The Modern Shakespeare

Romeo And Juliet

The Original Play

Plus

A Modern Translation Anyone Can Understand

The Modern Shakespeare

www.TheModernShakespeare.com

© 2012. All Rights Reserved.

Table of Contents

Background Info

Historical and Literary Context

Cast of Characters

Key Themes

Key Symbols

Original Play + Modern Translation

Prologue

Act 1, Scene 1

Act 1, Scene 2

Act 1, Scene 3

Act 1, Scene 4

Act 1, Scene 5

Act 2, Prologue

Act 2, Scene 1

Act 2, Scene 2

Act 2, Scene 3

Act 2, Scene 4

Act 2, Scene 5

Act 2, Scene 6

Act 3, Scene 1

Act 3, Scene 2

Act 3, Scene 3

Act 3, Scene 4

Act 3, Scene 5

Act 4, Scene 1

Act 4, Scene 2

Act 4, Scene 3

Act 4, Scene 4

Act 4, Scene 5

Act 5, Scene 1

Act 5, Scene 2

Act 5, Scene 3

Just the Modern Translation

Prologue

Act 1, Scene 1

Act 1, Scene 2

Act 1, Scene 3

Act 1, Scene 4

Act 1, Scene 5

Act 2, Prologue

Act 2, Scene 1

Act 2, Scene 2

Act 2, Scene 3

Act 2, Scene 4

Act 2, Scene 5

Act 2, Scene 6

Act 3, Scene 1

Act 3, Scene 2

Act 3, Scene 3

Act 3, Scene 4

Act 3, Scene 5

Act 4, Scene 1

Act 4, Scene 2

Act 4, Scene 3

Act 4, Scene 4

Act 4, Scene 5

Act 5, Scene 1

Act 5, Scene 2

Act 5, Scene 3

Just the Original Play

Prologue

Act 1, Scene 1

Act 1, Scene 2

Act 1, Scene 3

Act 1, Scene 4

Act 1, Scene 5

Act 2, Prologue

Act 2, Scene 1

Act 2, Scene 2

Act 2, Scene 3

Act 2, Scene 4

Act 2, Scene 5

Act 2, Scene 6

Act 3, Scene 1

Act 3, Scene 2

Act 3, Scene 3

Act 3, Scene 4

Act 3, Scene 5

Act 4, Scene 1

Act 4, Scene 2

Act 4, Scene 3

Act 4, Scene 4

Act 4, Scene 5

Act 5, Scene 1

Act 5, Scene 2

Act 5, Scene 3

Background Information

Historical and Literary Context

Related Literary Works:

As with many other of his plays, Shakespeare adapted his version of Romeo and Juliet from earlier sources. Shakespeare’s most direct source was an English narrative poem published in 1562 by Arthur Brooke, which was itself a based on a French version of an Italian story. Shakespeare’s play and Brooke’s poem share many similarities of plot, including how Romeo and Juliet met and died. However, while the plots are similar, Brooke’s version is generally considered to be plodding, while Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is one of the most exciting plays ever written. Shakespeare transformed the story in a variety of ways. Three of the most important include cramming a plot that in Brooke’s poem took nine months to unfold into just four frenetic days, having Tybalt kill Mercutio, and having Romeo and Juliet’s wedding day occur on the same day that Romeo is banished. But just as important in creating the ecstatic intensity of Romeo and Juliet is the unparalleled power of Shakespeare’s language. In addition to its similarity to earlier versions of the Romeo and Juliet story, Shakespeare’s play is also similar to the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, which was best told by the Roman poet Ovid in his Metamorphoses. Shakespeare was not only aware of the similarity between the stories of Romeo and Juliet and Pyramus and Thisbe, he explicitly references Pyramus and Thisbe within Romeo and Juliet.

Historical Context

Unlike many of Shakespeare’s other plays, Romeo and Juliet does not contain any real overt or even hidden references to the day and age in which Shakespeare lived.

Cast of Characters

Romeo — The sixteen-year-old son of Montague and Lady Montague. He is cousins with Benvolio, and friends with Mercutio and Friar Laurence. Romeo’s defining characteristic is the intensity of his emotions—whether in anger, love, or despair. Romeo is also intelligent, quick-witted, loved by his friends, and not a bad swordsmen. Over the course of the play, Romeo grows from a an adolescent who claims to be in love with Rosaline, but in reality seems more in love with the idea of love and with being a miserable wretch in the mold of classical love poets, to a young man who shares a deep and passionate love with Juliet and is willing to face the obstacles of friends, family, the law, fate, and, ultimately, death in order to be with her.

Juliet — The beautiful thirteen-year-old daughter of Capulet and Lady Capulet, and cousins with Tybalt. The Nurse is her closest friend and advisor. Juliet is naïve and sheltered at the beginning of the play, and has given almost no thought to love. But as soon as she meets and falls in love with Romeo she quickly develops into a woman of remarkable strength and resolve in pursuing what she wants. Like Romeo, she is willing to face all obstacles of society, fate, and death to be with her love. Yet even while head over heels in love, Juliet remains more grounded than Romeo. She even calls him on his silliness when he gets overly poetic. It seems possible to attribute much of Romeo’s transformation from a callous youth to a passionate lover to Juliet’s influence.

The Nurse — The Nurse is a servant who nursed Juliet as a baby (the Nurse’s own baby died just before Juliet was born), and raised her through childhood. She is Juliet’s best friend and confidante, and in many ways is more her mother than Lady Capulet is. The Nurse can be quite sentimental, but also tends to go on and on with bawdy and sometimes embarrassing stories. Though the Nurse will do anything for Juliet, and helps Juliet to marry Romeo, in the end she proves herself to be pragmatic when it comes to love.

Mercutio — Romeo’s close friend, and a kinsman of Prince Escalus. Mercutio is a wild, antic, and brooding youth. He is a whiz with wordplay and is constantly dropping sexual puns, but beneath this playful and sarcastic veneer lies a bitter world-weariness. Mercutio hates romantic ideals of any sort, whether about honor or love, and mercilessly mocks those who hold them.

Friar Laurence — A Franciscan monk and a friend to both Romeo and Juliet. He preaches moderation because he understands that intensity of any kind of emotion, good or bad, can lead to disaster. Yet he gets caught up in his own hope for ending the feud between Montagues and Capulets. In the process, he shows himself to be quite a schemer.

Capulet — Juliet’s father, Lady Capulet’s husband, and Tybalt’s uncle. He is the leader of the Capulet family, and an enemy of Montague. Capulet tries to appear like an even-minded and loving man, and he certainly does love his daughter, but he believes he knows what’s best for her, never consults her about her feelings, and is quick to anger when crossed or disobeyed.

Lady Capulet — Juliet’s mother, and Capulet’s wife. A woman who married Capulet when she was Juliet’s age (thirteen), she loves her daughter but is a flighty woman and an ineffectual mother who left most of the raising of her daughter to the Nurse. When it comes to marriage, Lady Capulet believes more in the material happiness a “good match” can bring than in love.

Benvolio — Montague’s nephew, Romeo’s cousin., and Mercutio’s friend. Of the three boys, he is the most calm and the least quick-witted. On a few occasions he tries to keep the peace rather than fight. Yet Benvolio is seldom successful in his peacekeeping efforts, and will fight if pushed.

Tybalt — The nephew of Capulet, and Juliet’s cousin. A hothead consumed by issues of honor and well known for his skill with a sword, Tybalt hates the Montagues with a profound passion. He seems to look for excuses to fight.

Paris — A kinsman of Prince Escalus who wants to marry Juliet. Paris is a good-looking and wealthy man, but is rather pompous, a tad boring, and lacks Romeo’s passion. His love for Juliet seems genuine, but, like Capulet, he seems to think he can make Juliet’s decisions for her.

Prince Escalus — The Prince and leader of Verona. Escalus is concerned primarily with keeping order in the city. He will do anything in his power to stop the feud between the Montagues and Capulets from affecting the other citizens of the city.

Montague — Romeo’s father, Lady Montague’s husband, and Benvolio’s uncle. The leader of the Montague household, and quick to anger at his bitter rival, Capulet.

Lady Montague — Montague’s wife and Romeo’s mother. She barely appears in the play.

Friar John — A Franciscan friar.

Balthasar — Romeo’s servant.

Samson and Gregory — Capulet servants.

Abraham — Montague’s servant.

Peter — An illiterate Capulet servant.

The Apothecary — A poor apothecary (a drug seller) in Mantua.

Rosaline — A young woman who has taken a vow of chastity, yet with whom Romeo is infatuated at the beginning of the play.

The Chorus — An on-stage commentator on the events of the play (usually a single person).

Key Themes

Love

Love in Romeo and Juliet is not some pretty, idealized emotion. Yes, the love Romeo and Juliet share is beautiful and passionate. It is pure, exhilarating, and transformative, and they are willing to give everything to it. But it is also chaotic and destructive, bringing death to friends, family, and to themselves. Over and over in the play, Romeo and Juliet’s love is mentioned in connection with death and violence, and finds its greatest expression in their suicide.

The theme of love in Romeo and Juliet also extends beyond the love that Romeo and Juliet feel for each other. All the characters in the play constantly talk about love. Mercutio thinks love is little more than an excuse to pursue sexual pleasure and that it makes a man weak and dumb. Lady Capulet thinks love is based on material things: Paris is handsome and wealthy; therefore Lady Capulet believes Juliet will love him. Lord Capulet sees love as obedience and duty. Friar Laurence knows that love may be passionate, but argues that it’s also a responsibility. Paris seems to think that love is at his command, since he tells Juliet that she loves him. In short, love is everywhere in Romeo and Juliet, and everyone sees it differently.

Fate

From the opening prologue when the Chorus summarizes Romeo and Juliet and says that the “star-crossed lovers” will die, Romeo and Juliet are trapped by fate. No matter what the lovers do, what plans they make, or how much they love each other, their struggles against fate only help fulfill it. But defeating or escaping fate is not the point. No one escapes fate. It is Romeo and Juliet’s determination to struggle against fate in order to be together, whether in life or death, that shows the fiery passion of their love, and which makes that love eternal.

Fate is not just a force felt by the characters in Romeo and Juliet. The audience also senses it through Shakespeare’s use of foreshadowing. Time and again, both Romeo and Juliet unknowingly reference their imminent deaths, as when Juliet says after first meeting Romeo: “If he be married / My grave is like to be my wedding bed.” She means that if Romeo is already married she’ll be miserable. But the audience knows that Juliet’s grave actually will be her wedding bed. In Romeo and Juliet, fate is a force that neither the characters nor the audience can escape, and so every word and gesture gains in power, becomes fateful.

Individuals vs. Society

Because of their forbidden love, Romeo and Juliet are forced into conflict with the social world around them: family, friends, political authority, and even religion. The lovers try to avoid this conflict by hiding, by escaping from it. They prefer the privacy of nighttime to the public world of day. They volunteer to give up their names, their social identities, in order to be together. They begin to keep secrets and speak in puns so that they can publicly say one thing while meaning another. On the morning after their marriage, they even go so far as to pretend that day is night so they won’t have to part.

But no one can stop day from dawning, and in the end Romeo and Juliet can’t escape the responsibilities of the public world. Romeo tries to stop being a Montague and avoid fighting Tybalt, but fails. Juliet tries to stop being a Capulet and to stand up to her father when he tries to marry her off to Paris, but is abandoned by her mother and the Nurse. Romeo is banished from Verona by Prince Escalus, who embodies political law. Finally, to preserve their love, Romeo and Juliet are forced to the ultimate act of independence and privacy: suicide.

Language and Word Play

Romeo and Juliet constantly play with language. They pun, rhyme, and speak in double entendres. All these word games may seem like mere fun, and they are fun. The characters that pun and play with language have fun doing it. But word play in Romeo and Juliet has a deeper purpose: rebellion. Romeo and Juliet play with language to escape the world. They claim they are not a Montague and a Capulet; they use words to try to transform day, for a moment, into night; they hide their love even while secretly admitting it. Other characters play with language too. In particular, Mercutio and the Nurse make constant sexual puns implying that while everyone is running around talking about high ideals like honor and love, sex and other base desires are at the root of human existence.

So language in Romeo and Juliet serves two opposing purposes. It allows some characters to escape the world into intense love, while it allows other characters to reveal that the world of love, honor, and high ideals are just masks people use to cover their animal instincts.

Servants

For a play about the two noble teenagers struggling to preserve their forbidden love, Romeo and Juliet sure has a lot of scenes focused on servants and non-nobles. Shakespeare did this by design. The recurring presence of servants in the play, from Peter, the Capulet servant who can’t read, to the apothecary who’s so poor he’s willing to sell poison, Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet goes to great efforts to show that the poor and downtrodden have lives of their own, and that to them Romeo and Juliet’s love and death mean absolutely nothing. After all, why would the death of two noble teenagers mean anything to servants just trying to make it through the day and scrounge up something to eat for dinner?

Key Symbols

Light/Dark and Day/Night

Romeo and Juliet is filled with imagery of light and dark. But while light is traditionally connected with “good” and dark with “evil,” in Romeo and Juliet the relationship is more complex. Romeo and Juliet constantly see each other as forms of light. In the balcony scene, Romeo describes Juliet as the sun, while Juliet describes Romeo as stars. But the relationship between light and dark is complicated by the lover’s need for the privacy of darkness in order to be together. As Romeo says when the sun dawns on the morning when he is to be banished from Verona, “More light and light, more dark and dark our woes!” So while Romeo and Juliet see each other as light, in order for their light to shine brightly it needs the contrast of darkness, of night, to make it powerful.

Prince Escalus and Veronese Citizens

As the sole representative of the government to appear in Romeo and Juliet, Prince Escalus symbolizes the law. The citizens of Verona symbolize civil society. These forces seek to contain the feud between the Montagues and Capulets, but over the course of the play it becomes clear that they also try to contain any grand passions, including the love between Romeo and Juliet.

The Original Play +

Modern Translation

Prologue

[The CHORUS enters]

CHORUS

Two households, both alike in dignity

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

(5) 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

(10) 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.

In lovely Verona, Italy, where the play is set, an age-old feud between two noble families of equal stature breaks out once more into violence, causing citizens to stain their hands with the blood of other citizens. Two ill-fated children of these families fall in love. Thwarted by an unfortunate series of events, the lovers commit suicide. Their terrible deaths end the feud between the families. For the next two hours on this stage, you will see the story of the lovers’ doomed romance, as well as their parents’ feud, which nothing but their children’s death could end. If you listen patiently to our performance, the details left out in this prologue will be shown onstage.

[Exit]

Act 1, Scene 1

[SAMPSON and GREGORY, servants of the Capulet family, enter carrying swords and small shields.]

SAMPSON

Gregory, on my word, we’ll not carry coals.

I swear, Gregory, we won’t let them treat us like manual laborers.

GREGORY

No, for then we should be colliers.

No, because then we’d be like manual laborers. Which is basically what we are, doofus.

SAMPSON

I mean, an we be in choler, we’ll draw.

I mean, if they make us angry, we’ll draw our swords.

GREGORY

Ay, while you live, draw your neck out of collar.

You seem to focus more on getting yourself out of any trouble that might lead to the hangman’s collar.

SAMPSON

(5) I strike quickly, being moved.

I hit hard, when I’m motivated.

GREGORY

But thou art not quickly moved to strike.

But you avoid getting “motivated,” so you don’t ever have to hit.

SAMPSON

(10) A dog of the house of Montague moves me.

One of those Montague jerks would motivate me.

GREGORY

To move is to stir, and to be valiant is to stand. Therefore if thou art moved thou runn’st away.

To be motivated is to act, while to be valiant is to face a fight. When you’re motivated, you just run away.

SAMPSON

A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague’s.

If I saw a Montague, I’d face him. I’d walk on the side of the street closer to the wall (forcing the Montague into the gutter).

GREGORY

That shows thee a weak slave, for the weakest goes to the wall.

Then you must be a weakling, because it’s the weak who get shoved up against a wall.

SAMPSON

(15) ‘Tis true, and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall. Therefore I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall.

That’s true, which is why women, being the weaker sex, get “thrust to the wall.” So I’ll push Montague’s men into the gutter, and thrust Montague women to the wall.

GREGORY

The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.

The feud is between our masters and us, their servants.

SAMPSON

‘Tis all one. I will show myself a tyrant. When I have fought with the men, I will be civil with the maids. I will cut off their heads.

It’s all the same. I’ll be the Montague’s master. After fighting with the men, I’ll be nice to the maids—I’ll cut off their heads.

GREGORY

(20) The heads of the maids?

You’ll cut off the heads of the maids?

SAMPSON

Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads.

Take it in what sense thou wilt.

The heads of the maids or their maidenheads. Interpret my comment however you prefer.

GREGORY

(25) They must take it in sense that feel it.

It’s the maids you rape or kill or who will have to sense it.

SAMPSON

Me they shall feel while I am able to stand, and

’tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh.

The maids will feel me as long as I can stand upright. Everyone knows I’m a stud.

GREGORY

‘Tis well thou art not fish. If thou hadst, thou hadst been poor-john.

It’s a good thing you’re not a fish, or else (much like your erection) you’d be dried and shriveled like salted fish.

[ABRAM and another servant of the Montagues enter.]

Draw thy tool! Here comes of the house of Montagues.

Draw your sword! Here come some Montague servants

SAMPSON

(30) My naked weapon is out. Quarrel! I will back thee.

I’ve drawn my naked sword. Fight them. I’ll back you up.

GREGORY

How? Turn thy back and run?

How? By turning your back and running?

SAMPSON

Fear me not.

Don’t worry about me.

GREGORY

No, marry. I fear thee.

Sorry, but I do worry about you.

SAMPSON

Let us take the law of our sides. Let them begin.

Let’s make sure the law is on our sides by getting them to start the fight.

GREGORY

(35) I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as they list.

I’ll frown at them as I pass by them. How they respond is up to them.

SAMPSON

Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them, which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it. (bites his thumb)

No, I’ll bite my thumb at them. That’s an insult, and they’ll be disgraced if they don’t react.

[ABRAHAM and BALTHASAR enter]

ABRAM

Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

Excuse me, sir, are you biting your thumb at us?

SAMPSON

I do bite my thumb, sir.

I am biting my thumb.

ABRAM

Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

But are you biting your thumb at us?

SAMPSON

(aside to GREGORY)

(40) Is the law of our side if I say “ay”?

(whispering to GREGORY) Will the law be on our side if I say yes?

GREGORY

(aside to SAMPSON)

No.

(whispering to SAMPSON) No.

SAMPSON

No, sir. I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.

I’m not biting my thumb at you. But I am biting my thumb.

GREGORY

(45) Do you quarrel, sir?

Do you want to fight us?

ABRAM

Quarrel, sir? No, sir.

Fight? No.

SAMPSON

But if you do, sir, I am for you. I serve as good a man as you.

If you do want to fight, then I’m up for it. My master is as good as yours.

ABRAM

No better.

But not better than mine.

SAMPSON

Well, sir.

Well...

[BENVOLIO enters.]

GREGORY

(50) (aside to SAMPSON) Say “better.” Here comes one of my master’s kinsmen.

(whispering to SAMPSON) Say “better.” One of our master’s kinsmen has just arrived.

SAMPSON

(to ABRAM) Yes, better, sir.

Yes, my master is better than yours, sir.

ABRAM

You lie.

You’re a liar.

SAMPSON

Draw, if you be men.—Gregory, remember thy washing blow.

Draw your swords, if you’re men. Gregory, get ready to slash them.

[They fight]

BENVOLIO

(55) (beats down their swords) Part, fools!

Put up your swords. You know not what you do.

(hits their swords with his own) Break it up, fools! Sheathe your swords. You don’t know what you’re doing.

[TYBALT enters.]

TYBALT

What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?

Turn thee, Benvolio. Look upon thy death.

What, have you drawn your sword to fight with servants? Turn around, Benvolio, and see the man who will kill you.

BENVOLIO

I do but keep the peace. Put up thy sword,

Or manage it to part these men with me.

I’m just trying to keep the peace. Put away your sword, or else use it to help me stop this fighting.

TYBALT

(60) What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word,

As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.

Have at thee, coward!

You hold a drawn sword, and say “peace?” I hate that word, just as I hate hell, all Montagues, and you. Now we fight, coward!

[BENVOLIO and TYBALT fight. Other Montagues and Capulets enter and also start fighting. Veronese CITIZENS enter, carrying clubs.]

CITIZENS

Clubs, bills, and partisans! Strike! Beat them down!

Down with the Capulets! Down with the Montagues!

Beat them down with your clubs, spears, and axes. Down with the Capulets! Down with the Montagues!

[CAPULET, in a sleeping gown, enters with LADY CAPULET.]

CAPULET

(65) What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!

What is this noise? Give me my long sword. Now!

LADY CAPULET

A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword?

You need a crutch! Why are you calling for a sword?

[MONTAGUE enters, sword drawn, with LADY MONTAGUE.]

CAPULET

My sword, I say! Old Montague is come,

And flourishes his blade in spite of me.

Give me my sword! Old Montague has arrived, and he’s waving his sword just to infuriate me.

MONTAGUE

Thou villain Capulet! Hold me not. Let me go.

You are a villain, Capulet! (LADY MONTAGUE grabs his arm.) Let go of me. Don’t stop me.

LADY MONTAGUE

(70) Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe.

You’re not taking one step to try to fight an enemy.

[PRINCE ESCALUS enters with his attendants.]

PRINCE

Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,

Profaners of this neighbor-stainèd steel!—

Will they not hear?—What, ho! You men, you beasts,

That quench the fire of your pernicious rage

(75) 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,

(80) 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,

(85) 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,

(90) 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.

You rebels and enemies of the peace, who curse your own weapons by turning them on your neighbors. Do you refuse to listen?—Silence! You men, you beasts, who can only put out the fire of your anger by spilling fountains of blood. I will torture you unless you drop your weapons from your bloody hands and listen to me, your enraged Prince. Because of nothing more than a casual word from you, Capulet and Montague, three battles have raged in our city’s streets. These battles have forced Verona’s citizens to take off their dignified clothes and jewelry and instead pick up old and rusty spears in order to put an end to your fighting. If any Capulet or Montague disturbs the peace in the future, they will be executed. Now everyone go home. Capulet, you come with me in order to hear what else I want from you. Montague, you come this afternoon to old Free-town, where I deliver my judgments. Everyone else, leave this place right now or I will have you killed.

[Everyone exits except MONTAGUE, LADY MONTAGUE, and BENVOLIO.]

MONTAGUE

Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?

(95) Speak, nephew. Were you by when it began?

Tell me, nephew. Who stirred this old feud up again? Were you around when the fight began?

BENVOLIO

Here were the servants of your adversary,

And yours, close fighting ere I did approach.

I drew to part them. In the instant came

The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepared,

(100) 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,

(105) Till the Prince came, who parted either part.

Your servants were fighting Montague’s servants when I arrived. I drew my sword to try to stop them. Just then, the reckless Tybalt showed up with his sword drawn. He taunted me while swinging his sword through the air, producing a hissing sound. As we fought, more and more Capulets and Montagues showed up to join the battle. Finally, the Prince came and stopped the fighting.

LADY MONTAGUE

Oh, where is Romeo? Saw you him today?

Right glad I am he was not at this fray.

Where’s Romeo? Have you seen him at all today? I’m happy he wasn’t around for this fight.

BENVOLIO

Madam, an hour before the worshipped sun

Peered forth the golden window of the east,

(110) 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

(115) 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,

(120) And gladly shunned who gladly fled from me.

Madam, my mind was troubled this morning, so an hour before dawn I went out for a walk. As I walked, I saw your son beneath the sycamore grove that grows near the western edge of the city. I walked toward him, but he noticed me and ran and hid in the woods. I assumed that he must be feeling the same way I was and did not want to be bothered, since a person is often at his busiest when he is alone. So I continued on, happy to let him be and pursue my own private thoughts.

MONTAGUE

Many a morning hath he there been seen,

With tears augmenting the fresh morning’s dew,

Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs.

But all so soon as the all-cheering sun

(125) 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,

(130) And makes himself an artificial night.

Black and portentous must this humor prove

Unless good counsel may the cause remove.

He’s been seen at that spot on many mornings, his tears adding to the morning dew and his deep sighs thickening the clouds in the sky. Then, as soon as the happy sun begins to dawn, my unhappy son comes home in order to hide from the light. He keeps to himself in his bedroom, shutting his windows to keep out the daylight so that he can sit in an artificial night. His bad mood is likely to have a bad result, unless someone can give him good advice and remove the cause of his sadness. This mood of his is going to bring bad news, unless someone smart can fix what’s bothering him.

BENVOLIO

My noble uncle, do you know the cause?

My noble uncle, do you know what’s causing his mood?

MONTAGUE

I neither know it nor can learn of him.

I don’t. And he refuses to tell me.

BENVOLIO

(135) Have you importuned him by any means?

You’ve done everything possible to get him to explain?

MONTAGUE

Both by myself and many other friends.

But he, his own affections’ counselor,

Is to himself—I will not say how true,

But to himself so secret and so close,

(140) 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.

(145) We would as willingly give cure as know.

Both I and many of our friends have tried to speak with him. But he insists on sharing his thoughts only with himself, though I don’t know how good the advice is that he’s giving himself. He keeps his secrets so completely that he’s like a flower bud that can’t open to the air or sun because it’s been poisoned from within by the bite of a worm. If we could just find out the cause of his sadness, we’d try to help him as eagerly as we have tried to learn the reason for his sadness.

[ROMEO enters.]

BENVOLIO

See, where he comes. So please you, step aside.

I’ll know his grievance or be much denied.

Here he comes. If it’s all right, please leave us alone. I’ll make him either tell me what’s wrong or force him to refuse me.

MONTAGUE

I would thou wert so happy by thy stay

To hear true shrift.—Come, madam, let’s away.

I hope you get to hear the true story. Come, madam, let’s go.

[MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE exit. ROMEO enters.]

BENVOLIO

(150) Good morrow, cousin.

Good morning, cousin.

ROMEO

Is the day so young?

Is it still morning?

BENVOLIO

But new struck nine.

It’s just barely after nine.

ROMEO

Ay me! Sad hours seem long.

Was that my father that went hence so fast?

Oh, my! Time goes by slowly when you’re sad.

Was that my father who just rushed away?

BENVOLIO

It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo’s hours?

It was. What sadness is making your hours long?

ROMEO

Not having that which, having, makes them short.

Lacking the thing which would make them short.

BENVOLIO

(155) In love?

Are you in love?

ROMEO

Out.

Out.

BENVOLIO

Of love?

So you’re not in love?

ROMEO

Out of her favor, where I am in love.

I am in love. But the one I love does not love me.

BENVOLIO

Alas, that love, so gentle in his view,

Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!

Oh, it is sad how love, which in theory seems like such a gentle thing, should in actual experience be so rough!

ROMEO

Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,

(160) 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.

(165) Here’s much to do with hate but more with love.

Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate,

O anything of nothing first created!

O heavy lightness, serious vanity,

Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

(170) 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?

How can love, which is supposed to be blind, force you to be able to do what it wants? Where should we eat? (Noticing blood) Wait, what fighting happened here? No, don’t tell me. I already know: it was something that had a lot to with hate, but even more to do with love. O brawling love! O loving hate! Love that originates from nothing! Heavy lightness! Serious frivolity! Beautiful shapes smashed together to create an ugly chaos. Love is like heavy feathers, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, waking sleep, the opposite of what it is! That’s the love I feel, since no one loves me in return. Do you laugh?

BENVOLIO

No, coz, I rather weep.

No, cousin, I cry.

ROMEO

Good heart, at what?

But why, my good man?

BENVOLIO

(175) At thy good heart’s oppression.

Beacuse of how love has oppreseed your heart.

ROMEO

Why, such is love’s transgression.

Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,

Which thou wilt propagate, to have it pressed

With more of thine. This love that thou hast shown

(180) 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 vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears.

What is it else? A madness most discreet,

(185) A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.

Farewell, my coz.

That’s how it works with love. My own sadness is a heavy weight on my chest, and now you’re going to add your own sadness to mine. The love you are showing me is only increasing my grief. Love is like a smoke made out of the sighs of lovers. When the smoke clears, love is a fire burning in the lovers eyes. But if that love is thwarted, then it is a sea made out of lover’s tears. What else is love? A wise madness. A sweet candy that makes you choke. Goodbye, my cousin.

BENVOLIO

Soft! I will go along.

And if you leave me so, you do me wrong.

Wait! I’ll come with you. If you leave me behind, you’ll be insulting me.

ROMEO

Tut, I have lost myself. I am not here.

This is not Romeo. He’s some other where.

Man! I’m not acting like myself. It’s as if I’m not even here. This is not Romeo, he’s somewhere else.

BENVOLIO

(190) Tell me in sadness, who is that you love.

Tell me, seriously, who is the one you love?

ROMEO

What, shall I groan and tell thee?

What? Should I cry out the name in a groan of sadness?

BENVOLIO

Groan! Why, no. But sadly, tell me who.

Groan? No. Just tell me who it is.

ROMEO

A sick man in sadness makes his will,

A word ill urged to one that is so ill.

(195) In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.

You wouldn’t ask a sick man to “seriously” write out his will—it would only make him feel worse. Seriously, cousin, I love a woman.

BENVOLIO

I aimed so near when I supposed you loved.

I figured that when I guessed you were in love.

ROMEO

A right good markman! And she’s fair I love.

Then you have good aim! The woman I love is beautiful.

BENVOLIO

A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.

A beautiful “target,” my cousin, is usually the one that is hit fastest.

ROMEO

Well, in that hit you miss. She’ll not be hit

(200) With Cupid’s arrow. She hath Dian’s wit.

And, in strong proof of chastity well armed

From love’s weak childish bow, she lives uncharmed.

She will not stay the siege of loving terms,

Nor bide th’ encounter of assailing eyes,

(205) Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold.

Oh, she is rich in beauty, only poor

That when she dies, with beauty dies her store.

Well, now you missed the target. She won’t be hit by Cupid’s arrow. She’s like Diana, protected by the armor of chastity. She is immune to the weak and childish arrows of love. She ignores words of love, refuses to even let you look at her with loving eyes, or open her lap to receive golden gifts. She’s rich in beauty. But she’s also poor, because when she dies her beauty will be destroyed along with her.

BENVOLIO

Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?

So she’s sworn to live her life a virgin ?

ROMEO

She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste,

(210) 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

(215) Do I live dead that live to tell it now.

She has, and in doing so she wastes her beauty, because by living in chastity she ensures that she will never pas her beauty on to her children. She’s too beautiful, too smart, to be allowed to gain entrance to Heaven by making me despair. She’s sworn never to love, and in that vow has sentenced me to a kind of living death.

BENVOLIO

Be ruled by me. Forget to think of her.

Listen to me. Stop thinking about her.

ROMEO

O, teach me how I should forget to think!

How can I stop myself from thinking?

BENVOLIO

By giving liberty unto thine eyes.

Examine other beauties.

By letting your eyes wander, and looking at other good-looking girls.

ROMEO

‘Tis the way

(220) 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.

(225) 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.

Such comparisons will only make her own beauty more obvious. It will be like the masks that pretty girls wear to hide their faces, and which, by hiding their beauty, make us think of it more. A blind man can’t forget the precious eyesight he lost. Show me any beautiful girl. Her beauty is no more than a reminder of where I can see someone who is even more beautiful. Goodbye. You can’t teach me to forget.

BENVOLIO

I’ll pay that doctrine or else die in debt.

I’ll take that bet, or else die in debt.

[They exit.]

Act 1, Scene 2

[CAPULET, PARIS, and a servant, PETER, enter]

CAPULET

But Montague is bound as well as I,

In penalty alike. And ’tis not hard, I think,

For men so old as we to keep the peace.

Montague has sworn the same oath I have, and is bound by the same penalty. I don’t think it should be hard for men as old as us to remain peaceful.

PARIS

Of honorable reckoning are you both.

(5) And pity ’tis you lived at odds so long.

But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?

You both have honorable reputations. It’s a pity you’ve been enemies for so long. But, now, how do you respond to my request?

CAPULET

But saying o’er what I have said before.

My child is yet a stranger in the world.

She hath not seen the change of fourteen years.

(10) Let two more summers wither in their pride

Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.

By repeating what I’ve said before. My child is still extremely young. She’s not yet even fourteen years old. Let’s let two more summers come and go before we start to think that she would be ready to be a bride.

PARIS

Younger than she are happy mothers made.

Girls who are younger than your daughter often become happy mothers.

CAPULET

And too soon marred are those so early made.

Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she.

(15) 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.

An she agreed within her scope of choice,

Lies my consent and fair according voice.

(20) 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

(25) Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light.

Such comfort as do lusty young men feel

When well-appareled April on the heel

Of limping winter treads. Even such delight

Among fresh fennel buds shall you this night

(30) 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 PETER, giving him a paper)

(35) 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.

Girls who marry that young grow up too quickly. All of my hopes on this earth rest in her. But it is okay for you to woo her, gentle Paris; win her love. My permission for you to marry her is only part of it; she must also agree to marry you. Then my blessing on the marriage will confirm her choice. This very night I’m hosting a feast that I’ve celebrated for many years. I’ve invited many guests, many close friends. I’d like to invite you as well to be a most welcome guest. At my humble home tonight, you’ll see see stars that walk the earth and light the sky from below. Like all lusty young men, you’ll be delighted by the young women who are as fresh as spring flowers. Look at them all, and choose whichever woman you like best. Amidst all these girls, you may no longer think that my daughter’s the most beautiful. Come with me. (to PETER, handing him a paper) Go, sir, walk all around Verona. Find the people whose names are on this list and tell them they’re invited to my house tonight.

[CAPULET and PARIS exit.]

PETER

(40) Find them out whose names are written here? It is written, that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard and the tailor with his last, the fisher with his pencil and the painter with his nets. But I am sent to find those persons whose names are here writ, and can never find what names the writing person hath here writ. I must to the learned in good time!

Find the people whose names are on this list? It’s written that shoemakers and tailors should use each others’ tools, and that fisherman should play with paints while painters should play with with fishing nets. But now I’ve been sent to find the people on this list, and I can’t read. I’ll have to ask somebody educated to help me.

[BENVOLIO and ROMEO enter]

BENVOLIO

(45) Tut man, one fire burns out another’s burning.

One pain is lessened by another’s anguish.

Turn giddy, and be helped by backward turning.

One desperate grief cures with another’s languish.

Take thou some new infection to thy eye,

(50) And the rank poison of the old will die.

Come on, Romeo. Starting a new fire will put out the old one. An old pain is lessened by the arrival of a new one. If you make yourself dizzy, you can cure yourself by spinning in the other direction. A new grief will cure an old one. Stare obsessively at some new girl, and your former lovesickness will disappear.

ROMEO

Your plantain leaf is excellent for that.

The plantain leaf is excellent for that.

BENVOLIO

For what, I pray thee?

For what?

ROMEO

For your broken shin.

For treating your injured shin.

BENVOLIO

Why Romeo, art thou mad?

Have you gone mad?

ROMEO

(55) Not mad, but bound more than a madman is,

Shut up in prison, kept without my food,

Whipped and tormented and—Good e’en, good fellow.

No, though I’m bound more tightly than any mental patient is. I’m locked in a prison without food. I’m whipped, tortured—(to PETER) Good evening, good fellow.

PETER

God ‘i’ good e’en. I pray, sir, can you read?

A blessed good evening to you. Excuse me, sir, but do you know how to read?

ROMEO

Ay, mine own fortune in my misery.

Yes. I can read my fortune in my misery.

