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Romeo and Juliet
3313 of 3313 lines
ACT I
PROLOGUE
RICHMOND:
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From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
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Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
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From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
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A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life,
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Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
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Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
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The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
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And the continuance of their parents' rage,
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Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
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Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage,
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The which if you with patient ears attend,
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What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
SCENE I. Verona. A public place.
Enter SAMPSON and GREGORY, of the house of Capulet, armed with swords and bucklers
SAMPSON:
1
Gregory, o' my word, we'll not carry coals.
GREGORY:
2
SAMPSON:
3
I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw.
GREGORY:
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Ay, while you live, draw your neck out o' the collar.
SAMPSON:
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I strike quickly, being moved.
GREGORY:
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But thou art not quickly moved to strike.
SAMPSON:
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A dog of the house of Montague moves me.
GREGORY:
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To move is to stir, and to be valiant is to stand:
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therefore, if thou art moved, thou runn'st away.
SAMPSON:
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A dog of that house shall move me to stand: I will
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take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's.
GREGORY:
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That shows thee a weak slave, for the weakest goes
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to the wall.
SAMPSON:
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True, and therefore women, being the weaker vessels,
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are ever thrust to the wall: therefore I will push
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Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids
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to the wall.
GREGORY:
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The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.
SAMPSON:
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'Tis all one, I will show myself a tyrant: when I
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have fought with the men, I will be cruel with the
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maids, and cut off their heads.
GREGORY:
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The heads of the maids?
SAMPSON:
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Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads,
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take it in what sense thou wilt.
GREGORY:
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They must take it in sense that feel it.
SAMPSON:
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Me they shall feel while I am able to stand: and
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'tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh.
GREGORY:
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'Tis well thou art not fish, if thou hadst, thou
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hadst been poor John. Draw thy tool! here comes
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two of the house of the Montagues.
SAMPSON:
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My naked weapon is out: quarrel, I will back thee.
GREGORY:
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How! turn thy back and run?
SAMPSON:
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Fear me not.
GREGORY:
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No, marry, I fear thee!
SAMPSON:
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Let us take the law of our sides, let them begin.
GREGORY:
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I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as
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they list.
SAMPSON:
38
Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them,
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which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.
Enter ABRAHAM and BALTHASAR
ABRAHAM:
40
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
SAMPSON:
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I do bite my thumb, sir.
ABRAHAM:
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Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
SAMPSON:
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[Aside to GREGORY] Is the law of our side, if I say
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ay?
GREGORY:
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No.
SAMPSON:
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No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I
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bite my thumb, sir.
GREGORY:
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Do you quarrel, sir?
ABRAHAM:
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Quarrel sir! no, sir.
SAMPSON:
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If you do, sir, I am for you: I serve as good a man as you.
ABRAHAM:
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No better.
SAMPSON:
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Well, sir.
GREGORY:
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Say 'better:' here comes one of my master's kinsmen.
SAMPSON:
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Yes, better, sir.
ABRAHAM:
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You lie.
SAMPSON:
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Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy swashing blow.
They fight
Enter BENVOLIO
BENVOLIO:
57
Part, fools!
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Put up your swords, you know not what you do.
Beats down their swords
Enter TYBALT
TYBALT:
59
What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?
60
Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death.
BENVOLIO:
61
I do but keep the peace: put up thy sword,
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Or manage it to part these men with me.
TYBALT:
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What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word,
64
As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee:
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Have at thee, coward!
They fight
Enter, several of both houses, who join the fray, then enter Citizens, with clubs
First Citizen:
66
Clubs, bills, and partisans! strike! beat them down!
67
Down with the Capulets! down with the Montagues!
Enter CAPULET in his gown, and LADY CAPULET
CAPULET:
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What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!
LADY CAPULET:
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A crutch, a crutch! why call you for a sword?
CAPULET:
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My sword, I say! Old Montague is come,
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And flourishes his blade in spite of me.
Enter MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE
MONTAGUE:
72
Thou villain Capulet,--Hold me not, let me go.
LADY MONTAGUE:
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Thou shalt not stir a foot to seek a foe.
Enter PRINCE, with Attendants
PRINCE:
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Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
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Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel,--
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Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts,
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That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
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With purple fountains issuing from your veins,
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On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
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Throw your mistemper'd weapons to the ground,
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And hear the sentence of your moved prince.
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Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
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By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
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Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets,
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And made Verona's ancient citizens
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Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments,
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To wield old partisans, in hands as old,
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Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate:
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If ever you disturb our streets again,
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Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
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For this time, all the rest depart away:
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You Capulet, shall go along with me:
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And, Montague, come you this afternoon,
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To know our further pleasure in this case,
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To old Free-town, our common judgment-place.
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Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.
Exeunt all but MONTAGUE, LADY MONTAGUE, and BENVOLIO
MONTAGUE:
97
Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?
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Speak, nephew, were you by when it began?
BENVOLIO:
99
Here were the servants of your adversary,
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And yours, close fighting ere I did approach:
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I drew to part them: in the instant came
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The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepared,
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Which, as he breathed defiance to my ears,
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He swung about his head and cut the winds,
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Who nothing hurt withal hiss'd him in scorn:
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While we were interchanging thrusts and blows,
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Came more and more and fought on part and part,
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Till the prince came, who parted either part.
LADY MONTAGUE:
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O, where is Romeo? saw you him to-day?
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Right glad I am he was not at this fray.
BENVOLIO:
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Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun
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Peer'd forth the golden window of the east,
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A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad,
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Where, underneath the grove of sycamore
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That westward rooteth from the city's side,
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So early walking did I see your son:
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Towards him I made, but he was ware of me
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And stole into the covert of the wood:
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I, measuring his affections by my own,
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That most are busied when they're most alone,
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Pursued my humour not pursuing his,
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And gladly shunn'd who gladly fled from me.
MONTAGUE:
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Many a morning hath he there been seen,
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With tears augmenting the fresh morning dew.
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Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs,
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But all so soon as the all-cheering sun
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Should in the furthest east begin to draw
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The shady curtains from Aurora's bed,
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Away from the light steals home my heavy son,
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And private in his chamber pens himself,
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Shuts up his windows, locks far daylight out
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And makes himself an artificial night:
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Black and portentous must this humour prove,
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Unless good counsel may the cause remove.
BENVOLIO:
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My noble uncle, do you know the cause?
MONTAGUE:
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I neither know it nor can learn of him.
BENVOLIO:
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Have you importuned him by any means?
MONTAGUE:
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Both by myself and many other friends:
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But he, his own affections' counsellor,
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Is to himself--I will not say how true--
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But to himself so secret and so close,
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So far from sounding and discovery,
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As is the bud bit with an envious worm,
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Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,
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Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.
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Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow.
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We would as willingly give cure as know.
Enter ROMEO
BENVOLIO:
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See, where he comes: so please you, step aside,
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I'll know his grievance, or be much denied.
MONTAGUE:
150
I would thou wert so happy by thy stay,
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To hear true shrift. Come, madam, let's away.
Exeunt MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE
BENVOLIO:
152
Good-morrow, cousin.
ROMEO:
153
Is the day so young?
BENVOLIO:
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But new struck nine.
ROMEO:
155
Ay me! sad hours seem long.
156
Was that my father that went hence so fast?
BENVOLIO:
157
It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours?
ROMEO:
158
Not having that, which, having, makes them short.
BENVOLIO:
159
In love?
ROMEO:
160
Out--
BENVOLIO:
161
Of love?
ROMEO:
162
Out of her favour, where I am in love.
BENVOLIO:
163
Alas, that love, so gentle in his view,
164
Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!
ROMEO:
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Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,
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Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!
167
Where shall we dine? O me! What fray was here?
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Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
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Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.
170
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
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O any thing, of nothing first create!
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O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
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Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
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Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire,
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sick health!
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Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
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This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
178
Dost thou not laugh?
BENVOLIO:
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No, coz, I rather weep.
ROMEO:
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Good heart, at what?
BENVOLIO:
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At thy good heart's oppression.
ROMEO:
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Why, such is love's transgression.
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Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,
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Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest
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With more of thine: this love that thou hast shown
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Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.
187
Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs,
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Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes,
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Being vex'd a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:
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What is it else? a madness most discreet,
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A choking gall and a preserving sweet.
192
Farewell, my coz.
BENVOLIO:
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Soft! I will go along,
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An if you leave me so, you do me wrong.
ROMEO:
195
Tut, I have lost myself, I am not here,
196
This is not Romeo, he's some other where.
BENVOLIO:
197
Tell me in sadness, who is that you love.
ROMEO:
198
What, shall I groan and tell thee?
BENVOLIO:
199
Groan! why, no.
200
But sadly tell me who.
ROMEO:
201
Bid a sick man in sadness make his will:
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Ah, word ill urged to one that is so ill!
203
In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.
BENVOLIO:
204
I aim'd so near, when I supposed you loved.
ROMEO:
205
A right good mark-man! And she's fair I love.
BENVOLIO:
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A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.
ROMEO:
207
Well, in that hit you miss: she'll not be hit
208
With Cupid's arrow, she hath Dian's wit,
209
And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd,
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From love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd.
211
She will not stay the siege of loving terms,
212
Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes,
213
Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold:
214
O, she is rich in beauty, only poor,
215
That when she dies with beauty dies her store.
BENVOLIO:
216
Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?
ROMEO:
217
She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste,
218
For beauty starved with her severity
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Cuts beauty off from all posterity.
220
She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair,
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To merit bliss by making me despair:
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She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow
223
Do I live dead that live to tell it now.
BENVOLIO:
224
Be ruled by me, forget to think of her.
ROMEO:
225
O, teach me how I should forget to think.
BENVOLIO:
226
By giving liberty unto thine eyes,
227
Examine other beauties.
ROMEO:
228
'Tis the way
229
To call hers exquisite, in question more:
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These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows
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Being black put us in mind they hide the fair,
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He that is strucken blind cannot forget
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The precious treasure of his eyesight lost:
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Show me a mistress that is passing fair,
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What doth her beauty serve, but as a note
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Where I may read who pass'd that passing fair?
237
Farewell: thou canst not teach me to forget.
BENVOLIO:
238
I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt.
Exeunt
SCENE II. A street.
Enter CAPULET, PARIS, and Servant
CAPULET:
1
2
In penalty alike, and 'tis not hard, I think,
3
For men so old as we to keep the peace.
PARIS:
4
Of honourable reckoning are you both,
5
And pity 'tis you lived at odds so long.
6
But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?
CAPULET:
7
But saying o'er what I have said before:
8
My child is yet a stranger in the world,
9
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years,
10
Let two more summers wither in their pride,
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Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.
PARIS:
12
Younger than she are happy mothers made.
CAPULET:
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And too soon marr'd are those so early made.
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The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she,
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She is the hopeful lady of my earth:
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But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,
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My will to her consent is but a part,
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An she agree, within her scope of choice
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Lies my consent and fair according voice.
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This night I hold an old accustom'd feast,
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Whereto I have invited many a guest,
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Such as I love, and you, among the store,
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One more, most welcome, makes my number more.
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At my poor house look to behold this night
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Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light:
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Such comfort as do lusty young men feel
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When well-apparell'd April on the heel
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Of limping winter treads, even such delight
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Among fresh female buds shall you this night
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Inherit at my house, hear all, all see,
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And like her most whose merit most shall be:
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Which on more view, of many mine being one
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May stand in number, though in reckoning none,
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Come, go with me.
To Servant, giving a paper
CAPULET:
35
Go, sirrah, trudge about
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Through fair Verona, find those persons out
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Whose names are written there, and to them say,
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My house and welcome on their pleasure stay.
Exeunt CAPULET and PARIS
Servant:
39
Find them out whose names are written here! It is
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written, that the shoemaker should meddle with his
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yard, and the tailor with his last, the fisher with
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his pencil, and the painter with his nets, but I am
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sent to find those persons whose names are here
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writ, and can never find what names the writing
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person hath here writ. I must to the learned.--In good time.
Enter BENVOLIO and ROMEO
BENVOLIO:
46
Tut, man, one fire burns out another's burning,
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One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish,
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Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning,
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One desperate grief cures with another's languish:
50
Take thou some new infection to thy eye,
51
And the rank poison of the old will die.
ROMEO:
52
Your plaintain-leaf is excellent for that.
BENVOLIO:
53
For what, I pray thee?
ROMEO:
54
For your broken shin.
BENVOLIO:
55
Why, Romeo, art thou mad?
ROMEO:
56
Not mad, but bound more than a mad-man is,
57
Shut up in prison, kept without my food,
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Whipp'd and tormented and--God-den, good fellow.
Servant:
59
God gi' god-den. I pray, sir, can you read?
ROMEO:
60
Ay, mine own fortune in my misery.
Servant:
61
Perhaps you have learned it without book: but, I
62
pray, can you read any thing you see?
ROMEO:
63
Ay, if I know the letters and the language.
Servant:
64
Ye say honestly: rest you merry!
ROMEO:
65
Stay, fellow, I can read.
Reads
ROMEO:
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'Signior Martino and his wife and daughters,
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County Anselme and his beauteous sisters, the lady
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widow of Vitravio, Signior Placentio and his lovely
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nieces, Mercutio and his brother Valentine, mine
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uncle Capulet, his wife and daughters, my fair niece
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Rosaline, Livia, Signior Valentio and his cousin
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Tybalt, Lucio and the lively Helena.' A fair
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assembly: whither should they come?
Servant:
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Up.
ROMEO:
75
Whither?
Servant:
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To supper, to our house.
ROMEO:
77
Whose house?
Servant:
78
My master's.
ROMEO:
79
Indeed, I should have ask'd you that before.
Servant:
80
Now I'll tell you without asking: my master is the
81
great rich Capulet, and if you be not of the house
82
of Montagues, I pray, come and crush a cup of wine.
83
Rest you merry!
Exit
BENVOLIO:
84
At this same ancient feast of Capulet's
85
Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so lovest,
86
With all the admired beauties of Verona:
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Go thither, and, with unattainted eye,
88
Compare her face with some that I shall show,
89
And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.
ROMEO:
90
When the devout religion of mine eye
91
Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires,
92
And these, who often drown'd could never die,
93
Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars!
94
One fairer than my love! the all-seeing sun
95
Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun.
BENVOLIO:
96
Tut, you saw her fair, none else being by,
97
Herself poised with herself in either eye:
98
But in that crystal scales let there be weigh'd
99
Your lady's love against some other maid
100
That I will show you shining at this feast,
101
And she shall scant show well that now shows best.
ROMEO:
102
I'll go along, no such sight to be shown,
103
But to rejoice in splendor of mine own.
Exeunt
SCENE III. A room in Capulet's house.
Enter LADY CAPULET and Nurse
LADY CAPULET:
1
Nurse, where's my daughter? call her forth to me.
Nurse:
2
Now, by my maidenhead, at twelve year old,
3
I bade her come. What, lamb! what, ladybird!
4
God forbid! Where's this girl? What, Juliet!
Enter JULIET
JULIET:
5
How now! who calls?
Nurse:
6
Your mother.
JULIET:
7
Madam, I am here.
8
What is your will?
LADY CAPULET:
9
This is the matter:--Nurse, give leave awhile,
10
We must talk in secret:--nurse, come back again,
11
I have remember'd me, thou's hear our counsel.
12
Thou know'st my daughter's of a pretty age.
Nurse:
13
Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.
LADY CAPULET:
14
She's not fourteen.
Nurse:
15
I'll lay fourteen of my teeth,--
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And yet, to my teeth be it spoken, I have but four--
17
She is not fourteen. How long is it now
18
To Lammas-tide?
LADY CAPULET:
19
A fortnight and odd days.
Nurse:
20
Even or odd, of all days in the year,
21
Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen.
22
Susan and she--God rest all Christian souls!--
23
Were of an age: well, Susan is with God,
24
She was too good for me: but, as I said,
25
On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen,
26
That shall she, marry, I remember it well.
27
'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years,
28
And she was wean'd,--I never shall forget it,--
29
Of all the days of the year, upon that day:
30
For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
31
Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall,
32
My lord and you were then at Mantua:--
33
Nay, I do bear a brain:--but, as I said,
34
When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
35
Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,
36
To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug!
37
Shake quoth the dove-house: 'twas no need, I trow,
38
To bid me trudge:
39
And since that time it is eleven years,
40
For then she could stand alone, nay, by the rood,
41
She could have run and waddled all about,
42
For even the day before, she broke her brow:
43
And then my husband--God be with his soul!
44
A' was a merry man--took up the child:
45
'Yea,' quoth he, 'dost thou fall upon thy face?
