Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought 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.
SCENE I. Verona. A public place.Enter SAMPSON and GREGORY, of the house of Capulet, armed with swords and bucklersSAMPSON
Gregory, o' my word, we'll not carry coals.GREGORY
No, for then we should be colliers.SAMPSON
I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw.GREGORY
Ay, while you live, draw your neck out o' the collar.SAMPSON
I strike quickly, being moved.GREGORY
But thou art not quickly moved to strike.SAMPSON
A dog of the house of Montague moves me.GREGORY
To move is to stir; and to be valiant is to stand:SAMPSON
therefore, if thou art moved, thou runn'st away.
A dog of that house shall move me to stand: I willGREGORY
take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's.
That shows thee a weak slave; for the weakest goesSAMPSON
to the wall.
True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels,GREGORY
are ever thrust to the wall: therefore I will push
Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids
to the wall.
The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.SAMPSON
'Tis all one, I will show myself a tyrant: when IGREGORY
have fought with the men, I will be cruel with the
maids, and cut off their heads.
The heads of the maids?SAMPSON
Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads;GREGORY
take it in what sense thou wilt.
They must take it in sense that feel it.SAMPSON
Me they shall feel while I am able to stand: andGREGORY
'tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh.
'Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thouSAMPSON
hadst been poor John. Draw thy tool! here comes
two of the house of the Montagues.
My naked weapon is out: quarrel, I will back thee.GREGORY
How! turn thy back and run?SAMPSON
Fear me not.GREGORY
No, marry; I fear thee!SAMPSON
Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin.GREGORY
I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it asSAMPSON
they list.
Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them;ABRAHAM
which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.
Enter ABRAHAM and BALTHASAR
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?SAMPSON
I do bite my thumb, sir.ABRAHAM
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?SAMPSON
[Aside to GREGORY] Is the law of our side, if I sayGREGORY
ay?
No.SAMPSON
No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but IGREGORY
bite my thumb, sir.
Do you quarrel, sir?ABRAHAM
Quarrel sir! no, sir.SAMPSON
If you do, sir, I am for you: I serve as good a man as you.ABRAHAM
No better.SAMPSON
Well, sir.GREGORY
Say 'better:' here comes one of my master's kinsmen.SAMPSON
Yes, better, sir.ABRAHAM
You lie.SAMPSON
Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy swashing blow.BENVOLIO
They fight
Enter BENVOLIO
Part, fools!TYBALT
Put up your swords; you know not what you do.
Beats down their swords
Enter TYBALT
What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?BENVOLIO
Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death.
I do but keep the peace: put up thy sword,TYBALT
Or manage it to part these men with me.
What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word,First Citizen
As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee:
Have at thee, coward!
They fight
Enter, several of both houses, who join the fray; then enter Citizens, with clubs
Clubs, bills, and partisans! strike! beat them down!CAPULET
Down with the Capulets! down with the Montagues!
Enter CAPULET in his gown, and LADY CAPULET
What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!LADY CAPULET
A crutch, a crutch! why call you for a sword?CAPULET
My sword, I say! Old Montague is come,MONTAGUE
And flourishes his blade in spite of me.
Enter MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE
Thou villain Capulet,--Hold me not, let me go.LADY MONTAGUE
Thou shalt not stir a foot to seek a foe.PRINCE
Enter PRINCE, with Attendants
Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,MONTAGUE
Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel,--
Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts,
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins,
On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
Throw your mistemper'd weapons to the ground,
And hear the sentence of your moved prince.
Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
Have thrice disturb'd 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,
Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd 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 further pleasure in this case,
To old Free-town, our common judgment-place.
Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.
Exeunt all but MONTAGUE, LADY MONTAGUE, and BENVOLIO
Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?BENVOLIO
Speak, nephew, were you by when it began?
Here were the servants of your adversary,LADY MONTAGUE
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 hiss'd 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.
O, where is Romeo? saw you him to-day?BENVOLIO
Right glad I am he was not at this fray.
Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sunMONTAGUE
Peer'd forth the golden window of the east,
A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad;
Where, underneath the grove of sycamore
That westward rooteth from the city's 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,
That most are busied when they're most alone,
Pursued my humour not pursuing his,
And gladly shunn'd who gladly fled from me.
