw Love,
1950 And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.
1951 Now is the sun upon the highmost hill
1952 Of this day's journey, and from nine till twelve
1953 Is three long hours; yet she is not come.
1954 Had she affections and warm youthful blood,
1955 She would be as swift in motion as a ball;
1956 My words would bandy her to my sweet love,
1957 And his to me,
1958 But old folks, many feign as they were dead-
1959 Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.
1960
1961 Enter Nurse [and Peter].
1962
1963 O God, she comes! O honey nurse, what news?
1964 Hast thou met with him? Send thy man away.
1965
1966 Nurse. Peter, stay at the gate.
1967 [Exit Peter.]
1968
1969 Jul. Now, good sweet nurse- O Lord, why look'st thou sad?
1970 Though news be sad, yet tell them merrily;
1971 If good, thou shamest the music of sweet news
1972 By playing it to me with so sour a face.
1973
1974 Nurse. I am aweary, give me leave awhile.
1975 Fie, how my bones ache! What a jaunce have I had!
1976
1977 Jul. I would thou hadst my bones, and I thy news.
1978 Nay, come, I pray thee speak. Good, good nurse, speak.
1979
1980 Nurse. Jesu, what haste! Can you not stay awhile?
1981 Do you not see that I am out of breath?
1982
1983 Jul. How art thou out of breath when thou hast breath
1984 To say to me that thou art out of breath?
1985 The excuse that thou dost make in this delay
1986 Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse.
1987 Is thy news good or bad? Answer to that.
1988 Say either, and I'll stay the circumstance.
1989 Let me be satisfied, is't good or bad?
1990
1991 Nurse. Well, you have made a simple choice; you know not how to
1992 choose a man. Romeo? No, not he. Though his face be better
1993 than any man's, yet his leg excels all men's; and for a hand and a
1994 foot, and a body, though they be not to be talk'd on, yet
1995 they are past compare. He is not the flower of courtesy, but, I'll
1996 warrant him, as gentle as a lamb. Go thy ways, wench; serve God.
1997 What, have you din'd at home?
1998
1999 Jul. No, no. But all this did I know before.
2000 What says he of our marriage? What of that?
2001
2002 Nurse. Lord, how my head aches! What a head have I!
2003 It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces.
2004 My back o' t' other side,- ah, my back, my back!
2005 Beshrew your heart for sending me about
2006 To catch my death with jauncing up and down!
2007
2008 Jul. I' faith, I am sorry that thou art not well.
2009 Sweet, sweet, Sweet nurse, tell me, what says my love?
2010
2011 Nurse. Your love says, like an honest gentleman, and a courteous,
2012 and a kind, and a handsome; and, I warrant, a virtuous- Where
2013 is your mother?
2014
2015 Jul. Where is my mother? Why, she is within.
2016 Where should she be? How oddly thou repliest!
2017 'Your love says, like an honest gentleman,
2018 "Where is your mother?"'
2019
2020 Nurse. O God's Lady dear!
2021 Are you so hot? Marry come up, I trow.
2022 Is this the poultice for my aching bones?
2023 Henceforward do your messages yourself.
2024
2025 Jul. Here's such a coil! Come, what says Romeo?
2026
2027 Nurse. Have you got leave to go to shrift to-day?
2028
2029 Jul. I have.
2030
2031 Nurse. Then hie you hence to Friar Laurence' cell;
2032 There stays a husband to make you a wife.
2033 Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks:
2034 They'll be in scarlet straight at any news.
2035 Hie you to church; I must another way,
2036 To fetch a ladder, by the which your love
2037 Must climb a bird's nest soon when it is dark.
2038 I am the drudge, and toil in your delight;
2039 But you shall bear the burthen soon at night.
2040 Go; I'll to dinner; hie you to the cell.
2041
2042 Jul. Hie to high fortune! Honest nurse, farewell.
2043 Exeunt.
2044
2045
2046
2047
2048Scene VI.
2049Friar Laurence's cell.
2050
2051Enter Friar [Laurence] and Romeo.
2052
2053
2054 Friar. So smile the heavens upon this holy act
2055 That after-hours with sorrow chide us not!
2056
2057 Rom. Amen, amen! But come what sorrow can,
2058 It cannot countervail the exchange of joy
2059 That one short minute gives me in her sight.
2060 Do thou but close our hands with holy words,
2061 Then love-devouring death do what he dare-
2062 It is enough I may but call her mine.
2063
2064 Friar. These violent delights have violent ends
2065 And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
2066 Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey
2067 Is loathsome in his own deliciousness
2068 And in the taste confounds the appetite.
2069 Therefore love moderately: long love doth so;
2070 Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.
2071
2072 Enter Juliet.
2073
2074 Here comes the lady. O, so light a foot
2075 Will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint.
2076 A lover may bestride the gossamer
2077 That idles in the wanton summer air,
2078 And yet not fall; so light is vanity.
2079
2080 Jul. Good even to my ghostly confessor.
2081
2082 Friar. Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both.
2083
2084 Jul. As much to him, else is his thanks too much.
2085
2086 Rom. Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy
2087 Be heap'd like mine, and that thy skill be more
2088 To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath
2089 This neighbour air, and let rich music's tongue
2090 Unfold the imagin'd happiness that both
2091 Receive in either by this dear encounter.
2092
2093 Jul. Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,
2094 Brags of his substance, not of ornament.
2095 They are but beggars that can count their worth;
2096 But my true love is grown to such excess
2097 cannot sum up sum of half my wealth.
2098
2099 Friar. Come, come with me, and we will make short work;
2100 For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone
2101 Till Holy Church incorporate two in one.
2102 [Exeunt.]
2103
2104
2105
2106
2107ACT III. Scene I.
2108A public place.
2109
2110Enter Mercutio, Benvolio, and Men.
2111
2112
2113 Ben. I pray thee, good Mercutio, let's retire.
2114 The day is hot, the Capulets abroad.
2115 And if we meet, we shall not scape a brawl,
2116 For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.
2117
2118 Mer. Thou art like one of these fellows that, when he enters
2119 the confines of a tavern, claps me his sword upon the table and
2120 says 'God send me no need of thee!' and by the operation of the
2121 second cup draws him on the drawer, when indeed there is no need.
2122
2123 Ben. Am I like such a fellow?
2124
2125 Mer. Come, come, thou art as hot a jack in thy mood as any in
2126 Italy; and as soon moved to be moody, and as soon moody to be
2127 moved.
2128
2129 Ben. And what to?
2130
2131 Mer. Nay, an there were two such, we should have none shortly,
2132 for one would kill the other. Thou! why, thou wilt quarrel with a
2133 man that hath a hair more or a hair less in his beard than thou hast.
2134 Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no
2135 other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes. What eye but such an
2136 eye would spy out such a quarrel? Thy head is as full of quarrels
2137 as an egg is full of meat; and yet thy head hath been beaten as
2138 addle as an egg for quarrelling. Thou hast quarrell'd with a
2139 man for coughing in the street, because he hath wakened thy dog
2140 that hath lain asleep in the sun. Didst thou not fall out with a
2141 tailor for wearing his new doublet before Easter, with
2142 another for tying his new shoes with an old riband? And yet thou wilt
2143 tutor me from quarrelling!
2144
2145 Ben. An I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any man should
2146 buy the fee simple of my life for an hour and a quarter.
2147
2148 Mer. The fee simple? O simple!
2149
2150 Enter Tybalt and others.
2151
2152
2153 Ben. By my head, here come the Capulets.
2154
2155 Mer. By my heel, I care not.
2156
2157 Tyb. Follow me close, for I will speak to them.
2158 Gentlemen, good den. A word with one of you.
2159
2160 Mer. And but one word with one of us?
2161 Couple it with something; make it a word and a blow.
2162
2163 Tyb. You shall find me apt enough to that, sir, an you will give me
2164 occasion.
2165
2166 Mer. Could you not take some occasion without giving
2167
2168 Tyb. Mercutio, thou consortest with Romeo.
2169
2170 Mer. Consort? What, dost thou make us minstrels? An thou make
2171 minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords. Here's my
2172 fiddlestick; here's that shall make you dance. Zounds, consort!
2173
2174 Ben. We talk here in the public haunt of men.
2175 Either withdraw unto some private place
2176 And reason coldly of your grievances,
2177 Or else depart. Here all eyes gaze on us.
2178
2179 Mer. Men's eyes were made to look, and let them gaze.
2180 I will not budge for no man's pleasure,
2181
2182 Enter Romeo.
2183
2184
2185 Tyb. Well, peace be with you, sir. Here comes my man.
2186
2187 Mer. But I'll be hang'd, sir, if he wear your livery.
2188 Marry, go before to field, he'll be your follower!
2189 Your worship in that sense may call him man.
2190
2191 Tyb. Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford
2192 No better term than this: thou art a villain.
2193
2194 Rom. Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee
2195 Doth much excuse the appertaining rage
2196 To such a greeting. Villain am I none.
2197 Therefore farewell. I see thou knowest me not.
2198
2199 Tyb. Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries
2200 That thou hast done me; therefore turn and draw.
2201
2202 Rom. I do protest I never injur'd thee,
2203 But love thee better than thou canst devise
2204 Till thou shalt know the reason of my love;
2205 And so good Capulet, which name I tender
2206 As dearly as mine own, be satisfied.
2207
2208 Mer. O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!
2209 Alla stoccata carries it away. [Draws.]
2210 Tybalt, you ratcatcher, will you walk?
2211
2212 Tyb. What wouldst thou have with me?
2213
2214 Mer. Good King of Cats, nothing but one of your nine lives.
2215That I
2216 mean to make bold withal, and, as you shall use me hereafter,
2217
2218 dry-beat the rest of the eight. Will you pluck your sword out
2219 of his pitcher by the ears? Make haste, lest mine be about your
2220 ears ere it be out.
2221
2222 Tyb. I am for you. [Draws.]
2223
2224 Rom. Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up.
2225
2226 Mer. Come, sir, your passado!
2227 [They fight.]
2228
2229 Rom. Draw, Benvolio; beat down their weapons.
2230 Gentlemen, for shame! forbear this outrage!
2231 Tybalt, Mercutio, the Prince expressly hath
2232 Forbid this bandying in Verona streets.
2233 Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio!
2234 Tybalt under Romeo's arm thrusts Mercutio in, and flies
2235 [with his Followers].
2236
2237 Mer. I am hurt.
2238 A plague o' both your houses! I am sped.
2239 Is he gone and hath nothing?
2240
2241 Ben. What, art thou hurt?
2242
2243 Mer. Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch. Marry, 'tis enough.
2244 Where is my page? Go, villain, fetch a surgeon.
2245 [Exit Page.]