46
Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit,
47
Wilt thou not, Jule?' and, by my holidame,
48
The pretty wretch left crying and said 'Ay.'
49
To see, now, how a jest shall come about!
50
I warrant, an I should live a thousand years,
51
I never should forget it: 'Wilt thou not, Jule?' quoth he,
52
And, pretty fool, it stinted and said 'Ay.'
LADY CAPULET:
53
Enough of this, I pray thee, hold thy peace.
Nurse:
54
Yes, madam: yet I cannot choose but laugh,
55
To think it should leave crying and say 'Ay.'
56
And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow
57
A bump as big as a young cockerel's stone,
58
A parlous knock, and it cried bitterly:
59
'Yea,' quoth my husband,'fall'st upon thy face?
60
Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age,
61
Wilt thou not, Jule?' it stinted and said 'Ay.'
JULIET:
62
And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse, say I.
Nurse:
63
Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace!
64
Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nursed:
65
An I might live to see thee married once,
66
I have my wish.
LADY CAPULET:
67
Marry, that 'marry' is the very theme
68
I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet,
69
How stands your disposition to be married?
JULIET:
70
It is an honour that I dream not of.
Nurse:
71
An honour! were not I thine only nurse,
72
I would say thou hadst suck'd wisdom from thy teat.
LADY CAPULET:
73
Well, think of marriage now, younger than you,
74
Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,
75
Are made already mothers: by my count,
76
I was your mother much upon these years
77
That you are now a maid. Thus then in brief:
78
The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.
Nurse:
79
A man, young lady! lady, such a man
80
As all the world--why, he's a man of wax.
LADY CAPULET:
81
Verona's summer hath not such a flower.
Nurse:
82
Nay, he's a flower, in faith, a very flower.
LADY CAPULET:
83
What say you? can you love the gentleman?
84
This night you shall behold him at our feast,
85
Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face,
86
And find delight writ there with beauty's pen,
87
Examine every married lineament,
88
And see how one another lends content
89
And what obscured in this fair volume lies
90
Find written in the margent of his eyes.
91
This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
92
To beautify him, only lacks a cover:
93
The fish lives in the sea, and 'tis much pride
94
For fair without the fair within to hide:
95
That book in many's eyes doth share the glory,
96
That in gold clasps locks in the golden story,
97
So shall you share all that he doth possess,
98
By having him, making yourself no less.
Nurse:
99
No less! nay, bigger, women grow by men.
LADY CAPULET:
100
Speak briefly, can you like of Paris' love?
JULIET:
101
I'll look to like, if looking liking move:
102
But no more deep will I endart mine eye
103
Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.
Enter a Servant
Servant:
104
Madam, the guests are come, supper served up, you
105
called, my young lady asked for, the nurse cursed in
106
the pantry, and every thing in extremity. I must
107
hence to wait, I beseech you, follow straight.
LADY CAPULET:
108
We follow thee.
Exit Servant
LADY CAPULET:
109
Juliet, the county stays.
Nurse:
110
Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.
Exeunt
SCENE IV. A street.
Enter ROMEO, MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, with five or six Maskers, Torch-bearers, and others
ROMEO:
1
What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse?
2
Or shall we on without a apology?
BENVOLIO:
3
The date is out of such prolixity:
4
We'll have no Cupid hoodwink'd with a scarf,
5
Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath,
6
Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper,
7
Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke
8
After the prompter, for our entrance:
9
But let them measure us by what they will,
10
We'll measure them a measure, and be gone.
ROMEO:
11
Give me a torch: I am not for this ambling,
12
Being but heavy, I will bear the light.
MERCUTIO:
13
Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.
ROMEO:
14
Not I, believe me: you have dancing shoes
15
With nimble soles: I have a soul of lead
16
So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.
MERCUTIO:
17
You are a lover, borrow Cupid's wings,
18
And soar with them above a common bound.
ROMEO:
19
I am too sore enpierced with his shaft
20
To soar with his light feathers, and so bound,
21
I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe:
22
Under love's heavy burden do I sink.
MERCUTIO:
23
And, to sink in it, should you burden love,
24
Too great oppression for a tender thing.
ROMEO:
25
Is love a tender thing? it is too rough,
26
Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn.
MERCUTIO:
27
If love be rough with you, be rough with love,
28
Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.
29
Give me a case to put my visage in:
30
A visor for a visor! what care I
31
What curious eye doth quote deformities?
32
Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me.
BENVOLIO:
33
Come, knock and enter, and no sooner in,
34
But every man betake him to his legs.
ROMEO:
35
A torch for me: let wantons light of heart
36
Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels,
37
For I am proverb'd with a grandsire phrase,
38
I'll be a candle-holder, and look on.
39
The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done.
MERCUTIO:
40
Tut, dun's the mouse, the constable's own word:
41
If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire
42
Of this sir-reverence love, wherein thou stick'st
43
Up to the ears. Come, we burn daylight, ho!
ROMEO:
44
Nay, that's not so.
MERCUTIO:
45
I mean, sir, in delay
46
We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day.
47
Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits
48
Five times in that ere once in our five wits.
ROMEO:
49
And we mean well in going to this mask,
50
But 'tis no wit to go.
MERCUTIO:
51
Why, may one ask?
ROMEO:
52
I dream'd a dream to-night.
MERCUTIO:
53
And so did I.
ROMEO:
54
Well, what was yours?
MERCUTIO:
55
That dreamers often lie.
ROMEO:
56
In bed asleep, while they do dream things true.
MERCUTIO:
57
O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
58
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
59
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
60
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
61
Drawn with a team of little atomies
62
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep,
63
Her wagon-spokes made of long spiders' legs,
64
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
65
The traces of the smallest spider's web,
66
The collars of the moonshine's watery beams,
67
Her whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film,
68
Her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat,
69
Not so big as a round little worm
70
Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid,
71
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut
72
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
73
Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers.
74
And in this state she gallops night by night
75
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love,
76
O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight,
77
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees,
78
O'er ladies ' lips, who straight on kisses dream,
79
Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
80
Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are:
81
Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
82
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit,
83
And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail
84
Tickling a parson's nose as a' lies asleep,
85
Then dreams, he of another benefice:
86
Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck,
87
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
88
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
89
Of healths five-fathom deep, and then anon
90
Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,
91
And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two
92
And sleeps again. This is that very Mab
93
That plats the manes of horses in the night,
94
And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,
95
Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes:
96
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
97
That presses them and learns them first to bear,
98
Making them women of good carriage:
99
This is she--
ROMEO:
100
Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!
101
Thou talk'st of nothing.
MERCUTIO:
102
True, I talk of dreams,
103
Which are the children of an idle brain,
104
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,
105
Which is as thin of substance as the air
106
And more inconstant than the wind, who wooes
107
Even now the frozen bosom of the north,
108
And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence,
109
Turning his face to the dew-dropping south.
BENVOLIO:
110
This wind, you talk of, blows us from ourselves,
111
Supper is done, and we shall come too late.
ROMEO:
112
I fear, too early: for my mind misgives
113
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
114
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
115
With this night's revels and expire the term
116
Of a despised life closed in my breast
117
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
118
But He, that hath the steerage of my course,
119
Direct my sail! On, lusty gentlemen.
BENVOLIO:
120
Strike, drum.
Exeunt
SCENE V. A hall in Capulet's house.
Musicians waiting. Enter Servingmen with napkins
First Servant:
1
Where's Potpan, that he helps not to take away? He
2
shift a trencher? he scrape a trencher!
Second Servant:
3
When good manners shall lie all in one or two men's
4
hands and they unwashed too, 'tis a foul thing.
First Servant:
5
Away with the joint-stools, remove the
6
court-cupboard, look to the plate. Good thou, save
7
me a piece of marchpane, and, as thou lovest me, let
8
the porter let in Susan Grindstone and Nell.
9
Antony, and Potpan!
Second Servant:
10
Ay, boy, ready.
First Servant:
11
You are looked for and called for, asked for and
12
sought for, in the great chamber.
Second Servant:
13
We cannot be here and there too. Cheerly, boys, be
14
brisk awhile, and the longer liver take all.
Enter CAPULET, with JULIET and others of his house, meeting the Guests and Maskers
CAPULET:
15
Welcome, gentlemen! ladies that have their toes
16
Unplagued with corns will have a bout with you.
17
Ah ha, my mistresses! which of you all
18
Will now deny to dance? she that makes dainty,
19
She, I'll swear, hath corns, am I come near ye now?
20
Welcome, gentlemen! I have seen the day
21
That I have worn a visor and could tell
22
A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear,
23
Such as would please: 'tis gone, 'tis gone, 'tis gone:
24
You are welcome, gentlemen! come, musicians, play.
25
A hall, a hall! give room! and foot it, girls.
Music plays, and they dance
CAPULET:
26
More light, you knaves, and turn the tables up,
27
And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot.
28
Ah, sirrah, this unlook'd-for sport comes well.
29
Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin Capulet,
30
For you and I are past our dancing days:
31
How long is't now since last yourself and I
32
Were in a mask?
Second Capulet:
33
By'r lady, thirty years.
CAPULET:
34
What, man! 'tis not so much, 'tis not so much:
35
'Tis since the nuptials of Lucentio,
36
Come pentecost as quickly as it will,
37
Some five and twenty years, and then we mask'd.
Second Capulet:
38
'Tis more, 'tis more, his son is elder, sir,
39
His son is thirty.
CAPULET:
40
Will you tell me that?
41
His son was but a ward two years ago.
ROMEO:
42
[To a Servingman] What lady is that, which doth
43
enrich the hand
44
Of yonder knight?
Servant:
45
I know not, sir.
ROMEO:
46
O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
47
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
48
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear,
49
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
50
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
51
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
52
The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
53
And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
54
Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
55
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
TYBALT:
56
This, by his voice, should be a Montague.
57
Fetch me my rapier, boy. What dares the slave
58
Come hither, cover'd with an antic face,
59
To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?
60
Now, by the stock and honour of my kin,
61
To strike him dead, I hold it not a sin.
CAPULET:
62
Why, how now, kinsman! wherefore storm you so?
TYBALT:
63
Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe,
64
A villain that is hither come in spite,
65
To scorn at our solemnity this night.
CAPULET:
66
Young Romeo is it?
TYBALT:
67
'Tis he, that villain Romeo.
CAPULET:
68
Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone,
69
He bears him like a portly gentleman,
70
And, to say truth, Verona brags of him
71
To be a virtuous and well-govern'd youth:
72
I would not for the wealth of all the town
73
Here in my house do him disparagement:
74
Therefore be patient, take no note of him:
75
It is my will, the which if thou respect,
76
Show a fair presence and put off these frowns,
77
And ill-beseeming semblance for a feast.
TYBALT:
78
It fits, when such a villain is a guest:
79
I'll not endure him.
CAPULET:
80
He shall be endured:
81
What, goodman boy! I say, he shall: go to,
82
Am I the master here, or you? go to.
83
You'll not endure him! God shall mend my soul!
84
You'll make a mutiny among my guests!
85
You will set cock-a-hoop! you'll be the man!
TYBALT:
86
Why, uncle, 'tis a shame.
CAPULET:
87
Go to, go to,
88
You are a saucy boy: is't so, indeed?
89
This trick may chance to scathe you, I know what:
90
You must contrary me! marry, 'tis time.
91
Well said, my hearts! You are a princox, go:
92
Be quiet, or--More light, more light! For shame!
93
I'll make you quiet. What, cheerly, my hearts!
TYBALT:
94
Patience perforce with wilful choler meeting
95
Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.
96
I will withdraw: but this intrusion shall
97
Now seeming sweet convert to bitter gall.
Exit
ROMEO:
98
[To JULIET] If I profane with my unworthiest hand
99
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
100
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
101
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
JULIET:
102
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
103
Which mannerly devotion shows in this,
104
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
105
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
ROMEO:
106
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
JULIET:
107
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
ROMEO:
108
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do,
109
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
JULIET:
110
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.
ROMEO:
111
Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
112
Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.
JULIET:
113
Then have my lips the sin that they have took.
ROMEO:
114
Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!
115
Give me my sin again.
JULIET:
116
You kiss by the book.
Nurse:
117
Madam, your mother craves a word with you.
ROMEO:
118
What is her mother?
Nurse:
119
Marry, bachelor,
120
Her mother is the lady of the house,
121
And a good lady, and a wise and virtuous
122
I nursed her daughter, that you talk'd withal,
123
I tell you, he that can lay hold of her
124
Shall have the chinks.
ROMEO:
125
Is she a Capulet?
126
O dear account! my life is my foe's debt.
BENVOLIO:
127
Away, begone, the sport is at the best.
ROMEO:
128
Ay, so I fear, the more is my unrest.
CAPULET:
129
Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone,
130
We have a trifling foolish banquet towards.
131
Is it e'en so? why, then, I thank you all
132
I thank you, honest gentlemen, good night.
133
More torches here! Come on then, let's to bed.
134
Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late:
135
I'll to my rest.
Exeunt all but JULIET and Nurse
JULIET:
136
Come hither, nurse. What is yond gentleman?
Nurse:
137
The son and heir of old Tiberio.
JULIET:
138
What's he that now is going out of door?
Nurse:
139
Marry, that, I think, be young Petrucio.
JULIET:
140
What's he that follows there, that would not dance?
Nurse:
141
I know not.
JULIET:
142
Go ask his name: if he be married.
143
My grave is like to be my wedding bed.
Nurse:
144
His name is Romeo, and a Montague,
145
The only son of your great enemy.
JULIET:
146
My only love sprung from my only hate!
147
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
148
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
149
That I must love a loathed enemy.
Nurse:
150
What's this? what's this?
JULIET:
151
A rhyme I learn'd even now
152
Of one I danced withal.
One calls within 'Juliet.'
Nurse:
153
Anon, anon!
154
Come, let's away, the strangers all are gone.
Exeunt
ACT II
PROLOGUE
Enter Chorus
Chorus:
1
Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie,
2
And young affection gapes to be his heir,
3
That fair for which love groan'd for and would die,
4
With tender Juliet match'd, is now not fair.
5
Now Romeo is beloved and loves again,
6
Alike betwitched by the charm of looks,
7
But to his foe supposed he must complain,
8
And she steal love's sweet bait from fearful hooks:
9
Being held a foe, he may not have access
10
To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear,
11
And she as much in love, her means much less
12
To meet her new-beloved any where:
13
But passion lends them power, time means, to meet
14
Tempering extremities with extreme sweet.
Exit
SCENE I. A lane by the wall of Capulet's orchard.
Enter ROMEO
ROMEO:
1
Can I go forward when my heart is here?
2
Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out.
He climbs the wall, and leaps down within it
Enter BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO
BENVOLIO:
3
Romeo! my cousin Romeo!
MERCUTIO:
4
He is wise,
5
And, on my lie, hath stol'n him home to bed.
BENVOLIO:
6
He ran this way, and leap'd this orchard wall:
7
Call, good Mercutio.
MERCUTIO:
8
Nay, I'll conjure too.
9
Romeo! humours! madman! passion! lover!
10
Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh:
11
Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied,
12
Cry but 'Ay me!' pronounce but 'love' and 'dove,'
13
Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word,
14
One nick-name for her purblind son and heir,
15
Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim,
16
When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid!
17
He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not,
18
The ape is dead, and I must conjure him.
19
I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes,
20
By her high forehead and her scarlet lip,
21
By her fine foot, straight leg and quivering thigh
22
And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,
23
That in thy likeness thou appear to us!
BENVOLIO:
24
And if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him.
MERCUTIO:
25
This cannot anger him: 'twould anger him
26
To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle
27
Of some strange nature, letting it there stand
28
Till she had laid it and conjured it down,
29
That were some spite: my invocation
30
Is fair and honest, and in his mistres s' name
31
I conjure only but to raise up him.
BENVOLIO:
32
Come, he hath hid himself among these trees,
33
To be consorted with the humorous night:
34
Blind is his love and best befits the dark.
MERCUTIO:
35
If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.
36
Now will he sit under a medlar tree,
37
And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit
38
As maids call medlars, when they laugh alone.
39
Romeo, that she were, O, that she were
40
An open et caetera, thou a poperin pear!
41
Romeo, good night: I'll to my truckle-bed,
42
This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep:
43
Come, shall we go?
BENVOLIO:
44
Go, then, for 'tis in vain
45
To seek him here that means not to be found.
Exeunt
SCENE II. Capulet's orchard.
Enter ROMEO
ROMEO:
1
JULIET appears above at a window
ROMEO:
2
soft! a gentle wait. A moment to stop and take something in.
3
4
5
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
6
That thou her maid art far more fair than she:
7
Be not her maid, since she is envious,
8
9
And none but fools do wear it, cast it off.
