It is hard to imagine a world without Shakespeare. Since their composition four hundred years ago, Shakespeare’s plays and poems have traveled the globe, inviting those who see and read his works to make them their own.
Readers of the New Folger Editions are part of this ongoing process of “taking up Shakespeare,” finding our own thoughts and feelings in language that strikes us as old or unusual and, for that very reason, new. We still struggle to keep up with a writer who could think a mile a minute, whose words paint pictures that shift like clouds. These expertly edited texts are presented to the public as a resource for study, artistic adaptation, and enjoyment. By making the classic texts of the New Folger Editions available in electronic form as The Folger Shakespeare (formerly Folger Digital Texts), we place a trusted resource in the hands of anyone who wants them.
The New Folger Editions of Shakespeare’s plays, which are the basis for the texts realized here in digital form, are special because of their origin. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is the single greatest documentary source of Shakespeare’s works. An unparalleled collection of early modern books, manuscripts, and artwork connected to Shakespeare, the Folger’s holdings have been consulted extensively in the preparation of these texts. The Editions also reflect the expertise gained through the regular performance of Shakespeare’s works in the Folger’s Elizabethan Theatre.
I want to express my deep thanks to editors Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine for creating these indispensable editions of Shakespeare’s works, which incorporate the best of textual scholarship with a richness of commentary that is both inspired and engaging. Readers who want to know more about Shakespeare and his plays can follow the paths these distinguished scholars have tread by visiting the Folger either in-person or online, where a range of physical and digital resources exists to supplement the material in these texts. I commend to you these words, and hope that they inspire.
Director, Folger Shakespeare Library
Until now, with the release of The Folger Shakespeare (formerly Folger Digital Texts), readers in search of a free online text of Shakespeare’s plays had to be content primarily with using the Moby™ Text, which reproduces a late-nineteenth century version of the plays. What is the difference? Many ordinary readers assume that there is a single text for the plays: what Shakespeare wrote. But Shakespeare’s plays were not published the way modern novels or plays are published today: as a single, authoritative text. In some cases, the plays have come down to us in multiple published versions, represented by various Quartos (Qq) and by the great collection put together by his colleagues in 1623, called the First Folio (F). There are, for example, three very different versions of Hamlet, two of King Lear, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, and others. Editors choose which version to use as their base text, and then amend that text with words, lines or speech prefixes from the other versions that, in their judgment, make for a better or more accurate text.
Other editorial decisions involve choices about whether an unfamiliar word could be understood in light of other writings of the period or whether it should be changed; decisions about words that made it into Shakespeare’s text by accident through four hundred years of printings and misprinting; and even decisions based on cultural preference and taste. When the Moby™ Text was created, for example, it was deemed “improper” and “indecent” for Miranda to chastise Caliban for having attempted to rape her. (See The Tempest, 1.2: “Abhorred slave,/Which any print of goodness wilt not take,/Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee…”). All Shakespeare editors at the time took the speech away from her and gave it to her father, Prospero.
The editors of the Moby™ Shakespeare produced their text long before scholars fully understood the proper grounds on which to make the thousands of decisions that Shakespeare editors face. The Folger Library Shakespeare Editions, on which the Folger Shakespeare texts depend, make this editorial process as nearly transparent as is possible, in contrast to older texts, like the Moby™, which hide editorial interventions. The reader of the Folger Shakespeare knows where the text has been altered because editorial interventions are signaled by square brackets (for example, from Othello: “If she in chains of magic were not bound,
”), half-square brackets (for example, from Henry V: “With
blood
and sword and fire to win your right,”), or angle brackets (for example, from Hamlet: “O farewell, honest
soldier.
Who hath relieved/you?”). At any point in the text, you can hover your cursor over a bracket for more information.
Because the Folger Shakespeare texts are edited in accord with twenty-first century knowledge about Shakespeare’s texts, the Folger here provides them to readers, scholars, teachers, actors, directors, and students, free of charge, confident of their quality as texts of the plays and pleased to be able to make this contribution to the study and enjoyment of Shakespeare.
The prologue of Romeo and Juliet calls the title characters “star-crossed lovers”—and the stars do seem to conspire against these young lovers.
Romeo is a Montague, and Juliet a Capulet. Their families are enmeshed in a feud, but the moment they meet—when Romeo and his friends attend a party at Juliet’s house in disguise—the two fall in love and quickly decide that they want to be married.