2246
2247 Rom. Courage, man. The hurt cannot be much.
2248
2249 Mer. No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door;
2250 but 'tis enough, 'twill serve. Ask for me to-morrow, and you
2251 shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this
2252 world. A plague o' both your houses! Zounds, a dog, a rat, a
2253 mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death! a braggart, a rogue, a
2254 villain, that fights by the book of arithmetic! Why the devil
2255 came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.
2256
2257 Rom. I thought all for the best.
2258
2259 Mer. Help me into some house, Benvolio,
2260 Or I shall faint. A plague o' both your houses!
2261 They have made worms' meat of me. I have it,
2262 And soundly too. Your houses!
2263 [Exit. [supported by Benvolio].
2264
2265 Rom. This gentleman, the Prince's near ally,
2266 My very friend, hath got this mortal hurt
2267 In my behalf- my reputation stain'd
2268 With Tybalt's slander- Tybalt, that an hour
2269 Hath been my kinsman. O sweet Juliet,
2270 Thy beauty hath made me effeminate
2271 And in my temper soft'ned valour's steel
2272
2273 Enter Benvolio.
2274
2275
2276 Ben. O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio's dead!
2277 That gallant spirit hath aspir'd the clouds,
2278 Which too untimely here did scorn the earth.
2279
2280 Rom. This day's black fate on moe days doth depend;
2281 This but begins the woe others must end.
2282
2283 Enter Tybalt.
2284
2285
2286 Ben. Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.
2287
2288 Rom. Alive in triumph, and Mercutio slain?
2289 Away to heaven respective lenity,
2290 And fire-ey'd fury be my conduct now!
2291 Now, Tybalt, take the 'villain' back again
2292 That late thou gavest me; for Mercutio's soul
2293 Is but a little way above our heads,
2294 Staying for thine to keep him company.
2295 Either thou or I, or both, must go with him.
2296
2297 Tyb. Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort him here,
2298 Shalt with him hence.
2299
2300 Rom. This shall determine that.
2301 They fight. Tybalt falls.
2302
2303 Ben. Romeo, away, be gone!
2304 The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain.
2305 Stand not amaz'd. The Prince will doom thee death
2306 If thou art taken. Hence, be gone, away!
2307
2308 Rom. O, I am fortune's fool!
2309
2310 Ben. Why dost thou stay?
2311 Exit Romeo.
2312 Enter Citizens.
2313
2314
2315 Citizen. Which way ran he that kill'd Mercutio?
2316 Tybalt, that murtherer, which way ran he?
2317
2318 Ben. There lies that Tybalt.
2319
2320 Citizen. Up, sir, go with me.
2321 I charge thee in the Prince's name obey.
2322
2323
2324 Enter Prince [attended], Old Montague, Capulet, their Wives,
2325 and [others].
2326
2327
2328 Prince. Where are the vile beginners of this fray?
2329
2330 Ben. O noble Prince. I can discover all
2331 The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl.
2332 There lies the man, slain by young Romeo,
2333 That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio.
2334
2335 Cap. Wife. Tybalt, my cousin! O my brother's child!
2336 O Prince! O husband! O, the blood is spill'd
2337 Of my dear kinsman! Prince, as thou art true,
2338 For blood of ours shed blood of Montague.
2339 O cousin, cousin!
2340
2341 Prince. Benvolio, who began this bloody fray?
2342
2343 Ben. Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did stay.
2344 Romeo, that spoke him fair, bid him bethink
2345 How nice the quarrel was, and urg'd withal
2346 Your high displeasure. All this- uttered
2347 With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd-
2348 Could not take truce with the unruly spleen
2349 Of Tybalt deaf to peace, but that he tilts
2350 With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast;
2351 Who, all as hot, turns deadly point to point,
2352 And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats
2353 Cold death aside and with the other sends
2354 It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity
2355 Retorts it. Romeo he cries aloud,
2356 'Hold, friends! friends, part!' and swifter than his tongue,
2357 His agile arm beats down their fatal points,
2358 And 'twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm
2359 An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
2360 Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled;
2361 But by-and-by comes back to Romeo,
2362 Who had but newly entertain'd revenge,
2363 And to't they go like lightning; for, ere I
2364 Could draw to part them, was stout Tybalt slain;
2365 And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly.
2366 This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.
2367
2368 Cap. Wife. He is a kinsman to the Montague;
2369 Affection makes him false, he speaks not true.
2370 Some twenty of them fought in this black strife,
2371 And all those twenty could but kill one life.
2372 I beg for justice, which thou, Prince, must give.
2373 Romeo slew Tybalt; Romeo must not live.
2374
2375 Prince. Romeo slew him; he slew Mercutio.
2376 Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?
2377
2378 Mon. Not Romeo, Prince; he was Mercutio's friend;
2379 His fault concludes but what the law should end,
2380 The life of Tybalt.
2381
2382 Prince. And for that offence
2383 Immediately we do exile him hence.
2384 I have an interest in your hate's proceeding,
2385 My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a-bleeding;
2386 But I'll amerce you with so strong a fine
2387 That you shall all repent the loss of mine.
2388 I will be deaf to pleading and excuses;
2389 Nor tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses.
2390 Therefore use none. Let Romeo hence in haste,
2391 Else, when he is found, that hour is his last.
2392 Bear hence this body, and attend our will.
2393 Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.
2394 Exeunt.
2395
2396
2397
2398
2399Scene II.
2400Capulet's orchard.
2401
2402Enter Juliet alone.
2403
2404
2405 Jul. Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
2406 Towards Phoebus' lodging! Such a wagoner
2407 As Phaeton would whip you to the West
2408 And bring in cloudy night immediately.
2409 Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,
2410 That runaway eyes may wink, and Romeo
2411 Leap to these arms untalk'd of and unseen.
2412 Lovers can see to do their amorous rites
2413 By their own beauties; or, if love be blind,
2414 It best agrees with night. Come, civil night,
2415 Thou sober-suited matron, all in black,
2416 And learn me how to lose a winning match,
2417 Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.
2418 Hood my unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks,
2419 With thy black mantle till strange love, grown bold,
2420 Think true love acted simple modesty.
2421 Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night;
2422 For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
2423 Whiter than new snow upon a raven's back.
2424 Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-brow'd night;
2425 Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
2426 Take him and cut him out in little stars,
2427 And he will make the face of heaven so fine
2428 That all the world will be in love with night
2429 And pay no worship to the garish sun.
2430 O, I have bought the mansion of a love,
2431 But not possess'd it; and though I am sold,
2432 Not yet enjoy'd. So tedious is this day
2433 As is the night before some festival
2434 To an impatient child that hath new robes
2435 And may not wear them. O, here comes my nurse,
2436
2437 Enter Nurse, with cords.
2438
2439 And she brings news; and every tongue that speaks
2440 But Romeo's name speaks heavenly eloquence.
2441 Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there? the cords
2442 That Romeo bid thee fetch?
2443
2444 Nurse. Ay, ay, the cords.
2445 [Throws them down.]
2446
2447 Jul. Ay me! what news? Why dost thou wring thy hands
2448
2449 Nurse. Ah, weraday! he's dead, he's dead, he's dead!
2450 We are undone, lady, we are undone!
2451 Alack the day! he's gone, he's kill'd, he's dead!
2452
2453 Jul. Can heaven be so envious?
2454
2455 Nurse. Romeo can,
2456 Though heaven cannot. O Romeo, Romeo!
2457 Who ever would have thought it? Romeo!
2458
2459 Jul. What devil art thou that dost torment me thus?
2460 This torture should be roar'd in dismal hell.
2461 Hath Romeo slain himself? Say thou but 'I,'
2462 And that bare vowel 'I' shall poison more
2463 Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice.
2464 I am not I, if there be such an 'I';
2465 Or those eyes shut that make thee answer 'I.'
2466 If be be slain, say 'I'; or if not, 'no.'
2467 Brief sounds determine of my weal or woe.
2468
2469 Nurse. I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes,
2470 (God save the mark!) here on his manly breast.
2471 A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse;
2472 Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaub'd in blood,
2473 All in gore-blood. I swounded at the sight.
2474
2475 Jul. O, break, my heart! poor bankrout, break at once!
2476 To prison, eyes; ne'er look on liberty!
2477 Vile earth, to earth resign; end motion here,
2478 And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier!
2479
2480 Nurse. O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had!
2481 O courteous Tybalt! honest gentleman
2482 That ever I should live to see thee dead!
2483
2484 Jul. What storm is this that blows so contrary?
2485 Is Romeo slaught'red, and is Tybalt dead?
2486 My dear-lov'd cousin, and my dearer lord?
2487 Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom!
2488 For who is living, if those two are gone?
2489
2490 Nurse. Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished;
2491 Romeo that kill'd him, he is banished.
2492
2493 Jul. O God! Did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?
2494
2495 Nurse. It did, it did! alas the day, it did!
2496
2497 Jul. O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face!
2498 Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
2499 Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!
2500 Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
2501 Despised substance of divinest show!
2502 Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st-
2503 A damned saint, an honourable villain!
2504 O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell
2505 When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
2506 In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?
2507 Was ever book containing such vile matter
2508 So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell
2509 In such a gorgeous palace!
2510
2511 Nurse. There's no trust,
2512 No faith, no honesty in men; all perjur'd,
2513 All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.
2514 Ah, where's my man? Give me some aqua vitae.
2515 These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old.
2516 Shame come to Romeo!
2517
2518 Jul. Blister'd be thy tongue
2519 For such a wish! He was not born to shame.
2520 Upon his brow shame is asham'd to sit;
2521 For 'tis a throne where honour may be crown'd
2522 Sole monarch of the universal earth.
2523 O, what a beast was I to chide at him!
2524
2525 Nurse. Will you speak well of him that kill'd your cousin?
2526
2527 Jul. Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?
2528 Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name
2529 When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it?
2530 But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?
2531 That villain cousin would have kill'd my husband.
2532 Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring!
2533 Your tributary drops belong to woe,
2534 Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy.
2535 My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain;
2536 And Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my husband.
2537 All this is comfort; wherefore weep I then?
2538 Some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death,
2539 That murd'red me. I would forget it fain;
2540 But O, it presses to my memory
2541 Like damned guilty deeds to sinners' minds!
2542 'Tybalt is dead, and Romeo- banished.'