Many a morning hath he there been seen,BENVOLIO
With tears augmenting the fresh morning dew.
Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs;
But all so soon as the all-cheering sun
Should in the furthest east begin to draw
The shady curtains from Aurora's bed,
Away from the light steals home my heavy son,
And private in his chamber pens himself,
Shuts up his windows, locks far daylight out
And makes himself an artificial night:
Black and portentous must this humour prove,
Unless good counsel may the cause remove.
My noble uncle, do you know the cause?MONTAGUE
I neither know it nor can learn of him.BENVOLIO
Have you importuned him by any means?MONTAGUE
Both by myself and many other friends:BENVOLIO
But he, his own affections' counsellor,
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 sun.
Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow.
We would as willingly give cure as know.
Enter ROMEO
See, where he comes: so please you, step aside;MONTAGUE
I'll know his grievance, or be much denied.
I would thou wert so happy by thy stay,BENVOLIO
To hear true shrift. Come, madam, let's away.
Exeunt MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE
Good-morrow, cousin.ROMEO
Is the day so young?BENVOLIO
But new struck nine.ROMEO
Ay me! sad hours seem long.BENVOLIO
Was that my father that went hence so fast?
It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours?ROMEO
Not having that, which, having, makes them short.BENVOLIO
In love?ROMEO
Out--BENVOLIO
Of love?ROMEO
Out of her favour, where I am in love.BENVOLIO
Alas, that love, so gentle in his view,ROMEO
Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!
Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,BENVOLIO
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 any thing, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen 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?
No, coz, I rather weep.ROMEO
Good heart, at what?BENVOLIO
At thy good heart's oppression.ROMEO
Why, such is love's transgression.BENVOLIO
Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,
Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest
With more of thine: this love that thou hast shown
Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.
Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
Being vex'd a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:
What is it else? a madness most discreet,
A choking gall and a preserving sweet.
Farewell, my coz.
Soft! I will go along;ROMEO
An if you leave me so, you do me wrong.
Tut, I have lost myself; I am not here;BENVOLIO
This is not Romeo, he's some other where.
Tell me in sadness, who is that you love.ROMEO
What, shall I groan and tell thee?BENVOLIO
Groan! why, no.ROMEO
But sadly tell me who.
Bid a sick man in sadness make his will:BENVOLIO
Ah, word ill urged to one that is so ill!
In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.
I aim'd so near, when I supposed you loved.ROMEO
A right good mark-man! And she's fair I love.BENVOLIO
A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.ROMEO
Well, in that hit you miss: she'll not be hitBENVOLIO
With Cupid's arrow; she hath Dian's wit;
And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd,
From love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd.
She will not stay the siege of loving terms,
Nor bide the 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.
Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?ROMEO
She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste,BENVOLIO
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.
Be ruled by me, forget to think of her.ROMEO
O, teach me how I should forget to think.BENVOLIO
By giving liberty unto thine eyes;ROMEO
Examine other beauties.
'Tis the wayBENVOLIO
To call hers exquisite, in question more:
These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows
Being black put 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 pass'd that passing fair?
Farewell: thou canst not teach me to forget.
I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt.
Exeunt
Enter CAPULET, PARIS, and ServantCAPULET
But Montague is bound as well as I,PARIS
In penalty alike; and 'tis not hard, I think,
For men so old as we to keep the peace.
Of honourable reckoning are you both;CAPULET
And pity 'tis you lived at odds so long.
But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?
But saying o'er what I have said before:PARIS
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.
Younger than she are happy mothers made.CAPULET
And too soon marr'd are those so early made.Servant
The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she,
She is the hopeful lady of my earth:
But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,
My will to her consent is but a part;
An she agree, within her scope of choice
Lies my consent and fair according voice.
This night I hold an old accustom'd 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-apparell'd April on the heel
Of limping winter treads, even such delight
Among fresh female 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 reckoning none,
Come, go with me.
To Servant, giving a paper
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.
Exeunt CAPULET and PARIS
Find them out whose names are written here! It isBENVOLIO
written, that the shoemaker should meddle with his
yard, and the tailor with his last, the fisher with
his pencil, and the painter with his nets; but I am
sent to find those persons whose names are here
writ, and can never find what names the writing
person hath here writ. I must to the learned.--In good time.