PETER

(60) Perhaps you have learned it without book. But I pray, can you read anything you see?

Perhaps you’ve learned to read from life rather than from books. But, I beg your answer, can you read anything you see?

ROMEO

Ay, if I know the letters and the language.

Yes, if I know the letters and the language.

PETER

Ye say honestly. Rest you merry.

You speak honestly. Have a nice day.

ROMEO

Stay, fellow. I can read. (he reads the letter)

(65) “Seigneur Martino and his wife and daughters;

County Anselme and his beauteous sisters;

The lady widow of Vitruvio;

Seigneur Placentio and his lovely nieces;

Mercutio and his brother Valentine;

(70) Mine uncle Capulet, his wife and daughters;

My fair niece Rosaline and Livia;

Seigneur Valentio and his cousin Tybalt;

Lucio and the lively Helena.”

A fair assembly. Whither should they come?

Stay, friend. I can read. (He reads the letter) “Signor Martino and his wife and daughters, Count Anselme and his gorgeous sisters; the lady, Vitravio’s widow; Signor Placentio and his lovely nieces; Mercutio and his brother Valentine; My uncle Capulet and his wife and daughters; my fair niece Rosaline; Livia, Signor Valentio and his cousin Tybalt; Lucio and the lively Helena.” That’s quite a fancy list of people. Where are they supposed to go?

PETER

(75) Up.

Up.

ROMEO

Whither?

Where?

PETER

To supper; to our house.

To supper. To our house.

ROMEO

Whose house?

Whose house?

PETER

My master’s.

My master’s house.

ROMEO

(80) Indeed, I should have asked thee that before.

Indeed, I should have asked you that earlier.

PETER

Now I’ll tell you without asking. My master is the great rich Capulet, and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray come and crush a cup of wine. Rest you merry!

I’ll tell you so that you don’t have to ask. My master is the great, rich Capulet, and as long as you are not a Montague, I invite you to come and drink a cup of wine at our house. Have a nice day!

[PETER exits.]

BENVOLIO

At this same ancient feast of Capulet’s

(85) Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so loves

With all the admired beauties of Verona.

Go thither, and with unattainted eye

Compare her face with some that I shall show,

And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.

Rosaline whom you love so much is going to attend this traditional feast of Capulet’s, along with all the beautiful woman of Verona. Go there and, without bias, compare her to some of the girls I’ll point out to you. I’ll show you that the woman you think is as beautiful as a swan is in fact as ugly as a crow.

ROMEO

(90) When the devout religion of mine eye

Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires,

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.

If my eyes ever show me such a lie about the woman they worship, then may my tears turn into flames so that my eyes, which never drowned in all my tears, be burned for being such clear liars! A woman more beautiful my love? The sun has never seen anyone as beautiful since the world began.

BENVOLIO

Tut, you saw her fair, none else being by,

Herself poised with herself in either eye.

But in that crystal scales let there be weighed

Your lady’s love against some other maid

(100) That I will show you shining at the feast,

And she shall scant show well that now shows best.

Oh come on. You decided she was beautiful when no one else was around and there was no one to compare her to except herself. But if instead you compare her to some other beautiful woman who I’ll point out to you at this feast, you’ll see that she’s far from the best.

ROMEO

I’ll go along, no such sight to be shown,

But to rejoice in splendor of mine own.

I’ll go with you. Not because I think I’ll see such a sight as you suggest, but so I can rejoice in the beauty of the woman I love.

[They exit.]

Act 1, Scene 3

[LADY CAPULET and the NURSE enter.]

LADY CAPULET

Nurse, where’s my daughter? Call her forth to me.

Nurse, where’s my daughter? Tell her to come here.

NURSE

Now, by my maidenhead at twelve year old

I bade her come. What, lamb! What, ladybird!

God forbid! Where’s this girl? What, Juliet!

I swear by my virginity at age twelve, I told her to come. What is this?! Heaven forbid! Where is she? Juliet!

[JULIET enters.]

JULIET

(5) How now, who calls?

What? Who’s calling me?

NURSE

Your mother.

Your mother.

JULIET

Madam, I am here. What is your will?

Madam, I’m here. What do you want?

LADY CAPULET

This is the matter.—Nurse, give leave awhile,

We must talk in secret.—Nurse, come back again.

(10) I have remembered me. Thou’s hear our counsel.

Thou know’st my daughter’s of a pretty age.

Here’s what I want—Nurse, leave us for a bit while we talk privately—wait, no, Nurse, come back. I just remembered, you can listen to our secrets. You know my daughter’s age.

NURSE

Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.

Yes, I know her age to the hour.

LADY CAPULET

She’s not fourteen.

She’s not yet fourteen.

NURSE

I’ll lay fourteen of my teeth—and yet, to my teen be it spoken, I have but four—she is not fourteen. How long is it now to Lammastide?

I’d bet fourteen of my teeth—but, to be honest, I actually only have four teeth—that she’s not fourteen. How long is it until Lammastide?

LADY CAPULET

A fortnight and odd days.

Two weeks and a few odd days.

NURSE

Even or odd, of all days in the year,

Come Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen.

(20) 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.

(25) ‘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.

(30) 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!

(35) “Shake!” quoth the dovehouse. ‘Twas no need, I trow,

To bid me trudge.

And since that time it is eleven years,

For then she could stand alone. Nay, by the rood,

She could have run and waddled all about,

(40) 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,

(45) Wilt thou not, Jule?” and, by my holy dame,

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.

(50) And, pretty fool, it stinted and said “ay.”

Even or odd, of all the days in the year, she’ll be fourteen on the night of Lammas Eve. She and my daughter Susan—God rest all Christian souls—were born that same day. Well, Susan died and is now with God. She was too good for me. But, as I said, on the night of Lammas Eve, Juliet will be fourteen. Yes, she will indeed. I remember it well. It’s been eleven years since the earthquake, and it was on that very day that she stopped nursing from my breast. I’ll never forget it. I had put some bitter wormwood on my breast as I was sitting in the sun, under the wall of the dovehouse. Your husband and you were in Mantua. Oh my, what a great memory I have! As I said, when Juliet tasted the bitter wormwood on my nipple, the pretty little thing got angry with my breast. That’s when the earthquake hit and the dovehouse started to shake. You didn’t have to tell me to get out of there. It’s been eleven years since then. She could stand up by herself then. No, in fact, by then she could run and waddle all over the place. I remember because just the day before she had cut her forehead. My husband—God rest his soul, he was a merry man—picked Juliet up. “Oh,” he said, “Did you fall on your face? You’ll fall backward when you grow up, won’t you, Jule?” And, by God, the pretty little thing stopped crying and said, “Yes.” To watch a joke come true! Even if I live a thousand years I’ll never forget it. “Won’t you, Jule,” he said. And the pretty fool stopped crying and said, “Yes.”

LADY CAPULET

Enough of this. I pray thee, hold thy peace.

Enough. Please be quiet.

NURSE

Yes, madam. Yet I cannot choose but laugh

To think it should leave crying and say “ay.”

And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow

(55) A bump as big as a young cockerel’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.”

Yes ,madam. But I have to laugh when I think that the baby stopped crying and said, “Yes.” What’s more, I swear she had a bump on her forehead as big as a rooster’s testicle. It was quite a knock she took, and she was crying bitterly. “Yes,” said my husband, “Did you fall on your face? You’ll fall backward when you grow up, won’t you, Jule?” And she stopped crying and said, “Yes.’

JULIET

(60) And stint thou too, I pray thee, Nurse, say I.

Stop now, Nurse, please.

NURSE

Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace!

Thou wast the prettiest babe that e’er I nursed.

An I might live to see thee married once,

I have my wish.

Peace. I’m done. May you recieve God’s grace. You were the prettiest baby I ever nursed. If I live to see you get married someday, my wishes will be fulfilled.

LADY CAPULET

(65) Marry, that “marry” is the very theme

I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet,

How stands your disposition to be married?

In fact, marriage is exactly what I came here to discuss. Tell me, Juliet my daughter, what do you think about getting married?

JULIET

It is an honor that I dream not of.

It;s an honor that I don’t think about at all.

NURSE

An honor! Were not I thine only nurse,

(70) I would say thou hadst sucked wisdom from thy teat.

“An honor!” If I weren’t the only nurse you’ve had, I’d say you’d sucked wisdom from the breast that fed you.

LADY CAPULET

Well, think of marriage now. Younger than you

Here in Verona, ladies of esteem

Are made already mothers. By my count,

I was your mother much upon these years

(75) That you are now a maid. Thus then in brief:

The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.

Well, you should start thinking about marriage. In Verona girls from noble families who are younger than you have already become mothers. By my count, I was already your mother at around your age, while you remain a virgin. So, to be brief: the valiant Paris wants to marry you.

NURSE

A man, young lady! Lady, such a man

As all the world. Why, he’s a man of wax.

What a man, young lady! He’s a man as great as any other in the world. He’s so perfect it’s as if he were sculpted from wax.

LADY CAPULET

Verona’s summer hath not such a flower.

Verona in the summertime has no flower as fine as him.

NURSE

(80) Nay, he’s a flower. In faith, a very flower.

He’s a fine flower, absolutely, a flower.

LADY CAPULET

What say you? Can you love the gentleman?

This night you shall behold him at our feast.

Read o’er the volume of young Paris’ face

And find delight writ there with beauty’s pen.

(85) Examine every married lineament

And see how one another lends content,

And what obscured in this fair volume lies

Find written in the margin of his eyes.

This precious book of love, this unbound lover,

(90) 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.

(95) So shall you share all that he doth possess

By having him, making yourself no less.

What do you say, Juliet? Can you love this gentleman? Tonight he’ll be at our feast. Look at his face and delight in his beauty. Examine how all the lines of his features combine to make him handsome. And what you can’t see in his beauty, find by looking in his eyes. This wonderful, loving man lacks only a bride to make him perfect. As fish do not hide from the sea, neither should a beauty like you hide from a handsome man like him. Everyone thinks he’s handsome, and whoever becomes his bride would be equally loved. You would share all that he possesses, and lose nothing by having him.

NURSE

No less? Nay, bigger. Women grow by men.

Lose nothing? No, you’d get bigger. Men make women bigger (editor’s note: by making them pregnant).

LADY CAPULET

Speak briefly. Can you like of Paris, love?

Answer me now. Can you love Paris?

JULIET

I’ll look to like if looking liking move.

(100) But no more deep will I endart mine eye

Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.

I’ll look at him with the intent to like him, if looking at him moves me to like him. But I won’t let myself fall for him any more than your permission allows.

[PETER enters.]

PETER

Madam, the guests are come, supper served up, you 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.

Madam, the guests are here and dinner is served. Your guests call for you and Juliet, while the servants in the pantry are cursing the Nurse. Things are getting out of control. I must rush off to serve the guests. Please, follow right after me.

LADY CAPULET

We follow thee.—Juliet, the county stays.

We’ll follow you. Juliet, Paris is waiting for you.

NURSE

Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.

Go, Juliet, and find the man who’ll give you happy nights that follow happy days.

[All exit.]

Act 1, Scene 4

ROMEO, MERCUTIO, and BENVOLIO enter wearing party masks. Five other men wearing party masks and carrying torches enter with them.

ROMEO

What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse?

Or shall we on without apology?

What excuse will we make? Or should we enter without apology?

BENVOLIO

The date is out of such prolixity.

We’ll have no Cupid hoodwinked with a scarf,

(5) 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.

(10) We’ll measure them a measure and be gone.

It’s no longer fashionable to talk that much. We’re not going to announce our entrance with some guy blindfolded, dressed up as Cupid, and carrying a toy bow in order to scare the ladies like some scarecrow. Nor will we introduce ourselves with a memorized speech. They can judge us however they want. We’ll dance a dance and then get out of there.

ROMEO

Give me a torch. I am not for this ambling.

Being but heavy, I will bear the light.

Give me a torch. I don’t feel like dancing. Since I’m sad, I might as well carry the light.

MERCUTIO

Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.

No, sweet Romeo, you have to dance.

ROMEO

Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes

(15) With nimble soles. I have a soul of lead

So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.

Not me, believe me. You’ve got on dancing shoes with nimble soles. But my soul is made of lead that anchors me to the ground so heavily that I can’t move.

MERCUTIO

You are a lover. Borrow Cupid’s wings

And soar with them above a common bound.

You’re a lover. Borrow Cupid’s wings and use them to soar higher than the average man.

ROMEO

I am too sore enpiercèd with his shaft

(20) 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.

I’ve been too strongly pierced by his arrow to soar. My wounded heart won’t let me escape my dull sadness. I am sinking under love’s heavy burden.

MERCUTIO

And to sink in it, should you burthen love—

Too great oppression for a tender thing.

If you sink in love, then you’re burdening it. You’re putting too much weight on such a tender thing.

ROMEO

(25) Is love a tender thing? It is too rough,

Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn.

Is love really so tender? To me it seems too rough, too rude, too unruly, and it pricks like a thorn.

MERCUTIO

If love be rough with you, be rough with love.

Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.—

Give me a case to put my visage in!

(30) A visor for a visor.—What care I

What curious eye doth cote deformities?

Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me.

If love is rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love when it pricks you, and you’ll beat love down. Give me a mask to put over my face. A mask to cover that mask I call my face. What do I care if someone sees my flaws? Let the dark eyebrows of this mask blush for me.

BENVOLIO

Come, knock and enter. And no sooner in

But every man betake him to his legs.

Come on, let’s knock and go inside. And once inside, let’s all start dancing.

ROMEO

(35) A torch for me. Let wantons light of heart

Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels.

For I am proverbed with a grandsire phrase,

I’ll be a candle holder, and look on.

The game was ne’er so fair, and I am done.

Give me a torch to carry. Let those with light hearts dance. There’s an old proverb that fits me perfectly. I’ll hold a torch and watch. The game looks like fun, but I’m done with it.

MERCUTIO

(40) Tut, dun’s the mouse, the constable’s own word.

If thou art dun, we’ll draw thee from the mire,

Or—save your reverence—love, wherein thou stick’st

Up to the ears. Come, we burn daylight, ho!

Come on, “dun” is the color of a timid mouse. You’re being as timid as a patrolman on night duty. If you’re a stick stuck in the mud, we’ll pull you out—pardon me for being rude— out of the love in which you’re stuck up to your ears. Come on, we’re wasting daylight.

ROMEO

Nay, that’s not so.

Uh, that’s wrong—it’s night.

MERCUTIO

I mean, sir, in delay.

(45) We waste our lights in vain, like lights by day.

Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits

Five times in that ere once in our five wits.

I mean, sir, that by delaying we’re wasting our torches, which is like wasting the sunshine during the day. Show your good judgment by taking what I say the way I mean it, which is five times more important than literally trusting your senses.

ROMEO

And we mean well in going to this mask,

But ’tis no wit to go.

We mean well by going to this party, but it’s not smart of us to go.

MERCUTIO

Why, may one ask?

Why, may I ask?

ROMEO

(50) I dreamt a dream tonight.

I dreamed a dream last night.

MERCUTIO

And so did I.

So did I.

ROMEO

Well, what was yours?

What was your dream?

MERCUTIO

That dreamers often lie.

I dreamed that dreamers often lie.

ROMEO

In bed asleep while they do dream things true.

They lie in bed while dreaming about true things.

MERCUTIO

Oh, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.

Oh, then I see Queen Mab has visited you.

BENVOLIO

Queen Mab, what’s she

Queen Mab? Who’s she?

MERCUTIO

(55) 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.

(60) Her wagon spokes made of long spinners’ legs,

The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,

Her traces of the smallest spider’s web,

Her collars of the moonshine’s watery beams,

Her whip of cricket’s bone, the lash of film,

(65) 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,

(70) 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 curtsies straight;

O’er lawyers’ fingers, who straight dream on fees;

(75) 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.

(80) 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,

(85) 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

(90) That plaits 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,

(95) Making them women of good carriage.

This is she—

She’s the fairies’ midwife, and is no bigger than the stone on the ring of a city councilman. She rides her carriage, which is pulled by tiny little creatures, over men’s noses as they lie sleeping. The wheel spokes of her carriage are made of spiders’ legs, its cover is made of grasshopper wings, and its harnesses are made of the smallest spiderwebs. The horse collars are made from moonbeams, while her whip is a single cobweb attached to a cricket bone. Her wagon driver is a tiny gnat wearing a gray coat that is not even half as large as a little round worm that comes from the finger of a lazy young girl. (editor’s note: in folklore, unmarried girls who were lazy were thought to have worms in their blood.) Her carriage is an empty hazelnut, made by a squirrel and an old worm, which have been the fairies’ carriage-builders for countless years.  With this magnificent carriage she rides each night through the brains of lovers, who then dream about love. She rides across courtiers’ knees, who then dream about bowing and curtsying. She rides over lawyers’ fingers, who then dream about their fees. She rides over ladies’ lips, and they immediately dream of kisses. But Queen Mab often puts blisters on their lips because their breath smells of candy, which angers her. Sometimes she rides over a courtier’s nose, and he dreams of sniffing out a way to make some money. Sometimes she tickles a priest’s nose with the tail of pig given as a tithe to the church, and he dreams of getting a high-paid church position. Sometimes she drives over a soldier’s neck, and he dreams of cutting the throats of foreigners, of breaking through fortifications, of ambushes, of the finest-quality Spanish swords, and of huge mugs of alcohol before suddenly waking, frightened, by the sound of drums in his ears. Then he says a prayer or two and goes back to sleep. Mab is the one who tangles the hair of horses’ manes at night and then hardens the tangles in the foul, dirty hairs; tangles which, if you undo them, bring bad luck. Mab is the hag who gives dreams of sex to virgins and teaches them how to bear the weight of a lover and to bear a child. She’s the one—

ROMEO

Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!

Thou talk’st of nothing.

Calm down, calm down! Mercutio, be calm. You’re talking about nothing.

MERCUTIO

True, I talk of dreams,

Which are the children of an idle brain,

Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,

(100) 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 face to the dew-dropping south.

True. I’m talking about dreams, which are produced by a brain that’s doing nothing. Dreams are born of no more than empty fantasy, which is as substanceless as air, and more unpredictable than the wind, which can blows on the frozen north and then suddenly get angry and blow south.

BENVOLIO

(105) This wind you talk of, blows us from ourselves.

Supper is done, and we shall come too late.

This wind you’re talking about is blowing us off course. Dinner is already over. We’re going to get there too late.

ROMEO

I fear too early, for my mind misgives

Some consequence yet hanging in the stars

Shall bitterly begin his fearful date

(110) 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.

I fear we’re going to arrive too early. I have a feeling this party tonight is fated to set in motion some awful destiny that will result in my own untimely death. But whoever’s in charge of my fate can steer me where they want. Let’s go, my lusty friends!

BENVOLIO

(115) Strike, drum.

Strike the drum.

[They march around the stage and exit.]

Act 1, Scene 5

[PETER and other SERVINGMEN enter, carrying napkins.]

PETER

Where’s Potpan, that he helps not to take away? He shift a trencher? He scrape a trencher!

Where’s Potpan, who’s not helping us clear the table? Has he even moved or scraped a plate?

FIRST SERVINGMAN

When good manners shall lie all in one or two men’s hands, and they unwashed too, ’tis a foul thing.

When all the good manners are owned by just one or two men, and even those two are dirty, it’s a bad thing.

PETER

(5) Away with the joint-stools, remove the court-cupboard, look to the plate. Good thou, save me a piece of marchpane, and, as thou loves me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone and Nell.—Antony and Potpan!

Clear away the stools, sideboards, and plates. My friend, save me a piece of marzipan, and if you love me, have the porter let in Susan Grindstone and Nell. Antony and Potpan!

SECOND SERVINGMAN

Ay, boy, ready.

Yes, boy, I’m ready.

PETER

(10) You are looked for and called for, asked for and sought for, in the great chamber.

You’re being called for, asked after, and looked for in the great chamber.

FIRST SERVINGMAN

We cannot be here and there too. Cheerly, boys. Be brisk

0awhile, and the longer liver take all.

We can’t be both here and there at once! Be cheerful, boys. Be quick for a while, and may the longest lived take everything.

[PETER and the SERVINGMEN exit.]

[CAPULET enters with his cousin, TYBALT, LADY CAPULET, JULIET, and other Capulets. They meet ROMEO, BENVOLIO, MERCUTIO, and other guests and MASKERS]

CAPULET

Welcome, gentlemen! Ladies that have their toes

(15) 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 ye now?—

Welcome, gentlemen! I have seen the day

(20) That I have worn a visor and could tell

A whispering tale in a fair lady’s ear

Such as would please. ‘Tis gone, ’tis gone, ’tis gone.—

You are welcome, gentlemen.—Come, musicians, play.

(music plays and they dance)

(25) 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,

(30) For you and I are past our dancing days.

How long is ’t now since last yourself and I

Were in a mask?

Welcome, gentlemen. All the ladies who aren’t suffering from corns on their feet will dance with you. Ha ha! My ladies, now which of you will refuse to dance now? If any of you acts shyly, I’ll swear she has corns. Have I hit the mark? Welcome, gentlemen. Once there was a time when I could wear a mask and charm a girl by whispering a story in her ear. No more, no more, no more. You are welcome gentlemen. Come, musicians, play. (music plays and they dance) Make room in the hall! Make room! Dance, girls. (to SERVINGMEN) More light. Move the tables out of the way. Put out the fire—it’s getting hot in here. (to his COUSIN) Ah, sir, these unexpected guests are welcome. No, sit, sit, my Capulet cousin. We’re too old to dance. How long has it been since you and I last wore masks?

CAPULETS’ COUSIN

By’r Lady, thirty years.

I’d swear thirty years.

CAPULET

What, man, ’tis not so much, ’tis not so much.

‘Tis since the nuptials of Lucentio,

(35) Come Pentecost as quickly as it will,

Some five and twenty years, and then we masked.

What, man? It’s not been that long, not that long. It was at Lucentio’s wedding. No matter how quickly the years fly by, it’s been just twenty-five years since we wore masks.

CAPULET’S COUSIN

‘Tis more, ’tis more. His son is elder, sir.

His son is thirty.

Longer, longer. Lucentio’s son is older than that, sir. He’s thirty.

CAPULET

Will you tell me that?

His son was but a ward two years ago.

How can you say that? His son was still a minor two years ago.

ROMEO

(40) (to a SERVINGMAN) What lady is that which doth enrich the hand

Of yonder knight?

(to a SERVINGMAN) Who is that girl decorating the arm of that man over there?

SERVINGMAN

I know not, sir.

I don’t know, sir.

ROMEO

Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night

Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear,

(45) 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.

(50) Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!

For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.

Oh, she teaches the torches to burn bright! She glows in the darkness like a jewel in the ear of an African. Her beauty is too good to be used and worn, too precious for this world. Like a white dove in a flock of crows, she surpasses all the other women. When this dance ends, I’ll note where she stands, and then I’ll touch her hand and thereby bless my ugly one. Did I ever love anyone before this moment? Renounce that love, my eyes! I never saw true beauty until this night.

TYBALT

This, by his voice, should be a Montague.—

(to his PAGE) Fetch me my rapier, boy.—

What, dares the slave

(55) 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.

By his voice I know that this man is a Montague. (to his PAGE) Get my sword, boy.—How dare this punk come here with his face covered by a mask so he can mock and scorn our celebration? To defend the honor of my family, I don’t think it would be a sin to kill him.

CAPULET

Why, how now, kinsman? Wherefore storm you so?

What’s all this, nephew? Why are so furious?

TYBALT

(60) Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe,

A villain that is hither come in spite

To scorn at our solemnity this night.

Uncle, that is a Montague—our rival. He’s a rogue who’s come here out of spite to scorn our celebration.

CAPULET

Young Romeo is it?

It’s young Romeo, right?

TYBALT

‘Tis he, that villain Romeo.

That’s him, that villain Romeo.

CAPULET

Content thee, gentle coz. Let him alone.

(65) 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 the town

Here in my house do him disparagement.

(70) 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.

Calm yourself, gentle cousin. Leave him be. He holds himself like a gentleman of good manners, and, to be honest, everyone in Verona says that he is a virtuous and well-behaved youth. Not for all the wealth in this town would I insult him in my own house. Be calm. Pretend you never saw him. That is my command, and if you respect me you’ll stop with all these frowns, which is no way to behave at a party.

TYBALT

It fits when such a villain is a guest.

(75) I’ll not endure him.

It’s the way to behave when a jerk like him shows up. I won’t stand him coming here.

CAPULET

He shall be endured.

What, goodman boy! I say, he shall. Go to.

Am I the master here, or you? Go to.

You’ll not endure him! God shall mend my soul,

You’ll make a mutiny among my guests.

(80) You will set cock-a-hoop. You’ll be the man!

You will stand him. What, boy? I say you will. Get out of here. Am I the master here, or you? Get out. You won’t stand him? God save my soul, you’ll start a riot among my guests! And you’ll crow like a rooster, like you’re the man!

TYBALT

Why, uncle, ’tis a shame.

But, uncle, we’re being dishonered.

CAPULET

Go to, go to.

You are a saucy boy. Is ’t so, indeed?

This trick may chance to scathe you, I know what.

You must contrary me. Marry, ’tis time.—

(85) 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!

Come on, come on. You’re an impertinent boy. Is that really how you think it is? This silliness is likely to come back to harm you. I know what I’m doing, but you feel the need to contradict me. Well, I’ll show you a thing or two. (to the GUESTS) Well done, my dears! (to TYBALT) You’re an insolent boy, now shoo. Keep your mouth shut — (to SERVINGMEN) more light, more light! (to TYBALT) — I’ll make you be quiet. (to the guests) Party on, my friends!

[The music plays again, and the guests dance]

TYBALT

Patience perforce with willful choler meeting

Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.

(90) I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall

Now seeming sweet, convert to bitterest gall.

The blend of enforced restraint with my burning rage is making me tremble. I’ll leave, but I’ll make Romeo regret this prank, which at the moment seems to him like such great fun.

[TYBALT exits.]

ROMEO

(taking JULIET’s hand) If I profane with my unworthiest hand

This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:

(95) My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand

To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

(taking JULIET’s hand) If I offend you by touching your holy hand with my own unworthy one, then my lips stand ready, like two blushing pilgrims, to smooth my rough touch with a gentle kiss.

JULIET

Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,

Which mannerly devotion shows in this,

For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,

And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.

Good pilgrim, you are unfair to your hand. Your hand shows proper devotion by touching mine, just as pilgrims reach out to touch the hands of saints. Holding palm to palm is like a pilgrim’s kiss.

ROMEO

(100) Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?

Don’t saints, and pilgrims too, have lips?

JULIET

Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

Yes, pilgrim—lips they’re supposed to use to pray.

ROMEO

O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do.

They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

Oh, then, saint, let lips do what hands do: pray. Grant my prayer or my faith will turn to despair.

JULIET

Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake.

Saints don’t move, though they do grant prayers.

ROMEO

(105) Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take.

Then remain still while I pray.

[He kisses her]

Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged.

Now your lips have cleaned the sin from mine.

JULIET

Then have my lips the sin that they have took.

Then my lips now have the sin they took from yours.

ROMEO

Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!

(110) Give me my sin again.

Sin from my lips? Oh how you urge me on to another crime. Give me back my sin.

[They kiss again]

JULIET

You kiss by th’ book.

You kiss as if you’ve studied how. (Editor’s note: Juliet is also teasing about how Romeo used religion, the Bible or “the book,” to steal two kisses)

NURSE

Madam, your mother craves a word with you.

Madam, your mother wants to speak with you.

[JULIET moves away]

ROMEO

What is her mother?

Who is her mother?

NURSE

Marry, bachelor,

Her mother is the lady of the house,

And a good lady, and a wise and virtuous.

(115) I nursed her daughter that you talked withal.

I tell you, he that can lay hold of her

Shall have the chinks.

Well, young man, her mother is the lady of the house. A good, wise, and virtuous lady. I nursed her daughter, who you were talking to just now. I tell you, the man who marries that girl will be rich.

ROMEO

(aside) Is she a Capulet?

O dear account! My life is my foe’s debt.

(to himself) Is she a Capulet? Oh, what a price I’ve paid! My life is now owned by my enemy.

BENVOLIO

(to ROMEO) Away, begone. The sport is at the best.

(to ROMEO) Let’s go, let’s go, now while everything is still perfect.

ROMEO

(120) Ay, so I fear. The more is my unrest.

Yes, it is still perfect now. But I’m afraid it will never be again.

CAPULET

Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone.

We have a trifling foolish banquet towards.—

Is it e’en so? Why, then, I thank you all.

I thank you, honest gentlemen. Good night.—

(125) More torches here!—Come on then, let’s to bed.

Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late.

I’ll to my rest.

No, gentlemen, don’t leave now. We have a bit of dessert arriving any moment — (they whisper something to him) Is that so? Then, I thank you. I thank you, honest gentlemen. Good night. Bring more torches over here! Come on, let’s all get to bed. (to his COUSIN) Ah, good sir, by God, it’s late. I’m going sleep.

[Everyone except JULIET and NURSE begins to exit.]

JULIET

Come hither, Nurse. What is yond gentleman?

Come here, nurse. Who is that gentleman over there?

NURSE

The son and heir of old Tiberio.

The son and heir of old Tiberio.

JULIET

(130) What’s he that now is going out of door?

Who’s the one going out the door?

NURSE

Marry, that, I think, be young Petruchio.

That, I think, is young Petruchio.

JULIET

What’s he that follows here, that would not dance?

What about the one over there, who wouldn’t dance?

NURSE

I know not.

I don’t know him.

JULIET

Go ask his name.—If he be married.

(135) My grave is like to be my wedding bed.

Go ask. (the nurse leaves; JULIET speaks to herself) If he’s married, I’d rather die than marry someone else.

NURSE

His name is Romeo, and a Montague,

The only son of your great enemy.

(returning) His name is Romeo. He’s a Montague. He’s the only son of your greatest enemy.

JULIET

(aside) My only love sprung from my only hate!

Too early seen unknown, and known too late!

(140) Prodigious birth of love it is to me,

That I must love a loathèd enemy.

(to herself) The one man I love is the son of the one man I hate! I saw him before I knewg who he was, and learned who he was too late! What a monster love is to make me love my worst enemy.

NURSE

What’s this? What’s this?

What’s this? What’s this?

JULIET

A rhyme I learned even now

Of one I danced withal.

A rhyme I learned just now from somebody I danced with.

[Somebody calls “Juliet!” offstage.]

NURSE

Anon, anon!

Come, let’s away. The strangers all are gone.

On my way, on my way. Let’s go. The guests are all gone.

[They exit.]

Act 2, Prologue

[The CHORUS enters.]

CHORUS

Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie,

And young affection gapes to be his heir.

That fair for which love groaned for and would die

With tender Juliet matched, is now not fair.

(5) 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

(10) To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear.

And she as much in love, her means much less

To meet her new beloved anywhere.

But passion lends them power, time means, to meet,

Tempering extremities with extreme sweet.

Now Romeo’s old desire is on its deathbed, while a young love pushes to take its place. The girl Romeo groaned after and would have died for, when now compared to Juliet, is no longer beautiful to him. Now Romeo is loved and loves again—each bewitched by the others’ beauty. But the girl he loves is supposed to be his enemy, and she’s taken the sweet bait of love from a sharp hook. Because the Capulets think him an enemy, Romeo may not be able to get close enough to speak his words of love to her. And Juliet, just as much in love, has even less power to meet her new lover anywhere. Yet passion gives them power and time the opportunity to meet, as they blend extreme peril with extreme pleasure.

[The CHORUS exits.]

Act 2, Scene 1

[ROMEO enters alone.]

ROMEO

Can I go forward when my heart is here?

Turn back, dull earth, and find thy center out.

Can I continue on while my heart stays here? I’ll be nothing but an empty body unless I go back to find my heart.

[ROMEO moves away. BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO enter.]

BENVOLIO

Romeo, my cousin Romeo! Romeo!

Romeo! Cousin Romeo! Romeo!

MERCUTIO

He is wise,

And, on my life, hath stol’n him home to bed.

He’s smart. I’d bet my life he’s snuck off home to go to bed.

BENVOLIO

(5) He ran this way and leapt this orchard wall.

Call, good Mercutio.

He ran this way and jumped this orchard wall. Call him, Mercutio.

MERCUTIO

Nay, I’ll conjure too!

Romeo! Humours, madman, passion, lover!

Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh!

Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied.

(10) 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 true

When King Cophetua loved the beggar maid.—

(15) 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,

(20) And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,

That in thy likeness thou appear to us.

No, I’ll summon him as I would a spirit. Romeo! Humors! Madman! Passion! Lover! Appear to me in the form of a sigh. Speak just a single rhyme, and I’ll be satisfied. Cry out, “Ah me!” Say “love” and “dove.” Say one pretty word to my good gossiping friend Venus. Say the nickname of her blind son and heir, Cupid, who shot arrows so accurately and made King Cophetua fall in love with a beggar maid.—Romeo doesn’t hear me, stir, or move. The little monkey is dead, so I must conjure him to appear.— By Rosaline’s bright eyes, by her high forehead and her red lips, by her fine feet, straight legs, and trembling thighs, and by parts of her that lie next to her thighs, I summon you to appear before us in your actual form.

BENVOLIO

An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him.

You’ll make him angry if he hears you.

MERCUTIO

This cannot anger him. ‘Twould anger him

To raise a spirit in his mistress’ circle

(25) 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.

This won’t make him angry. It would anger him if I conjured a strange spirit into her room that she then slept with. That would really anger him. But what I’m saying is fair and honest. I’m just saying the name of his love in order to call him out from the darkness.

BENVOLIO

(30) To be consorted with the humorous night.

Blind is his love and best befits the dark.

Come on. He’s hidden within these trees to be alone with the night. His love is blind, so its fitting he share it with the dark.

MERCUTIO

If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.

Now will he sit under a medlar tree

(35) And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit

As maids call medlars when they laugh alone.—

O Romeo, that she were! Oh, that she were

An open arse, and thou a poperin pear.

Romeo, good night. I’ll to my truckle bed.

(40) This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep.—

Come, shall we go?

If love is blind, it can’t hit the target. He’ll sit under a medlar tree and wish his love were one of those fruits that women, when they’re alone, joke look like female genitals. Oh Romeo, I wish she were! I wish she was an open-arse, and that you were a “pop her in” pear. Good night, Romeo. I’m off to my little trundle bed. It’s too cold in this field for me to sleep here. Come on, Benvolio, shall we leave?

BENVOLIO

Go, then, for ’tis in vain

To seek him here that means not to be found.

Let’s go. It would be worthless to search for someone who doesn’t want to be found.

[BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO exit.]

Act 2, Scene 2

[ROMEO returns.]

ROMEO

He jests at scars that never felt a wound.

He jokes about scars from wounds he’s never felt.

[JULIET enters on the balcony.]

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,

(5) 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!

(10) It is my lady. Oh, it is my love.

Oh, that she knew she were!

She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that?

Her eye discourses. I will answer it.—

I am too bold. ‘Tis not to me she speaks.

(15) 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

(20) 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.

Oh, that I were a glove upon that hand

(25) That I might touch that cheek!

Wait! What light is that in the window over there? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Rise beautiful sun and kill the jealous moon, which is already sick and pale with grief because Juliet, her maid, is more beautiful than she. Don’t be her maid, since she’s jealous. The moon’s virginity makes her look sick and green, and only fools hold on to their virginity. Throw it off. It is my lady. Oh, it is my love. Oh, I wish she knew I loved her. She’s talking, but isn’t saying anything. Why is that? Her eyes are speaking. I’ll respond—no, I am too bold. It’s not to me she speaks. Two of the most beautiful stars in the sky had to go off on some business, and begged her eyes to twinkle in their place until they return. If her eyes were in the sky and the stars were in her head the brightness of her cheeks would overwhelm the stars just as daylight outshines a lamp. And her eyes in the night sky would shine so brightly that birds would start singing, thinking it was day. Look how she leans her cheek against her hand. I wish I was a glove on that hand so I could touch that cheek.