2543 That 'banished,' that one word 'banished,'
2544 Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt's death
2545 Was woe enough, if it had ended there;
2546 Or, if sour woe delights in fellowship
2547 And needly will be rank'd with other griefs,
2548 Why followed not, when she said 'Tybalt's dead,'
2549 Thy father, or thy mother, nay, or both,
2550 Which modern lamentation might have mov'd?
2551 But with a rearward following Tybalt's death,
2552 'Romeo is banished'- to speak that word
2553 Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,
2554 All slain, all dead. 'Romeo is banished'-
2555 There is no end, no limit, measure, bound,
2556 In that word's death; no words can that woe sound.
2557 Where is my father and my mother, nurse?
2558
2559 Nurse. Weeping and wailing over Tybalt's corse.
2560 Will you go to them? I will bring you thither.
2561
2562 Jul. Wash they his wounds with tears? Mine shall be spent,
2563 When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment.
2564 Take up those cords. Poor ropes, you are beguil'd,
2565 Both you and I, for Romeo is exil'd.
2566 He made you for a highway to my bed;
2567 But I, a maid, die maiden-widowed.
2568 Come, cords; come, nurse. I'll to my wedding bed;
2569 And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!
2570
2571 Nurse. Hie to your chamber. I'll find Romeo
2572 To comfort you. I wot well where he is.
2573 Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at night.
2574 I'll to him; he is hid at Laurence' cell.
2575
2576 Jul. O, find him! give this ring to my true knight
2577 And bid him come to take his last farewell.
2578 Exeunt.
2579
2580
2581
2582
2583Scene III.
2584Friar Laurence's cell.
2585
2586Enter Friar [Laurence].
2587
2588
2589 Friar. Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man.
2590 Affliction is enanmour'd of thy parts,
2591 And thou art wedded to calamity.
2592
2593 Enter Romeo.
2594
2595
2596 Rom. Father, what news? What is the Prince's doom
2597 What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand
2598 That I yet know not?
2599
2600 Friar. Too familiar
2601 Is my dear son with such sour company.
2602 I bring thee tidings of the Prince's doom.
2603
2604 Rom. What less than doomsday is the Prince's doom?
2605
2606 Friar. A gentler judgment vanish'd from his lips-
2607 Not body's death, but body's banishment.
2608
2609 Rom. Ha, banishment? Be merciful, say 'death';
2610 For exile hath more terror in his look,
2611 Much more than death. Do not say 'banishment.'
2612
2613 Friar. Hence from Verona art thou banished.
2614 Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.
2615
2616 Rom. There is no world without Verona walls,
2617 But purgatory, torture, hell itself.
2618 Hence banished is banish'd from the world,
2619 And world's exile is death. Then 'banishment'
2620 Is death misterm'd. Calling death 'banishment,'
2621 Thou cut'st my head off with a golden axe
2622 And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.
2623
2624 Friar. O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!
2625 Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind Prince,
2626 Taking thy part, hath rush'd aside the law,
2627 And turn'd that black word death to banishment.
2628 This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not.
2629
2630 Rom. 'Tis torture, and not mercy. Heaven is here,
2631 Where Juliet lives; and every cat and dog
2632 And little mouse, every unworthy thing,
2633 Live here in heaven and may look on her;
2634 But Romeo may not. More validity,
2635 More honourable state, more courtship lives
2636 In carrion flies than Romeo. They may seize
2637 On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand
2638 And steal immortal blessing from her lips,
2639 Who, even in pure and vestal modesty,
2640 Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin;
2641 But Romeo may not- he is banished.
2642 This may flies do, when I from this must fly;
2643 They are free men, but I am banished.
2644 And sayest thou yet that exile is not death?
2645 Hadst thou no poison mix'd, no sharp-ground knife,
2646 No sudden mean of death, though ne'er so mean,
2647 But 'banished' to kill me- 'banished'?
2648 O friar, the damned use that word in hell;
2649 Howling attends it! How hast thou the heart,
2650 Being a divine, a ghostly confessor,
2651 A sin-absolver, and my friend profess'd,
2652 To mangle me with that word 'banished'?
2653
2654 Friar. Thou fond mad man, hear me a little speak.
2655
2656 Rom. O, thou wilt speak again of banishment.
2657
2658 Friar. I'll give thee armour to keep off that word;
2659 Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy,
2660 To comfort thee, though thou art banished.
2661
2662 Rom. Yet 'banished'? Hang up philosophy!
2663 Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
2664 Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom,
2665 It helps not, it prevails not. Talk no more.
2666
2667 Friar. O, then I see that madmen have no ears.
2668
2669 Rom. How should they, when that wise men have no eyes?
2670
2671 Friar. Let me dispute with thee of thy estate.
2672
2673 Rom. Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel.
2674 Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love,
2675 An hour but married, Tybalt murdered,
2676 Doting like me, and like me banished,
2677 Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair,
2678 And fall upon the ground, as I do now,
2679 Taking the measure of an unmade grave.
2680 Knock [within].
2681
2682 Friar. Arise; one knocks. Good Romeo, hide thyself.
2683
2684 Rom. Not I; unless the breath of heartsick groans,
2685 Mist-like infold me from the search of eyes. Knock.
2686
2687 Friar. Hark, how they knock! Who's there? Romeo, arise;
2688 Thou wilt be taken.- Stay awhile!- Stand up; Knock.
2689 Run to my study.- By-and-by!- God's will,
2690 What simpleness is this.- I come, I come! Knock.
2691 Who knocks so hard? Whence come you? What's your will
2692
2693 Nurse. [within] Let me come in, and you shall know my errand.
2694 I come from Lady Juliet.
2695
2696 Friar. Welcome then.
2697
2698 Enter Nurse.
2699
2700
2701 Nurse. O holy friar, O, tell me, holy friar
2702 Where is my lady's lord, where's Romeo?
2703
2704 Friar. There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk.
2705
2706 Nurse. O, he is even in my mistress' case,
2707 Just in her case!
2708
2709 Friar. O woeful sympathy!
2710 Piteous predicament!
2711
2712 Nurse. Even so lies she,
2713 Blubb'ring and weeping, weeping and blubbering.
2714 Stand up, stand up! Stand, an you be a man.
2715 For Juliet's sake, for her sake, rise and stand!
2716 Why should you fall into so deep an O?
2717
2718 Rom. (rises) Nurse-
2719
2720 Nurse. Ah sir! ah sir! Well, death's the end of all.
2721
2722 Rom. Spakest thou of Juliet? How is it with her?
2723 Doth not she think me an old murtherer,
2724 Now I have stain'd the childhood of our joy
2725 With blood remov'd but little from her own?
2726 Where is she? and how doth she! and what says
2727 My conceal'd lady to our cancell'd love?
2728
2729 Nurse. O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps;
2730 And now falls on her bed, and then starts up,
2731 And Tybalt calls; and then on Romeo cries,
2732 And then down falls again.
2733
2734 Rom. As if that name,
2735 Shot from the deadly level of a gun,
2736 Did murther her; as that name's cursed hand
2737 Murder'd her kinsman. O, tell me, friar, tell me,
2738 In what vile part of this anatomy
2739 Doth my name lodge? Tell me, that I may sack
2740 The hateful mansion. [Draws his dagger.]
2741
2742 Friar. Hold thy desperate hand.
2743 Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art;
2744 Thy tears are womanish, thy wild acts denote
2745 The unreasonable fury of a beast.
2746 Unseemly woman in a seeming man!
2747 Or ill-beseeming beast in seeming both!
2748 Thou hast amaz'd me. By my holy order,
2749 I thought thy disposition better temper'd.
2750 Hast thou slain Tybalt? Wilt thou slay thyself?
2751 And slay thy lady that in thy life lives,
2752 By doing damned hate upon thyself?
2753 Why railest thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth?
2754 Since birth and heaven and earth, all three do meet
2755 In thee at once; which thou at once wouldst lose.
2756 Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit,
2757 Which, like a usurer, abound'st in all,
2758 And usest none in that true use indeed
2759 Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit.
2760 Thy noble shape is but a form of wax
2761 Digressing from the valour of a man;
2762 Thy dear love sworn but hollow perjury,
2763 Killing that love which thou hast vow'd to cherish;
2764 Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,
2765 Misshapen in the conduct of them both,
2766 Like powder in a skilless soldier's flask,
2767 is get afire by thine own ignorance,
2768 And thou dismemb'red with thine own defence.
2769 What, rouse thee, man! Thy Juliet is alive,
2770 For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead.
2771 There art thou happy. Tybalt would kill thee,
2772 But thou slewest Tybalt. There art thou happy too.
2773 The law, that threat'ned death, becomes thy friend
2774 And turns it to exile. There art thou happy.
2775 A pack of blessings light upon thy back;
2776 Happiness courts thee in her best array;
2777 But, like a misbhav'd and sullen wench,
2778 Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love.
2779 Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.
2780 Go get thee to thy love, as was decreed,
2781 Ascend her chamber, hence and comfort her.
2782 But look thou stay not till the watch be set,
2783 For then thou canst not pass to Mantua,
2784 Where thou shalt live till we can find a time
2785 To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends,
2786 Beg pardon of the Prince, and call thee back
2787 With twenty hundred thousand times more joy
2788 Than thou went'st forth in lamentation.
2789 Go before, nurse. Commend me to thy lady,
2790 And bid her hasten all the house to bed,
2791 Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto.
2792 Romeo is coming.
2793
2794 Nurse. O Lord, I could have stay'd here all the night
2795 To hear good counsel. O, what learning is!
2796 My lord, I'll tell my lady you will come.
2797
2798 Rom. Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide.
2799
2800 Nurse. Here is a ring she bid me give you, sir.
2801 Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late. Exit.
2802
2803 Rom. How well my comfort is reviv'd by this!
2804
2805 Friar. Go hence; good night; and here stands all your state:
2806 Either be gone before the watch be set,
2807 Or by the break of day disguis'd from hence.
2808 Sojourn in Mantua. I'll find out your man,
2809 And he shall signify from time to time
2810 Every good hap to you that chances here.
2811 Give me thy hand. 'Tis late. Farewell; good night.
2812
2813 Rom. But that a joy past joy calls out on me,
2814 It were a grief so brief to part with thee.
2815 Farewell.
2816 Exeunt.
2817
2818
2819
2820
2821Scene IV.
2822Capulet's house
2823
2824Enter Old Capulet, his Wife, and Paris.
2825
2826
2827 Cap. Things have fall'n out, sir, so unluckily
2828 That we have had no time to move our daughter.
2829 Look you, she lov'd her kinsman Tybalt dearly,
2830 And so did I. Well, we were born to die.
2831 'Tis very late; she'll not come down to-night.
