diff --git "a/res/romeo_and_juliet.txt" "b/res/romeo_and_juliet.txt" new file mode 100644--- /dev/null +++ "b/res/romeo_and_juliet.txt" @@ -0,0 +1,5007 @@ +Romeo and Juliet +by William Shakespeare + + +Characters in the Play +====================== +ROMEO +MONTAGUE, his father +LADY MONTAGUE, his mother +BENVOLIO, their kinsman +ABRAM, a Montague servingman +BALTHASAR, Romeo's servingman +JULIET +CAPULET, her father +LADY CAPULET, her mother +NURSE to Juliet +TYBALT, kinsman to the Capulets +PETRUCHIO, Tybalt's companion +Capulet's Cousin +Servingmen: + SAMPSON + GREGORY + PETER +Other Servingmen +ESCALUS, Prince of Verona +PARIS, the Prince's kinsman and Juliet's suitor +MERCUTIO, the Prince's kinsman and Romeo's friend +Paris' Page +FRIAR LAWRENCE +FRIAR JOHN +APOTHECARY +Three or four Citizens +Three Musicians +Three Watchmen +CHORUS +Attendants, Maskers, Torchbearers, a Boy with a drum, Gentlemen, Gentlewomen, Tybalt's Page, Servingmen. + + +THE PROLOGUE +============ +[Enter Chorus.] + + +Two households, both alike in dignity +(In fair Verona, where we lay our scene), +From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, +Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. +From forth the fatal loins of these two foes +A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life; +Whose misadventured piteous overthrows +Doth with their death bury their parents' strife. +The fearful passage of their death-marked love +And the continuance of their parents' rage, +Which, but their children's end, naught could remove, +Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; +The which, if you with patient ears attend, +What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. +[Chorus exits.] + + +ACT 1 +===== + +Scene 1 +======= +[Enter Sampson and Gregory, with swords and bucklers, +of the house of Capulet.] + + +SAMPSON Gregory, on my word we'll not carry coals. + +GREGORY No, for then we should be colliers. + +SAMPSON I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw. + +GREGORY Ay, while you live, draw your neck out of +collar. + +SAMPSON I strike quickly, being moved. + +GREGORY But thou art not quickly moved to strike. + +SAMPSON A dog of the house of Montague moves me. + +GREGORY To move is to stir, and to be valiant is to +stand. Therefore if thou art moved thou runn'st +away. + +SAMPSON A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I +will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's. + +GREGORY That shows thee a weak slave, for the weakest +goes to the wall. + +SAMPSON 'Tis true, and therefore women, being the +weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall. Therefore +I will push Montague's men from the wall and +thrust his maids to the wall. + +GREGORY The quarrel is between our masters and us +their men. + +SAMPSON 'Tis all one. I will show myself a tyrant. +When I have fought with the men, I will be civil +with the maids; I will cut off their heads. + +GREGORY The heads of the maids? + +SAMPSON Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads. +Take it in what sense thou wilt. + +GREGORY They must take it in sense that feel it. + +SAMPSON Me they shall feel while I am able to stand, +and 'tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh. + +GREGORY 'Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou +hadst been poor-john. Draw thy tool. Here comes +of the house of Montagues. + +[Enter Abram with another Servingman.] + + +SAMPSON My naked weapon is out. Quarrel, I will back +thee. + +GREGORY How? Turn thy back and run? + +SAMPSON Fear me not. + +GREGORY No, marry. I fear thee! + +SAMPSON Let us take the law of our sides; let them +begin. + +GREGORY I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it +as they list. + +SAMPSON Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at +them, which is disgrace to them if they bear it. +[He bites his thumb.] + +ABRAM Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? + +SAMPSON I do bite my thumb, sir. + +ABRAM Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? + +SAMPSON, [aside to Gregory] Is the law of our side if I +say "Ay"? + +GREGORY, [aside to Sampson] No. + +SAMPSON No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, +but I bite my thumb, sir. + +GREGORY Do you quarrel, sir? + +ABRAM Quarrel, sir? No, sir. + +SAMPSON But if you do, sir, I am for you. I serve as +good a man as you. + +ABRAM No better. + +SAMPSON Well, sir. + +[Enter Benvolio.] + + +GREGORY, [aside to Sampson] Say "better"; here comes +one of my master's kinsmen. + +SAMPSON Yes, better, sir. + +ABRAM You lie. + +SAMPSON Draw if you be men.--Gregory, remember +thy washing blow. [They fight.] + +BENVOLIO Part, fools! [Drawing his sword.] +Put up your swords. You know not what you do. + +[Enter Tybalt, drawing his sword.] + + +TYBALT +What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds? +Turn thee, Benvolio; look upon thy death. + +BENVOLIO +I do but keep the peace. Put up thy sword, +Or manage it to part these men with me. + +TYBALT +What, drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word +As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee. +Have at thee, coward! [They fight.] + +[Enter three or four Citizens with clubs or partisans.] + + +CITIZENS +Clubs, bills, and partisans! Strike! Beat them down! +Down with the Capulets! Down with the Montagues! + +[Enter old Capulet in his gown, and his Wife.] + + +CAPULET +What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho! + +LADY CAPULET +A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a +sword? + +[Enter old Montague and his Wife.] + +CAPULET +My sword, I say. Old Montague is come +And flourishes his blade in spite of me. + +MONTAGUE +Thou villain Capulet!--Hold me not; let me go. + +LADY MONTAGUE +Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe. + +[Enter Prince Escalus with his train.] + + +PRINCE +Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, +Profaners of this neighbor-stained steel-- +Will they not hear?--What ho! You men, you beasts, +That quench the fire of your pernicious rage +With purple fountains issuing from your veins: +On pain of torture, from those bloody hands +Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground, +And hear the sentence of your moved prince. +Three civil brawls bred of an airy word +By thee, old Capulet, and Montague, +Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets +And made Verona's ancient citizens +Cast by their grave-beseeming ornaments +To wield old partisans in hands as old, +Cankered with peace, to part your cankered hate. +If ever you disturb our streets again, +Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace. +For this time all the rest depart away. +You, Capulet, shall go along with me, +And, Montague, come you this afternoon +To know our farther pleasure in this case, +To old Free-town, our common judgment-place. +Once more, on pain of death, all men depart. +[All but Montague, Lady Montague, +and Benvolio exit.] + +MONTAGUE, [to Benvolio] +Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach? +Speak, nephew, were you by when it began? + +BENVOLIO +Here were the servants of your adversary, +And yours, close fighting ere I did approach. +I drew to part them. In the instant came +The fiery Tybalt with his sword prepared, +Which, as he breathed defiance to my ears, +He swung about his head and cut the winds, +Who, nothing hurt withal, hissed him in scorn. +While we were interchanging thrusts and blows +Came more and more and fought on part and part, +Till the Prince came, who parted either part. + +LADY MONTAGUE +O, where is Romeo? Saw you him today? +Right glad I am he was not at this fray. + +BENVOLIO +Madam, an hour before the worshiped sun +Peered forth the golden window of the east, +A troubled mind drove me to walk abroad, +Where underneath the grove of sycamore +That westward rooteth from this city side, +So early walking did I see your son. +Towards him I made, but he was 'ware of me +And stole into the covert of the wood. +I, measuring his affections by my own +(Which then most sought where most might not be +found, +Being one too many by my weary self), +Pursued my humor, not pursuing his, +And gladly shunned who gladly fled from me. + +MONTAGUE +Many a morning hath he there been seen, +With tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew, +Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs. +But all so soon as the all-cheering sun +Should in the farthest east begin to draw +The shady curtains from Aurora's bed, +Away from light steals home my heavy son +And private in his chamber pens himself, +Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out, +And makes himself an artificial night. +Black and portentous must this humor prove, +Unless good counsel may the cause remove. + +BENVOLIO +My noble uncle, do you know the cause? + +MONTAGUE +I neither know it nor can learn of him. + +BENVOLIO +Have you importuned him by any means? + +MONTAGUE +Both by myself and many other friends. +But he, his own affections' counselor, +Is to himself--I will not say how true, +But to himself so secret and so close, +So far from sounding and discovery, +As is the bud bit with an envious worm +Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air +Or dedicate his beauty to the same. +Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow, +We would as willingly give cure as know. + +[Enter Romeo.] + + +BENVOLIO +See where he comes. So please you, step aside. +I'll know his grievance or be much denied. + +MONTAGUE +I would thou wert so happy by thy stay +To hear true shrift.--Come, madam, let's away. +[Montague and Lady Montague exit.] + +BENVOLIO +Good morrow, cousin. + +ROMEO Is the day so young? + +BENVOLIO +But new struck nine. + +ROMEO Ay me, sad hours seem long. +Was that my father that went hence so fast? + +BENVOLIO +It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours? + +ROMEO +Not having that which, having, makes them short. + +BENVOLIO In love? + +ROMEO Out-- + +BENVOLIO Of love? + +ROMEO +Out of her favor where I am in love. + +BENVOLIO +Alas that love, so gentle in his view, +Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof! + +ROMEO +Alas that love, whose view is muffled still, +Should without eyes see pathways to his will! +Where shall we dine?--O me! What fray was here? +Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all. +Here's much to do with hate, but more with love. +Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate, +O anything of nothing first create! +O heavy lightness, serious vanity, +Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms, +Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, +Still-waking sleep that is not what it is! +This love feel I, that feel no love in this. +Dost thou not laugh? + +BENVOLIO No, coz, I rather weep. + +ROMEO +Good heart, at what? + +BENVOLIO At thy good heart's oppression. + +ROMEO Why, such is love's transgression. +Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast, +Which thou wilt propagate to have it pressed +With more of thine. This love that thou hast shown +Doth add more grief to too much of mine own. +Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs; +Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes; +Being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears. +What is it else? A madness most discreet, +A choking gall, and a preserving sweet. +Farewell, my coz. + +BENVOLIO Soft, I will go along. +An if you leave me so, you do me wrong. + +ROMEO +Tut, I have lost myself. I am not here. +This is not Romeo. He's some other where. + +BENVOLIO +Tell me in sadness, who is that you love? + +ROMEO What, shall I groan and tell thee? + +BENVOLIO +Groan? Why, no. But sadly tell me who. + +ROMEO +A sick man in sadness makes his will-- +A word ill urged to one that is so ill. +In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman. + +BENVOLIO +I aimed so near when I supposed you loved. + +ROMEO +A right good markman! And she's fair I love. + +BENVOLIO +A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit. + +ROMEO +Well in that hit you miss. She'll not be hit +With Cupid's arrow. She hath Dian's wit, +And, in strong proof of chastity well armed, +From love's weak childish bow she lives uncharmed. +She will not stay the siege of loving terms, +Nor bide th' encounter of assailing eyes, +Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold. +O, she is rich in beauty, only poor +That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store. + +BENVOLIO +Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste? + +ROMEO +She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste; +For beauty, starved with her severity, +Cuts beauty off from all posterity. +She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair, +To merit bliss by making me despair. +She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow +Do I live dead, that live to tell it now. + +BENVOLIO +Be ruled by me. Forget to think of her. + +ROMEO +O, teach me how I should forget to think! + +BENVOLIO +By giving liberty unto thine eyes. +Examine other beauties. + +ROMEO 'Tis the way +To call hers, exquisite, in question more. +These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows, +Being black, puts us in mind they hide the fair. +He that is strucken blind cannot forget +The precious treasure of his eyesight lost. +Show me a mistress that is passing fair; +What doth her beauty serve but as a note +Where I may read who passed that passing fair? +Farewell. Thou canst not teach me to forget. + +BENVOLIO +I'll pay that doctrine or else die in debt. +[They exit.] + +Scene 2 +======= +[Enter Capulet, County Paris, and a Servingman.] + + +CAPULET +But Montague is bound as well as I, +In penalty alike, and 'tis not hard, I think, +For men so old as we to keep the peace. + +PARIS +Of honorable reckoning are you both, +And pity 'tis you lived at odds so long. +But now, my lord, what say you to my suit? + +CAPULET +But saying o'er what I have said before. +My child is yet a stranger in the world. +She hath not seen the change of fourteen years. +Let two more summers wither in their pride +Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride. + +PARIS +Younger than she are happy mothers made. + +CAPULET +And too soon marred are those so early made. +Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she; +She's the hopeful lady of my earth. +But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart; +My will to her consent is but a part. +And, she agreed, within her scope of choice +Lies my consent and fair according voice. +This night I hold an old accustomed feast, +Whereto I have invited many a guest +Such as I love; and you among the store, +One more, most welcome, makes my number more. +At my poor house look to behold this night +Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light. +Such comfort as do lusty young men feel +When well-appareled April on the heel +Of limping winter treads, even such delight +Among fresh fennel buds shall you this night +Inherit at my house. Hear all, all see, +And like her most whose merit most shall be; +Which, on more view of many, mine, being one, +May stand in number, though in reck'ning none. +Come go with me. [To Servingman, giving him a list.] +Go, sirrah, trudge about +Through fair Verona, find those persons out +Whose names are written there, and to them say +My house and welcome on their pleasure stay. +[Capulet and Paris exit.] + +SERVINGMAN Find them out whose names are written +here! It is written that the shoemaker should +meddle with his yard and the tailor with his last, the +fisher with his pencil and the painter with his nets. +But I am sent to find those persons whose names +are here writ, and can never find what names the +writing person hath here writ. I must to the learned. +In good time! + +[Enter Benvolio and Romeo.] + + +BENVOLIO, [to Romeo] +Tut, man, one fire burns out another's burning; +One pain is lessened by another's anguish. +Turn giddy, and be helped by backward turning. +One desperate grief cures with another's languish. +Take thou some new infection to thy eye, +And the rank poison of the old will die. + +ROMEO +Your plantain leaf is excellent for that. + +BENVOLIO +For what, I pray thee? + +ROMEO For your broken shin. + +BENVOLIO Why Romeo, art thou mad? + +ROMEO +Not mad, but bound more than a madman is, +Shut up in prison, kept without my food, +Whipped and tormented, and--good e'en, good +fellow. + +SERVINGMAN God gi' good e'en. I pray, sir, can you +read? + +ROMEO +Ay, mine own fortune in my misery. + +SERVINGMAN Perhaps you have learned it without +book. But I pray, can you read anything you see? + +ROMEO +Ay, if I know the letters and the language. + +SERVINGMAN You say honestly. Rest you merry. + +ROMEO Stay, fellow. I can read. [(He reads the letter.)] +Signior Martino and his wife and daughters, +County Anselme and his beauteous sisters, +The lady widow of Vitruvio, +Signior Placentio and his lovely nieces, +Mercutio and his brother Valentine, +Mine Uncle Capulet, his wife and daughters, +My fair niece Rosaline and Livia, +Signior Valentio and his cousin Tybalt, +Lucio and the lively Helena. +A fair assembly. Whither should they come? + +SERVINGMAN Up. + +ROMEO Whither? To supper? + +SERVINGMAN To our house. + +ROMEO Whose house? + +SERVINGMAN My master's. + +ROMEO +Indeed I should have asked thee that before. + +SERVINGMAN Now I'll tell you without asking. My +master is the great rich Capulet, and, if you be not +of the house of Montagues, I pray come and crush a +cup of wine. Rest you merry. [He exits.] + +BENVOLIO +At this same ancient feast of Capulet's +Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so loves, +With all the admired beauties of Verona. +Go thither, and with unattainted eye +Compare her face with some that I shall show, +And I will make thee think thy swan a crow. + +ROMEO +When the devout religion of mine eye +Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fire; +And these who, often drowned, could never die, +Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars. +One fairer than my love? The all-seeing sun +Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun. + +BENVOLIO +Tut, you saw her fair, none else being by, +Herself poised with herself in either eye; +But in that crystal scales let there be weighed +Your lady's love against some other maid +That I will show you shining at this feast, +And she shall scant show well that now seems best. + +ROMEO +I'll go along, no such sight to be shown, +But to rejoice in splendor of mine own. +[They exit.] + +Scene 3 +======= +[Enter Lady Capulet and Nurse.] + + +LADY CAPULET +Nurse, where's my daughter? Call her forth to me. + +NURSE +Now, by my maidenhead at twelve year old, +I bade her come.--What, lamb! What, ladybird! +God forbid. Where's this girl? What, Juliet! + +[Enter Juliet.] + + +JULIET How now, who calls? + +NURSE Your mother. + +JULIET +Madam, I am here. What is your will? + +LADY CAPULET +This is the matter.--Nurse, give leave awhile. +We must talk in secret.