JULIET

Ay me!

Oh, my!

ROMEO

(aside) She speaks.

O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art

As glorious to this night, being o’er my head,

As is a wingèd messenger of heaven

Unto the white, upturnèd, wondering eyes

(30) Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him

When he bestrides the lazy-puffing clouds

And sails upon the bosom of the air.

(to himself) She speaks. Speak again, bright angel. For tonight you are as glorious as an angel, shining above my head like a winged messenger from heaven who makes mortals fall onto their backs to gaze up in awe as the angel strides across the clouds and sails through the air.

JULIET

O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?

Deny thy father and refuse thy name.

(35) Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,

And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.

Oh, Romeo, Romeo, why must you be Romeo? Deny your father and give up your name. Or, if you won’t change your name, just swear your love to me and I’ll give up being a Capulet.

ROMEO

(aside) Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?

(to himself) Should I listen longer, or respond now to these words?

JULIET

‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy.

Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.

(40) What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,

Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part

Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other word would smell as sweet.

(45) So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called,

Retain that dear perfection which he owes

Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,

And for that name, which is no part of thee

Take all myself.

Only your name is my enemy. You’d be yourself even if you ceased to be a Montague. What’s a Montague, after all? It’s not a hand, foot, arm, face, or any other body part. Oh, change your name! What’s the significance of a name? The thing we call a rose would smell as sweet even if we called it by some other name. So even if Romeo had some other name, he would still be perfect. Romeo, take off your name—which really has no connection to who you are—and take all of me instead.

ROMEO

I take thee at thy word.

(50) Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized.

Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

(Out loud) I take you at your word. If you call me your love, I’ll take a new name. From now on I’ll never again be Romeo.

JULIET

What man art thou that, thus bescreened in night,

So stumblest on my counsel?

Who are you, hiding in the darkness and eavesdropping on my private thoughts?

ROMEO

By a name

I know not how to tell thee who I am.

(55) My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself

Because it is an enemy to thee.

Had I it written, I would tear the word.

I don’t know how to tell you who I am by using a name. I hate my name, dear saint, because it is your enemy. If I had it written down, I would tear up the word.

JULIET

My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words

Of that tongue’s uttering, yet I know the sound.

(60) Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?

I’ve not yet even heard you say a hundred words, yet I recognize the sound of your voice. Aren’t you Romeo, the Montague?

ROMEO

Neither, fair maid, if either thee dislike.

I’ll be neither of those things, my love, if you dislike them.

JULIET

How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?

The orchard walls are high and hard to climb,

And the place death, considering who thou art,

(65) If any of my kinsmen find thee here.

How and why did you come here? The orchard walls are high and difficult to climb. And it will mean your death, because of who you are, if any of my family find you here.

ROMEO

With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls,

For stony limits cannot hold love out,

And what love can do, that dares love attempt.

Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me.

I flew over these walls on the wings of love. No stone wall can keep love out. Whatever a man in love can do, love will make him attempt to do it. Therefore your relatives can’t stop me.

JULIET

(70) If they do see thee they will murder thee.

If they see you they’ll murder you.

ROMEO

Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye

Than twenty of their swords. Look thou but sweet,

And I am proof against their enmity.

I am more concerned about the look in your eye than I would be with twenty of your relatives with swords. If you just look at me with love, their hatred would not be able to touch me.

JULIET

I would not for the world they saw thee here.

I’d give the world to make sure they do not see you here.

ROMEO

(75) I have night’s cloak to hide me from their eyes,

And but thou love me, let them find me here.

My life were better ended by their hate

Than death proroguèd, wanting of thy love.

The darkness of night will hide me from their eyes. And if you don’t love me, then let them find me. I’d rather they killed me in hatred than experience the prolonged death of life without your love.

JULIET

By whose direction found’st thou out this place?

Who told you how to find my my bedroom?

ROMEO

(80) By love, that first did prompt me to inquire.

He lent me counsel and I lent him eyes.

I am no pilot. Yet, wert thou as far

As that vast shore washed with the farthest sea,

I would adventure for such merchandise.

Love, which spurred me to come and find you. Love advised me, while I lent love my eyes. I’m no a sailor. Still, even if you were on the shore across the farthest sea, I would set out to find you.

JULIET

(85) Thou know’st the mask of night is on my face,

Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek

For that which thou hast heard me speak tonight.

Fain would I dwell on form. Fain, fain deny

What I have spoke. But farewell compliment!

(90) 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.

(95) Or if thou think’st 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.

(100) But trust me, gentleman, I’ll prove more true

Than those that have more coying to be strange.

I should have been more strange, I must confess,

But that thou overheard’st, ere I was ‘ware,

My true love’s passion. Therefore pardon me,

(105) And not impute this yielding to light love,

Which the dark night hath so discovered.

The darkness of night masks my face, or else you’d see me blushing about the things you heard me say tonight. I would gladly stick to the proper manners of courtship and deny everything I said. But, instead: goodbye good manners! Do you love me? I know you will answer “yes,” and I will trust you. But your swears may turn out to be false. They say that Zeus laughs when lovers lie. Oh noble Romeo, if you really love me, say it in truth. Or if you think I’m letting myself be won too easily, then I’ll frown and act superior and unapproachable so that you’ll woo me. But if that’s not necessary, then I would never act that way. In truth, beautiful Montague, I like you too much, which might make it seem as if I am overly silly and flirtatious. But trust me, gentleman, I’ll prove to be more faithful than girls who act coy and standoffish. I probably should have acted more standoffish, I confess, but you overheard me talking about my passion for you before I knew you were there. So please forgive me, and don’t condemn me for so quickly falling in love when it was only revealed to you because the dark night let you discover it.

ROMEO

Lady, by yonder blessèd moon I vow,

That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops—

Lady, I swear by the sacred moon, which outlines in silver the tops of these fruit trees—

JULIET

O, swear not by the moon, th’ inconstant moon,

(110) That monthly changes in her circle orb,

Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.

Please don’t swear by the moon, the unreliable moon, which changes its position in the sky each month. I do not want your love to end up being similarly variable.

ROMEO

What shall I swear by?

What should I swear by?

JULIET

Do not swear at all.

Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self,

Which is the god of my idolatry,

(115) And I’ll believe thee.

Don’t swear at all. Or, if you must swear, swear by your magnificent self, which is the god I worship like an idol, and I’ll believe you.

ROMEO

If my heart’s dear love—

If my heart’s dear love—

JULIET

Well, do not swear. Although I joy in thee,

I have no joy of this contract tonight.

It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,

Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be

(120) 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.

Well, don’t swear. Although you bring me joy, I can’t take joy in this exchange of promises tonight. It’s too wild, thoughtless, sudden. It’s too much like lightning, which disappears before you can even say, “it’s lightning.” My love, good night. Our love, which now is like a flower bud, may blossom in the summer air into a beautiful flower by the next time we meet. Good night! I hope you fell in your heart the same sweet calm and rest that I feel in mine.

ROMEO

(125) O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?

Are you going to leave me so unsatisfied?

JULIET

What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?

What satisfaction could you have tonight?

ROMEO

Th’ exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine.

If we exchanged vows of love.

JULIET

I gave thee mine before thou didst request it,

And yet I would it were to give again.

I pledged my love before you even requested it. But now I wish I could take that promise back to give again.

ROMEO

(130) Wouldst thou withdraw it? For what purpose, love?

You’d take back your vow? Why, my love?

JULIET

But to be frank, and give it thee again.

And yet I wish but for the thing I have.

My bounty is as boundless as the sea,

My love as deep. The more I give to thee,

(135) The more I have, for both are infinite.

In order to generously give it to you again. But I’m wishing for something I have already. My generosity to you is as endless as the sea, my love as deep as the sea. The more love I give you, the more I have. Both are infinite.

[The NURSE calls from offstage.]

I hear some noise within. Dear love, adieu.—

Anon, good Nurse!—Sweet Montague, be true.

Stay but a little. I will come again.

I hear a noise from inside. Dear love, goodbye—Just a second, Nurse!—Sweet Montague, be true. Stay for a moment. I’ll come right back.

[JULIET exits.]

ROMEO

O blessèd, blessèd night! I am afeard,

(140) Being in night, all this is but a dream,

Too flattering sweet to be substantial.

Oh, blessed, blessed night! Because it’s night, I’m scared that all this is a dream. It is too wonderful to be real.

[JULIET enters on her balcony.]

JULIET

Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed.

If that thy bent of love be honorable,

Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow

(145) 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.

Three words, dear Romeo, and then good night. If your love is honorable and you want to marry me, send me word tomorrow. I’ll find a messenger who will come to you, and you can tell that messenger when and where we will be married. All my fortunes I’ll lay at your feet and follow you, my lord, all over the world.

NURSE

(from within) Madam!

(offstage) Madam!

JULIET

(150) I come, anon.—But if thou mean’st not well,

I do beseech thee—

I’ll be right there! (to ROMEO) But if your intentions are not honorable, I beg you—

NURSE

(from within) Madam!

(offstage) Madam!

JULIET

By and by, I come.—

To cease thy strife and leave me to my grief.

(155) Tomorrow will I send.

In a second, I’m coming!— (to ROMEO) to give up your efforts to win me and leave me to grieve. I’ll send the messenger tomorrow.

ROMEO

So thrive my soul—

My soul depends on it—

JULIET

A thousand times good night!

A thousand times good night.

[JULIET exits.]

ROMEO

A thousand times the worse to want thy light.

Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books,

(160) But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.

It is a thousand times worse to leave you. A lover goes toward his beloved as joyfully as a schoolboy leaving his books. But when a lover leaves his beloved, he is as unhappy as a schoolboy on his way to school.

[ROMEO starts to leave. JULIET returns, on her balcony.]

JULIET

Hist! Romeo, hist!—Oh, for a falconer’s voice,

To lure this tassel-gentle back again!

Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud,

Else would I tear the cave where Echo lies,

(165) And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine,

With repetition of “My Romeo!”

Psst! Romeo! Psst! Oh, I wish I could cry out like a falconer, so I could call my little falcon to return to me. Stuck as I am in my family’s house, I have to be quiet. Otherwise I would tear open the cave where Echo sleeps and make her call out my love’s name until her voice grew more hoarse than mine by repeating, “My Romeo!”

ROMEO

It is my soul that calls upon my name.

How silver-sweet sound lovers’ tongues by night,

Like softest music to attending ears!

It is my soul that calls out my name. Lovers voices at night sound silver-sweet, the most lovely music to lovers’ ears.

JULIET

(170) Romeo!

Romeo!

ROMEO

My nyas?

My little hawk?

JULIET

What o’clock tomorrow

Shall I send to thee?

At what time tomorrow should I send the messenger to you?

ROMEO

By the hour of nine.

Nine o’clock.

JULIET

I will not fail. ‘Tis twenty year till then.

I have forgot why I did call thee back.

I won’t fail. It will feel like twenty years til then. I’ve forgotten why I called you back.

ROMEO

Let me stand here till thou remember it.

I’ll stand here until you remember.

JULIET

(175) I shall forget, to have thee still stand there,

Remembering how I love thy company.

I’ll forget it, so you’ll have to stand there forever, because of how much I love your company.

ROMEO

And I’ll still stay, to have thee still forget,

Forgetting any other home but this.

And I’ll remain here, even if you keep forgetting. I’ll forget that I have any other home but here.

JULIET

‘Tis almost morning. I would have thee gone.

(180) And yet no further 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.

It’s almost morning. I want to force you to go. Yet I would not let you move any further than a spoiled child would let his pet bird go. The child so loves the bird that he will not let the bird hop any more than a small distance from his hand before pulling it back by a silk thread.

ROMEO

(185) I would I were thy bird.

I wish I was your bird.

JULIET

Sweet, so would I.

Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.

Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow

That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

My sweet, so do I. But I would pet you so much it would kill you. Good night. Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow that I will say good night until it becomes tomorrow.

[JULIET exits.]

ROMEO

Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast.

(190) 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.

Sleep well and peacefully. I wish that I were sleep and peace, so I could sleep with you. From here I’ll go see my priest, to tell him of my luck and ask for his help.

[He exits.]

Act 2, Scene 3

[FRIAR LAWRENCE enters by himself, carrying a basket.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,

Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light,

And fleckled darkness like a drunkard reels

From forth day’s path and Titan’s fiery wheels.

(5) Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye,

The day to cheer and night’s dank dew to dry,

I must upfill this osier cage of ours

With baleful weeds and precious-juicèd flowers.

The earth, that’s natu re’s mother, is her tomb.

(10) 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.

(15) Oh, mickle is the powerful grace that lies

In herbs, plants, 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

(20) Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse.

Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied,

And vice sometime by action dignified.

The morning smiles as it replaces frowning night and streaks light across the clouds in the east. Darkness staggers like a drunkard from the sun’s path. Now, before the sun rises, bringing on the day and drying the dew, I must fill my basket with poisonous weeds and the precious nectar of flowers. The Earth is both nature’s mother and its tomb. Plants arise from the Earth as from a womb, and when they die are buried in the Earth. Many different plants and animals come from the Earth’s womb. All of these children find nourishment from the Earth, and all have some special, unique virtue. There is a power that resides in herbs, plants, and stones. For there’s nothing on Earth that’s so evil that it does not also provide the earth with some kind of good. Nor is there anything so good that it can’t be turned bad if it’s abused and used incorrectly. Virtue, when misused, turns to vice, while vice can sometimes become virtue through proper action.

[ROMEO enters.]

Within the infant rind of this small flower

Poison hath residence and medicine power.

(25) 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,

(30) Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.

Within the small rind of this little flower there is both poison and medicine. If you smell it, you feel good. If you taste it, it stops your heart. Two opposing elements, good and evil, reside in both men and herbs.

In the cases where evil predominates, death like a cancer will soon kill the plant or body.

ROMEO

Good morrow, Father.

Good morning, father.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Benedicite.

What early tongue so sweet saluteth me?

Young son, it argues a distempered head

So soon to bid good morrow to thy bed.

(35) 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

Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign.

Therefore thy earliness doth me assure

(40) Thou art uproused by some distemperature.

Or if not so, then here I hit it right:

Our Romeo hath not been in bed tonight.

God bless you. Whose voice greets me so sweetly this early in the morning? My son, jumping so quickly out of bed this early indicates some trouble in your thoughts. All old men have concerns, and these worries never let them sleep. Young men, though, should be carefree and without worry, and their sleep should be restful and long. Therefore, the fact that you’re awake so early makes it clear that some anxiety has you in its grip. Or, if that’s not true, then I’d guess that you actually never went to sleep at all tonight.

ROMEO

That last is true. The sweeter rest was mine.

That last is right. The rest I had was sweeter than sleep.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

God pardon sin! Wast thou with Rosaline?

God forgive all sin!—Did you sleep with Rosaline?

ROMEO

(45) With Rosaline, my ghostly Father? No.

I have forgot that name and that name’s woe.

With Rosaline, holy father? No, I have forgotten her and the sadness she gave me.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

That’s my good son. But where hast thou been, then?

That’s good, my son. But where were you, then?

ROMEO

I’ll tell thee ere thou ask it me again.

I have been feasting with mine enemy,

(50) 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.

I’ll tell you before you ask me again. I’ve been at a party with my enemy, where suddenly someone wounded me and was in turn wounded by me. But both of us can be cured by your holy power. I hold no hatred, blessed father, because my request will also help my enemy.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(55) Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift.

Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift.

Speak plainly, my son. Be clear. A confusing confession will result only in confused absolution.

ROMEO

Then plainly know my heart’s dear love is set

On the fair daughter of rich Capulet.

As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine,

(60) 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.

Here it is set plain: I love the beautiful daughter of rich Capulet. I love her, and she loves me. We’re bound together, and need only for you to combine us completely by marrying us. In good time I’ll tell you about when and where and how we met, how we wooed each other and vowed our love. But  now I pray that you will agree to marry us today.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(65) Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here!

Is Rosaline, whom 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

(70) 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 ring yet in my ancient ears.

(75) 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:

(80) Women may fall when there’s no strength in men.

Holy Saint Francis, what an incredible change! Have you so quickly abandoned Rosaline, whom you loved so much? If so, then young men love not with their hearts but with their eyes. Jesus and Mary, you cried so many tears for Rosaline! So many salty tear-drops wasted seasoning a love you never even tasted! The sun has not yet burned away the fog from all your sighs. My old ears are still ringing from your groans. And look, here on your cheek there’s a stain from an old tear that has not yet been washed off. If you were ever yourself and this sorrow yours, you and your sorrow were all for Rosaline. And are you now changed? Then say the following: women will never be faithful when men are so unreliable.

ROMEO

Thou chid’st me oft for loving Rosaline.

You often scolded me for loving Rosaline.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

For doting, not for loving, pupil mine.

I scolded you for obsessing, not for loving, my student.

ROMEO

And badest me bury love.

And urged me to bury my love.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Not in a grave,

To lay one in, another out to have.

But not to bury it in a grave in order to start a new love.

ROMEO

(85) I pray thee, chide not. Her I love now

Doth grace for grace and love for love allow.

The other did not so.

I beg you, don’t scold me. The one I love now returns my love. The other did not.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Oh, she knew well

Thy love did read by rote, that could not spell.

But come, young waverer, come, go with me,

(90) In one respect I’ll thy assistant be,

For this alliance may so happy prove

To turn your households’ rancor to pure love.

Oh, Rosaline knew that you were play-acting at love but did not actually understand what love means. But come with me, my young unreliable friend. I’ll help you, because it’s possible that this marriage may transform your two families’ hatred into pure love.

ROMEO

Oh, let us hence. I stand on sudden haste.

Let’s go, then! Let’s do this quickly.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.

Wisely and slowly is best. Those who go too quickly always stumble.

[They exit.]

Act 2, Scene 4

[BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO enter.]

MERCUTIO

Where the devil should this Romeo be?

Came he not home tonight?

Where the devil is Romeo? Did he come home last night?

BENVOLIO

Not to his father’s. I spoke with his man.

Not to his father’s house. I asked Romeo’s servant.

MERCUTIO

Why, that same pale hard-hearted wench, that Rosaline,

(5) Torments him so, that he will sure run mad.

Rosaline, that pale-skinned, hard-hearted wench, torments him so much that he’s going to go insane.

BENVOLIO

Tybalt, the kinsman to old Capulet,

Hath sent a letter to his father’s house.

Tybalt, old Capulet’s kinsman, has sent a letter to Romeo’s father’s house.

MERCUTIO

A challenge, on my life.

I bet it’s a challenge.

BENVOLIO

Romeo will answer it.

Romeo will answer it.

MERCUTIO

(10) Any man that can write may answer a letter.

Any man who can write is able to answer a letter.

BENVOLIO

Nay, he will answer the letter’s master, how he dares, being dared.

No, Romeo will respond to the letter writer and accept the challenge.

MERCUTIO

(15) Alas, poor Romeo! He is already dead, stabbed with a white wench’s black eye, shot 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?

Poor Romeo! He is already dead: stabbed by the black eye of a fair-skinned girl, cut through the ear by a love song. The very core of his heart has been split by blind Cupid’s arrow. Is he really man enough to fight Tybalt?

BENVOLIO

Why, what is Tybalt?

Why, what’s up with Tybalt?

MERCUTIO

(20) More than Prince of Cats. Oh, he’s the courageous captain of compliments. He fights as you sing prick-song, keeps time, distance, and proportion. He rests his minim rests—one, two, and the third in your bosom. The very butcher of a silk button, a duelist, a duelist, a gentleman of the very first house of the first and second cause. Ah, the immortal passado, the punto reverso, the hai!

He’s more than just the Prince of Cats. He does everything according to convention. He fights like you sing printed music, carefully keeping the correct time, distance, and rhythm. He rests when it is proper to rest: one, two, and the third in your heart. He’s a master duelist who can hit any of his opponent’s buttons that he chooses. He’s a gentleman who learned at the finest fencing school, and he’s skilled at identifying insults and slights to his honor so that he’s “forced” to fight. He knows the passado—the forward thrust—the punto reverso—the backhand thrust—and the hai—the thrust for the heart.

BENVOLIO

(25) The what?

He knows what?

MERCUTIO

The pox on such antic, lisping, affecting fantasmines, these new tuners of accents! “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? Oh, their bones, their bones!

A curse on these wild, pompous fellows who are always spouting exotic foreign phrases. These fellows, who say things like: “By Jesus, this is a very good blade! A very brave man! A very good whore.” Isn’t it a sad thing, good man, that we are forced to interact with these foreign flies, these fashionmongers, these fellows who say “pardon me” and care so deeply about good manners that they can’t relax on a bench without groaning, “Oh, my aching bones!”

[ROMEO enters.]

BENVOLIO

Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo.

Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo.

MERCUTIO

(35) Without his roe, like a dried herring. O flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified! Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in. Laura to his lady was but 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 grey 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.

He looks skinny as a dried herring without its eggs. O flesh, flesh, you’ve turned pale as a fish. Now he’s just like Petrarch’s hopeless love poetry. In Romeo’s opinion, compared to his own lady love: Petrarch’s Laura was like a kitchen slave (though Laura clearly had a lover who was better at making rhymes); Dido was drab and dull; Cleopatra was a gypsy girl; Helen and Hero were food-for-nothing harlots; Thisbe might have had beautiful eyes, but that doesn’t matter. (to ROMEO) Signor Romeo, bonjour. There’s a French greeting to match the loose high-fashion French pants you’re wearing. You tricked us good last night.

ROMEO

Good morrow to you both. What counterfeit did I give you?

Good morning to you both. What do you mean I tricked you?

MERCUTIO

(45) The slip, sir, the slip. Can you not conceive?

You gave us the slip, sir, the slip. Do you understand me now?

ROMEO

Pardon, good Mercutio, my business was great, and in such a case as mine a man may strain courtesy.

I’m sorry, good Mercutio. My business was so important that I must be forgiven for stretching good manners and courtesy.

MERCUTIO

That’s as much as to say, such a case as yours constrains a man to bow in the hams.

So what you’re saying is that your “business” forced you to flex your legs.

ROMEO

(50) Meaning “to curtsy”?

Meaning make a curtsy?

MERCUTIO

Thou hast most kindly hit it.

Now you’ve “hit it.”

ROMEO

A most courteous exposition.

What a courteous explanation.

MERCUTIO

Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy.

Indeed, I am the very “pink” of courtesy.

ROMEO

Pink for flower.

As in pink flower

MERCUTIO

(55) Right.

Right.

ROMEO

Why, then is my pump well flowered.

Well, then my pump is covered in flowers.

MERCUTIO

Sure wit, follow me this jest now till thou hast worn out thy pump, that when the single sole of it is worn, the jest may remain, after the wearing solely singular.

Ah, witty Romeo, now you’ve taken this joke so far that it’s worn out your pump. With the sole of your pump now worn away, the joke is all that remains.

ROMEO

(60) O single-soled jest, solely singular for the singleness.

This jest has such a thin sole, and is unique only because of its lameness.

MERCUTIO

Come between us, good Benvolio. My wits faints.

Please break up this war of words, Benvolio. My wits can’t keep up.

ROMEO

Switch and spurs, switch and spurs, or I’ll cry a match.

Continue, continue, or I’ll proclaim victory.

MERCUTIO

(65) Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase, I am done, for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five. Was I with you there for the goose?

No, if our witticisms go on a wild-goose chase, I’m done for. You have more wild goose in one of your jokes than I have in five of mine. Was I  even close to you in our goose chase?

ROMEO

Thou wast never with me for anything when thou wast not there for the goose.

You would not have been with me for anything if you weren’t there for the goose.

MERCUTIO

I will bite thee by the ear for that jest.

I’ll bite you on the ear for that joke.

ROMEO

Nay, good goose, bite not.

No, good goose, don’t bite me.

MERCUTIO

(70) Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting. It is a most sharp sauce.

Your wit is a bitter apple, a spicy sauce.

ROMEO

And is it not well served into a sweet goose?

Isn’t that the perfect sauce for a sweet goose?

MERCUTIO

Oh, here’s a wit of cheveril, that stretches from an inch narrow to an ell broad!

Oh, that joke is made of leather so thin it has been stretched from an inch wide to a full fat yard.

ROMEO

(75) I stretch it out for that word “broad,” which, added to the goose, proves thee far and wide a broad goose.

I stretched it for that word “fat.” Add that to the goose, and it makes you a fat goose.

MERCUTIO

Why, is not this better now than groaning for love? Now art thou sociable. Now art thou Romeo. Now art thou what thou art—by art as well as by nature, for this driveling love is like a great natural that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole.

Now, isn’t this jesting better than groaning about love? Now you’re being sociable. Now you’re Romeo. Now you are what you truly are, both naturally and through education. In contrast, this love of yours made you like some fool who runs all over the place looking for a hole in which to hide his precious trinket.

BENVOLIO

(80) Stop there, stop there.

Stop there, stop there.

MERCUTIO

Thou desirest me to stop in my tale against the hair.

You’re asking me to stop my tale before it’s finished.

BENVOLIO

Thou wouldst else have made thy tale large.

Continuing on would have made your tale too long.

MERCUTIO

(85) Oh, thou art deceived. I would have made it short, for I was come to the whole depth of my tale, and meant, indeed, to occupy the argument no longer.

You’re wrong there. I would have made it short. I had come to the full depth of my tale, and intended to say nothing more about it.

[The NURSE enters with her servant, PETER.]

ROMEO

Here’s goodly gear.

Now here’s something.

BENVOLIO

A sail, a sail!

A sail, a sail!

MERCUTIO

Two, two—a shirt and a smock.

No, two sails—a man in a shirt and a woman in a dress.

NURSE

(90) Peter!

Peter!

PETER

Anon!

In a moment.

NURSE

My fan, Peter.

Give me my fan, Peter.

MERCUTIO

Good, Peter, to hide her face, for her fan’s the fairer face.

Good Peter, to hide her face, please give her the fan. Her fan is prettier than her face.

NURSE

God ye good morrow, gentlemen.

Good morning, gentlemen.

MERCUTIO

(95) God ye good e’en, fair gentlewoman.

Good afternoon, fair lady.

NURSE

Is it good e’en?

Is it afternoon?

MERCUTIO

‘Tis no less, I tell you, for the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon.

It’s not any earlier, I tell you. The rough hand of the clock is now upon the prick of noon.

NURSE

Out upon you! What a man are you?

Get out! What kind of man are you?

MERCUTIO

One, gentlewoman, that God hath made, himself to mar.

A man, good lady, whom God has made for himself to ruin.

NURSE

(100) By my troth, it is well said. “For himself to mar,” quoth he? Gentlemen, can any of you tell me where I may find the young Romeo?

I swear, that seems the truth. “For himself to ruin,” he says. Gentlemen, can any of you tell me where I can find young Romeo?

ROMEO

I can tell you, but young Romeo will be older when you have found him than he was when you sought him. I am the youngest of that name, for fault of a worse.

I can tell you, but young Romeo will be older when you have found him than he was when you began to look for him. I am the youngest man by that name, because there is none younger or worse.

NURSE

(105) You say well.

You speak well.

MERCUTIO

Yea, is the worst well? Very well took, i’ faith, wisely, wisely.

Is the worst well? Very well taken, in truth, very wise.

NURSE

If you be he, sir, I desire some confidence with you.

If you’re Romeo, sir, I would like to have a private conversation with you.

BENVOLIO

She will indite him to some supper.

She will invite him to dinner.

MERCUTIO

(110) A bawd, a bawd, a bawd! So ho!

A pimp! A pimp! A pimp! That’s it!

ROMEO

What hast thou found?

What have you discovered?

MERCUTIO

No hare, sir, unless a hare, sir, in a Lenten pie—that is, something stale and hoar ere it be spent.

[sings]

An old hare hoar,

(115) 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.

[speaks]

(120) Romeo, will you come to your father’s? We’ll to dinner, thither.

Well, she can’t be a prostitute unless she’s so stale and old that she’s only tasted when nothing else is available.

(sings)

Old rabbit meat

Old rabbit meat

Is good meat if you can’t get anything else,

But old moldy rabbit,

Is a waste of your coin

If it goes moldy before you can eat it

(speaking)

Romeo, are you going to your father’s? We’re having lunch there. Let’s go.

ROMEO

I will follow you.

I’ll follow after you.

MERCUTIO

Farewell, ancient lady. Farewell, lady, lady, lady.

Farewell, old lady. Farewell, lady, lady, lady.

[BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO exit.]

NURSE

I pray you, sir, what saucy merchant was this that was so full of his ropery?

Please tell me, sir, who was that foulmouthed fellow with all his dirty jokes?

ROMEO

(125) A gentleman, Nurse, that loves to hear himself talk, and will speak more in a minute than he will stand to in a month.

Nurse, he’s a gentleman who loves to hear himself talk. He says more in one minute than he will stand behind in a month.

NURSE

An he speak any thing against me, I’ll take him down, an he were lustier than he is, and twenty such Jacks. And if I cannot, I’ll find those that shall. Scurvy knave! I am none of his flirt-gills. I am none of his skains-mates. (to PETER) And thou must stand by, too, and suffer every knave to use me at his pleasure?

If he says anything against me, I’ll teach him a lesson, even if he were tougher than he is—and twenty wise-asses like him. And if I couldn’t take him down myself, I’ll find someone who can. That rotten scoundrel! I’m not one of his flirty girls. I’m not one of his low-life scheming friends. (to PETER) And you just stand aside, letting every punk make fun of me for pleasure?

PETER

I saw no man use you at his pleasure. If I had, my weapon should quickly have been out, I warrant you. I dare draw as soon as another man if I see occasion in a good quarrel and the law on my side.

I didn’t see anybody use you for pleasure. If I had, I’d have quickly pulled out my weapon, I assure you. I draw my sword as quickly as any other man if I see a good fight brewing and the law is on my side.

NURSE

Now, afore God, I am so vexed that every part about me quivers. Scurvy knave! (to ROMEO) Pray you, sir, a word. And as I told you, my young lady bid me inquire you out. What she bade me say, I will keep to myself. But first let me tell ye, if ye should lead her into 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.

Now, by God, I’m so pissed that I’m shaking. That jerk! (to ROMEO) Now, good sir, may I speak with you? My young mistress sent me to find you. What she told me to say, I will keep to myself. But first let me say: if you lead her into a fool’s paradise, as they say, it would be extremely indecent behavior, as they say. The girl is young. So if you should deceive her, it would be an awful thing to do to any woman and very poor manners.

ROMEO

(145) Nurse, commend me to thy lady and mistress. I protest unto thee—

Nurse, speak well of me to your mistress. I pledge to you—

NURSE

Good heart, and i’ faith, I will tell her as much. Lord, Lord, she will be a joyful woman.

Your heart is good, and I promise, I will tell her that. Lord, Lord, she will be a joyful woman.

ROMEO

(150) What wilt thou tell her, Nurse? Thou dost not mark me.

What are you going to tell her, Nurse? You’re not understanding me.

NURSE

I will tell her, sir, that you do protest, which, as I take it, is a gentlemanlike offer.

I will tell her, sir, that you protest to her, which I think is a gentlemanly offer.  (Editor’s note: The Nurse here is mistaking the word “protest” for the word “propose.”)

ROMEO

Bid her devise

Some means to come to shrift this afternoon.

(155) And there she shall at Friar Lawrence’ cell

Be shrived and married. (gives her coins) Here is for thy pains.

Tell her to devise a way to come to confession this afternoon. And there, at Friar Lawrence’s cell, she can make confession and we will be married. (Holds out some money to the Nurse) Here is a reward for your efforts.

NURSE

No, truly, sir. Not a penny.

No, truly, sir. I won’t take your money.

ROMEO

Go to. I say you shall.

Go on, I insist.

NURSE

(takes the money) This afternoon, sir? Well, she shall be there.

(taking the money) This afternoon, sir? She will be there.

ROMEO

And stay, good Nurse. Behind the abbey wall

(160) Within this hour my man shall be with thee

And bring thee cords made like a tackled stair,

Which to the high top-gallant of my joy

Must be my convoy in the secret night.

Farewell. Be trusty, and I’ll quit thy pains.

(165) Farewell. Commend me to thy mistress.

Just a moment, good Nurse. In an hour, behind the abbey wall, one of my servants will meet you and give you a rope ladder. I’ll then use the ladder to secretly climb up to Juliet’s room tonight. Farewell. Be worthy of my trust, and I’ll repay your help. Farewell. Speak well of me to your mistress.

NURSE

Now God in heaven bless thee! Hark you, sir.

May God in heaven bless you. Now listen, sir.

ROMEO

What sayst thou, my dear Nurse?

What, my dear Nurse?

NURSE

Is your man secret? Did you ne’er hear say,

“Two may keep counsel, putting one away”?

Can your servant be trusted? Have you ever heard the saying, “Two men may keep a secret, but only if one is far away.”

ROMEO

(170) Warrant thee, my man’s as true as steel.

I guarantee, my man is as trustworthy.

NURSE

Well, sir, my mistress is the sweetest lady.—Lord, Lord! when ’twas a little prating thing.—Oh, 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?

Well, sir, my mistress is the sweetest lady. Lord, Lord, when she was a little baby—Oh, there is one nobleman in the city, Paris, who would gladly lay claim to her. But Juliet, good soul that she is, would rather be with a toad, a toad, than him. Sometimes I make her angry by telling her that Paris is better looking than you. I swear to you, when I say that she turns as white as any sheet in the entire world. Don’t “rosemary” and “Romeo” begin with the same letter?

ROMEO

(180) Ay, Nurse, what of that? Both with an R.

Yes, Nurse, what about that? Both begin with an  “R.”

NURSE

Ah, mocker, that’s the dog’s name. R is for the—No, I know it begins with some other letter, and she hath the prettiest sententious of it, of you and rosemary, that it would do you good to hear it.

Ah, you jokester—that’s the dog’s name. “R” is for the—no, I know that word begins with another letter. (Editor’s note: the nurse is thinking of the word “arse.”) She says such pretty things about you and rosemary that it would do you good to hear them.

ROMEO

(185) Commend me to thy lady.

Speak well of me to your lady.

NURSE

Ay, a thousand times —Peter!

Yes, a thousand times — Peter!

PETER

Anon!

I’m ready.

NURSE

Before and apace.

Go ahead of me, and quickly.

[All exit.]

Act 2, Scene 5

[JULIET enters.]

JULIET

The clock struck nine when I did send the Nurse.

In half an hour she promised to return.

Perchance she cannot meet him. That’s not so.

Oh, she is lame! Love’s heralds should be thoughts,

(5) Which ten times faster glide than the sun’s beams,

Driving back shadows over louring hills.

Therefore do nimble-pinioned doves draw love

And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.

Now is the sun upon the highmost hill

(10) 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,

(15) And his to me.

But old folks, many feign as they were dead,

Unwieldy, slow, heavy, and pale as lead.

It was nine o’clock when I sent the Nurse. She promised to be back in half an hour. Maybe she can’t find him. No, that makes no sense. Oh, she’s so slow! Love’s messengers should be thoughts, which fly ten times faster than sunbeams and drive the shadows back over the dark and scowling hills. That’s how fast swift-winged doves carry the goddess of Love in her chariot, and why Cupid has wings that propel him as quickly as the wind. Now the sun is at its highest point in the sky—it’s noon. Three hours have passed since nine o’clock, and yet she hasn’t returned. If she was young and in love, she’d move as fast as a struck tennis ball. My words would bounce her to my sweet love, and his words would bounce her back to me. But old folks act as though they’re dead—awkward, slow, heavy, and pale as lead.