2832 I promise you, but for your company,
2833 I would have been abed an hour ago.
2834
2835 Par. These times of woe afford no tune to woo.
2836 Madam, good night. Commend me to your daughter.
2837
2838 Lady. I will, and know her mind early to-morrow;
2839 To-night she's mew'd up to her heaviness.
2840
2841 Cap. Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender
2842 Of my child's love. I think she will be rul'd
2843 In all respects by me; nay more, I doubt it not.
2844 Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed;
2845 Acquaint her here of my son Paris' love
2846 And bid her (mark you me?) on Wednesday next-
2847 But, soft! what day is this?
2848
2849 Par. Monday, my lord.
2850
2851 Cap. Monday! ha, ha! Well, Wednesday is too soon.
2852 Thursday let it be- a Thursday, tell her
2853 She shall be married to this noble earl.
2854 Will you be ready? Do you like this haste?
2855 We'll keep no great ado- a friend or two;
2856 For hark you, Tybalt being slain so late,
2857 It may be thought we held him carelessly,
2858 Being our kinsman, if we revel much.
2859 Therefore we'll have some half a dozen friends,
2860 And there an end. But what say you to Thursday?
2861
2862 Par. My lord, I would that Thursday were to-morrow.
2863
2864 Cap. Well, get you gone. A Thursday be it then.
2865 Go you to Juliet ere you go to bed;
2866 Prepare her, wife, against this wedding day.
2867 Farewell, My lord.- Light to my chamber, ho!
2868 Afore me, It is so very very late
2869 That we may call it early by-and-by.
2870 Good night.
2871 Exeunt
2872
2873
2874
2875
2876Scene V.
2877Capulet's orchard.
2878
2879Enter Romeo and Juliet aloft, at the Window.
2880
2881
2882 Jul. Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day.
2883 It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
2884 That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear.
2885 Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate tree.
2886 Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.
2887
2888 Rom. It was the lark, the herald of the morn;
2889 No nightingale. Look, love, what envious streaks
2890 Do lace the severing clouds in yonder East.
2891 Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
2892 Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
2893 I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
2894
2895 Jul. Yond light is not daylight; I know it, I.
2896 It is some meteor that the sun exhales
2897 To be to thee this night a torchbearer
2898 And light thee on the way to Mantua.
2899 Therefore stay yet; thou need'st not to be gone.
2900
2901 Rom. Let me be ta'en, let me be put to death.
2902 I am content, so thou wilt have it so.
2903 I'll say yon grey is not the morning's eye,
2904 'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow;
2905 Nor that is not the lark whose notes do beat
2906 The vaulty heaven so high above our heads.
2907 I have more care to stay than will to go.
2908 Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it so.
2909 How is't, my soul? Let's talk; it is not day.
2910
2911 Jul. It is, it is! Hie hence, be gone, away!
2912 It is the lark that sings so out of tune,
2913 Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.
2914 Some say the lark makes sweet division;
2915 This doth not so, for she divideth us.
2916 Some say the lark and loathed toad chang'd eyes;
2917 O, now I would they had chang'd voices too,
2918 Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,
2919 Hunting thee hence with hunt's-up to the day!
2920 O, now be gone! More light and light it grows.
2921
2922 Rom. More light and light- more dark and dark our woes!
2923
2924 Enter Nurse.
2925
2926
2927 Nurse. Madam!
2928
2929 Jul. Nurse?
2930
2931 Nurse. Your lady mother is coming to your chamber.
2932 The day is broke; be wary, look about.
2933
2934 Jul. Then, window, let day in, and let life out.
2935 [Exit.]
2936
2937 Rom. Farewell, farewell! One kiss, and I'll descend.
2938 He goeth down.
2939
2940 Jul. Art thou gone so, my lord, my love, my friend?
2941 I must hear from thee every day in the hour,
2942 For in a minute there are many days.
2943 O, by this count I shall be much in years
2944 Ere I again behold my Romeo!
2945
2946 Rom. Farewell!
2947 I will omit no opportunity
2948 That may convey my greetings, love, to thee.
2949
2950 Jul. O, think'st thou we shall ever meet again?
2951
2952 Rom. I doubt it not; and all these woes shall serve
2953 For sweet discourses in our time to come.
2954
2955 Jul. O God, I have an ill-divining soul!
2956 Methinks I see thee, now thou art below,
2957 As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.
2958 Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale.
2959
2960 Rom. And trust me, love, in my eye so do you.
2961 Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu, adieu!
2962Exit.
2963
2964 Jul. O Fortune, Fortune! all men call thee fickle.
2965 If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him
2966 That is renown'd for faith? Be fickle, Fortune,
2967 For then I hope thou wilt not keep him long
2968 But send him back.
2969
2970 Lady. [within] Ho, daughter! are you up?
2971
2972 Jul. Who is't that calls? It is my lady mother.
2973 Is she not down so late, or up so early?
2974 What unaccustom'd cause procures her hither?
2975
2976 Enter Mother.
2977
2978
2979 Lady. Why, how now, Juliet?
2980
2981 Jul. Madam, I am not well.
2982
2983 Lady. Evermore weeping for your cousin's death?
2984 What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears?
2985 An if thou couldst, thou couldst not make him live.
2986 Therefore have done. Some grief shows much of love;
2987 But much of grief shows still some want of wit.
2988
2989 Jul. Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss.
2990
2991 Lady. So shall you feel the loss, but not the friend
2992 Which you weep for.
2993
2994 Jul. Feeling so the loss,
2995 I cannot choose but ever weep the friend.
2996
2997 Lady. Well, girl, thou weep'st not so much for his death
2998 As that the villain lives which slaughter'd him.
2999
3000 Jul. What villain, madam?
3001
3002 Lady. That same villain Romeo.
3003
3004 Jul. [aside] Villain and he be many miles asunder.-
3005 God pardon him! I do, with all my heart;
3006 And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart.
3007
3008 Lady. That is because the traitor murderer lives.
3009
3010 Jul. Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands.
3011 Would none but I might venge my cousin's death!
3012
3013 Lady. We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not.
3014 Then weep no more. I'll send to one in Mantua,
3015 Where that same banish'd runagate doth live,
3016 Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram
3017 That he shall soon keep Tybalt company;
3018 And then I hope thou wilt be satisfied.
3019
3020 Jul. Indeed I never shall be satisfied
3021 With Romeo till I behold him- dead-
3022 Is my poor heart so for a kinsman vex'd.
3023 Madam, if you could find out but a man
3024 To bear a poison, I would temper it;
3025 That Romeo should, upon receipt thereof,
3026 Soon sleep in quiet. O, how my heart abhors
3027 To hear him nam'd and cannot come to him,
3028 To wreak the love I bore my cousin Tybalt
3029 Upon his body that hath slaughter'd him!
3030
3031 Lady. Find thou the means, and I'll find such a man.
3032 But now I'll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.
3033
3034 Jul. And joy comes well in such a needy time.
3035 What are they, I beseech your ladyship?
3036
3037 Lady. Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child;
3038 One who, to put thee from thy heaviness,
3039 Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy
3040 That thou expects not nor I look'd not for.
3041
3042 Jul. Madam, in happy time! What day is that?
3043
3044 Lady. Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn
3045 The gallant, young, and noble gentleman,
3046 The County Paris, at Saint Peter's Church,
3047 Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.
3048
3049 Jul. Now by Saint Peter's Church, and Peter too,
3050 He shall not make me there a joyful bride!
3051 I wonder at this haste, that I must wed
3052 Ere he that should be husband comes to woo.
3053 I pray you tell my lord and father, madam,
3054 I will not marry yet; and when I do, I swear
3055 It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,
3056 Rather than Paris. These are news indeed!
3057
3058 Lady. Here comes your father. Tell him so yourself,
3059 And see how be will take it at your hands.
3060
3061 Enter Capulet and Nurse.
3062
3063
3064 Cap. When the sun sets the air doth drizzle dew,
3065 But for the sunset of my brother's son
3066 It rains downright.
3067 How now? a conduit, girl? What, still in tears?
3068 Evermore show'ring? In one little body
3069 Thou counterfeit'st a bark, a sea, a wind:
3070 For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
3071 Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is
3072 Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, thy sighs,
3073 Who, raging with thy tears and they with them,
3074 Without a sudden calm will overset
3075 Thy tempest-tossed body. How now, wife?
3076 Have you delivered to her our decree?
3077
3078 Lady. Ay, sir; but she will none, she gives you thanks.
3079 I would the fool were married to her grave!
3080
3081 Cap. Soft! take me with you, take me with you, wife.
3082 How? Will she none? Doth she not give us thanks?
3083 Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blest,
3084 Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
3085 So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom?
3086
3087 Jul. Not proud you have, but thankful that you have.
3088 Proud can I never be of what I hate,
3089 But thankful even for hate that is meant love.
3090
3091 Cap. How, how, how, how, choplogic? What is this?
3092 'Proud'- and 'I thank you'- and 'I thank you not'-
3093 And yet 'not proud'? Mistress minion you,
3094 Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds,
3095 But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next
3096 To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church,
3097 Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
3098 Out, you green-sickness carrion I out, you baggage!
3099 You tallow-face!
3100
3101 Lady. Fie, fie! what, are you mad?
3102
3103 Jul. Good father, I beseech you on my knees,
3104 Hear me with patience but to speak a word.
3105
3106 Cap. Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch!
3107 I tell thee what- get thee to church a Thursday
3108 Or never after look me in the face.
3109 Speak not, reply not, do not answer me!
3110 My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest
3111 That God had lent us but this only child;
3112 But now I see this one is one too much,
3113 And that we have a curse in having her.
3114 Out on her, hilding!
3115
3116 Nurse. God in heaven bless her!
3117 You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so.
3118
3119 Cap. And why, my Lady Wisdom? Hold your tongue,
3120 Good Prudence. Smatter with your gossips, go!
3121
3122 Nurse. I speak no treason.
3123
3124 Cap. O, God-i-god-en!
3125
3126 Nurse. May not one speak?
3127
3128 Cap. Peace, you mumbling fool!
3129 Utter your gravity o'er a gossip's bowl,
3130 For here we need it not.
3131
3132 Lady. You are too hot.
3133
3134 Cap. God's bread I it makes me mad. Day, night, late, early,
3135 At home, abroad, alone, in company,
3136 Waking or sleeping, still my care hath been
3137 To have her match'd; and having now provided
3138 A gentleman of princely parentage,
3139 Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly train'd,
3140 Stuff'd, as they say, with honourable parts,
3141 Proportion'd as one's thought would wish a man-
3142 And then to have a wretched puling fool,
3143 A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender,
3144 To answer 'I'll not wed, I cannot love;
3145 I am too young, I pray you pardon me'!
3146 But, an you will not wed, I'll pardon you.
3147 Graze where you will, you shall not house with me.
3148 Look to't, think on't; I do not use to jest.
3149 Thursday is near; lay hand on heart, advise:
3150 An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend;
3151 An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets,
3152 For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee,
3153 Nor what is mine shall never do thee good.
3154 Trust to't. Bethink you. I'll not be forsworn. Exit.
3155
3156 Jul. Is there no pity sitting in the clouds
3157 That sees into the bottom of my grief?
3158 O sweet my mother, cast me not away!
3159 Delay this marriage for a month, a week;
3160 Or if you do not, make the bridal bed
3161 In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.
3162
3163 Lady. Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word.
3164 Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee. Exit.