--Nurse, come back again. +I have remembered me, thou 's hear our counsel. +Thou knowest my daughter's of a pretty age. + +NURSE +Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour. + +LADY CAPULET She's not fourteen. + +NURSE I'll lay fourteen of my teeth (and yet, to my teen +be it spoken, I have but four) she's not fourteen. +How long is it now to Lammastide? + +LADY CAPULET A fortnight and odd days. + +NURSE +Even or odd, of all days in the year, +Come Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen. +Susan and she (God rest all Christian souls!) +Were of an age. Well, Susan is with God; +She was too good for me. But, as I said, +On Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen. +That shall she. Marry, I remember it well. +'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years, +And she was weaned (I never shall forget it) +Of all the days of the year, upon that day. +For I had then laid wormwood to my dug, +Sitting in the sun under the dovehouse wall. +My lord and you were then at Mantua. +Nay, I do bear a brain. But, as I said, +When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple +Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool, +To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug. +"Shake," quoth the dovehouse. 'Twas no need, I +trow, +To bid me trudge. +And since that time it is eleven years. +For then she could stand high-lone. Nay, by th' +rood, +She could have run and waddled all about, +For even the day before, she broke her brow, +And then my husband (God be with his soul, +He was a merry man) took up the child. +"Yea," quoth he, "Dost thou fall upon thy face? +Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit, +Wilt thou not, Jule?" And, by my holidam, +The pretty wretch left crying and said "Ay." +To see now how a jest shall come about! +I warrant, an I should live a thousand years, +I never should forget it. "Wilt thou not, Jule?" +quoth he. +And, pretty fool, it stinted and said "Ay." + +LADY CAPULET +Enough of this. I pray thee, hold thy peace. + +NURSE +Yes, madam, yet I cannot choose but laugh +To think it should leave crying and say "Ay." +And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow +A bump as big as a young cock'rel's stone, +A perilous knock, and it cried bitterly. +"Yea," quoth my husband. "Fall'st upon thy face? +Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age, +Wilt thou not, Jule?" It stinted and said "Ay." + +JULIET +And stint thou, too, I pray thee, nurse, say I. + +NURSE +Peace. I have done. God mark thee to his grace, +Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nursed. +An I might live to see thee married once, +I have my wish. + +LADY CAPULET +Marry, that "marry" is the very theme +I came to talk of.--Tell me, daughter Juliet, +How stands your disposition to be married? + +JULIET +It is an honor that I dream not of. + +NURSE +An honor? Were not I thine only nurse, +I would say thou hadst sucked wisdom from thy +teat. + +LADY CAPULET +Well, think of marriage now. Younger than you +Here in Verona, ladies of esteem, +Are made already mothers. By my count +I was your mother much upon these years +That you are now a maid. Thus, then, in brief: +The valiant Paris seeks you for his love. + +NURSE +A man, young lady--lady, such a man +As all the world--why, he's a man of wax. + +LADY CAPULET +Verona's summer hath not such a flower. + +NURSE +Nay, he's a flower, in faith, a very flower. + +LADY CAPULET +What say you? Can you love the gentleman? +This night you shall behold him at our feast. +Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face, +And find delight writ there with beauty's pen. +Examine every married lineament +And see how one another lends content, +And what obscured in this fair volume lies +Find written in the margent of his eyes. +This precious book of love, this unbound lover, +To beautify him only lacks a cover. +The fish lives in the sea, and 'tis much pride +For fair without the fair within to hide. +That book in many's eyes doth share the glory +That in gold clasps locks in the golden story. +So shall you share all that he doth possess +By having him, making yourself no less. + +NURSE +No less? Nay, bigger. Women grow by men. + +LADY CAPULET +Speak briefly. Can you like of Paris' love? + +JULIET +I'll look to like, if looking liking move. +But no more deep will I endart mine eye +Than your consent gives strength to make it fly. + +[Enter Servingman.] + + +SERVINGMAN Madam, the guests are come, supper +served up, you called, my young lady asked for, the +Nurse cursed in the pantry, and everything in +extremity. I must hence to wait. I beseech you, +follow straight. + +LADY CAPULET +We follow thee. [Servingman exits.] +Juliet, the County stays. + +NURSE +Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days. +[They exit.] + +Scene 4 +======= +[Enter Romeo, Mercutio, Benvolio, with five or six other +Maskers, Torchbearers, and a Boy with a drum.] + + +ROMEO +What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse? +Or shall we on without apology? + +BENVOLIO +The date is out of such prolixity. +We'll have no Cupid hoodwinked with a scarf, +Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath, +Scaring the ladies like a crowkeeper, +Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke +After the prompter, for our entrance. +But let them measure us by what they will. +We'll measure them a measure and be gone. + +ROMEO +Give me a torch. I am not for this ambling. +Being but heavy I will bear the light. + +MERCUTIO +Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance. + +ROMEO +Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes +With nimble soles. I have a soul of lead +So stakes me to the ground I cannot move. + +MERCUTIO +You are a lover. Borrow Cupid's wings +And soar with them above a common bound. + +ROMEO +I am too sore enpierced with his shaft +To soar with his light feathers, and so bound +I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe. +Under love's heavy burden do I sink. + +MERCUTIO +And to sink in it should you burden love-- +Too great oppression for a tender thing. + +ROMEO +Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, +Too rude, too boist'rous, and it pricks like thorn. + +MERCUTIO +If love be rough with you, be rough with love. +Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.-- +Give me a case to put my visage in.-- +A visor for a visor. What care I +What curious eye doth cote deformities? +Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me. + +BENVOLIO +Come, knock and enter, and no sooner in +But every man betake him to his legs. + +ROMEO +A torch for me. Let wantons light of heart +Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels, +For I am proverbed with a grandsire phrase: +I'll be a candle holder and look on; +The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done. + +MERCUTIO +Tut, dun's the mouse, the constable's own word. +If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire-- +Or, save your reverence, love--wherein thou +stickest +Up to the ears. Come, we burn daylight, ho! + +ROMEO +Nay, that's not so. + +MERCUTIO I mean, sir, in delay +We waste our lights; in vain, light lights by day. +Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits +Five times in that ere once in our five wits. + +ROMEO +And we mean well in going to this masque, +But 'tis no wit to go. + +MERCUTIO Why, may one ask? + +ROMEO +I dreamt a dream tonight. + +MERCUTIO And so did I. + +ROMEO +Well, what was yours? + +MERCUTIO That dreamers often lie. + +ROMEO +In bed asleep while they do dream things true. + +MERCUTIO +O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you. +She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes +In shape no bigger than an agate stone +On the forefinger of an alderman, +Drawn with a team of little atomi +Over men's noses as they lie asleep. +Her wagon spokes made of long spinners' legs, +The cover of the wings of grasshoppers, +Her traces of the smallest spider web, +Her collars of the moonshine's wat'ry beams, +Her whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film, +Her wagoner a small gray-coated gnat, +Not half so big as a round little worm +Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid. +Her chariot is an empty hazelnut, +Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, +Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers. +And in this state she gallops night by night +Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love; +On courtiers' knees, that dream on cur'sies straight; +O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees; +O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream, +Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues +Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are. +Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose, +And then dreams he of smelling out a suit. +And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail, +Tickling a parson's nose as he lies asleep; +Then he dreams of another benefice. +Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck, +And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, +Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, +Of healths five fathom deep, and then anon +Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes +And, being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two +And sleeps again. This is that very Mab +That plats the manes of horses in the night +And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs, +Which once untangled much misfortune bodes. +This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, +That presses them and learns them first to bear, +Making them women of good carriage. +This is she-- + +ROMEO Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace. +Thou talk'st of nothing. + +MERCUTIO True, I talk of dreams, +Which are the children of an idle brain, +Begot of nothing but vain fantasy, +Which is as thin of substance as the air +And more inconstant than the wind, who woos +Even now the frozen bosom of the north +And, being angered, puffs away from thence, +Turning his side to the dew-dropping south. + +BENVOLIO +This wind you talk of blows us from ourselves. +Supper is done, and we shall come too late. + +ROMEO +I fear too early, for my mind misgives +Some consequence yet hanging in the stars +Shall bitterly begin his fearful date +With this night's revels, and expire the term +Of a despised life closed in my breast +By some vile forfeit of untimely death. +But he that hath the steerage of my course +Direct my sail. On, lusty gentlemen. + +BENVOLIO Strike, drum. +[They march about the stage +and then withdraw to the side.] + +Scene 5 +======= +[Servingmen come forth with napkins.] + + +FIRST SERVINGMAN Where's Potpan that he helps not +to take away? He shift a trencher? He scrape a +trencher? + +SECOND SERVINGMAN When good manners shall lie +all in one or two men's hands, and they unwashed +too, 'tis a foul thing. + +FIRST SERVINGMAN Away with the joint stools, remove +the court cupboard, look to the plate.-- +Good thou, save me a piece of marchpane, and, as +thou loves me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone +and Nell.--Anthony and Potpan! + +THIRD SERVINGMAN Ay, boy, ready. + +FIRST SERVINGMAN You are looked for and called for, +asked for and sought for, in the great chamber. + +THIRD SERVINGMAN We cannot be here and there too. +Cheerly, boys! Be brisk awhile, and the longer liver +take all. [They move aside.] + +[Enter Capulet and his household, all the guests and +gentlewomen to Romeo, Mercutio, Benvolio, and the +other Maskers.] + + +CAPULET +Welcome, gentlemen. Ladies that have their toes +Unplagued with corns will walk a bout with +you.-- +Ah, my mistresses, which of you all +Will now deny to dance? She that makes dainty, +She, I'll swear, hath corns. Am I come near you +now?-- +Welcome, gentlemen. I have seen the day +That I have worn a visor and could tell +A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear, +Such as would please. 'Tis gone, 'tis gone, 'tis gone. +You are welcome, gentlemen.--Come, musicians, +play. [Music plays and they dance.] +A hall, a hall, give room!--And foot it, girls.-- +More light, you knaves, and turn the tables up, +And quench the fire; the room is grown too hot.-- +Ah, sirrah, this unlooked-for sport comes well.-- +Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin Capulet, +For you and I are past our dancing days. +How long is 't now since last yourself and I +Were in a mask? + +CAPULET'S COUSIN By 'r Lady, thirty years. + +CAPULET +What, man, 'tis not so much, 'tis not so much. +'Tis since the nuptial of Lucentio, +Come Pentecost as quickly as it will, +Some five and twenty years, and then we masked. + +CAPULET'S COUSIN +'Tis more, 'tis more. His son is elder, sir. +His son is thirty. + +CAPULET Will you tell me that? +His son was but a ward two years ago. + +ROMEO, [to a Servingman] +What lady's that which doth enrich the hand +Of yonder knight? + +SERVINGMAN I know not, sir. + +ROMEO +O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! +It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night +As a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear-- +Beauty too rich for use, for Earth too dear. +So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows +As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows. +The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand +And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand. +Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight, +For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night. + +TYBALT +This, by his voice, should be a Montague.-- +Fetch me my rapier, boy. [Page exits.] +What, dares the slave +Come hither covered with an antic face +To fleer and scorn at our solemnity? +Now, by the stock and honor of my kin, +To strike him dead I hold it not a sin. + +CAPULET +Why, how now, kinsman? Wherefore storm you so? + +TYBALT +Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe, +A villain that is hither come in spite +To scorn at our solemnity this night. + +CAPULET +Young Romeo is it? + +TYBALT 'Tis he, that villain Romeo. + +CAPULET +Content thee, gentle coz. Let him alone. +He bears him like a portly gentleman, +And, to say truth, Verona brags of him +To be a virtuous and well-governed youth. +I would not for the wealth of all this town +Here in my house do him disparagement. +Therefore be patient. Take no note of him. +It is my will, the which if thou respect, +Show a fair presence and put off these frowns, +An ill-beseeming semblance for a feast. + +TYBALT +It fits when such a villain is a guest. +I'll not endure him. + +CAPULET He shall be endured. +What, goodman boy? I say he shall. Go to. +Am I the master here or you? Go to. +You'll not endure him! God shall mend my soul, +You'll make a mutiny among my guests, +You will set cock-a-hoop, you'll be the man! + +TYBALT +Why, uncle, 'tis a shame. + +CAPULET Go to, go to. +You are a saucy boy. Is 't so indeed? +This trick may chance to scathe you. I know what. +You must contrary me. Marry, 'tis time-- +Well said, my hearts.--You are a princox, go. +Be quiet, or--More light, more light!--for shame, +I'll make you quiet.--What, cheerly, my hearts! + +TYBALT +Patience perforce with willful choler meeting +Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting. +I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall, +Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt'rest gall. +[He exits.] + +ROMEO, [taking Juliet's hand] +If I profane with my unworthiest hand +This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this: +My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand +To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. + +JULIET +Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, +Which mannerly devotion shows in this; +For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, +And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss. + +ROMEO +Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? + +JULIET +Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer. + +ROMEO +O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do. +They pray: grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. + +JULIET +Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake. + +ROMEO +Then move not while my prayer's effect I take. +[He kisses her.] +Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged. + +JULIET +Then have my lips the sin that they have took. + +ROMEO +Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged! +Give me my sin again. [He kisses her.] + +JULIET You kiss by th' book. + +NURSE +Madam, your mother craves a word with you. +[Juliet moves toward her mother.] + +ROMEO +What is her mother? + +NURSE Marry, bachelor, +Her mother is the lady of the house, +And a good lady, and a wise and virtuous. +I nursed her daughter that you talked withal. +I tell you, he that can lay hold of her +Shall have the chinks. [Nurse moves away.] + +ROMEO, [aside] Is she a Capulet? +O dear account! My life is my foe's debt. + +BENVOLIO +Away, begone. The sport is at the best. + +ROMEO +Ay, so I fear. The more is my unrest. + +CAPULET +Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone. +We have a trifling foolish banquet towards.-- +Is it e'en so? Why then, I thank you all. +I thank you, honest gentlemen. Good night.-- +More torches here.--Come on then, let's to bed.-- +Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late. +I'll to my rest. +[All but Juliet and the Nurse begin to exit.] + +JULIET +Come hither, nurse. What is yond gentleman? + +NURSE +The son and heir of old Tiberio. + +JULIET +What's he that now is going out of door? + +NURSE +Marry, that, I think, be young Petruchio. + +JULIET +What's he that follows here, that would not dance? + +NURSE I know not. + +JULIET +Go ask his name. [The Nurse goes.] If he be married, +My grave is like to be my wedding bed. + +NURSE, [returning] +His name is Romeo, and a Montague, +The only son of your great enemy. + +JULIET +My only love sprung from my only hate! +Too early seen unknown, and known too late! +Prodigious birth of love it is to me +That I must love a loathed enemy. + +NURSE +What's this? What's this? + +JULIET A rhyme I learned even now +Of one I danced withal. +[One calls within "Juliet."] + +NURSE Anon, anon. +Come, let's away. The strangers all are gone. +[They exit.] + + +ACT 2 +===== + + + +[Enter Chorus.] + + +Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie, +And young affection gapes to be his heir. +That fair for which love groaned for and would die, +With tender Juliet matched, is now not fair. +Now Romeo is beloved and loves again, +Alike bewitched by the charm of looks, +But to his foe supposed he must complain, +And she steal love's sweet bait from fearful hooks. +Being held a foe, he may not have access +To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear, +And she as much in love, her means much less +To meet her new beloved anywhere. +But passion lends them power, time means, to meet, +Temp'ring extremities with extreme sweet. +[Chorus exits.] + +Scene 1 +======= +[Enter Romeo alone.] + + +ROMEO +Can I go forward when my heart is here? +Turn back, dull earth, and find thy center out. +[He withdraws.] + +[Enter Benvolio with Mercutio.] + +BENVOLIO +Romeo, my cousin Romeo, Romeo! + +MERCUTIO He is wise +And, on my life, hath stol'n him home to bed. + +BENVOLIO +He ran this way and leapt this orchard wall. +Call, good Mercutio. + +MERCUTIO Nay, I'll conjure too. +Romeo! Humors! Madman! Passion! Lover! +Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh. +Speak but one rhyme and I am satisfied. +Cry but "Ay me," pronounce but "love" and +"dove." +Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word, +One nickname for her purblind son and heir, +Young Abraham Cupid, he that shot so trim +When King Cophetua loved the beggar maid.