[The NURSE and PETER enter.]

O God, she comes.—O honey Nurse, what news?

Hast thou met with him? Send thy man away.

Oh God, she’s here! Sweet Nurse, what’s your news? Did you meet with him? Send your servant away.

NURSE

(20) Peter, stay at the gate.

Peter, go back and wait at the gate.

[PETER exits.]

JULIET

Now, good sweet Nurse— O Lord, why look’st thou sad?

Though news be sad, yet tell them merrily.

If good, thou shamest the music of sweet news

By playing it to me with so sour a face.

Now, good sweet Nurse—Oh Lord, why do you look so sad? If your news is sad, tell it to me as if it’s happy. If it’s good, you’re messing it up by telling it to me with such a sour face like that.

NURSE

(25) I am aweary. Give me leave awhile.

Fie, how my bones ache! What a jaunt have I!

I’m weary. Give me some time alone. Oh, my bones are aching! What a journey this has been today.

JULIET

I would thou hadst my bones and I thy news.

Nay, come, I pray thee, speak. Good, good Nurse, speak.

I wish you had my bones, and I had your news. I beg you, speak, good Nurse, speak.

NURSE

Jesu, what haste! Can you not stay awhile?

(30) Do you not see that I am out of breath?

Jesus, what a rush! Can’t you wait for awhile? Don’t you see that I’m out of breath?

JULIET

How art thou out of breath when thou hast breath

To say to me that thou art out of breath?

The excuse that thou dost make in this delay

Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse.

(35) 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?

How are you out of breath when you have the breath to tell me that you’re out of breath? The excuse you’re making while delaying telling me what you know is taking longer than it would to tell me your tale. Is your news good or bad? Answer that. Tell me that, and I’ll wait for the details. Tell me at least that. Is it good or bad?

NURSE

Well, you have made a simple choice. You know not how to choose a man. Romeo! No, not he, though his face be better than any man’s, yet his leg excels all men’s, and for a hand and a foot and a body, though they be not to be talked on, yet they are past compare. He is not the flower of courtesy, but, I’ll warrant him, as gentle as a lamb. Go thy ways, wench. Serve God. What, have you dined at home?

Well, you have made an unwise choice. You don’t know how to choose a man. Romeo? No, not him, even though his face is more handsome than any other man’s, his legs are prettier. His hands and feet and body aren’t much to speak of, and yet they’re beyond compare. He isn’t the most courteous man, but, I’d swear that he’s as gentle as a lamb. So do what you want, girl. Be good. Hey, have you already eaten lunch?

JULIET

(45) No, no. But all this did I know before.

What says he of our marriage? What of that?

No, no. I already knew everything you just said. What did he say about our marriage? What about that?

NURSE

Lord, how my head aches! What a head have I!

It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces.

(50) My back a’ t’ other side. Ah, my back, my back!

Beshrew your heart for sending me about,

To catch my death with jaunting up and down!

Lord, I have such a headache! It’s pounding as if it’s about to break into twenty pieces. And on my other side my back is aching—ah, my back! Curse your heart for sending me out and about. I could get sick and die from all this journeying around.

JULIET

I’ faith, I am sorry that thou art not well.

Sweet, sweet, sweet Nurse, tell me, what says my love?

I swear, I’m sorry you’re in pain. Sweet, sweet, sweet Nurse, tell me, what says my love?

NURSE

(55) Your love says, like an honest gentleman, and a courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, and, I warrant, a virtuous— Where is your mother?

Your love says, like an honorable, courteous, kind, handsome, and, I believe, virtuous gentleman — where is your mother?

JULIET

Where is my mother? Why, she is within.

Where should she be? How oddly thou repliest!

(60) “Your love says, like an honest gentleman,

‘Where is your mother?’”

Where’s my mother? Why, she’s inside. Where else would she be? What a strange answer! “Your love says, like an honorable gentleman, ‘Where is your mother?’”

NURSE

O God’s lady dear,

Are you so hot? Marry, come up, I trow.

Is this the poultice for my aching bones?

Henceforward do your messages yourself.

Mary, mother of God! Are you in such a hurry? Indeed, you need to calm down. Is this the way to soothe my aching bones? From here on out, carry your own messages.

JULIET

(65) Here’s such a coil. Come, what says Romeo?

What a fuss you’re making. Please, what did Romeo say?

NURSE

Have you got leave to go to shrift today?

Do you have permission to go to confession today?

JULIET

I have.

I do.

NURSE

Then hie you hence to Friar Lawrence’s cell.

There stays a husband to make you a wife.

(70) 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.

(75) 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.

Then hurry up and go to Friar Lawrence’s cell. There waits a husband to make you his wife. Now the lustful blood is rushing up to your cheeks. You blush scarlet whenever you get excited at some news. Get to church. I must go elsewhere to get a rope ladder that your love will use to climb up to your window when it’s dark. I do the drudge work for your pleasure. But soon, tonight, you’ll be doing your “wifely work” with Romeo. Go. I’ll go to lunch. You go to Friar Lawrence’s cell.

JULIET

Hie to high fortune! Honest Nurse, farewell.

I go to claim my luck. Loyal Nurse, farewell.

[They exit.]

Act 2, Scene 6

[FRIAR LAWRENCE and ROMEO enter.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

So smile the heavens upon this holy act

That after-hours with sorrow chide us not.

May the heavens smile upon this holy act of marriage, so that afterwards nothing happens to make us feel sorrowful about it.

ROMEO

Amen, amen. But come what sorrow can,

It cannot countervail the exchange of joy

(5) 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.

Amen, amen. But whatever sorrow comes, it couldn’t overwhelm the joy I feel from a single look at her. If you join our hands with holy words, then love-devouring death can do whatever it wants. It’s enough for me if I can just call her mine.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

These violent delights have violent ends

(10) 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.

(15) Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.

Such passionate joys have violent endings. They die in their moment of triumph, just like a spark and gunpowder, when they touch, destroy themselves in an explosion. Even the most delicious honey is loathsome when you’ve had too much, and takes away your appetite. Loving in moderation is therefore the key to long-lasting love. Going too fast is as bad as going too slow.

[JULIET rushes in and embraces ROMEO.]

Here comes the lady. Oh, 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,

(20) And yet not fall. So light is vanity.

Here comes the lady. Oh,a footstep as light as hers will never endure the rocky road of life. Lovers are so light they can walk on a spiderweb floating on a summer breeze, and yet not fall. That’s how flimsy and unreal pleasure is.

JULIET

Good even to my ghostly confessor.

Good evening, my spiritual confessor.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both.

Romeo will thank you, my girl, for both of us.

JULIET

As much to him, else is his thanks too much.

I’ll give him equal thanks, so we’re even.

ROMEO

Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy

(25) 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.

Ah, Juliet if you’re as happy as I am, and you’re better with words, tell me about the happiness you imagine we’ll have in our marriage.

JULIET

(30) Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,

Brags of his substance, not of ornament.

They are but beggars that can count their worth.

But my true love is grown to such excess

I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth.

I can imagine more than I can say—I have more on my mind than words. Anyone who can count how much he has is poor. My true love has made me so rich that I can’t count even half of my wealth.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(35) Come, come with me, and we will make short work.

For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone

Till holy church incorporate two in one.

Come, come with me, and we’ll do the job quickly. Because if you don’t mind, I’m not leaving you two alone until you’re united in marriage.

[They exit.]

Act 3, Scene 1

[MERCUTIO, his page, and BENVOLIO enter with other men.]

BENVOLIO

I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire.

The day is hot; the Capulets, abroad;

And if we meet we shall not ’scape a brawl,

For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.

I’m begging you, good Mercutio, let’s go home. It’s hot, and the Capulets are all over the place. If we should meet up with them, we’ll end up fighting them. Hot days like today get people all worked up and angry.

MERCUTIO

(5) Thou art like one of those fellows that, when he enters the confines of a tavern, claps me his sword upon the table and says “God send me no need of thee!” and, by the operation of the second cup, draws it on the drawer when indeed there is no need.

You’re the kind of guy who walks into a bar, slaps his sword down on the table and says, “I hope I don’t have to use you.” By the time he’s having his second drink, he draws his sword on the bartender for no reason.

BENVOLIO

(10) Am I like such a fellow?

You think I’m like that?

MERCUTIO

Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood as any in Italy, and as soon moved to be moody, and as soon moody to be moved.

Come now. You can be as hot-blooded as any man in Italy. You get angry at the smallest thing, and when you’re in the mood to get angry you always find something to get angry about.

BENVOLIO

And what to?

So what?

MERCUTIO

(15) Nay, an there were two such, we should have none shortly, for one would kill the other. Thou, why, thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more or a hair less in his beard than thou hast. Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes. What eye but such an eye would spy out such a quarrel? Thy head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of meat, and yet thy head hath been beaten as addle as an egg for quarreling. Thou hast quarreled with a man for coughing in the street because he hath wakened thy dog that hath lain asleep in the sun. Didst thou not fall out with a tailor for wearing his new doublet before Easter? With another, for tying his new shoes with old ribbon? And yet thou wilt tutor me from quarreling!

So, if there were two men such as you, it wouldn’t take long for there to be none because each of you would kill the other. You, why, you would fight with a man if he had one more or one less hair in his beard than you have in yours. You’ll fight a man who’s cracking nuts simply because your own eyes are the color of hazelnuts. Only someone like you would look for that kind of fight. Your head is as full of fights as an egg is full of food, but your head has gotten scrambled like an egg from all your fighting. You once fought with a man who coughed in the street because he woke up your dog that was sleeping in the sun. And can you deny that you had a falling out with a tailor because he was wearing a new jacket before Easter? And with another for tying his new shoes with old laces? And yet you’re trying to tell me how to avoid fighting?

BENVOLIO

(30) An I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any man should buy the fee simple of my life for an hour and a quarter.

If I were as quick to get into fights as you are, my life insurance rates would be immense.

MERCUTIO

The fee simple? O simple!

Your life insurance? You’re a fool!

[TYBALT, PETRUCHIO, and some other CAPULETS enter.]

BENVOLIO

By my head, here comes the Capulets.

By God, Here come the Capulets.

MERCUTIO

By my heel, I care not.

By my foot, I couldn’t care less.

TYBALT

Follow me close, for I will speak to them.

(35) Gentlemen, good e’en. A word with one of you.

(to his men) Follow me closely. I’ll speak to them. (to BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO) Good afternoon, gentlemen. I’d like to have a word with one of you.

MERCUTIO

And but one word with one of us? Couple it with something. Make it a word and a blow.

You want a single word with one of us? Combine it with something else. Make it a word and a blow.

TYBALT

You shall find me apt enough to that, sir, an you will give me occasion.

You’ll find me happy to do that, sir, if you give me a reason.

MERCUTIO

Could you not take some occasion without giving?

You can’t find a reason without my giving you one?

TYBALT

(40) Mercutio, thou consort’st with Romeo.

Mercutio, you hang with Romeo.

MERCUTIO

Consort? What, dost thou make us minstrels? An thou make minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords. Here’s my fiddlestick. Here’s that shall make you dance. Zounds, “consort”!

“Hang?” What, are we musicians in a band? If we look like musicians to you, you can expect to hear nothing but noise. (touching his sword) This is my fiddlestick. It will make you dance. My God — “hang!”

BENVOLIO

(45) We talk here in the public haunt of men.

Either withdraw unto some private place,

And reason coldly of your grievances,

Or else depart. Here all eyes gaze on us.

We’re talking here in public. Either let’s go somewhere private and calmly discuss your grievance, or else just go our separates ways. Here, everybody can see us.

MERCUTIO

Men’s eyes were made to look and let them gaze.

(50) I will not budge for no man’s pleasure, I.

Men’s eyes were made to see. Let them watch. I won’t move for anyone.

[ROMEO enters.]

TYBALT

Well, peace be with you, sir. Here comes my man.

Well, may peace be with you. Here comes the man I’m after.

MERCUTIO

But I’ll be hanged, sir, if he wear your livery.

Marry, go before to field, he’ll be your follower.

Your worship in that sense may call him “man.”

I’ll be hanged if he’s your servant. Walk out into a field and he’ll chase you. That’s the only sense in which you can call him your “man.”

TYBALT

(55) Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford

No better term than this: thou art a villain.

Romeo, I have just one thing to say to you: you’re a villain.

ROMEO

Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee

Doth much excuse the appertaining rage

To such a greeting. Villain am I none.

(60) Therefore, farewell. I see thou know’st me not.

Tybalt, I love you for a reason that allows me to ignore the rage I would normally feel in response to such a greeting. I’m not a villain. Therefore, goodbye. I can see that you don’t know me at all.

TYBALT

Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries

That thou hast done me. Therefore turn and draw.

Boy, these words don’t excuse the injuries you’ve done to me. Turn and draw your sword.

ROMEO

I do protest I never injured thee,

But love thee better than thou canst devise,

(65) Till thou shalt know the reason of my love.

And so, good Capulet—which name I tender

As dearly as my own—be satisfied.

I’ve never done you harm. In fact, I love you more than you’ll be able to understand until you know the reason behind my love. And so, good Capulet—which is a name I love as dearly as my own—be satisfied.

MERCUTIO

O calm dishonourable, vile submission!

Alla stoccata carries it away. (draws his sword)

(70) Tybalt, you ratcatcher, will you walk?

Such a calm submission is both dishonorable and vile! The thrust of a sword will sweep it away. (draws his sword) Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you duel with me?

TYBALT

What wouldst thou have with me?

What do you want from me?

MERCUTIO

(75) Good King of Cats, nothing but one of your nine lives, that I mean to make bold withal, and, as you shall use me hereafter, dry-beat the rest of the eight. Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher by the ears? Make haste, lest mine be about your ears ere it be out.

Good King of Cats, I want nothing more than one of your nine lives. I’ll boldly take that one, and, depending on how you behave after that, I just may also beat the rest of the eight out of you too. Will you draw your sword from its sheath? Hurry, or mine will be at your ears before you have yours out.

TYBALT

I am for you. (draws his sword)

I’ll duel with you. (draws his sword)

ROMEO

Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up.

Noble Mercutio, put your sword away.

MERCUTIO

Come, sir, your passado.

(to TYBALT) Get on with it, sir, attack.

[MERCUTIO and TYBALT fight]

ROMEO

(80) (draws his sword) Draw, Benvolio. Beat down their weapons.

Gentlemen, for shame! Forbear this outrage.

Tybalt, Mercutio! The Prince expressly hath

Forbidden bandying in Verona streets.

Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio!

(draws his sword) Draw your sword, Benvolio, and help me beat down their weapons. Gentlemen, this is shameful Tybalt! Mercutio! The Prince has explicitly forbidden fighting in the streets of Verona. Stop! Tybalt! Good Mercutio!

ROMEO tries to break up the fight. TYBALT stabs Mercutio under ROMEO’s outstretched arm.

PETRUCHIO

(85) Away, Tybalt.

Let’s get out of here, Tybalt.

[TYBALT, PETRUCHIO, and the other CAPULETS exit.]

MERCUTIO

I am hurt.

A plague o’ both your houses! I am sped.

Is he gone and hath nothing?

I’m hurt. May a plague strike both your families. I’m done. Did he get away without injury?

BENVOLIO

What, art thou hurt?

What, are you hurt?

MERCUTIO

Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch. Marry, ’tis enough.

(90) Where is my page?—Go, villain, fetch a surgeon.

Yes, yes. A scratch, just a scratch. Yet it’s enough. Where is my page? Go, villain. Get a doctor.

[MERCUTIO’S PAGE exits.]

ROMEO

Courage, man. The hurt cannot be much.

Have courage, man. The injury can’t be so bad.

MERCUTIO

No, ’tis not so deep as a well nor so wide as a church-door, but ’tis enough, ’twill serve. Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o’ both your houses! Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat to scratch a man to death! A braggart, a rogue, a villain that fights by the book of arithmetic! Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.

It’s not as deep as a well or as wide as a church door, but it’s enough. Ask for me tomorrow, and you’ll find me a grave man. My time in this world is done, I believe. May a plague strike both your families. God! That dog, that rat, that mouse, that cat has scratched me to death! That braggart, that scoundrel, that villain who fights as if he learned it all from some manual! (To ROMEO) Why the devil did you step between us? He wounded me by reaching under your arm.

ROMEO

(100) I thought all for the best.

I was trying to do what was right.

MERCUTIO

Help me into some house, Benvolio,

Or I shall faint. A plague o’ both your houses!

They have made worms’ meat of me. I have it,

And soundly too. Your houses!

Carry me inside some house, Benvolio, or else I will faint. May a plague strike both your families! They’ve made me into worm food. I’m finished. Curse your families!

[MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO exit.]

ROMEO

(105) This gentleman, the Prince’s near ally,

My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt

In my behalf. My reputation stained

With Tybalt’s slander.—Tybalt, that an hour

Hath been my kinsman! O sweet Juliet,

(110) Thy beauty hath made me effeminate

And in my temper softened valor’s steel!

This gentleman, a kinsman of the Prince and my friend, was killed while fighting on my behalf, to defend me against Tybalt’s insults. Tybalt, who has been my own kinsman for an hour! Oh, sweet Juliet, your beauty has made me effeminate and softened the steel of my valor.

[BENVOLIO enters.]

BENVOLIO

O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio is dead!

That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds,

Which too untimely here did scorn the earth.

Oh Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio is dead! His noble spirit has gone to heaven, but it was too early for him to leave this life.

ROMEO

(115) This day’s black fate on more days doth depend.

This but begins the woe others must end.

Today’s dark fate will determine the future. These events only begin the sorrow that is to come.

[TYBALT enters.]

BENVOLIO

Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.

The furious Tybalt jas returned.

ROMEO

Alive in triumph—and Mercutio slain!

Away to heaven, respective lenity,

(120) 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.

(125) Either thou or I, or both, must go with him.

Alive and triumphant, while Mercutio is dead? Begone, respect and compassion. Rage and fury will be my guide. Now, Tybalt, take back the “villain” that you called me earlier. Mercutio’s soul is waiting just a bit above our heads for you to join him. Either you, I, or both of us must go with him.

TYBALT

Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort him here

Shalt with him hence.

Wretched boy, you hung out with him here on earth, and now you’re going to go with him to heaven.

ROMEO

This shall determine that.

Our fight will decide who goes to heaven.

[They fight. TYBALT falls and dies.]

BENVOLIO

Romeo, away, be gone!

The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain.

(130) Stand not amazed. The Prince will doom thee death

If thou art taken. Hence, be gone, away!

Romeo, get away from here. The citizens are coming, and Tybalt is dead. Don’t just stand there staring. If you’re caught, the Prince will execute you. Get out of here!

ROMEO

Oh, I am fortune’s fool!

Oh, fate has played me for a fool!

BENVOLIO

Why dost thou stay?

Why are you still here?

[ROMEO exits.]

[The CITIZENS OF THE WATCH enter.]

CITIZEN OF THE WATCH

Which way ran he that killed Mercutio?

(135) Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he?

Where did the man who killed Mercutio run? Tybalt, that murderer, which way did he go?

BENVOLIO

There lies that Tybalt.

Tybalt is lying right there.

CITIZEN OF THE WATCH

(to TYBALT) Up, sir, go with me.

I charge thee in the Prince’s name, obey.

(to TYBALT) Get up, sir, and come with me. By the name of the Prince, I command you to obey.

[The PRINCE enters with MONTAGUE, CAPULET, LADY MONTAGUE, LADY CAPULET, and OTHERS.]

PRINCE

Where are the vile beginners of this fray?

Where are the evil instigators of this fight?

BENVOLIO

(140) O noble prince, I can discover all

The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl.

There lies the man, slain by young Romeo,

That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio.

Oh, noble prince, I can explain everything about the unfortunate events that led to this deadly fight. There lies Tybalt, the man who killed your relative, brave Mercutio. Tybalt was then killed by young Romeo.

LADY CAPULET

Tybalt, my cousin! O my brother’s child!

(145) O Prince! O cousin! Husband! Oh, the blood is spilled

Of my dear kinsman! Prince, as thou art true,

For blood of ours shed blood of Montague.

O cousin, cousin!

Tybalt, my nephew! My brother’s son! Oh Prince, oh nephew, oh husband! Oh, my dear kinsman is dead! Prince, you are a man of honor, and therefore must respond to this murder by killing a Montague. Oh cousin, cousin!

PRINCE

Benvolio, who began this bloody fray?

Benvolio, who began this deadly fight?

BENVOLIO

Tybalt here slain, whom Romeo’s hand did slay.

(150) Romeo, that spoke him fair, bade him bethink

How nice the quarrel was and urged withal

Your high displeasure. All this uttered

With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bowed,

Could not take truce with the unruly spleen

(155) 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

(160) 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,

(165) 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,

(170) 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.

Tybalt did, who then was killed by Romeo. Romeo spoke politely to Tybalt and begged him to see how ridiculous the disagreement was and to remember how displeased you would be if there was a fight. All this he said gently, calmly, kneeling down with humility. But he could not make peace. Tybalt’s anger was irrational, and he was deaf to any talk of peace. Soon Tybalt attacked Mercutio, who just as angry, fought back. They thrusted and parried. Romeo cried out, “Stop, my friends. Step apart,” jumped between, and forced down their swords. Tybalt, though, thrust his sword under Romeo’s arm and hit brave Mercutio’s heart. Then Tybalt ran. But, soon after, Tybalt returned to fight Romeo, who by now wanted revenge for Mercutio’s death. They began to fight as quick as lightning. Before I could separate them, Tybalt was killed. As Tybalt fell, Romeo turned and ran. This is the truth, I swear on my life.

LADY CAPULET

He is a kinsman to the Montague.

(175) 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.

Benvolio is a Montague. His loyalty compels him to lie. He’s lying. There must have been twenty Montagues fighting, and together all twenty of them could only kill one man. I beg for justice that only you, Prince, can give. Romeo killed Tybalt. Romeo must die.

PRINCE

(180) Romeo slew him; he slew Mercutio.

Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?

Romeo killed Tybalt. Tybalt killed Mercutio. Who should pay the price for Mercutio’s life?

MONTAGUE

Not Romeo, Prince, he was Mercutio’s friend.

His fault concludes but what the law should end,

The life of Tybalt.

Not Romeo, Prince. He was Mercutio’s friend. His “crime” was justice, because it took the life of Tybalt.

PRINCE

And for that offence

(185) 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.

(190) 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’s found, that hour is his last.

Bear hence this body and attend our will.

Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.

And for that crime, Romeo is now exiled from Verona. I’m now caught up in the strife between your families. My kinsman is now dead because of your damned dispute. I’ll punish you with a fine so large that you’ll regret the loss you’ve caused me. I refuse to listen to any of your pleas or excuses. Neither crying nor praying will help you to escape this punishment, so don’t even try. Romeo must leave the city immediately, or else, if he’s found, he’ll be immediately killed. Carry away this body, and obey my commands. Pardoning murderers just creates more murders by making every would-be murderer think that they’ll probably be pardoned too.

[They exit.]

Act 3, Scene 2

[JULIET enters alone.]

JULIET

Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,

Toward Phoebus’ lodging. Such a wagoner

As Phaeton would whip you to the west

And bring in cloudy night immediately.

(5) 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,

(10) 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,

(15) 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.

(20) 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

(25) And pay no worship to the garish sun.

Oh, 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

(30) To an impatient child that hath new robes

And may not wear them.

Move faster you fiery-footed horses, bearing the sun toward its nighttime resting place. The mythological Phaeton would whip you so hard that you would already have brought the sun west and night would come immediately. Come night, with your darkness, so that Romeo can come to me without anyone knowing and leap into my arms. In the dark, lovers can still see enough, by the light of their own beauty, to make love. Or, if love is blind, then it is best suited to the night. Come, night, you widow dressed in black, and teach me how to win my love so that we both can lose our virginity. Hide the blood rushing to my cheeks in your darkness, until my shy love grows bold enough to think of love-making as simple and true. Come, night. Come, Romeo. You’re like a day during the night, lying on the wings of night even whiter than snow on the wings of a raven. Come, gentle night. Come, loving, dark night. Give me my Romeo. And when I die, take him and cut him into stars that will make the night sky so beautiful that the entire world will fall in love with the night and forget about the tasteless sun. Oh, I have bought the mansion of love, but not yet possessed it. I belong to Romeo, but have not yet been enjoyed by him. This day is so long and dull, just as the night before some festival is to an impatient child forced to wait to put on her fancy new clothes.

[The NURSE enters carrying the rope ladder.]

Oh, 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?

Oh, here comes my Nurse, bringing news. Every voice that speaks Romeo’s name speaks with heavenly beauty. Now, Nurse, what’s your news? What is that you have there? The rope ladder Romeo told you to get?

NURSE

(35) Ay, ay, the cords.

Yes, yes, the ladder.

JULIET

Ay me, what news? Why dost thou wring thy hands?

Oh no, what’s your news? Why are you wringing your hands?

NURSE

Ah, weraday! He’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead!

We are undone, lady, we are undone!

Alack the day! He’s gone, he’s killed, he’s dead!

Alas! He’s dead. He’s dead. He’s dead! We’re done for, lady, done for! Curse the day! He’s gone. He’s killed. He’s dead!

JULIET

(40) Can heaven be so envious?

Can God be so cruel?

NURSE

Romeo can,

Though heaven cannot. O Romeo, Romeo!

Who ever would have thought it? Romeo!

Romeo can be, though God is not. Oh, Romeo, Romeo! Who ever would have guessed? Romeo!

JULIET

What devil art thou that dost torment me thus?

(45) 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,

(50) Or those eyes shut that makes thee answer “ay.”

If he be slain, say “ay,” or if not, “no.”

Brief sounds determine of my weal or woe.

What kind of a devil are you to torment me in this way? This sort of torture is fit only for hell. Has Romeo killed himself? Say “yes” and that single word will poison me more terribly than could even the deadly gaze of the mythological cockatrice. I will cease to be myself if you say that Romeo killed himself. If he’s dead, say “Yes.” If not, say “No.” Those little words will determine my joy or pain.

NURSE

I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes—

God save the mark!—here on his manly breast.

(55) A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse.

Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaubed in blood,

All in gore blood. I swoonèd at the sight.

I saw the wound. I saw it with my own eyes. God bless that wound—here on his manly chest. A pitiful corpse, a bloody, pitiful corpse. Pale, pale as ashes and covered in blood. Gory with blood. I fainted at the sight of it.

JULIET

O, break, my heart, poor bankrupt, break at once!

To prison, eyes, ne’er look on liberty.

(60) Vile earth, to earth resign. End motion here,

And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier.

Oh, my poor, bankrupt heart is breaking. Go to prison, eyes, so you will never again be free to look at the world. I’ll bury my body in the earth, where it will lie motionless and share a single coffin with Romeo.

NURSE

O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had!

O courteous Tybalt! Honest gentleman!

That ever I should live to see thee dead.

Oh Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I ever had. Oh, well-mannered, honorable Tybalt. If only I had not lived long enough to see him die.

JULIET

(65) What storm is this that blows so contrary?

Is Romeo slaughtered, and is Tybalt dead?

My dearest cousin and my dearer lord?

Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom!

For who is living if those two are gone?

What storm is this to cause so many different disasters? Has Romeo been killed, and Tybalt too? Tybalt, my dearest cousin, and Romeo who as my husband was even more dear to me? May the last trumpet play to signal the onset of doomsday, because who could remain alive if those two are gone?

NURSE

(70) Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banishèd.

Romeo that killed him—he is banishèd.

Tybalt is dead. Romeo has been banished. It was Romeo who killed Tybalt, which is why he was banished.

JULIET

O God, did Romeo’s hand shed Tybalt’s blood?

Oh God, did Romeo’s hand shed Tybalt’s blood?

NURSE

It did, it did. Alas the day, it did.

It did, it did. Unfortunately it did.

JULIET

O serpent heart hid with a flowering face!

(75) 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.

(80) 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 moral paradise of such sweet flesh?

Was ever book containing such vile matter

(85) So fairly bound? Oh, that deceit should dwell

In such a gorgeous palace!

Oh, he has a traitor’s heart hidden behind a pretty face! Did any dragon ever nest in such a pretty cave? He’s a beautiful tyrant! A fiendish angel! A raven hiding under the feathers of a dove! A lamb that kills like a wolf! A hateful reality hidden by a beautiful appearance. The exact opposite of what he seemed. He seemed a saint but should be damned! He’s a villain who seemed honorable! Oh nature, what were you doing in hell when you placed the soul of a devil in the paradise of such a perfect man? Has any book with such awful contents ever had a more beautiful cover? Oh, how could such betrayal hide in such a gorgeous body!

NURSE

There’s no trust,

No faith, no honesty in men. All perjured,

All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.

Ah, where’s my man?—Give me some aqua vitae.—

(90) These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old.

Shame come to Romeo!

There is no trust, faith, or honesty in men. They all break their oaths. They’re all wicked. They all lie. Where’s my servant? — Get me some brandy — These griefs, these miseries, these sorrows make me old. Shame on Romeo!

JULIET

Blistered be thy tongue

For such a wish! He was not born to shame.

Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit,

For ’tis a throne where honor may be crowned.

(95) Sole monarch of the universal earth,

Oh, what a beast was I to chide at him!

May blisters cover your tongue for making a wish like that! Romeo was not born to have anything to do with shame. Shame could never be connected to him, because he is destined only to experience great and total honor. Oh, I was such a beast to condemn him.

NURSE

Will you speak well of him that killed your cousin?

You’re going to speak well of the man who killed your cousin?

JULIET

Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?

Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name,

(100) 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,

(105) 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,

(110) That murdered me. I would forget it fain,

But oh, it presses to my memory,

Like damnèd guilty deeds to sinners’ minds.

“Tybalt is dead, and Romeo banishèd.”

That “banishèd,” that one word “banishèd”

(115) 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,”

(120) “Thy father” or “thy mother,” nay, or both,

Which modern lamentations might have moved?

But with a rearward following Tybalt’s death,

“Romeo is banishèd.” To speak that word,

Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,

(125) All slain, all dead. “Romeo is banishèd.”

There is no end, no limit, measure, bound,

In that word’s death. No words can that woe sound. Where is my father and my mother, Nurse?

Should I speak badly of my own husband? Ah, my poor husband, who will speak well of you when I, your wife of three hours, have been calling you such dreadful names? But why, you villain, did you kill my cousin? Because my villain of a cousin would have killed you, my husband. I refuse to cry. These tears which seem like sadness for Tybalt’s death are actually tears of joy that Romeo is still alive. My husband, whom Tybalt would have killed, is alive. And Tybalt, who wanted to kill my husband, is dead. This is good news. So why am I crying? Because there was news that’s even worse than that of Tybalt’s death. Worse news that kills me inside. I wish I could forget it, but it forces its way into my memory the way sins obsess guilty minds. “Tybalt is dead, and Romeo has been banished.” That word “banished,” that single word “banished,” is worse than the death of ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt’s death would been misery enough even if nothing else had happened. Or, if misery loves company, and one grief must necessarily follow another, then it would have been better had the Nurse, after telling me that Tybalt was dead, then told me that my mother or my father, or even both, were gone. That would have pushed me into normal feelings of grief. But to tell me that Tybalt’s is dead and then say, “Romeo has been banished.” To say that is the same as saying that my father, my mother, Tybalt, Romeo, and Juliet have all been killed, are all dead. “Romeo has been banished.” The death contained in those four words is infinite, unmeasurable. No words can express that misery. Where are my father and mother, Nurse?

NURSE

Weeping and wailing over Tybalt’s corse.

(130) Will you go to them? I will bring you thither.

Crying over Tybalt’s corpse. Will you join them? I’ll bring you there.

JULIET

Wash they his wounds with tears? Mine shall be 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.

(135) 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!

Do they wash Tybalt’s wounds with their tears? My tears will still be flowing because of Romeo’s banishment when their tears for Tybalt have gone dry. Take this rope ladder, this poor rope ladder made useless because Romeo has been exiled. He made this ladder to be his passageway to my bed, but I am a virgin and now will die a virgin and a widow. Come with me, rope ladder. Come with me, Nurse. I’m going to my wedding bed. Death, not Romeo, will take my virginity!

NURSE

Hie to your chamber. I’ll find Romeo

(140) To comfort you. I wot well where he is.

Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at night.

I’ll to him. He is hid at Lawrence’ cell.

Go to your bedroom. I’ll go bring Romeo to comfort you. I know where he is. Pay attention: your Romeo will be here tonight. I’ll get him. He’s hiding in Friar Lawrence’s cell.

JULIET

(gives the NURSE a ring)O, find him! Give this ring to my true knight,

And bid him come to take his last farewell.

(gives the NURSE a ring) Oh, find him! Give this ring to my true knight! Tell him to come here to give me his last goodbye.

[They exit.]

Act 3, Scene 3

[FRIAR LAWRENCE enters.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Romeo, come forth. Come forth, thou fearful man.

Affliction is enamoured of thy parts,

And thou art wedded to calamity.

Romeo, come here. Come here, you frightened man. Trouble follows you, and you’re married to catastrophe.

[ROMEO enters.]

ROMEO

Father, what news? What is the Prince’s doom?

(5) What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand

That I yet know not?

Father, what’s the news? Did the Prince state how I am to be punished? What unknown suffering is coming for me?

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Too familiar

Is my dear son with such sour company.

I bring thee tidings of the Prince’s doom.

My dear son, you’re too familiar with suffering. I do have news for you about the Prince’s punishment for you.

ROMEO

What less than doomsday is the Prince’s doom?

Is it anything less than my death?

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(10) A gentler judgment vanished from his lips:

Not body’s death, but body’s banishment.

His judgment was gentler than that. You won’t be executed, but will be banished from Verona.

ROMEO

Ha, banishment! Be merciful, say “death,”

For exile hath more terror in his look,

Much more than death. Do not say “banishment.”

Banishment! Be merciful: say “death.” Exile is much worse to me than death. Don’t say “banishment.”

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(15) Hence from Verona art thou banishèd.

Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.

You are banished from Verona. Be patient, the world is big and anything can happen.

ROMEO

There is no world without Verona walls

But purgatory, torture, hell itself.

Hence “banishèd” is banished from the world,

(20) And world’s exile is death. Then “banishèd,”

Is death mistermed. Calling death “banishment,”

Thou cutt’st my head off with a golden ax

And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.

The world outside Verona’s walls is like purgatory, torture, hell itself. Being banished from Verona is the same as being banished from the world, and being banished from the world is the same as death. Banishment is just a different name for death. So telling me that I’m banished is like cutting off my head with a golden ax and smiling while murdering me.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!

(25) 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.

Oh, deadly sin! Oh, you rude, unthankful child! Your crime is punishable by death, but the Prince in his kindness defended you and bypassed the law by replacing death with banishment. This is mercy, but you can’t see it.

ROMEO

‘Tis torture and not mercy. Heaven is here,

(30) 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

(35) 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.

(40) 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 sayst thou yet that exile is not death?

Hadst thou no poison mixed, no sharp-ground knife,

(45) 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,

(50) A sin-absolver, and my friend professed,

To mangle me with that word “banishèd”?