Enter BENVOLIO and ROMEO
Tut, man, one fire burns out another's burning,ROMEO
One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish;
Turn giddy, and be holp 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.
Your plaintain-leaf is excellent for that.BENVOLIO
For what, I pray thee?ROMEO
For your broken shin.BENVOLIO
Why, Romeo, art thou mad?ROMEO
Not mad, but bound more than a mad-man is;Servant
Shut up in prison, kept without my food,
Whipp'd and tormented and--God-den, good fellow.
God gi' god-den. I pray, sir, can you read?ROMEO
Ay, mine own fortune in my misery.Servant
Perhaps you have learned it without book: but, IROMEO
pray, can you read any thing you see?
Ay, if I know the letters and the language.Servant
Ye say honestly: rest you merry!ROMEO
Stay, fellow; I can read.Servant
Reads
'Signior Martino and his wife and daughters;
County Anselme and his beauteous sisters; the lady
widow of Vitravio; Signior Placentio and his lovely
nieces; Mercutio and his brother Valentine; mine
uncle Capulet, his wife and daughters; my fair niece
Rosaline; Livia; Signior Valentio and his cousin
Tybalt, Lucio and the lively Helena.' A fair
assembly: whither should they come?
Up.ROMEO
Whither?Servant
To supper; to our house.ROMEO
Whose house?Servant
My master's.ROMEO
Indeed, I should have ask'd you that before.Servant
Now I'll tell you without asking: my master is theBENVOLIO
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!
Exit
At this same ancient feast of Capulet'sROMEO
Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so lovest,
With all the admired beauties of Verona:
Go thither; and, with unattainted eye,
Compare her face with some that I shall show,
And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.
When the devout religion of mine eyeBENVOLIO
Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires;
And these, who often drown'd 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.
Tut, you saw her fair, none else being by,ROMEO
Herself poised with herself in either eye:
But in that crystal scales let there be weigh'd
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 shows best.
I'll go along, no such sight to be shown,
But to rejoice in splendor of mine own.
Exeunt
Enter LADY CAPULET and NurseLADY CAPULET
Nurse, where's my daughter? call her forth to me.Nurse
Now, by my maidenhead, at twelve year old,JULIET
I bade her come. What, lamb! what, ladybird!
God forbid! Where's this girl? What, Juliet!
Enter JULIET
How now! who calls?Nurse
Your mother.JULIET
Madam, I am here.LADY CAPULET
What is your will?
This is the matter:--Nurse, give leave awhile,Nurse
We must talk in secret:--nurse, come back again;
I have remember'd me, thou's hear our counsel.
Thou know'st my daughter's of a pretty age.
Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.LADY CAPULET
She's not fourteen.Nurse
I'll lay fourteen of my teeth,--LADY CAPULET
And yet, to my teeth be it spoken, I have but four--
She is not fourteen. How long is it now
To Lammas-tide?
A fortnight and odd days.Nurse
Even or odd, of all days in the year,LADY CAPULET
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 wean'd,--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 dove-house 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 dove-house: 'twas no need, I trow,
To bid me trudge:
And since that time it is eleven years;
For then she could stand alone; nay, by the 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!
A' 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 holidame,
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.'
Enough of this; I pray thee, hold thy peace.Nurse
Yes, madam: yet I cannot choose but laugh,JULIET
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 cockerel's stone;
A parlous 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.'
And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse, say I.Nurse
Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace!LADY CAPULET
Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nursed:
An I might live to see thee married once,
I have my wish.
Marry, that 'marry' is the very themeJULIET
I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet,
How stands your disposition to be married?
It is an honour that I dream not of.Nurse
An honour! were not I thine only nurse,LADY CAPULET
I would say thou hadst suck'd wisdom from thy teat.
Well, think of marriage now; younger than you,Nurse
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.
A man, young lady! lady, such a manLADY CAPULET
As all the world--why, he's a man of wax.
Verona's summer hath not such a flower.Nurse
Nay, he's a flower; in faith, a very flower.LADY CAPULET
What say you? can you love the gentleman?Nurse
This night you shall behold him at our feast;
Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face,
And find delight writ there with beauty's pen;
Examine every married lineament,
And see how one another lends content
And what obscured in this fair volume lies
Find written in the margent of his eyes.