A friar secretly marries them, hoping to end the feud. Romeo and his companions almost immediately encounter Juliet’s cousin Tybalt, who challenges Romeo. When Romeo refuses to fight, Romeo’s friend Mercutio accepts the challenge and is killed. Romeo then kills Tybalt and is banished. He spends that night with Juliet and then leaves for Mantua.
Juliet’s father forces her into a marriage with Count Paris. To avoid this marriage, Juliet takes a potion, given her by the friar, that makes her appear dead. The friar will send Romeo word to be at her family tomb when she awakes. The plan goes awry, and Romeo learns instead that she is dead. In the tomb, Romeo kills himself. Juliet wakes, sees his body, and commits suicide. Their deaths appear finally to end the feud.
THE PROLOGUE
( 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 .
ACT 1
Scene 1
of the house of Capulet .
collar .
stand . Therefore if thou art moved thou runn’st
away .
will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague’s .
goes to the wall .
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 .
their men .
When I have fought with the men , I will be civil
with the maids ; I will cut off their heads .
[11]ACT 1. SC. 1
Take it in what sense thou wilt .
and ’tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh .
hadst been poor-john . Draw thy tool . Here comes
of the house of Montagues .
thee .
begin .
as they list .
them , which is disgrace to them if they bear it .
say ‘Ay’ ?
but I bite my thumb , sir .
good a man as you .
[13]ACT 1. SC. 1
one of my master’s kinsmen .
thy washing blow .
Put up your swords . You know not what you do .
Turn thee , Benvolio ; look upon thy death .
Or manage it to part these men with me .
As I hate hell , all Montagues , and thee .
Have at thee , coward !
Down with the Capulets ! Down with the Montagues !
sword ?
[15]ACT 1. SC. 1
And flourishes his blade in spite of me .
Profaners of this neighbor-stainèd 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 movèd 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 .
and Benvolio exit .
[17]ACT 1. SC. 1
Speak , nephew , were you by when it began ?
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 .
Right glad I am he was not at this fray .
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 .
With tears augmenting the fresh morning’s dew ,
Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs .
[19] ACT 1. SC. 1 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 .
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 .
I’ll know his grievance or be much denied .
To hear true shrift . — Come , madam , let’s away .
[21]ACT 1. SC. 1
Was that my father that went hence so fast ?
Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof !
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 ?
[23]ACT 1. SC. 1
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 .
An if you leave me so , you do me wrong .
This is not Romeo . He’s some other where .
A word ill urged to one that is so ill .
In sadness , cousin , I do love a woman .
With Cupid’s arrow . She hath Dian’s wit ,
And , in strong proof of chastity well armed ,
[25] ACT 1. SC. 1 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 .
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 .
Examine other beauties .
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 .
[27]ACT 1. SC. 2
Scene 2
In penalty alike , and ’tis not hard , I think ,
For men so old as we to keep the peace .
And pity ’tis you lived at odds so long .
But now , my lord , what say you to my suit ?
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 .
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
[29] ACT 1. SC. 2 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 .
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 .
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 !
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 .
[31] ACT 1. SC. 2 Shut up in prison , kept without my food ,
Whipped and tormented , and — good e’en , good
fellow .
read ?
book . But I pray , can you read anything you see ?
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 ?
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 .
[33] ACT 1. SC. 3 Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so loves ,
With all the admirèd 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 .
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 .
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 .
But to rejoice in splendor of mine own .
Scene 3
I bade her come . — What , lamb ! What , ladybird !
God forbid . Where’s this girl ? What , Juliet !
[35]ACT 1. SC. 3
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 .
be it spoken , I have but four ) she’s not fourteen .
How long is it now to Lammastide ?
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 ,
[37] ACT 1. SC. 3 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 .’
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 .’
Thou wast the prettiest babe that e’er I nursed .
An I might live to see thee married once ,
I have my wish .
[39]ACT 1. SC. 3
I came to talk of . — Tell me , daughter Juliet ,
How stands your disposition to be married ?
I would say thou hadst sucked wisdom from thy
teat .
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 .
As all the world — why , he’s a man of wax .
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
[41] ACT 1. SC. 4 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 .
But no more deep will I endart mine eye
Than your consent gives strength to make it fly .
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 .
Juliet , the County stays .
Scene 4
Maskers , Torchbearers , and a Boy with a drum .
Or shall we on without apology ?
[43] ACT 1. SC. 4 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 .
Being but heavy I will bear the light .
With nimble soles . I have a soul of lead
So stakes me to the ground I cannot move .
And soar with them above a common bound .
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 .
Too great oppression for a tender thing .
Too rude , too boist’rous , and it pricks like thorn .
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 .
[45]ACT 1. SC. 4
But every man betake him to his legs .