It’s torture, not mercy. Heaven is in Verona because this is where Juliet lives. Every cat and dog and little mouse, every unworthy creature, that lives in Verona lives in heaven because it can see her. But I won’t be able to. Carrion-eating flies will have more vitality, a more blessed existences, and more romance than I will. They can touch Juliet’s white hand and can steal kisses from her sweet lips, which, though she is a pure virgin, blush when they touch each other because they think it’s a sin. But Romeo can’t touch her hand or kiss her. Flies can kiss her, but I must fly from the city. Flies are free, but I’ve been banished. Do you still argue that exile isn’t death? You didn’t have some poison, sharpened knife, or some other weapon that you could have used to kill me quickly, nothing so disgraceful, other than banishment? Oh Friar, damned souls use the word “banishment” to describe hell. They howl the word. How, as a priest, confessor, and my friend, can you have the heart to say to me the word “banished?”

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Thou fond mad man, hear me a little speak.

You silly madman, listen to me for a second.

ROMEO

Oh, thou wilt speak again of banishment.

Now you’re just going to talk again about banishment.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

I’ll give thee armor to keep off that word—

(55) Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy—

To comfort thee though thou art banishèd.

I’ll protect you from that word by using the cure for adversity—philosophy—which will comfort you even though you’ve been banished.

ROMEO

Yet “banishèd”? Hang up philosophy!

Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,

Displant a town, reverse a prince’s doom,

(60) It helps not, it prevails not. Talk no more.

In the face of banishment, screw philosophy! Unless philosophy can create a Juliet, move an entire town to a new place, or reverse a prince’s punishment, it can’t help me. Stop talking.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Oh, then I see that madmen have no ears.

Ah, I’ve discovered that madmen are deaf.

ROMEO

How should they, when that wise men have no eyes?

Why should madmen hear, when wise men can’t see?

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Let me dispute with thee of thy estate.

Let me argue with you about your situation.

ROMEO

Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel.

(65) 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,

(70) Taking the measure of an unmade grave.

You can’t talk about something you don’t feel. If you were as young as I am, in love with Juliet, married to her for just an hour, and had murdered Tybalt… If you loved her as I do and were banished as I am, then you could talk about it. Though instead you might tear out your hair and fall to the ground the way I do right now (ROMEO falls on the ground) in order to measure out your grave.

[Knocking sounds from offstage.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Arise. One knocks. Good Romeo, hide thyself.

Get up. Someone’s knocking. Hide, good Romeo.

ROMEO

Not I, unless the breath of heartsick groans,

Mistlike, infold me from the search of eyes.

The only way I’ll hide is if my heartsick groans produce a mist that covers me from people’s searching eyes.

[Knocking]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Hark, how they knock!—Who’s there?—Romeo, arise.

(75) Thou wilt be taken.—Stay awhile.—Stand up.

They knock again!— Who’s there?— Romeo, stand up. They’ll catch you.— Hold on a moment.—Romeo, stand up.

[Knocking]

Run to my study.—By and by!—God’s will,

What simpleness is this!—I come, I come.

Hide in my study.—Just a minute—For the love of God, don’t be so stupid! I’m coming. I’m coming.

[Knocking]

Who knocks so hard? Whence come you? What’s your will?

Who is it that is knocking so hard? Where do you come from? What do you want?

NURSE

(from within) Let me come in, and you shall know my errand.

(80) I come from Lady Juliet.

(from offstage) Let me in, and I’ll tell you why I’m here. I come from Lady Juliet.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(opens the door) Welcome then.

(opening the door) Welcome, then.

[The NURSE enters]

NURSE

O holy Friar, O, tell me, holy Friar,

Where is my lady’s lord? Where’s Romeo?

Oh, holy Friar, Oh, tell me, holy Friar, where is my lady’s husband? Where’s Romeo?

FRIAR LAWRENCE

There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk.

There, on the ground, drunk on his own tears.

NURSE

Oh, he is even in my mistress’ case,

(85) Just in her case. O woeful sympathy,

Piteous predicament! Even so lies she,

Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering.

Stand up, stand up. Stand, an you be a man.

For Juliet’s sake, for her sake, rise and stand.

(90) Why should you fall into so deep an O?

He’s acting like Juliet, exactly like her. Oh awful sympathy! What a dreadful predicament! She’s lying on the ground just like him, blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering. Stand up. Stand up. Stand up if you’re a man. For Juliet’s sake, for her sake, rise and stand. Why do you moan so terribly?

ROMEO

Nurse!

Nurse!

NURSE

Ah sir, ah sir. Death’s the end of all.

Well, sir, well... death comes for everybody.

ROMEO

Spakest thou of Juliet? How is it with her?

Doth she not think me an old murderer,

(95) 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?

What of Juliet? How is she? Does she think that I’m a cold-blooded murderer because I corrupted our newfound love by killing her relative? Where is she? How is she? What does my wife say about our love?

NURSE

Oh, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps,

(100) And now falls on her bed, and then starts up,

And “Tybalt” calls, and then on Romeo cries,

And then down falls again.

Oh, she says nothing, sir. Instead she weeps and weeps. She falls on her bed, then starts to get up, then calls out Tybalt’s name and then your name and then she falls back down on the bed.

ROMEO

As if that name,

Shot from the deadly level of a gun,

(105) Did murder her, as that name’s cursed hand

Murdered her kinsman. O, tell me, Friar, tell me,

In what vile part of this anatomy

Doth my name lodge? Tell me, that I may sack

The hateful mansion. (draws his dagger)

She calls out my name as if it were a bullet that had shot from a gun and murdered her, just as I murdered her cousin. Tell me, Friar, in what vile part of my body does my name rest? Tell me, so I can cut it out of myself. (He draws his dagger)

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Hold thy desperate hand.

Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art.

(110) 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,

(115) 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 rail’st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth?

(120) 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

(125) 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;

(130) Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,

Misshapen in the conduct of them both,

Like powder in a skill-less soldier’s flask,

Is set afire by thine own ignorance;

And thou dismembered with thine own defence.

(135) What, rouse thee, man! Thy Juliet is alive,

For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead—

There art thou happy. Tybalt would kill thee,

But thou slew’st Tybalt—there art thou happy.

The law that threatened death becomes thy friend

(140) 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 pout’st upon thy fortune and thy love.

(145) 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,

(150) 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.—

(155) 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.

Stop! Don’t do anything out of desperation. Are you a man? You look like a man. But your tears are womanly. Your wildness is like the irrational fury of a beast. You’re like an inappropriate woman hiding within a man, or, even worse, a shameful beast hiding within a half-man, half-woman! You amaze me. By my holy order, I swear I thought you were stronger and more stable than this. Have you killed Tybalt? Will you kill yourself, and in performing such a sin also kill your wife, who shares your life? Why are you ranting about your birth, the heavens, and the earth? You are made of the joining of all three, and now want nothing to do with them? You bring shame to your body, your love, and your mind. You are blessed with all three, but like a moneylender you do not use your body, love, or mind for their true purpose. Without honor or nobility, your body is just a wax figure. The love that you swore is just a hollow lie, since you now threaten to kill the love that you vowed to cherish. Your mind, that key to both your body and your love, has failed to handle both of them. You’re like an unskilled soldier who accidentally explodes his own gunpowder because he does not know how to use it: you end up killing yourself with the very thing meant to protect you. Now get a hold of yourself, man! Your Juliet is alive (for whose sake you were just threatening to kill yourself). That is something to be happy about. Tybalt tried to kill you, but you killed Tybalt. That is something to be happy about. The law that promised death for you was mercifully changed into exile—another thing to be happy about. You have been blessed multiple times, and are surrounded by brightest happiness. But like a misbehaved and sullen girl, you’re pouting about your bad luck and thwarted love. Now listen to me: those who act the way you are now die miserable. Go, be with your love, as we planned. Climb up to her bedroom and comfort her. But make sure to leave before the watchmen take their positions, because they will stop you before you can escape to Mantua. You’ll live in Mantua until we can announce your marriage publicly, make peace between your families, and beg the Prince to pardon you. Then we’ll welcome you back with twenty hundred thousand times more joy than you’ll feel when leaving. Nurse, go to Juliet before Romeo follows. Give my regards to your lady, and tell her to hurry everybody in her house to bed. They’re sorrow is likely to make them want to go to sleep, anyway. Romeo is coming.

NURSE

O Lord, I could have stayed here all the night

(160) To hear good counsel. Oh, what learning is!

My lord, I’ll tell my lady you will come.

O Lord, I could stay here all night listening to good advice like yours. Education is amazing! (speaking to ROMEO) My lord, I’ll tell my lady you will come.

ROMEO

Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide.

Do that, and tell my beloved to be ready to scold me.

NURSE

Here, sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir.

(gives ROMEO JULIET’s ring)

(165) Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late.

Here, sir, take this ring she asked me to give you. (she gives ROMEO JULIET’s ring) Hurry, it’s getting late.

Exit NURSE

The NURSE exits.

ROMEO

How well my comfort is revived by this!

This ring lifts my spirits!

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Go hence. Good night. And here stands all your state:

Either be gone before the watch be set,

Or by the break of day disguised from hence.

(170) 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.

Now go. Good night. And remember that everything depends on you being out of Verona before the night watch takes its position, or that you disguise yourself and leave after daybreak. Stay awhile in Mantua. I’ll find your servant, and every once in a while through him I’ll send you news about every good thing that occurs for you here. Give me your hand. It’s late. Farewell. Good night.

ROMEO

But that a joy past joy calls out on me,

(175) It were a grief so brief to part with thee.

Farewell.

Here I go to experience a joy greater than any other, but even so I’m sad to have to leave you so quickly. Farewell.

[They exit.]

Act 3, Scene 4

[Enter CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, and PARIS]

CAPULET

Things have fall’n out, sir, so unluckily,

That we have had no time to move our daughter.

Look you, she loved her kinsman Tybalt dearly,

And so did I. Well, we were born to die.

(5) ‘Tis very late. She’ll not come down tonight.

I promise you, but for your company,

I would have been abed an hour ago.

Everything has gone so badly, sir, that we haven’t had any time to speak with Juliet about marrying you. She loved her cousin Tybalt dearly, as did I. Well, we were all born to die. It’s very late, she won’t be coming downstairs tonight. In fact, if I wasn’t meeting with you I’d have gone to bed an hour ago.

PARIS

These times of woe afford no time to woo.

Madam, good night. Commend me to your daughter.

Painful times provide no chance for love. Lady Capulet, good night. Speak well of me to your daughter.

LADY CAPULET

(10) I will, and know her mind early tomorrow.

Tonight she is mewed up to her heaviness.

I will. And I’ll find out how she feels about marrying you early tomorrow. Tonight she is locked in her room with her sadness.

CAPULET

Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender

Of my child’s love. I think she will be ruled

In all respects by me. Nay, more, I doubt it not.—

(15) 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?

Sir Paris, I’ll make a desperate present of my child’s love. I think she’ll do whatever I tell her to I say. No, I’m sure she will. Wife, go to see her before you go to bed. Explain to her how my son Paris loves her. And tell her, listen to me, on Wednesday—Wait—What day is today?

PARIS

Monday, my lord.

Monday, my lord.

CAPULET

(20) Monday! Ha, ha. Well, Wednesday is too soon,

O’ Thursday let it be.—O’ Thursday, tell her,

She shall be married to this noble earl.—

Will you be ready? Do you like this haste?

We’ll keep no great ado, a friend or two.

(25) 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?

Monday! Ha, ha! Well, Wednesday is too soon. Make it Thursday. On Thursday, tell her, she’ll be married to this noble earl. Will you be ready, Paris? Are you opposed to rushing in this way? We won’t have a big party, inviting just a friend or two. Because Tybalt was just killed, people might think that we didn’t care enough about our cousin if celebrate too much. Therefore we’ll invite just a half dozen friends to the wedding, and no more. So, what do you say to Thursday?

PARIS

(30) My lord, I would that Thursday were tomorrow.

My lord, I wish Thursday were tomorrow.

CAPULET

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!

(35) Afore me! It is so very late,

That we may call it early by and by.—

Good night.

Well, get on home. Thursday it will be, then. (to LADY CAPULET) Go see Juliet before you go to bed. Get her ready, my wife, for her wedding day. (to PARIS) Farewell, my lord. I’m going to my bedroom. My gosh! It’s so late that in moments we will be saying that it’s early. Good night.

[They all exit.]

Act 3, Scene 5

[ROMEO and JULIET enter above the stage.]

JULIET

Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day.

It was the nightingale, and not the lark,

That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear.

Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree.

(5) Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.

You’re leaving? It’s not yet close to daytime. The sound you just heard was a nightingale, not a lark. Each night the nightingale sings on that pomegranate tree. Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.

ROMEO

It was the lark, the herald of the morn,

No nightingale. Look, love, what envious streaks

Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day

(10) Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

I must be gone and live, or stay and die.

It was the lark, who sings to greet the dawn, not the nightingale. Look, love, at the streaks illuminating the clouds parting in the east? Night is over. Day is creeping over the mountain tops. I must leave in order to live. If I stay, I’ll die.

JULIET

Yon light is not daylight, I know it, I.

It is some meteor that the sun exhales

To be to thee this night a torchbearer,

(15) And light thee on thy way to Mantua.

Therefore stay yet. Thou need’st not to be gone.

That light isn’t daylight, I know it. It’s some meteor sent from the sun to be a torchbearer in order to light your way to Mantua. So stay for a bit longer. You don’t have leave.

ROMEO

Let me be ta’en. Let me be put to death.

I am content, so thou wilt have it so.

I’ll say yon grey is not the morning’s eye.

(20) ‘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.—

(25) How is ’t, my soul? Let’s talk. It is not day.

Let me be caught. Let me be put to death. I’ll be happy, if that’s how you want it. I’ll say the greyness over there is not the coming morning. Rather, it’s a pale reflection of the moon. And that isn’t the lark singing in the sky above our heads. I’d rather stay than go. Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it. How are you, my love? Let’s talk. It is not day.

JULIET

It is, it is. Hie hence! Be gone, away!

It is the lark that sings so out of tune,

Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.

Some say the lark makes sweet division.

(30) This doth not so, for she divideth us.

Some say the lark and loathèd toad change eyes.

Oh, 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.

(35) O, now be gone. More light and light it grows.

It’s day. It is. Get going, be gone, go away! It’s the lark that’s singing so harshly and out of tune. Some say the lark’s singing makes a sweet transition between day and night. That’s not true, because the song divides the two of us. Some say the lark and the disgusting toad traded eyes. Now I wish they had also traded voices because the lark’s voice pulls us from each other’s arms and sets men hunting after you. Oh, get going. It’s getting more and more light.

ROMEO

More light and light, more dark and dark our woes!

The lighter it gets, the darker is our misery.

[The NURSE enters]

NURSE

Madam.

Madam.

JULIET

Nurse?

Nurse?

NURSE

Your lady mother is coming to your chamber.

(40) The day is broke. Be wary, look about.

Your mother is on her way to your bedroom. Day has arrived. Be careful. Watch out.

[The NURSE exits]

JULIET

Then, window, let day in and let life out.

The window lets day in, and now my life goes out the window.

ROMEO

Farewell, farewell. One kiss, and I’ll descend.

Farewell, farewell! One more kiss, and I’ll go down.

[They kiss. ROMEO climbs out the window and down the wall.]

JULIET

Art thou gone so, love, lord? Ay, husband, friend,

I must hear from thee every day in the hour,

(45) For in a minute there are many days.

Oh, by this count I shall be much in years

Ere I again behold my Romeo.

Are you gone just like that, my love, my lord? Husband, lover, I must hear from you every day. There are many days in each minute. Oh, by this count I’ll be so much older before I see you again, my Romeo.

ROMEO

Farewell!

I will omit no opportunity

That may convey my greetings, love, to thee.

Farewell! I’ll take every opportunity to send my love to you.

JULIET

(50) Oh, think’st thou we shall ever meet again?

Oh, do you think we’ll ever meet again?

ROMEO

I doubt it not, and all these woes shall serve

For sweet discourses in our time to come.

I don’t doubt it. When we’re older these difficulties will just be stories that we tell each other.

JULIET

O God, I have an ill-divining soul.

Methinks I see thee now, thou art so low

(55) As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.

Either my eyesight fails, or thou look’st pale.

Oh God, my soul senses some coming evil! It seems to me that, standing down there as you are, you look as if you are lying dead in the bottom of a tomb. Either my eyesight is failing me, or you look pale.

ROMEO

And trust me, love, in my eye so do you.

Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu, adieu!

Trust me, love, in my eyes you look pale as well. Sadness steals our color. Goodbye, goodbye!

[ROMEO exits]

JULIET

O Fortune, Fortune! All men call thee fickle.

(60) 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.

Oh, Fortune. People say that you are fickle, always changing your mind. If you are so fickle, what will you do to Romeo, who’s so renowned for being faithful? Be fickle, fortune, and do not keep him away long. Instead send him back to Verona soon.

LADY CAPULET

(from within) Ho, daughter, are you up?

(offstage) Hello, my daughter! Are you up?

JULIET

(65) Who is ’t that calls? Is it my lady mother?

Is she not down so late or up so early?

What unaccustomed cause procures her hither?

Who’s calling? My mother? Why is she up so late, or so early? What could possibly be her reason for coming to see me?

[LADY CAPULET enters.]

LADY CAPULET

Why, how now, Juliet?

What’s the matter, Juliet?

JULIET

Madam, I am not well.

Madam, I’m not feeling well.

LADY CAPULET

Evermore weeping for your cousin’s death?

(70) 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.

Are you going to weep forever about your cousin’s death? Do you think you can wash him out of his grave with tears? Even if you could, you couldn’t bring him back to life. So stop crying. Some grief shows a lot of love. But too much grief makes you look silly.

JULIET

Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss.

Let me weep for such a terrible loss.

LADY CAPULET

(75) So shall you feel the loss, but not the friend

Which you weep for.

Weeping like this will make you feel the loss, but won’t help you feel the friend you’ve lost.

JULIET

Feeling so the loss,

Cannot choose but ever weep the friend.

Feeling the loss so strongly, I can’t help but weep for him forever.

LADY CAPULET

Well, girl, thou weep’st not so much for his death,

As that the villain lives which slaughtered him.

Well, girl, you’re weeping not for his death, but rather because the villain who murdered him still lives.

JULIET

(80) What villain, madam?

What villain, madam?

LADY CAPULET

That same villain, Romeo.

That same villain, Romeo.

JULIET

(aside) Villain and he be many miles asunder.

(to LADY CAPULET) God pardon him! I do, with all my heart,

And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart.

(to herself) He’s far from a villain. (to LADY CAPULET) May God pardon him! I do, with all my heart. And yet he makes my heart grieve more than any other man.

LADY CAPULET

That is because the traitor murderer lives.

That’s because the traitorous murderer still lives.

JULIET

(85) Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands.

Would none but I might venge my cousin’s death!

Yes, madam, because he lives outside the reach of my hands. I wish that I was the only one who could avenge my cousin’s death!

LADY CAPULET

We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not.

Then weep no more. I’ll send to one in Mantua,

Where that same banished runagate doth live,

(90) Shall give him such an unaccustomed dram

That he shall soon keep Tybalt company.

And then, I hope, thou wilt be satisfied.

We’ll get revenge for it, don’t you worry. Stop your weeping. I’ll send a note to a certain man we know in Mantua, which is where that banished renegade Romeo is living. The man will poison Romeo so that Romeo will soon be keeping Tybalt company in death. And then, I hope, you’ll be satisfied.

JULIET

Indeed, I never shall be satisfied

With Romeo, till I behold him—dead—

(95) Is my poor heart 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. Oh, how my heart abhors

(100) To hear him named, and cannot come to him.

To wreak the love I bore my cousin

Upon his body that slaughtered him!

In fact, I’ll never be satisfied with Romeo until I see him. . . dead is the way my poor heart feels when I think of my poor cousin. Madam, if you could only find a man with poison, I’d mix it myself so that Romeo would, once dosed with it, sleep quietly. Oh, I hate to hear his name and not be able to go after him! How I’d like to take my love for my cousin and take it out on the body of the man who killed him!

LADY CAPULET

Find thou the means, and I’ll find such a man.

But now I’ll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.

Find a way to do it, and I’ll find the man we need to help you. But now I’ll tell you some joyful news, girl.

JULIET

(105) And joy comes well in such a needy time.

What are they, beseech your ladyship?

It’s good when there is joy during such sad times. What’s the news, please?

LADY CAPULET

Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child.

One who, to put thee from thy heaviness,

Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy

(110) That thou expect’st not, nor I looked not for.

Well, you have a father who cares for you, child. To help you escape your sadness, he has arranged a soon-to-come day of joy that you didn’t expect and that I had not considered.

JULIET

Madam, in happy time, what day is that?

Madam, quickly, what day is that?

LADY CAPULET

Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn,

The gallant, young, and noble gentleman,

The County Paris, at Saint Peter’s Church,

(115) Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.

Well, my child, early Thursday morning, at Saint Peter’s Church, the gallant, young, and noble gentleman Count Paris will make you a joyful bride.

JULIET

Now, by Saint Peter’s Church and Peter too,

He shall not make me there a joyful bride.

I wonder at this haste, that I must wed

Ere he, that should be husband, comes to woo.

(120) 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!

Right now I swear by Saint Peter’s Church and Peter too that he will not make me a joyful bride. I’m confused by this sudden hurry. Why I would I marry this would-be husband before he’s even come to court me? I beg you, tell my father, madam, I won’t marry yet. And when I do marry, I swear, I’d marry Romeo, whom you know I hate, before I’d marry Paris. Now that is news!

LADY CAPULET

Here comes your father. Tell him so yourself,

(125) And see how he will take it at your hands.

Here comes your father. Tell him so yourself, and see how he takes it from you.

[CAPULET and the NURSE enter.]

CAPULET

When the sun sets the air doth drizzle dew,

But for the sunset of my brother’s son

It rains downright.

How now? A conduit, girl? What, still in tears,

(130) 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,

Do ebb and flow with tears. The bark thy body is,

Sailing in this salt flood. The winds thy sighs,

(135) Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them,

Without a sudden calm will overset

Thy tempest-tossèd body.—How now, wife?

Have you delivered to her our decree?

When the sun sets the air drizzles dew. But when the son of my brother died, the rain came in a downpour. (to JULIET) What’s with you? Are you a fountain? Still crying? Will you cry forever? You’re like a ship, the sea, and the winds. Like the sea, your eyes ebb and flow with tears. Your body is like the ship, sailing in the salt water of your tears. The winds are your sighs, which rage with tears and, unless you immediately calm down, will toss your body as if it’s in a storm and sink you. So what’s the story, wife? Have you told her about our announcement?

LADY CAPULET

Ay, sir, but she will none, she gives you thanks.

(140) I would the fool were married to her grave!

Yes. And in reply she says thank you but no thanks. May the fool be married to her grave!

CAPULET

Soft, take me with you, take me with you, wife.

How, will she none? Doth she not give us thanks?

Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blessed,

Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought

(145) So worthy a gentleman to be her bride?

What? Explain this to me again, wife. She refuses? She doesn’t just say thank you? Is she not proud of the match? Is she not counting her blessings that we have found for her, unworthy as she is, such a noble gentleman to be her bridegroom?

JULIET

Not proud you have, but thankful that you have.

Proud can I never be of what I hate,

But thankful even for hate that is meant love.

I’m not proud of what you found, but thankful for your efforts. I can’t be proud of what I hate. But I can be thankful for what I hate, if it was meant with love.

CAPULET

How, how, how, how? Chopped logic! What is this?

(150) “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,

(155) Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.

Out, you green sickness, carrion! Out, you baggage!

You tallow face!

What, what, what, what? Insane logic! What is this? How can you say “proud” and “I thank you” and “no thank you” and “not proud?” You spoiled brat, don’t give me these “thank you no thank yous” and “proud not prouds.” Just get yourself together for Thursday when you’ll be going with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church. And if you refuse to go, I’ll drag you there. My god, you sick corpse! You worthless bit of baggage! You pale face!

LADY CAPULET

Fie, fie! What, are you mad?

(to CAPULET) Shame on you! What, are you crazy?

JULIET

Good Father, I beseech you on my knees,

Hear me with patience but to speak a word.

Good father, I’m on my knees, begging you, please be patient and le me say just one thing.

CAPULET

(160) Hang thee, young baggage! Disobedient wretch!

I tell thee what: get thee to church o’ Thursday,

Or never after look me in the face.

Speak not. Reply not. Do not answer me.

My fingers itch.—Wife, we scarce thought us blest

(165) 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 disobedient wretch of a worthless girl! I’ll tell you what: get yourself to church on Thursday or never again look me in the face. Don’t speak. Don’t reply. Don’t answer me. (JULIET rises) My fingers itch to slap you. Wife, we never thought we had been blessed that God gave us just this one child, but now I see that this one is one too many. We were cursed when we had her. She sickens me, the good-for-nothing.

NURSE

God in heaven bless her!

You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so.

God in heaven bless her! You’re wrong, my lord, to shout at her that way.

CAPULET

(170) And why, my Lady Wisdom? Hold your tongue,

Good prudence. Smatter with your gossips, go.

And why is that, my lady of such wisdom? Now shut up. Go chatter with your gossiping cronies.

NURSE

I speak no treason.

I’ve not said anything wrong.

CAPULET

Oh, God ‘i’ good e’en.

Oh, God.

NURSE

May not one speak?

Can’t I speak?

CAPULET

Peace, you mumbling fool!

Utter your gravity o’er a gossip’s bowl,

(175) For here we need it not.

Quiet, you mumbling fool! Save your wisdom for your gossiping buddies. We don’t need it.

LADY CAPULET

You are too hot.

You’re too angry.

CAPULET

God’s bread! It makes me mad.

Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play,

Alone, in company, still my care hath been

To have her matched. And having now provided

(180) A gentleman of noble parentage,

Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly trained,

Stuffed, as they say, with honorable parts,

Proportioned as one’s thought would wish a man—

And then to have a wretched puling fool,

(185) 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.

(190) Look to ’t, think on ’t, I do not use to jest.

Thursday is near. Lay hand on heart, advise.

An you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend.

An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets,

For, by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee,

(195) Nor what is mine shall never do thee good.

Trust to ’t, bethink you. I’ll not be forsworn.

By God! It makes me angry! Day and night, hour after hour, through tide and time, working or playing, alone or with company, I’ve worked to get her a fine match. Now, I’ve gotten her a noble gentleman, who’s good-looking, young, well-educated, and honorable, who’s the man of any girl’s dreams. And this wretched, crying fool, like a whining puppet, responds to this good fortune by answering, “I won’t marry. I can’t love. I’m too young. Forgive me.” Well, if you won’t get married, here’s how I’ll forgive you. Eat wherever you want, except in my house. Think about that. I’m not joking. Thursday is soon. Cover your heart with your hand and listen to my advice. Act like my daughter, and I’ll marry you to my friend. Don’t, and you can beg, starve, and die in the streets. By my soul, I’ll never again acknowledge or help you. Count on it. Think about it. I won’t break this oath.

[CAPULET exits.]

JULIET

Is there no pity sitting in the clouds

That sees into the bottom of my grief?—

O sweet my mother, cast me not away!

(200) Delay this marriage for a month, a week.

Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed

In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.

Is there no god above that pities my grief? Oh, sweet mother, don’t throw me out! Delay this marriage for a month, or just a week. Or, else, make my wedding bed in the family crypt where Tybalt lies.

LADY CAPULET

Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word.

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

Don’t talk to me. I won’t say a word. Do as you please, because I’m done with you.

[LADY CAPULET exits.]

JULIET

(205) 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.—

(210) 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.

Oh God!—Oh Nurse, how can we stop this? My husband is alive on earth, our vows are up in heaven. How can those vows come back down to earth, unless my husband dies and goes to heaven and sends them back down by doing so? Comfort me. Tell me what to do. Oh, oh, why does God play like this with someone as small as me? What do you say? Don’t you have even one happy word? Comfort me, Nurse.

NURSE

Faith, here it is.

Romeo is banishèd, and all the world to nothing

(215) 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.

Oh, he’s a lovely gentleman.

(220) Romeo’s a dishclout to him. An eagle, madam,

Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye

As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,

I think you are happy in this second match,

For it excels your first. Or if it did not,

(225) Your first is dead, or ’twere as good he were,

As living here and you no use of him.

Here’s what I think. Romeo’s banished. There’s no chance that he would ever come back to challenge you if you get married. And if he does come back, he can only do so by sneaking in. Since that’s the way things are, I think the best thing for you to do is to marry the count. He’s a lovely gentleman! Romeo’s a dishcloth compared to him. An eagle does not have eyes as green, quick, or beautiful as Paris does. Curse my heart, but I think you’re lucky to have this second husband, because he surpasses your first. And even if he didn’t, your first husband is dead, or as good as dead, since Romeo doesn’t live here and you don’t get to enjoy him.

JULIET

Speakest thou from thy heart?

Do you speak from your heart?

NURSE

And from my soul too, else beshrew them both.

From my heart and my soul too. If not, curse them both.

JULIET

Amen!

Amen!

NURSE

(230) What?

What?

JULIET

Well, thou hast comforted me marvelous much.

Go in, and tell my lady I am gone,

Having displeased my father, to Lawrence’s cell

To make confession and to be absolved.

Well, you have comforted me greatly. Go inside and tell my mother that, because I made my father angry, I’ve gone to Friar Lawrence’s cell to confess and be absolved.

NURSE

(235) Marry, I will, and this is wisely done.

Indeed, I will. This is the wisest course.

[The NURSE exits.]

JULIET

Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!

Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn,

Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue

Which she hath praised him with above compare

(240) 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.

Damned old lady! Oh, most wicked fiend! Is it a worse sin for her to tell me to break my vows or to criticize my husband with the same tongue she used to praise him so many times before? Be gone, Nurse, with your advice. I’ll never again tell you the true feelings of my heart. I’ll go to the Friar to see if he has a solution. And if all else fails, at least I have the power to kill myself.

[JULIET exits.]

Act 4, Scene 1

[FRIAR LAWRENCE and PARIS enter.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

On Thursday, sir? The time is very short.

On Thursday, sir? That’s extremely soon.

PARIS

My father Capulet will have it so,

And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.

My father-in-law Capulet wants it that way, and I’m not at all interested in slowing him down.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

You say you do not know the lady’s mind.

(5) Uneven is the course. I like it not.

You say you don’t know what Juliet wants. That’s a treacherous road. I don’t like it.

PARIS

Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt’s death,

And therefore have I little talked of love,

For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.

Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous

(10) 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.

(15) Now do you know the reason of this haste.

She’s grieving too much over Tybalt’s death, so I haven’t talked to her about love. Romantic love can’t flourish during times of mourning. Now, sir, her father thinks it’s dangerous that she has given herself so fully to sorrow. In his wisdom, he’s rushing our marriage in order to stop her tears. She is alone all the time and thinking too much of her grief. Some company might help her to stop crying. Now you know the reason for this hurry to the wedding.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(aside) I would I knew not why it should be slowed.—

Look, sir, here comes the lady toward my cell.

(to himself) I wish I didn’t know the reason why it should be slowed down. Look, sir, here comes the lady toward my cell.

[JULIET enters.]

PARIS

Happily met, my lady and my wife.

I’m happy to see you, my lady and my wife.

JULIET

That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.

That might be, sir, when I’m married.

PARIS

(20) That “may be” must be, love, on Thursday next.

That “may be” must be, love, on Thursday.

JULIET

What must be shall be.

What must be will be.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

That’s a certain text.

That’s a certain truth.

PARIS

Come you to make confession to this Father?

Have you come to make confession to Father Lawrence?

JULIET

To answer that, I should confess to you.

If I answered that, I’d be confessing to you.

PARIS

(25) Do not deny to him that you love me.

Don’t deny to him that you love me.

JULIET

I will confess to you that I love him.

I’ll confess to you that I love him.

PARIS

So will ye, I am sure, that you love me.

You will also confess, I’m sure, that you love me.

JULIET

If I do so, it will be of more price

Being spoke behind your back than to your face.

If I do so, it will be worth more if I say it behind your back than if I say it to your face.

PARIS

(30) Poor soul, thy face is much abused with tears.

Poor dear, your face has been abused by so many tears.

JULIET

The tears have got small victory by that,

For it was bad enough before their spite.

The tears haven’t won much, since my face wasn’t all that nice before I started to cry.

PARIS

Thou wrong’st it more than tears with that report.

Now you’re abusing your face to say something untrue like that about it.

JULIET

That is no slander, sir, which is a truth,

(35) And what I spake, I spake it to my face.

It is no lie, sir. It’s the truth. And what I said, I said to my face.

PARIS

Thy face is mine, and thou hast slandered it.

Your face is mine, and you have slandered it.

JULIET

It may be so, for it is not mine own.—

Are you at leisure, holy Father, now,

Or shall I come to you at evening mass?

That may be true, since my face is not my own.—(to FRIAR LAWRENCE) Are you free, Father, or should I come to you at evening mass?

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(40) My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.—

My lord, we must entreat the time alone.

I have time, my sad daughter. (to PARIS) My lord, we must ask you for some time alone.

PARIS

God shield I should disturb devotion!—

Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse ye.

(kisses her) Till then, adieu, and keep this holy kiss.

God forbid that I should intrude on confession! Juliet, I will wake you early on Thursday. (kissing her) Until then, good-bye, and keep this holy kiss.

[PARIS exits.]

JULIET

(45) O, shut the door! And when thou hast done so,

Come weep with me, past hope, past cure, past help.

Oh, shut the door! And when you’ve done that, come weep with me. My situation is beyond hope, beyond cure, beyond help!

FRIAR LAWRENCE

O Juliet, I already know thy grief.

It strains me past the compass of my wits.

I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,

(50) On Thursday next be married to this county.

Oh, Juliet, I already know why you’re so sad. It’s too difficult a problem for me to know how to solve. I’ve heard that on the coming Thursday you must marry this count, and nothing can delay it.

JULIET

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,

(55) And with this knife I’ll help it presently.

(shows him a knife)

God joined my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands.

And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo sealed,

Shall be the label to another deed,

(60) 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

(65) 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.

Don’t tell me, Friar, that you’ve heard all this unless you can tell me how I can prevent it. If with all your wisdom even you can’t help, then you must agree that my solution is wise, and that this knife is the key to the solution (JULIET reveals a knife). God joined my heart to Romeo’s, and you joined our hands. Before my hand or heart—which are bound to Romeo—are given to another man, I’ll use this knife to kill myself. So either use your long experience and education to give me some advice about what to do, or watch as I use this knife like a judge to honorably resolve the extreme situation in which I’m caught. Don’t wait long to speak. I want to die if what you say isn’t a solution.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(70) 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,

(75) Then is it likely thou wilt undertake

A thing like death to chide away this shame,

That copest with death himself to ’scape from it.

An if thou darest, I’ll give thee remedy.

Wait, daughter, I see a ray of hope. But it will require an act as desperate as the situation we want to avoid. If you have the willpower to kill yourself rather than marry Count Paris, then you’ll likely agree to experience something like death to escape this problem. You can wrestle with death itself in order to escape from death. If you dare to do it, I’ll give you the solution.

JULIET

O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,

(80) 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 shut me nightly in a charnel house,

O’ercovered quite with dead men’s rattling bones,

(85) 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,

(90) To live an unstained wife to my sweet love.

To avoid marrying Paris I’d jump from the top of a tower; or walk down thief-infested alleys; or sit among a nest of serpents; or be chained up up with wild bears; or be shut up every night in a crypt full of rattling bones, stinking flesh, and skulls without jawbones; or climb into a freshly dug grave and hide beneath the shroud of a dead man. All those things make me tremble when I hear them said, but I’ll do them without fear or dread in order to be a pure wife to my sweet love.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Hold, then. Go home, be merry. Give consent

To marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow.

Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone.