3165
3166 Jul. O God!- O nurse, how shall this be prevented?
3167 My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven.
3168 How shall that faith return again to earth
3169 Unless that husband send it me from heaven
3170 By leaving earth? Comfort me, counsel me.
3171 Alack, alack, that heaven should practise stratagems
3172 Upon so soft a subject as myself!
3173 What say'st thou? Hast thou not a word of joy?
3174 Some comfort, nurse.
3175
3176 Nurse. Faith, here it is.
3177 Romeo is banish'd; and all the world to nothing
3178 That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you;
3179 Or if he do, it needs must be by stealth.
3180 Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
3181 I think it best you married with the County.
3182 O, he's a lovely gentleman!
3183 Romeo's a dishclout to him. An eagle, madam,
3184 Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye
3185 As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,
3186 I think you are happy in this second match,
3187 For it excels your first; or if it did not,
3188 Your first is dead- or 'twere as good he were
3189 As living here and you no use of him.
3190
3191 Jul. Speak'st thou this from thy heart?
3192
3193 Nurse. And from my soul too; else beshrew them both.
3194
3195 Jul. Amen!
3196
3197 Nurse. What?
3198
3199 Jul. Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much.
3200 Go in; and tell my lady I am gone,
3201 Having displeas'd my father, to Laurence' cell,
3202 To make confession and to be absolv'd.
3203
3204 Nurse. Marry, I will; and this is wisely done. Exit.
3205
3206 Jul. Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!
3207 Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn,
3208 Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue
3209 Which she hath prais'd him with above compare
3210 So many thousand times? Go, counsellor!
3211 Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.
3212 I'll to the friar to know his remedy.
3213 If all else fail, myself have power to die. Exit.
3214
3215
3216
3217
3218ACT IV. Scene I.
3219Friar Laurence's cell.
3220
3221Enter Friar, [Laurence] and County Paris.
3222
3223
3224 Friar. On Thursday, sir? The time is very short.
3225
3226 Par. My father Capulet will have it so,
3227 And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.
3228
3229 Friar. You say you do not know the lady's mind.
3230 Uneven is the course; I like it not.
3231
3232 Par. Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death,
3233 And therefore have I little talk'd of love;
3234 For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.
3235 Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous
3236 That she do give her sorrow so much sway,
3237 And in his wisdom hastes our marriage
3238 To stop the inundation of her tears,
3239 Which, too much minded by herself alone,
3240 May be put from her by society.
3241 Now do you know the reason of this haste.
3242
3243 Friar. [aside] I would I knew not why it should be slow'd.-
3244 Look, sir, here comes the lady toward my cell.
3245
3246 Enter Juliet.
3247
3248
3249 Par. Happily met, my lady and my wife!
3250
3251 Jul. That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.
3252
3253 Par. That may be must be, love, on Thursday next.
3254
3255 Jul. What must be shall be.
3256
3257 Friar. That's a certain text.
3258
3259 Par. Come you to make confession to this father?
3260
3261 Jul. To answer that, I should confess to you.
3262
3263 Par. Do not deny to him that you love me.
3264
3265 Jul. I will confess to you that I love him.
3266
3267 Par. So will ye, I am sure, that you love me.
3268
3269 Jul. If I do so, it will be of more price,
3270 Being spoke behind your back, than to your face.
3271
3272 Par. Poor soul, thy face is much abus'd with tears.
3273
3274 Jul. The tears have got small victory by that,
3275 For it was bad enough before their spite.
3276
3277 Par. Thou wrong'st it more than tears with that report.
3278
3279 Jul. That is no slander, sir, which is a truth;
3280 And what I spake, I spake it to my face.
3281
3282 Par. Thy face is mine, and thou hast sland'red it.
3283
3284 Jul. It may be so, for it is not mine own.
3285 Are you at leisure, holy father, now,
3286 Or shall I come to you at evening mass
3287
3288 Friar. My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.
3289 My lord, we must entreat the time alone.
3290
3291 Par. God shield I should disturb devotion!
3292 Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse ye.
3293 Till then, adieu, and keep this holy kiss. Exit.
3294
3295 Jul. O, shut the door! and when thou hast done so,
3296 Come weep with me- past hope, past cure, past help!
3297
3298 Friar. Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief;
3299 It strains me past the compass of my wits.
3300 I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,
3301 On Thursday next be married to this County.
3302
3303 Jul. Tell me not, friar, that thou hear'st of this,
3304 Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it.
3305 If in thy wisdom thou canst give no help,
3306 Do thou but call my resolution wise
3307 And with this knife I'll help it presently.
3308 God join'd my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands;
3309 And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo's seal'd,
3310 Shall be the label to another deed,
3311 Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
3312 Turn to another, this shall slay them both.
3313 Therefore, out of thy long-experienc'd time,
3314 Give me some present counsel; or, behold,
3315 'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
3316 Shall play the empire, arbitrating that
3317 Which the commission of thy years and art
3318 Could to no issue of true honour bring.
3319 Be not so long to speak. I long to die
3320 If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy.
3321
3322 Friar. Hold, daughter. I do spy a kind of hope,
3323 Which craves as desperate an execution
3324 As that is desperate which we would prevent.
3325 If, rather than to marry County Paris
3326 Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself,
3327 Then is it likely thou wilt undertake
3328 A thing like death to chide away this shame,
3329 That cop'st with death himself to scape from it;
3330 And, if thou dar'st, I'll give thee remedy.
3331
3332 Jul. O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
3333 From off the battlements of yonder tower,
3334 Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk
3335 Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears,
3336 Or shut me nightly in a charnel house,
3337 O'ercover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones,
3338 With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls;
3339 Or bid me go into a new-made grave
3340 And hide me with a dead man in his shroud-
3341 Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble-
3342 And I will do it without fear or doubt,
3343 To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love.
3344
3345 Friar. Hold, then. Go home, be merry, give consent
3346 To marry Paris. Wednesday is to-morrow.
3347 To-morrow night look that thou lie alone;
3348 Let not the nurse lie with thee in thy chamber.
3349 Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
3350 And this distilled liquor drink thou off;
3351 When presently through all thy veins shall run
3352 A cold and drowsy humour; for no pulse
3353 Shall keep his native progress, but surcease;
3354 No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou livest;
3355 The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
3356 To paly ashes, thy eyes' windows fall
3357 Like death when he shuts up the day of life;
3358 Each part, depriv'd of supple government,
3359 Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death;
3360 And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk death
3361 Thou shalt continue two-and-forty hours,
3362 And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
3363 Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes
3364 To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead.
3365 Then, as the manner of our country is,
3366 In thy best robes uncovered on the bier
3367 Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault
3368 Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
3369 In the mean time, against thou shalt awake,
3370 Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift;
3371 And hither shall he come; and he and I
3372 Will watch thy waking, and that very night
3373 Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
3374 And this shall free thee from this present shame,
3375 If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear
3376 Abate thy valour in the acting it.
3377
3378 Jul. Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear!
3379
3380 Friar. Hold! Get you gone, be strong and prosperous
3381 In this resolve. I'll send a friar with speed
3382 To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.
3383
3384 Jul. Love give me strength! and strength shall help afford.
3385 Farewell, dear father.
3386 Exeunt.
3387
3388
3389
3390
3391Scene II.
3392Capulet's house.
3393
3394Enter Father Capulet, Mother, Nurse, and Servingmen,
3395 two or three.
3396
3397
3398 Cap. So many guests invite as here are writ.
3399 [Exit a Servingman.]
3400 Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks.
3401
3402 Serv. You shall have none ill, sir; for I'll try if they can
3403 lick their fingers.
3404
3405 Cap. How canst thou try them so?
3406
3407 Serv. Marry, sir, 'tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own
3408 fingers. Therefore he that cannot lick his fingers goes not
3409 with me.
3410
3411 Cap. Go, begone.
3412 Exit Servingman.
3413 We shall be much unfurnish'd for this time.
3414 What, is my daughter gone to Friar Laurence?
3415
3416 Nurse. Ay, forsooth.
3417
3418 Cap. Well, be may chance to do some good on her.
3419 A peevish self-will'd harlotry it is.
3420
3421 Enter Juliet.
3422
3423
3424 Nurse. See where she comes from shrift with merry look.
3425
3426 Cap. How now, my headstrong? Where have you been gadding?
3427
3428 Jul. Where I have learnt me to repent the sin
3429 Of disobedient opposition
3430 To you and your behests, and am enjoin'd
3431 By holy Laurence to fall prostrate here
3432 To beg your pardon. Pardon, I beseech you!
3433 Henceforward I am ever rul'd by you.
3434
3435 Cap. Send for the County. Go tell him of this.
3436 I'll have this knot knit up to-morrow morning.
3437
3438 Jul. I met the youthful lord at Laurence' cell
3439 And gave him what becomed love I might,
3440 Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty.
3441
3442 Cap. Why, I am glad on't. This is well. Stand up.
3443 This is as't should be. Let me see the County.
3444 Ay, marry, go, I say, and fetch him hither.
3445 Now, afore God, this reverend holy friar,
3446 All our whole city is much bound to him.
3447
3448 Jul. Nurse, will you go with me into my closet
3449 To help me sort such needful ornaments
3450 As you think fit to furnish me to-morrow?
3451
3452 Mother. No, not till Thursday. There is time enough.
3453
3454 Cap. Go, nurse, go with her. We'll to church to-morrow.
3455 Exeunt Juliet and Nurse.
3456
3457 Mother. We shall be short in our provision.
3458 'Tis now near night.
3459
3460 Cap. Tush, I will stir about,
3461 And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, wife.
3462 Go thou to Juliet, help to deck up her.
3463 I'll not to bed to-night; let me alone.
3464 I'll play the housewife for this once. What, ho!
3465 They are all forth; well, I will walk myself
3466 To County Paris, to prepare him up
3467 Against to-morrow. My heart is wondrous light,
3468 Since this same wayward girl is so reclaim'd.
3469 Exeunt.
3470
3471
3472
3473
3474Scene III.
3475Juliet's chamber.
3476
3477Enter Juliet and Nurse.