10
11
12
She speaks yet she says nothing: what of that?
13
14
15
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
16
17
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
18
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
19
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
20
As daylight doth a lamp, her eyes in heaven
21
Would through the airy region stream so bright
22
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
23
See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
24
O, that I were a glove upon that hand,
25
JULIET:
26
ROMEO:
27
28
O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art
29
As glorious to this night, being o'er my head
30
As is a winged messenger of heaven
31
Unto the white-upturned wondering eyes
32
Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him
33
When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds
34
And sails upon the bosom of the air.
JULIET:
35
36
Deny thy father and refuse thy name,
37
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
38
And I'll no longer be a Capulet.
ROMEO:
39
JULIET:
40
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy,
41
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
42
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
43
44
45
46
By any other name would smell as sweet,
47
48
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
49
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
50
And for that name which is no part of thee
51
ROMEO:
52
53
Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized,
54
Henceforth I never will be Romeo.
JULIET:
55
What man art thou that thus bescreen'd in night
56
So stumblest on my counsel?
ROMEO:
57
58
I know not how to tell thee who I am:
59
My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself,
60
Because it is an enemy to thee,
61
Had I it written, I would tear the word.
JULIET:
62
My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words
63
Of that tongue's utterance, yet I know the sound:
64
Art thou not Romeo and a Montague?
ROMEO:
65
Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike.
JULIET:
66
How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?
67
The orchard walls are high and hard to climb,
68
69
If any of my kinsmen find thee here.
ROMEO:
70
With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls,
71
For stony limits cannot hold love out,
72
And what love can do that dares love attempt,
73
JULIET:
74
ROMEO:
75
Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye
76
Than twenty of their swords: look thou but sweet,
77
JULIET:
78
I would not for the world they saw thee here.
ROMEO:
79
I have night's cloak to hide me from their sight,
80
And but thou love me, let them find me here:
81
My life were better ended by their hate,
82
JULIET:
83
By whose direction found'st thou out this place?
ROMEO:
84
By love, who first did prompt me to inquire,
85
He lent me counsel and I lent him eyes.
86
I am no pilot, yet, wert thou as far
87
As that vast shore wash'd with the farthest sea,
88
JULIET:
89
90
Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek
91
For that which thou hast heard me speak to-night
92
Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain deny
93
What I have spoke: but farewell compliment!
94
95
And I will take thy word: yet if thou swear'st,
96
Thou mayst prove false, at lovers' perjuries
97
Then say, Jove laughs. O gentle Romeo,
98
If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully:
99
100
I'll frown and be perverse an say thee nay,
101
So thou wilt woo, but else, not for the world.
102
In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond,
103
And therefore thou mayst think my 'havior light:
104
But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true
105
106
107
But that thou overheard'st, ere I was ware,
108
My true love's passion: therefore pardon me,
109
110
Which the dark night hath so discovered.
ROMEO:
111
Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear
112
That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops--
JULIET:
113
O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
114
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
115
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.
ROMEO:
116
JULIET:
117
118
Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self,
119
Which is the god of my idolatry,
120
ROMEO:
121
JULIET:
122
Well, do not swear: although I joy in thee,
123
I have no joy of this contract to-night:
124
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,
125
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
126
127
This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
128
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
129
Good night, good night! as sweet repose and rest
130
Come to thy heart as that within my breast!
ROMEO:
131
O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?
JULIET:
132
What satisfaction canst thou have to-night?
ROMEO:
133
The exchange of thy love's faithful vow for mine.
JULIET:
134
I gave thee mine before thou didst request it:
135
And yet I would it were to give again.
ROMEO:
136
Wouldst thou withdraw it? for what purpose, love?
JULIET:
137
But to be frank, and give it thee again.
138
And yet I wish but for the thing I have:
139
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
140
My love as deep, the more I give to thee,
141
The more I have, for both are infinite.
Nurse calls within
JULIET:
142
143
144
Stay but a little, I will come again.
Exit, above
ROMEO:
145
O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard.
146
Being in night, all this is but a dream,
147
Re-enter JULIET, above
JULIET:
148
Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed.
149
If that thy bent of love be honourable,
150
151
By one that I'll procure to come to thee,
152
Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite,
153
And all my fortunes at thy foot I'll lay
154
And follow thee my lord throughout the world.
Nurse:
155
JULIET:
156
157
Nurse:
158
[Within] Madam!
JULIET:
159
160
161
ROMEO:
162
JULIET:
163
Exit, above
ROMEO:
164
A thousand times the worse, to want thy light.
165
166
167
But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.
Retiring
Re-enter JULIET, above
JULIET:
168
Hist! Romeo, hist! O, for a falconer's voice,
169
To lure this tassel-gentle back again!
170
Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud,
171
Else would I tear the cave where Echo lies,
172
And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine,
173
With repetition of my Romeo's name.
ROMEO:
174
It is my soul that calls upon my name:
175
How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night,
176
Like softest music to attending ears!
JULIET:
177
Romeo!
ROMEO:
178
My dear?
JULIET:
179
180
ROMEO:
181
JULIET:
182
I will not fail: 'tis twenty years till then.
183
ROMEO:
184
JULIET:
185
I shall forget, to have thee still stand there,
186
Remembering how I love thy company.
ROMEO:
187
And I'll still stay, to have thee still forget,
188
Forgetting any other home but this.
JULIET:
189
190
And yet no further than a wanton's bird,
191
Who lets it hop a little from her hand,
192
Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,
193
And with a silk thread plucks it back again,
194
So loving-jealous of his liberty.
ROMEO:
195
JULIET:
196
197
Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.
198
Good night, good night! parting is such
199
sweet sorrow,
200
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.
Exit above
ROMEO:
201
Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast!
202
Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest!
203
Hence will I to my ghostly father's cell,
204
His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell.
Exit
SCENE III. Friar Laurence's cell.
Enter FRIAR LAURENCE, with a basket
FRIAR LAURENCE:
1
The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,
2
Chequering the eastern clouds with streaks of light,
3
And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels
4
From forth day's path and Titan's fiery wheels:
5
Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye,
6
The day to cheer and night's dank dew to dry,
7
I must up-fill this osier cage of ours
8
With baleful weeds and precious-juiced flowers.
9
The earth that's nature's mother is her tomb,
10
What is her burying grave that is her womb,
11
And from her womb children of divers kind
12
We sucking on her natural bosom find,
13
Many for many virtues excellent,
14
None but for some and yet all different.
15
O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies
16
In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities:
17
For nought so vile that on the earth doth live
18
But to the earth some special good doth give,
19
Nor aught so good but strain'd from that fair use
20
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse:
21
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied,
22
And vice sometimes by action dignified.
23
Within the infant rind of this small flower
24
Poison hath residence and medicine power:
25
For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part,
26
Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart.
27
Two such opposed kings encamp them still
28
In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will,
29
And where the worser is predominant,
30
Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.
Enter ROMEO
ROMEO:
31
Good morrow, father.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
32
Benedicite!
33
What early tongue so sweet saluteth me?
34
Young son, it argues a distemper'd head
35
So soon to bid good morrow to thy bed:
36
Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,
37
And where care lodges, sleep will never lie,
38
But where unbruised youth with unstuff'd brain
39
Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign:
40
Therefore thy earliness doth me assure
41
Thou art up-roused by some distemperature,
42
Or if not so, then here I hit it right,
43
Our Romeo hath not been in bed to-night.
ROMEO:
44
That last is true, the sweeter rest was mine.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
45
God pardon sin! wast thou with Rosaline?
ROMEO:
46
With Rosaline, my ghostly father? no,
47
I have forgot that name, and that name's woe.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
48
That's my good son: but where hast thou been, then?
ROMEO:
49
I'll tell thee, ere thou ask it me again.
50
I have been feasting with mine enemy,
51
Where on a sudden one hath wounded me,
52
That's by me wounded: both our remedies
53
Within thy help and holy physic lies:
54
I bear no hatred, blessed man, for, lo,
55
My intercession likewise steads my foe.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
56
Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift,
57
Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift.
ROMEO:
58
Then plainly know my heart's dear love is set
59
On the fair daughter of rich Capulet:
60
As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine,
61
And all combined, save what thou must combine
62
By holy marriage: when and where and how
63
We met, we woo'd and made exchange of vow,
64
I'll tell thee as we pass, but this I pray,
65
That thou consent to marry us to-day.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
66
Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here!
67
Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear,
68
So soon forsaken? young men's love then lies
69
Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.
70
Jesu Maria, what a deal of brine
71
Hath wash'd thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline!
72
How much salt water thrown away in waste,
73
To season love, that of it doth not taste!
74
The sun not yet thy sighs from heaven clears,
75
Thy old groans ring yet in my ancient ears,
76
Lo, here upon thy cheek the stain doth sit
77
Of an old tear that is not wash'd off yet:
78
If e'er thou wast thyself and these woes thine,
79
Thou and these woes were all for Rosaline:
80
And art thou changed? pronounce this sentence then,
81
Women may fall, when there's no strength in men.
ROMEO:
82
Thou chid'st me oft for loving Rosaline.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
83
For doting, not for loving, pupil mine.
ROMEO:
84
And bad'st me bury love.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
85
Not in a grave,
86
To lay one in, another out to have.
ROMEO:
87
I pray thee, chide not, she whom I love now
88
Doth grace for grace and love for love allow,
89
The other did not so.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
90
O, she knew well
91
Thy love did read by rote and could not spell.
92
But come, young waverer, come, go with me,
93
In one respect I'll thy assistant be,
94
For this alliance may so happy prove,
95
To turn your households' rancour to pure love.
ROMEO:
96
O, let us hence, I stand on sudden haste.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
97
Wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast.
Exeunt
SCENE IV. A street.
Enter BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO
MERCUTIO:
1
Where the devil should this Romeo be?
2
Came he not home to-night?
BENVOLIO:
3
Not to his father's, I spoke with his man.
MERCUTIO:
4
Ah, that same pale hard-hearted wench, that Rosaline.
5
Torments him so, that he will sure run mad.
BENVOLIO:
6
Tybalt, the kinsman of old Capulet,
7
Hath sent a letter to his father's house.
MERCUTIO:
8
A challenge, on my life.
BENVOLIO:
9
Romeo will answer it.
MERCUTIO:
10
Any man that can write may answer a letter.
BENVOLIO:
11
Nay, he will answer the letter's master, how he
12
dares, being dared.
MERCUTIO:
13
Alas poor Romeo! he is already dead, stabbed with a
14
white wench's black eye, shot through the ear with a
15
love-song, the very pin of his heart cleft with the
16
blind bow-boy's butt-shaft: and is he a man to
17
encounter Tybalt?
BENVOLIO:
18
Why, what is Tybalt?
MERCUTIO:
19
More than prince of cats, I can tell you. O, he is
20
the courageous captain of compliments. He fights as
21
you sing prick-song, keeps time, distance, and
22
proportion, rests me his minim rest, one, two, and
23
the third in your bosom: the very butcher of a silk
24
button, a duellist, a duellist, a gentleman of the
25
very first house, of the first and second cause:
26
ah, the immortal passado! the punto reverso! the
27
hai!
BENVOLIO:
28
The what?
MERCUTIO:
29
The pox of such antic, lisping, affecting
30
fantasticoes, these new tuners of accents! 'By Jesu,
31
a very good blade! a very tall man! a very good
32
whore!' Why, is not this a lamentable thing,
33
grandsire, that we should be thus afflicted with
34
these strange flies, these fashion-mongers, these
35
perdona-mi's, who stand so much on the new form,
36
that they cannot at ease on the old bench? O, their
37
bones, their bones!
Enter ROMEO
BENVOLIO:
38
Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo.
MERCUTIO:
39
Without his roe, like a dried herring: flesh, flesh,
40
how art thou fishified! Now is he for the numbers
41
that Petrarch flowed in: Laura to his lady was but a
42
kitchen-wench, marry, she had a better love to
43
be-rhyme her, Dido a dowdy, Cleopatra a gipsy,
44
Helen and Hero hildings and harlots, Thisbe a grey
45
eye or so, but not to the purpose. Signior
46
Romeo, bon jour! there's a French salutation
47
to your French slop. You gave us the counterfeit
48
fairly last night.
ROMEO:
49
Good morrow to you both. What counterfeit did I give you?
MERCUTIO:
50
The ship, sir, the slip, can you not conceive?
ROMEO:
51
Pardon, good Mercutio, my business was great, and in
52
such a case as mine a man may strain courtesy.
MERCUTIO:
53
That's as much as to say, such a case as yours
54
constrains a man to bow in the hams.
ROMEO:
55
Meaning, to court'sy.
MERCUTIO:
56
Thou hast most kindly hit it.
ROMEO:
57
A most courteous exposition.
MERCUTIO:
58
Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy.
ROMEO:
59
Pink for flower.
MERCUTIO:
60
Right.
ROMEO:
61
Why, then is my pump well flowered.
MERCUTIO:
62
Well said: follow me this jest now till thou hast
63
worn out thy pump, that when the single sole of it
64
is worn, the jest may remain after the wearing sole singular.
ROMEO:
65
O single-soled jest, solely singular for the
66
singleness.
MERCUTIO:
67
Come between us, good Benvolio, my wits faint.
ROMEO:
68
Switch and spurs, switch and spurs, or I'll cry a match.
MERCUTIO:
69
Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I have
70
done, for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of
71
thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five:
72
was I with you there for the goose?
ROMEO:
73
Thou wast never with me for any thing when thou wast
74
not there for the goose.
MERCUTIO:
75
I will bite thee by the ear for that jest.
ROMEO:
76
Nay, good goose, bite not.
MERCUTIO:
77
Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting, it is a most
78
sharp sauce.
ROMEO:
79
And is it not well served in to a sweet goose?
MERCUTIO:
80
O here's a wit of cheveril, that stretches from an
81
inch narrow to an ell broad!
ROMEO:
82
I stretch it out for that word 'broad,' which added
83
to the goose, proves thee far and wide a broad goose.
MERCUTIO:
84
Why, is not this better now than groaning for love?
85
now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo, now art
86
thou what thou art, by art as well as by nature:
87
for this drivelling love is like a great natural,
88
that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole.
BENVOLIO:
89
Stop there, stop there.
MERCUTIO:
90
Thou desirest me to stop in my tale against the hair.
BENVOLIO:
91
Thou wouldst else have made thy tale large.
MERCUTIO:
92
O, thou art deceived, I would have made it short:
93
for I was come to the whole depth of my tale, and
94
meant, indeed, to occupy the argument no longer.
ROMEO:
95
Here's goodly gear!
Enter Nurse and PETER
MERCUTIO:
96
A sail, a sail!
BENVOLIO:
97
Two, two, a shirt and a smock.
Nurse:
98
Peter!
PETER:
99
Anon!
Nurse:
100
My fan, Peter.
MERCUTIO:
101
Good Peter, to hide her face, for her fan's the
102
fairer face.
Nurse:
103
God ye good morrow, gentlemen.
MERCUTIO:
104
God ye good den, fair gentlewoman.
Nurse:
105
Is it good den?
MERCUTIO:
106
'Tis no less, I tell you, for the bawdy hand of the
107
dial is now upon the prick of noon.
Nurse:
108
Out upon you! what a man are you!
ROMEO:
109
One, gentlewoman, that God hath made for himself to
110
mar.
Nurse:
111
By my troth, it is well said, 'for himself to mar,'
112
quoth a'? Gentlemen, can any of you tell me where I
113
may find the young Romeo?
ROMEO:
114
I can tell you, but young Romeo will be older when
115
you have found him than he was when you sought him:
116
I am the youngest of that name, for fault of a worse.
Nurse:
117
You say well.
MERCUTIO:
118
Yea, is the worst well? very well took, i' faith,
119
wisely, wisely.
Nurse:
120
if you be he, sir, I desire some confidence with
121
you.
BENVOLIO:
122
She will indite him to some supper.
MERCUTIO:
123
A bawd, a bawd, a bawd! so ho!
ROMEO:
124
What hast thou found?
MERCUTIO:
125
No hare, sir, unless a hare, sir, in a lenten pie,
126
that is something stale and hoar ere it be spent.
Sings
MERCUTIO:
127
An old hare hoar,
128
And an old hare hoar,
129
Is very good meat in lent
130
But a hare that is hoar
131
Is too much for a score,
132
When it hoars ere it be spent.
133
Romeo, will you come to your father's? we'll
134
to dinner, thither.
ROMEO:
135
I will follow you.