This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
To beautify him, only lacks a cover:
The fish lives in the sea, and 'tis much pride
For fair without the fair within to hide:
That book in many's eyes doth share the glory,
That in gold clasps locks in the golden story;
So shall you share all that he doth possess,
By having him, making yourself no less.
No less! nay, bigger; women grow by men.LADY CAPULET
Speak briefly, can you like of Paris' love?JULIET
I'll look to like, if looking liking move:Servant
But no more deep will I endart mine eye
Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.
Enter a Servant
Madam, the guests are come, supper served up, youLADY CAPULET
called, my young lady asked for, the nurse cursed in
the pantry, and every thing in extremity. I must
hence to wait; I beseech you, follow straight.
We follow thee.Nurse
Exit Servant
Juliet, the county stays.
Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.
Exeunt
Enter ROMEO, MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, with five or six Maskers, Torch-bearers, and othersROMEO
What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse?BENVOLIO
Or shall we on without a apology?
The date is out of such prolixity:ROMEO
We'll have no Cupid hoodwink'd with a scarf,
Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath,
Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper;
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.
Give me a torch: I am not for this ambling;MERCUTIO
Being but heavy, I will bear the light.
Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.ROMEO
Not I, believe me: you have dancing shoesMERCUTIO
With nimble soles: I have a soul of lead
So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.
You are a lover; borrow Cupid's wings,ROMEO
And soar with them above a common bound.
I am too sore enpierced with his shaftMERCUTIO
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.
And, to sink in it, should you burden love;ROMEO
Too great oppression for a tender thing.
Is love a tender thing? it is too rough,MERCUTIO
Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn.
If love be rough with you, be rough with love;BENVOLIO
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 quote deformities?
Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me.
Come, knock and enter; and no sooner in,ROMEO
But every man betake him to his legs.
A torch for me: let wantons light of heartMERCUTIO
Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels,
For I am proverb'd with a grandsire phrase;
I'll be a candle-holder, and look on.
The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done.
Tut, dun's the mouse, the constable's own word:ROMEO
If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire
Of this sir-reverence love, wherein thou stick'st
Up to the ears. Come, we burn daylight, ho!
Nay, that's not so.MERCUTIO
I mean, sir, in delayROMEO
We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day.
Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits
Five times in that ere once in our five wits.
And we mean well in going to this mask;MERCUTIO
But 'tis no wit to go.
Why, may one ask?ROMEO
I dream'd a dream to-night.MERCUTIO
And so did I.ROMEO
Well, what was yours?MERCUTIO
That dreamers often lie.ROMEO
In bed asleep, while they do dream things true.MERCUTIO
O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.ROMEO
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
Her wagon-spokes made of long spiders' legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
The traces of the smallest spider's web,
The collars of the moonshine's watery beams,
Her whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film,
Her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat,
Not so big as a round little worm
Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid;
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut
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;
O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on court'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 a' lies asleep,
Then dreams, he of another benefice:
Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
Of healths five-fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,
And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two
And sleeps again. This is that very Mab
That plats the manes of horses in the night,
And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,
Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes:
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
That presses them and learns them first to bear,
Making them women of good carriage:
This is she--
Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!MERCUTIO
Thou talk'st of nothing.
True, I talk of dreams,BENVOLIO
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 wooes
Even now the frozen bosom of the north,
And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence,
Turning his face to the dew-dropping south.
This wind, you talk of, blows us from ourselves;ROMEO
Supper is done, and we shall come too late.
I fear, too early: for my mind misgivesBENVOLIO
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night's revels and expire the term
Of a despised life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
But He, that hath the steerage of my course,
Direct my sail! On, lusty gentlemen.
Strike, drum.
Exeunt
Musicians waiting. Enter Servingmen with napkinsFirst Servant
Where's Potpan, that he helps not to take away? HeSecond Servant
shift a trencher? he scrape a trencher!
When good manners shall lie all in one or two men'sFirst Servant
hands and they unwashed too, 'tis a foul thing.
Away with the joint-stools, remove theSecond Servant
court-cupboard, look to the plate. Good thou, save
me a piece of marchpane; and, as thou lovest me, let
the porter let in Susan Grindstone and Nell.
Antony, and Potpan!