Let not the Nurse lie with thee in thy chamber.

(shows her a vial)

(95) Take thou this vial, being then in bed,

And this distillèd 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.

(100) No warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest.

The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade

To wanny ashes, thy eyes’ windows fall

Like death when he shuts up the day of life.

Each part, deprived of supple government,

(105) 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

(110) 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.

(115) 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.

(120) And this shall free thee from this present shame,

If no inconstant toy, nor womanish fear,

Abate thy valor in the acting it.

Be strong, then. Go home, be cheerful, and agree to marry Paris. Tomorrow is Wednesday. Tomorrow night make sure that you go to sleep alone. Don’t let the Nurse sleep in your bedroom. (shows JULIET a vial) Drink this liquor when you’re in bed. A cold, sleepy feeling will then run through your veins, and your pulse will cease to beat. Your body will go cold, and you’ll stop breathing. The red of your lips and cheeks will fade to a pale ashy color, and your eyelids will close just as if you were dead. Your body will lose control over its own movement, and will become stiff as that of a corpse. You’ll remain in this simulation of death for forty-two hours, and then you’ll wake as if from a pleasant sleep. So when the bridegroom comes to wake you from your bed in the morning, he will think that you are dead. Then, as is the tradition of our city, you’ll be dressed in your best clothes and placed on an uncovered funeral platform and carried to the Capulet tomb that holds all of your dead relatives. Meanwhile, before you wake up, I’ll send word to Romeo of our plan. He’ll come here, and we’ll keep a watch over you as you wake. That night, Romeo will take you with him to Mantua. So, as long as you don’t change your mind or let your womanly fear interfere with your courage, you’ll be free from the current situation which threatens to force you into sin.

JULIET

Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear!

Give it to me! Don’t talk to me about fear.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(gives her the vial)

(125) Hold. Get you gone. Be strong and prosperous

In this resolve. I’ll send a friar with speed

To Mantua with my letters to thy lord.

(giving her the vial) Now go. Be strong and good luck. I’ll send a friar speeding to Mantua with my letter to Romeo.

JULIET

Love give me strength, and strength shall help afford.

(130) Farewell, dear Father.

Love gives me strength, and strength the will, help me follow through on this plan. Goodbye, dear Father.

[They exit in opposite directions.]

Act 4, Scene 2

CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, and the NURSE enter, along with two or three SERVINGMEN

CAPULET

(gives paper to FIRST SERVINGMAN) So many guests invite as here are writ.

(giving a paper to the FIRST SERVINGMAN) Invite all the guests written on this list.

[The FIRST SERVINGMAN exits.]

(to SECOND SERVINGMAN) Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks.

(to SECOND SERVINGMAN) Go hire twenty skilled cooks.

SECOND SERVINGMAN

You shall have none ill, sir, for I’ll try if they can lick their fingers.

I won’t hire any bad cooks. I’ll test them by making them lick their fingers.

CAPULET

How canst thou try them so?

How does that work?

SECOND SERVINGMAN

(5) Marry, sir, ’tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers. Therefore he that cannot lick his fingers goes not with me.

Well, sir, it’s a bad cook who refuses to lick his own fingers. So I won’t hire any cooks who won’t lick their own fingers.

CAPULET

Go, be gone.

Get going.

[The SECOND SERVINGMAN exits.]

We shall be much unfurnished for this time.

What, is my daughter gone to Friar Lawrence?

We’re not going to be prepared for this wedding celebration. (to the NURSE) Has my daughter gone to see Friar Lawrence?

NURSE

Ay, forsooth.

Yes, that’s the truth.

CAPULET

(10) Well, he may chance to do some good on her.

A peevish self-willed harlotry it is.

Well, there’s a chance he may do her some good. She’s a stubborn good-for-nothing little wench.

[JULIET enters.]

NURSE

See where she comes from shrift with merry look.

Look, she’s back from confession looking happier.

CAPULET

How now, my headstrong? Where have you been gadding?

How are you, my headstrong daughter? Where have you been?

JULIET

Where I have learned me to repent the sin

(15) Of disobedient opposition

To you and your behests, and am enjoined

By holy Lawrence to fall prostrate here

To beg your pardon. (falls to her knees)

Pardon, I beseech you!

(20) Henceforward I am ever ruled by you.

Where I learned to repent for the sin of being disobedient to my father and his commands. I am instructed by holy Father Lawrence to kneel down and beg your forgiveness. (she kneels) Forgive me, I beg you. From now on I’ll do what you tell me to.

CAPULET

Send for the county. Go tell him of this.

I’ll have this knot knit up tomorrow morning.

Send for the Count. Tell him about this. We’ll move the wedding to tomorrow morning.

JULIET

I met the youthful lord at Lawrence’ cell,

And gave him what becomèd love I might,

(25) Not stepping o’er the bounds of modesty.

I met the youthful lord at Lawrence’s cell. I treated him with the proper love, without breaking the proper rules of modesty.

CAPULET

Why, I am glad on ’t. This is well. Stand up.

I’m glad! This is good. Stand up.

[JULIET stands up.]

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!

(30) Our whole city is much bound to him.

This is how it should be. I want to see the count. Yes, okay, go, I say, and bring him here. Now, I swear before God, our whole city owes a great deal to this friar.

JULIET

Nurse, will you go with me into my closet

To help me sort such needful ornaments

As you think fit to furnish me tomorrow?

Nurse, will you come with me to my room and help me pick out the clothes and jewelry that I should wear tomorrow?

LADY CAPULET

No, not till Thursday. There is time enough.

No, not until Thursday. There’s enough time.

CAPULET

(35) Go, Nurse. Go with her. We’ll to church tomorrow.

Go, Nurse. Go with her. We’ll go to the church and have the wedding tomorrow.

[JULIET and the NURSE exit.]

LADY CAPULET

We shall be short in our provision.

‘Tis now near night.

We won’t have enough food or drink for the party. It’s almost night already.

CAPULET

Tush, I will stir about,

And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, wife.

Go thou to Juliet, help to deck up her.

(40) I’ll not to bed tonight. Let me alone.

I’ll play the housewife for this once.

Nonsense, I’ll get to work and everything will work out well, I promise, wife. Go to Juliet and help to dress her. I’m not going to go to bed tonight. Leave me alone. I’ll act as the housewife for once.

[LADY CAPULET exits]

—What, ho?

They are all forth?—Well, I will walk myself

To County Paris, to prepare him up

Against tomorrow. My heart is wondrous light

(40) Since this same wayward girl is so reclaimed.

What? They’re all gone? Well, I’ll walk by myself to Count Paris to prepare him for tomorrow. My heart is wonderfully glad that this rebellious girl has now returned to her proper place.

[CAPULET exits]

Act 4, Scene 3

[JULIET and the NURSE enter.]

JULIET

Ay, those attires are best. But, gentle Nurse,

I pray thee, leave me to myself tonight,

For I have need of many orisons

To move the heavens to smile upon my state,

(5) Which, well thou know’st, is cross and full of sin.

Yes, those clothes are the best. But, gentle Nurse, I beg you, please let me be by myself tonight. I need to say many prayers in order to convince the heavens to bless me despite my situation. You know very well that my life is difficult and full of sin.

[LADY CAPULET enters.]

LADY CAPULET

What, are you busy, ho? Need you my help?

Are you busy? Do you need my help?

JULIET

No, madam. We have culled such necessaries

As are behooveful for our state tomorrow.

So please you, let me now be left alone,

(10) 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.

No, madam. We’ve selected the things that would be best for me to wear at the ceremony tomorrow. So, if it’s all right with you, please leave me alone now. Let the Nurse stay up tonight with you. I’m sure your hands are full getting ready for this sudden marriage celebration.

LADY CAPULET

Good night.

Get thee to bed and rest, for thou hast need.

Good night. Go to bed and get your rest, it’s no surprise that you should need it.

[LADY CAPULET and the NURSE exit.]

JULIET

Farewell!—God knows when we shall meet again.

(15) 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.

(20) Come, vial. (holds out the vial)

What if this mixture do not work at all?

Shall I be married then tomorrow morning?

No, no. This shall forbid it. Lie thou there.

(lays her knife down)

(25) What if it be a poison, which the friar

Subtly hath ministered to have me dead,

Lest in this marriage he should be dishonored

Because he married me before to Romeo?

I fear it is. And yet, methinks, it should not,

(30) 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

(35) 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—

(40) As in a vault, an ancient receptacle,

Where for these many hundred years the bones

Of all my buried ancestors are packed;

Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,

Lies festering in his shroud; where, as they say,

(45) 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—?

(50) Oh, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,

Environèd with all these hideous fears,

And madly play with my forefather’s joints,

And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud,

And, in this rage, with some great kinsman’s bone,

(55) As with a club, dash out my desperate brains?

Oh, 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.

Goodbye! God alone knows when we will meet again. A small cold fear pierces my veins and almost freezes the heat of life out of me. I’ll call them back to comfort me. Nurse!—No, what would she do here? My terrible situation requires that I act alone. This is the vial. (holds out the vial) What if this mixture doesn’t work at all? Will I end up being married tomorrow morning? No, no. This knife will stop it. Lie down right there, knife. (she lays down her knife) What if the Friar secretly made this potion to kill me because he feared he would be disgraced if he marries me to Paris after already marrying me to Romeo? I fear it is poison. And yet, I think, it can’t be poison because he is a trusted holy man. What if, when I am put in the tomb, I wake up before Romeo comes to release me? That’s a terrifying thought. Won’t I be stifled in that tomb, where there’s no fresh air to breathe, and die of suffocation before my Romeo comes? Or if I live, isn’t it very likely that the death and darkness surrounding me and the terrifying nature of the place—packed as it is with centuries of my ancestors’ bones, and Tybalt’s own bloody body freshly entombed and rotting, and with the spirits of the dead wandering around—isn’t it likely that when I wake up and smell the terrible odors, and hear the awful shrieks of the dead that could drive people crazy, that I myself will go insane and begin to play with my ancestors’ bones and pull Tybalt’s mangled corpse from its death shroud? In raging insanity, will I take some bone of one of my ancestors and bash out my brains? Oh, look! I think I see my cousin Tybalt’s ghost looking for Romeo, who killed him. Wait, Tybalt, wait! Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here’s a drink. I drink to you.

[JULIET drinks from the vial and falls down on her bed, hidden by her bed curtains.]

Act 4, Scene 4

[LADY CAPULET and the NURSE enter.]

LADY CAPULET

Hold, take these keys, and fetch more spices, Nurse.

Wait. Take these keys and go get more spices, Nurse.

NURSE

They call for dates and quinces in the pastry.

They’re calling for dates and quinces in the kitchen.

[CAPULET enters.]

CAPULET

Come, stir, stir, stir! The second cock hath crowed.

The curfew bell hath rung. ‘Tis three o’clock.—

(5) Look to the baked meats, good Angelica.

Spare not for the cost.

Come on, get moving, get moving, get moving! The second cock has crowed. The curfew-bell has rung. It’s three o’clock. Go get the baked meats, good Angelica. Don’t worry about the cost.

NURSE

Go, you cot-quean, go.

Get you to bed, faith. You’ll be sick tomorrow

For this night’s watching.

Oh, you cottage housewife, you. Go to bed, my God. You’ll be sick tomorrow from staying up all night.

CAPULET

No, not a whit, what. I have watched ere now

(10) All night for lesser cause, and ne’er been sick.

No, no, not at all. I’ve stayed up all night before for less important reasons, and never gotten sick from it.

LADY CAPULET

Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time,

But I will watch you from such watching now.

Yes, you were a woman-chaser in your time. But I’ll keep an eye on you to make sure you don’t stay up for those reasons any more.

[LADY CAPULET and the NURSE exit.]

CAPULET

A jealous hood, a jealous hood!

She has become a jealous woman, a jealous woman!

Enter three or four SERVINGMEN with spits and logs and baskets

[Three or four SERVINGMEN enter carrying spits, logs, and baskets.]

Now, fellow,

What is there?

Now, fellow, what are you carrying?

FIRST SERVINGMAN

(15) Things for the cook, sir, but I know not what.

Things for the cook, sir. But I don’t know exactly.

CAPULET

Make haste, make haste, sirrah.

Hurry up, hurry up.

[The FIRST SERVINGMAN exits.]

(to SECOND SERVINGMAN) Fetch drier logs.

Call Peter. He will show thee where they are.

(to SECOND SERVINGMAN) Fetch logs that are drier. Call Peter. He’ll show you where they are.

SECOND SERVINGMAN

I have a head, sir, that will find out logs,

(20) And never trouble Peter for the matter.

I can find the logs without bothering Peter.

[The SECOND SERVINGMAN exits.]

CAPULET

Mass, and well said. A merry whoreson, ha!

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.—

Right, and well said. What a funny son of a whore that guy is, ha! His head is full of logs. My God, it’s daytime. The count will be here soon with music, as he said he would. I hear him coming.

[Music plays offstage.]

(25) Nurse! Wife! What, ho? What, Nurse, I say!

Nurse! Wife! What? Nurse!

[The NURSE returns.]

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.

Go wake Juliet and get her dressed. I’ll go and chat with Paris. Go, hurry up, hurry up! The bridegroom is here already. Hurry up, I say.

[All exit.]

Act 4, Scene 5

[The NURSE enters.]

NURSE

Mistress! What, mistress! Juliet!—Fast, I warrant her, she.—

Why, lamb! Why, lady! Fie, you slug-a-bed.

Why, love, I say. Madam! Sweet-heart! Why, bride!

(5) 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!

(10) I must needs wake her.—Madam, madam, madam!

Ay, let the county take you in your bed.

He’ll fright you up, i’ faith. Will it not be?

(opens the bed curtains)

What, dressed and in your clothes, and down again?

(15) I must needs wake you. Lady, lady, lady!—

Alas, alas! Help, help! My lady’s dead!—

Oh, welladay, that ever I was born!—

Some aqua vitae, ho!—My lord! My lady!

Mistress! Hey, mistress! Juliet! Fast asleep, I bet. Hey, lamb! Hey, lady! Hey, you sleepyhead! Hey, love, I say! Madam! Sweetheart! Hey, bride! What, not a single word to say? Enjoy this last bit of sleep now. Get a week’s worth of sleep, because tonight, I bet, Count Paris will make sure that you don’t get much rest. God forgive me. Indeed, and amen. How sound asleep she is! I have to wake her. Madam, madam, madam! Yeah, let the count take you in your bed. He’ll wake you up, no doubt. Won’t he? (opens the bed curtains) What? Still dressed in your clothes but asleep. I must wake you. Lady, lady, lady! No, no! Help, help! My lady’s dead! Oh curse the day I was born! Hey! Get me some liquor! My lord! My lady!

[LADY CAPULET enters.]

LADY CAPULET

What noise is here?

What’s with all the noise?

NURSE

O lamentable day!

Oh, terrible day!

LADY CAPULET

What is the matter?

What’s the matter?

NURSE

Look, look. O heavy day!

Look, look! Oh, what an awful day!

LADY CAPULET

(20) O me, O me! My child, my only life,

Revive, look up, or I will die with thee!—

Help, help! Call help.

Oh no, oh no! My child, my reason for being, come back, look up, or I’ll die with you! Help, help! Call for help.

[CAPULET enters.]

CAPULET

For shame, bring Juliet forth. Her lord is come.

For shame, get Juliet out here. Her bridegroom has arrived.

NURSE

She’s dead, deceased, she’s dead. Alack the day!

She’s dead, deceased, dead. Curse the day!

LADY CAPULET

(25) Alack the day. She’s dead, she’s dead, she’s dead!

Curse the day. She’s dead, she’s dead, she’s dead!

CAPULET

Ha? Let me see her. Out, alas! She’s cold.

Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff.

Life and these lips have long been separated.

Death lies on her like an untimely frost

(30) Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.

What? Let me see her. No! She’s cold. Her blood has stopped, and her joints are stiff. Life left her body a long while ago. Death rests on her like an unexpected frost that killed the most beautiful flower.

NURSE

O lamentable day!

Oh terrible day!

LADY CAPULET

O woeful time.

Oh awful time!

CAPULET

Death, that hath ta’en her hence to make me wail,

Ties up my tongue and will not let me speak.

Death, which has taken her away to make me cry, ties up my tongue and will not let me speak.

[FRIAR LAWRENCE and PARIS enter with MUSICIANS.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Come, is the bride ready to go to church?

Come, is the bride ready to go to church?

CAPULET

(35) Ready to go, but never to return.

O son! The night before thy wedding day

Hath death lain with thy wife. There she lies,

Flower as she was, deflowered by him.

Death is my son-in-law. Death is my heir.

(40) My daughter he hath wedded. I will die,

And leave him all. Life, living, all is Death’s.

She’s ready to go, but not to return. (to PARIS) Oh son! On the night before your wedding day, death has slept with your wife. There she lies, a flower who was deflowered by death. Death is my son-in-law. Death is my heir. Death has married my daughter. I will die and leave everything to Death. Life, living, it all is now Death’s.

PARIS

Have I thought long to see this morning’s face,

And doth it give me such a sight as this?

Have I waited to see this morning for so long, only for it to look like this?

LADY CAPULET

Accursed, unhappy, wretched, hateful day!

(45) 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!

Accursed, unhappy, wretched, hateful day! The most miserable hour that ever existed in all of time. I had just one child, one poor child, one poor and loving child. Just one thing to rejoice and find comfort in. Now cruel Death has stolen it from my sight!

NURSE

(50) O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day!

Most lamentable day, most woeful day

That ever, ever, I did yet behold!

O day, O day, O day, O hateful day!

Never was seen so black a day as this.

(55) O woeful day, O woeful day!

Oh misery! Oh miserable, miserable, miserable day! The saddest day, most miserable day that I ever, ever saw! Oh day! Oh day! Oh day! Oh hateful day! There has never been a day as black as this one. Oh miserable day, Oh miserable day!

PARIS

Beguiled, divorcèd, wrongèd, spited, slain!

Most detestable Death, by thee beguiled,

By cruel, cruel thee quite overthrown!

O love! O life! Not life, but love in death.

She was tricked, divorced, wronged, spited, killed! Detestable Death tricked her. Cruel, cruel Death murdered her. Oh love! Oh life! There is no life because my love is dead.

CAPULET

(60) Despised, distressèd, hated, martyred, killed!

Uncomfortable time, why camest 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,

(65) And with my child my joys are buried.

Despised, distressed, hated, martyred, killed! Why did you come now, Death, to murder, murder our joy? Oh child! Oh child! My soul and not my child! You are dead! No! My child is dead. My child will be buried together with my joy.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Peace, ho, for shame! Confusion’s cure lives not

In these confusions. Heaven and yourself

(70) 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,

(75) For ’twas your heaven she should be advanced.

And weep ye now, seeing she is advanced

Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself?

Oh, in this love, you love your child so ill

That you run mad, seeing that she is well.

(80) 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 some nature bids us all lament,

Yet nature’s tears are reason’s merriment.

Quiet, for shame! Your outcries are no cure for confusion. Both you and heaven played a part in giving you your child. Now heaven has her, and she is better off. The part of her that came from you could not stop her from dying, but the part she got from heaven gives her eternal life. The most you could hope for her was that she marry well. Your idea of heaven for her was that she move up the social ladder. Yet now you weep, even though she has risen up above the clouds, all the way to heaven itself? Oh, by mourning her death you love your child so poorly, going mad even though she is well and in heaven. It is better for a girl to die young while her marriage is still fresh and loving than to be married for a long time. Dry your tears, and place your rosemary (editor’s note: rosemary signifies enduring love) on this beautiful corpse. And, as is the custom, put her in her finest clothes and carry her to church. It’s human nature to shed tears, but reason says that we should be joyful.

CAPULET

(85) All things that we ordained festival

Turn from their office to black funeral.

Our instruments to melancholy bells,

Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast.

Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change,

(90) Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse,

And all things change them to the contrary.

The things that we prepared for the wedding now will be used instead for the funeral. Our music instruments will be exchanged for mourning bells. Our wedding banquet will be instead a sad burial feast. Our celebratory hymns will change to sad funeral dirges. Our bridal flowers will cover a buried corpse. Everything will be used for the purpose opposite that which we expected.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Sir, go you in, and, madam, go with him;

And go, Sir Paris. Every one prepare

To follow this fair corse unto her grave.

(95) The heavens do lour upon you for some ill.

Move them no more by crossing their high will.

Sir, you go in. Madam, go with him. And you too, Sir Paris. Everyone prepare to follow this beautiful corpse to her grave. The heavens hang over you for some unknown reason. Stop fighting heaven’s will and it will no longer move against you.

[CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, PARIS, and FRIAR LAWRENCE exit.]

FIRST MUSICIAN

Faith, we may put up our pipes and be gone.

I guess we can put our pipes away and leave.

NURSE

Honest good fellows, ah, put up, put up,

For, well you know, this is a pitiful case.

Honest good men, yes, put them away, away. As you know, this is a sad case.

[The NURSE exits.]

FIRST MUSICIAN

(100) Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended.

Yes, but this case at least can be mended. (editor’s note: the musician is referring to the case for his flute, which is broken)

[PETER enters.]

PETER

Musicians, O musicians, “Heart’s Ease,” “Heart’s Ease.” O, an you will have me live, play “Heart’s Ease.”

Musicians, oh, musicians, play “Heart’s Ease,” “Heart’s Ease.” Oh, if you want me to live, play “Heart’s Ease.”

FIRST MUSICIAN

Why “Heart’s ease?”

Why “Heart’s Ease”?

PETER

O musicians, because my heart itself plays “My Heart is Full.” O, play me some merry dump to comfort me.

Oh, musicians, because my heart itself is playing “My Heart is Full of Woe.” Oh, play me some happy mournful tune to comfort me.

FIRST MUSICIAN

Not a dump, we. ‘Tis no time to play now.

No, we won’t play a sad song. Now is not the time for it.

PETER

(105) You will not then?

You won’t, then?

FIRST MUSICIAN

No.

No.

PETER

I will then give it you soundly.

Then I’ll give you something you won’t forget.

FIRST MUSICIAN

What will you give us?

What will you give us?

PETER

No money, on my faith, but the gleek. I will give you the minstrel.

Not money, I swear. But I’ll insult you, and call you rogues.

FIRST MUSICIAN

(110) Then I will give you the serving creature.

Then I’ll call you a lowly servant.

PETER

Then will I lay the serving creature’s dagger on your pate. I will carry no crotchets. I’ll re you, I’ll fa you. Do you note me?

Then I’ll take my serving knife to smack you upside the head. I won’t need to sing. I’ll make you sing. Do you hear me?

FIRST MUSICIAN

An you re us and fa us, you note us.

If you make us sing, you’ll hear us.

SECOND MUSICIAN

Pray you, put up your dagger and put out your wit.

Please, put away your knife and show some wits.

PETER

(115) Then have at you with my wit. I will dry-beat you with an iron wit and put up my iron dagger. Answer me like men.

(sings)

When griping grief the heart doth wound

And doleful dumps the mind oppress,

Then music with her silver sound—

(speaks) Why “silver sound”? Why “music with her silver sound”? What say you, Simon Catling?

I’ll attack you with my wit! I’ll put away my iron dagger and thrash you with my wicked wit. Answer me like men.

(sings)

When grief wounds your heart,

And sadness presses on your mind,

Then music with her silver sound—

(speaks) Why “silver sound”? What does  “music with her silver sound” mean? What do you say, Simon Catling?

FIRST MUSICIAN

(120) Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound.

Well, sir, because silver has a sweet sound.

PETER

Pretty.—What say you, Hugh Rebeck?

A witty reply! What do you say, Hugh Rebeck?

SECOND MUSICIAN

I say, “silver sound” because musicians sound for silver.

I say “silver sound,” because musicians play music to earn silver.

PETER

Pretty too.—What say you, James Soundpost?

More wit! What do you say, James Soundpost?

THIRD MUSICIAN

Faith, I know not what to say.

Well, I don’t know what to say.

PETER

(125) Oh, I cry you mercy, you are the singer. I will say for you. It is “music with her silver sound” because musicians have no gold for sounding.

(sings)

Then music with her silver sound

With speedy help doth lend redress.

Oh, I beg your pardon. You’re the singer (editor’s note: singers were considered unintelligent). I’ll answer for you. It is “music with her silver sound,” because musicians will never get rich.

(sings)

Then music with her silver sound

Quickly makes you feel all right.

[PETER exits.]

FIRST MUSICIAN

What a pestilent knave is this same!

What an annoying jerk this guy is!

SECOND MUSICIAN

Hang him, Jack! Come, we’ll in here, tarry for the mourners and stay dinner.

Screw him, Jack! Come on, we’ll go in there, wait for the mourners to return, and stay for dinner.

[MUSICIANS exit.]

Act 5, Scene 1

[ROMEO enters.]

ROMEO

If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep,

My dreams presage some joyful news at hand.

My bosom’s lord sits lightly in his throne,

And all this day an unaccustomed spirit

(5) 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.

(10) Ah me! How sweet is love itself possessed

When but love’s shadows are so rich in joy!

If I can trust the favorable truth of sleep, then my dreams foretell some joyful news is on its way. Love sits lightly in my heart, and all day an odd feeling has seemed to lift me up with cheerful thoughts. I had a dream that my lady came and found me dead—what a strange dream to allow a dead man to think—and breathed life back into me by kissing my lips. I revived and became an emperor. Oh! How sweet it would be to be with my love, when just my dreams of love fill me with so much joy.

[ROMEO’s servant BALTHASAR enters.]

News from Verona!—How now, Balthasar?

Dost thou not bring me letters from the friar?

How doth my lady? Is my father well?

(15) How fares my Juliet? That I ask again,

For nothing can be ill if she be well.

News from Verona!—What is it, Balthasar? Have you brought me a letter from the friar? How is my wife? Is my father well? How is my Juliet? I ask that again because nothing can be bad if she is well.

BALTHASAR

Then she is well, and nothing can be ill.

Her body sleeps in Capels’ monument,

And her immortal part with angels lives.

(20) 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.

Then she is well, and nothing is bad. Her body sleeps in the Capulet crypt, and her immortal soul lives with the angels. I saw her buried in her family’s tomb, and rushed here to tell you the news. Oh, pardon me for bringing this bad news, but you told me it was my duty to do so, sir.

ROMEO

Is it e’en so? Then I defy you, stars!

(25) Thou know’st my lodging. Get me ink and paper,

And hire post horses. I will hence tonight.

Is it true? Then I defy you, fate! (to BALTHASAR) You know where I’m staying. Go there and get me some ink and paper, and hire some horses. I will leave here tonight.

BALTHASAR

I do beseech you, sir, have patience.

Your looks are pale and wild, and do import

Some misadventure.

I beg you, sir, have patience. You look pale and wild, as if you’re about to do something reckless.

ROMEO

(30) Tush, thou art deceived.

Leave me and do the thing I bid thee do.

Hast thou no letters to me from the friar?

Come now, you’re being silly. Leave me and do what I told you to do. Do you really not have a letter for me from the friar?

BALTHASAR

No, my good lord.

No, my good lord.

ROMEO

No matter. Get thee gone,

(35) And hire those horses. I’ll be with thee straight.

No matter. Get going and hire those horses. I’ll be with you soon.

[BALTHASAR exits]

Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight.

Let’s see for means. O mischief, thou art swift

To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!

I do remember an apothecary—

(40) 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,

(45) 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,

(50) Were thinly scattered to make up a show.

Noting this penury, to myself I said,

“An if a man did need a poison now”—

Whose sale is present death in Mantua—

“Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.”

(55) Oh, 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!

Well, Juliet, I’ll lie with you tonight. Let me think how. Evil acts are quick to enter the thoughts of desperate men! I remember a pharmacist who lives around here and who I recently noted wears tattered clothes and has jutting brows, and who knows his medicinal herbs. He looks poor, as if misery had worn him to the bone. A tortoise shell hung in his shabby shop, along with a stuffed alligator and the skins of odd-shaped fish. A few empty boxes sat on his shelves, as well as green clay pots, empty water skins, and some musty seeds. Old strands of string and rose petals pressed into cakes were scattered about on display. Seeing his poverty, I said to myself, “If a man needed some poison”—which to sell in Mantua is punishable by immediate death—“here is a miserable wretch who’d sell it to him.” Oh, this idea came before I even knew I needed the poison. But this is the poor man who will sell it to me. As I remember, this is the house. Since today’s a holiday, the beggar’s shop is shut. Hey! Pharmacist!

[The APOTHECARY enters.]

APOTHECARY

Who calls so loud?

Who’s that calling so loudly?

ROMEO

(60) Come hither, man. I see that thou art poor.

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,

(65) And that the trunk may be discharged of breath

As violently as hasty powder fired

Doth hurry from the fatal cannon’s womb.

Come here, man. I see that you are poor. Here’s forty ducats. Let me have a bit of poison, something that spreads so fast through the veins that the tired-out person who takes it will lose the breath of life as quickly as gunpowder explodes from the inside of canon.

APOTHECARY

Such mortal drugs I have, but Mantua’s law

Is death to any he that utters them.

I have such deadly poisons. But it’s the death-penalty to sell them in Mantua.

ROMEO

(70) Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness,

And fear’st to die? Famine is in thy cheeks.

Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes.

Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back.

The world is not thy friend nor the world’s law.

(75) The world affords no law to make thee rich.

Then be not poor, but break it, and take this.

(holds out money)

How can you be so poor and wretched and still be afraid to die? Your cheeks are thin from hunger. Starvation and oppression are visible in your eyes. Your poverty, and the contempt of others for your situation, is like a monkey on your back. The world is not your friend, and neither are the world’s laws. The world doesn’t provide a law that will make you rich. So don’t be poor. Break the law, and take this money. (he holds out money)

APOTHECARY

My poverty, but not my will, consents.

It is my poverty, not my morals, that forces me to agree.

ROMEO

I pay thy poverty and not thy will.

I pay your poverty, not your morals.

APOTHECARY

(80) (gives ROMEO poison) Put this in any liquid thing you will

And drink it off; and, if you had the strength

Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight.

(gives ROMEO poison) Put this in any kind of liquid you want and drink it. Even if you had the strength of twenty men, it would kill you quickly.

ROMEO

(gives APOTHECARY money)

There is thy gold, worse poison to men’s souls,

(85) 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

(90) To Juliet’s grave, for there must I use thee.

(gives APOTHECARY money) There is your gold, which is a worse poison to men’s souls, and commits more murders in this terrible world, than these poor mixtures that you’re forbidden to sell. I’ve sold you poison; you haven’t sold me any. Goodbye. Get some food, and put some flesh on your bones. Come with me, medicine, which is no poison. We go to Juliet’s grave, where I will use you.

[They exit.]

Act 5, Scene 2

[FRIAR JOHN enters.]

FRIAR JOHN

Holy Franciscan Friar! Brother, ho!

Holy Franciscan Friar! Brother, hey!

[FRIAR LAWRENCE enters.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

This same should be the voice of Friar John.

Welcome from Mantua. What says Romeo?

Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter.

That voice sounds like Friar John. Welcome back from Mantua. What does Romeo say? Or, if he wrote down his thoughts, give me his letter.

FRIAR JOHN

(5) Going to find a barefoot brother out,

One of our order, to associate me,

Here in this city visiting the sick,

And finding him, the searchers of the town,

Suspecting that we both were in a house

(10) ere the infectious pestilence did reign,

Sealed up the doors and would not let us forth.

So that my speed to Mantua there was stayed.

I went to find another poor friar from our order to accompany me. He was in this city visiting the sick. I found him, but the town health officials suspected that we had both been in a house where people were infected with the plague. They sealed up the house and refused to let us out. So I was stuck, and couldn’t go to Mantua.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Who bare my letter, then, to Romeo?

Then who took my letter to Romeo?

FRIAR JOHN

I could not send it—here it is again—

(gives FRIAR LAWRENCE a letter)

(15) Nor get a messenger to bring it thee,

So fearful were they of infection.

I couldn’t send it—Here it is (he gives FRIAR LAWRENCE a letter)—nor could I get a messenger to bring it to you because they were scared of getting infected.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood,

The letter was not nice but full of charge,

Of dear import, and the neglecting it

(20) May do much danger. Friar John, go hence.

Get me an iron crow and bring it straight

Unto my cell.

Terrible fate! By my brotherhood, the letter was not just a friendly greeting. It was full of important news. That it was never sent may result in great ruin. Friar John, go and get me an iron crowbar and bring it straight back to my cell.

FRIAR JOHN

Brother, I’ll go and bring it thee.

Brother, I’ll go and bring it to you.

[FRIAR JOHN exits.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Now must I to the monument alone.

(25) 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.

(30) Poor living corse, closed in a dead man’s tomb!

Now I must go to the crypt alone. Within three hours beautiful Juliet will wake. She’ll yell at me because Romeo doesn’t know what’s happening. I’ll write again to Mantua, and hide her in my cell until Romeo comes. That poor living corpse, locked inside a dead man’s tomb!

[FRIAR LAWRENCE exits.]

Act 5, Scene 3

[PARIS enters with his PAGE.]

PARIS

Give me thy torch, boy. Hence, and stand aloof.

Yet put it out, for I would not be seen.

Under yon yew trees lay thee all along,

Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground—

(5) So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread,

Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves,

But thou shalt hear it. Whistle then to me,

As signal that thou hear’st something approach.

Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee, go.

Give me your torch, boy. Now go and stand far away from me. Actually, put out the torch out so no one can see me. Hide under the yew-trees over there and put your ear against the ground so that you’ll hear anyone walking through the graveyard. If you hear someone approach, signal me with a whistle Give me those flowers. Do as I tell you. Go.

[The PAGE puts out the torch and gives the flowers to PARIS.]

PAGE

(10) (aside) I am almost afraid to stand alone

Here in the churchyard. Yet I will adventure.

(to himself) I am almost afraid to stand here alone in the graveyard, but I’ll do it.

[The PAGE moves away]

PARIS

(scatters flowers at JULIET’S closed tomb)

Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew—

O woe! Thy canopy is dust and stones—

(15) 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.

(scattering flowers at the door of JULIET’s closed tomb) Sweet flower, I’m covering your bridal bed with flowers—Oh, misery! The canopy of your bed is dust and stones. Each night I’ll water these flowers. Or, if I don’t do that, the ritual I will keep for you each night will be to put flowers on your grave and weep.

[The PAGE whistles]

The boy gives warning something doth approach.

(20) What cursèd foot wanders this way tonight

To cross my obsequies and true love’s rite?

What with a torch! Muffle me, night, awhile.

The boy warns that someone is approaching. What cursed person would be wandering out here tonight, interfering with my rituals of true love? Whoever it is is carrying a torch! I’ll hide in the darkness for awhile.

[PARIS hides. ROMEO and BALTHASAR enter carrying a torch, pickax, and crowbar.]

ROMEO

Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron.

(takes them from BALTHASAR)

(25) Hold, take this letter. Early in the morning

See thou deliver it to my lord and father.

(gives letter to BALTHASAR)

Give me the light.

(takes torch from BALTHASAR)

Upon thy life I charge thee,

(30) Whate’er thou hear’st 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

(35) A precious ring, a ring that I must use

In dear employment. Therefore hence, be gone.

But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry

In what I farther shall intend to do,

By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint

(40) 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.

Give me the pickaxe and the crowbar. (he takes them from BALTHASAR) Now, take this letter. Deliver it to my father early in the morning. (he gives the letter to BALTHASAR) Give me the torch. (he takes the torch from BALTHASAR) By your life, I command that whatever you hear or see you stay away and do not interrupt me in my actions. I’m going to go down into this tomb in part to look upon my wife’s face, but more importantly to take a precious ring from her dead finger. I must use the ring for urgent business. So go, get out of here. And if you get suspicious and return to spy on what I’m doing, I swear I’ll tear you limb from limb and throw your body parts around this graveyard, which is so hungry for death. The times, and my plan, are wild and savage, and I am more fierce and unstoppable than a hungry tiger or the raging sea.