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 .
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 !
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 .
But ’tis no wit to go .
[47] ACT 1. SC. 4 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
[49] ACT 1. SC. 4 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 —
Thou talk’st of nothing .
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 .
Supper is done , and we shall come too late .
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night’s revels , and expire the term
Of a despisèd 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 .
and then withdraw to the side .
[51]ACT 1. SC. 5
Scene 5
to take away ? He shift a trencher ? He scrape a
trencher ?
all in one or two men’s hands , and they unwashed
too , ’tis a foul thing .
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 !
asked for and sought for , in the great chamber .
Cheerly , boys ! Be brisk awhile , and the longer liver
take all .
gentlewomen to Romeo , Mercutio , Benvolio , and the
other Maskers .
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 .
[53] ACT 1. SC. 5 You are welcome , gentlemen . — Come , musicians ,
play .
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 ?
’Tis since the nuptial of Lucentio ,
Come Pentecost as quickly as it will ,
Some five and twenty years , and then we masked .
His son is thirty .
His son was but a ward two years ago .
Of yonder knight ?
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 blessèd my rude hand .
Did my heart love till now ? Forswear it , sight ,
For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night .
[55]ACT 1. SC. 5
Fetch me my rapier , boy .
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 .
A villain that is hither come in spite
To scorn at our solemnity this night .
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 .
I’ll not endure him .
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 ,
[57] ACT 1. SC. 5 You’ll make a mutiny among my guests ,
You will set cock-a-hoop , you’ll be the man !
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 !
Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting .
I will withdraw , but this intrusion shall ,
Now seeming sweet , convert to bitt’rest gall .
This holy shrine , the gentle sin is this :
My lips , two blushing pilgrims , ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss .
Which mannerly devotion shows in this ;
For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch ,
And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss .
They pray : grant thou , lest faith turn to despair .
[59]ACT 1. SC. 5
Thus from my lips , by thine , my sin is purged .
Give me my sin again .
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 .
O dear account ! My life is my foe’s debt .
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 .
[61]ACT 1. SC. 5
My grave is like to be my wedding bed .
The only son of your great enemy .
Too early seen unknown , and known too late !
Prodigious birth of love it is to me
That I must love a loathèd enemy .
Of one I danced withal .
Come , let’s away . The strangers all are gone .
[65]
ACT 2
Enter Chorus . …
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 bewitchèd 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 belovèd anywhere .
But passion lends them power , time means , to meet ,
Temp’ring extremities with extreme sweet .
Scene 1
Turn back , dull earth , and find thy center out .
[67]ACT 2. SC. 1
And , on my life , hath stol’n him home to bed .
Call , good Mercutio .
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 .
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 .
[69] ACT 2. SC. 2 To be consorted with the humorous night .
Blind is his love and best befits the dark .
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 ?
To seek him here that means not to be found .
Scene 2
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 .
[71] ACT 2. SC. 2 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 !
O , speak again , bright angel , for thou art
As glorious to this night , being o’er my head ,
As is a wingèd messenger of heaven
Unto the white-upturnèd 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 .
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 .
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
[73] ACT 2. SC. 2 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 .
Call me but love , and I’ll be new baptized .
Henceforth I never will be Romeo .
So stumblest on my counsel ?
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 .
Of thy tongue’s uttering , yet I know the sound .
Art thou not Romeo , and a Montague ?
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 .
For stony limits cannot hold love out ,
And what love can do , that dares love attempt .
Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me .
[75]ACT 2. SC. 2
Than twenty of their swords . Look thou but sweet ,
And I am proof against their enmity .
And , but thou love me , let them find me here .
My life were better ended by their hate
Than death proroguèd , wanting of thy love .
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 .
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
[77] ACT 2. SC. 2 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 discoverèd .
That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops —
That monthly changes in her circled orb ,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable .
Or , if thou wilt , swear by thy gracious self ,
Which is the god of my idolatry ,
And I’ll believe 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 .
[79]ACT 2. SC. 2
And yet I would it were to give 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 .
I hear some noise within . Dear love , adieu . —
Anon , good nurse . — Sweet Montague , be true .
Stay but a little ; I will come again .
Being in night , all this is but a dream ,
Too flattering sweet to be substantial .
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 .
I do beseech thee —
To cease thy strife and leave me to my grief .
Tomorrow will I send .
[81]ACT 2. SC. 2
Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their
books ,
But love from love , toward school with heavy looks .
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 !’
How silver-sweet sound lovers’ tongues by night ,
Like softest music to attending ears .