MERCUTIO:
136
Farewell, ancient lady, farewell,
Singing
MERCUTIO:
137
'lady, lady, lady.'
Exeunt MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO
Nurse:
138
Marry, farewell! I pray you, sir, what saucy
139
merchant was this, that was so full of his ropery?
ROMEO:
140
A gentleman, nurse, that loves to hear himself talk,
141
and will speak more in a minute than he will stand
142
to in a month.
Nurse:
143
An a' speak any thing against me, I'll take him
144
down, an a' were lustier than he is, and twenty such
145
Jacks, and if I cannot, I'll find those that shall.
146
Scurvy knave! I am none of his flirt-gills, I am
147
none of his skains-mates. And thou must stand by
148
too, and suffer every knave to use me at his pleasure?
PETER:
149
I saw no man use you a pleasure, if I had, my weapon
150
should quickly have been out, I warrant you: I dare
151
draw as soon as another man, if I see occasion in a
152
good quarrel, and the law on my side.
Nurse:
153
Now, afore God, I am so vexed, that every part about
154
me quivers. Scurvy knave! Pray you, sir, a word:
155
and as I told you, my young lady bade me inquire you
156
out, what she bade me say, I will keep to myself:
157
but first let me tell ye, if ye should lead her into
158
a fool's paradise, as they say, it were a very gross
159
kind of behavior, as they say: for the gentlewoman
160
is young, and, therefore, if you should deal double
161
with her, truly it were an ill thing to be offered
162
to any gentlewoman, and very weak dealing.
ROMEO:
163
Nurse, commend me to thy lady and mistress. I
164
protest unto thee--
Nurse:
165
Good heart, and, i' faith, I will tell her as much:
166
Lord, Lord, she will be a joyful woman.
ROMEO:
167
What wilt thou tell her, nurse? thou dost not mark me.
Nurse:
168
I will tell her, sir, that you do protest, which, as
169
I take it, is a gentlemanlike offer.
ROMEO:
170
Bid her devise
171
Some means to come to shrift this afternoon,
172
And there she shall at Friar Laurence' cell
173
Be shrived and married. Here is for thy pains.
Nurse:
174
No truly sir, not a penny.
ROMEO:
175
Go to, I say you shall.
Nurse:
176
This afternoon, sir? well, she shall be there.
ROMEO:
177
And stay, good nurse, behind the abbey wall:
178
Within this hour my man shall be with thee
179
And bring thee cords made like a tackled stair,
180
Which to the high top-gallant of my joy
181
Must be my convoy in the secret night.
182
Farewell, be trusty, and I'll quit thy pains:
183
Farewell, commend me to thy mistress.
Nurse:
184
Now God in heaven bless thee! Hark you, sir.
ROMEO:
185
What say'st thou, my dear nurse?
Nurse:
186
Is your man secret? Did you ne'er hear say,
187
Two may keep counsel, putting one away?
ROMEO:
188
I warrant thee, my man's as true as steel.
NURSE:
189
Well, sir, my mistress is the sweetest lady--Lord,
190
Lord! when 'twas a little prating thing:--O, there
191
is a nobleman in town, one Paris, that would fain
192
lay knife aboard, but she, good soul, had as lief
193
see a toad, a very toad, as see him. I anger her
194
sometimes and tell her that Paris is the properer
195
man, but, I'll warrant you, when I say so, she looks
196
as pale as any clout in the versal world. Doth not
197
rosemary and Romeo begin both with a letter?
ROMEO:
198
Ay, nurse, what of that? both with an R.
Nurse:
199
Ah. mocker! that's the dog's name, R is for
200
the--No, I know it begins with some other
201
letter:--and she hath the prettiest sententious of
202
it, of you and rosemary, that it would do you good
203
to hear it.
ROMEO:
204
Commend me to thy lady.
Nurse:
205
Ay, a thousand times.
Exit Romeo
Nurse:
206
Peter!
PETER:
207
Anon!
Nurse:
208
Peter, take my fan, and go before and apace.
Exeunt
SCENE V. Capulet's orchard.
Enter JULIET
JULIET:
1
The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse,
2
In half an hour she promised to return.
3
Perchance she cannot meet him: that's not so.
4
O, she is lame! love's heralds should be thoughts,
5
Which ten times faster glide than the sun's beams,
6
Driving back shadows over louring hills:
7
Therefore do nimble-pinion'd doves draw love,
8
And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.
9
Now is the sun upon the highmost hill
10
Of this day's journey, and from nine till twelve
11
Is three long hours, yet she is not come.
12
Had she affections and warm youthful blood,
13
She would be as swift in motion as a ball,
14
My words would bandy her to my sweet love,
15
And his to me:
16
But old folks, many feign as they were dead,
17
Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.
18
O God, she comes!
Enter Nurse and PETER
JULIET:
19
O honey nurse, what news?
20
Hast thou met with him? Send thy man away.
Nurse:
21
Peter, stay at the gate.
Exit PETER
JULIET:
22
Now, good sweet nurse,--O Lord, why look'st thou sad?
23
Though news be sad, yet tell them merrily,
24
If good, thou shamest the music of sweet news
25
By playing it to me with so sour a face.
Nurse:
26
I am a-weary, give me leave awhile:
27
Fie, how my bones ache! what a jaunt have I had!
JULIET:
28
I would thou hadst my bones, and I thy news:
29
Nay, come, I pray thee, speak, good, good nurse, speak.
Nurse:
30
Jesu, what haste? can you not stay awhile?
31
Do you not see that I am out of breath?
JULIET:
32
How art thou out of breath, when thou hast breath
33
To say to me that thou art out of breath?
34
The excuse that thou dost make in this delay
35
Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse.
36
Is thy news good, or bad? answer to that,
37
Say either, and I'll stay the circumstance:
38
Let me be satisfied, is't good or bad?
Nurse:
39
Well, you have made a simple choice, you know not
40
how to choose a man: Romeo! no, not he, though his
41
face be better than any man's, yet his leg excels
42
all men's, and for a hand, and a foot, and a body,
43
though they be not to be talked on, yet they are
44
past compare: he is not the flower of courtesy,
45
but, I'll warrant him, as gentle as a lamb. Go thy
46
ways, wench, serve God. What, have you dined at home?
JULIET:
47
No, no: but all this did I know before.
48
What says he of our marriage? what of that?
Nurse:
49
Lord, how my head aches! what a head have I!
50
It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces.
51
My back o' t' other side,--O, my back, my back!
52
Beshrew your heart for sending me about,
53
To catch my death with jaunting up and down!
JULIET:
54
I' faith, I am sorry that thou art not well.
55
Sweet, sweet, sweet nurse, tell me, what says my love?
Nurse:
56
Your love says, like an honest gentleman, and a
57
courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, and, I
58
warrant, a virtuous,--Where is your mother?
JULIET:
59
Where is my mother! why, she is within,
60
Where should she be? How oddly thou repliest!
61
'Your love says, like an honest gentleman,
62
Where is your mother?'
Nurse:
63
O God's lady dear!
64
Are you so hot? marry, come up, I trow,
65
Is this the poultice for my aching bones?
66
Henceforward do your messages yourself.
JULIET:
67
Here's such a coil! come, what says Romeo?
Nurse:
68
Have you got leave to go to shrift to-day?
JULIET:
69
I have.
Nurse:
70
Then hie you hence to Friar Laurence' cell,
71
There stays a husband to make you a wife:
72
Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks,
73
They'll be in scarlet straight at any news.
74
Hie you to church, I must another way,
75
To fetch a ladder, by the which your love
76
Must climb a bird's nest soon when it is dark:
77
I am the drudge and toil in your delight,
78
But you shall bear the burden soon at night.
79
Go, I'll to dinner: hie you to the cell.
JULIET:
80
Hie to high fortune! Honest nurse, farewell.
Exeunt
SCENE VI. Friar Laurence's cell.
Enter FRIAR LAURENCE and ROMEO
FRIAR LAURENCE:
1
So smile the heavens upon this holy act,
2
That after hours with sorrow chide us not!
ROMEO:
3
Amen, amen! but come what sorrow can,
4
It cannot countervail the exchange of joy
5
That one short minute gives me in her sight:
6
Do thou but close our hands with holy words,
7
Then love-devouring death do what he dare,
8
It is enough I may but call her mine.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
9
These violent delights have violent ends
10
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
11
Which as they kiss consume: the sweetest honey
12
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness
13
And in the taste confounds the appetite:
14
Therefore love moderately, long love doth so,
15
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.
Enter JULIET
FRIAR LAURENCE:
16
Here comes the lady: O, so light a foot
17
Will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint:
18
A lover may bestride the gossamer
19
That idles in the wanton summer air,
20
And yet not fall, so light is vanity.
JULIET:
21
Good even to my ghostly confessor.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
22
Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both.
JULIET:
23
As much to him, else is his thanks too much.
ROMEO:
24
Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy
25
Be heap'd like mine and that thy skill be more
26
To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath
27
This neighbour air, and let rich music's tongue
28
Unfold the imagined happiness that both
29
Receive in either by this dear encounter.
JULIET:
30
Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,
31
Brags of his substance, not of ornament:
32
They are but beggars that can count their worth,
33
But my true love is grown to such excess
34
I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
35
Come, come with me, and we will make short work,
36
For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone
37
Till holy church incorporate two in one.
Exeunt
ACT III
SCENE I. A public place.
Enter MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, Page, and Servants
BENVOLIO:
1
I pray thee, good Mercutio, let's retire:
2
The day is hot, the Capulets abroad,
3
And, if we meet, we shall not scape a brawl,
4
For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.
MERCUTIO:
5
Thou art like one of those fellows that when he
enters the confines of a tavern claps me his sword
MERCUTIO:
7
upon the table and says 'God send me no need of
8
thee!' and by the operation of the second cup draws
9
it on the drawer, when indeed there is no need.
BENVOLIO:
10
Am I like such a fellow?
MERCUTIO:
11
Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood as
12
any in Italy, and as soon moved to be moody, and as
13
soon moody to be moved.
BENVOLIO:
14
And what to?
MERCUTIO:
15
Nay, an there were two such, we should have none
16
shortly, for one would kill the other. Thou! why,
17
thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more,
18
or a hair less, in his beard, than thou hast: thou
19
wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no
20
other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes: what
21
eye but such an eye would spy out such a quarrel?
22
Thy head is as fun of quarrels as an egg is full of
23
meat, and yet thy head hath been beaten as addle as
24
an egg for quarrelling: thou hast quarrelled with a
25
man for coughing in the street, because he hath
26
wakened thy dog that hath lain asleep in the sun:
27
didst thou not fall out with a tailor for wearing
28
his new doublet before Easter? with another, for
29
tying his new shoes with old riband? and yet thou
30
wilt tutor me from quarrelling!
BENVOLIO:
31
An I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any man
32
should buy the fee-simple of my life for an hour and a quarter.
MERCUTIO:
33
The fee-simple! O simple!
BENVOLIO:
34
By my head, here come the Capulets.
MERCUTIO:
35
By my heel, I care not.
Enter TYBALT and others
TYBALT:
36
Follow me close, for I will speak to them.
37
Gentlemen, good den: a word with one of you.
MERCUTIO:
38
And but one word with one of us? couple it with
39
something, make it a word and a blow.
TYBALT:
40
You shall find me apt enough to that, sir, an you
41
will give me occasion.
MERCUTIO:
42
Could you not take some occasion without giving?
TYBALT:
43
Mercutio, thou consort'st with Romeo,--
MERCUTIO:
44
Consort! what, dost thou make us minstrels? an
45
thou make minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but
46
discords: here's my fiddlestick, here's that shall
47
make you dance. 'Zounds, consort!
BENVOLIO:
48
We talk here in the public haunt of men:
49
Either withdraw unto some private place,
50
And reason coldly of your grievances,
51
Or else depart, here all eyes gaze on us.
MERCUTIO:
52
Men's eyes were made to look, and let them gaze,
53
I will not budge for no man's pleasure, I.
Enter ROMEO
TYBALT:
54
Well, peace be with you, sir: here comes my man.
MERCUTIO:
55
But I'll be hanged, sir, if he wear your livery:
56
Marry, go before to field, he'll be your follower,
57
Your worship in that sense may call him 'man.'
TYBALT:
58
Romeo, the hate I bear thee can afford
59
No better term than this,--thou art a villain.
ROMEO:
60
Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee
61
Doth much excuse the appertaining rage
62
To such a greeting: villain am I none,
63
Therefore farewell, I see thou know'st me not.
TYBALT:
64
Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries
65
That thou hast done me, therefore turn and draw.
ROMEO:
66
I do protest, I never injured thee,
67
But love thee better than thou canst devise,
68
Till thou shalt know the reason of my love:
69
And so, good Capulet,--which name I tender
70
As dearly as my own,--be satisfied.
MERCUTIO:
71
O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!
72
Alla stoccata carries it away.
Draws
MERCUTIO:
73
Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk?
TYBALT:
74
What wouldst thou have with me?
MERCUTIO:
75
Good king of cats, nothing but one of your nine
76
lives, that I mean to make bold withal, and as you
77
shall use me hereafter, drybeat the rest of the
78
eight. Will you pluck your sword out of his pitcher
79
by the ears? make haste, lest mine be about your
80
ears ere it be out.
TYBALT:
81
I am for you.
Drawing
ROMEO:
82
Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up.
MERCUTIO:
83
Come, sir, your passado.
They fight
ROMEO:
84
Draw, Benvolio, beat down their weapons.
85
Gentlemen, for shame, forbear this outrage!
86
Tybalt, Mercutio, the prince expressly hath
87
Forbidden bandying in Verona streets:
88
Hold, Tybalt! good Mercutio!
TYBALT under ROMEO's arm stabs MERCUTIO, and flies with his followers
MERCUTIO:
89
I am hurt.
90
A plague o' both your houses! I am sped.
91
Is he gone, and hath nothing?
BENVOLIO:
92
What, art thou hurt?
MERCUTIO:
93
Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch, marry, 'tis enough.
94
Where is my page? Go, villain, fetch a surgeon.
Exit Page
ROMEO:
95
Courage, man, the hurt cannot be much.
MERCUTIO:
96
No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a
97
church-door, but 'tis enough,'twill serve: ask for
98
me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I
99
am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o'
100
both your houses! 'Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a
101
cat, to scratch a man to death! a braggart, a
102
rogue, a villain, that fights by the book of
103
arithmetic! Why the devil came you between us? I
104
was hurt under your arm.
ROMEO:
105
I thought all for the best.
MERCUTIO:
106
Help me into some house, Benvolio,
107
Or I shall faint. A plague o' both your houses!
108
They have made worms' meat of me: I have it,
109
And soundly too: your houses!
Exeunt MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO
ROMEO:
110
This gentleman, the prince's near ally,
111
My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt
112
In my behalf, my reputation stain'd
113
With Tybalt's slander,--Tybalt, that an hour
114
Hath been my kinsman! O sweet Juliet,
115
Thy beauty hath made me effeminate
116
And in my temper soften'd valour's steel!
Re-enter BENVOLIO
BENVOLIO:
117
O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio's dead!
118
That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds,
119
Which too untimely here did scorn the earth.
ROMEO:
120
This day's black fate on more days doth depend,
121
This but begins the woe, others must end.
BENVOLIO:
122
Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.
ROMEO:
123
Alive, in triumph! and Mercutio slain!
124
Away to heaven, respective lenity,
125
And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now!
Re-enter TYBALT
ROMEO:
126
Now, Tybalt, take the villain back again,
127
That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio's soul
128
Is but a little way above our heads,
129
Staying for thine to keep him company:
130
Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him.
TYBALT:
131
Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort him here,
132
Shalt with him hence.
ROMEO:
133
This shall determine that.
133
They fight, TYBALT falls
BENVOLIO:
134
Romeo, away, be gone!
135
The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain.
136
Stand not amazed: the prince will doom thee death,
137
If thou art taken: hence, be gone, away!
ROMEO:
138
O, I am fortune's fool!
BENVOLIO:
139
Why dost thou stay?
Exit ROMEO
Enter Citizens, and c
First Citizen:
140
Which way ran he that kill'd Mercutio?
141
Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he?
BENVOLIO:
142
There lies that Tybalt.
First Citizen:
143
Up, sir, go with me,
144
I charge thee in the princes name, obey.
Enter Prince, attended, MONTAGUE, CAPULET, their Wives, and others
PRINCE:
145
Where are the vile beginners of this fray?
BENVOLIO:
146
O noble prince, I can discover all
147
The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl:
148
There lies the man, slain by young Romeo,
149
That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio.