3478
3479
3480 Jul. Ay, those attires are best; but, gentle nurse,
3481 I pray thee leave me to myself to-night;
3482 For I have need of many orisons
3483 To move the heavens to smile upon my state,
3484 Which, well thou knowest, is cross and full of sin.
3485
3486 Enter Mother.
3487
3488
3489 Mother. What, are you busy, ho? Need you my help?
3490
3491 Jul. No, madam; we have cull'd such necessaries
3492 As are behooffull for our state to-morrow.
3493 So please you, let me now be left alone,
3494 And let the nurse this night sit up with you;
3495 For I am sure you have your hands full all
3496 In this so sudden business.
3497
3498 Mother. Good night.
3499 Get thee to bed, and rest; for thou hast need.
3500 Exeunt [Mother and Nurse.]
3501
3502 Jul. Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again.
3503 I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins
3504 That almost freezes up the heat of life.
3505 I'll call them back again to comfort me.
3506 Nurse!- What should she do here?
3507 My dismal scene I needs must act alone.
3508 Come, vial.
3509 What if this mixture do not work at all?
3510 Shall I be married then to-morrow morning?
3511 No, No! This shall forbid it. Lie thou there.
3512 Lays down a dagger.
3513 What if it be a poison which the friar
3514 Subtilly hath minist'red to have me dead,
3515 Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour'd
3516 Because he married me before to Romeo?
3517 I fear it is; and yet methinks it should not,
3518 For he hath still been tried a holy man.
3519 I will not entertain so bad a thought.
3520 How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
3521 I wake before the time that Romeo
3522 Come to redeem me? There's a fearful point!
3523 Shall I not then be stifled in the vault,
3524 To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,
3525 And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?
3526 Or, if I live, is it not very like
3527 The horrible conceit of death and night,
3528 Together with the terror of the place-
3529 As in a vault, an ancient receptacle
3530 Where for this many hundred years the bones
3531 Of all my buried ancestors are pack'd;
3532 Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
3533 Lies fest'ring in his shroud; where, as they say,
3534 At some hours in the night spirits resort-
3535 Alack, alack, is it not like that I,
3536 So early waking- what with loathsome smells,
3537 And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth,
3538 That living mortals, hearing them, run mad-
3539 O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,
3540 Environed with all these hideous fears,
3541 And madly play with my forefathers' joints,
3542 And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud.,
3543 And, in this rage, with some great kinsman's bone
3544 As with a club dash out my desp'rate brains?
3545 O, look! methinks I see my cousin's ghost
3546 Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body
3547 Upon a rapier's point. Stay, Tybalt, stay!
3548 Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee.
3549
3550 She [drinks and] falls upon her bed within the curtains.
3551
3552
3553
3554
3555Scene IV.
3556Capulet's house.
3557
3558Enter Lady of the House and Nurse.
3559
3560
3561 Lady. Hold, take these keys and fetch more spices, nurse.
3562
3563 Nurse. They call for dates and quinces in the pastry.
3564
3565 Enter Old Capulet.
3566
3567
3568 Cap. Come, stir, stir, stir! The second cock hath crow'd,
3569 The curfew bell hath rung, 'tis three o'clock.
3570 Look to the bak'd meats, good Angelica;
3571 Spare not for cost.
3572
3573 Nurse. Go, you cot-quean, go,
3574 Get you to bed! Faith, you'll be sick to-morrow
3575 For this night's watching.
3576
3577 Cap. No, not a whit. What, I have watch'd ere now
3578 All night for lesser cause, and ne'er been sick.
3579
3580 Lady. Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time;
3581 But I will watch you from such watching now.
3582 Exeunt Lady and Nurse.
3583
3584 Cap. A jealous hood, a jealous hood!
3585
3586
3587 Enter three or four [Fellows, with spits and logs and baskets.
3588
3589 What is there? Now, fellow,
3590
3591 Fellow. Things for the cook, sir; but I know not what.
3592
3593 Cap. Make haste, make haste. [Exit Fellow.] Sirrah, fetch drier
3594 logs.
3595 Call Peter; he will show thee where they are.
3596
3597 Fellow. I have a head, sir, that will find out logs
3598 And never trouble Peter for the matter.
3599
3600 Cap. Mass, and well said; a merry whoreson, ha!
3601 Thou shalt be loggerhead. [Exit Fellow.] Good faith, 'tis day.
3602 The County will be here with music straight,
3603 For so he said he would. Play music.
3604 I hear him near.
3605 Nurse! Wife! What, ho! What, nurse, I say!
3606
3607 Enter Nurse.
3608 Go waken Juliet; go and trim her up.
3609 I'll go and chat with Paris. Hie, make haste,
3610 Make haste! The bridegroom he is come already:
3611 Make haste, I say.
3612 [Exeunt.]
3613
3614
3615
3616
3617Scene V.
3618Juliet's chamber.
3619
3620[Enter Nurse.]
3621
3622
3623 Nurse. Mistress! what, mistress! Juliet! Fast, I warrant her, she.
3624 Why, lamb! why, lady! Fie, you slug-abed!
3625 Why, love, I say! madam! sweetheart! Why, bride!
3626 What, not a word? You take your pennyworths now!
3627 Sleep for a week; for the next night, I warrant,
3628 The County Paris hath set up his rest
3629 That you shall rest but little. God forgive me!
3630 Marry, and amen. How sound is she asleep!
3631 I needs must wake her. Madam, madam, madam!
3632 Ay, let the County take you in your bed!
3633 He'll fright you up, i' faith. Will it not be?
3634 [Draws aside the curtains.]
3635 What, dress'd, and in your clothes, and down again?
3636 I must needs wake you. Lady! lady! lady!
3637 Alas, alas! Help, help! My lady's dead!
3638 O weraday that ever I was born!
3639 Some aqua-vitae, ho! My lord! my lady!
3640
3641 Enter Mother.
3642
3643
3644 Mother. What noise is here?
3645
3646 Nurse. O lamentable day!
3647
3648 Mother. What is the matter?
3649
3650 Nurse. Look, look! O heavy day!
3651
3652 Mother. O me, O me! My child, my only life!
3653 Revive, look up, or I will die with thee!
3654 Help, help! Call help.
3655
3656 Enter Father.
3657
3658
3659 Father. For shame, bring Juliet forth; her lord is come.
3660
3661 Nurse. She's dead, deceas'd; she's dead! Alack the day!
3662
3663 Mother. Alack the day, she's dead, she's dead, she's dead!
3664
3665 Cap. Ha! let me see her. Out alas! she's cold,
3666 Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff;
3667 Life and these lips have long been separated.
3668 Death lies on her like an untimely frost
3669 Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.
3670
3671 Nurse. O lamentable day!
3672
3673 Mother. O woful time!
3674
3675 Cap. Death, that hath ta'en her hence to make me wail,
3676 Ties up my tongue and will not let me speak.
3677
3678
3679 Enter Friar [Laurence] and the County [Paris], with Musicians.
3680
3681
3682 Friar. Come, is the bride ready to go to church?
3683
3684 Cap. Ready to go, but never to return.
3685 O son, the night before thy wedding day
3686 Hath Death lain with thy wife. See, there she lies,
3687 Flower as she was, deflowered by him.
3688 Death is my son-in-law, Death is my heir;
3689 My daughter he hath wedded. I will die
3690 And leave him all. Life, living, all is Death's.
3691
3692 Par. Have I thought long to see this morning's face,
3693 And doth it give me such a sight as this?
3694
3695 Mother. Accurs'd, unhappy, wretched, hateful day!
3696 Most miserable hour that e'er time saw
3697 In lasting labour of his pilgrimage!
3698 But one, poor one, one poor and loving child,
3699 But one thing to rejoice and solace in,
3700 And cruel Death hath catch'd it from my sight!
3701
3702 Nurse. O woe? O woful, woful, woful day!
3703 Most lamentable day, most woful day
3704 That ever ever I did yet behold!
3705 O day! O day! O day! O hateful day!
3706 Never was seen so black a day as this.
3707 O woful day! O woful day!
3708
3709 Par. Beguil'd, divorced, wronged, spited, slain!
3710 Most detestable Death, by thee beguil'd,
3711 By cruel cruel thee quite overthrown!
3712 O love! O life! not life, but love in death
3713
3714 Cap. Despis'd, distressed, hated, martyr'd, kill'd!
3715 Uncomfortable time, why cam'st thou now
3716 To murther, murther our solemnity?
3717 O child! O child! my soul, and not my child!
3718 Dead art thou, dead! alack, my child is dead,
3719 And with my child my joys are buried!
3720
3721 Friar. Peace, ho, for shame! Confusion's cure lives not
3722 In these confusions. Heaven and yourself
3723 Had part in this fair maid! now heaven hath all,
3724 And all the better is it for the maid.
3725 Your part in her you could not keep from death,
3726 But heaven keeps his part in eternal life.
3727 The most you sought was her promotion,
3728 For 'twas your heaven she should be advanc'd;
3729 And weep ye now, seeing she is advanc'd
3730 Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself?
3731 O, in this love, you love your child so ill
3732 That you run mad, seeing that she is well.
3733 She's not well married that lives married long,
3734 But she's best married that dies married young.
3735 Dry up your tears and stick your rosemary
3736 On this fair corse, and, as the custom is,
3737 In all her best array bear her to church;
3738 For though fond nature bids us all lament,
3739 Yet nature's tears are reason's merriment.
3740
3741 Cap. All things that we ordained festival
3742 Turn from their office to black funeral-
3743 Our instruments to melancholy bells,
3744 Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast;
3745 Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change;
3746 Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse;
3747 And all things change them to the contrary.
3748
3749 Friar. Sir, go you in; and, madam, go with him;
3750 And go, Sir Paris. Every one prepare
3751 To follow this fair corse unto her grave.
3752 The heavens do low'r upon you for some ill;
3753 Move them no more by crossing their high will.
3754 Exeunt. Manent Musicians [and Nurse].
3755 1. Mus. Faith, we may put up our pipes and be gone.
3756
3757 Nurse. Honest good fellows, ah, put up, put up!
3758 For well you know this is a pitiful case. [Exit.]
3759 1. Mus. Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended.
3760
3761 Enter Peter.
3762
3763
3764 Pet. Musicians, O, musicians, 'Heart's ease,' 'Heart's ease'!
3765 O, an you will have me live, play 'Heart's ease.'
3766 1. Mus. Why 'Heart's ease'',
3767
3768 Pet. O, musicians, because my heart itself plays 'My heart is
3769 full of woe.' O, play me some merry dump to comfort me.
3770 1. Mus. Not a dump we! 'Tis no time to play now.
3771
3772 Pet. You will not then?
3773 1. Mus. No.
3774
3775 Pet. I will then give it you soundly.
3776 1. Mus. What will you give us?
3777
3778 Pet. No money, on my faith, but the gleek. I will give you the
3779 minstrel.
3780 1. Mus. Then will I give you the serving-creature.
3781
3782 Pet. Then will I lay the serving-creature's dagger on your pate.
3783 I will carry no crotchets. I'll re you, I'll fa you. Do you
3784 note me?
3785 1. Mus. An you re us and fa us, you note us.
3786 2. Mus. Pray you put up your dagger, and put out your wit.
3787
3788 Pet. Then have at you with my wit! I will dry-beat you with an
3789 iron wit, and put up my iron dagger. Answer me like men.
3790
3791 'When griping grief the heart doth wound,
3792 And doleful dumps the mind oppress,
3793 Then music with her silver sound'-
3794
3795 Why 'silver sound'? Why 'music with her silver sound'?
3796 What say you, Simon Catling?
3797 1. Mus. Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound.