Shall I send to thee ?
I have forgot why I did call thee back .
Rememb’ring how I love thy company .
[83]ACT 2. SC. 3
Forgetting any other home but this .
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 .
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 .
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 .
Scene 3
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 ,
[85] ACT 2. SC. 3 I must upfill this osier cage of ours
With baleful weeds and precious-juicèd 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 .
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 opposèd 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 .
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 unbruisèd youth with unstuffed brain
[87] ACT 2. SC. 3 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 .
I have forgot that name and that name’s woe .
then ?
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 , blessèd man , for , lo ,
My intercession likewise steads my foe .
Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift .
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 .
[89]ACT 2. SC. 3
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 .
To lay one in , another out to have .
Doth grace for grace and love for love allow .
The other did not so .
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 .
[91]ACT 2. SC. 4
Scene 4
Came he not home tonight ?
Rosaline ,
Torments him so that he will sure run mad .
Hath sent a letter to his father’s house .
he dares , being dared .
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 ?
captain of compliments . He fights as you sing
prick-song , keeps time , distance , and proportion .
[93] ACT 2. SC. 4 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 !
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 !
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 .
did I give you ?
great , and in such a case as mine a man may strain
courtesy .
yours constrains a man to bow in the hams .
[95]ACT 2. SC. 4
hast worn out thy pump , that when the single sole
of it is worn , the jest may remain , after the wearing ,
solely singular .
singleness .
faints .
a match .
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 ?
thou wast not there for the goose .
sharp sauce .
goose ?
from an inch narrow to an ell broad .
added to the goose , proves thee far and wide a
broad goose .
for love ? Now art thou sociable , now art thou
Romeo , now art thou what thou art , by art as well as
[97] ACT 2. SC. 4 by nature . For this driveling love is like a great
natural that runs lolling up and down to hide his
bauble in a hole .
the hair .
short , for I was come to the whole depth of my tale
and meant indeed to occupy the argument no
longer .
the fairer face .
the dial is now upon the prick of noon .
to mar .
mar ,’ quoth he ? Gentlemen , can any of you tell me
where I may find the young Romeo ?
when you have found him than he was when you
sought him . I am the youngest of that name , for
fault of a worse .
[99]ACT 2. SC. 4
faith , wisely , wisely .
you .
pie that is something stale and hoar ere it be spent .
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 .
lady .
that was so full of his ropery ?
talk and will speak more in a minute than he will
stand to in a month .
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 .
by too and suffer every knave to use me at his
pleasure .
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 .
[101]ACT 2. SC. 4
about me quivers . Scurvy knave !
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 .
I protest unto thee —
Lord , Lord , she will be a joyful woman .
mark me .
I take it , is a gentlemanlike offer .
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 .
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 .
[103]ACT 2. SC. 5
‘Two may keep counsel , putting one away’ ?
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 ?
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 .
Scene 5
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 ,
[105] ACT 2. SC. 5 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 .
O God , she comes ! — O , honey nurse , what news ?
Hast thou met with him ? Send thy man away .
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 .
Fie , how my bones ache ! What a jaunt have I !
Nay , come , I pray thee , speak . Good , good nurse ,
speak .
Do you not see that I am out of breath ?
To say to me that thou art out of breath ?
The excuse that thou dost make in this delay
[107] ACT 2. SC. 5 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 ?
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 ?
What says he of our marriage ? What of that ?
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 .
Sweet , sweet , sweet nurse , tell me , what says my
love ?
courteous , and a kind , and a handsome , and , I
warrant , a virtuous — Where is your mother ?
Where should she be ? How oddly thou repliest :
‘Your love says , like an honest gentleman ,
Where is your mother ?’
Are you so hot ? Marry , come up , I trow .
[109] ACT 2. SC. 6 Is this the poultice for my aching bones ?
Henceforward do your messages yourself .
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 .
Scene 6
That after-hours with sorrow chide us not .
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 .
[111] ACT 2. SC. 6 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 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
For , by your leaves , you shall not stay alone
Till Holy Church incorporate two in one .
[115]
ACT 3
Scene 1
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 .
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 .
mood as any in Italy , and as soon moved to be
moody , and as soon moody to be moved .
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
[117] ACT 3. SC. 1 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 ?
man should buy the fee simple of my life for an
hour and a quarter .
Gentlemen , good e’en . A word with one of you .
with something . Make it a word and a blow .
you will give me occasion .
giving ?
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 !
Either withdraw unto some private place ,
Or reason coldly of your grievances ,
Or else depart . Here all eyes gaze on us .