-- +He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not. +The ape is dead, and I must conjure him.-- +I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes, +By her high forehead, and her scarlet lip, +By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh, +And the demesnes that there adjacent lie, +That in thy likeness thou appear to us. + +BENVOLIO +An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him. + +MERCUTIO +This cannot anger him. 'Twould anger him +To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle +Of some strange nature, letting it there stand +Till she had laid it and conjured it down. +That were some spite. My invocation +Is fair and honest. In his mistress' name, +I conjure only but to raise up him. + +BENVOLIO +Come, he hath hid himself among these trees +To be consorted with the humorous night. +Blind is his love and best befits the dark. + +MERCUTIO +If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark. +Now will he sit under a medlar tree +And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit +As maids call medlars when they laugh alone.-- +O Romeo, that she were, O, that she were +An open-arse, thou a pop'rin pear. +Romeo, good night. I'll to my truckle bed; +This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep.-- +Come, shall we go? + +BENVOLIO Go, then, for 'tis in vain +To seek him here that means not to be found. +[They exit.] + +Scene 2 +======= +[Romeo comes forward.] + + + +ROMEO +He jests at scars that never felt a wound. + +[Enter Juliet above.] + +But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? +It is the East, and Juliet is the sun. +Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, +Who is already sick and pale with grief +That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she. +Be not her maid since she is envious. +Her vestal livery is but sick and green, +And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off. +It is my lady. O, it is my love! +O, that she knew she were! +She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that? +Her eye discourses; I will answer it. +I am too bold. 'Tis not to me she speaks. +Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, +Having some business, do entreat her eyes +To twinkle in their spheres till they return. +What if her eyes were there, they in her head? +The brightness of her cheek would shame those +stars +As daylight doth a lamp; her eye in heaven +Would through the airy region stream so bright +That birds would sing and think it were not night. +See how she leans her cheek upon her hand. +O, that I were a glove upon that hand, +That I might touch that cheek! + +JULIET Ay me. + +ROMEO, [aside] She speaks. +O, speak again, bright angel, for thou art +As glorious to this night, being o'er my head, +As is a winged messenger of heaven +Unto the white-upturned wond'ring eyes +Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him +When he bestrides the lazy puffing clouds +And sails upon the bosom of the air. + +JULIET +O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? +Deny thy father and refuse thy name, +Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, +And I'll no longer be a Capulet. + +ROMEO, [aside] +Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this? + +JULIET +'Tis but thy name that is my enemy. +Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. +What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, +Nor arm, nor face. O, be some other name +Belonging to a man. +What's in a name? That which we call a rose +By any other word would smell as sweet. +So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called, +Retain that dear perfection which he owes +Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, +And, for thy name, which is no part of thee, +Take all myself. + +ROMEO I take thee at thy word. +Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized. +Henceforth I never will be Romeo. + +JULIET +What man art thou that, thus bescreened in night, +So stumblest on my counsel? + +ROMEO By a name +I know not how to tell thee who I am. +My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself +Because it is an enemy to thee. +Had I it written, I would tear the word. + +JULIET +My ears have yet not drunk a hundred words +Of thy tongue's uttering, yet I know the sound. +Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague? + +ROMEO +Neither, fair maid, if either thee dislike. + +JULIET +How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore? +The orchard walls are high and hard to climb, +And the place death, considering who thou art, +If any of my kinsmen find thee here. + +ROMEO +With love's light wings did I o'erperch these walls, +For stony limits cannot hold love out, +And what love can do, that dares love attempt. +Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me. + +JULIET +If they do see thee, they will murder thee. + +ROMEO +Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye +Than twenty of their swords. Look thou but sweet, +And I am proof against their enmity. + +JULIET +I would not for the world they saw thee here. + +ROMEO +I have night's cloak to hide me from their eyes, +And, but thou love me, let them find me here. +My life were better ended by their hate +Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love. + +JULIET +By whose direction found'st thou out this place? + +ROMEO +By love, that first did prompt me to inquire. +He lent me counsel, and I lent him eyes. +I am no pilot; yet, wert thou as far +As that vast shore washed with the farthest sea, +I should adventure for such merchandise. + +JULIET +Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face, +Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek +For that which thou hast heard me speak tonight. +Fain would I dwell on form; fain, fain deny +What I have spoke. But farewell compliment. +Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say "Ay," +And I will take thy word. Yet, if thou swear'st, +Thou mayst prove false. At lovers' perjuries, +They say, Jove laughs. O gentle Romeo, +If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully. +Or, if thou thinkest I am too quickly won, +I'll frown and be perverse and say thee nay, +So thou wilt woo, but else not for the world. +In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond, +And therefore thou mayst think my havior light. +But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true +Than those that have more coying to be strange. +I should have been more strange, I must confess, +But that thou overheard'st ere I was ware +My true-love passion. Therefore pardon me, +And not impute this yielding to light love, +Which the dark night hath so discovered. + +ROMEO +Lady, by yonder blessed moon I vow, +That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops-- + +JULIET +O, swear not by the moon, th' inconstant moon, +That monthly changes in her circled orb, +Lest that thy love prove likewise variable. + +ROMEO +What shall I swear by? + +JULIET Do not swear at all. +Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self, +Which is the god of my idolatry, +And I'll believe thee. + +ROMEO If my heart's dear love-- + +JULIET +Well, do not swear. Although I joy in thee, +I have no joy of this contract tonight. +It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden, +Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be +Ere one can say "It lightens." Sweet, good night. +This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath, +May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet. +Good night, good night. As sweet repose and rest +Come to thy heart as that within my breast. + +ROMEO +O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied? + +JULIET +What satisfaction canst thou have tonight? + +ROMEO +Th' exchange of thy love's faithful vow for mine. + +JULIET +I gave thee mine before thou didst request it, +And yet I would it were to give again. + +ROMEO +Wouldst thou withdraw it? For what purpose, love? + +JULIET +But to be frank and give it thee again. +And yet I wish but for the thing I have. +My bounty is as boundless as the sea, +My love as deep. The more I give to thee, +The more I have, for both are infinite. +[Nurse calls from within.] +I hear some noise within. Dear love, adieu.-- +Anon, good nurse.--Sweet Montague, be true. +Stay but a little; I will come again. [She exits.] + +ROMEO +O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard, +Being in night, all this is but a dream, +Too flattering sweet to be substantial. + +[Reenter Juliet above.] + + +JULIET +Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed. +If that thy bent of love be honorable, +Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow, +By one that I'll procure to come to thee, +Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite, +And all my fortunes at thy foot I'll lay +And follow thee my lord throughout the world. + +NURSE, [within] Madam. + +JULIET +I come anon.--But if thou meanest not well, +I do beseech thee-- + +NURSE, [within] Madam. + +JULIET By and by, I come.-- +To cease thy strife and leave me to my grief. +Tomorrow will I send. + +ROMEO So thrive my soul-- + +JULIET A thousand times good night. [She exits.] + +ROMEO +A thousand times the worse to want thy light. +Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their +books, +But love from love, toward school with heavy looks. +[Going.] + +[Enter Juliet above again.] + + +JULIET +Hist, Romeo, hist! O, for a falc'ner's voice +To lure this tassel-gentle back again! +Bondage is hoarse and may not speak aloud, +Else would I tear the cave where Echo lies +And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine +With repetition of "My Romeo!" + +ROMEO +It is my soul that calls upon my name. +How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night, +Like softest music to attending ears. + +JULIET +Romeo. + +ROMEO My dear. + +JULIET What o'clock tomorrow +Shall I send to thee? + +ROMEO By the hour of nine. + +JULIET +I will not fail. 'Tis twenty year till then. +I have forgot why I did call thee back. + +ROMEO +Let me stand here till thou remember it. + +JULIET +I shall forget, to have thee still stand there, +Rememb'ring how I love thy company. + +ROMEO +And I'll still stay, to have thee still forget, +Forgetting any other home but this. + +JULIET +'Tis almost morning. I would have thee gone, +And yet no farther than a wanton's bird, +That lets it hop a little from his hand, +Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves, +And with a silken thread plucks it back again, +So loving-jealous of his liberty. + +ROMEO +I would I were thy bird. + +JULIET Sweet, so would I. +Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing. +Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet +sorrow +That I shall say "Good night" till it be morrow. +[She exits.] + +ROMEO +Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast. +Would I were sleep and peace so sweet to rest. +Hence will I to my ghostly friar's close cell, +His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell. +[He exits.] + +Scene 3 +======= +[Enter Friar Lawrence alone with a basket.] + + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night, +Check'ring the eastern clouds with streaks of light, +And fleckled darkness like a drunkard reels +From forth day's path and Titan's fiery wheels. +Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye, +The day to cheer and night's dank dew to dry, +I must upfill this osier cage of ours +With baleful weeds and precious-juiced flowers. +The Earth that's nature's mother is her tomb; +What is her burying grave, that is her womb; +And from her womb children of divers kind +We sucking on her natural bosom find, +Many for many virtues excellent, +None but for some, and yet all different. +O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies +In plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities. +For naught so vile that on the Earth doth live +But to the Earth some special good doth give; +Nor aught so good but, strained from that fair use, +Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse. +Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied, +And vice sometime by action dignified. + +[Enter Romeo.] + +Within the infant rind of this weak flower +Poison hath residence and medicine power: +For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each +part; +Being tasted, stays all senses with the heart. +Two such opposed kings encamp them still +In man as well as herbs--grace and rude will; +And where the worser is predominant, +Full soon the canker death eats up that plant. + +ROMEO +Good morrow, father. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE Benedicite. +What early tongue so sweet saluteth me? +Young son, it argues a distempered head +So soon to bid "Good morrow" to thy bed. +Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye, +And, where care lodges, sleep will never lie; +But where unbruised youth with unstuffed brain +Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth +reign. +Therefore thy earliness doth me assure +Thou art uproused with some distemp'rature, +Or, if not so, then here I hit it right: +Our Romeo hath not been in bed tonight. + +ROMEO +That last is true. The sweeter rest was mine. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +God pardon sin! Wast thou with Rosaline? + +ROMEO +With Rosaline, my ghostly father? No. +I have forgot that name and that name's woe. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +That's my good son. But where hast thou been +then? + +ROMEO +I'll tell thee ere thou ask it me again. +I have been feasting with mine enemy, +Where on a sudden one hath wounded me +That's by me wounded. Both our remedies +Within thy help and holy physic lies. +I bear no hatred, blessed man, for, lo, +My intercession likewise steads my foe. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift. +Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift. + +ROMEO +Then plainly know my heart's dear love is set +On the fair daughter of rich Capulet. +As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine, +And all combined, save what thou must combine +By holy marriage. When and where and how +We met, we wooed, and made exchange of vow +I'll tell thee as we pass, but this I pray, +That thou consent to marry us today. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here! +Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear, +So soon forsaken? Young men's love then lies +Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes. +Jesu Maria, what a deal of brine +Hath washed thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline! +How much salt water thrown away in waste +To season love, that of it doth not taste! +The sun not yet thy sighs from heaven clears, +Thy old groans yet ringing in mine ancient ears. +Lo, here upon thy cheek the stain doth sit +Of an old tear that is not washed off yet. +If e'er thou wast thyself, and these woes thine, +Thou and these woes were all for Rosaline. +And art thou changed? Pronounce this sentence +then: +Women may fall when there's no strength in men. + +ROMEO +Thou chid'st me oft for loving Rosaline. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +For doting, not for loving, pupil mine. + +ROMEO +And bad'st me bury love. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE Not in a grave +To lay one in, another out to have. + +ROMEO +I pray thee, chide me not. Her I love now +Doth grace for grace and love for love allow. +The other did not so. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE O, she knew well +Thy love did read by rote, that could not spell. +But come, young waverer, come, go with me. +In one respect I'll thy assistant be, +For this alliance may so happy prove +To turn your households' rancor to pure love. + +ROMEO +O, let us hence. I stand on sudden haste. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast. +[They exit.] + +Scene 4 +======= +[Enter Benvolio and Mercutio.] + + +MERCUTIO +Where the devil should this Romeo be? +Came he not home tonight? + +BENVOLIO +Not to his father's. I spoke with his man. + +MERCUTIO +Why, that same pale hard-hearted wench, that +Rosaline, +Torments him so that he will sure run mad. + +BENVOLIO +Tybalt, the kinsman to old Capulet, +Hath sent a letter to his father's house. + +MERCUTIO A challenge, on my life. + +BENVOLIO Romeo will answer it. + +MERCUTIO Any man that can write may answer a letter. + +BENVOLIO Nay, he will answer the letter's master, how +he dares, being dared. + +MERCUTIO Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead, +stabbed with a white wench's black eye, run +through the ear with a love-song, the very pin of his +heart cleft with the blind bow-boy's butt shaft. And +is he a man to encounter Tybalt? + +BENVOLIO Why, what is Tybalt? + +MERCUTIO More than prince of cats. O, he's the courageous +captain of compliments. He fights as you sing +prick-song, keeps time, distance, and proportion. +He rests his minim rests, one, two, and the third in +your bosom--the very butcher of a silk button, a +duelist, a duelist, a gentleman of the very first house +of the first and second cause. Ah, the immortal +passado, the punto reverso, the hay! + +BENVOLIO The what? + +MERCUTIO The pox of such antic, lisping, affecting +phantasimes, these new tuners of accent: "By +Jesu, a very good blade! A very tall man! A very good +whore!" Why, is not this a lamentable thing, grandsire, +that we should be thus afflicted with these +strange flies, these fashion-mongers, these "pardon-me" 's, +who stand so much on the new form +that they cannot sit at ease on the old bench? O their +bones, their bones! + +[Enter Romeo.] + + +BENVOLIO Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo. + +MERCUTIO Without his roe, like a dried herring. O +flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified! Now is he for the +numbers that Petrarch flowed in. Laura to his lady +was a kitchen wench (marry, she had a better love +to berhyme her), Dido a dowdy, Cleopatra a gypsy, +Helen and Hero hildings and harlots, Thisbe a gray +eye or so, but not to the purpose.