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Nurse. O, he is even in my mistress' case, Just in her case!

Fri. O woeful sympathy! Piteous predicament!

Nurse. Even so lies she, [ing: Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubberStand 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? Rom. Nurse!

Nurse. Ah sir! ah sir!-death is the end of all.
Rom. Spak'st thou of Juliet? how is it with her?
Doth she not think me an old murderer,
Now I have stain'd the childhood of our joy
With blood remov'd but little from her own?
Where is she? and how doth she? and what says
My conceal'd lady to our cancell❜d love?
Nurse. O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and
weeps;

And now falls on her bed; and then starts up,
And Tybalt calls; and then on Romeo cries,
And then down falls again.

Rom. As if that name,

Shot from the deadly level of a gun,

Did murder her; as that name's cursed hand
Murder'd her kinsman.-O tell me, friar, tell me,
In what vile part of this anatomy

Doth my naine lodge? tell me, that I may sack
The hateful mansion.
[Drawing his sword.

Fri. Hold thy desperate hand:
Art thou a man? thy form cries out, thou art;
Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote
The unreasonable fury of a beast:
Unseemly woman, in a seeming man!
Or ill-beseeming beast, in seeming both!
Thou hast amaz'd me: by my holy order,
I thought thy disposition better temper'd.
Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself?
And slay thy lady too that lives in thee,
By doing damned hate upon thyself?
Why rail'st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and
Since birth, and heaven, and earth, all three do
meet

5

For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead; There art thou happy: Tybalt would kill thee, But thou slew'st Tybalt; there too art thou happy: The law, that threaten'd death,becomes thyfriend, 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 mis'hav'd and a sullen wench, Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love: 10 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; 15 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.— 20 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. [night, Nurse. O Lord, I could have stay'd here all the To hear good counsel: O, what learning is!My lord, I'll tell my lady you will come.

25

Rom. Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide. Nurse. Here, sir, a ring she bid ine give you, sir:

30Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late. Rom. How well my comfort is reviv'd by this! Fri. Go hence, Good night:-and here stands all your state,

-

Either be gone before the watch be set, 35 Or by the break of day disguis'd 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. Rom. But that a joy past joy calls out on me, were a grief, so brief to part with thee: Farewell.

[earth 40

In thee at once; which thou at once would'şt lose.
Fie, fie! thou sham'st thy shape, thy love, thy wit;|45|
Which, like an 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 valour of a man:
Thy dear love, sworn, but hollow perjury,
Killing that love which thou hast vow'd to cherish.
Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,
Mis-shapen in the conduct of them both,
Like powder in the skill-less soldier's flask 2,
Is set on fire by thine own ignorance,

And thou dismember'd with thine own defence 3.
What, rouse thee, man! thy Juliet is alive,

1

It

SCENE IV.

A Room in Capulet's House.

[Excunt.

Enter Capulet, Lady Capulet, and Paris. Cap. Things have fallen out, sir, so unluckily, That we have had no time to move our daughter; Look you, she lov'd her kinsman Tybalt dearly, 50 And so did I;-Well, we were born to die. Tis very late, she'll not come down to-night: I promise you, but for your company, I would have been a-bed an hour ago. Par. These times of woe afford no time to woo: 55 Madam, good night: commend me to your [morrow; La. Cap. I will, and know her mind early toTo-night she's mew'd' up to her heaviness."

daughter.

That is, Thou art a beast of ill qualities, under the appearance both of a woman and a man.

* To understand the force of this allusion, it should be remembered that the ancient English soldiers, using match-locks, instead of locks with flints as at present, were obliged to carry a lighted match hanging at their belts, very near to the wooden flask in which they kept their powder. 3 That is, And thou torn to pieces with thy own weapons. The whole of your fortune depends on this.

A mew was a place of confinement for hawks.

Cap. Sir Paris, I will make a desperate' tender
Of my child's love: I think, she will be rul'd
In all respects by me; nay more, I doubt it not.-
Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed;
Acquamt her here with my son Paris' love;
And bid her, mark you me, on Wednesday next-
But, soft; What day is this?

Par. Monday, my lord.

[soon,
Cap. Monday? ha! ha! Well, Wednesday is too
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 Thurs-
day?

[morrow.

Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it so.--
How is 't, my soul? let's talk, it is not day,
Jul. It is, it is, hie hence, be gone, away;
It is the lark that sings so out of tune,

5 straining harsh discords, and unpleasing sharps,
Some say, the lark makes sweet division ';
This doth not so, for she divideth us:
Some say, the lark and loathed toad change eyes*;
O, now I would they had chang'd voices too!
10 Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,
Hunting thee hence with hunts-up to the day.
10, now be gone; more light and light it grows.
Rom. More light and light?-more dark and
dark our woes.