[119]ACT 3. SC. 1
I will not budge for no man’s pleasure , I .
Marry , go before to field , he’ll be your follower .
Your Worship in that sense may call him ‘man .’
No better term than this : thou art a villain .
Doth much excuse the appertaining rage
To such a greeting . Villain am I none .
Therefore farewell . I see thou knowest me not .
That thou hast done me . Therefore turn and draw .
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 .
Alla stoccato carries it away .
Tybalt , you ratcatcher , will you walk ?
nine lives , that I mean to make bold withal , and , as
you shall use me hereafter , dry-beat the rest of the
[121] ACT 3. SC. 1 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 .
Gentlemen , for shame forbear this outrage !
Tybalt ! Mercutio ! The Prince expressly hath
Forbid this bandying in Verona streets .
Hold , Tybalt ! Good Mercutio !
Tybalt stabs Mercutio .
A plague o’ both houses ! I am sped .
Is he gone and hath nothing ?
Where is my page ? — Go , villain , fetch a surgeon .
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 .
[123]ACT 3. SC. 1
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 !
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 .
That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds ,
Which too untimely here did scorn the earth .
This but begins the woe others must end .
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 .
[125]ACT 3. SC. 1
Shalt with him hence .
The citizens are up , and Tybalt slain .
Stand not amazed . The Prince will doom thee death
If thou art taken . Hence , be gone , away .
Tybalt , that murderer , which way ran he ?
I charge thee in the Prince’s name , obey .
The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl .
There lies the man , slain by young Romeo ,
That slew thy kinsman , brave Mercutio .
O prince ! O cousin ! Husband ! O , the blood is spilled
Of my dear kinsman ! Prince , as thou art true ,
[127] ACT 3. SC. 1 For blood of ours , shed blood of Montague .
O cousin , cousin !
Romeo , that spoke him fair , bid him bethink
How nice the quarrel was , and urged withal
Your high displeasure . All this utterèd
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 .
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 .
[129]ACT 3. SC. 2
Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe ?
His fault concludes but what the law should end ,
The life of Tybalt .
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 .
bearing off Tybalt’s body .
Scene 2
Towards Phoebus’ lodging . Such a wagoner
As Phaëton 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 ,
[131] ACT 3. SC. 2 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 .
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 ?
[133]ACT 3. SC. 2
We are undone , lady , we are undone .
Alack the day , he’s gone , he’s killed , he’s dead .
Though heaven cannot . O Romeo , Romeo ,
Whoever would have thought it ? Romeo !
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 .
( 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 swoonèd at the sight .
To prison , eyes ; ne’er look on liberty .
Vile earth to earth resign ; end motion here ,
And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier .
O courteous Tybalt , honest gentleman ,
That ever I should live to see thee dead !
[135] ACT 3. SC. 2 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 ?
Romeo that killed him — he is banishèd .
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave ?
Beautiful tyrant , fiend angelical !
Dove-feathered raven , wolvish-ravening lamb !
Despisèd substance of divinest show !
Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st ,
A damnèd 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 !
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 !
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
[137] ACT 3. SC. 2 Sole monarch of the universal Earth .
O , what a beast was I to chide at him !
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 damnèd guilty deeds to sinners’ minds :
‘Tybalt is dead and Romeo banishèd .’
That ‘banishèd ,’ that one word ‘banishèd ,’
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 banishèd .’ To speak that word
Is father , mother , Tybalt , Romeo , Juliet ,
All slain , all dead . ‘Romeo is banishèd .’
There is no end , no limit , measure , bound ,
[139] ACT 3. SC. 3 In that word’s death . No words can that woe sound .
Where is my father and my mother , nurse ?
Will you go to them ? I will bring you thither .
spent ,
When theirs are dry , for Romeo’s banishment . —
Take up those cords .
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-widowèd .
Come , cords — come , nurse . I’ll to my wedding bed ,
And death , not Romeo , take my maidenhead !
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 .
Give this ring to my true knight
And bid him come to take his last farewell .
Scene 3
Affliction is enamored of thy parts ,
And thou art wedded to calamity .
[141]ACT 3. SC. 3
What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand
That I yet know not ?
Is my dear son with such sour company .
I bring thee tidings of the Prince’s doom .
Not body’s death , but body’s banishment .
For exile hath more terror in his look ,
Much more than death . Do not say ‘banishment .’
Be patient , for the world is broad and wide .
But purgatory , torture , hell itself .