--Signior Romeo, +bonjour. There's a French salutation to your French +slop. You gave us the counterfeit fairly last night. + +ROMEO Good morrow to you both. What counterfeit +did I give you? + +MERCUTIO The slip, sir, the slip. Can you not conceive? + +ROMEO Pardon, good Mercutio, my business was +great, and in such a case as mine a man may strain +courtesy. + +MERCUTIO That's as much as to say such a case as +yours constrains a man to bow in the hams. + +ROMEO Meaning, to curtsy. + +MERCUTIO Thou hast most kindly hit it. + +ROMEO A most courteous exposition. + +MERCUTIO Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy. + +ROMEO "Pink" for flower. + +MERCUTIO Right. + +ROMEO Why, then is my pump well flowered. + +MERCUTIO Sure wit, follow me this jest now till thou +hast worn out thy pump, that when the single sole +of it is worn, the jest may remain, after the wearing, +solely singular. + +ROMEO O single-soled jest, solely singular for the +singleness. + +MERCUTIO Come between us, good Benvolio. My wits +faints. + +ROMEO Switch and spurs, switch and spurs, or I'll cry +a match. + +MERCUTIO Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase, I +am done, for thou hast more of the wild goose in +one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole +five. Was I with you there for the goose? + +ROMEO Thou wast never with me for anything when +thou wast not there for the goose. + +MERCUTIO I will bite thee by the ear for that jest. + +ROMEO Nay, good goose, bite not. + +MERCUTIO Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting; it is a most +sharp sauce. + +ROMEO And is it not, then, well served into a sweet +goose? + +MERCUTIO O, here's a wit of cheveril that stretches +from an inch narrow to an ell broad. + +ROMEO I stretch it out for that word "broad," which +added to the goose, proves thee far and wide a +broad goose. + +MERCUTIO Why, is not this better now than groaning +for love? Now art thou sociable, now art thou +Romeo, now art thou what thou art, by art as well as +by nature. For this driveling love is like a great +natural that runs lolling up and down to hide his +bauble in a hole. + +BENVOLIO Stop there, stop there. + +MERCUTIO Thou desirest me to stop in my tale against +the hair. + +BENVOLIO Thou wouldst else have made thy tale large. + +MERCUTIO O, thou art deceived. I would have made it +short, for I was come to the whole depth of my tale +and meant indeed to occupy the argument no +longer. + +[Enter Nurse and her man Peter.] + + +ROMEO Here's goodly gear. A sail, a sail! + +MERCUTIO Two, two--a shirt and a smock. + +NURSE Peter. + +PETER Anon. + +NURSE My fan, Peter. + +MERCUTIO Good Peter, to hide her face, for her fan's +the fairer face. + +NURSE God you good morrow, gentlemen. + +MERCUTIO God you good e'en, fair gentlewoman. + +NURSE Is it good e'en? + +MERCUTIO 'Tis no less, I tell you, for the bawdy hand of +the dial is now upon the prick of noon. + +NURSE Out upon you! What a man are you? + +ROMEO One, gentlewoman, that God hath made, himself +to mar. + +NURSE By my troth, it is well said: "for himself to +mar," quoth he? Gentlemen, can any of you tell me +where I may find the young Romeo? + +ROMEO I can tell you, but young Romeo will be older +when you have found him than he was when you +sought him. I am the youngest of that name, for +fault of a worse. + +NURSE You say well. + +MERCUTIO Yea, is the worst well? Very well took, i' +faith, wisely, wisely. + +NURSE If you be he, sir, I desire some confidence with +you. + +BENVOLIO She will indite him to some supper. + +MERCUTIO A bawd, a bawd, a bawd. So ho! + +ROMEO What hast thou found? + +MERCUTIO No hare, sir, unless a hare, sir, in a Lenten +pie that is something stale and hoar ere it be spent. +[Singing.] An old hare hoar, + And an old hare hoar, + Is very good meat in Lent. + But a hare that is hoar + Is too much for a score + When it hoars ere it be spent. +Romeo, will you come to your father's? We'll to +dinner thither. + +ROMEO I will follow you. + +MERCUTIO Farewell, ancient lady. Farewell, lady, lady, +lady. [Mercutio and Benvolio exit.] + +NURSE I pray you, sir, what saucy merchant was this +that was so full of his ropery? + +ROMEO A gentleman, nurse, that loves to hear himself +talk and will speak more in a minute than he will +stand to in a month. + +NURSE An he speak anything against me, I'll take him +down, an he were lustier than he is, and twenty +such jacks. An if I cannot, I'll find those that shall. +Scurvy knave, I am none of his flirt-gills; I am none +of his skains-mates. [To Peter.] And thou must stand +by too and suffer every knave to use me at his +pleasure. + +PETER I saw no man use you at his pleasure. If I had, +my weapon should quickly have been out. I warrant +you, I dare draw as soon as another man, if I +see occasion in a good quarrel, and the law on my +side. + +NURSE Now, afore God, I am so vexed that every part +about me quivers. Scurvy knave! [To Romeo.] Pray +you, sir, a word. And, as I told you, my young lady +bid me inquire you out. What she bid me say, I will +keep to myself. But first let me tell you, if you +should lead her in a fool's paradise, as they say, it +were a very gross kind of behavior, as they say. For +the gentlewoman is young; and therefore, if you +should deal double with her, truly it were an ill +thing to be offered to any gentlewoman, and very +weak dealing. + +ROMEO Nurse, commend me to thy lady and mistress. +I protest unto thee-- + +NURSE Good heart, and i' faith I will tell her as much. +Lord, Lord, she will be a joyful woman. + +ROMEO What wilt thou tell her, nurse? Thou dost not +mark me. + +NURSE I will tell her, sir, that you do protest, which, as +I take it, is a gentlemanlike offer. + +ROMEO Bid her devise +Some means to come to shrift this afternoon, +And there she shall at Friar Lawrence' cell +Be shrived and married. Here is for thy pains. +[Offering her money.] + +NURSE No, truly, sir, not a penny. + +ROMEO Go to, I say you shall. + +NURSE +This afternoon, sir? Well, she shall be there. + +ROMEO +And stay, good nurse, behind the abbey wall. +Within this hour my man shall be with thee +And bring thee cords made like a tackled stair, +Which to the high topgallant of my joy +Must be my convoy in the secret night. +Farewell. Be trusty, and I'll quit thy pains. +Farewell. Commend me to thy mistress. + +NURSE +Now, God in heaven bless thee! Hark you, sir. + +ROMEO What sayst thou, my dear nurse? + +NURSE +Is your man secret? Did you ne'er hear say +"Two may keep counsel, putting one away"? + +ROMEO +Warrant thee, my man's as true as steel. + +NURSE Well, sir, my mistress is the sweetest lady. Lord, +Lord, when 'twas a little prating thing--O, there is +a nobleman in town, one Paris, that would fain lay +knife aboard, but she, good soul, had as lief see a +toad, a very toad, as see him. I anger her sometimes +and tell her that Paris is the properer man, but I'll +warrant you, when I say so, she looks as pale as any +clout in the versal world. Doth not rosemary and +Romeo begin both with a letter? + +ROMEO Ay, nurse, what of that? Both with an R. + +NURSE Ah, mocker, that's the dog's name. R is for +the--No, I know it begins with some other letter, +and she hath the prettiest sententious of it, of you +and rosemary, that it would do you good to hear it. + +ROMEO Commend me to thy lady. + +NURSE Ay, a thousand times.--Peter. + +PETER Anon. + +NURSE Before and apace. +[They exit.] + +Scene 5 +======= +[Enter Juliet.] + + +JULIET +The clock struck nine when I did send the Nurse. +In half an hour she promised to return. +Perchance she cannot meet him. That's not so. +O, she is lame! Love's heralds should be thoughts, +Which ten times faster glides than the sun's beams, +Driving back shadows over louring hills. +Therefore do nimble-pinioned doves draw Love, +And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings. +Now is the sun upon the highmost hill +Of this day's journey, and from nine till twelve +Is three long hours, yet she is not come. +Had she affections and warm youthful blood, +She would be as swift in motion as a ball; +My words would bandy her to my sweet love, +And his to me. +But old folks, many feign as they were dead, +Unwieldy, slow, heavy, and pale as lead. + +[Enter Nurse and Peter.] + +O God, she comes!--O, honey nurse, what news? +Hast thou met with him? Send thy man away. + +NURSE Peter, stay at the gate. [Peter exits.] + +JULIET +Now, good sweet nurse--O Lord, why lookest thou +sad? +Though news be sad, yet tell them merrily. +If good, thou shamest the music of sweet news +By playing it to me with so sour a face. + +NURSE +I am aweary. Give me leave awhile. +Fie, how my bones ache! What a jaunt have I! + +JULIET +I would thou hadst my bones, and I thy news. +Nay, come, I pray thee, speak. Good, good nurse, +speak. + +NURSE +Jesu, what haste! Can you not stay awhile? +Do you not see that I am out of breath? + +JULIET +How art thou out of breath, when thou hast breath +To say to me that thou art out of breath? +The excuse that thou dost make in this delay +Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse. +Is thy news good or bad? Answer to that. +Say either, and I'll stay the circumstance. +Let me be satisfied; is 't good or bad? + +NURSE Well, you have made a simple choice. You know +not how to choose a man. Romeo? No, not he. +Though his face be better than any man's, yet his leg +excels all men's, and for a hand and a foot and a +body, though they be not to be talked on, yet they +are past compare. He is not the flower of courtesy, +but I'll warrant him as gentle as a lamb. Go thy +ways, wench. Serve God. What, have you dined at +home? + +JULIET +No, no. But all this did I know before. +What says he of our marriage? What of that? + +NURSE +Lord, how my head aches! What a head have I! +It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces. +My back o' t' other side! Ah, my back, my back! +Beshrew your heart for sending me about +To catch my death with jaunting up and down. + +JULIET +I' faith, I am sorry that thou art not well. +Sweet, sweet, sweet nurse, tell me, what says my +love? + +NURSE Your love says, like an honest gentleman, and a +courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, and, I +warrant, a virtuous--Where is your mother? + +JULIET +Where is my mother? Why, she is within. +Where should she be? How oddly thou repliest: +"Your love says, like an honest gentleman, +Where is your mother?" + +NURSE O God's lady dear, +Are you so hot? Marry, come up, I trow. +Is this the poultice for my aching bones? +Henceforward do your messages yourself. + +JULIET +Here's such a coil. Come, what says Romeo? + +NURSE +Have you got leave to go to shrift today? + +JULIET I have. + +NURSE +Then hie you hence to Friar Lawrence' cell. +There stays a husband to make you a wife. +Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks; +They'll be in scarlet straight at any news. +Hie you to church. I must another way, +To fetch a ladder by the which your love +Must climb a bird's nest soon when it is dark. +I am the drudge and toil in your delight, +But you shall bear the burden soon at night. +Go. I'll to dinner. Hie you to the cell. + +JULIET +Hie to high fortune! Honest nurse, farewell. +[They exit.] + +Scene 6 +======= +[Enter Friar Lawrence and Romeo.] + + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +So smile the heavens upon this holy act +That after-hours with sorrow chide us not. + +ROMEO +Amen, amen. But come what sorrow can, +It cannot countervail the exchange of joy +That one short minute gives me in her sight. +Do thou but close our hands with holy words, +Then love-devouring death do what he dare, +It is enough I may but call her mine. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +These violent delights have violent ends +And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, +Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey +Is loathsome in his own deliciousness +And in the taste confounds the appetite. +Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so. +Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow. + +[Enter Juliet.] + +Here comes the lady. O, so light a foot +Will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint. +A lover may bestride the gossamers +That idles in the wanton summer air, +And yet not fall, so light is vanity. + +JULIET +Good even to my ghostly confessor. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both. + +JULIET +As much to him, else is his thanks too much. + +ROMEO +Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy +Be heaped like mine, and that thy skill be more +To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath +This neighbor air, and let rich music's tongue +Unfold the imagined happiness that both +Receive in either by this dear encounter. + +JULIET +Conceit, more rich in matter than in words, +Brags of his substance, not of ornament. +They are but beggars that can count their worth, +But my true love is grown to such excess +I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Come, come with me, and we will make short work, +For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone +Till Holy Church incorporate two in one. +[They exit.] + + +ACT 3 +===== + +Scene 1 +======= +[Enter Mercutio, Benvolio, and their men.] + + +BENVOLIO +I pray thee, good Mercutio, let's retire. +The day is hot, the Capels are abroad, +And if we meet we shall not 'scape a brawl, +For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring. + +MERCUTIO Thou art like one of these fellows that, when +he enters the confines of a tavern, claps me his +sword upon the table and says "God send me no +need of thee" and, by the operation of the second +cup, draws him on the drawer when indeed there is +no need. + +BENVOLIO Am I like such a fellow? + +MERCUTIO Come, come, thou art as hot a jack in thy +mood as any in Italy, and as soon moved to be +moody, and as soon moody to be moved. + +BENVOLIO And what to? + +MERCUTIO Nay, an there were two such, we should +have none shortly, for one would kill the other. +Thou--why, thou wilt quarrel with a man that +hath a hair more or a hair less in his beard than +thou hast. Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking +nuts, having no other reason but because thou +hast hazel eyes. What eye but such an eye would spy +out such a quarrel? Thy head is as full of quarrels as +an egg is full of meat, and yet thy head hath been +beaten as addle as an egg for quarreling. Thou hast +quarreled with a man for coughing in the street +because he hath wakened thy dog that hath lain +asleep in the sun. Didst thou not fall out with a tailor +for wearing his new doublet before Easter? With +another, for tying his new shoes with old ribbon? +And yet thou wilt tutor me from quarreling? + +BENVOLIO An I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any +man should buy the fee simple of my life for an +hour and a quarter. + +MERCUTIO The fee simple? O simple! + +[Enter Tybalt, Petruchio, and others.] + + +BENVOLIO By my head, here comes the Capulets. + +MERCUTIO By my heel, I care not. + +TYBALT, [to his companions] +Follow me close, for I will speak to them.-- +Gentlemen, good e'en. A word with one of you. + +MERCUTIO And but one word with one of us? Couple it +with something. Make it a word and a blow. + +TYBALT You shall find me apt enough to that, sir, an +you will give me occasion. + +MERCUTIO Could you not take some occasion without +giving? + +TYBALT Mercutio, thou consortest with Romeo. + +MERCUTIO Consort? What, dost thou make us minstrels? +An thou make minstrels of us, look to hear +nothing but discords. Here's my fiddlestick; here's +that shall make you dance. Zounds, consort! + +BENVOLIO +We talk here in the public haunt of men. +Either withdraw unto some private place, +Or reason coldly of your grievances, +Or else depart. Here all eyes gaze on us. + +MERCUTIO +Men's eyes were made to look, and let them gaze. +I will not budge for no man's pleasure, I. + +[Enter Romeo.] + + +TYBALT +Well, peace be with you, sir. Here comes my man. + +MERCUTIO +But I'll be hanged, sir, if he wear your livery. +Marry, go before to field, he'll be your follower. +Your Worship in that sense may call him "man." + +TYBALT +Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford +No better term than this: thou art a villain. + +ROMEO +Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee +Doth much excuse the appertaining rage +To such a greeting. Villain am I none. +Therefore farewell. I see thou knowest me not. + +TYBALT +Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries +That thou hast done me. Therefore turn and draw. + +ROMEO +I do protest I never injured thee +But love thee better than thou canst devise +Till thou shalt know the reason of my love. +And so, good Capulet, which name I tender +As dearly as mine own, be satisfied. + +MERCUTIO +O calm, dishonorable, vile submission! +Alla stoccato carries it away. [He draws.] +Tybalt, you ratcatcher, will you walk? + +TYBALT What wouldst thou have with me? + +MERCUTIO Good king of cats, nothing but one of your +nine lives, that I mean to make bold withal, and, as +you shall use me hereafter, dry-beat the rest of the +eight. Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher +by the ears? Make haste, lest mine be about your +ears ere it be out. + +TYBALT I am for you. [He draws.] + +ROMEO +Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up. + +MERCUTIO Come, sir, your passado. [They fight.] + +ROMEO +Draw, Benvolio, beat down their weapons. +[Romeo draws.] +Gentlemen, for shame forbear this outrage! +Tybalt! Mercutio! The Prince expressly hath +Forbid this bandying in Verona streets. +Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio! +[Romeo attempts to beat down their rapiers. +Tybalt stabs Mercutio.] + +PETRUCHIO Away, Tybalt! +[Tybalt, Petruchio, and their followers exit.] + +MERCUTIO I am hurt. +A plague o' both houses! I am sped. +Is he gone and hath nothing? + +BENVOLIO What, art thou hurt? + +MERCUTIO +Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch. Marry, 'tis enough. +Where is my page?--Go, villain, fetch a surgeon. +[Page exits.] + +ROMEO +Courage, man, the hurt cannot be much. + +MERCUTIO No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as +a church door, but 'tis enough. 'Twill serve. Ask for +me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I +am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o' +both your houses! Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a +cat, to scratch a man to death! A braggart, a rogue, a +villain that fights by the book of arithmetic! Why the +devil came you between us? I was hurt under your +arm. + +ROMEO I thought all for the best. + +MERCUTIO +Help me into some house, Benvolio, +Or I shall faint. A plague o' both your houses! +They have made worms' meat of me. +I have it, and soundly, too. Your houses! +[All but Romeo exit.] + +ROMEO +This gentleman, the Prince's near ally, +My very friend, hath got this mortal hurt +In my behalf. My reputation stained +With Tybalt's slander--Tybalt, that an hour +Hath been my cousin! O sweet Juliet, +Thy beauty hath made me effeminate +And in my temper softened valor's steel. + +[Enter Benvolio.] + + +BENVOLIO +O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio is dead. +That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds, +Which too untimely here did scorn the earth. + +ROMEO +This day's black fate on more days doth depend. +This but begins the woe others must end. + +[Enter Tybalt.] + + +BENVOLIO +Here comes the furious Tybalt back again. + +ROMEO +Alive in triumph, and Mercutio slain! +Away to heaven, respective lenity, +And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now.