BALTHASAR

(45) I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you.

I’ll go, sir, and not interfere.

ROMEO

So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that.

(gives BALTHASAR money)

Live and be prosperous, and farewell, good fellow.

That’s how you will show me friendship. Take this. (he gives BALTHASAR money) Live and be prosperous. Farewell, good fellow.

BALTHASAR

(aside) For all this same, I’ll hide me hereabout.

(50) His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt.

(to himself) Despite everything I just said, I’ll hide nearby. The look on his face makes me nervous, and I have doubts about his story of what he plans to do.

[BALTHASAR moves away and falls asleep.]

ROMEO

Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,

Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth,

Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,

(55) And in despite I’ll cram thee with more food!

(begins to opens the tomb with his tools)

(speaking to the door of the tomb) You hateful mouth, you womb of death. You’ve feasted on the most precious girl on Earth, so now I’m going to force open your rotten jaws and cram more food into you. (ROMEO begins to open the tomb with his tools)

PARIS

(aside) This is that banished haughty Montague,

That murdered my love’s cousin, with which grief,

It is supposed the fair creature died.

And here is come to do some villainous shame

(60) To the dead bodies. I will apprehend him.

(to ROMEO) 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.

(to himself) It’s that arrogant Montague who was banished. He’s the one who murdered my love’s cousin Tybalt, which caused Juliet the grief that they think killed her. And here he’s come to do something terrible and shameful to the dead bodies. I’ll arrest him. (to ROMEO) Stop your sinful work, vile Montague! Would you pursue vengeance even beyond death? Condemned villain, I arrest you. Obey and come with me, for you must die.

ROMEO

(65) I must indeed, and therefore came I hither.

Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man.

Fly hence and leave me. Think upon these gone.

Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth,

Put not another sin upon my head

(70) By urging me to fury. O, be gone!

By heaven, I love thee better than myself,

For I come hither armed against myself.

Stay not, be gone. Live, and hereafter say

A madman’s mercy bid thee run away.

I must indeed, which is why I came. Good and noble young man, don’t tempt a desperate man. Run from here and leave me. Think about the dead who rest here. Let them terrify you. I beg you, young man, don’t make me so angry that I have to add another sin to those I already have committed. Oh, get out of here! I swear by God, I love you more than I love myself. For I’ve come here with weapons to use against myself. Don’t stay here, go away. Live, and afterwards say that a merciful madman told you to run away.

PARIS

(75) I do defy thy commination

And apprehend thee for a felon here.

I defy your threats. I’m arresting you as a criminal.

ROMEO

Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee, boy!

Your really provoking me? Then let’s fight, boy!

[ROMEO and PARIS fight.]

PAGE

O Lord, they fight! I will go call the watch.

Oh Lord, they’re fighting! I’ll go call the watch.

[The PAGE exits.]

PARIS

(falls) Oh, I am slain! If thou be merciful,

(80) Open the tomb. Lay me with Juliet.

(he falls) Oh, I’ve been killed! If you are merciful, open the tomb and lay me next to Juliet.

[PARIS dies.]

ROMEO

In faith, I will.—Let me peruse this face.

Mercutio’s kinsman, noble County Paris.

What said my man, when my betossèd soul

Did not attend him as we rode? I think

(85) 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.

(90) I’ll bury thee in a triumphant grave.

(ROMEO opens the tomb to reveal JULIET inside)

A grave? Oh, 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.

(lays PARIS in the tomb)

(95) How oft when men are at the point of death

Have they been merry, which their keepers call

A lightning before death! Oh, how may I

Call this a lightning?—O my love, my wife!

Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath,

Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.

(100) 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,

(105) 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,

(110) 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

(115) With worms that are thy chamber maids. Oh, 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

(120) The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss

A dateless bargain to engrossing death.

(kisses JULIET, takes out the poison)

Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide.

Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on

(125) The dashing rocks thy seasick, weary bark.

Here’s to my love! (drinks the poison) O true apothecary,

Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.

I promise, I will. Let me look at this face. It’s Mercutio’s relative, noble Count Paris. What did my servant tell me while we were riding here? I was so upset I wasn’t paying attention to him. I think he told me Paris was supposed to marry Juliet. Isn’t that what he said? Or was I dreaming? Or am I crazy and, hearing him say something about Juliet, I jumped to the wrong conclusion? (speaking to Paris’s body) Oh, give me your hand. You and I both had equal measures of bad fortune! I’ll bury you in a magnificent grave. (ROMEO opens the tomb to reveal JULIET inside.) A grave? No! It is a cupola atop a tower, my dead young man. Juliet lies here, and her beauty fills this tomb like a festival chamber full of light. Dead man, lie down right there—another dead man is burying you.(ROMEO lays PARIS in the tomb) Men are often happy just before their death. Their nurses call it the lightness before death. Oh, how can I call this lightness? Oh, my love, my wife! Though death has sucked the honey from your breath, it has not yet had the power to ruin your beauty. You are not conquered. A beautiful banner of red still lingers on your lips and cheeks. The paleness of death has not yet reached them. Tybalt, are you lying there in your bloody shroud? Oh, what better favor can I do for you than to use the hand that cut short your youth you to kill your murderer. Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet, why are you still so beautiful? Should I believe that death itself loves you, and that the hungry, hated monster keeps you here in the dark to be his lover? To make sure that doesn’t happen, I’ll stay with you forever and never again leave this dark tomb. Here, here I’ll remain with worms that are your chamber-maids. Oh, I’ll rest here forever and escape the control of the bad fortune that has plagued my body. Eyes, see for the last time! Arms, make your last embrace! And lips, you doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss the infinite deal I have made with death. (ROMEO kisses JULIET and takes out the poison) Come, bitter transport, come, unpleasant guide! You desperate pilot, crash this seasick and weary ship into the rocks. Here’s to my love! (he drinks the poison) Oh, honest  pharmacist, your drugs work quickly. With this kiss, I die.

[ROMEO dies.]

[FRIAR LAWRENCE enters carrying a lantern, crowbar, and shovel.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Saint Francis be my speed! How oft tonight

Have my old feet stumbled at graves!—Who’s there?

Saint Francis, speed my steps! How often tonight have my old feet stumbled on gravestones! Who’s there?

BALTHASAR

(130) Here’s one, a friend, and one that knows you well.

I am, a friend, who knows you well.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend,

What torch is yond that vainly lends his light

To grubs and eyeless skulls? As I discern,

It burneth in the Capels’ monument.

God bless you! Tell me, good friend, what’s that torch lying over there for seemingly no reason that’s offering its light to no one but worms and eyeless skulls? As far as I can tell, it seems to be burning in the Capulet tomb.

BALTHASAR

It doth so, holy sir, and there’s my master,

One that you love.

It is there, holy father, as is my master, whom you love.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Who is it?

Who is it?

BALTHASAR

Romeo.

Romeo.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(135) How long hath he been there?

How long has he been there?

BALTHASAR

Full half an hour.

For a full half hour.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Go with me to the vault.

Go with me to the tomb.

BALTHASAR

I dare not, sir.

My master knows not but I am gone hence,

And fearfully did menace me with death

If I did stay to look on his intents.

I don’t dare, sir. My master thinks I’ve gone from here. He threatened to kill me if I stayed to watch his actions.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(140) Stay, then. I’ll go alone. Fear comes upon me.

Oh, much I fear some ill unthrifty thing.

Stay, then. I’ll go alone. Now I’m frightened. Oh, I’m very worried something terrible and unfortunate has happened.

BALTHASAR

As I did sleep under this yew tree here,

I dreamt my master and another fought,

And that my master slew him.

As I slept under this yew-tree, I dreamed that my master fought someone else, and that my master killed him.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(approaches the tomb)

Romeo!—

(145) Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains

The stony entrance of the sepulcher?

What mean these masterless and gory swords

To lie discolored by this place of peace?

(looks inside the tomb)

Romeo! O, pale!—Who else? What, Paris too?

(150) And steeped in blood?—Ah, what an unkind hour

Is guilty of this lamentable chance!

The lady stirs.

(approaching the tomb) Romeo! Oh no! What’s this blood staining the stony entrance of this tomb? Why are these swords, discolored by gore and blood, lying here, abandoned, in this place of peace? (he looks inside the tomb) Romeo! Oh, he’s pale! Who else? What, Paris too? And covered in blood? Ah, during what cruel hour did this sad turn of fortune occur? The lady moves.

[JULIET wakes up.]

JULIET

O comfortable Friar! Where is my lord?

I do remember well where I should be,

And there I am. Where is my Romeo?

Oh comforting friar! Where is my husband? I remember well where I should be, and here I am. Where is my Romeo?

A noise sounds from outside the tomb

[A noise sounds from outside the tomb.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(155) I hear some noise. Lady, come from that nest

Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep.

A greater power than we can contradict

Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away.

Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead,

(160) 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.

I hear a noise. Lady, come with me from this tomb of death, sickness, and unnatural sleep. A power greater than us has ruined our plans. Come, come away. Your husband lies dead, resting against your chest. Paris too, is dead. Come, I’ll bring you to join a sisterhood of holy nuns. Don’t wait here asking questions. The watch is coming. Come, come with me, good Juliet, I dare not stay any longer.

JULIET

Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.—

Go, go away. I’m not leaving.

[FRIAR LAWRENCE exits.]

(165) 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,

(170) To make me die with a restorative.

(kisses ROMEO)

Thy lips are warm.

What’s this? A cup, held in my true love’s hand? Poison, I see, has caused his death. How selfish, drinking it all, leaving not a drop to help me follow after you. I’ll kiss your lips. Maybe I’ll be lucky and there’s still some poison on your lips, a bit of medicine that will return me to my Romeo with a kiss. (she kisses ROMEO) Your lips are warm.

[WATCHMEN and PARIS’s PAGE enter.]

CHIEF WATCHMAN

(to PAGE) Lead, boy. Which way?

(to the PAGE) Lead, boy. Which way?

JULIET

Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger,

This is thy sheath. There rust and let me die.

(stabs herself with ROMEO’s dagger and dies)

A noise! I’ll act fast. Oh, what luck: here’s a dagger! I’ll be your sheath. Rust inside my body and let me die. (she stabs herself with ROMEO’s dagger and dies)

PAGE

This is the place. There, where the torch doth burn.

This is the place. There, where that torch is burning.

CHIEF WATCHMAN

(175) The ground is bloody.—Search about the churchyard.

Go, some of you. Whoe’er you find, attach.

The ground is bloody. Search the graveyard. Go, a few of you, and arrest anyone you find.

[Some WATCHMEN exit.]

Pitiful sight! Here lies the county slain,

And Juliet bleeding, warm and newly dead,

Who here hath lain these two days buried.—

(180) Go, tell the Prince. Run to the Capulets.

Raise up the Montagues.

Some others search.

What a pitiful sight! The count lies here dead. And Juliet is bleeding. Her body is still warm even though she has been dead and buried for the last two days. Go, tell the Prince. Run to the Capulets. Wake up the Montagues. Have some others search.

[A few more WATCHMEN exit, in different directions.]

We see the ground whereon these woes do lie,

But the true ground of all these piteous woes

(185) We cannot without circumstance descry.

We see the ground on which these bodies lie, but we won’t be able to figure out the true cause of all these awful events without an investigation.

[The SECOND WATCHMAN reenters with BALTHASAR.]

SECOND WATCHMAN

Here’s Romeo’s man. We found him in the churchyard.

Here’s Romeo’s servant. We found him in the churchyard.

CHIEF WATCHMAN

Hold him in safety till the Prince come hither.

Hold him securely until the Prince arrives.

[The THIRD WATCHMAN reenters with FRIAR LAWRENCE.]

THIRD WATCHMAN

Here is a friar that trembles, sighs and weeps.

We took this mattock and this spade from him

(190) As he was coming from this churchyard’s side.

Here’s a friar who’s trembling, sighing, and weeping. We took this pickaxe and this shovel from him, as he was leaving the graveyard.

CHIEF WATCHMAN

A great suspicion. Stay the friar too.

Very suspicious. Hold the friar too.

[The PRINCE enters with his ATTENDANTS.]

PRINCE

What misadventure is so early up

That calls our person from our morning rest?

What disaster has occurred so early in the morning that it forces me from my bed?

[CAPULET and LADY CAPULET enter.]

CAPULET

What should it be, that they shriek so abroad?

What has happened to cause everyone to start shrieking?

LADY CAPULET

(195) Oh, the people in the street cry “Romeo,”

Some “Juliet,” and some “Paris,” and all run

With open outcry toward our monument.

Some people in the street are crying “Romeo.” Others cry “Juliet,” and still others “Paris.” They’re all running and screaming toward our tomb.

PRINCE

What fear is this which startles in our ears?

What terror has occurred to result in all this startling noise?

CHIEF WATCHMAN

Sovereign, here lies the County Paris slain,

(200) And Romeo dead, and Juliet, dead before,

Warm and new killed.

Prince, here lies Count Paris killed. And Romeo dead. And Juliet, who was dead before, but is warm like someone newly killed.

PRINCE

Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes.

Find out how this foul murder came to happen.

CHIEF WATCHMAN

Here is a friar, and slaughtered Romeo’s man,

With instruments upon them fit to open

(205) These dead men’s tombs.

Here is a friar, and dead Romeo’s servant. They’re carrying tools for opening a tomb.

CAPULET

O heavens! O wife, look how our daughter bleeds!

This dagger hath mista’en—for, lo, his house

Is empty on the back of Montague,

And it mis-sheathèd in my daughter’s bosom.

Oh heavens! Oh wife, look at how our daughter bleeds! That dagger is in the wrong place. It should be in the empty sheath on the back of that Montague, but instead is mis-sheathed in my daughter’s chest.

LADY CAPULET

(210) O me! This sight of death is as a bell,

That warns my old age to a sepulcher.

Woe is me! Seeing my daughter dead is like a warning bell of my own imminent death.

[MONTAGUE enters.]

PRINCE

Come, Montague, for thou art early up

To see thy son and heir now early down.

Come, Montague. You’re up early to see your son and heir killed at too young an age.

MONTAGUE

Alas, my liege, my wife is dead tonight.

(215) Grief of my son’s exile hath stopped her breath.

What further woe conspires against mine age?

My liege, my wife died tonight. Her sadness about my son’s exile stopped her breath. What further misery must I endure in my old age?

PRINCE

Look, and thou shalt see.

Look, and you’ll see.

MONTAGUE

(to ROMEO) O thou untaught! What manners is in this,

To press before thy father to a grave?

(seeing ROMEO’s body) Oh, you rude boy! What terrible manners to die before your father.

PRINCE

(220) Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while,

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.—

(225) Bring forth the parties of suspicion.

Quiet your outrage for a time, until we can clear up the remaining uncertanties about the cause of all this. Once we do know what happened, I will lead you in expressing our pain, and lead you all the way to our death. In the meantime, hold on, and let your patience control your desire to act. Bring forth the men under suspicion.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

I am the greatest, able to do least,

Yet most suspected, as the time and place

Doth make against me, of this direful murder.

And here I stand, both to impeach and purge,

(230) Myself condemnèd and myself excused.

I am the most suspected, and least able to defend myself, because I was here at the time of this terrible murder. Here I stand, to be questioned and punished. I have already condemned myself.

PRINCE

Then say at once what thou dost know in this.

Then tell us immediately what you know about all this.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

I will be brief, for my short date of breath

Is not so long as is a tedious tale.

Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet,

(235) 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 the city—

For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined.

You, to remove that siege of grief from her,

(240) Betrothed and would have married her perforce

To County Paris. Then comes she to me,

And with wild looks bid me devise some mean

To rid her from this second marriage,

Or in my cell there would she kill herself.

(245) 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,

(250) 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

(255) 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,

(260) 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.

(265) 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

(270) Miscarried by my fault, let my old life

Be sacrificed some hour before his time

Unto the rigor of severest law.

I’ll be brief, because the time I have left to live is not long enough to tell a long story. Romeo, who lies there dead, was Juliet’s husband. And she, who lies there dead, was Romeo’s faithful wife. I married them. Their secret wedding day was the same day Tybalt died. His untimely death led to the banishment of the bridegroom. Juliet was distraught not over Tybalt’s death but rather Romeo’s banishment. To end her grief, you arranged for her to marry Count Paris. At that point she came to me, and, looking wild, threatened to kill herself unless I came up with a plan to help her escape this second marriage. Then I gave her a special sleeping potion that, as I had planned, made it seem as if she had died. Meanwhile, I wrote to Romeo to tell him to come here tonight, this awful night, to help get her out of her temporary grave when the sleeping potion wore off. But the man who carried my letter, Friar John, was stopped by an accident, and returned my letter to me last night. So at the time when Juliet was schedule to wake, I came here alone to take her out of her family’s tomb. My plan was to hide her in my cell until I could get word to Romeo. But when I arrived, just a few minutes before Juliet awoke, Paris and Romeo were already here, lying dead. She woke up, and I begged her to come out of the tomb with me and bear this work of God with patience. But then a noise frightened me, and I ran from the tomb. She was too desperate to leave with me, and, it seems, she killed herself. I know all of this. And her Nurse knows about the marriage. If any of this misfortune is my fault, let me be sacrificed and punished under the strictest law.

PRINCE

We still have known thee for a holy man.—

(275) Where’s Romeo’s man? What can he say in this?

We have always known you to be a holy man. Where is Romeo’s servant? What does he say about all this?

BALTHASAR

I brought my master news of Juliet’s death,

And then in post he came from Mantua

To this same place, to this same monument.

(shows a letter) This letter he early bid me give his father,

And threatened me with death, going in the vault,

(280) If I departed not and left him there.

I brought my master news of Juliet’s death. And then with great haste he rode from Mantua to this tomb. (he shows a letter) Early this morning he told me to give this letter to his father. Then he threatened to kill me if I did not leave when he went into the tomb.

PRINCE

Give me the letter. I will look on it.

(takes letter from BALTHASAR)

Where is the county’s page, that raised the watch?—

Sirrah, what made your master in this place?

Give me the letter. I’ll read it. (he takes the letter from BALTHASAR) Where is the count’s page, who called the watch? Boy, what was your master doing here?

PAGE

(285) He came with flowers to strew his lady’s grave,

And bid me stand aloof, and so I did.

Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb,

And by and by my master drew on him,

And then I ran away to call the watch.

He came with flowers to put on his lady’s grave. He asked me to stand apart from him, and so I did. Soon after someone with a torch came to open the tomb. One thing led to another and my master drew his sword to fight him. That’s when I ran away to call the watch.

PRINCE

(290) (skims the letter) This letter doth make good the friar’s words,

Their course of love, the tidings of her death.

And here he writes that he did buy a poison

Of a poor ‘pothecary, and therewithal

(295) 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

(300) Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished.

(he skims the letter) This letter corroborates the friar’s story. It describes the course of their love and how he heard of her death. Then he writes that he bought poison from a poor pharmacist and came to this tomb to die and lie with Juliet. Where are these enemies? Capulet! Montague! Do you see how your hate has cursed you? Heaven has in response conspired to kill your joys with love. And because I did not take a firm hand against your feud, I’ve lost two of my family as well. Everyone is punished.

CAPULET

O brother Montague, give me thy hand.

This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more

Can I demand.

Oh, brother Montague, give me your hand. This handshake is my daughter’s dowry. I can ask you for nothing more.

MONTAGUE

But I can give thee more,

For I will raise her statue in pure gold,

(305) That whiles Verona by that name is known,

There shall no figure at such rate be set

As that of true and faithful Juliet.

But I can give you more. I’ll raise a golden statue of her. So long as this city is called Verona, there will be no figure praised more than that of true and faithful Juliet.

CAPULET

As rich shall Romeo’s by his lady’s lie,

Poor sacrifices of our enmity.

The statue of Romeo I’ll make to lie beside Juliet will be just as rich. Our hate was not worth their sacrifice.

PRINCE

(310) A glooming peace this morning with it brings.

The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head.

Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things.

Some shall be pardoned, and some punishèd.

For never was a story of more woe

(315) Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

This morning we have come to a gloomy peace. The sun, out of sorrow, will not show itself. Let’s go, to talk more about these sad things. Some will be pardoned, and some punished.There was never a story more full of misery than this tale of Juliet and Romeo.

[All exit.]

Just the Modern Translation

Prologue

[The CHORUS enters]

CHORUS

In lovely Verona, Italy, where the play is set, an age-old feud between two noble families of equal stature breaks out once more into violence, causing citizens to stain their hands with the blood of other citizens. Two ill-fated children of these families fall in love. Thwarted by an unfortunate series of events, the lovers commit suicide. Their terrible deaths end the feud between the families. For the next two hours on this stage, you will see the story of the lovers’ doomed romance, as well as their parents’ feud, which nothing but their children’s death could end. If you listen patiently to our performance, the details left out in this prologue will be shown onstage.

[Exit]

Act 1, Scene 1

[SAMPSON and GREGORY, servants of the Capulet family, enter carrying swords and small shields.]

SAMPSON

I swear, Gregory, we won’t let them treat us like manual laborers.

GREGORY

No, because then we’d be like manual laborers. Which is basically what we are, doofus.

SAMPSON

I mean, if they make us angry, we’ll draw our swords.

GREGORY

You seem to focus more on getting yourself out of any trouble that might lead to the hangman’s collar.

SAMPSON

I hit hard, when I’m motivated.

GREGORY

But you avoid getting “motivated,” so you don’t ever have to hit.

SAMPSON

One of those Montague jerks would motivate me.

GREGORY

To be motivated is to act, while to be valiant is to face a fight. When you’re motivated, you just run away.

SAMPSON

If I saw a Montague, I’d face him. I’d walk on the side of the street closer to the wall (forcing the Montague into the gutter).

GREGORY

Then you must be a weakling, because it’s the weak who get shoved up against a wall.

SAMPSON

That’s true, which is why women, being the weaker sex, get “thrust to the wall.” So I’ll push Montague’s men into the gutter, and thrust Montague women to the wall.

GREGORY

The feud is between our masters and us, their servants.

SAMPSON

It’s all the same. I’ll be the Montague’s master. After fighting with the men, I’ll be nice to the maids—I’ll cut off their heads.

GREGORY

You’ll cut off the heads of the maids?

SAMPSON

The heads of the maids or their maidenheads. Interpret my comment however you prefer.

GREGORY

It’s the maids you rape or kill or who will have to sense it.

SAMPSON

The maids will feel me as long as I can stand upright. Everyone knows I’m a stud.

GREGORY

It’s a good thing you’re not a fish, or else (much like your erection) you’d be dried and shriveled like salted fish.

[ABRAM and another servant of the Montagues enter.]

Draw your sword! Here come some Montague servants

SAMPSON

I’ve drawn my naked sword. Fight them. I’ll back you up.

GREGORY

How? By turning your back and running?

SAMPSON

Don’t worry about me.

GREGORY

Sorry, but I do worry about you.

SAMPSON

Let’s make sure the law is on our sides by getting them to start the fight.

GREGORY

I’ll frown at them as I pass by them. How they respond is up to them.

SAMPSON

No, I’ll bite my thumb at them. That’s an insult, and they’ll be disgraced if they don’t react.

[ABRAHAM and BALTHASAR enter]

ABRAM

Excuse me, sir, are you biting your thumb at us?

SAMPSON

I am biting my thumb.

ABRAM

But are you biting your thumb at us?

SAMPSON

(whispering to GREGORY) Will the law be on our side if I say yes?

GREGORY

(whispering to SAMPSON) No.

SAMPSON

I’m not biting my thumb at you. But I am biting my thumb.

GREGORY

Do you want to fight us?

ABRAM

Fight? No.

SAMPSON

If you do want to fight, then I’m up for it. My master is as good as yours.

ABRAM

But not better than mine.

SAMPSON

Well...

[BENVOLIO enters.]

GREGORY

(whispering to SAMPSON) Say “better.” One of our master’s kinsmen has just arrived.

SAMPSON

Yes, my master is better than yours, sir.

ABRAM

You’re a liar.

SAMPSON

Draw your swords, if you’re men. Gregory, get ready to slash them.

[They fight]

BENVOLIO

(hits their swords with his own) Break it up, fools! Sheathe your swords. You don’t know what you’re doing.

[TYBALT enters.]

TYBALT

What, have you drawn your sword to fight with servants? Turn around, Benvolio, and see the man who will kill you.

BENVOLIO

I’m just trying to keep the peace. Put away your sword, or else use it to help me stop this fighting.

TYBALT

You hold a drawn sword, and say “peace?” I hate that word, just as I hate hell, all Montagues, and you. Now we fight, coward!

[BENVOLIO and TYBALT fight. Other Montagues and Capulets enter and also start fighting. Veronese CITIZENS enter, carrying clubs.]

CITIZENS

Beat them down with your clubs, spears, and axes. Down with the Capulets! Down with the Montagues!

[CAPULET, in a sleeping gown, enters with LADY CAPULET.]

CAPULET

What is this noise? Give me my long sword. Now!

LADY CAPULET

You need a crutch! Why are you calling for a sword?

[MONTAGUE enters, sword drawn, with LADY MONTAGUE.]

CAPULET

Give me my sword! Old Montague has arrived, and he’s waving his sword just to infuriate me.

MONTAGUE

You are a villain, Capulet! (LADY MONTAGUE grabs his arm.) Let go of me. Don’t stop me.

LADY MONTAGUE

You’re not taking one step to try to fight an enemy.

[PRINCE ESCALUS enters with his attendants.]

PRINCE

You rebels and enemies of the peace, who curse your own weapons by turning them on your neighbors. Do you refuse to listen?—Silence! You men, you beasts, who can only put out the fire of your anger by spilling fountains of blood. I will torture you unless you drop your weapons from your bloody hands and listen to me, your enraged Prince. Because of nothing more than a casual word from you, Capulet and Montague, three battles have raged in our city’s streets. These battles have forced Verona’s citizens to take off their dignified clothes and jewelry and instead pick up old and rusty spears in order to put an end to your fighting. If any Capulet or Montague disturbs the peace in the future, they will be executed. Now everyone go home. Capulet, you come with me in order to hear what else I want from you. Montague, you come this afternoon to old Free-town, where I deliver my judgments. Everyone else, leave this place right now or I will have you killed.

[Everyone exits except MONTAGUE, LADY MONTAGUE, and BENVOLIO.]

MONTAGUE

Tell me, nephew. Who stirred this old feud up again? Were you around when the fight began?

BENVOLIO

Your servants were fighting Montague’s servants when I arrived. I drew my sword to try to stop them. Just then, the reckless Tybalt showed up with his sword drawn. He taunted me while swinging his sword through the air, producing a hissing sound. As we fought, more and more Capulets and Montagues showed up to join the battle. Finally, the Prince came and stopped the fighting.

LADY MONTAGUE

Where’s Romeo? Have you seen him at all today? I’m happy he wasn’t around for this fight.

BENVOLIO

Madam, my mind was troubled this morning, so an hour before dawn I went out for a walk. As I walked, I saw your son beneath the sycamore grove that grows near the western edge of the city. I walked toward him, but he noticed me and ran and hid in the woods. I assumed that he must be feeling the same way I was and did not want to be bothered, since a person is often at his busiest when he is alone. So I continued on, happy to let him be and pursue my own private thoughts.

MONTAGUE

He’s been seen at that spot on many mornings, his tears adding to the morning dew and his deep sighs thickening the clouds in the sky. Then, as soon as the happy sun begins to dawn, my unhappy son comes home in order to hide from the light. He keeps to himself in his bedroom, shutting his windows to keep out the daylight so that he can sit in an artificial night. His bad mood is likely to have a bad result, unless someone can give him good advice and remove the cause of his sadness. This mood of his is going to bring bad news, unless someone smart can fix what’s bothering him.

BENVOLIO

My noble uncle, do you know what’s causing his mood?

MONTAGUE

I don’t. And he refuses to tell me.

BENVOLIO

You’ve done everything possible to get him to explain?

MONTAGUE

Both I and many of our friends have tried to speak with him. But he insists on sharing his thoughts only with himself, though I don’t know how good the advice is that he’s giving himself. He keeps his secrets so completely that he’s like a flower bud that can’t open to the air or sun because it’s been poisoned from within by the bite of a worm. If we could just find out the cause of his sadness, we’d try to help him as eagerly as we have tried to learn the reason for his sadness.

[ROMEO enters.]

BENVOLIO

Here he comes. If it’s all right, please leave us alone. I’ll make him either tell me what’s wrong or force him to refuse me.

MONTAGUE

I hope you get to hear the true story. Come, madam, let’s go.

[MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE exit. ROMEO enters.]

BENVOLIO

Good morning, cousin.

ROMEO

Is it still morning?

BENVOLIO

It’s just barely after nine.

ROMEO

Oh, my! Time goes by slowly when you’re sad.

Was that my father who just rushed away?

BENVOLIO

It was. What sadness is making your hours long?

ROMEO

Lacking the thing which would make them short.

BENVOLIO

Are you in love?

ROMEO

Out.

BENVOLIO

So you’re not in love?

ROMEO

I am in love. But the one I love does not love me.

BENVOLIO

Oh, it is sad how love, which in theory seems like such a gentle thing, should in actual experience be so rough!

ROMEO

How can love, which is supposed to be blind, force you to be able to do what it wants? Where should we eat? (Noticing blood) Wait, what fighting happened here? No, don’t tell me. I already know: it was something that had a lot to with hate, but even more to do with love. O brawling love! O loving hate! Love that originates from nothing! Heavy lightness! Serious frivolity! Beautiful shapes smashed together to create an ugly chaos. Love is like heavy feathers, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, waking sleep, the opposite of what it is! That’s the love I feel, since no one loves me in return. Do you laugh?

BENVOLIO

No, cousin, I cry.

ROMEO

But why, my good man?

BENVOLIO

Beacuse of how love has oppreseed your heart.

ROMEO

That’s how it works with love. My own sadness is a heavy weight on my chest, and now you’re going to add your own sadness to mine. The love you are showing me is only increasing my grief. Love is like a smoke made out of the sighs of lovers. When the smoke clears, love is a fire burning in the lovers eyes. But if that love is thwarted, then it is a sea made out of lover’s tears. What else is love? A wise madness. A sweet candy that makes you choke. Goodbye, my cousin.

BENVOLIO

Wait! I’ll come with you. If you leave me behind, you’ll be insulting me.

ROMEO

Man! I’m not acting like myself. It’s as if I’m not even here. This is not Romeo, he’s somewhere else.

BENVOLIO

Tell me, seriously, who is the one you love?

ROMEO

What? Should I cry out the name in a groan of sadness?

BENVOLIO

Groan? No. Just tell me who it is.

ROMEO

You wouldn’t ask a sick man to “seriously” write out his will—it would only make him feel worse. Seriously, cousin, I love a woman.

BENVOLIO

I figured that when I guessed you were in love.

ROMEO

Then you have good aim! The woman I love is beautiful.

BENVOLIO

A beautiful “target,” my cousin, is usually the one that is hit fastest.

ROMEO

Well, now you missed the target. She won’t be hit by Cupid’s arrow. She’s like Diana, protected by the armor of chastity. She is immune to the weak and childish arrows of love. She ignores words of love, refuses to even let you look at her with loving eyes, or open her lap to receive golden gifts. She’s rich in beauty. But she’s also poor, because when she dies her beauty will be destroyed along with her.

BENVOLIO

So she’s sworn to live her life a virgin ?

ROMEO

She has, and in doing so she wastes her beauty, because by living in chastity she ensures that she will never pas her beauty on to her children. She’s too beautiful, too smart, to be allowed to gain entrance to Heaven by making me despair. She’s sworn never to love, and in that vow has sentenced me to a kind of living death.

BENVOLIO

Listen to me. Stop thinking about her.

ROMEO

How can I stop myself from thinking?

BENVOLIO

By letting your eyes wander, and looking at other good-looking girls.

ROMEO

Such comparisons will only make her own beauty more obvious. It will be like the masks that pretty girls wear to hide their faces, and which, by hiding their beauty, make us think of it more. A blind man can’t forget the precious eyesight he lost. Show me any beautiful girl. Her beauty is no more than a reminder of where I can see someone who is even more beautiful. Goodbye. You can’t teach me to forget.

BENVOLIO

I’ll take that bet, or else die in debt.

[They exit.]

Act 1, Scene 2

[CAPULET, PARIS, and a servant, PETER, enter]

CAPULET

Montague has sworn the same oath I have, and is bound by the same penalty. I don’t think it should be hard for men as old as us to remain peaceful.

PARIS

You both have honorable reputations. It’s a pity you’ve been enemies for so long. But, now, how do you respond to my request?

CAPULET

By repeating what I’ve said before. My child is still extremely young. She’s not yet even fourteen years old. Let’s let two more summers come and go before we start to think that she would be ready to be a bride.

PARIS

Girls who are younger than your daughter often become happy mothers.

CAPULET

Girls who marry that young grow up too quickly. All of my hopes on this earth rest in her. But it is okay for you to woo her, gentle Paris; win her love. My permission for you to marry her is only part of it; she must also agree to marry you. Then my blessing on the marriage will confirm her choice. This very night I’m hosting a feast that I’ve celebrated for many years. I’ve invited many guests, many close friends. I’d like to invite you as well to be a most welcome guest. At my humble home tonight, you’ll see see stars that walk the earth and light the sky from below. Like all lusty young men, you’ll be delighted by the young women who are as fresh as spring flowers. Look at them all, and choose whichever woman you like best. Amidst all these girls, you may no longer think that my daughter’s the most beautiful. Come with me. (to PETER, handing him a paper) Go, sir, walk all around Verona. Find the people whose names are on this list and tell them they’re invited to my house tonight.

[CAPULET and PARIS exit.]

PETER

Find the people whose names are on this list? It’s written that shoemakers and tailors should use each others’ tools, and that fisherman should play with paints while painters should play with with fishing nets. But now I’ve been sent to find the people on this list, and I can’t read. I’ll have to ask somebody educated to help me.

[BENVOLIO and ROMEO enter]

BENVOLIO

Come on, Romeo. Starting a new fire will put out the old one. An old pain is lessened by the arrival of a new one. If you make yourself dizzy, you can cure yourself by spinning in the other direction. A new grief will cure an old one. Stare obsessively at some new girl, and your former lovesickness will disappear.

ROMEO

The plantain leaf is excellent for that.

BENVOLIO

For what?

ROMEO

For treating your injured shin.

BENVOLIO

Have you gone mad?

ROMEO

No, though I’m bound more tightly than any mental patient is. I’m locked in a prison without food. I’m whipped, tortured—(to PETER) Good evening, good fellow.

PETER

A blessed good evening to you. Excuse me, sir, but do you know how to read?

ROMEO

Yes. I can read my fortune in my misery.

PETER

Perhaps you’ve learned to read from life rather than from books. But, I beg your answer, can you read anything you see?

ROMEO

Yes, if I know the letters and the language.

PETER

You speak honestly. Have a nice day.

ROMEO

Stay, friend. I can read. (He reads the letter) “Signor Martino and his wife and daughters, Count Anselme and his gorgeous sisters; the lady, Vitravio’s widow; Signor Placentio and his lovely nieces; Mercutio and his brother Valentine; My uncle Capulet and his wife and daughters; my fair niece Rosaline; Livia, Signor Valentio and his cousin Tybalt; Lucio and the lively Helena.” That’s quite a fancy list of people. Where are they supposed to go?