LADY CAPULET:
150
Tybalt, my cousin! O my brother's child!
151
O prince! O cousin! husband! O, the blood is spilt
152
O my dear kinsman! Prince, as thou art true,
153
For blood of ours, shed blood of Montague.
154
O cousin, cousin!
PRINCE:
155
Benvolio, who began this bloody fray?
BENVOLIO:
156
Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay,
157
Romeo that spoke him fair, bade him bethink
158
How nice the quarrel was, and urged withal
159
Your high displeasure: all this uttered
160
With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd,
161
Could not take truce with the unruly spleen
162
Of Tybalt deaf to peace, but that he tilts
163
With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast,
164
Who all as hot, turns deadly point to point,
165
And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats
166
Cold death aside, and with the other sends
167
It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity,
168
Retorts it: Romeo he cries aloud,
169
'Hold, friends! friends, part!' and, swifter than
170
his tongue,
171
His agile arm beats down their fatal points,
172
And 'twixt them rushes, underneath whose arm
173
An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
174
Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled,
175
But by and by comes back to Romeo,
176
Who had but newly entertain'd revenge,
177
And to 't they go like lightning, for, ere I
178
Could draw to part them, was stout Tybalt slain.
179
And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly.
180
This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.
LADY CAPULET:
181
He is a kinsman to the Montague,
182
Affection makes him false, he speaks not true:
183
Some twenty of them fought in this black strife,
184
And all those twenty could but kill one life.
185
I beg for justice, which thou, prince, must give,
186
Romeo slew Tybalt, Romeo must not live.
PRINCE:
187
Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio,
188
Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?
MONTAGUE:
189
Not Romeo, prince, he was Mercutio's friend,
190
His fault concludes but what the law should end,
191
The life of Tybalt.
PRINCE:
192
And for that offence
193
Immediately we do exile him hence:
194
I have an interest in your hate's proceeding,
195
My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a-bleeding,
196
But I'll amerce you with so strong a fine
197
That you shall all repent the loss of mine:
198
I will be deaf to pleading and excuses,
199
Nor tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses:
200
Therefore use none: let Romeo hence in haste,
201
Else, when he's found, that hour is his last.
202
Bear hence this body and attend our will:
203
Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.
Exeunt
SCENE II. Capulet's orchard.
Enter JULIET
JULIET:
1
Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
2
Towards Phoebus' lodging: such a wagoner
3
As Phaethon would whip you to the west,
4
And bring in cloudy night immediately.
5
Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,
6
That runaway's eyes may wink and Romeo
7
Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen.
8
Lovers can see to do their amorous rites
9
By their own beauties, or, if love be blind,
10
It best agrees with night. Come, civil night,
11
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black,
12
And learn me how to lose a winning match,
13
Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods:
14
Hood my unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks,
15
With thy black mantle, till strange love, grown bold,
16
Think true love acted simple modesty.
17
Come, night, come, Romeo, come, thou day in night,
18
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
19
Whiter than new snow on a raven's back.
20
Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-brow'd night,
21
Give me my Romeo, and, when he shall die,
22
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
23
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
24
That all the world will be in love with night
25
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
26
O, I have bought the mansion of a love,
27
But not possess'd it, and, though I am sold,
28
Not yet enjoy'd: so tedious is this day
29
As is the night before some festival
30
To an impatient child that hath new robes
31
And may not wear them. O, here comes my nurse,
32
And she brings news, and every tongue that speaks
33
But Romeo's name speaks heavenly eloquence.
Enter Nurse, with cords
JULIET:
34
Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there? the cords
35
That Romeo bid thee fetch?
Nurse:
36
Ay, ay, the cords.
Throws them down
JULIET:
37
Ay me! what news? why dost thou wring thy hands?
Nurse:
38
Ah, well-a-day! he's dead, he's dead, he's dead!
39
We are undone, lady, we are undone!
40
Alack the day! he's gone, he's kill'd, he's dead!
JULIET:
41
Can heaven be so envious?
Nurse:
42
Romeo can,
43
Though heaven cannot: O Romeo, Romeo!
44
Who ever would have thought it? Romeo!
JULIET:
45
What devil art thou, that dost torment me thus?
46
This torture should be roar'd in dismal hell.
47
Hath Romeo slain himself? say thou but 'I,'
48
And that bare vowel 'I' shall poison more
49
Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice:
50
I am not I, if there be such an I,
51
Or those eyes shut, that make thee answer 'I.'
52
If he be slain, say 'I', or if not, no:
53
Brief sounds determine of my weal or woe.
Nurse:
54
I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes,--
55
God save the mark!--here on his manly breast:
56
A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse,
57
Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaub'd in blood,
58
All in gore-blood, I swounded at the sight.
JULIET:
59
O, break, my heart! poor bankrupt, break at once!
60
To prison, eyes, ne'er look on liberty!
61
Vile earth, to earth resign, end motion here,
62
And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier!
Nurse:
63
O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had!
64
O courteous Tybalt! honest gentleman!
65
That ever I should live to see thee dead!
JULIET:
66
What storm is this that blows so contrary?
67
Is Romeo slaughter'd, and is Tybalt dead?
68
My dear-loved cousin, and my dearer lord?
69
Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom!
70
For who is living, if those two are gone?
Nurse:
71
Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished,
72
Romeo that kill'd him, he is banished.
JULIET:
73
O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?
Nurse:
74
It did, it did, alas the day, it did!
JULIET:
75
O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!
76
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
77
Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!
78
Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
79
Despised substance of divinest show!
80
Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st,
81
A damned saint, an honourable villain!
82
O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell,
83
When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
84
In moral paradise of such sweet flesh?
85
Was ever book containing such vile matter
86
So fairly bound? O that deceit should dwell
87
In such a gorgeous palace!
Nurse:
88
There's no trust,
89
No faith, no honesty in men, all perjured,
90
All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.
91
Ah, where's my man? give me some aqua vitae:
92
These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old.
93
Shame come to Romeo!
JULIET:
94
Blister'd be thy tongue
95
For such a wish! he was not born to shame:
96
Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit,
97
For 'tis a throne where honour may be crown'd
98
Sole monarch of the universal earth.
99
O, what a beast was I to chide at him!
Nurse:
100
Will you speak well of him that kill'd your cousin?
JULIET:
101
Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?
102
Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name,
103
When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it?
104
But, wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?
105
That villain cousin would have kill'd my husband:
106
Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring,
107
Your tributary drops belong to woe,
108
Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy.
109
My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain,
110
And Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my husband:
111
All this is comfort, wherefore weep I then?
112
Some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death,
113
That murder'd me: I would forget it fain,
114
But, O, it presses to my memory,
115
Like damned guilty deeds to sinners' minds:
116
'Tybalt is dead, and Romeo--banished,'
117
That 'banished,' that one word 'banished,'
118
Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt's death
119
Was woe enough, if it had ended there:
120
Or, if sour woe delights in fellowship
121
And needly will be rank'd with other griefs,
122
Why follow'd not, when she said 'Tybalt's dead,'
123
Thy father, or thy mother, nay, or both,
124
Which modern lamentations might have moved?
125
But with a rear-ward following Tybalt's death,
126
'Romeo is banished,' to speak that word,
127
Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,
128
All slain, all dead. 'Romeo is banished!'
129
There is no end, no limit, measure, bound,
130
In that word's death, no words can that woe sound.
131
Where is my father, and my mother, nurse?
Nurse:
132
Weeping and wailing over Tybalt's corse:
133
Will you go to them? I will bring you thither.
JULIET:
134
Wash they his wounds with tears: mine shall be spent,
135
When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment.
136
Take up those cords: poor ropes, you are beguiled,
137
Both you and I, for Romeo is exiled:
138
He made you for a highway to my bed,
139
But I, a maid, die maiden-widowed.
140
Come, cords, come, nurse, I'll to my wedding-bed,
141
And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!
Nurse:
142
Hie to your chamber: I'll find Romeo
143
To comfort you: I wot well where he is.
144
Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at night:
145
I'll to him, he is hid at Laurence' cell.
JULIET:
146
O, find him! give this ring to my true knight,
147
And bid him come to take his last farewell.
Exeunt
SCENE III. Friar Laurence's cell.
Enter FRIAR LAURENCE
FRIAR LAURENCE:
1
Romeo, come forth, come forth, thou fearful man:
2
Affliction is enamour'd of thy parts,
3
And thou art wedded to calamity.
Enter ROMEO
ROMEO:
4
Father, what news? what is the prince's doom?
5
What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand,
6
That I yet know not?
FRIAR LAURENCE:
7
Too familiar
8
Is my dear son with such sour company:
9
I bring thee tidings of the prince's doom.
ROMEO:
10
What less than dooms-day is the prince's doom?
FRIAR LAURENCE:
11
A gentler judgment vanish'd from his lips,
12
Not body's death, but body's banishment.
ROMEO:
13
Ha, banishment! be merciful, say 'death,'
14
For exile hath more terror in his look,
15
Much more than death: do not say 'banishment.'
FRIAR LAURENCE:
16
Hence from Verona art thou banished:
17
Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.
ROMEO:
18
There is no world without Verona walls,
19
But purgatory, torture, hell itself.
20
Hence-banished is banish'd from the world,
21
And world's exile is death: then banished,
22
Is death mis-term'd: calling death banishment,
23
Thou cutt'st my head off with a golden axe,
24
And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
25
O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!
26
Thy fault our law calls death, but the kind prince,
27
Taking thy part, hath rush'd aside the law,
28
And turn'd that black word death to banishment:
29
This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not.
ROMEO:
30
'Tis torture, and not mercy: heaven is here,
31
Where Juliet lives, and every cat and dog
32
And little mouse, every unworthy thing,
33
Live here in heaven and may look on her,
34
But Romeo may not: more validity,
35
More honourable state, more courtship lives
36
In carrion-flies than Romeo: they my seize
37
On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand
38
And steal immortal blessing from her lips,
39
Who even in pure and vestal modesty,
40
Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin,
41
But Romeo may not, he is banished:
42
Flies may do this, but I from this must fly:
43
They are free men, but I am banished.
44
And say'st thou yet that exile is not death?
45
Hadst thou no poison mix'd, no sharp-ground knife,
46
No sudden mean of death, though ne'er so mean,
47
But 'banished' to kill me?--'banished'?
48
O friar, the damned use that word in hell,
49
Howlings attend it: how hast thou the heart,
50
Being a divine, a ghostly confessor,
51
A sin-absolver, and my friend profess'd,
52
To mangle me with that word 'banished'?
FRIAR LAURENCE:
53
Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a word.
ROMEO:
54
O, thou wilt speak again of banishment.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
55
I'll give thee armour to keep off that word:
56
Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy,
57
To comfort thee, though thou art banished.
ROMEO:
58
Yet 'banished'? Hang up philosophy!
59
Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
60
Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom,
61
It helps not, it prevails not: talk no more.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
62
O, then I see that madmen have no ears.
ROMEO:
63
How should they, when that wise men have no eyes?
FRIAR LAURENCE:
64
Let me dispute with thee of thy estate.
ROMEO:
65
Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel:
66
Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love,
67
An hour but married, Tybalt murdered,
68
Doting like me and like me banished,
69
Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair,
70
And fall upon the ground, as I do now,
71
Taking the measure of an unmade grave.
Knocking within
FRIAR LAURENCE:
72
Arise, one knocks, good Romeo, hide thyself.
ROMEO:
73
Not I, unless the breath of heartsick groans,
74
Mist-like, infold me from the search of eyes.
Knocking
FRIAR LAURENCE:
75
Hark, how they knock! Who's there? Romeo, arise,
76
Thou wilt be taken. Stay awhile! Stand up,
Knocking
FRIAR LAURENCE:
77
Run to my study. By and by! God's will,
78
What simpleness is this! I come, I come!
Knocking
FRIAR LAURENCE:
79
Who knocks so hard? whence come you? what's your will?
Nurse:
80
[Within] Let me come in, and you shall know
81
my errand,
82
I come from Lady Juliet.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
83
Welcome, then.
Enter Nurse
Nurse:
84
O holy friar, O, tell me, holy friar,
85
Where is my lady's lord, where's Romeo?
FRIAR LAURENCE:
86
There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk.
Nurse:
87
O, he is even in my mistress' case,
88
Just in her case! O woful sympathy!
89
Piteous predicament! Even so lies she,
90
Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering.
91
Stand up, stand up, stand, and you be a man:
92
For Juliet's sake, for her sake, rise and stand,
93
Why should you fall into so deep an O?
ROMEO:
94
Nurse!
Nurse:
95
Ah sir! ah sir! Well, death's the end of all.
ROMEO:
96
Spakest thou of Juliet? how is it with her?
97
Doth she not think me an old murderer,
98
Now I have stain'd the childhood of our joy
99
With blood removed but little from her own?
100
Where is she? and how doth she? and what says
101
My conceal'd lady to our cancell'd love?
Nurse:
102
O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps,
103
And now falls on her bed, and then starts up,
104
And Tybalt calls, and then on Romeo cries,
105
And then down falls again.
ROMEO:
106
As if that name,
107
Shot from the deadly level of a gun,
108
Did murder her, as that name's cursed hand
109
Murder'd her kinsman. O, tell me, friar, tell me,
110
In what vile part of this anatomy
111
Doth my name lodge? tell me, that I may sack
112
The hateful mansion.
Drawing his sword
FRIAR LAURENCE:
113
Hold thy desperate hand:
114
Art thou a man? thy form cries out thou art:
115
Thy tears are womanish, thy wild acts denote
116
The unreasonable fury of a beast:
117
Unseemly woman in a seeming man!
118
Or ill-beseeming beast in seeming both!
119
Thou hast amazed me: by my holy order,
120
I thought thy disposition better temper'd.
121
Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself?
122
And stay thy lady too that lives in thee,
123
By doing damned hate upon thyself?
124
Why rail'st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth?
125
Since birth, and heaven, and earth, all three do meet
126
In thee at once, which thou at once wouldst lose.
127
Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit,
128
Which, like a usurer, abound'st in all,
129
And usest none in that true use indeed
130
Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit:
131
Thy noble shape is but a form of wax,
132
Digressing from the valour of a man,
133
Thy dear love sworn but hollow perjury,
134
Killing that love which thou hast vow'd to cherish,
135
Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,
136
Misshapen in the conduct of them both,
137
Like powder in a skitless soldier's flask,
138
Is set afire by thine own ignorance,
139
And thou dismember'd with thine own defence.
140
What, rouse thee, man! thy Juliet is alive,
141
For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead,
142
There art thou happy: Tybalt would kill thee,
143
But thou slew'st Tybalt, there are thou happy too:
144
The law that threaten'd death becomes thy friend
145
And turns it to exile, there art thou happy:
146
A pack of blessings lights up upon thy back,
147
Happiness courts thee in her best array,
148
But, like a misbehaved and sullen wench,
149
Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love:
150
Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.
151
Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed,
152
Ascend her chamber, hence and comfort her:
153
But look thou stay not till the watch be set,
154
For then thou canst not pass to Mantua,
155
Where thou shalt live, till we can find a time
156
To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends,
157
Beg pardon of the prince, and call thee back
158
With twenty hundred thousand times more joy
159
Than thou went'st forth in lamentation.
160
Go before, nurse: commend me to thy lady,
161
And bid her hasten all the house to bed,
162
Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto:
163
Romeo is coming.
Nurse:
164
O Lord, I could have stay'd here all the night
165
To hear good counsel: O, what learning is!
166
My lord, I'll tell my lady you will come.
ROMEO:
167
Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide.
Nurse:
168
Here, sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir:
169
Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late.
Exit
ROMEO:
170
How well my comfort is revived by this!
FRIAR LAURENCE:
171
Go hence, good night, and here stands all your state:
172
Either be gone before the watch be set,
173
Or by the break of day disguised from hence:
174
Sojourn in Mantua, I'll find out your man,
175
And he shall signify from time to time
176
Every good hap to you that chances here:
177
Give me thy hand, 'tis late: farewell, good night.
ROMEO:
178
But that a joy past joy calls out on me,
179
It were a grief, so brief to part with thee: Farewell.
Exeunt
SCENE IV. A room in Capulet's house.
Enter CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, and PARIS
CAPULET:
1
Things have fall'n out, sir, so unluckily,
2
That we have had no time to move our daughter:
3
Look you, she loved her kinsman Tybalt dearly,
4
And so did I:--Well, we were born to die.
5
'Tis very late, she'll not come down to-night:
6
I promise you, but for your company,
7
I would have been a-bed an hour ago.
PARIS:
8
These times of woe afford no time to woo.
9
Madam, good night: commend me to your daughter.