Ay, boy, ready.First Servant
You are looked for and called for, asked for andSecond Servant
sought for, in the great chamber.
We cannot be here and there too. Cheerly, boys; beCAPULET
brisk awhile, and the longer liver take all.
Enter CAPULET, with JULIET and others of his house, meeting the Guests and Maskers
Welcome, gentlemen! ladies that have their toesSecond Capulet
Unplagued with corns will have a bout with you.
Ah ha, 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 ye now?
Welcome, gentlemen! I have seen the day
That I have worn a visor and could tell
A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear,
Such as would please: 'tis gone, 'tis gone, 'tis gone:
You are welcome, gentlemen! come, musicians, play.
A hall, a hall! give room! and foot it, girls.
Music plays, and they dance
More light, you knaves; and turn the tables up,
And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot.
Ah, sirrah, this unlook'd-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?
By'r lady, thirty years.CAPULET
What, man! 'tis not so much, 'tis not so much:Second Capulet
'Tis since the nuptials of Lucentio,
Come pentecost as quickly as it will,
Some five and twenty years; and then we mask'd.
'Tis more, 'tis more, his son is elder, sir;CAPULET
His son is thirty.
Will you tell me that?ROMEO
His son was but a ward two years ago.
[To a Servingman] What lady is that, which dothServant
enrich the hand
Of yonder knight?
I know not, sir.ROMEO
O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!TYBALT
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
This, by his voice, should be a Montague.CAPULET
Fetch me my rapier, boy. What dares the slave
Come hither, cover'd with an antic face,
To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?
Now, by the stock and honour of my kin,
To strike him dead, I hold it not a sin.
Why, how now, kinsman! wherefore storm you so?TYBALT
Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe,CAPULET
A villain that is hither come in spite,
To scorn at our solemnity this night.
Young Romeo is it?TYBALT
'Tis he, that villain Romeo.CAPULET
Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone;TYBALT
He bears him like a portly gentleman;
And, to say truth, Verona brags of him
To be a virtuous and well-govern'd youth:
I would not for the wealth of all the 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,
And ill-beseeming semblance for a feast.
It fits, when such a villain is a guest:CAPULET
I'll not endure him.
He shall be endured:TYBALT
What, goodman boy! I say, he shall: go to;
Am I the master here, or you? go to.
You'll not endure him! God shall mend my soul!
You'll make a mutiny among my guests!
You will set cock-a-hoop! you'll be the man!
Why, uncle, 'tis a shame.CAPULET
Go to, go to;TYBALT
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!
Patience perforce with wilful choler meetingROMEO
Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.
I will withdraw: but this intrusion shall
Now seeming sweet convert to bitter gall.
Exit
[To JULIET] If I profane with my unworthiest handJULIET
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,ROMEO
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?JULIET
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.ROMEO
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;JULIET
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.ROMEO
Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.JULIET
Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.
Then have my lips the sin that they have took.ROMEO
Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!JULIET
Give me my sin again.
You kiss by the book.Nurse
Madam, your mother craves a word with you.ROMEO
What is her mother?Nurse
Marry, bachelor,ROMEO
Her mother is the lady of the house,
And a good lady, and a wise and virtuous
I nursed her daughter, that you talk'd withal;
I tell you, he that can lay hold of her
Shall have the chinks.
Is she a Capulet?BENVOLIO
O dear account! my life is my foe's debt.
Away, begone; the sport is at the best.ROMEO
Ay, so I fear; the more is my unrest.CAPULET
Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone;JULIET
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.
Exeunt all but JULIET and Nurse
Come hither, nurse. What is yond gentleman?Nurse
The son and heir of old Tiberio.JULIET
What's he that now is going out of door?Nurse
Marry, that, I think, be young Petrucio.JULIET
What's he that follows there, that would not dance?Nurse
I know not.JULIET
Go ask his name: if he be married.Nurse
My grave is like to be my wedding bed.
His name is Romeo, and a Montague;JULIET
The only son of your great enemy.
My only love sprung from my only hate!Nurse
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy.
What's this? what's this?JULIET
A rhyme I learn'd even nowNurse
Of one I danced withal.
One calls within 'Juliet.'
Anon, anon!
Come, let's away; the strangers all are gone.
Exeunt
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