Hence ‘banishèd’ is ‘banished from the world ,’
And world’s exile is death . Then ‘banishèd’
Is death mistermed . Calling death ‘banishèd ,’
Thou cutt’st my head off with a golden ax
And smilest upon the stroke that murders me .
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 .
[143]ACT 3. SC. 3
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 banishèd .
Flies may do this , but I from this must fly .
They are free men , but I am banishèd .
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 ‘banishèd’ to kill me ? ‘Banishèd’ ?
O friar , the damnèd 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 ‘banishèd’ ?
Adversity’s sweet milk , philosophy ,
To comfort thee , though thou art banishèd .
Unless philosophy can make a Juliet ,
[145] ACT 3. SC. 3 Displant a town , reverse a prince’s doom ,
It helps not , it prevails not . Talk no more .
Wert thou as young as I , Juliet thy love ,
An hour but married , Tybalt murderèd ,
Doting like me , and like me banishèd ,
Then mightst thou speak , then mightst thou tear thy
hair
And fall upon the ground as I do now ,
Taking the measure of an unmade grave .
Mistlike , enfold me from the search of eyes .
arise .
Thou wilt be taken . — Stay awhile . — Stand up .
Run to my study . — By and by . — God’s will ,
What simpleness is this ? — I come , I come .
Who knocks so hard ? Whence come you ? What’s
your will ?
[147]ACT 3. SC. 3
I come from Lady Juliet .
Where’s my lady’s lord ? Where’s Romeo ?
drunk .
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 ?
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 ?
And now falls on her bed , and then starts up ,
And ‘Tybalt’ calls , and then on Romeo cries ,
And then down falls again .
[149]ACT 3. SC. 3
Shot from the deadly level of a gun ,
Did murder her , as that name’s cursèd 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 .
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 damnèd 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 :
[151] ACT 3. SC. 3 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 .
To hear good counsel . O , what learning is ! —
My lord , I’ll tell my lady you will come .
Hie you , make haste , for it grows very late .
[153]ACT 3. SC. 4
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 .
It were a grief so brief to part with thee .
Farewell .
Scene 4
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 .
Madam , good night . Commend me to your
daughter .
Tonight she’s mewed up to her heaviness .
Of my child’s love . I think she will be ruled
[155] ACT 3. SC. 5 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 ?
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 ?
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 .
Scene 5
It was the nightingale , and not the lark ,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear .
[157] ACT 3. SC. 5 Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate tree .
Believe me , love , it was the nightingale .
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 loathèd 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 .
[159]ACT 3. SC. 5
The day is broke ; be wary ; look about .
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 .
I will omit no opportunity
That may convey my greetings , love , to thee .
For sweet discourses in our times to come .
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 .
Dry sorrow drinks our blood . Adieu , adieu .
[161]ACT 3. SC. 5
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 .
Is she not down so late or up so early ?
What unaccustomed cause procures her hither ?
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 .
Which you weep for .
I cannot choose but ever weep the friend .
As that the villain lives which slaughtered him .
[163]ACT 3. SC. 5
God pardon him . I do with all my heart ,
And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart .
Would none but I might venge my cousin’s death !
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 .
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 .
But now I’ll tell thee joyful tidings , girl .
What are they , beseech your Ladyship ?
[165] ACT 3. SC. 5 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 .
The gallant , young , and noble gentleman ,
The County Paris , at Saint Peter’s Church
Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride .
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 !
And see how he will take it at your hands .
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
[167] ACT 3. SC. 5 Thy tempest-tossèd body . — How now , wife ?
Have you delivered to her our decree ?
I would the fool were married to her grave .
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 ?
Proud can I never be of what I hate ,
But thankful even for hate that is meant love .
‘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 !
Hear me with patience but to speak a word .
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
[169] ACT 3. SC. 5 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 .
You are to blame , my lord , to rate her so .
Good Prudence , smatter with your gossips , go .
Utter your gravity o’er a gossip’s bowl ,
For here we need it not .
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 .
[171] ACT 3. SC. 5 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 .
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 .
Do as thou wilt , for I have done with thee .
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 .
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 ,
[173] ACT 3. SC. 5 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 .
Go in and tell my lady I am gone ,
Having displeased my father , to Lawrence’ cell
To make confession and to be absolved .
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 .
[177]
ACT 4
Scene 1
And I am nothing slow to slack his haste .
Uneven is the course . I like it not .
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 .
Look , sir , here comes the lady toward my cell .
[179]ACT 4. SC. 1
Being spoke behind your back than to your face .
For it was bad enough before their spite .
And what I spake , I spake it to my face .