-- +Now, Tybalt, take the "villain" back again +That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio's soul +Is but a little way above our heads, +Staying for thine to keep him company. +Either thou or I, or both, must go with him. + +TYBALT +Thou wretched boy that didst consort him here +Shalt with him hence. + +ROMEO This shall determine that. +[They fight. Tybalt falls.] + +BENVOLIO +Romeo, away, begone! +The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain. +Stand not amazed. The Prince will doom thee death +If thou art taken. Hence, be gone, away. + +ROMEO +O, I am Fortune's fool! + +BENVOLIO Why dost thou stay? +[Romeo exits.] + +[Enter Citizens.] + + +CITIZEN +Which way ran he that killed Mercutio? +Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he? + +BENVOLIO +There lies that Tybalt. + +CITIZEN, [to Tybalt] Up, sir, go with me. +I charge thee in the Prince's name, obey. + +[Enter Prince, old Montague, Capulet, their Wives and all.] + + +PRINCE +Where are the vile beginners of this fray? + +BENVOLIO +O noble prince, I can discover all +The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl. +There lies the man, slain by young Romeo, +That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio. + +LADY CAPULET +Tybalt, my cousin, O my brother's child! +O prince! O cousin! Husband! O, the blood is spilled +Of my dear kinsman! Prince, as thou art true, +For blood of ours, shed blood of Montague. +O cousin, cousin! + +PRINCE +Benvolio, who began this bloody fray? + +BENVOLIO +Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay-- +Romeo, that spoke him fair, bid him bethink +How nice the quarrel was, and urged withal +Your high displeasure. All this uttered +With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bowed +Could not take truce with the unruly spleen +Of Tybalt, deaf to peace, but that he tilts +With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast, +Who, all as hot, turns deadly point to point +And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats +Cold death aside and with the other sends +It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity +Retorts it. Romeo he cries aloud +"Hold, friends! Friends, part!" and swifter than his +tongue +His agile arm beats down their fatal points, +And 'twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm +An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life +Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled. +But by and by comes back to Romeo, +Who had but newly entertained revenge, +And to 't they go like lightning, for ere I +Could draw to part them was stout Tybalt slain, +And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly. +This is the truth, or let Benvolio die. + +LADY CAPULET +He is a kinsman to the Montague. +Affection makes him false; he speaks not true. +Some twenty of them fought in this black strife, +And all those twenty could but kill one life. +I beg for justice, which thou, prince, must give. +Romeo slew Tybalt; Romeo must not live. + +PRINCE +Romeo slew him; he slew Mercutio. +Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe? + +MONTAGUE +Not Romeo, Prince; he was Mercutio's friend. +His fault concludes but what the law should end, +The life of Tybalt. + +PRINCE And for that offense +Immediately we do exile him hence. +I have an interest in your hearts' proceeding: +My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a-bleeding. +But I'll amerce you with so strong a fine +That you shall all repent the loss of mine. +I will be deaf to pleading and excuses. +Nor tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses. +Therefore use none. Let Romeo hence in haste, +Else, when he is found, that hour is his last. +Bear hence this body and attend our will. +Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill. +[They exit, the Capulet men +bearing off Tybalt's body.] + +Scene 2 +======= +[Enter Juliet alone.] + + +JULIET +Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, +Towards Phoebus' lodging. Such a wagoner +As Phaeton would whip you to the west +And bring in cloudy night immediately. +Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, +That runaways' eyes may wink, and Romeo +Leap to these arms, untalked of and unseen. +Lovers can see to do their amorous rites +By their own beauties, or, if love be blind, +It best agrees with night. Come, civil night, +Thou sober-suited matron all in black, +And learn me how to lose a winning match +Played for a pair of stainless maidenhoods. +Hood my unmanned blood, bating in my cheeks, +With thy black mantle till strange love grow bold, +Think true love acted simple modesty. +Come, night. Come, Romeo. Come, thou day in +night, +For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night +Whiter than new snow upon a raven's back. +Come, gentle night; come, loving black-browed +night, +Give me my Romeo, and when I shall die, +Take him and cut him out in little stars, +And he will make the face of heaven so fine +That all the world will be in love with night +And pay no worship to the garish sun. +O, I have bought the mansion of a love +But not possessed it, and, though I am sold, +Not yet enjoyed. So tedious is this day +As is the night before some festival +To an impatient child that hath new robes +And may not wear them. + +[Enter Nurse with cords.] + +O, here comes my nurse, +And she brings news, and every tongue that speaks +But Romeo's name speaks heavenly eloquence.-- +Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there? The +cords +That Romeo bid thee fetch? + +NURSE Ay, ay, the cords. +[Dropping the rope ladder.] + +JULIET +Ay me, what news? Why dost thou wring thy hands? + +NURSE +Ah weraday, he's dead, he's dead, he's dead! +We are undone, lady, we are undone. +Alack the day, he's gone, he's killed, he's dead. + +JULIET +Can heaven be so envious? + +NURSE Romeo can, +Though heaven cannot. O Romeo, Romeo, +Whoever would have thought it? Romeo! + +JULIET +What devil art thou that dost torment me thus? +This torture should be roared in dismal hell. +Hath Romeo slain himself? Say thou but "Ay," +And that bare vowel "I" shall poison more +Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice. +I am not I if there be such an "I," +Or those eyes shut that makes thee answer "Ay." +If he be slain, say "Ay," or if not, "No." +Brief sounds determine my weal or woe. + +NURSE +I saw the wound. I saw it with mine eyes +(God save the mark!) here on his manly breast-- +A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse, +Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaubed in blood, +All in gore blood. I swooned at the sight. + +JULIET +O break, my heart, poor bankrout, break at once! +To prison, eyes; ne'er look on liberty. +Vile earth to earth resign; end motion here, +And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier. + +NURSE +O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had! +O courteous Tybalt, honest gentleman, +That ever I should live to see thee dead! + +JULIET +What storm is this that blows so contrary? +Is Romeo slaughtered and is Tybalt dead? +My dearest cousin, and my dearer lord? +Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom, +For who is living if those two are gone? + +NURSE +Tybalt is gone and Romeo banished. +Romeo that killed him--he is banished. + +JULIET +O God, did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood? + +NURSE +It did, it did, alas the day, it did. + +JULIET +O serpent heart hid with a flow'ring face! +Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? +Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical! +Dove-feathered raven, wolvish-ravening lamb! +Despised substance of divinest show! +Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st, +A damned saint, an honorable villain. +O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell +When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend +In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh? +Was ever book containing such vile matter +So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell +In such a gorgeous palace! + +NURSE There's no trust, +No faith, no honesty in men. All perjured, +All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers. +Ah, where's my man? Give me some aqua vitae. +These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me +old. +Shame come to Romeo! + +JULIET Blistered be thy tongue +For such a wish! He was not born to shame. +Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit, +For 'tis a throne where honor may be crowned +Sole monarch of the universal Earth. +O, what a beast was I to chide at him! + +NURSE +Will you speak well of him that killed your cousin? + +JULIET +Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband? +Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy +name +When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it? +But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin? +That villain cousin would have killed my husband. +Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring; +Your tributary drops belong to woe, +Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy. +My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain, +And Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my +husband. +All this is comfort. Wherefore weep I then? +Some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death, +That murdered me. I would forget it fain, +But, O, it presses to my memory +Like damned guilty deeds to sinners' minds: +"Tybalt is dead and Romeo banished." +That "banished," that one word "banished," +Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt's death +Was woe enough if it had ended there; +Or, if sour woe delights in fellowship +And needly will be ranked with other griefs, +Why followed not, when she said "Tybalt's dead," +"Thy father" or "thy mother," nay, or both, +Which modern lamentation might have moved? +But with a rearward following Tybalt's death, +"Romeo is banished." To speak that word +Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet, +All slain, all dead. "Romeo is banished." +There is no end, no limit, measure, bound, +In that word's death. No words can that woe sound. +Where is my father and my mother, nurse? + +NURSE +Weeping and wailing over Tybalt's corse. +Will you go to them? I will bring you thither. + +JULIET +Wash they his wounds with tears? Mine shall be +spent, +When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment.-- +Take up those cords. +[The Nurse picks up the rope ladder.] +Poor ropes, you are beguiled, +Both you and I, for Romeo is exiled. +He made you for a highway to my bed, +But I, a maid, die maiden-widowed. +Come, cords--come, nurse. I'll to my wedding bed, +And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead! + +NURSE +Hie to your chamber. I'll find Romeo +To comfort you. I wot well where he is. +Hark you, your Romeo will be here at night. +I'll to him. He is hid at Lawrence' cell. + +JULIET +O, find him! [Giving the Nurse a ring.] +Give this ring to my true knight +And bid him come to take his last farewell. +[They exit.] + +Scene 3 +======= +[Enter Friar Lawrence.] + + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man. +Affliction is enamored of thy parts, +And thou art wedded to calamity. + +[Enter Romeo.] + + +ROMEO +Father, what news? What is the Prince's doom? +What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand +That I yet know not? + +FRIAR LAWRENCE Too familiar +Is my dear son with such sour company. +I bring thee tidings of the Prince's doom. + +ROMEO +What less than doomsday is the Prince's doom? + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +A gentler judgment vanished from his lips: +Not body's death, but body's banishment. + +ROMEO +Ha, banishment? Be merciful, say "death," +For exile hath more terror in his look, +Much more than death. Do not say "banishment." + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Here from Verona art thou banished. +Be patient, for the world is broad and wide. + +ROMEO +There is no world without Verona walls +But purgatory, torture, hell itself. +Hence "banished" is "banished from the world," +And world's exile is death. Then "banished" +Is death mistermed. Calling death "banished," +Thou cutt'st my head off with a golden ax +And smilest upon the stroke that murders me. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +O deadly sin, O rude unthankfulness! +Thy fault our law calls death, but the kind prince, +Taking thy part, hath rushed aside the law +And turned that black word "death" to +"banishment." +This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not. + +ROMEO +'Tis torture and not mercy. Heaven is here +Where Juliet lives, and every cat and dog +And little mouse, every unworthy thing, +Live here in heaven and may look on her, +But Romeo may not. More validity, +More honorable state, more courtship lives +In carrion flies than Romeo. They may seize +On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand +And steal immortal blessing from her lips, +Who even in pure and vestal modesty +Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin; +But Romeo may not; he is banished. +Flies may do this, but I from this must fly. +They are free men, but I am banished. +And sayest thou yet that exile is not death? +Hadst thou no poison mixed, no sharp-ground +knife, +No sudden mean of death, though ne'er so mean, +But "banished" to kill me? "Banished"? +O friar, the damned use that word in hell. +Howling attends it. How hast thou the heart, +Being a divine, a ghostly confessor, +A sin absolver, and my friend professed, +To mangle me with that word "banished"? + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Thou fond mad man, hear me a little speak. + +ROMEO +O, thou wilt speak again of banishment. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +I'll give thee armor to keep off that word, +Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy, +To comfort thee, though thou art banished. + +ROMEO +Yet "banished"? Hang up philosophy. +Unless philosophy can make a Juliet, +Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom, +It helps not, it prevails not. Talk no more. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +O, then I see that madmen have no ears. + +ROMEO +How should they when that wise men have no eyes? + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Let me dispute with thee of thy estate. + +ROMEO +Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel. +Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love, +An hour but married, Tybalt murdered, +Doting like me, and like me banished, +Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy +hair +And fall upon the ground as I do now, +[Romeo throws himself down.] +Taking the measure of an unmade grave. +[Knock within.] + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Arise. One knocks. Good Romeo, hide thyself. + +ROMEO +Not I, unless the breath of heartsick groans, +Mistlike, enfold me from the search of eyes. +[Knock.] + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Hark, how they knock!--Who's there?--Romeo, +arise. +Thou wilt be taken.--Stay awhile.--Stand up. +[Knock.] +Run to my study.--By and by.--God's will, +What simpleness is this?--I come, I come. +[Knock.] +Who knocks so hard? Whence come you? What's +your will? + +NURSE, [within] +Let me come in, and you shall know my errand. +I come from Lady Juliet. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE, [admitting the Nurse] +Welcome, then. + +[Enter Nurse.] + + +NURSE +O holy friar, O, tell me, holy friar, +Where's my lady's lord? Where's Romeo? + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +There on the ground, with his own tears made +drunk. + +NURSE +O, he is even in my mistress' case, +Just in her case. O woeful sympathy! +Piteous predicament! Even so lies she, +Blubb'ring and weeping, weeping and blubb'ring.-- +Stand up, stand up. Stand an you be a man. +For Juliet's sake, for her sake, rise and stand. +Why should you fall into so deep an O? + +ROMEO Nurse. + +NURSE +Ah sir, ah sir, death's the end of all. + +ROMEO, [rising up] +Spakest thou of Juliet? How is it with her? +Doth not she think me an old murderer, +Now I have stained the childhood of our joy +With blood removed but little from her own? +Where is she? And how doth she? And what says +My concealed lady to our canceled love? + +NURSE +O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps, +And now falls on her bed, and then starts up, +And "Tybalt" calls, and then on Romeo cries, +And then down falls again. + +ROMEO As if that name, +Shot from the deadly level of a gun, +Did murder her, as that name's cursed hand +Murdered her kinsman.--O, tell me, friar, tell me, +In what vile part of this anatomy +Doth my name lodge? Tell me, that I may sack +The hateful mansion. [He draws his dagger.] + +FRIAR LAWRENCE Hold thy desperate hand! +Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art. +Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote +The unreasonable fury of a beast. +Unseemly woman in a seeming man, +And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both! +Thou hast amazed me. By my holy order, +I thought thy disposition better tempered. +Hast thou slain Tybalt? Wilt thou slay thyself, +And slay thy lady that in thy life lives, +By doing damned hate upon thyself? +Why railest thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth, +Since birth and heaven and earth all three do meet +In thee at once, which thou at once wouldst lose? +Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit, +Which, like a usurer, abound'st in all +And usest none in that true use indeed +Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit. +Thy noble shape is but a form of wax, +Digressing from the valor of a man; +Thy dear love sworn but hollow perjury, +Killing that love which thou hast vowed to cherish; +Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love, +Misshapen in the conduct of them both, +Like powder in a skilless soldier's flask, +Is set afire by thine own ignorance, +And thou dismembered with thine own defense. +What, rouse thee, man! Thy Juliet is alive, +For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead: +There art thou happy. Tybalt would kill thee, +But thou slewest Tybalt: there art thou happy. +The law that threatened death becomes thy friend +And turns it to exile: there art thou happy. +A pack of blessings light upon thy back; +Happiness courts thee in her best array; +But, like a misbehaved and sullen wench, +Thou pouts upon thy fortune and thy love. +Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable. +Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed. +Ascend her chamber. Hence and comfort her. +But look thou stay not till the watch be set, +For then thou canst not pass to Mantua, +Where thou shalt live till we can find a time +To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends, +Beg pardon of the Prince, and call thee back +With twenty hundred thousand times more joy +Than thou went'st forth in lamentation.