LADY CAPULET:
10
I will, and know her mind early to-morrow,
11
To-night she is mew'd up to her heaviness.
CAPULET:
12
Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender
13
Of my child's love: I think she will be ruled
14
In all respects by me, nay, more, I doubt it not.
15
Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed,
16
Acquaint her here of my son Paris' love,
17
And bid her, mark you me, on Wednesday next--
18
But, soft! what day is this?
PARIS:
19
Monday, my lord,
CAPULET:
20
Monday! ha, ha! Well, Wednesday is too soon,
21
O' Thursday let it be: o' Thursday, tell her,
22
She shall be married to this noble earl.
23
Will you be ready? do you like this haste?
24
We'll keep no great ado,--a friend or two,
25
For, hark you, Tybalt being slain so late,
26
It may be thought we held him carelessly,
27
Being our kinsman, if we revel much:
28
Therefore we'll have some half a dozen friends,
29
And there an end. But what say you to Thursday?
PARIS:
30
My lord, I would that Thursday were to-morrow.
CAPULET:
31
Well get you gone: o' Thursday be it, then.
32
Go you to Juliet ere you go to bed,
33
Prepare her, wife, against this wedding-day.
34
Farewell, my lord. Light to my chamber, ho!
35
Afore me! it is so very very late,
36
That we may call it early by and by.
37
Good night.
Exeunt
SCENE V. Capulet's orchard.
Enter ROMEO and JULIET above, at the window
JULIET:
1
Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:
2
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
3
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear,
4
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree:
5
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.
ROMEO:
6
It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
7
No nightingale: look, love, what envious streaks
8
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east:
9
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
10
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
11
I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
JULIET:
12
Yon light is not day-light, I know it, I:
13
It is some meteor that the sun exhales,
14
To be to thee this night a torch-bearer,
15
And light thee on thy way to Mantua:
16
Therefore stay yet, thou need'st not to be gone.
ROMEO:
17
Let me be ta'en, let me be put to death,
18
I am content, so thou wilt have it so.
19
I'll say yon grey is not the morning's eye,
20
'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow,
21
Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat
22
The vaulty heaven so high above our heads:
23
I have more care to stay than will to go:
24
Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it so.
25
How is't, my soul? let's talk, it is not day.
JULIET:
26
It is, it is: hie hence, be gone, away!
27
It is the lark that sings so out of tune,
28
Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.
29
Some say the lark makes sweet division,
30
This doth not so, for she divideth us:
31
Some say the lark and loathed toad change eyes,
32
O, now I would they had changed voices too!
33
Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,
34
Hunting thee hence with hunt's-up to the day,
35
O, now be gone, more light and light it grows.
ROMEO:
36
More light and light, more dark and dark our woes!
Enter Nurse, to the chamber
Nurse:
37
Madam!
JULIET:
38
Nurse?
Nurse:
39
Your lady mother is coming to your chamber:
40
The day is broke, be wary, look about.
Exit
JULIET:
41
Then, window, let day in, and let life out.
ROMEO:
42
Farewell, farewell! one kiss, and I'll descend.
He goeth down
JULIET:
43
Art thou gone so? love, lord, ay, husband, friend!
44
I must hear from thee every day in the hour,
45
For in a minute there are many days:
46
O, by this count I shall be much in years
47
Ere I again behold my Romeo!
ROMEO:
48
Farewell!
49
I will omit no opportunity
50
That may convey my greetings, love, to thee.
JULIET:
51
O think'st thou we shall ever meet again?
ROMEO:
52
I doubt it not, and all these woes shall serve
53
For sweet discourses in our time to come.
JULIET:
54
O God, I have an ill-divining soul!
55
Methinks I see thee, now thou art below,
56
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb:
57
Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale.
ROMEO:
58
And trust me, love, in my eye so do you:
59
Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu, adieu!
Exit
JULIET:
60
O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle:
61
If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him.
62
That is renown'd for faith? Be fickle, fortune,
63
For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long,
64
But send him back.
LADY CAPULET:
65
[Within] Ho, daughter! are you up?
JULIET:
66
Who is't that calls? is it my lady mother?
67
Is she not down so late, or up so early?
68
What unaccustom'd cause procures her hither?
Enter LADY CAPULET
LADY CAPULET:
69
Why, how now, Juliet!
JULIET:
70
Madam, I am not well.
LADY CAPULET:
71
Evermore weeping for your cousin's death?
72
What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears?
73
An if thou couldst, thou couldst not make him live,
74
Therefore, have done: some grief shows much of love,
75
But much of grief shows still some want of wit.
JULIET:
76
Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss.
LADY CAPULET:
77
So shall you feel the loss, but not the friend
78
Which you weep for.
JULIET:
79
Feeling so the loss,
80
Cannot choose but ever weep the friend.
LADY CAPULET:
81
Well, girl, thou weep'st not so much for his death,
82
As that the villain lives which slaughter'd him.
JULIET:
83
What villain madam?
LADY CAPULET:
84
That same villain, Romeo.
JULIET:
85
[Aside] Villain and he be many miles asunder.--
86
God Pardon him! I do, with all my heart,
87
And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart.
LADY CAPULET:
88
That is, because the traitor murderer lives.
JULIET:
89
Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands:
90
Would none but I might venge my cousin's death!
LADY CAPULET:
91
We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not:
92
Then weep no more. I'll send to one in Mantua,
93
Where that same banish'd runagate doth live,
94
Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram,
95
That he shall soon keep Tybalt company:
96
And then, I hope, thou wilt be satisfied.
JULIET:
97
Indeed, I never shall be satisfied
98
With Romeo, till I behold him--dead--
99
Is my poor heart for a kinsman vex'd.
100
Madam, if you could find out but a man
101
To bear a poison, I would temper it,
102
That Romeo should, upon receipt thereof,
103
Soon sleep in quiet. O, how my heart abhors
104
To hear him named, and cannot come to him.
105
To wreak the love I bore my cousin
106
Upon his body that slaughter'd him!
LADY CAPULET:
107
Find thou the means, and I'll find such a man.
108
But now I'll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.
JULIET:
109
And joy comes well in such a needy time:
110
What are they, I beseech your ladyship?
LADY CAPULET:
111
Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child,
112
One who, to put thee from thy heaviness,
113
Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy,
114
That thou expect'st not nor I look'd not for.
JULIET:
115
Madam, in happy time, what day is that?
LADY CAPULET:
116
Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn,
117
The gallant, young and noble gentleman,
118
The County Paris, at Saint Peter's Church,
119
Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.
JULIET:
120
Now, by Saint Peter's Church and Peter too,
121
He shall not make me there a joyful bride.
122
I wonder at this haste, that I must wed
123
Ere he, that should be husband, comes to woo.
124
I pray you, tell my lord and father, madam,
125
I will not marry yet, and, when I do, I swear,
126
It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,
127
Rather than Paris. These are news indeed!
LADY CAPULET:
128
Here comes your father, tell him so yourself,
129
And see how he will take it at your hands.
Enter CAPULET and Nurse
CAPULET:
130
When the sun sets, the air doth drizzle dew,
131
But for the sunset of my brother's son
132
It rains downright.
133
How now! a conduit, girl? what, still in tears?
134
Evermore showering? In one little body
135
Thou counterfeit'st a bark, a sea, a wind,
136
For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
137
Do ebb and flow with tears, the bark thy body is,
138
Sailing in this salt flood, the winds, thy sighs,
139
Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them,
140
Without a sudden calm, will overset
141
Thy tempest-tossed body. How now, wife!
142
Have you deliver'd to her our decree?
LADY CAPULET:
143
Ay, sir, but she will none, she gives you thanks.
144
I would the fool were married to her grave!
CAPULET:
145
Soft! take me with you, take me with you, wife.
146
How! will she none? doth she not give us thanks?
147
Is she not proud? doth she not count her blest,
148
Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
149
So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom?
JULIET:
150
Not proud, you have, but thankful, that you have:
151
Proud can I never be of what I hate,
152
But thankful even for hate, that is meant love.
CAPULET:
153
How now, how now, chop-logic! What is this?
154
'Proud,' and 'I thank you,' and 'I thank you not,'
155
And yet 'not proud,' mistress minion, you,
156
Thank me no thankings, nor, proud me no prouds,
157
But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next,
158
To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church,
159
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
160
Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you baggage!
161
You tallow-face!
LADY CAPULET:
162
Fie, fie! what, are you mad?
JULIET:
163
Good father, I beseech you on my knees,
164
Hear me with patience but to speak a word.
CAPULET:
165
Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch!
166
I tell thee what: get thee to church o' Thursday,
167
Or never after look me in the face:
168
Speak not, reply not, do not answer me,
169
My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest
170
That God had lent us but this only child,
171
But now I see this one is one too much,
172
And that we have a curse in having her:
173
Out on her, hilding!
Nurse:
174
God in heaven bless her!
175
You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so.
CAPULET:
176
And why, my lady wisdom? hold your tongue,
177
Good prudence, smatter with your gossips, go.
Nurse:
178
I speak no treason.
CAPULET:
179
O, God ye god-den.
Nurse:
180
May not one speak?
CAPULET:
181
Peace, you mumbling fool!
182
Utter your gravity o'er a gossip's bowl,
183
For here we need it not.
LADY CAPULET:
184
You are too hot.
CAPULET:
185
God's bread! it makes me mad:
186
Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play,
187
Alone, in company, still my care hath been
188
To have her match'd: and having now provided
189
A gentleman of noble parentage,
190
Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly train'd,
191
Stuff'd, as they say, with honourable parts,
192
Proportion'd as one's thought would wish a man,
193
And then to have a wretched puling fool,
194
A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender,
195
To answer 'I'll not wed, I cannot love,
196
I am too young, I pray you, pardon me.'
197
But, as you will not wed, I'll pardon you:
198
Graze where you will you shall not house with me:
199
Look to't, think on't, I do not use to jest.
200
Thursday is near, lay hand on heart, advise:
201
An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend,
202
And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in
203
the streets,
204
For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee,
205
Nor what is mine shall never do thee good:
206
Trust to't, bethink you, I'll not be forsworn.
Exit
JULIET:
207
Is there no pity sitting in the clouds,
208
That sees into the bottom of my grief?
209
O, sweet my mother, cast me not away!
210
Delay this marriage for a month, a week,
211
Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed
212
In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.
LADY CAPULET:
213
Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word:
214
Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.
Exit
JULIET:
215
O God!--O nurse, how shall this be prevented?
216
My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven,
217
How shall that faith return again to earth,
218
Unless that husband send it me from heaven
219
By leaving earth? comfort me, counsel me.
220
Alack, alack, that heaven should practise stratagems
221
Upon so soft a subject as myself!
222
What say'st thou? hast thou not a word of joy?
223
Some comfort, nurse.
Nurse:
224
Faith, here it is.
225
Romeo is banish'd, and all the world to nothing,
226
That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you,
227
Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth.
228
Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
229
I think it best you married with the county.
230
O, he's a lovely gentleman!
231
Romeo's a dishclout to him: an eagle, madam,
232
Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye
233
As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,
234
I think you are happy in this second match,
235
For it excels your first: or if it did not,
236
Your first is dead, or 'twere as good he were,
237
As living here and you no use of him.
JULIET:
238
Speakest thou from thy heart?
Nurse:
239
And from my soul too,
240
Or else beshrew them both.
JULIET:
241
Amen!
Nurse:
242
What?
JULIET:
243
Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much.
244
Go in: and tell my lady I am gone,
245
Having displeased my father, to Laurence' cell,
246
To make confession and to be absolved.
Nurse:
247
Marry, I will, and this is wisely done.
Exit
JULIET:
248
Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!
249
Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn,
250
Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue
251
Which she hath praised him with above compare
252
So many thousand times? Go, counsellor,
253
Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.
254
I'll to the friar, to know his remedy:
255
If all else fail, myself have power to die.
Exit
ACT IV
SCENE I. Friar Laurence's cell.
Enter FRIAR LAURENCE and PARIS
FRIAR LAURENCE:
1
On Thursday, sir? the time is very short.
PARIS:
2
My father Capulet will have it so,
3
And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
4
You say you do not know the lady's mind:
5
Uneven is the course, I like it not.
PARIS:
6
Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death,
7
And therefore have I little talk'd of love,
8
For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.
9
Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous
10
That she doth give her sorrow so much sway,
11
And in his wisdom hastes our marriage,
12
To stop the inundation of her tears,
13
Which, too much minded by herself alone,
14
May be put from her by society:
15
Now do you know the reason of this haste.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
16
[Aside] I would I knew not why it should be slow'd.
17
Look, sir, here comes the lady towards my cell.
Enter JULIET
PARIS:
18
Happily met, my lady and my wife!
JULIET:
19
That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.
PARIS:
20
That may be must be, love, on Thursday next.
JULIET:
21
What must be shall be.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
22
That's a certain text.
PARIS:
23
Come you to make confession to this father?
JULIET:
24
To answer that, I should confess to you.
PARIS:
25
Do not deny to him that you love me.
JULIET:
26
I will confess to you that I love him.
PARIS:
27
So will ye, I am sure, that you love me.
JULIET:
28
If I do so, it will be of more price,
29
Being spoke behind your back, than to your face.
PARIS:
30
Poor soul, thy face is much abused with tears.
JULIET:
31
The tears have got small victory by that,
32
For it was bad enough before their spite.
PARIS:
33
Thou wrong'st it, more than tears, with that report.
JULIET:
34
That is no slander, sir, which is a truth,
35
And what I spake, I spake it to my face.
PARIS:
36
Thy face is mine, and thou hast slander'd it.
JULIET:
37
It may be so, for it is not mine own.
38
Are you at leisure, holy father, now,
39
Or shall I come to you at evening mass?
FRIAR LAURENCE:
40
My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.
41
My lord, we must entreat the time alone.
PARIS:
42
God shield I should disturb devotion!
43
Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse ye:
44
Till then, adieu, and keep this holy kiss.
Exit
JULIET:
45
O shut the door! and when thou hast done so,
46
Come weep with me, past hope, past cure, past help!
FRIAR LAURENCE:
47
Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief,
48
It strains me past the compass of my wits:
49
I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,
50
On Thursday next be married to this county.
JULIET:
51
Tell me not, friar, that thou hear'st of this,
52
Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it:
53
If, in thy wisdom, thou canst give no help,
54
Do thou but call my resolution wise,
55
And with this knife I'll help it presently.
56
God join'd my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands,
57
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo seal'd,
58
Shall be the label to another deed,
59
Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
60
Turn to another, this shall slay them both:
61
Therefore, out of thy long-experienced time,
62
Give me some present counsel, or, behold,
63
'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
64
Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that
65
Which the commission of thy years and art
66
Could to no issue of true honour bring.
67
Be not so long to speak, I long to die,
68
If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
69
Hold, daughter: I do spy a kind of hope,
70
Which craves as desperate an execution.
71
As that is desperate which we would prevent.
72
If, rather than to marry County Paris,
73
Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself,
74
Then is it likely thou wilt undertake
75
A thing like death to chide away this shame,
76
That copest with death himself to scape from it:
77
And, if thou darest, I'll give thee remedy.
JULIET:
78
O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
79
From off the battlements of yonder tower,
80
Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk
81
Where serpents are, chain me with roaring bears,
82
Or shut me nightly in a charnel-house,
83
O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones,
84
With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls,
85
Or bid me go into a new-made grave
86
And hide me with a dead man in his shroud,
87
Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble,
88
And I will do it without fear or doubt,
89
To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
90
Hold, then, go home, be merry, give consent
91
To marry Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow:
92
To-morrow night look that thou lie alone,
93
Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber:
94
Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
95
And this distilled liquor drink thou off,
96
When presently through all thy veins shall run
97
A cold and drowsy humour, for no pulse
98
Shall keep his native progress, but surcease:
99
No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou livest,
100
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
101
To paly ashes, thy eyes' windows fall,
102
Like death, when he shuts up the day of life,
103
Each part, deprived of supple government,
104
Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death:
105
And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death
106
Thou shalt continue two and forty hours,
107
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
108
Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes
109
To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead:
110
Then, as the manner of our country is,
111
In thy best robes uncover'd on the bier
112
Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault
113
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
114
In the mean time, against thou shalt awake,
115
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift,
116
And hither shall he come: and he and I
117
Will watch thy waking, and that very night
118
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
119
And this shall free thee from this present shame,
120
If no inconstant toy, nor womanish fear,
121
Abate thy valour in the acting it.
JULIET:
122
Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear!
FRIAR LAURENCE:
123
Hold, get you gone, be strong and prosperous
124
In this resolve: I'll send a friar with speed
125
To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.