15

Par. My lord, I would that Thursday were to-20
Cap. Well, get you gone:-o' Thursday be
it then :-

Go you to Juliet ere you go to bed;

Prepare her, wife, against this wedding-day.—— Farewell, my lord.-Light to my chamber, ho! 25| 'Fore me, it is so very late, that we

May call it early by-and-by: Good night. [Exeunt.

[blocks in formation]

Jul. Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree:
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.

Rom. It was the lark, the herald of the morn,

Nurse. Madam!

Jul. Nurse?

Enter Nurse.

6

[chamber: Nurse. Your lady mother's coming to your The day is broke; be wary, look about.

[Exit Nurse. Jul. Then, window, let day in, and let life out. Rom. Farewell, farewell! one kiss, and I'll descend. [Romeo descends.

Jul. Art thou gone so? Love! lord! ah, hus-
band! friend!

I must hear from thee every day i' the hour,
For in a minute there are many days:
O! by this count I shall be much in years,
30 Ere I again behold my Romeo.

35

Rom, Farewell! I will omit no opportunity That may convey my greetings, love, to thee. Jul. O, think'st thou, we shall ever meet again? Rom. I doubt it not; and all these woes shall

serve

For sweet discourses in our time to come.

Jul. O God! I have an ill-divining soul;
Methinks, I see thee, now thou art so low,
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb:

No nightingale: look, love, what envious streaks 40 Either my eye-sight fails, or thou look'st pale.

Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east:
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountains' tops;
I must be gone and live, or stay and die.

Rom. And trust me, love, in my eye so do you:
Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu! adieu!
[Exit Romeo.

Jul. O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle:
45 If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him
That is renown'd for faith? Be fickle, fortune;
For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long,
But send him back.

Jul. Yon light is not day-light, I know it, I;
It is some meteor that the sun exhales,
To be to thee this night a torch-bearer,
And light thee on thy way to Mantua:
Therefore stay yet, thou need'st not to be gone.
Rom. Let me be ta'en, let me be put to death;50
I am content, if thou wilt have it so.
I'll say, yon grey 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;—

55

La. Cap. [within.] Ho, daughter! are you up?
Jul. Who is't that calls? is it my lady mother?
Is she not down so late, or up so early?

What unaccustom'd cause procures her hither?
Enter Lady Capulet.

La. Cap. Why, how now, Juliet?
Jul. Madam, I am not well.

The

Desperate means only bold, advent'rous. 2 The appearance of a cloud opposed to the moon. 'Division seems to have been the technical term for the pauses or parts of a musical composition, * The toad having very fine eyes, and the lark very ugly ones, was the occasion of a common saying amongst the people, that the toad and lark had changed eyes. To this the speaker alludes. meaning is this: The lark, they say, has lost her eyes to the toad, and now I would the toad had her voice too, since she uses it to the disturbance of lovers. The huntsup was the name of the tune anciently played to wake the hunters, and collect them together. ? Procures for brings. La. Cap

La. Cap. Evermore weeping for your cousin's death?

What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with

tears?

[live; An if thou could'st, thou could'st not make him 5 Therefore, have done: Some grief shews much of love;

But much of grief shews still some want of wit.
Jul. Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss.

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!
La. Cap. Here comes your father; tell him so
yourself,

La. Cap. So shall you feel the loss, but not the 10 And see how he will take it at your hands,

Which you weep for.

Jul. Feeling so the loss,

I cannot choose but ever weep the friend.

[friend

La. Cap. Well, girl, thou weep'st not so much
for his death,

As that the villain lives which slaughter'd him.
Jul. What villain, madam?

La. Cup. That same villain, Romeo.

Jul. Villain and he are many miles asunder. God pardon him! I do with all my heart; And yet no man, like he, doth grieve my heart. La. Cap. That is, because the traitor murderer lives. [hands:

Enter Capulet, and Nurse.

Cap. When the sun sets, the air doth drizzle dew;

But for the sun-set of my brother's son,
15lt rains downright.-

How now a conduit, girl? what, still in tears?
Evermore showering? In one little body
Thou counterfeit'st a bark, a sea, a wind:
For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
20 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

Jul. Ay, madam, from the reach of these my 'Would, none but I might venge my cousin's 25 [not:

death!

La. Cap. We will have vengeance for it, fear thou
Then weep no more. I'll send to one in Mantua,
Where that same banish'd runagate doth live,-
That shall bestow on him so sure a draught,
That he shall soon keep Tybalt company:
And then, I hope, thou wilt be satisfied.