-- +Go before, nurse. Commend me to thy lady, +And bid her hasten all the house to bed, +Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto. +Romeo is coming. + +NURSE +O Lord, I could have stayed here all the night +To hear good counsel. O, what learning is!-- +My lord, I'll tell my lady you will come. + +ROMEO +Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide. + +NURSE +Here, sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir. +[Nurse gives Romeo a ring.] +Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late. +[She exits.] + +ROMEO +How well my comfort is revived by this! + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Go hence, good night--and here stands all your +state: +Either be gone before the watch be set +Or by the break of day disguised from hence. +Sojourn in Mantua. I'll find out your man, +And he shall signify from time to time +Every good hap to you that chances here. +Give me thy hand. 'Tis late. Farewell. Good night. + +ROMEO +But that a joy past joy calls out on me, +It were a grief so brief to part with thee. +Farewell. +[They exit.] + +Scene 4 +======= +[Enter old Capulet, his Wife, and Paris.] + + +CAPULET +Things have fallen out, sir, so unluckily +That we have had no time to move our daughter. +Look you, she loved her kinsman Tybalt dearly, +And so did I. Well, we were born to die. +'Tis very late. She'll not come down tonight. +I promise you, but for your company, +I would have been abed an hour ago. + +PARIS +These times of woe afford no times to woo.-- +Madam, good night. Commend me to your +daughter. + +LADY CAPULET +I will, and know her mind early tomorrow. +Tonight she's mewed up to her heaviness. + +CAPULET +Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender +Of my child's love. I think she will be ruled +In all respects by me. Nay, more, I doubt it not.-- +Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed. +Acquaint her here of my son Paris' love, +And bid her--mark you me?--on Wednesday +next-- +But soft, what day is this? + +PARIS Monday, my lord. + +CAPULET +Monday, ha ha! Well, Wednesday is too soon. +O' Thursday let it be.--O' Thursday, tell her, +She shall be married to this noble earl.-- +Will you be ready? Do you like this haste? +We'll keep no great ado: a friend or two. +For hark you, Tybalt being slain so late, +It may be thought we held him carelessly, +Being our kinsman, if we revel much. +Therefore we'll have some half a dozen friends, +And there an end. But what say you to Thursday? + +PARIS +My lord, I would that Thursday were tomorrow. + +CAPULET +Well, get you gone. O' Thursday be it, then. +[To Lady Capulet.] Go you to Juliet ere you go to bed. +Prepare her, wife, against this wedding day.-- +Farewell, my lord.--Light to my chamber, ho!-- +Afore me, it is so very late that we +May call it early by and by.--Good night. +[They exit.] + +Scene 5 +======= +[Enter Romeo and Juliet aloft.] + + +JULIET +Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day. +It was the nightingale, and not the lark, +That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear. +Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate tree. +Believe me, love, it was the nightingale. + +ROMEO +It was the lark, the herald of the morn, +No nightingale. Look, love, what envious streaks +Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east. +Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day +Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain-tops. +I must be gone and live, or stay and die. + +JULIET +Yond light is not daylight, I know it, I. +It is some meteor that the sun exhaled +To be to thee this night a torchbearer +And light thee on thy way to Mantua. +Therefore stay yet. Thou need'st not to be gone. + +ROMEO +Let me be ta'en; let me be put to death. +I am content, so thou wilt have it so. +I'll say yon gray is not the morning's eye; +'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow. +Nor that is not the lark whose notes do beat +The vaulty heaven so high above our heads. +I have more care to stay than will to go. +Come death and welcome. Juliet wills it so. +How is 't, my soul? Let's talk. It is not day. + +JULIET +It is, it is. Hie hence, begone, away! +It is the lark that sings so out of tune, +Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps. +Some say the lark makes sweet division. +This doth not so, for she divideth us. +Some say the lark and loathed toad changed eyes. +O, now I would they had changed voices too, +Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray, +Hunting thee hence with hunt's-up to the day. +O, now begone. More light and light it grows. + +ROMEO +More light and light, more dark and dark our woes. + +[Enter Nurse.] + + +NURSE Madam. + +JULIET Nurse? + +NURSE +Your lady mother is coming to your chamber. +The day is broke; be wary; look about. [She exits.] + +JULIET +Then, window, let day in, and let life out. + +ROMEO +Farewell, farewell. One kiss and I'll descend. +[They kiss, and Romeo descends.] + +JULIET +Art thou gone so? Love, lord, ay husband, friend! +I must hear from thee every day in the hour, +For in a minute there are many days. +O, by this count I shall be much in years +Ere I again behold my Romeo. + +ROMEO Farewell. +I will omit no opportunity +That may convey my greetings, love, to thee. + +JULIET +O, think'st thou we shall ever meet again? + +ROMEO +I doubt it not; and all these woes shall serve +For sweet discourses in our times to come. + +JULIET +O God, I have an ill-divining soul! +Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low, +As one dead in the bottom of a tomb. +Either my eyesight fails or thou lookest pale. + +ROMEO +And trust me, love, in my eye so do you. +Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu, adieu. [He exits.] + +JULIET +O Fortune, Fortune, all men call thee fickle. +If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him +That is renowned for faith? Be fickle, Fortune, +For then I hope thou wilt not keep him long, +But send him back. + +[Enter Lady Capulet.] + + +LADY CAPULET Ho, daughter, are you up? + +JULIET +Who is 't that calls? It is my lady mother. +Is she not down so late or up so early? +What unaccustomed cause procures her hither? +[Juliet descends.] + +LADY CAPULET +Why, how now, Juliet? + +JULIET Madam, I am not well. + +LADY CAPULET +Evermore weeping for your cousin's death? +What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears? +An if thou couldst, thou couldst not make him live. +Therefore have done. Some grief shows much of +love, +But much of grief shows still some want of wit. + +JULIET +Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss. + +LADY CAPULET +So shall you feel the loss, but not the friend +Which you weep for. + +JULIET Feeling so the loss, +I cannot choose but ever weep the friend. + +LADY CAPULET +Well, girl, thou weep'st not so much for his death +As that the villain lives which slaughtered him. + +JULIET +What villain, madam? + +LADY CAPULET That same villain, Romeo. + +JULIET, [aside] +Villain and he be many miles asunder.-- +God pardon him. I do with all my heart, +And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart. + +LADY CAPULET +That is because the traitor murderer lives. + +JULIET +Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands. +Would none but I might venge my cousin's death! + +LADY CAPULET +We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not. +Then weep no more. I'll send to one in Mantua, +Where that same banished runagate doth live, +Shall give him such an unaccustomed dram +That he shall soon keep Tybalt company. +And then, I hope, thou wilt be satisfied. + +JULIET +Indeed, I never shall be satisfied +With Romeo till I behold him--dead-- +Is my poor heart, so for a kinsman vexed. +Madam, if you could find out but a man +To bear a poison, I would temper it, +That Romeo should, upon receipt thereof, +Soon sleep in quiet. O, how my heart abhors +To hear him named and cannot come to him +To wreak the love I bore my cousin +Upon his body that hath slaughtered him. + +LADY CAPULET +Find thou the means, and I'll find such a man. +But now I'll tell thee joyful tidings, girl. + +JULIET +And joy comes well in such a needy time. +What are they, beseech your Ladyship? + +LADY CAPULET +Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child, +One who, to put thee from thy heaviness, +Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy +That thou expects not, nor I looked not for. + +JULIET +Madam, in happy time! What day is that? + +LADY CAPULET +Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn +The gallant, young, and noble gentleman, +The County Paris, at Saint Peter's Church +Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride. + +JULIET +Now, by Saint Peter's Church, and Peter too, +He shall not make me there a joyful bride! +I wonder at this haste, that I must wed +Ere he that should be husband comes to woo. +I pray you, tell my lord and father, madam, +I will not marry yet, and when I do I swear +It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, +Rather than Paris. These are news indeed! + +LADY CAPULET +Here comes your father. Tell him so yourself, +And see how he will take it at your hands. + +[Enter Capulet and Nurse.] + + +CAPULET +When the sun sets, the earth doth drizzle dew, +But for the sunset of my brother's son +It rains downright. +How now, a conduit, girl? What, still in tears? +Evermore show'ring? In one little body +Thou counterfeits a bark, a sea, a wind. +For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea, +Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is, +Sailing in this salt flood; the winds thy sighs, +Who, raging with thy tears and they with them, +Without a sudden calm, will overset +Thy tempest-tossed body.--How now, wife? +Have you delivered to her our decree? + +LADY CAPULET +Ay, sir, but she will none, she gives you thanks. +I would the fool were married to her grave. + +CAPULET +Soft, take me with you, take me with you, wife. +How, will she none? Doth she not give us thanks? +Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blessed, +Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought +So worthy a gentleman to be her bride? + +JULIET +Not proud you have, but thankful that you have. +Proud can I never be of what I hate, +But thankful even for hate that is meant love. + +CAPULET +How, how, how, how? Chopped logic? What is this? +"Proud," and "I thank you," and "I thank you not," +And yet "not proud"? Mistress minion you, +Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds, +But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next +To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church, +Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither. +Out, you green-sickness carrion! Out, you baggage! +You tallow face! + +LADY CAPULET Fie, fie, what, are you mad? + +JULIET, [kneeling] +Good father, I beseech you on my knees, +Hear me with patience but to speak a word. + +CAPULET +Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch! +I tell thee what: get thee to church o' Thursday, +Or never after look me in the face. +Speak not; reply not; do not answer me. +My fingers itch.--Wife, we scarce thought us +blessed +That God had lent us but this only child, +But now I see this one is one too much, +And that we have a curse in having her. +Out on her, hilding. + +NURSE God in heaven bless her! +You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so. + +CAPULET +And why, my Lady Wisdom? Hold your tongue. +Good Prudence, smatter with your gossips, go. + +NURSE +I speak no treason. + +CAPULET O, God 'i' g' eden! + +NURSE +May not one speak? + +CAPULET Peace, you mumbling fool! +Utter your gravity o'er a gossip's bowl, +For here we need it not. + +LADY CAPULET You are too hot. + +CAPULET God's bread, it makes me mad. +Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play, +Alone, in company, still my care hath been +To have her matched. And having now provided +A gentleman of noble parentage, +Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly ligned, +Stuffed, as they say, with honorable parts, +Proportioned as one's thought would wish a man-- +And then to have a wretched puling fool, +A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender, +To answer "I'll not wed. I cannot love. +I am too young. I pray you, pardon me." +But, an you will not wed, I'll pardon you! +Graze where you will, you shall not house with me. +Look to 't; think on 't. I do not use to jest. +Thursday is near. Lay hand on heart; advise. +An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend. +An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets, +For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee, +Nor what is mine shall never do thee good. +Trust to 't; bethink you. I'll not be forsworn. +[He exits.] + +JULIET +Is there no pity sitting in the clouds +That sees into the bottom of my grief?-- +O sweet my mother, cast me not away. +Delay this marriage for a month, a week, +Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed +In that dim monument where Tybalt lies. + +LADY CAPULET +Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word. +Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee. +[She exits.] + +JULIET, [rising] +O God! O nurse, how shall this be prevented? +My husband is on Earth, my faith in heaven. +How shall that faith return again to Earth +Unless that husband send it me from heaven +By leaving Earth? Comfort me; counsel me.-- +Alack, alack, that heaven should practice stratagems +Upon so soft a subject as myself.-- +What sayst thou? Hast thou not a word of joy? +Some comfort, nurse. + +NURSE Faith, here it is. +Romeo is banished, and all the world to nothing +That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you, +Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth. +Then, since the case so stands as now it doth, +I think it best you married with the County. +O, he's a lovely gentleman! +Romeo's a dishclout to him. An eagle, madam, +Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye +As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart, +I think you are happy in this second match, +For it excels your first, or, if it did not, +Your first is dead, or 'twere as good he were +As living here and you no use of him. + +JULIET +Speak'st thou from thy heart? + +NURSE +And from my soul too, else beshrew them both. + +JULIET Amen. + +NURSE What? + +JULIET +Well, thou hast comforted me marvelous much. +Go in and tell my lady I am gone, +Having displeased my father, to Lawrence' cell +To make confession and to be absolved. + +NURSE +Marry, I will; and this is wisely done. [She exits.] + +JULIET +Ancient damnation, O most wicked fiend! +Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn +Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue +Which she hath praised him with above compare +So many thousand times? Go, counselor. +Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain. +I'll to the Friar to know his remedy. +If all else fail, myself have power to die. +[She exits.] + + +ACT 4 +===== + +Scene 1 +======= +[Enter Friar Lawrence and County Paris.] + + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +On Thursday, sir? The time is very short. + +PARIS +My father Capulet will have it so, +And I am nothing slow to slack his haste. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +You say you do not know the lady's mind? +Uneven is the course. I like it not. + +PARIS +Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death, +And therefore have I little talk of love, +For Venus smiles not in a house of tears. +Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous +That she do give her sorrow so much sway, +And in his wisdom hastes our marriage +To stop the inundation of her tears, +Which, too much minded by herself alone, +May be put from her by society. +Now do you know the reason of this haste. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE, [aside] +I would I knew not why it should be slowed.-- +Look, sir, here comes the lady toward my cell. + +[Enter Juliet.] + + +PARIS +Happily met, my lady and my wife. + +JULIET +That may be, sir, when I may be a wife. + +PARIS +That "may be" must be, love, on Thursday next. + +JULIET +What must be shall be. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE That's a certain text. + +PARIS +Come you to make confession to this father? + +JULIET +To answer that, I should confess to you. + +PARIS +Do not deny to him that you love me. + +JULIET +I will confess to you that I love him. + +PARIS +So will you, I am sure, that you love me. + +JULIET +If I do so, it will be of more price +Being spoke behind your back than to your face. + +PARIS +Poor soul, thy face is much abused with tears. + +JULIET +The tears have got small victory by that, +For it was bad enough before their spite. + +PARIS +Thou wrong'st it more than tears with that report. + +JULIET +That is no slander, sir, which is a truth, +And what I spake, I spake it to my face. + +PARIS +Thy face is mine, and thou hast slandered it. + +JULIET +It may be so, for it is not mine own.-- +Are you at leisure, holy father, now, +Or shall I come to you at evening Mass? + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.-- +My lord, we must entreat the time alone. + +PARIS +God shield I should disturb devotion!-- +Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse you. +Till then, adieu, and keep this holy kiss. [He exits.] + +JULIET +O, shut the door, and when thou hast done so, +Come weep with me, past hope, past care, past help. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +O Juliet, I already know thy grief. +It strains me past the compass of my wits. +I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it, +On Thursday next be married to this County. + +JULIET +Tell me not, friar, that thou hearest of this, +Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it. +If in thy wisdom thou canst give no help, +Do thou but call my resolution wise, +And with this knife I'll help it presently. +[She shows him her knife.] +God joined my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands; +And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo's sealed, +Shall be the label to another deed, +Or my true heart with treacherous revolt +Turn to another, this shall slay them both. +Therefore out of thy long-experienced time +Give me some present counsel, or, behold, +'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife +Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that +Which the commission of thy years and art +Could to no issue of true honor bring. +Be not so long to speak. I long to die +If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Hold, daughter, I do spy a kind of hope, +Which craves as desperate an execution +As that is desperate which we would prevent. +If, rather than to marry County Paris, +Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself, +Then is it likely thou wilt undertake +A thing like death to chide away this shame, +That cop'st with death himself to 'scape from it; +And if thou darest, I'll give thee remedy. + +JULIET +O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, +From off the battlements of any tower, +Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk +Where serpents are. Chain me with roaring bears, +Or hide me nightly in a charnel house, +O'ercovered quite with dead men's rattling bones, +With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls. +Or bid me go into a new-made grave +And hide me with a dead man in his shroud +(Things that to hear them told have made me +tremble), +And I will do it without fear or doubt, +To live an unstained wife to my sweet love. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Hold, then. Go home; be merry; give consent +To marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow. +Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone; +Let not the Nurse lie with thee in thy chamber. +[Holding out a vial.] +Take thou this vial, being then in bed, +And this distilling liquor drink thou off; +When presently through all thy veins shall run +A cold and drowsy humor; for no pulse +Shall keep his native progress, but surcease. +No warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest. +The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade +To paly ashes, thy eyes' windows fall +Like death when he shuts up the day of life. +Each part, deprived of supple government, +Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death, +And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk death +Thou shalt continue two and forty hours +And then awake as from a pleasant sleep. +Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes +To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead. +Then, as the manner of our country is, +In thy best robes uncovered on the bier +Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault +Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie. +In the meantime, against thou shalt awake, +Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift, +And hither shall he come, and he and I +Will watch thy waking, and that very night +Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua. +And this shall free thee from this present shame, +If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear +Abate thy valor in the acting it. + +JULIET +Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear! + +FRIAR LAWRENCE, [giving Juliet the vial] +Hold, get you gone. Be strong and prosperous +In this resolve. I'll send a friar with speed +To Mantua with my letters to thy lord. + +JULIET +Love give me strength, and strength shall help +afford. +Farewell, dear father. +[They exit in different directions.] + +Scene 2 +======= +[Enter Father Capulet, Mother, Nurse, and Servingmen, +two or three.] + + +CAPULET +So many guests invite as here are writ. +[One or two of the Servingmen exit +with Capulet's list.] +Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks. + +SERVINGMAN You shall have none ill, sir, for I'll try if +they can lick their fingers. + +CAPULET How canst thou try them so? + +SERVINGMAN Marry, sir, 'tis an ill cook that cannot lick +his own fingers. Therefore he that cannot lick his +fingers goes not with me. + +CAPULET Go, begone. [Servingman exits.] +We shall be much unfurnished for this time.-- +What, is my daughter gone to Friar Lawrence? + +NURSE Ay, forsooth. + +CAPULET +Well, he may chance to do some good on her. +A peevish self-willed harlotry it is. + +[Enter Juliet.] + + +NURSE +See where she comes from shrift with merry look. + +CAPULET +How now, my headstrong, where have you been +gadding? + +JULIET +Where I have learned me to repent the sin +Of disobedient opposition +To you and your behests, and am enjoined +By holy Lawrence to fall prostrate here [Kneeling.] +To beg your pardon. Pardon, I beseech you. +Henceforward I am ever ruled by you. + +CAPULET +Send for the County. Go tell him of this. +I'll have this knot knit up tomorrow morning. + +JULIET +I met the youthful lord at Lawrence' cell +And gave him what becomed love I might, +Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty. + +CAPULET +Why, I am glad on 't. This is well. Stand up. +[Juliet rises.] +This is as 't should be.--Let me see the County. +Ay, marry, go, I say, and fetch him hither.-- +Now, afore God, this reverend holy friar, +All our whole city is much bound to him. + +JULIET +Nurse, will you go with me into my closet +To help me sort such needful ornaments +As you think fit to furnish me tomorrow? + +LADY CAPULET +No, not till Thursday. There is time enough. + +CAPULET +Go, nurse. Go with her. We'll to church tomorrow. +[Juliet and the Nurse exit.] + +LADY CAPULET +We shall be short in our provision. +'Tis now near night. + +CAPULET Tush, I will stir about, +And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, wife. +Go thou to Juliet. Help to deck up her. +I'll not to bed tonight. Let me alone. +I'll play the housewife for this once.--What ho!-- +They are all forth. Well, I will walk myself +To County Paris, to prepare up him +Against tomorrow. My heart is wondrous light +Since this same wayward girl is so reclaimed. +[They exit.] + +Scene 3 +======= +[Enter Juliet and Nurse.] + + +JULIET +Ay, those attires are best. But, gentle nurse, +I pray thee leave me to myself tonight, +For I have need of many orisons +To move the heavens to smile upon my state, +Which, well thou knowest, is cross and full of sin. + +[Enter Lady Capulet.] + + +LADY CAPULET +What, are you busy, ho? Need you my help? + +JULIET +No, madam, we have culled such necessaries +As are behooveful for our state tomorrow. +So please you, let me now be left alone, +And let the Nurse this night sit up with you, +For I am sure you have your hands full all +In this so sudden business. + +LADY CAPULET Good night. +Get thee to bed and rest, for thou hast need. +[Lady Capulet and the Nurse exit.] + +JULIET +Farewell.--God knows when we shall meet again. +I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins +That almost freezes up the heat of life. +I'll call them back again to comfort me.-- +Nurse!--What should she do here? +My dismal scene I needs must act alone. +Come, vial. [She takes out the vial.] +What if this mixture do not work at all? +Shall I be married then tomorrow morning? +[She takes out her knife +and puts it down beside her.] +No, no, this shall forbid it. Lie thou there. +What if it be a poison which the Friar +Subtly hath ministered to have me dead, +Lest in this marriage he should be dishonored +Because he married me before to Romeo? +I fear it is. And yet methinks it should not, +For he hath still been tried a holy man. +How if, when I am laid into the tomb, +I wake before the time that Romeo +Come to redeem me? There's a fearful point. +Shall I not then be stifled in the vault, +To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in, +And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes? +Or, if I live, is it not very like +The horrible conceit of death and night, +Together with the terror of the place-- +As in a vault, an ancient receptacle +Where for this many hundred years the bones +Of all my buried ancestors are packed; +Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth, +Lies fest'ring in his shroud; where, as they say, +At some hours in the night spirits resort-- +Alack, alack, is it not like that I, +So early waking, what with loathsome smells, +And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth, +That living mortals, hearing them, run mad-- +O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught, +Environed with all these hideous fears, +And madly play with my forefathers' joints, +And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud, +And, in this rage, with some great kinsman's bone, +As with a club, dash out my desp'rate brains? +O look, methinks I see my cousin's ghost +Seeking out Romeo that did spit his body +Upon a rapier's point! Stay, Tybalt, stay! +Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here's drink. I drink to +thee. [She drinks and falls upon her bed +within the curtains.] + +Scene 4 +======= +[Enter Lady Capulet and Nurse.] + + +LADY CAPULET +Hold, take these keys, and fetch more spices, nurse. + +NURSE +They call for dates and quinces in the pastry. + +[Enter old Capulet.] + + +CAPULET +Come, stir, stir, stir! The second cock hath crowed. +The curfew bell hath rung. 'Tis three o'clock.-- +Look to the baked meats, good Angelica. +Spare not for cost. + +NURSE Go, you cot-quean, go, +Get you to bed. Faith, you'll be sick tomorrow +For this night's watching. + +CAPULET +No, not a whit. What, I have watched ere now +All night for lesser cause, and ne'er been sick. + +LADY CAPULET +Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time, +But I will watch you from such watching now. +[Lady Capulet and Nurse exit.] + +CAPULET +A jealous hood, a jealous hood! + +[Enter three or four Servingmen with spits and logs +and baskets.] + +Now fellow, +What is there? + +FIRST SERVINGMAN +Things for the cook, sir, but I know not what. + +CAPULET +Make haste, make haste. [First Servingman exits.] +Sirrah, fetch drier logs. +Call Peter. He will show thee where they are. + +SECOND SERVINGMAN +I have a head, sir, that will find out logs +And never trouble Peter for the matter. + +CAPULET +Mass, and well said. A merry whoreson, ha! +Thou shalt be loggerhead. +[Second Servingman exits.] +Good faith, 'tis day. +The County will be here with music straight, +[Play music.] +For so he said he would. I hear him near.-- +Nurse!--Wife! What ho!--What, nurse, I say! + +[Enter Nurse.] + +Go waken Juliet. Go and trim her up. +I'll go and chat with Paris. Hie, make haste, +Make haste. The bridegroom he is come already. +Make haste, I say. +[He exits.] + +Scene 5 +======= + +NURSE, [approaching the bed] +Mistress! What, mistress! Juliet!--Fast, I warrant +her, she-- +Why, lamb, why, lady! Fie, you slugabed! +Why, love, I say! Madam! Sweetheart! Why, bride!-- +What, not a word?--You take your pennyworths +now. +Sleep for a week, for the next night, I warrant, +The County Paris hath set up his rest +That you shall rest but little.--God forgive me, +Marry, and amen! How sound is she asleep! +I needs must wake her.--Madam, madam, madam! +Ay, let the County take you in your bed, +He'll fright you up, i' faith.--Will it not be? +[She opens the bed's curtains.] +What, dressed, and in your clothes, and down +again? +I must needs wake you. Lady, lady, lady!-- +Alas, alas! Help, help! My lady's dead.-- +O, weraday, that ever I was born!-- +Some aqua vitae, ho!--My lord! My lady! + +[Enter Lady Capulet.] + + +LADY CAPULET +What noise is here? + +NURSE O lamentable day! + +LADY CAPULET +What is the matter? + +NURSE Look, look!--O heavy day! + +LADY CAPULET +O me! O me! My child, my only life, +Revive, look up, or I will die with thee. +Help, help! Call help. + +[Enter Capulet.] + + +CAPULET +For shame, bring Juliet forth. Her lord is come. + +NURSE +She's dead, deceased. She's dead, alack the day! + +LADY CAPULET +Alack the day, she's dead, she's dead, she's dead. + +CAPULET +Ha, let me see her! Out, alas, she's cold. +Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff. +Life and these lips have long been separated. +Death lies on her like an untimely frost +Upon the sweetest flower of all the field. + +NURSE +O lamentable day! + +LADY CAPULET O woeful time! + +CAPULET +Death, that hath ta'en her hence to make me wail, +Ties up my tongue and will not let me speak. + +[Enter Friar Lawrence and the County Paris, with +Musicians.] + + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Come, is the bride ready to go to church? + +CAPULET +Ready to go, but never to return.-- +O son, the night before thy wedding day +Hath Death lain with thy wife. There she lies, +Flower as she was, deflowered by him. +Death is my son-in-law; Death is my heir. +My daughter he hath wedded. I will die +And leave him all. Life, living, all is Death's. + +PARIS +Have I thought long to see this morning's face, +And doth it give me such a sight as this? + +LADY CAPULET +Accursed, unhappy, wretched, hateful day! +Most miserable hour that e'er time saw +In lasting labor of his pilgrimage! +But one, poor one, one poor and loving child, +But one thing to rejoice and solace in, +And cruel death hath catched it from my sight! + +NURSE +O woe, O woeful, woeful, woeful day! +Most lamentable day, most woeful day +That ever, ever I did yet behold! +O day, O day, O day, O hateful day! +Never was seen so black a day as this! +O woeful day, O woeful day! + +PARIS +Beguiled, divorced, wronged, spited, slain! +Most detestable death, by thee beguiled, +By cruel, cruel thee quite overthrown! +O love! O life! Not life, but love in death! + +CAPULET +Despised, distressed, hated, martyred, killed! +Uncomfortable time, why cam'st thou now +To murder, murder our solemnity? +O child! O child! My soul and not my child! +Dead art thou! Alack, my child is dead, +And with my child my joys are buried. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Peace, ho, for shame! Confusion's cure lives not +In these confusions. Heaven and yourself +Had part in this fair maid. Now heaven hath all, +And all the better is it for the maid. +Your part in her you could not keep from death, +But heaven keeps his part in eternal life. +The most you sought was her promotion, +For 'twas your heaven she should be advanced; +And weep you now, seeing she is advanced +Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself? +O, in this love you love your child so ill +That you run mad, seeing that she is well. +She's not well married that lives married long, +But she's best married that dies married young. +Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary +On this fair corse, and, as the custom is, +And in her best array, bear her to church, +For though fond nature bids us all lament, +Yet nature's tears are reason's merriment. + +CAPULET +All things that we ordained festival +Turn from their office to black funeral: +Our instruments to melancholy bells, +Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast, +Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change, +Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse, +And all things change them to the contrary. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Sir, go you in, and, madam, go with him, +And go, Sir Paris. Everyone prepare +To follow this fair corse unto her grave. +The heavens do lour upon you for some ill. +Move them no more by crossing their high will. +[All but the Nurse and the Musicians exit.] + +FIRST MUSICIAN +Faith, we may put up our pipes and be gone. + +NURSE +Honest good fellows, ah, put up, put up, +For, well you know, this is a pitiful case. + +FIRST MUSICIAN +Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended. +[Nurse exits.] + +[Enter Peter.] + + +PETER Musicians, O musicians, "Heart's ease," +"Heart's ease." O, an you will have me live, play +"Heart's ease." + +FIRST MUSICIAN Why "Heart's ease?" + +PETER O musicians, because my heart itself plays "My +heart is full." O, play me some merry dump to +comfort me. + +FIRST MUSICIAN Not a dump, we. 'Tis no time to play +now. + +PETER You will not then? + +FIRST MUSICIAN No. + +PETER I will then give it you soundly. + +FIRST MUSICIAN What will you give us? + +PETER No money, on my faith, but the gleek. I will give +you the minstrel. + +FIRST MUSICIAN Then will I give you the +serving-creature. + +PETER Then will I lay the serving-creature's dagger on +your pate. I will carry no crochets. I'll re you, I'll fa +you. Do you note me? + +FIRST MUSICIAN An you re us and fa us, you note us. + +SECOND MUSICIAN Pray you, put up your dagger and +put out your wit. + +PETER Then have at you with my wit. I will dry-beat +you with an iron wit, and put up my iron dagger. +Answer me like men. +[Sings.] When griping griefs the heart doth wound + And doleful dumps the mind oppress, + Then music with her silver sound-- +Why "silver sound"? Why "music with her silver +sound"? What say you, Simon Catling? + +FIRST MUSICIAN Marry, sir, because silver hath a +sweet sound. + +PETER Prates.--What say you, Hugh Rebeck? + +SECOND MUSICIAN I say "silver sound" because musicians +sound for silver. + +PETER Prates too.--What say you, James Soundpost? + +THIRD MUSICIAN Faith, I know not what to say. + +PETER O, I cry you mercy. You are the singer. I will say +for you. It is "music with her silver sound" because +musicians have no gold for sounding: +[Sings.] Then music with her silver sound + With speedy help doth lend redress. +[He exits.] + +FIRST MUSICIAN What a pestilent knave is this same! + +SECOND MUSICIAN Hang him, Jack. Come, we'll in +here, tarry for the mourners, and stay dinner. +[They exit.] + + +ACT 5 +===== + +Scene 1 +======= +[Enter Romeo.] + + +ROMEO +If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep, +My dreams presage some joyful news at hand. +My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne, +And all this day an unaccustomed spirit +Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts. +I dreamt my lady came and found me dead +(Strange dream that gives a dead man leave to +think!) +And breathed such life with kisses in my lips +That I revived and was an emperor. +Ah me, how sweet is love itself possessed +When but love's shadows are so rich in joy! + +[Enter Romeo's man Balthasar, in riding boots.] + +News from Verona!--How now, Balthasar? +Dost thou not bring me letters from the Friar? +How doth my lady? Is my father well? +How doth my Juliet? That I ask again, +For nothing can be ill if she be well. + +BALTHASAR +Then she is well and nothing can be ill. +Her body sleeps in Capels' monument, +And her immortal part with angels lives. +I saw her laid low in her kindred's vault +And presently took post to tell it you. +O, pardon me for bringing these ill news, +Since you did leave it for my office, sir. + +ROMEO +Is it e'en so?--Then I deny you, stars!-- +Thou knowest my lodging. Get me ink and paper, +And hire post-horses. I will hence tonight. + +BALTHASAR +I do beseech you, sir, have patience. +Your looks are pale and wild and do import +Some misadventure. + +ROMEO Tush, thou art deceived. +Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do. +Hast thou no letters to me from the Friar? + +BALTHASAR +No, my good lord. + +ROMEO No matter. Get thee gone, +And hire those horses. I'll be with thee straight. +[Balthasar exits.] +Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight. +Let's see for means. O mischief, thou art swift +To enter in the thoughts of desperate men. +I do remember an apothecary +(And hereabouts he dwells) which late I noted +In tattered weeds, with overwhelming brows, +Culling of simples. Meager were his looks. +Sharp misery had worn him to the bones. +And in his needy shop a tortoise hung, +An alligator stuffed, and other skins +Of ill-shaped fishes; and about his shelves, +A beggarly account of empty boxes, +Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds, +Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses +Were thinly scattered to make up a show. +Noting this penury, to myself I said +"An if a man did need a poison now, +Whose sale is present death in Mantua, +Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him." +O, this same thought did but forerun my need, +And this same needy man must sell it me. +As I remember, this should be the house. +Being holiday, the beggar's shop is shut.