3798
3799 Pet. Pretty! What say You, Hugh Rebeck?
3800 2. Mus. I say 'silver sound' because musicians sound for silver.
3801
3802 Pet. Pretty too! What say you, James Soundpost?
3803 3. Mus. Faith, I know not what to say.
3804
3805 Pet. O, I cry you mercy! you are the singer. I will say for you. It
3806 is 'music with her silver sound' because musicians have no
3807 gold for sounding.
3808
3809 'Then music with her silver sound
3810 With speedy help doth lend redress.' [Exit.
3811
3812 1. Mus. What a pestilent knave is this same?
3813 2. Mus. Hang him, Jack! Come, we'll in here, tarry for the
3814 mourners, and stay dinner.
3815 Exeunt.
3816
3817
3818
3819
3820ACT V. Scene I.
3821Mantua. A street.
3822
3823Enter Romeo.
3824
3825
3826 Rom. If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep
3827 My dreams presage some joyful news at hand.
3828 My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne,
3829 And all this day an unaccustom'd spirit
3830 Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.
3831 I dreamt my lady came and found me dead
3832 (Strange dream that gives a dead man leave to think!)
3833 And breath'd such life with kisses in my lips
3834 That I reviv'd and was an emperor.
3835 Ah me! how sweet is love itself possess'd,
3836 When but love's shadows are so rich in joy!
3837
3838 Enter Romeo's Man Balthasar, booted.
3839
3840 News from Verona! How now, Balthasar?
3841 Dost thou not bring me letters from the friar?
3842 How doth my lady? Is my father well?
3843 How fares my Juliet? That I ask again,
3844 For nothing can be ill if she be well.
3845
3846 Man. Then she is well, and nothing can be ill.
3847 Her body sleeps in Capel's monument,
3848 And her immortal part with angels lives.
3849 I saw her laid low in her kindred's vault
3850 And presently took post to tell it you.
3851 O, pardon me for bringing these ill news,
3852 Since you did leave it for my office, sir.
3853
3854 Rom. Is it e'en so? Then I defy you, stars!
3855 Thou knowest my lodging. Get me ink and paper
3856 And hire posthorses. I will hence to-night.
3857
3858 Man. I do beseech you, sir, have patience.
3859 Your looks are pale and wild and do import
3860 Some misadventure.
3861
3862 Rom. Tush, thou art deceiv'd.
3863 Leave me and do the thing I bid thee do.
3864 Hast thou no letters to me from the friar?
3865
3866 Man. No, my good lord.
3867
3868 Rom. No matter. Get thee gone
3869 And hire those horses. I'll be with thee straight.
3870 Exit [Balthasar].
3871 Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night.
3872 Let's see for means. O mischief, thou art swift
3873 To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!
3874 I do remember an apothecary,
3875 And hereabouts 'a dwells, which late I noted
3876 In tatt'red weeds, with overwhelming brows,
3877 Culling of simples. Meagre were his looks,
3878 Sharp misery had worn him to the bones;
3879 And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
3880 An alligator stuff'd, and other skins
3881 Of ill-shaped fishes; and about his shelves
3882 A beggarly account of empty boxes,
3883 Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds,
3884 Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses
3885 Were thinly scattered, to make up a show.
3886 Noting this penury, to myself I said,
3887 'An if a man did need a poison now
3888 Whose sale is present death in Mantua,
3889 Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.'
3890 O, this same thought did but forerun my need,
3891 And this same needy man must sell it me.
3892 As I remember, this should be the house.
3893 Being holiday, the beggar's shop is shut. What, ho! apothecary!
3894
3895 Enter Apothecary.
3896
3897
3898 Apoth. Who calls so loud?
3899
3900 Rom. Come hither, man. I see that thou art poor.
3901 Hold, there is forty ducats. Let me have
3902 A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear
3903 As will disperse itself through all the veins
3904 That the life-weary taker mall fall dead,
3905 And that the trunk may be discharg'd of breath
3906 As violently as hasty powder fir'd
3907 Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb.
3908
3909 Apoth. Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua's law
3910 Is death to any he that utters them.
3911
3912 Rom. Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness
3913 And fearest to die? Famine is in thy cheeks,
3914 Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes,
3915 Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back:
3916 The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law;
3917 The world affords no law to make thee rich;
3918 Then be not poor, but break it and take this.
3919
3920 Apoth. My poverty but not my will consents.
3921
3922 Rom. I pay thy poverty and not thy will.
3923
3924 Apoth. Put this in any liquid thing you will
3925 And drink it off, and if you had the strength
3926 Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight.
3927
3928 Rom. There is thy gold- worse poison to men's souls,
3929 Doing more murther in this loathsome world,
3930 Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell.
3931 I sell thee poison; thou hast sold me none.
3932 Farewell. Buy food and get thyself in flesh.
3933 Come, cordial and not poison, go with me
3934 To Juliet's grave; for there must I use thee.
3935 Exeunt.
3936
3937
3938
3939
3940Scene II.
3941Verona. Friar Laurence's cell.
3942
3943Enter Friar John to Friar Laurence.
3944
3945
3946 John. Holy Franciscan friar, brother, ho!
3947
3948 Enter Friar Laurence.
3949
3950
3951 Laur. This same should be the voice of Friar John.
3952 Welcome from Mantua. What says Romeo?
3953 Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter.
3954
3955 John. Going to find a barefoot brother out,
3956 One of our order, to associate me
3957 Here in this city visiting the sick,
3958 And finding him, the searchers of the town,
3959 Suspecting that we both were in a house
3960 Where the infectious pestilence did reign,
3961 Seal'd up the doors, and would not let us forth,
3962 So that my speed to Mantua there was stay'd.
3963
3964 Laur. Who bare my letter, then, to Romeo?
3965
3966 John. I could not send it- here it is again-
3967 Nor get a messenger to bring it thee,
3968 So fearful were they of infection.
3969
3970 Laur. Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood,
3971 The letter was not nice, but full of charge,
3972 Of dear import; and the neglecting it
3973 May do much danger. Friar John, go hence,
3974 Get me an iron crow and bring it straight
3975 Unto my cell.
3976
3977 John. Brother, I'll go and bring it thee. Exit.
3978
3979 Laur. Now, must I to the monument alone.
3980 Within this three hours will fair Juliet wake.
3981 She will beshrew me much that Romeo
3982 Hath had no notice of these accidents;
3983 But I will write again to Mantua,
3984 And keep her at my cell till Romeo come-
3985 Poor living corse, clos'd in a dead man's tomb! Exit.
3986
3987
3988
3989
3990Scene III.
3991Verona. A churchyard; in it the monument of the Capulets.
3992
3993Enter Paris and his Page with flowers and [a torch].
3994
3995
3996 Par. Give me thy torch, boy. Hence, and stand aloof.
3997 Yet put it out, for I would not be seen.
3998 Under yond yew tree lay thee all along,
3999 Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground.
4000 So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread
4001 (Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves)
4002 But thou shalt hear it. Whistle then to me,
4003 As signal that thou hear'st something approach.
4004 Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee, go.
4005
4006 Page. [aside] I am almost afraid to stand alone
4007 Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure. [Retires.]
4008
4009 Par. Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew
4010 (O woe! thy canopy is dust and stones)
4011 Which with sweet water nightly I will dew;
4012 Or, wanting that, with tears distill'd by moans.
4013 The obsequies that I for thee will keep
4014 Nightly shall be to strew, thy grave and weep.
4015 Whistle Boy.
4016 The boy gives warning something doth approach.
4017 What cursed foot wanders this way to-night
4018 To cross my obsequies and true love's rite?
4019 What, with a torch? Muffle me, night, awhile. [Retires.]
4020
4021 Enter Romeo, and Balthasar with a torch, a mattock,
4022 and a crow of iron.
4023
4024
4025 Rom. Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron.
4026 Hold, take this letter. Early in the morning
4027 See thou deliver it to my lord and father.
4028 Give me the light. Upon thy life I charge thee,
4029 Whate'er thou hearest or seest, stand all aloof
4030 And do not interrupt me in my course.
4031 Why I descend into this bed of death
4032 Is partly to behold my lady's face,
4033 But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger
4034 A precious ring- a ring that I must use
4035 In dear employment. Therefore hence, be gone.
4036 But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry
4037 In what I farther shall intend to do,
4038 By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint
4039 And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs.
4040 The time and my intents are savage-wild,
4041 More fierce and more inexorable far
4042 Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.
4043
4044 Bal. I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you.
4045
4046 Rom. So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that.
4047 Live, and be prosperous; and farewell, good fellow.
4048
4049 Bal. [aside] For all this same, I'll hide me hereabout.
4050 His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt. [Retires.]
4051
4052 Rom. Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,
4053 Gorg'd with the dearest morsel of the earth,
4054 Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,
4055 And in despite I'll cram thee with more food.
4056 Romeo opens the tomb.
4057
4058 Par. This is that banish'd haughty Montague
4059 That murd'red my love's cousin- with which grief
4060 It is supposed the fair creature died-
4061 And here is come to do some villanous shame
4062 To the dead bodies. I will apprehend him.
4063 Stop thy unhallowed toil, vile Montague!
4064 Can vengeance be pursu'd further than death?
4065 Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee.
4066 Obey, and go with me; for thou must die.
4067
4068 Rom. I must indeed; and therefore came I hither.
4069 Good gentle youth, tempt not a desp'rate man.
4070 Fly hence and leave me. Think upon these gone;
4071 Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth,
4072 But not another sin upon my head
4073 By urging me to fury. O, be gone!
4074 By heaven, I love thee better than myself,
4075 For I come hither arm'd against myself.
4076 Stay not, be gone. Live, and hereafter say
4077 A madman's mercy bid thee run away.
4078
4079 Par. I do defy thy, conjuration
4080 And apprehend thee for a felon here.
4081
4082 Rom. Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee, boy!
4083 They fight.
4084
4085 Page. O Lord, they fight! I will go call the watch.
4086 [Exit. Paris falls.]
4087
4088 Par. O, I am slain! If thou be merciful,
4089 Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet. [Dies.]
4090
4091 Rom. In faith, I will. Let me peruse this face.
4092 Mercutio's kinsman, noble County Paris!
4093 What said my man when my betossed soul
4094 Did not attend him as we rode? I think
4095 He told me Paris should have married Juliet.
4096 Said he not so? or did I dream it so?
4097 Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet
4098 To think it was so? O, give me thy hand,
4099 One writ with me in sour misfortune's book!
4100 I'll bury thee in a triumphant grave.
4101 A grave? O, no, a lanthorn, slaught'red youth,
4102 For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes
4103 This vault a feasting presence full of light.
4104 Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr'd.
4105 [Lays him in the tomb.]