JULIET:
126
Love give me strength! and strength shall help afford.
127
Farewell, dear father!
Exeunt
SCENE II. Hall in Capulet's house.
Enter CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, Nurse, and two Servingmen
CAPULET:
1
So many guests invite as here are writ.
Exit First Servant
CAPULET:
2
Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks.
Second Servant:
3
You shall have none ill, sir, for I'll try if they
4
can lick their fingers.
CAPULET:
5
How canst thou try them so?
Second Servant:
6
Marry, sir, 'tis an ill cook that cannot lick his
7
own fingers: therefore he that cannot lick his
8
fingers goes not with me.
CAPULET:
9
Go, be gone.
Exit Second Servant
CAPULET:
10
We shall be much unfurnished for this time.
11
What, is my daughter gone to Friar Laurence?
Nurse:
12
Ay, forsooth.
CAPULET:
13
Well, he may chance to do some good on her:
14
A peevish self-will'd harlotry it is.
Nurse:
15
See where she comes from shrift with merry look.
Enter JULIET
CAPULET:
16
How now, my headstrong! where have you been gadding?
JULIET:
17
Where I have learn'd me to repent the sin
18
Of disobedient opposition
19
To you and your behests, and am enjoin'd
20
By holy Laurence to fall prostrate here,
21
And beg your pardon: pardon, I beseech you!
22
Henceforward I am ever ruled by you.
CAPULET:
23
Send for the county, go tell him of this:
24
I'll have this knot knit up to-morrow morning.
JULIET:
25
I met the youthful lord at Laurence' cell,
26
And gave him what becomed love I might,
27
Not step o'er the bounds of modesty.
CAPULET:
28
Why, I am glad on't, this is well: stand up:
29
This is as't should be. Let me see the county,
30
Ay, marry, go, I say, and fetch him hither.
31
Now, afore God! this reverend holy friar,
32
Our whole city is much bound to him.
JULIET:
33
Nurse, will you go with me into my closet,
34
To help me sort such needful ornaments
35
As you think fit to furnish me to-morrow?
LADY CAPULET:
36
No, not till Thursday, there is time enough.
CAPULET:
37
Go, nurse, go with her: we'll to church to-morrow.
Exeunt JULIET and Nurse
LADY CAPULET:
38
We shall be short in our provision:
39
'Tis now near night.
CAPULET:
40
Tush, I will stir about,
41
And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, wife:
42
Go thou to Juliet, help to deck up her,
43
I'll not to bed to-night, let me alone,
44
I'll play the housewife for this once. What, ho!
45
They are all forth. Well, I will walk myself
46
To County Paris, to prepare him up
47
Against to-morrow: my heart is wondrous light,
48
Since this same wayward girl is so reclaim'd.
Exeunt
SCENE III. Juliet's chamber.
Enter JULIET and Nurse
JULIET:
1
Ay, those attires are best: but, gentle nurse,
2
I pray thee, leave me to my self to-night,
3
For I have need of many orisons
4
To move the heavens to smile upon my state,
5
Which, well thou know'st, is cross, and full of sin.
Enter LADY CAPULET
LADY CAPULET:
6
What, are you busy, ho? need you my help?
JULIET:
7
No, madam, we have cull'd such necessaries
8
As are behoveful for our state to-morrow:
9
So please you, let me now be left alone,
10
And let the nurse this night sit up with you,
11
For, I am sure, you have your hands full all,
12
In this so sudden business.
LADY CAPULET:
13
Good night:
14
Get thee to bed, and rest, for thou hast need.
Exeunt LADY CAPULET and Nurse
JULIET:
15
Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again.
16
I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins,
17
That almost freezes up the heat of life:
18
I'll call them back again to comfort me:
19
Nurse! What should she do here?
20
My dismal scene I needs must act alone.
21
Come, vial.
22
What if this mixture do not work at all?
23
Shall I be married then to-morrow morning?
24
No, no: this shall forbid it: lie thou there.
Laying down her dagger
JULIET:
25
What if it be a poison, which the friar
26
Subtly hath minister'd to have me dead,
27
Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour'd,
28
Because he married me before to Romeo?
29
I fear it is: and yet, methinks, it should not,
30
For he hath still been tried a holy man.
31
How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
32
I wake before the time that Romeo
33
Come to redeem me? there's a fearful point!
34
Shall I not, then, be stifled in the vault,
35
To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,
36
And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?
37
Or, if I live, is it not very like,
38
The horrible conceit of death and night,
39
Together with the terror of the place,--
40
As in a vault, an ancient receptacle,
41
Where, for these many hundred years, the bones
42
Of all my buried ancestors are packed:
43
Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
44
Lies festering in his shroud, where, as they say,
45
At some hours in the night spirits resort,--
46
Alack, alack, is it not like that I,
47
So early waking, what with loathsome smells,
48
And shrieks like mandrakes' torn out of the earth,
49
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad:--
50
O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,
51
Environed with all these hideous fears?
52
And madly play with my forefather's joints?
53
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud?
54
And, in this rage, with some great kinsman's bone,
55
As with a club, dash out my desperate brains?
56
O, look! methinks I see my cousin's ghost
57
Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body
58
Upon a rapier's point: stay, Tybalt, stay!
59
Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee.
She falls upon her bed, within the curtains
SCENE IV. Hall in Capulet's house.
Enter LADY CAPULET and Nurse
LADY CAPULET:
1
Hold, take these keys, and fetch more spices, nurse.
Nurse:
2
They call for dates and quinces in the pastry.
Enter CAPULET
CAPULET:
3
Come, stir, stir, stir! the second cock hath crow'd,
4
The curfew-bell hath rung, 'tis three o'clock:
5
Look to the baked meats, good Angelica:
6
Spare not for the cost.
Nurse:
7
Go, you cot-quean, go,
8
Get you to bed, faith, You'll be sick to-morrow
9
For this night's watching.
CAPULET:
10
No, not a whit: what! I have watch'd ere now
11
All night for lesser cause, and ne'er been sick.
LADY CAPULET:
12
Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time,
13
But I will watch you from such watching now.
Exeunt LADY CAPULET and Nurse
CAPULET:
14
A jealous hood, a jealous hood!
Enter three or four Servingmen, with spits, logs, and baskets
CAPULET:
15
Now, fellow,
16
What's there?
First Servant:
17
Things for the cook, sir, but I know not what.
CAPULET:
18
Make haste, make haste.
Exit First Servant
CAPULET:
19
Sirrah, fetch drier logs:
20
Call Peter, he will show thee where they are.
Second Servant:
21
I have a head, sir, that will find out logs,
22
And never trouble Peter for the matter.
Exit
CAPULET:
23
Mass, and well said, a merry whoreson, ha!
24
Thou shalt be logger-head. Good faith, 'tis day:
25
The county will be here with music straight,
26
For so he said he would: I hear him near.
Music within
CAPULET:
27
Nurse! Wife! What, ho! What, nurse, I say!
Re-enter Nurse
CAPULET:
28
Go waken Juliet, go and trim her up,
29
I'll go and chat with Paris: hie, make haste,
30
Make haste, the bridegroom he is come already:
31
Make haste, I say.
Exeunt
SCENE V. Juliet's chamber.
Enter Nurse
Nurse:
1
Mistress! what, mistress! Juliet! fast, I warrant her, she:
2
Why, lamb! why, lady! fie, you slug-a-bed!
3
Why, love, I say! madam! sweet-heart! why, bride!
4
What, not a word? you take your pennyworths now,
5
Sleep for a week, for the next night, I warrant,
6
The County Paris hath set up his rest,
7
That you shall rest but little. God forgive me,
8
Marry, and amen, how sound is she asleep!
9
I must needs wake her. Madam, madam, madam!
10
Ay, let the county take you in your bed,
11
He'll fright you up, i' faith. Will it not be?
Undraws the curtains
Nurse:
12
What, dress'd! and in your clothes! and down again!
13
I must needs wake you, Lady! lady! lady!
14
Alas, alas! Help, help! my lady's dead!
15
O, well-a-day, that ever I was born!
16
Some aqua vitae, ho! My lord! my lady!
Enter LADY CAPULET
LADY CAPULET:
17
What noise is here?
Nurse:
18
O lamentable day!
LADY CAPULET:
19
What is the matter?
Nurse:
20
Look, look! O heavy day!
LADY CAPULET:
21
O me, O me! My child, my only life,
22
Revive, look up, or I will die with thee!
23
Help, help! Call help.
Enter CAPULET
CAPULET:
24
For shame, bring Juliet forth, her lord is come.
Nurse:
25
She's dead, deceased, she's dead, alack the day!
LADY CAPULET:
26
Alack the day, she's dead, she's dead, she's dead!
CAPULET:
27
Ha! let me see her: out, alas! she's cold:
28
Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff,
29
Life and these lips have long been separated:
30
Death lies on her like an untimely frost
31
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.
Nurse:
32
O lamentable day!
LADY CAPULET:
33
O woful time!
CAPULET:
34
Death, that hath ta'en her hence to make me wail,
35
Ties up my tongue, and will not let me speak.
Enter FRIAR LAURENCE and PARIS, with Musicians
FRIAR LAURENCE:
36
Come, is the bride ready to go to church?
CAPULET:
37
Ready to go, but never to return.
38
O son! the night before thy wedding-day
39
Hath Death lain with thy wife. There she lies,
40
Flower as she was, deflowered by him.
41
Death is my son-in-law, Death is my heir,
42
My daughter he hath wedded: I will die,
43
And leave him all, life, living, all is Death's.
PARIS:
44
Have I thought long to see this morning's face,
45
And doth it give me such a sight as this?
LADY CAPULET:
46
Accursed, unhappy, wretched, hateful day!
47
Most miserable hour that e'er time saw
48
In lasting labour of his pilgrimage!
49
But one, poor one, one poor and loving child,
50
But one thing to rejoice and solace in,
51
And cruel death hath catch'd it from my sight!
Nurse:
52
O woe! O woful, woful, woful day!
53
Most lamentable day, most woful day,
54
That ever, ever, I did yet behold!
55
O day! O day! O day! O hateful day!
56
Never was seen so black a day as this:
57
O woful day, O woful day!
PARIS:
58
Beguiled, divorced, wronged, spited, slain!
59
Most detestable death, by thee beguil'd,
60
By cruel cruel thee quite overthrown!
61
O love! O life! not life, but love in death!
CAPULET:
62
Despised, distressed, hated, martyr'd, kill'd!
63
Uncomfortable time, why camest thou now
64
To murder, murder our solemnity?
65
O child! O child! my soul, and not my child!
66
Dead art thou! Alack! my child is dead,
67
And with my child my joys are buried.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
68
Peace, ho, for shame! confusion's cure lives not
69
In these confusions. Heaven and yourself
70
Had part in this fair maid, now heaven hath all,
71
And all the better is it for the maid:
72
Your part in her you could not keep from death,
73
But heaven keeps his part in eternal life.
74
The most you sought was her promotion,
75
For 'twas your heaven she should be advanced:
76
And weep ye now, seeing she is advanced
77
Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself?
78
O, in this love, you love your child so ill,
79
That you run mad, seeing that she is well:
80
She's not well married that lives married long,
81
But she's best married that dies married young.
82
Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary
83
On this fair corse, and, as the custom is,
84
In all her best array bear her to church:
85
For though fond nature bids us an lament,
86
Yet nature's tears are reason's merriment.
CAPULET:
87
All things that we ordained festival,
88
Turn from their office to black funeral,
89
Our instruments to melancholy bells,
90
Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast,
91
Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change,
92
Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse,
93
And all things change them to the contrary.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
94
Sir, go you in, and, madam, go with him,
95
And go, Sir Paris, every one prepare
96
To follow this fair corse unto her grave:
97
The heavens do lour upon you for some ill,
98
Move them no more by crossing their high will.
Exeunt CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, PARIS, and FRIAR LAURENCE
First Musician:
99
Faith, we may put up our pipes, and be gone.
Nurse:
100
Honest goodfellows, ah, put up, put up,
101
For, well you know, this is a pitiful case.
Exit
First Musician:
102
Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended.
Enter PETER
PETER:
103
Musicians, O, musicians, 'Heart's ease, Heart's
104
ease:' O, an you will have me live, play 'Heart's ease.'
First Musician:
105
Why 'Heart's ease?'
PETER:
106
O, musicians, because my heart itself plays 'My
107
heart is full of woe:' O, play me some merry dump,
108
to comfort me.
First Musician:
109
Not a dump we, 'tis no time to play now.
PETER:
110
You will not, then?
First Musician:
111
No.
PETER:
112
I will then give it you soundly.
First Musician:
113
What will you give us?
PETER:
114
No money, on my faith, but the gleek,
115
I will give you the minstrel.
First Musician:
116
Then I will give you the serving-creature.
PETER:
117
Then will I lay the serving-creature's dagger on
118
your pate. I will carry no crotchets: I'll re you,
119
I'll fa you, do you note me?
First Musician:
120
An you re us and fa us, you note us.
Second Musician:
121
Pray you, put up your dagger, and put out your wit.
PETER:
122
Then have at you with my wit! I will dry-beat you
123
with an iron wit, and put up my iron dagger. Answer
124
me like men:
125
'When griping grief the heart doth wound,
126
And doleful dumps the mind oppress,
127
Then music with her silver sound'--
128
why 'silver sound'? why 'music with her silver
129
sound'? What say you, Simon Catling?
Musician:
130
Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound.
PETER:
131
Pretty! What say you, Hugh Rebeck?
Second Musician:
132
I say 'silver sound,' because musicians sound for silver.
PETER:
133
Pretty too! What say you, James Soundpost?
Third Musician:
134
Faith, I know not what to say.
PETER:
135
O, I cry you mercy, you are the singer: I will say
136
for you. It is 'music with her silver sound,'
137
because musicians have no gold for sounding:
138
'Then music with her silver sound
139
With speedy help doth lend redress.'
Exit
First Musician:
140
What a pestilent knave is this same!
Second Musician:
141
Hang him, Jack! Come, we'll in here, tarry for the
142
mourners, and stay dinner.
Exeunt
ACT V
SCENE I. Mantua. A street.
Enter ROMEO
ROMEO:
1
If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep,
2
My dreams presage some joyful news at hand:
3
My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne,
4
And all this day an unaccustom'd spirit
5
Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.
6
I dreamt my lady came and found me dead--
7
Strange dream, that gives a dead man leave
8
to think!--
9
And breathed such life with kisses in my lips,
10
That I revived, and was an emperor.
11
Ah me! how sweet is love itself possess'd,
12
When but love's shadows are so rich in joy!
Enter BALTHASAR, booted
ROMEO:
13
News from Verona!--How now, Balthasar!
14
Dost thou not bring me letters from the friar?
15
How doth my lady? Is my father well?
16
How fares my Juliet? that I ask again,
17
For nothing can be ill, if she be well.
BALTHASAR:
18
Then she is well, and nothing can be ill:
19
Her body sleeps in Capel's monument,
20
And her immortal part with angels lives.
21
I saw her laid low in her kindred's vault,
22
And presently took post to tell it you:
23
O, pardon me for bringing these ill news,
24
Since you did leave it for my office, sir.
ROMEO:
25
Is it even so? then I defy you, stars!
26
Thou know'st my lodging: get me ink and paper,
27
And hire post-horses, I will hence to-night.
BALTHASAR:
28
I do beseech you, sir, have patience:
29
Your looks are pale and wild, and do import
30
Some misadventure.
ROMEO:
31
Tush, thou art deceived:
32
Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do.
33
Hast thou no letters to me from the friar?
BALTHASAR:
34
No, my good lord.
ROMEO:
35
No matter: get thee gone,
36
And hire those horses, I'll be with thee straight.
Exit BALTHASAR
ROMEO:
37
Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night.
38
Let's see for means: O mischief, thou art swift
39
To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!
40
I do remember an apothecary,--
41
And hereabouts he dwells,--which late I noted
42
In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows,
43
Culling of simples, meagre were his looks,
44
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones:
45
And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
46
An alligator stuff'd, and other skins
47
Of ill-shaped fishes, and about his shelves
48
A beggarly account of empty boxes,
49
Green earthen pots, bladders and musty seeds,
50
Remnants of packthread and old cakes of roses,
51
Were thinly scatter'd, to make up a show.
52
Noting this penury, to myself I said
53
'An if a man did need a poison now,
54
Whose sale is present death in Mantua,
55
Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.'
56
O, this same thought did but forerun my need,
57
And this same needy man must sell it me.
58
As I remember, this should be the house.