30

Thy tempest-tossed body.---How now, wife?
Have you deliver'd to her our decree?

La. Cap. Ay, sir; but she will none, she gives
you thanks!

I would, the fool were married to her grave! Cap, Soft, take me with you, take me with you, wife. How! will she none? doth she not give us thanks? Is she not proud? doth she not count her blest, Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom? 35 Jul. Not proud, you have; but thankful, that you have

Jul. Indeed, I never shall be satisfied
With Romeo, 'till I behold him---dead---
Is my poor heart so for a kinsman vext:---
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.---Ó, how my heart abhors
To hear him nam'd,---and cannot come to him;---40]
To wreak the love I bore my cousin Tybalt,
Upon his body that hath slaughter'd him!

La. Cap. Find thou the means, and I'll find
such a man.

But now I'll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.
Jul. And joy comes well in such a needful time:
What are they, I beseech your ladyship?

La. Cap. Well, well, thou hast a careful father,
child;

One, who, to put thee from thy heaviness,
Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy,
That thou expect'st not, nor I look'd not for.
Jul. Madain, in happy time, what day is that?
La. Cap. Marry, my child, early next Thurs-
day morn,

The gallant, young, and noble gentleman,
The county Paris, at Saint Peter's church,
Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride. [too,
Jul. Now, by Saint Peter's church, and Peter

Proud can I never be of what I hate;
But thankful even for hate, that is meant love.
Cap. How now! how now! chop logick→→→
What is this?

Proud---and, I thank you---and, I thank you not---
And yet not proud---Mistress minion, you,
Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds,
But settle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next,
45 To go with Paris to Saint Peter's church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither. [gage!
Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you bag-
You tallow-face!

50

La. Cap. Fie! fie! what, are you mad?
Jul. Good father, I beseech you on my knees,
Hear me with patience but to speak a word.
Cap. Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient
wretch!

I tell thee what,---get thee to church o' Thursday, 55 Or never after look me in the face:

Speak not, reply not, do not answer me; [blest,
My fingers itch.---Wife, we scarce thought us
That God hath sent us but this only child;
But now I see this one is one too much,

It is remarked, that " Paris, though in one place called Earl, is most commonly styled the Countie in this play. Shakspeare seems to have preferred, for some reason or other, the Italian comte to our count; perhaps he took it from the old English novel, from which he is said to have taken his plot.” He certainly did so: Paris is there first styled a young carle, and afterwards counte, counter, and county; according to the unsettled orthography of the time,

And

Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.

[Exit.

And that we have a curse in having her:
Out on her, hilding!

Nurse. God in heaven bless her!-
You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so.

Cap. And why, my lady wisdom? hold your 5
tongue,

Good prudence; smatter with your gossips, go.
Nurse. I speak no treason.
Cap. O, God ye good den!
Nurse. May not one speak?
Cap. Peace, you mumbling fool!

Utter your gravity o'er a gossip's bowl,
For here we need it not.

La. Cap. You are too hot.

Jul. O God!- -O nurse!-how shall this be
prevented?

My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven;
How shall that faith return again to earth,
Unless that husband send it me from heaven
By leaving earth?-comfort me, counsel me.-
Alack, alack, that heaven should practise strata-
10 Upon so soft a subject as myself!— [gems
What say'st thou hast thou not a word of joy?
Some comfort, nurse.

Nurse. 'Faith, here 'tis: Romeo

Is banished; and all the world to nothing,

Cap. God's bread! it makes me mad: Day, 15 That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you;

night, late, early,

At home, abroad, alone, in company,
Waking, or sleeping, still my care hath been
To have her match'd: and having now provided
A gentleman of princely parentage,

Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly train'd,
Stuff'd (as they say) with honourable parts,
Proportion'd 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: [me;
Graze where you will, you shall not house with
Look to 't, think on't, I do not use to jest.
Thursday is near; lay hand on heart, advise :
An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend;
An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die i' 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.

[Exit.

Jul. Is there no pity sitting in the clouds,
That sees into the bottom of my grief?—
O, sweet my mother, cast me not away!.
Delay this marriage for a month, a week;
Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed
In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.
La. Cap. Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a
word;

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.
Oh! he's a lovely gentleman!

20 Romeo's a dish-clout to him; an eagle, madam,
Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye
As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,

I think you are happy in this second match,
For it excels your first; or if it did not,
25 Your first is dead; or 'twere as good he were,
As living here and you no use of him.
Jul. Speakest thou from thy heart?
Nurse. And from my soul too;

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Jul. Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous
Go in; and tell my lady I am gone,
Having displeas'd my father, to Lawrence' cell,
35 To make confession, and to be absolv'd.