-- +What ho, Apothecary! + +[Enter Apothecary.] + + +APOTHECARY Who calls so loud? + +ROMEO +Come hither, man. I see that thou art poor. +[He offers money.] +Hold, there is forty ducats. Let me have +A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear +As will disperse itself through all the veins, +That the life-weary taker may fall dead, +And that the trunk may be discharged of breath +As violently as hasty powder fired +Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb. + +APOTHECARY +Such mortal drugs I have, but Mantua's law +Is death to any he that utters them. + +ROMEO +Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness, +And fearest to die? Famine is in thy cheeks, +Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes, +Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back. +The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law. +The world affords no law to make thee rich. +Then be not poor, but break it, and take this. + +APOTHECARY +My poverty, but not my will, consents. + +ROMEO +I pay thy poverty and not thy will. + +APOTHECARY, [giving him the poison] +Put this in any liquid thing you will +And drink it off, and if you had the strength +Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight. + +ROMEO, [handing him the money] +There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls, +Doing more murder in this loathsome world +Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not +sell. +I sell thee poison; thou hast sold me none. +Farewell, buy food, and get thyself in flesh. +[Apothecary exits.] +Come, cordial and not poison, go with me +To Juliet's grave, for there must I use thee. +[He exits.] + +Scene 2 +======= +[Enter Friar John.] + + +FRIAR JOHN +Holy Franciscan friar, brother, ho! + +[Enter Friar Lawrence.] + + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +This same should be the voice of Friar John.-- +Welcome from Mantua. What says Romeo? +Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter. + +FRIAR JOHN +Going to find a barefoot brother out, +One of our order, to associate me, +Here in this city visiting the sick, +And finding him, the searchers of the town, +Suspecting that we both were in a house +Where the infectious pestilence did reign, +Sealed up the doors and would not let us forth, +So that my speed to Mantua there was stayed. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Who bare my letter, then, to Romeo? + +FRIAR JOHN +I could not send it--here it is again-- +[Returning the letter.] +Nor get a messenger to bring it thee, +So fearful were they of infection. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood, +The letter was not nice but full of charge, +Of dear import, and the neglecting it +May do much danger. Friar John, go hence. +Get me an iron crow and bring it straight +Unto my cell. + +FRIAR JOHN +Brother, I'll go and bring it thee. [He exits.] + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Now must I to the monument alone. +Within this three hours will fair Juliet wake. +She will beshrew me much that Romeo +Hath had no notice of these accidents. +But I will write again to Mantua, +And keep her at my cell till Romeo come. +Poor living corse, closed in a dead man's tomb! +[He exits.] + +Scene 3 +======= +[Enter Paris and his Page.] + + +PARIS +Give me thy torch, boy. Hence and stand aloof. +Yet put it out, for I would not be seen. +Under yond yew trees lay thee all along, +Holding thy ear close to the hollow ground. +So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread +(Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves) +But thou shalt hear it. Whistle then to me +As signal that thou hearest something approach. +Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee. Go. + +PAGE, [aside] +I am almost afraid to stand alone +Here in the churchyard. Yet I will adventure. +[He moves away from Paris.] + +PARIS, [scattering flowers] +Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew +(O woe, thy canopy is dust and stones!) +Which with sweet water nightly I will dew, +Or, wanting that, with tears distilled by moans. +The obsequies that I for thee will keep +Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep. +[Page whistles.] +The boy gives warning something doth approach. +What cursed foot wanders this way tonight, +To cross my obsequies and true love's rite? +What, with a torch? Muffle me, night, awhile. +[He steps aside.] + +[Enter Romeo and Balthasar.] + + +ROMEO +Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron. +Hold, take this letter. Early in the morning +See thou deliver it to my lord and father. +Give me the light. Upon thy life I charge thee, +Whate'er thou hearest or seest, stand all aloof +And do not interrupt me in my course. +Why I descend into this bed of death +Is partly to behold my lady's face, +But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger +A precious ring, a ring that I must use +In dear employment. Therefore hence, begone. +But, if thou, jealous, dost return to pry +In what I farther shall intend to do, +By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint +And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs. +The time and my intents are savage-wild, +More fierce and more inexorable far +Than empty tigers or the roaring sea. + +BALTHASAR +I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you. + +ROMEO +So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that. +[Giving money.] +Live and be prosperous, and farewell, good fellow. + +BALTHASAR, [aside] +For all this same, I'll hide me hereabout. +His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt. +[He steps aside.] + +ROMEO, [beginning to force open the tomb] +Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death, +Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth, +Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open, +And in despite I'll cram thee with more food. + +PARIS +This is that banished haughty Montague +That murdered my love's cousin, with which grief +It is supposed the fair creature died, +And here is come to do some villainous shame +To the dead bodies. I will apprehend him. +[Stepping forward.] +Stop thy unhallowed toil, vile Montague. +Can vengeance be pursued further than death? +Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee. +Obey and go with me, for thou must die. + +ROMEO +I must indeed, and therefore came I hither. +Good gentle youth, tempt not a desp'rate man. +Fly hence and leave me. Think upon these gone. +Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth, +Put not another sin upon my head +By urging me to fury. O, begone! +By heaven, I love thee better than myself, +For I come hither armed against myself. +Stay not, begone, live, and hereafter say +A madman's mercy bid thee run away. + +PARIS +I do defy thy commination +And apprehend thee for a felon here. + +ROMEO +Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee, boy! +[They draw and fight.] + +PAGE +O Lord, they fight! I will go call the watch. +[He exits.] + +PARIS +O, I am slain! If thou be merciful, +Open the tomb; lay me with Juliet. [He dies.] + +ROMEO +In faith, I will.--Let me peruse this face. +Mercutio's kinsman, noble County Paris! +What said my man when my betossed soul +Did not attend him as we rode? I think +He told me Paris should have married Juliet. +Said he not so? Or did I dream it so? +Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet, +To think it was so?--O, give me thy hand, +One writ with me in sour misfortune's book! +I'll bury thee in a triumphant grave.-- +[He opens the tomb.] +A grave? O, no. A lantern, slaughtered youth, +For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes +This vault a feasting presence full of light.-- +Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interred. +[Laying Paris in the tomb.] +How oft when men are at the point of death +Have they been merry, which their keepers call +A light'ning before death! O, how may I +Call this a light'ning?--O my love, my wife, +Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, +Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty. +Thou art not conquered. Beauty's ensign yet +Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, +And death's pale flag is not advanced there.-- +Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet? +O, what more favor can I do to thee +Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain +To sunder his that was thine enemy? +Forgive me, cousin.--Ah, dear Juliet, +Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe +That unsubstantial death is amorous, +And that the lean abhorred monster keeps +Thee here in dark to be his paramour? +For fear of that I still will stay with thee +And never from this palace of dim night +Depart again. Here, here will I remain +With worms that are thy chambermaids. O, here +Will I set up my everlasting rest +And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars +From this world-wearied flesh! Eyes, look your last. +Arms, take your last embrace. And, lips, O, you +The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss +A dateless bargain to engrossing death. +[Kissing Juliet.] +Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavory guide! +Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on +The dashing rocks thy seasick weary bark! +Here's to my love. [Drinking.] O true apothecary, +Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. +[He dies.] + +[Enter Friar Lawrence with lantern, crow, and spade.] + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Saint Francis be my speed! How oft tonight +Have my old feet stumbled at graves!--Who's there? + +BALTHASAR +Here's one, a friend, and one that knows you well. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Bliss be upon you. Tell me, good my friend, +What torch is yond that vainly lends his light +To grubs and eyeless skulls? As I discern, +It burneth in the Capels' monument. + +BALTHASAR +It doth so, holy sir, and there's my master, +One that you love. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE Who is it? + +BALTHASAR Romeo. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +How long hath he been there? + +BALTHASAR Full half an hour. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Go with me to the vault. + +BALTHASAR I dare not, sir. +My master knows not but I am gone hence, +And fearfully did menace me with death +If I did stay to look on his intents. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +Stay, then. I'll go alone. Fear comes upon me. +O, much I fear some ill unthrifty thing. + +BALTHASAR +As I did sleep under this yew tree here, +I dreamt my master and another fought, +And that my master slew him. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE, [moving toward the tomb] +Romeo!-- +Alack, alack, what blood is this which stains +The stony entrance of this sepulcher? +What mean these masterless and gory swords +To lie discolored by this place of peace? +Romeo! O, pale! Who else? What, Paris too? +And steeped in blood? Ah, what an unkind hour +Is guilty of this lamentable chance! +The lady stirs. + +JULIET +O comfortable friar, where is my lord? +I do remember well where I should be, +And there I am. Where is my Romeo? + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +I hear some noise.--Lady, come from that nest +Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep. +A greater power than we can contradict +Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away. +Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead, +And Paris, too. Come, I'll dispose of thee +Among a sisterhood of holy nuns. +Stay not to question, for the watch is coming. +Come, go, good Juliet. I dare no longer stay. + +JULIET +Go, get thee hence, for I will not away. +[He exits.] +What's here? A cup closed in my true love's hand? +Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end.-- +O churl, drunk all, and left no friendly drop +To help me after! I will kiss thy lips. +Haply some poison yet doth hang on them, +To make me die with a restorative. [She kisses him.] +Thy lips are warm! + +[Enter Paris's Page and Watch.] + + +FIRST WATCH Lead, boy. Which way? + +JULIET +Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief. O, happy dagger, +This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die. +[She takes Romeo's dagger, stabs herself, and dies.] + +PAGE +This is the place, there where the torch doth burn. + +FIRST WATCH +The ground is bloody.--Search about the +churchyard. +Go, some of you; whoe'er you find, attach. +[Some watchmen exit.] +Pitiful sight! Here lies the County slain, +And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead, +Who here hath lain this two days buried.-- +Go, tell the Prince. Run to the Capulets. +Raise up the Montagues. Some others search. +[Others exit.] +We see the ground whereon these woes do lie, +But the true ground of all these piteous woes +We cannot without circumstance descry. + +[Enter Watchmen with Romeo's man Balthasar.] + + +SECOND WATCH +Here's Romeo's man. We found him in the +churchyard. + +FIRST WATCH +Hold him in safety till the Prince come hither. + +[Enter Friar Lawrence and another Watchman.] + + +THIRD WATCH +Here is a friar that trembles, sighs, and weeps. +We took this mattock and this spade from him +As he was coming from this churchyard's side. + +FIRST WATCH +A great suspicion. Stay the Friar too. + +[Enter the Prince with Attendants.] + + +PRINCE +What misadventure is so early up +That calls our person from our morning rest? + +[Enter Capulet and Lady Capulet.] + + +CAPULET +What should it be that is so shrieked abroad? + +LADY CAPULET +O, the people in the street cry "Romeo," +Some "Juliet," and some "Paris," and all run +With open outcry toward our monument. + +PRINCE +What fear is this which startles in our ears? + +FIRST WATCH +Sovereign, here lies the County Paris slain, +And Romeo dead, and Juliet, dead before, +Warm and new killed. + +PRINCE +Search, seek, and know how this foul murder +comes. + +FIRST WATCH +Here is a friar, and slaughtered Romeo's man, +With instruments upon them fit to open +These dead men's tombs. + +CAPULET +O heavens! O wife, look how our daughter bleeds! +This dagger hath mista'en, for, lo, his house +Is empty on the back of Montague, +And it mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom. + +LADY CAPULET +O me, this sight of death is as a bell +That warns my old age to a sepulcher. + +[Enter Montague.] + + +PRINCE +Come, Montague, for thou art early up +To see thy son and heir now early down. + +MONTAGUE +Alas, my liege, my wife is dead tonight. +Grief of my son's exile hath stopped her breath. +What further woe conspires against mine age? + +PRINCE Look, and thou shalt see. + +MONTAGUE, [seeing Romeo dead] +O thou untaught! What manners is in this, +To press before thy father to a grave? + +PRINCE +Seal up the mouth of outrage for awhile, +Till we can clear these ambiguities +And know their spring, their head, their true +descent, +And then will I be general of your woes +And lead you even to death. Meantime forbear, +And let mischance be slave to patience.-- +Bring forth the parties of suspicion. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +I am the greatest, able to do least, +Yet most suspected, as the time and place +Doth make against me, of this direful murder. +And here I stand, both to impeach and purge +Myself condemned and myself excused. + +PRINCE +Then say at once what thou dost know in this. + +FRIAR LAWRENCE +I will be brief, for my short date of breath +Is not so long as is a tedious tale. +Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet, +And she, there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife. +I married them, and their stol'n marriage day +Was Tybalt's doomsday, whose untimely death +Banished the new-made bridegroom from this city, +For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined. +You, to remove that siege of grief from her, +Betrothed and would have married her perforce +To County Paris. Then comes she to me, +And with wild looks bid me devise some mean +To rid her from this second marriage, +Or in my cell there would she kill herself. +Then gave I her (so tutored by my art) +A sleeping potion, which so took effect +As I intended, for it wrought on her +The form of death. Meantime I writ to Romeo +That he should hither come as this dire night +To help to take her from her borrowed grave, +Being the time the potion's force should cease. +But he which bore my letter, Friar John, +Was stayed by accident, and yesternight +Returned my letter back. Then all alone +At the prefixed hour of her waking +Came I to take her from her kindred's vault, +Meaning to keep her closely at my cell +Till I conveniently could send to Romeo. +But when I came, some minute ere the time +Of her awakening, here untimely lay +The noble Paris and true Romeo dead. +She wakes, and I entreated her come forth +And bear this work of heaven with patience. +But then a noise did scare me from the tomb, +And she, too desperate, would not go with me +But, as it seems, did violence on herself. +All this I know, and to the marriage +Her nurse is privy. And if aught in this +Miscarried by my fault, let my old life +Be sacrificed some hour before his time +Unto the rigor of severest law. + +PRINCE +We still have known thee for a holy man.-- +Where's Romeo's man? What can he say to this? + +BALTHASAR +I brought my master news of Juliet's death, +And then in post he came from Mantua +To this same place, to this same monument. +This letter he early bid me give his father +And threatened me with death, going in the vault, +If I departed not and left him there. + +PRINCE +Give me the letter. I will look on it.-- +[He takes Romeo's letter.] +Where is the County's page, that raised the +watch?-- +Sirrah, what made your master in this place? + +PAGE +He came with flowers to strew his lady's grave +And bid me stand aloof, and so I did. +Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb, +And by and by my master drew on him, +And then I ran away to call the watch. + +PRINCE +This letter doth make good the Friar's words, +Their course of love, the tidings of her death; +And here he writes that he did buy a poison +Of a poor 'pothecary, and therewithal +Came to this vault to die and lie with Juliet. +Where be these enemies?--Capulet, Montague, +See what a scourge is laid upon your hate, +That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love, +And I, for winking at your discords too, +Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished. + +CAPULET +O brother Montague, give me thy hand. +This is my daughter's jointure, for no more +Can I demand. + +MONTAGUE But I can give thee more, +For I will ray her statue in pure gold, +That whiles Verona by that name is known, +There shall no figure at such rate be set +As that of true and faithful Juliet. + +CAPULET +As rich shall Romeo's by his lady's lie, +Poor sacrifices of our enmity. + +PRINCE +A glooming peace this morning with it brings. +The sun for sorrow will not show his head. +Go hence to have more talk of these sad things. +Some shall be pardoned, and some punished. +For never was a story of more woe +Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. +[All exit.] \ No newline at end of file