[181] ACT 4. SC. 1 Are you at leisure , holy father , now ,
Or shall I come to you at evening Mass ?
My lord , we must entreat the time alone .
Juliet , on Thursday early will I rouse you .
Till then , adieu , and keep this holy kiss .
Come weep with me , past hope , past care , past help .
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 .
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 .
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 .
[183]ACT 4. SC. 1
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 .
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 .
To marry Paris . Wednesday is tomorrow .
Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone ;
Let not the Nurse lie with thee in thy chamber .
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 .
[185] ACT 4. SC. 1 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 .
In this resolve . I’ll send a friar with speed
To Mantua with my letters to thy lord .
afford .
Farewell , dear father .
[187]ACT 4. SC. 2
Scene 2
two or three .
with Capulet’s list .
Sirrah , go hire me twenty cunning cooks .
they can lick their fingers .
his own fingers . Therefore he that cannot lick his
fingers goes not with me .
We shall be much unfurnished for this time . —
What , is my daughter gone to Friar Lawrence ?
A peevish self-willed harlotry it is .
gadding ?
Of disobedient opposition
To you and your behests , and am enjoined
By holy Lawrence to fall prostrate here
To beg your pardon . Pardon , I beseech you .
Henceforward I am ever ruled by you .
[189]ACT 4. SC. 2
I’ll have this knot knit up tomorrow morning .
And gave him what becomèd love I might ,
Not stepping o’er the bounds of modesty .
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 .
To help me sort such needful ornaments
As you think fit to furnish me tomorrow ?
’Tis now near night .
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 .
[191]ACT 4. SC. 3
Scene 3
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 .
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 .
Get thee to bed and rest , for thou hast need .
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 .
What if this mixture do not work at all ?
Shall I be married then tomorrow morning ?
and puts it down beside her .
No , no , this shall forbid it . Lie thou there .
What if it be a poison which the Friar
[193] ACT 4. SC. 3 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 ,
Environèd 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 .
within the curtains .
[195]ACT 4. SC. 4
Scene 4
The curfew bell hath rung . ’Tis three o’clock . —
Look to the baked meats , good Angelica .
Spare not for cost .
Get you to bed . Faith , you’ll be sick tomorrow
For this night’s watching .
All night for lesser cause , and ne’er been sick .
But I will watch you from such watching now .
and baskets .
Now fellow ,
What is there ?
Sirrah , fetch drier logs .
Call Peter . He will show thee where they are .
[197]ACT 4. SC. 5
And never trouble Peter for the matter .
Thou shalt be loggerhead .
Good faith , ’tis day .
The County will be here with music straight ,
For so he said he would . I hear him near . —
Nurse ! — Wife ! What ho ! — What , nurse , I say !
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 .
Scene 5
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 ,
[199] ACT 4. SC. 5 He’ll fright you up , i’ faith . — Will it not be ?
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 !
Revive , look up , or I will die with thee .
Help , help ! Call help .
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 .
[201]ACT 4. SC. 5
Ties up my tongue and will not let me speak .
Musicians .
O son , the night before thy wedding day
Hath Death lain with thy wife . There she lies ,
Flower as she was , deflowerèd 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 .
And doth it give me such a sight as this ?
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 !
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 !
[203] ACT 4. SC. 5 Most detestable death , by thee beguiled ,
By cruel , cruel thee quite overthrown !
O love ! O life ! Not life , but love in death !
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 burièd .
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 .
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 ,
[205] ACT 4. SC. 5 Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse ,
And all things change them to the contrary .
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 .
For , well you know , this is a pitiful case .
Heart’s ease . O , an you will have me live , play
Heart’s ease .
heart is full .’ O , play me some merry dump to
comfort me .
now .
you the minstrel .
serving-creature .
[207]ACT 4. SC. 5
your pate . I will carry no crochets . I’ll re you , I’ll fa
you . Do you note me ?
put out your wit .
you with an iron wit , and put up my iron dagger .
Answer me like men .
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 ?
sweet sound .
sound for silver .
for you . It is ‘music with her silver sound’ because
musicians have no gold for sounding :
With speedy help doth lend redress .
here , tarry for the mourners , and stay dinner .
[211]
ACT 5
Scene 1
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 !
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 .
Her body sleeps in Capels’ monument ,
And her immortal part with angels lives .
[213] ACT 5. SC. 1 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 .
Thou knowest my lodging . Get me ink and paper ,
And hire post-horses . I will hence tonight .
Your looks are pale and wild and do import
Some misadventure .
Leave me , and do the thing I bid thee do .
Hast thou no letters to me from the Friar ?