Nurse. Marry, I will; and this is wisely done.
[Exit.
Jul. Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!
Is it more sin-to wish me thus forsworn,
40 Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue
Which she hath prais'd him with above compare
So many thousand times?-Go, counsellor;
Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.→→→
I'll to the friar, to know his remedy:

[45 If all else fail, myself have power to die. [Exit,

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АСТ

Enter Friar Lawrence, and Paris.

Fri.ON Thursday, sir? the time is very short.

Par. My father Capulet will have it so;
And I am nothing slow, to slack his haste.
Fri. You say, you do not know the lady's mind;
Uneven is the course, I like it not. [death,

IV.

Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous,
55 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?
Fri. I would I knew not why it should be
slow'd.
[Aside.
Look, sir, here comes the lady towards my cell.
Enter Juliet.
Par. Happily met, my lady, and my wife!

60

Par. Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's
And therefore little have I talk'd of love;
For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.

(65)

Jul.

[day next.
[ther?
5

Jul. That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.
Par. That may be, must be, love, on Thurs-
Jul. What must be, shall be.
Fri. That's a certain text.
Par. Come you to make confession to this fa-
Jul. To answer that, were to confess to you.
Pur. Do not deny to him, that you love me.
Jul. I will confess to you, that I love him.
Par. So will you, I am sure, that you love me.
Jul. If I do so, it will be of more price,
Being spoke behind your back, than to your face.
Pur. Poor soul, thy face is much abus'd with

tears.

Jul. The tears have got small victory by that;| For it was bad enough, before their spite.

Par. Thou wrong'st it, more than tears, with that report.

That cop'st with death himself to 'scape from it:
And, if thou dár'st, I'll give thee remedy.

Jul. O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
From off the battlements of yonder 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'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones,
With reeky shanks, and yellow chapless sculls;
10Or bid me go into a new-made grave,

15

Jul. That is no slander, sir, which is a truth;
And what I spake, I spake it to my face. [it.
Par. Thy face is mine, and thou hast slander'd 20
Jul. It may be so, for it is not mine own.—
Are you at leisure, holy father, now;
Or shall I come to you at evening mass?

Fri. My leisure serves me, pensive daughter,

now:

My lord, we must intreat the time alone.

Par. God shield, I should disturb devotion!Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse you: 'Till then, adieu! and keep this holy kiss.

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 unstain'd wife to my sweet love.
Fri. Hold, then; go home; be merry, give

consent

To marry Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow;
To-morrow night look that thou lie alone,
Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber:
Take thou this phial, being then in bed,
And this distilled liquor drink thou off:
When, presently, through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humour, which shall seize
25 Each vital spirit; for no pulse shall keep

[Exit Paris. 30
Jul. O, shut the door! and when thou hast
done so,
[help!
Come weep with me; Past hope, past cure, past
Fri. Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief;

It strains me past the compass of my wits:
I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,
On Thursday next be married to this county.

Jul. Tell me not, friar, that thou hear'st of this,
Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it :
If, in thy wisdom, thou canst give no help,
Do thou but call my resolution wise,
And with this knife I'll help it presently.
God join'd my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands;
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo scal'd,
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-experienc'd 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 honour bring.
Be not so long to speak; I long to die,
If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy.
Fri. Hold, daughter; I do spy a kind of hope,
Which craves as desperate an execution
As that is desperate which we would prevent.
If, rather than to marry county Paris,

Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself;
Then is it likely, thou wilt undertake

A thing like death to chide away this shame,

His natural progress, but surcease to beat:
No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou liv'st;
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To paly ashes; thy eyes' windows tall,
Like death, when he shuts up the day of life;
Each part, depriv'd of supple government,
Shall stiff, and stark, and cold appear like death:
And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt remain full two-and-forty hours,
35 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 uncover'd on the bier,
40 Thou shalt be borne to the same ancient vault,
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
In the mean time, against thou shalt awake,
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift;
And hither shall he come; and he and I
45 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 unconstant toy 2, nor womanish fear,
Abate thy valour in the acting it.

50 Jul. Give me, O give me! tell me not of fear.
Fri. Hold; get you gone, be strong and pro-

55

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SCENE
Capulet's House.

[Exeunt.

II.

60 Enter Capulet, Lady Capulet, Nurse, and Servants. Cap. So many guests invite as here are writ.Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks.

1 Commission for authority or power. ? If no fickle freak, no light caprice, no change of fancy,

hinder the performance.

Serc.

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