4106 How oft when men are at the point of death
4107 Have they been merry! which their keepers call
4108 A lightning before death. O, how may I
4109 Call this a lightning? O my love! my wife!
4110 Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,
4111 Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.
4112 Thou art not conquer'd. Beauty's ensign yet
4113 Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
4114 And death's pale flag is not advanced there.
4115 Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?
4116 O, what more favour can I do to thee
4117 Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain
4118 To sunder his that was thine enemy?
4119 Forgive me, cousin.' Ah, dear Juliet,
4120 Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe
4121 That unsubstantial Death is amorous,
4122 And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
4123 Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
4124 For fear of that I still will stay with thee
4125 And never from this palace of dim night
4126 Depart again. Here, here will I remain
4127 With worms that are thy chambermaids. O, here
4128 Will I set up my everlasting rest
4129 And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
4130 From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!
4131 Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you
4132 The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
4133 A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
4134 Come, bitter conduct; come, unsavoury guide!
4135 Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
4136 The dashing rocks thy seasick weary bark!
4137 Here's to my love! [Drinks.] O true apothecary!
4138 Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. Falls.
4139
4140 Enter Friar [Laurence], with lanthorn, crow, and spade.
4141
4142
4143 Friar. Saint Francis be my speed! how oft to-night
4144 Have my old feet stumbled at graves! Who's there?
4145
4146 Bal. Here's one, a friend, and one that knows you well.
4147
4148 Friar. Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend,
4149 What torch is yond that vainly lends his light
4150 To grubs and eyeless skulls? As I discern,
4151 It burneth in the Capels' monument.
4152
4153 Bal. It doth so, holy sir; and there's my master,
4154 One that you love.
4155
4156 Friar. Who is it?
4157
4158 Bal. Romeo.
4159
4160 Friar. How long hath he been there?
4161
4162 Bal. Full half an hour.
4163
4164 Friar. Go with me to the vault.
4165
4166 Bal. I dare not, sir.
4167 My master knows not but I am gone hence,
4168 And fearfully did menace me with death
4169 If I did stay to look on his intents.
4170
4171 Friar. Stay then; I'll go alone. Fear comes upon me.
4172 O, much I fear some ill unthrifty thing.
4173
4174 Bal. As I did sleep under this yew tree here,
4175 I dreamt my master and another fought,
4176 And that my master slew him.
4177
4178 Friar. Romeo!
4179 Alack, alack, what blood is this which stains
4180 The stony entrance of this sepulchre?
4181 What mean these masterless and gory swords
4182 To lie discolour'd by this place of peace? [Enters the tomb.]
4183 Romeo! O, pale! Who else? What, Paris too?
4184 And steep'd in blood? Ah, what an unkind hour
4185 Is guilty of this lamentable chance! The lady stirs.
4186 Juliet rises.
4187
4188 Jul. O comfortable friar! where is my lord?
4189 I do remember well where I should be,
4190 And there I am. Where is my Romeo?
4191
4192 Friar. I hear some noise. Lady, come from that nest
4193 Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep.
4194 A greater power than we can contradict
4195 Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away.
4196 Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead;
4197 And Paris too. Come, I'll dispose of thee
4198 Among a sisterhood of holy nuns.
4199 Stay not to question, for the watch is coming.
4200 Come, go, good Juliet. I dare no longer stay.
4201
4202 Jul. Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.
4203 Exit [Friar].
4204 What's here? A cup, clos'd in my true love's hand?
4205 Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end.
4206 O churl! drunk all, and left no friendly drop
4207 To help me after? I will kiss thy lips.
4208 Haply some poison yet doth hang on them
4209 To make me die with a restorative. [Kisses him.]
4210 Thy lips are warm!
4211
4212 Chief Watch. [within] Lead, boy. Which way?
4213 Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger!
4214 [Snatches Romeo's dagger.]
4215 This is thy sheath; there rest, and let me die.
4216 She stabs herself and falls [on Romeo's body].
4217
4218 Enter [Paris's] Boy and Watch.
4219
4220
4221 Boy. This is the place. There, where the torch doth burn.
4222
4223 Chief Watch. 'the ground is bloody. Search about the churchyard.
4224 Go, some of you; whoe'er you find attach.
4225 [Exeunt some of the Watch.]
4226 Pitiful sight! here lies the County slain;
4227 And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead,
4228 Who here hath lain this two days buried.
4229 Go, tell the Prince; run to the Capulets;
4230 Raise up the Montagues; some others search.
4231 [Exeunt others of the Watch.]
4232 We see the ground whereon these woes do lie,
4233 But the true ground of all these piteous woes
4234 We cannot without circumstance descry.
4235
4236 Enter [some of the Watch,] with Romeo's Man [Balthasar].
4237
4238 2. Watch. Here's Romeo's man. We found him in the churchyard.
4239
4240 Chief Watch. Hold him in safety till the Prince come hither.
4241
4242 Enter Friar [Laurence] and another Watchman.
4243
4244 3. Watch. Here is a friar that trembles, sighs, and weeps.
4245 We took this mattock and this spade from him
4246 As he was coming from this churchyard side.
4247
4248 Chief Watch. A great suspicion! Stay the friar too.
4249
4250 Enter the Prince [and Attendants].
4251
4252
4253 Prince. What misadventure is so early up,
4254 That calls our person from our morning rest?
4255
4256 Enter Capulet and his Wife [with others].
4257
4258
4259 Cap. What should it be, that they so shriek abroad?
4260
4261 Wife. The people in the street cry 'Romeo,'
4262 Some 'Juliet,' and some 'Paris'; and all run,
4263 With open outcry, toward our monument.
4264
4265 Prince. What fear is this which startles in our ears?
4266
4267 Chief Watch. Sovereign, here lies the County Paris slain;
4268 And Romeo dead; and Juliet, dead before,
4269 Warm and new kill'd.
4270
4271 Prince. Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes.
4272
4273 Chief Watch. Here is a friar, and slaughter'd Romeo's man,
4274 With instruments upon them fit to open
4275 These dead men's tombs.
4276
4277 Cap. O heavens! O wife, look how our daughter bleeds!
4278 This dagger hath mista'en, for, lo, his house
4279 Is empty on the back of Montague,
4280 And it missheathed in my daughter's bosom!
4281
4282 Wife. O me! this sight of death is as a bell
4283 That warns my old age to a sepulchre.
4284
4285 Enter Montague [and others].
4286
4287
4288 Prince. Come, Montague; for thou art early up
4289 To see thy son and heir more early down.
4290
4291 Mon. Alas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night!
4292 Grief of my son's exile hath stopp'd her breath.
4293 What further woe conspires against mine age?
4294
4295 Prince. Look, and thou shalt see.
4296
4297 Mon. O thou untaught! what manners is in this,
4298 To press before thy father to a grave?
4299
4300 Prince. Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while,
4301 Till we can clear these ambiguities
4302 And know their spring, their head, their true descent;
4303 And then will I be general of your woes
4304 And lead you even to death. Meantime forbear,
4305 And let mischance be slave to patience.
4306 Bring forth the parties of suspicion.
4307
4308 Friar. I am the greatest, able to do least,
4309 Yet most suspected, as the time and place
4310 Doth make against me, of this direful murther;
4311 And here I stand, both to impeach and purge
4312 Myself condemned and myself excus'd.
4313
4314 Prince. Then say it once what thou dost know in this.
4315
4316 Friar. I will be brief, for my short date of breath
4317 Is not so long as is a tedious tale.
4318 Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet;
4319 And she, there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife.
4320 I married them; and their stol'n marriage day
4321 Was Tybalt's doomsday, whose untimely death
4322 Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from this city;
4323 For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pin'd.
4324 You, to remove that siege of grief from her,
4325 Betroth'd and would have married her perforce
4326 To County Paris. Then comes she to me
4327 And with wild looks bid me devise some mean
4328 To rid her from this second marriage,
4329 Or in my cell there would she kill herself.
4330 Then gave I her (so tutored by my art)
4331 A sleeping potion; which so took effect
4332 As I intended, for it wrought on her
4333 The form of death. Meantime I writ to Romeo
4334 That he should hither come as this dire night
4335 To help to take her from her borrowed grave,
4336 Being the time the potion's force should cease.
4337 But he which bore my letter, Friar John,
4338 Was stay'd by accident, and yesternight
4339 Return'd my letter back. Then all alone
4340 At the prefixed hour of her waking
4341 Came I to take her from her kindred's vault;
4342 Meaning to keep her closely at my cell
4343 Till I conveniently could send to Romeo.
4344 But when I came, some minute ere the time
4345 Of her awaking, here untimely lay
4346 The noble Paris and true Romeo dead.
4347 She wakes; and I entreated her come forth
4348 And bear this work of heaven with patience;
4349 But then a noise did scare me from the tomb,
4350 And she, too desperate, would not go with me,
4351 But, as it seems, did violence on herself.
4352 All this I know, and to the marriage
4353 Her nurse is privy; and if aught in this
4354 Miscarried by my fault, let my old life
4355 Be sacrific'd, some hour before his time,
4356 Unto the rigour of severest law.
4357
4358 Prince. We still have known thee for a holy man.
4359 Where's Romeo's man? What can he say in this?
4360
4361 Bal. I brought my master news of Juliet's death;
4362 And then in post he came from Mantua
4363 To this same place, to this same monument.
4364 This letter he early bid me give his father,
4365 And threat'ned me with death, going in the vault,
4366 If I departed not and left him there.
4367
4368 Prince. Give me the letter. I will look on it.
4369 Where is the County's page that rais'd the watch?
4370 Sirrah, what made your master in this place?
4371
4372 Boy. He came with flowers to strew his lady's grave;
4373 And bid me stand aloof, and so I did.
4374 Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb;
4375 And by-and-by my master drew on him;
4376 And then I ran away to call the watch.
4377
4378 Prince. This letter doth make good the friar's words,
4379 Their course of love, the tidings of her death;
4380 And here he writes that he did buy a poison
4381 Of a poor pothecary, and therewithal
4382 Came to this vault to die, and lie with Juliet.
4383 Where be these enemies? Capulet, Montague,
4384 See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
4385 That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love!
4386 And I, for winking at you, discords too,
4387 Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punish'd.
4388
4389 Cap. O brother Montague, give me thy hand.
4390 This is my daughter's jointure, for no more
4391 Can I demand.
4392
4393 Mon. But I can give thee more;
4394 For I will raise her Statue in pure gold,
4395 That whiles Verona by that name is known,
4396 There shall no figure at such rate be set
4397 As that of true and faithful Juliet.
4398
4399 Cap. As rich shall Romeo's by his lady's lie-
4400 Poor sacrifices of our enmity!
4401
4402 Prince. A glooming peace this morning with it brings.
4403 The sun for sorrow will not show his head.
4404 Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
4405 Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished;
4406 For never was a story of more woe
4407 Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
4408 Exeunt omnes.