And hire those horses . I’ll be with thee straight .
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
[215] ACT 5. SC. 1 ‘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 !
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 .
Is death to any he that utters them .
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 .
[217]ACT 5. SC. 2
And drink it off , and if you had the strength
Of twenty men , it would dispatch you straight .
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 .
Come , cordial and not poison , go with me
To Juliet’s grave , for there must I use thee .
Scene 2
Welcome from Mantua . What says Romeo ?
Or , if his mind be writ , give me his letter .
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 .
[219]ACT 5. SC. 3
Nor get a messenger to bring it thee ,
So fearful were they of infection .
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 .
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 !
Scene 3
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 )
[221] ACT 5. SC. 3 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 .
Here in the churchyard . Yet I will adventure .
( 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 .
The boy gives warning something doth approach .
What cursèd foot wanders this way tonight ,
To cross my obsequies and true love’s rite ?
What , with a torch ? Muffle me , night , awhile .
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 ,
[223] ACT 5. SC. 3 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 .
Live and be prosperous , and farewell , good fellow .
His looks I fear , and his intents I doubt .
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 .
That murdered my love’s cousin , with which grief
It is supposèd the fair creature died ,
And here is come to do some villainous shame
To the dead bodies . I will apprehend him .
Stop thy unhallowed toil , vile Montague .
Can vengeance be pursued further than death ?
Condemnèd villain , I do apprehend thee .
Obey and go with me , for thou must die .
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 ,
[225] ACT 5. SC. 3 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 .
And apprehend thee for a felon here .
Open the tomb ; lay me with Juliet .
Mercutio’s kinsman , noble County Paris !
What said my man when my betossèd 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 . —
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 .
How oft when men are at the point of death
[227] ACT 5. SC. 3 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 advancèd 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 abhorrèd 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 .
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 .
[229]ACT 5. SC. 3
Have my old feet stumbled at graves ! — Who’s there ?
What torch is yond that vainly lends his light
To grubs and eyeless skulls ? As I discern ,
It burneth in the Capels’ monument .
One that you love .
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 .
O , much I fear some ill unthrifty thing .
I dreamt my master and another fought ,
And that my master slew him .
Alack , alack , what blood is this which stains
The stony entrance of this sepulcher ?
What mean these masterless and gory swords
[231] ACT 5. SC. 3 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 .
I do remember well where I should be ,
And there I am . Where is my Romeo ?
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 .
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 .
Thy lips are warm !
This is thy sheath . There rust , and let me die .
[233]ACT 5. SC. 3
churchyard .
Go , some of you ; whoe’er you find , attach .
Pitiful sight ! Here lies the County slain ,
And Juliet bleeding , warm , and newly dead ,
Who here hath lain this two days burièd . —
Go , tell the Prince . Run to the Capulets .
Raise up the Montagues . Some others search .
We see the ground whereon these woes do lie ,
But the true ground of all these piteous woes
We cannot without circumstance descry .
churchyard .
We took this mattock and this spade from him
As he was coming from this churchyard’s side .
That calls our person from our morning rest ?
[235]ACT 5. SC. 3
Some ‘Juliet ,’ and some ‘Paris ,’ and all run
With open outcry toward our monument .
And Romeo dead , and Juliet , dead before ,
Warm and new killed .
comes .
With instruments upon them fit to open
These dead men’s tombs .
This dagger hath mista’en , for , lo , his house
Is empty on the back of Montague ,
And it mis-sheathèd in my daughter’s bosom .
That warns my old age to a sepulcher .
To see thy son and heir now early down .
[237] ACT 5. SC. 3 Grief of my son’s exile hath stopped her breath .
What further woe conspires against mine age ?
To press before thy father to a grave ?
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 .
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 condemnèd and myself excused .
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
[239] ACT 5. SC. 3 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 prefixèd 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 .
Where’s Romeo’s man ? What can he say to this ?
And then in post he came from Mantua
To this same place , to this same monument .
[241] ACT 5. SC. 3 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 .
Where is the County’s page , that raised the
watch ? —
Sirrah , what made your master in this place ?
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 .
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 .
This is my daughter’s jointure , for no more
Can I demand .
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 .
[243]ACT 5. SC. 3
Poor sacrifices of our enmity .
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 punishèd .
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo .
Appendix A
- Lizenz
-
CC BY 4.0
Link zur Lizenz
- Zitationsvorschlag für diese Edition
- TextGrid Repository (2025). Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. The Folger Digital Texts in TextGrid. https://hdl.handle.net/21.11113/0000-0016-8495-A