59
Being holiday, the beggar's shop is shut.
60
What, ho! apothecary!
Enter Apothecary
Apothecary:
61
Who calls so loud?
ROMEO:
62
Come hither, man. I see that thou art poor:
63
Hold, there is forty ducats: let me have
64
A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear
65
As will disperse itself through all the veins
66
That the life-weary taker may fall dead
67
And that the trunk may be discharged of breath
68
As violently as hasty powder fired
69
Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb.
Apothecary:
70
Such mortal drugs I have, but Mantua's law
71
Is death to any he that utters them.
ROMEO:
72
Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness,
73
And fear'st to die? famine is in thy cheeks,
74
Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes,
75
Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back,
76
The world is not thy friend nor the world's law,
77
The world affords no law to make thee rich,
78
Then be not poor, but break it, and take this.
Apothecary:
79
My poverty, but not my will, consents.
ROMEO:
80
I pay thy poverty, and not thy will.
Apothecary:
81
Put this in any liquid thing you will,
82
And drink it off, and, if you had the strength
83
Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight.
ROMEO:
84
There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls,
85
Doing more murders in this loathsome world,
86
Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell.
87
I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none.
88
Farewell: buy food, and get thyself in flesh.
89
Come, cordial and not poison, go with me
90
To Juliet's grave, for there must I use thee.
Exeunt
SCENE II. Friar Laurence's cell.
Enter FRIAR JOHN
FRIAR JOHN:
1
Holy Franciscan friar! brother, ho!
Enter FRIAR LAURENCE
FRIAR LAURENCE:
2
This same should be the voice of Friar John.
3
Welcome from Mantua: what says Romeo?
4
Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter.
FRIAR JOHN:
5
Going to find a bare-foot brother out
6
One of our order, to associate me,
7
Here in this city visiting the sick,
8
And finding him, the searchers of the town,
9
Suspecting that we both were in a house
10
Where the infectious pestilence did reign,
11
Seal'd up the doors, and would not let us forth,
12
So that my speed to Mantua there was stay'd.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
13
Who bare my letter, then, to Romeo?
FRIAR JOHN:
14
I could not send it,--here it is again,--
15
Nor get a messenger to bring it thee,
16
So fearful were they of infection.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
17
Unhappy fortune! by my brotherhood,
18
The letter was not nice but full of charge
19
Of dear import, and the neglecting it
20
May do much danger. Friar John, go hence,
21
Get me an iron crow, and bring it straight
22
Unto my cell.
FRIAR JOHN:
23
Brother, I'll go and bring it thee.
Exit
FRIAR LAURENCE:
24
Now must I to the monument alone,
25
Within three hours will fair Juliet wake:
26
She will beshrew me much that Romeo
27
Hath had no notice of these accidents,
28
But I will write again to Mantua,
29
And keep her at my cell till Romeo come,
30
Poor living corse, closed in a dead man's tomb!
Exit
SCENE III. A churchyard, in it a tomb belonging to the Capulets.
Enter PARIS, and his Page bearing flowers and a torch
PARIS:
1
Give me thy torch, boy: hence, and stand aloof:
2
Yet put it out, for I would not be seen.
3
Under yond yew-trees lay thee all along,
4
Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground,
5
So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread,
6
Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves,
7
But thou shalt hear it: whistle then to me,
8
As signal that thou hear'st something approach.
9
Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee, go.
PAGE:
10
[Aside] I am almost afraid to stand alone
11
Here in the churchyard, yet I will adventure.
Retires
PARIS:
12
Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew,--
13
O woe! thy canopy is dust and stones,--
14
Which with sweet water nightly I will dew,
15
Or, wanting that, with tears distill'd by moans:
16
The obsequies that I for thee will keep
17
Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep.
The Page whistles
PARIS:
18
The boy gives warning something doth approach.
19
What cursed foot wanders this way to-night,
20
To cross my obsequies and true love's rite?
21
What with a torch! muffle me, night, awhile.
Retires
Enter ROMEO and BALTHASAR, with a torch, mattock, and c
ROMEO:
22
Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron.
23
Hold, take this letter, early in the morning
24
See thou deliver it to my lord and father.
25
Give me the light: upon thy life, I charge thee,
26
Whate'er thou hear'st or seest, stand all aloof,
27
And do not interrupt me in my course.
28
Why I descend into this bed of death,
29
Is partly to behold my lady's face,
30
But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger
31
A precious ring, a ring that I must use
32
In dear employment: therefore hence, be gone:
33
But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry
34
In what I further shall intend to do,
35
By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint
36
And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs:
37
The time and my intents are savage-wild,
38
More fierce and more inexorable far
39
Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.
BALTHASAR:
40
I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you.
ROMEO:
41
So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that:
42
Live, and be prosperous: and farewell, good fellow.
BALTHASAR:
43
[Aside] For all this same, I'll hide me hereabout:
44
His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt.
Retires
ROMEO:
45
Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,
46
Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth,
47
Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,
48
And, in despite, I'll cram thee with more food!
Opens the tomb
PARIS:
49
This is that banish'd haughty Montague,
50
That murder'd my love's cousin, with which grief,
51
It is supposed, the fair creature died,
52
And here is come to do some villanous shame
53
To the dead bodies: I will apprehend him.
Comes forward
PARIS:
54
Stop thy unhallow'd toil, vile Montague!
55
Can vengeance be pursued further than death?
56
Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee:
57
Obey, and go with me, for thou must die.
ROMEO:
58
I must indeed, and therefore came I hither.
59
Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man,
60
Fly hence, and leave me: think upon these gone,
61
Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth,
62
Put not another sin upon my head,
63
By urging me to fury: O, be gone!
64
By heaven, I love thee better than myself,
65
For I come hither arm'd against myself:
66
Stay not, be gone, live, and hereafter say,
67
A madman's mercy bade thee run away.
PARIS:
68
I do defy thy conjurations,
69
And apprehend thee for a felon here.
ROMEO:
70
Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee, boy!
They fight
PAGE:
71
O Lord, they fight! I will go call the watch.
Exit
PARIS:
72
O, I am slain!
Falls
PARIS:
73
If thou be merciful,
74
Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet.
Dies
ROMEO:
75
In faith, I will. Let me peruse this face.
76
Mercutio's kinsman, noble County Paris!
77
What said my man, when my betossed soul
78
Did not attend him as we rode? I think
79
He told me Paris should have married Juliet:
80
Said he not so? or did I dream it so?
81
Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet,
82
To think it was so? O, give me thy hand,
83
One writ with me in sour misfortune's book!
84
I'll bury thee in a triumphant grave,
85
A grave? O no! a lantern, slaughter'd youth,
86
For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes
87
This vault a feasting presence full of light.
88
Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr'd.
Laying PARIS in the tomb
ROMEO:
89
How oft when men are at the point of death
90
Have they been merry! which their keepers call
91
A lightning before death: O, how may I
92
Call this a lightning? O my love! my wife!
93
Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,
94
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:
95
Thou art not conquer'd, beauty's ensign yet
96
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
97
And death's pale flag is not advanced there.
98
Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?
99
O, what more favour can I do to thee,
100
Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain
101
To sunder his that was thine enemy?
102
Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet,
103
Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believe
104
That unsubstantial death is amorous,
105
And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
106
Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
107
For fear of that, I still will stay with thee,
108
And never from this palace of dim night
109
Depart again: here, here will I remain
110
With worms that are thy chamber-maids, O, here
111
Will I set up my everlasting rest,
112
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
113
From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!
114
Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you
115
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
116
A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
117
Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!
118
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
119
The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!
120
Here's to my love!
Drinks
ROMEO:
121
O true apothecary!
122
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.
Dies
Enter, at the other end of the churchyard, FRIAR LAURENCE, with a lantern, crow, and spade
FRIAR LAURENCE:
123
Saint Francis be my speed! how oft to-night
124
Have my old feet stumbled at graves! Who's there?
BALTHASAR:
125
Here's one, a friend, and one that knows you well.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
126
Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend,
127
What torch is yond, that vainly lends his light
128
To grubs and eyeless skulls? as I discern,
129
It burneth in the Capel's monument.
BALTHASAR:
130
It doth so, holy sir, and there's my master,
131
One that you love.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
132
Who is it?
BALTHASAR:
133
Romeo.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
134
How long hath he been there?
BALTHASAR:
135
Full half an hour.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
136
Go with me to the vault.
BALTHASAR:
137
I dare not, sir
138
My master knows not but I am gone hence,
139
And fearfully did menace me with death,
140
If I did stay to look on his intents.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
141
Stay, then, I'll go alone. Fear comes upon me:
142
O, much I fear some ill unlucky thing.
BALTHASAR:
143
As I did sleep under this yew-tree here,
144
I dreamt my master and another fought,
145
And that my master slew him.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
146
Romeo!
Advances
FRIAR LAURENCE:
147
Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains
148
The stony entrance of this sepulchre?
149
What mean these masterless and gory swords
150
To lie discolour'd by this place of peace?
Enters the tomb
FRIAR LAURENCE:
151
Romeo! O, pale! Who else? what, Paris too?
152
And steep'd in blood? Ah, what an unkind hour
153
Is guilty of this lamentable chance!
154
The lady stirs.
JULIET wakes
JULIET:
155
O comfortable friar! where is my lord?
156
I do remember well where I should be,
157
And there I am. Where is my Romeo?
Noise within
FRIAR LAURENCE:
158
I hear some noise. Lady, come from that nest
159
Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep:
160
A greater power than we can contradict
161
Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away.
162
Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead,
163
And Paris too. Come, I'll dispose of thee
164
Among a sisterhood of holy nuns:
165
Stay not to question, for the watch is coming,
166
Come, go, good Juliet,
Noise again
FRIAR LAURENCE:
167
I dare no longer stay.
JULIET:
168
Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.
Exit FRIAR LAURENCE
JULIET:
169
What's here? a cup, closed in my true love's hand?
170
Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end:
171
O churl! drunk all, and left no friendly drop
172
To help me after? I will kiss thy lips,
173
Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,
174
To make die with a restorative.
Kisses him
JULIET:
175
Thy lips are warm.
First Watchman:
176
[Within] Lead, boy: which way?
JULIET:
177
Yea, noise? then I'll be brief. O happy dagger!
Snatching ROMEO's dagger
JULIET:
178
This is thy sheath,
Stabs herself
JULIET:
179
there rust, and let me die.
Falls on ROMEO's body, and dies
Enter Watch, with the Page of PARIS
PAGE:
180
This is the place, there, where the torch doth burn.
First Watchman:
181
The ground is bloody, search about the churchyard:
182
Go, some of you, whoe'er you find attach.
183
Pitiful sight! here lies the county slain,
184
And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead,
185
Who here hath lain these two days buried.
186
Go, tell the prince: run to the Capulets:
187
Raise up the Montagues: some others search:
188
We see the ground whereon these woes do lie,
189
But the true ground of all these piteous woes
190
We cannot without circumstance descry.
Re-enter some of the Watch, with BALTHASAR
Second Watchman:
191
Here's Romeo's man, we found him in the churchyard.
First Watchman:
192
Hold him in safety, till the prince come hither.
Re-enter others of the Watch, with FRIAR LAURENCE
Third Watchman:
193
Here is a friar, that trembles, sighs and weeps:
194
We took this mattock and this spade from him,
195
As he was coming from this churchyard side.
First Watchman:
196
A great suspicion: stay the friar too.
Enter the PRINCE and Attendants
PRINCE:
197
What misadventure is so early up,
198
That calls our person from our morning's rest?
Enter CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, and others
CAPULET:
199
What should it be, that they so shriek abroad?
LADY CAPULET:
200
The people in the street cry Romeo,
201
Some Juliet, and some Paris, and all run,
202
With open outcry toward our monument.
PRINCE:
203
What fear is this which startles in our ears?
First Watchman:
204
Sovereign, here lies the County Paris slain,
205
And Romeo dead, and Juliet, dead before,
206
Warm and new kill'd.
PRINCE:
207
Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes.
First Watchman:
208
Here is a friar, and slaughter'd Romeo's man,
209
With instruments upon them, fit to open
210
These dead men's tombs.
CAPULET:
211
O heavens! O wife, look how our daughter bleeds!
212
This dagger hath mista'en--for, lo, his house
213
Is empty on the back of Montague,--
214
And it mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom!
LADY CAPULET:
215
O me! this sight of death is as a bell,
216
That warns my old age to a sepulchre.
Enter MONTAGUE and others
PRINCE:
217
Come, Montague, for thou art early up,
218
To see thy son and heir more early down.
MONTAGUE:
219
Alas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night,
220
Grief of my son's exile hath stopp'd her breath:
221
What further woe conspires against mine age?
PRINCE:
222
Look, and thou shalt see.
MONTAGUE:
223
O thou untaught! what manners is in this?
224
To press before thy father to a grave?
PRINCE:
225
Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while,
226
Till we can clear these ambiguities,
227
And know their spring, their head, their
228
true descent,
229
And then will I be general of your woes,
230
And lead you even to death: meantime forbear,
231
And let mischance be slave to patience.
232
Bring forth the parties of suspicion.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
233
I am the greatest, able to do least,
234
Yet most suspected, as the time and place
235
Doth make against me of this direful murder,
236
And here I stand, both to impeach and purge
237
Myself condemned and myself excused.
PRINCE:
238
Then say at once what thou dost know in this.
FRIAR LAURENCE:
239
I will be brief, for my short date of breath
240
Is not so long as is a tedious tale.
241
Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet,
242
And she, there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife:
243
I married them, and their stol'n marriage-day
244
Was Tybalt's dooms-day, whose untimely death
245
Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from the city,
246
For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined.
247
You, to remove that siege of grief from her,
248
Betroth'd and would have married her perforce
249
To County Paris: then comes she to me,
250
And, with wild looks, bid me devise some mean
251
To rid her from this second marriage,
252
Or in my cell there would she kill herself.
253
Then gave I her, so tutor'd by my art,
254
A sleeping potion, which so took effect
255
As I intended, for it wrought on her
256
The form of death: meantime I writ to Romeo,
257
That he should hither come as this dire night,
258
To help to take her from her borrow'd grave,
259
Being the time the potion's force should cease.
260
But he which bore my letter, Friar John,
261
Was stay'd by accident, and yesternight
262
Return'd my letter back. Then all alone
263
At the prefixed hour of her waking,
264
Came I to take her from her kindred's vault,
265
Meaning to keep her closely at my cell,
266
Till I conveniently could send to Romeo:
267
But when I came, some minute ere the time
268
Of her awaking, here untimely lay
269
The noble Paris and true Romeo dead.
270
She wakes, and I entreated her come forth,
271
And bear this work of heaven with patience:
272
But then a noise did scare me from the tomb,
273
And she, too desperate, would not go with me,
274
But, as it seems, did violence on herself.
275
All this I know, and to the marriage
276
Her nurse is privy: and, if aught in this
277
Miscarried by my fault, let my old life
278
Be sacrificed, some hour before his time,
279
Unto the rigour of severest law.
PRINCE:
280
We still have known thee for a holy man.
281
Where's Romeo's man? what can he say in this?
BALTHASAR:
282
I brought my master news of Juliet's death,
283
And then in post he came from Mantua
284
To this same place, to this same monument.
285
This letter he early bid me give his father,
286
And threatened me with death, going in the vault,
287
I departed not and left him there.
PRINCE:
288
Give me the letter, I will look on it.
289
Where is the county's page, that raised the watch?
290
Sirrah, what made your master in this place?
PAGE:
291
He came with flowers to strew his lady's grave,
292
And bid me stand aloof, and so I did:
293
Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb,
294
And by and by my master drew on him,
295
And then I ran away to call the watch.
PRINCE:
296
This letter doth make good the friar's words,
297
Their course of love, the tidings of her death:
298
And here he writes that he did buy a poison
299
Of a poor 'pothecary, and therewithal
300
Came to this vault to die, and lie with Juliet.
301
Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague!
302
See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
303
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.
304
And I for winking at your discords too
305
Have lost a brace of kinsmen: all are punish'd.
CAPULET:
306
O brother Montague, give me thy hand:
307
This is my daughter's jointure, for no more
308
Can I demand.
MONTAGUE:
309
But I can give thee more:
310
For I will raise her statue in pure gold,
311
That while Verona by that name is known,
312
There shall no figure at such rate be set
313
As that of true and faithful Juliet.
CAPULET:
314
As rich shall Romeo's by his lady's lie,
315
Poor sacrifices of our enmity!
PRINCE:
316
A glooming peace this morning with it brings,
317
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:
318
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things,
319
Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:
320
For never was a story of more woe
321
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
Exeunt