PETER

Up.

ROMEO

Where?

PETER

To supper. To our house.

ROMEO

Whose house?

PETER

My master’s house.

ROMEO

Indeed, I should have asked you that earlier.

PETER

I’ll tell you so that you don’t have to ask. My master is the great, rich Capulet, and as long as you are not a Montague, I invite you to come and drink a cup of wine at our house. Have a nice day!

[PETER exits.]

BENVOLIO

Rosaline whom you love so much is going to attend this traditional feast of Capulet’s, along with all the beautiful woman of Verona. Go there and, without bias, compare her to some of the girls I’ll point out to you. I’ll show you that the woman you think is as beautiful as a swan is in fact as ugly as a crow.

ROMEO

If my eyes ever show me such a lie about the woman they worship, then may my tears turn into flames so that my eyes, which never drowned in all my tears, be burned for being such clear liars! A woman more beautiful my love? The sun has never seen anyone as beautiful since the world began.

BENVOLIO

Oh come on. You decided she was beautiful when no one else was around and there was no one to compare her to except herself. But if instead you compare her to some other beautiful woman who I’ll point out to you at this feast, you’ll see that she’s far from the best.

ROMEO

I’ll go with you. Not because I think I’ll see such a sight as you suggest, but so I can rejoice in the beauty of the woman I love.

[They exit.]

Act 1, Scene 3

[LADY CAPULET and the NURSE enter.]

LADY CAPULET

Nurse, where’s my daughter? Tell her to come here.

NURSE

I swear by my virginity at age twelve, I told her to come. What is this?! Heaven forbid! Where is she? Juliet!

[JULIET enters.]

JULIET

What? Who’s calling me?

NURSE

Your mother.

JULIET

Madam, I’m here. What do you want?

LADY CAPULET

Here’s what I want—Nurse, leave us for a bit while we talk privately—wait, no, Nurse, come back. I just remembered, you can listen to our secrets. You know my daughter’s age.

NURSE

Yes, I know her age to the hour.

LADY CAPULET

She’s not yet fourteen.

NURSE

I’d bet fourteen of my teeth—but, to be honest, I actually only have four teeth—that she’s not fourteen. How long is it until Lammastide?

LADY CAPULET

Two weeks and a few odd days.

NURSE

Even or odd, of all the days in the year, she’ll be fourteen on the night of Lammas Eve. She and my daughter Susan—God rest all Christian souls—were born that same day. Well, Susan died and is now with God. She was too good for me. But, as I said, on the night of Lammas Eve, Juliet will be fourteen. Yes, she will indeed. I remember it well. It’s been eleven years since the earthquake, and it was on that very day that she stopped nursing from my breast. I’ll never forget it. I had put some bitter wormwood on my breast as I was sitting in the sun, under the wall of the dovehouse. Your husband and you were in Mantua. Oh my, what a great memory I have! As I said, when Juliet tasted the bitter wormwood on my nipple, the pretty little thing got angry with my breast. That’s when the earthquake hit and the dovehouse started to shake. You didn’t have to tell me to get out of there. It’s been eleven years since then. She could stand up by herself then. No, in fact, by then she could run and waddle all over the place. I remember because just the day before she had cut her forehead. My husband—God rest his soul, he was a merry man—picked Juliet up. “Oh,” he said, “Did you fall on your face? You’ll fall backward when you grow up, won’t you, Jule?” And, by God, the pretty little thing stopped crying and said, “Yes.” To watch a joke come true! Even if I live a thousand years I’ll never forget it. “Won’t you, Jule,” he said. And the pretty fool stopped crying and said, “Yes.”

LADY CAPULET

Enough. Please be quiet.

NURSE

Yes ,madam. But I have to laugh when I think that the baby stopped crying and said, “Yes.” What’s more, I swear she had a bump on her forehead as big as a rooster’s testicle. It was quite a knock she took, and she was crying bitterly. “Yes,” said my husband, “Did you fall on your face? You’ll fall backward when you grow up, won’t you, Jule?” And she stopped crying and said, “Yes.’

JULIET

Stop now, Nurse, please.

NURSE

Peace. I’m done. May you recieve God’s grace. You were the prettiest baby I ever nursed. If I live to see you get married someday, my wishes will be fulfilled.

LADY CAPULET

In fact, marriage is exactly what I came here to discuss. Tell me, Juliet my daughter, what do you think about getting married?

JULIET

It;s an honor that I don’t think about at all.

NURSE

“An honor!” If I weren’t the only nurse you’ve had, I’d say you’d sucked wisdom from the breast that fed you.

LADY CAPULET

Well, you should start thinking about marriage. In Verona girls from noble families who are younger than you have already become mothers. By my count, I was already your mother at around your age, while you remain a virgin. So, to be brief: the valiant Paris wants to marry you.

NURSE

What a man, young lady! He’s a man as great as any other in the world. He’s so perfect it’s as if he were sculpted from wax.

LADY CAPULET

Verona in the summertime has no flower as fine as him.

NURSE

He’s a fine flower, absolutely, a flower.

LADY CAPULET

What do you say, Juliet? Can you love this gentleman? Tonight he’ll be at our feast. Look at his face and delight in his beauty. Examine how all the lines of his features combine to make him handsome. And what you can’t see in his beauty, find by looking in his eyes. This wonderful, loving man lacks only a bride to make him perfect. As fish do not hide from the sea, neither should a beauty like you hide from a handsome man like him. Everyone thinks he’s handsome, and whoever becomes his bride would be equally loved. You would share all that he possesses, and lose nothing by having him.

NURSE

Lose nothing? No, you’d get bigger. Men make women bigger (editor’s note: by making them pregnant).

LADY CAPULET

Answer me now. Can you love Paris?

JULIET

I’ll look at him with the intent to like him, if looking at him moves me to like him. But I won’t let myself fall for him any more than your permission allows.

[PETER enters.]

PETER

Madam, the guests are here and dinner is served. Your guests call for you and Juliet, while the servants in the pantry are cursing the Nurse. Things are getting out of control. I must rush off to serve the guests. Please, follow right after me.

LADY CAPULET

We’ll follow you. Juliet, Paris is waiting for you.

NURSE

Go, Juliet, and find the man who’ll give you happy nights that follow happy days.

[All exit.]

Act 1, Scene 4

ROMEO, MERCUTIO, and BENVOLIO enter wearing party masks. Five other men wearing party masks and carrying torches enter with them.

ROMEO

What excuse will we make? Or should we enter without apology?

BENVOLIO

It’s no longer fashionable to talk that much. We’re not going to announce our entrance with some guy blindfolded, dressed up as Cupid, and carrying a toy bow in order to scare the ladies like some scarecrow. Nor will we introduce ourselves with a memorized speech. They can judge us however they want. We’ll dance a dance and then get out of there.

ROMEO

Give me a torch. I don’t feel like dancing. Since I’m sad, I might as well carry the light.

MERCUTIO

No, sweet Romeo, you have to dance.

ROMEO

Not me, believe me. You’ve got on dancing shoes with nimble soles. But my soul is made of lead that anchors me to the ground so heavily that I can’t move.

MERCUTIO

You’re a lover. Borrow Cupid’s wings and use them to soar higher than the average man.

ROMEO

I’ve been too strongly pierced by his arrow to soar. My wounded heart won’t let me escape my dull sadness. I am sinking under love’s heavy burden.

MERCUTIO

If you sink in love, then you’re burdening it. You’re putting too much weight on such a tender thing.

ROMEO

Is love really so tender? To me it seems too rough, too rude, too unruly, and it pricks like a thorn.

MERCUTIO

If love is rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love when it pricks you, and you’ll beat love down. Give me a mask to put over my face. A mask to cover that mask I call my face. What do I care if someone sees my flaws? Let the dark eyebrows of this mask blush for me.

BENVOLIO

Come on, let’s knock and go inside. And once inside, let’s all start dancing.

ROMEO

Give me a torch to carry. Let those with light hearts dance. There’s an old proverb that fits me perfectly. I’ll hold a torch and watch. The game looks like fun, but I’m done with it.

MERCUTIO

Come on, “dun” is the color of a timid mouse. You’re being as timid as a patrolman on night duty. If you’re a stick stuck in the mud, we’ll pull you out—pardon me for being rude— out of the love in which you’re stuck up to your ears. Come on, we’re wasting daylight.

ROMEO

Uh, that’s wrong—it’s night.

MERCUTIO

I mean, sir, that by delaying we’re wasting our torches, which is like wasting the sunshine during the day. Show your good judgment by taking what I say the way I mean it, which is five times more important than literally trusting your senses.

ROMEO

We mean well by going to this party, but it’s not smart of us to go.

MERCUTIO

Why, may I ask?

ROMEO

I dreamed a dream last night.

MERCUTIO

So did I.

ROMEO

What was your dream?

MERCUTIO

I dreamed that dreamers often lie.

ROMEO

They lie in bed while dreaming about true things.

MERCUTIO

Oh, then I see Queen Mab has visited you.

BENVOLIO

Queen Mab? Who’s she?

MERCUTIO

She’s the fairies’ midwife, and is no bigger than the stone on the ring of a city councilman. She rides her carriage, which is pulled by tiny little creatures, over men’s noses as they lie sleeping. The wheel spokes of her carriage are made of spiders’ legs, its cover is made of grasshopper wings, and its harnesses are made of the smallest spiderwebs. The horse collars are made from moonbeams, while her whip is a single cobweb attached to a cricket bone. Her wagon driver is a tiny gnat wearing a gray coat that is not even half as large as a little round worm that comes from the finger of a lazy young girl. (editor’s note: in folklore, unmarried girls who were lazy were thought to have worms in their blood.) Her carriage is an empty hazelnut, made by a squirrel and an old worm, which have been the fairies’ carriage-builders for countless years.  With this magnificent carriage she rides each night through the brains of lovers, who then dream about love. She rides across courtiers’ knees, who then dream about bowing and curtsying. She rides over lawyers’ fingers, who then dream about their fees. She rides over ladies’ lips, and they immediately dream of kisses. But Queen Mab often puts blisters on their lips because their breath smells of candy, which angers her. Sometimes she rides over a courtier’s nose, and he dreams of sniffing out a way to make some money. Sometimes she tickles a priest’s nose with the tail of pig given as a tithe to the church, and he dreams of getting a high-paid church position. Sometimes she drives over a soldier’s neck, and he dreams of cutting the throats of foreigners, of breaking through fortifications, of ambushes, of the finest-quality Spanish swords, and of huge mugs of alcohol before suddenly waking, frightened, by the sound of drums in his ears. Then he says a prayer or two and goes back to sleep. Mab is the one who tangles the hair of horses’ manes at night and then hardens the tangles in the foul, dirty hairs; tangles which, if you undo them, bring bad luck. Mab is the hag who gives dreams of sex to virgins and teaches them how to bear the weight of a lover and to bear a child. She’s the one—

ROMEO

Calm down, calm down! Mercutio, be calm. You’re talking about nothing.

MERCUTIO

True. I’m talking about dreams, which are produced by a brain that’s doing nothing. Dreams are born of no more than empty fantasy, which is as substanceless as air, and more unpredictable than the wind, which can blows on the frozen north and then suddenly get angry and blow south.

BENVOLIO

This wind you’re talking about is blowing us off course. Dinner is already over. We’re going to get there too late.

ROMEO

I fear we’re going to arrive too early. I have a feeling this party tonight is fated to set in motion some awful destiny that will result in my own untimely death. But whoever’s in charge of my fate can steer me where they want. Let’s go, my lusty friends!

BENVOLIO

Strike the drum.

[They march around the stage and exit.]

Act 1, Scene 5

[PETER and other SERVINGMEN enter, carrying napkins.]

PETER

Where’s Potpan, who’s not helping us clear the table? Has he even moved or scraped a plate?

FIRST SERVINGMAN

When all the good manners are owned by just one or two men, and even those two are dirty, it’s a bad thing.

PETER

Clear away the stools, sideboards, and plates. My friend, save me a piece of marzipan, and if you love me, have the porter let in Susan Grindstone and Nell. Antony and Potpan!

SECOND SERVINGMAN

Yes, boy, I’m ready.

PETER

You’re being called for, asked after, and looked for in the great chamber.

FIRST SERVINGMAN

We can’t be both here and there at once! Be cheerful, boys. Be quick for a while, and may the longest lived take everything.

[PETER and the SERVINGMEN exit.]

[CAPULET enters with his cousin, TYBALT, LADY CAPULET, JULIET, and other Capulets. They meet ROMEO, BENVOLIO, MERCUTIO, and other guests and MASKERS]

CAPULET

Welcome, gentlemen. All the ladies who aren’t suffering from corns on their feet will dance with you. Ha ha! My ladies, now which of you will refuse to dance now? If any of you acts shyly, I’ll swear she has corns. Have I hit the mark? Welcome, gentlemen. Once there was a time when I could wear a mask and charm a girl by whispering a story in her ear. No more, no more, no more. You are welcome gentlemen. Come, musicians, play. (music plays and they dance) Make room in the hall! Make room! Dance, girls. (to SERVINGMEN) More light. Move the tables out of the way. Put out the fire—it’s getting hot in here. (to his COUSIN) Ah, sir, these unexpected guests are welcome. No, sit, sit, my Capulet cousin. We’re too old to dance. How long has it been since you and I last wore masks?

I’d swear thirty years.

CAPULET

What, man? It’s not been that long, not that long. It was at Lucentio’s wedding. No matter how quickly the years fly by, it’s been just twenty-five years since we wore masks.

CAPULET’S COUSIN

Longer, longer. Lucentio’s son is older than that, sir. He’s thirty.

CAPULET

How can you say that? His son was still a minor two years ago.

ROMEO

(to a SERVINGMAN) Who is that girl decorating the arm of that man over there?

SERVINGMAN

I don’t know, sir.

ROMEO

Oh, she teaches the torches to burn bright! She glows in the darkness like a jewel in the ear of an African. Her beauty is too good to be used and worn, too precious for this world. Like a white dove in a flock of crows, she surpasses all the other women. When this dance ends, I’ll note where she stands, and then I’ll touch her hand and thereby bless my ugly one. Did I ever love anyone before this moment? Renounce that love, my eyes! I never saw true beauty until this night.

TYBALT

By his voice I know that this man is a Montague. (to his PAGE) Get my sword, boy.—How dare this punk come here with his face covered by a mask so he can mock and scorn our celebration? To defend the honor of my family, I don’t think it would be a sin to kill him.

CAPULET

What’s all this, nephew? Why are so furious?

TYBALT

Uncle, that is a Montague—our rival. He’s a rogue who’s come here out of spite to scorn our celebration.

CAPULET

It’s young Romeo, right?

TYBALT

That’s him, that villain Romeo.

CAPULET

Calm yourself, gentle cousin. Leave him be. He holds himself like a gentleman of good manners, and, to be honest, everyone in Verona says that he is a virtuous and well-behaved youth. Not for all the wealth in this town would I insult him in my own house. Be calm. Pretend you never saw him. That is my command, and if you respect me you’ll stop with all these frowns, which is no way to behave at a party.

TYBALT

It’s the way to behave when a jerk like him shows up. I won’t stand him coming here.

CAPULET

You will stand him. What, boy? I say you will. Get out of here. Am I the master here, or you? Get out. You won’t stand him? God save my soul, you’ll start a riot among my guests! And you’ll crow like a rooster, like you’re the man!

TYBALT

But, uncle, we’re being dishonered.

CAPULET

Come on, come on. You’re an impertinent boy. Is that really how you think it is? This silliness is likely to come back to harm you. I know what I’m doing, but you feel the need to contradict me. Well, I’ll show you a thing or two. (to the GUESTS) Well done, my dears! (to TYBALT) You’re an insolent boy, now shoo. Keep your mouth shut — (to SERVINGMEN) more light, more light! (to TYBALT) — I’ll make you be quiet. (to the guests) Party on, my friends!

[The music plays again, and the guests dance]

TYBALT

The blend of enforced restraint with my burning rage is making me tremble. I’ll leave, but I’ll make Romeo regret this prank, which at the moment seems to him like such great fun.

[TYBALT exits.]

ROMEO

(taking JULIET’s hand) If I offend you by touching your holy hand with my own unworthy one, then my lips stand ready, like two blushing pilgrims, to smooth my rough touch with a gentle kiss.

JULIET

Good pilgrim, you are unfair to your hand. Your hand shows proper devotion by touching mine, just as pilgrims reach out to touch the hands of saints. Holding palm to palm is like a pilgrim’s kiss.

ROMEO

Don’t saints, and pilgrims too, have lips?

JULIET

Yes, pilgrim—lips they’re supposed to use to pray.

ROMEO

Oh, then, saint, let lips do what hands do: pray. Grant my prayer or my faith will turn to despair.

JULIET

Saints don’t move, though they do grant prayers.

ROMEO

Then remain still while I pray.

[He kisses her]

Now your lips have cleaned the sin from mine.

JULIET

Then my lips now have the sin they took from yours.

ROMEO

Sin from my lips? Oh how you urge me on to another crime. Give me back my sin.

[They kiss again]

JULIET

You kiss as if you’ve studied how. (Editor’s note: Juliet is also teasing about how Romeo used religion, the Bible or “the book,” to steal two kisses)

NURSE

Madam, your mother wants to speak with you.

[JULIET moves away]

ROMEO

Who is her mother?

NURSE

Well, young man, her mother is the lady of the house. A good, wise, and virtuous lady. I nursed her daughter, who you were talking to just now. I tell you, the man who marries that girl will be rich.

ROMEO

(to himself) Is she a Capulet? Oh, what a price I’ve paid! My life is now owned by my enemy.

BENVOLIO

(to ROMEO) Let’s go, let’s go, now while everything is still perfect.

ROMEO

Yes, it is still perfect now. But I’m afraid it will never be again.

CAPULET

No, gentlemen, don’t leave now. We have a bit of dessert arriving any moment — (they whisper something to him) Is that so? Then, I thank you. I thank you, honest gentlemen. Good night. Bring more torches over here! Come on, let’s all get to bed. (to his COUSIN) Ah, good sir, by God, it’s late. I’m going sleep.

[Everyone except JULIET and NURSE begins to exit.]

JULIET

Come here, nurse. Who is that gentleman over there?

NURSE

The son and heir of old Tiberio.

JULIET

Who’s the one going out the door?

NURSE

That, I think, is young Petruchio.

JULIET

What about the one over there, who wouldn’t dance?

NURSE

I don’t know him.

JULIET

Go ask. (the nurse leaves; JULIET speaks to herself) If he’s married, I’d rather die than marry someone else.

NURSE

(returning) His name is Romeo. He’s a Montague. He’s the only son of your greatest enemy.

JULIET

(to herself) The one man I love is the son of the one man I hate! I saw him before I knewg who he was, and learned who he was too late! What a monster love is to make me love my worst enemy.

NURSE

What’s this? What’s this?

JULIET

A rhyme I learned just now from somebody I danced with.

[Somebody calls “Juliet!” offstage.]

NURSE

On my way, on my way. Let’s go. The guests are all gone.

[They exit.]

Act 2, Prologue

[The CHORUS enters.]

CHORUS

Now Romeo’s old desire is on its deathbed, while a young love pushes to take its place. The girl Romeo groaned after and would have died for, when now compared to Juliet, is no longer beautiful to him. Now Romeo is loved and loves again—each bewitched by the others’ beauty. But the girl he loves is supposed to be his enemy, and she’s taken the sweet bait of love from a sharp hook. Because the Capulets think him an enemy, Romeo may not be able to get close enough to speak his words of love to her. And Juliet, just as much in love, has even less power to meet her new lover anywhere. Yet passion gives them power and time the opportunity to meet, as they blend extreme peril with extreme pleasure.

[The CHORUS exits.]

Act 2, Scene 1

[ROMEO enters alone.]

ROMEO

Can I continue on while my heart stays here? I’ll be nothing but an empty body unless I go back to find my heart.

[ROMEO moves away. BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO enter.]

BENVOLIO

Romeo! Cousin Romeo! Romeo!

MERCUTIO

He’s smart. I’d bet my life he’s snuck off home to go to bed.

BENVOLIO

He ran this way and jumped this orchard wall. Call him, Mercutio.

MERCUTIO

No, I’ll summon him as I would a spirit. Romeo! Humors! Madman! Passion! Lover! Appear to me in the form of a sigh. Speak just a single rhyme, and I’ll be satisfied. Cry out, “Ah me!” Say “love” and “dove.” Say one pretty word to my good gossiping friend Venus. Say the nickname of her blind son and heir, Cupid, who shot arrows so accurately and made King Cophetua fall in love with a beggar maid.—Romeo doesn’t hear me, stir, or move. The little monkey is dead, so I must conjure him to appear.— By Rosaline’s bright eyes, by her high forehead and her red lips, by her fine feet, straight legs, and trembling thighs, and by parts of her that lie next to her thighs, I summon you to appear before us in your actual form.

BENVOLIO

You’ll make him angry if he hears you.

MERCUTIO

This won’t make him angry. It would anger him if I conjured a strange spirit into her room that she then slept with. That would really anger him. But what I’m saying is fair and honest. I’m just saying the name of his love in order to call him out from the darkness.

BENVOLIO

Come on. He’s hidden within these trees to be alone with the night. His love is blind, so its fitting he share it with the dark.

MERCUTIO

If love is blind, it can’t hit the target. He’ll sit under a medlar tree and wish his love were one of those fruits that women, when they’re alone, joke look like female genitals. Oh Romeo, I wish she were! I wish she was an open-arse, and that you were a “pop her in” pear. Good night, Romeo. I’m off to my little trundle bed. It’s too cold in this field for me to sleep here. Come on, Benvolio, shall we leave?

BENVOLIO

Let’s go. It would be worthless to search for someone who doesn’t want to be found.

[BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO exit.]

Act 2, Scene 2

[ROMEO returns.]

ROMEO

He jokes about scars from wounds he’s never felt.

[JULIET enters on the balcony.]

Wait! What light is that in the window over there? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Rise beautiful sun and kill the jealous moon, which is already sick and pale with grief because Juliet, her maid, is more beautiful than she. Don’t be her maid, since she’s jealous. The moon’s virginity makes her look sick and green, and only fools hold on to their virginity. Throw it off. It is my lady. Oh, it is my love. Oh, I wish she knew I loved her. She’s talking, but isn’t saying anything. Why is that? Her eyes are speaking. I’ll respond—no, I am too bold. It’s not to me she speaks. Two of the most beautiful stars in the sky had to go off on some business, and begged her eyes to twinkle in their place until they return. If her eyes were in the sky and the stars were in her head the brightness of her cheeks would overwhelm the stars just as daylight outshines a lamp. And her eyes in the night sky would shine so brightly that birds would start singing, thinking it was day. Look how she leans her cheek against her hand. I wish I was a glove on that hand so I could touch that cheek.

JULIET

Oh, my!

ROMEO

(to himself) She speaks. Speak again, bright angel. For tonight you are as glorious as an angel, shining above my head like a winged messenger from heaven who makes mortals fall onto their backs to gaze up in awe as the angel strides across the clouds and sails through the air.

JULIET

Oh, Romeo, Romeo, why must you be Romeo? Deny your father and give up your name. Or, if you won’t change your name, just swear your love to me and I’ll give up being a Capulet.

ROMEO

(to himself) Should I listen longer, or respond now to these words?

JULIET

Only your name is my enemy. You’d be yourself even if you ceased to be a Montague. What’s a Montague, after all? It’s not a hand, foot, arm, face, or any other body part. Oh, change your name! What’s the significance of a name? The thing we call a rose would smell as sweet even if we called it by some other name. So even if Romeo had some other name, he would still be perfect. Romeo, take off your name—which really has no connection to who you are—and take all of me instead.

ROMEO

(Out loud) I take you at your word. If you call me your love, I’ll take a new name. From now on I’ll never again be Romeo.

JULIET

Who are you, hiding in the darkness and eavesdropping on my private thoughts?

ROMEO

I don’t know how to tell you who I am by using a name. I hate my name, dear saint, because it is your enemy. If I had it written down, I would tear up the word.

JULIET

I’ve not yet even heard you say a hundred words, yet I recognize the sound of your voice. Aren’t you Romeo, the Montague?

ROMEO

I’ll be neither of those things, my love, if you dislike them.

JULIET

How and why did you come here? The orchard walls are high and difficult to climb. And it will mean your death, because of who you are, if any of my family find you here.

ROMEO

I flew over these walls on the wings of love. No stone wall can keep love out. Whatever a man in love can do, love will make him attempt to do it. Therefore your relatives can’t stop me.

JULIET

If they see you they’ll murder you.

ROMEO

I am more concerned about the look in your eye than I would be with twenty of your relatives with swords. If you just look at me with love, their hatred would not be able to touch me.

JULIET

I’d give the world to make sure they do not see you here.

ROMEO

The darkness of night will hide me from their eyes. And if you don’t love me, then let them find me. I’d rather they killed me in hatred than experience the prolonged death of life without your love.

JULIET

Who told you how to find my my bedroom?

ROMEO

Love, which spurred me to come and find you. Love advised me, while I lent love my eyes. I’m no a sailor. Still, even if you were on the shore across the farthest sea, I would set out to find you.

JULIET

The darkness of night masks my face, or else you’d see me blushing about the things you heard me say tonight. I would gladly stick to the proper manners of courtship and deny everything I said. But, instead: goodbye good manners! Do you love me? I know you will answer “yes,” and I will trust you. But your swears may turn out to be false. They say that Zeus laughs when lovers lie. Oh noble Romeo, if you really love me, say it in truth. Or if you think I’m letting myself be won too easily, then I’ll frown and act superior and unapproachable so that you’ll woo me. But if that’s not necessary, then I would never act that way. In truth, beautiful Montague, I like you too much, which might make it seem as if I am overly silly and flirtatious. But trust me, gentleman, I’ll prove to be more faithful than girls who act coy and standoffish. I probably should have acted more standoffish, I confess, but you overheard me talking about my passion for you before I knew you were there. So please forgive me, and don’t condemn me for so quickly falling in love when it was only revealed to you because the dark night let you discover it.

ROMEO

Lady, I swear by the sacred moon, which outlines in silver the tops of these fruit trees—

JULIET

Please don’t swear by the moon, the unreliable moon, which changes its position in the sky each month. I do not want your love to end up being similarly variable.

ROMEO

What should I swear by?

JULIET

Don’t swear at all. Or, if you must swear, swear by your magnificent self, which is the god I worship like an idol, and I’ll believe you.

ROMEO

If my heart’s dear love—

JULIET

Well, don’t swear. Although you bring me joy, I can’t take joy in this exchange of promises tonight. It’s too wild, thoughtless, sudden. It’s too much like lightning, which disappears before you can even say, “it’s lightning.” My love, good night. Our love, which now is like a flower bud, may blossom in the summer air into a beautiful flower by the next time we meet. Good night! I hope you fell in your heart the same sweet calm and rest that I feel in mine.

ROMEO

Are you going to leave me so unsatisfied?

JULIET

What satisfaction could you have tonight?

ROMEO

If we exchanged vows of love.

JULIET

I pledged my love before you even requested it. But now I wish I could take that promise back to give again.

ROMEO

You’d take back your vow? Why, my love?

JULIET

In order to generously give it to you again. But I’m wishing for something I have already. My generosity to you is as endless as the sea, my love as deep as the sea. The more love I give you, the more I have. Both are infinite.

[The NURSE calls from offstage.]

I hear a noise from inside. Dear love, goodbye—Just a second, Nurse!—Sweet Montague, be true. Stay for a moment. I’ll come right back.

[JULIET exits.]

ROMEO

Oh, blessed, blessed night! Because it’s night, I’m scared that all this is a dream. It is too wonderful to be real.

[JULIET enters on her balcony.]

JULIET

Three words, dear Romeo, and then good night. If your love is honorable and you want to marry me, send me word tomorrow. I’ll find a messenger who will come to you, and you can tell that messenger when and where we will be married. All my fortunes I’ll lay at your feet and follow you, my lord, all over the world.

NURSE

(offstage) Madam!

JULIET

I’ll be right there! (to ROMEO) But if your intentions are not honorable, I beg you—

NURSE

(offstage) Madam!

JULIET

In a second, I’m coming!— (to ROMEO) to give up your efforts to win me and leave me to grieve. I’ll send the messenger tomorrow.

ROMEO

My soul depends on it—

JULIET

A thousand times good night.

[JULIET exits.]

ROMEO

It is a thousand times worse to leave you. A lover goes toward his beloved as joyfully as a schoolboy leaving his books. But when a lover leaves his beloved, he is as unhappy as a schoolboy on his way to school.

[ROMEO starts to leave. JULIET returns, on her balcony.]

JULIET

Psst! Romeo! Psst! Oh, I wish I could cry out like a falconer, so I could call my little falcon to return to me. Stuck as I am in my family’s house, I have to be quiet. Otherwise I would tear open the cave where Echo sleeps and make her call out my love’s name until her voice grew more hoarse than mine by repeating, “My Romeo!”

ROMEO

It is my soul that calls out my name. Lovers voices at night sound silver-sweet, the most lovely music to lovers’ ears.

JULIET

Romeo!

ROMEO

My little hawk?

JULIET

At what time tomorrow should I send the messenger to you?

ROMEO

Nine o’clock.

JULIET

I won’t fail. It will feel like twenty years til then. I’ve forgotten why I called you back.

ROMEO

I’ll stand here until you remember.

JULIET

I’ll forget it, so you’ll have to stand there forever, because of how much I love your company.

ROMEO

And I’ll remain here, even if you keep forgetting. I’ll forget that I have any other home but here.

JULIET

It’s almost morning. I want to force you to go. Yet I would not let you move any further than a spoiled child would let his pet bird go. The child so loves the bird that he will not let the bird hop any more than a small distance from his hand before pulling it back by a silk thread.

ROMEO

I wish I was your bird.

JULIET

My sweet, so do I. But I would pet you so much it would kill you. Good night. Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow that I will say good night until it becomes tomorrow.

[JULIET exits.]

ROMEO

Sleep well and peacefully. I wish that I were sleep and peace, so I could sleep with you. From here I’ll go see my priest, to tell him of my luck and ask for his help.

[He exits.]

Act 2, Scene 3

[FRIAR LAWRENCE enters by himself, carrying a basket.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

The morning smiles as it replaces frowning night and streaks light across the clouds in the east. Darkness staggers like a drunkard from the sun’s path. Now, before the sun rises, bringing on the day and drying the dew, I must fill my basket with poisonous weeds and the precious nectar of flowers. The Earth is both nature’s mother and its tomb. Plants arise from the Earth as from a womb, and when they die are buried in the Earth. Many different plants and animals come from the Earth’s womb. All of these children find nourishment from the Earth, and all have some special, unique virtue. There is a power that resides in herbs, plants, and stones. For there’s nothing on Earth that’s so evil that it does not also provide the earth with some kind of good. Nor is there anything so good that it can’t be turned bad if it’s abused and used incorrectly. Virtue, when misused, turns to vice, while vice can sometimes become virtue through proper action.

[ROMEO enters.]

Within the small rind of this little flower there is both poison and medicine. If you smell it, you feel good. If you taste it, it stops your heart. Two opposing elements, good and evil, reside in both men and herbs.

In the cases where evil predominates, death like a cancer will soon kill the plant or body.

ROMEO

Good morning, father.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

God bless you. Whose voice greets me so sweetly this early in the morning? My son, jumping so quickly out of bed this early indicates some trouble in your thoughts. All old men have concerns, and these worries never let them sleep. Young men, though, should be carefree and without worry, and their sleep should be restful and long. Therefore, the fact that you’re awake so early makes it clear that some anxiety has you in its grip. Or, if that’s not true, then I’d guess that you actually never went to sleep at all tonight.

ROMEO

That last is right. The rest I had was sweeter than sleep.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

God forgive all sin!—Did you sleep with Rosaline?

ROMEO

With Rosaline, holy father? No, I have forgotten her and the sadness she gave me.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

That’s good, my son. But where were you, then?

ROMEO

I’ll tell you before you ask me again. I’ve been at a party with my enemy, where suddenly someone wounded me and was in turn wounded by me. But both of us can be cured by your holy power. I hold no hatred, blessed father, because my request will also help my enemy.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Speak plainly, my son. Be clear. A confusing confession will result only in confused absolution.

ROMEO

Here it is set plain: I love the beautiful daughter of rich Capulet. I love her, and she loves me. We’re bound together, and need only for you to combine us completely by marrying us. In good time I’ll tell you about when and where and how we met, how we wooed each other and vowed our love. But  now I pray that you will agree to marry us today.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Holy Saint Francis, what an incredible change! Have you so quickly abandoned Rosaline, whom you loved so much? If so, then young men love not with their hearts but with their eyes. Jesus and Mary, you cried so many tears for Rosaline! So many salty tear-drops wasted seasoning a love you never even tasted! The sun has not yet burned away the fog from all your sighs. My old ears are still ringing from your groans. And look, here on your cheek there’s a stain from an old tear that has not yet been washed off. If you were ever yourself and this sorrow yours, you and your sorrow were all for Rosaline. And are you now changed? Then say the following: women will never be faithful when men are so unreliable.

ROMEO

You often scolded me for loving Rosaline.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

I scolded you for obsessing, not for loving, my student.

ROMEO

And urged me to bury my love.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

But not to bury it in a grave in order to start a new love.

ROMEO

I beg you, don’t scold me. The one I love now returns my love. The other did not.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Oh, Rosaline knew that you were play-acting at love but did not actually understand what love means. But come with me, my young unreliable friend. I’ll help you, because it’s possible that this marriage may transform your two families’ hatred into pure love.

ROMEO

Let’s go, then! Let’s do this quickly.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Wisely and slowly is best. Those who go too quickly always stumble.

[They exit.]

Act 2, Scene 4

[BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO enter.]

MERCUTIO

Where the devil is Romeo? Did he come home last night?

BENVOLIO

Not to his father’s house. I asked Romeo’s servant.

MERCUTIO

Rosaline, that pale-skinned, hard-hearted wench, torments him so much that he’s going to go insane.

BENVOLIO

Tybalt, old Capulet’s kinsman, has sent a letter to Romeo’s father’s house.

MERCUTIO

I bet it’s a challenge.

BENVOLIO

Romeo will answer it.

MERCUTIO

Any man who can write is able to answer a letter.

BENVOLIO

No, Romeo will respond to the letter writer and accept the challenge.

MERCUTIO

Poor Romeo! He is already dead: stabbed by the black eye of a fair-skinned girl, cut through the ear by a love song. The very core of his heart has been split by blind Cupid’s arrow. Is he really man enough to fight Tybalt?

BENVOLIO

Why, what’s up with Tybalt?

MERCUTIO

He’s more than just the Prince of Cats. He does everything according to convention. He fights like you sing printed music, carefully keeping the correct time, distance, and rhythm. He rests when it is proper to rest: one, two, and the third in your heart. He’s a master duelist who can hit any of his opponent’s buttons that he chooses. He’s a gentleman who learned at the finest fencing school, and he’s skilled at identifying insults and slights to his honor so that he’s “forced” to fight. He knows the passado—the forward thrust—the punto reverso—the backhand thrust—and the hai—the thrust for the heart.

BENVOLIO

He knows what?

MERCUTIO

A curse on these wild, pompous fellows who are always spouting exotic foreign phrases. These fellows, who say things like: “By Jesus, this is a very good blade! A very brave man! A very good whore.” Isn’t it a sad thing, good man, that we are forced to interact with these foreign flies, these fashionmongers, these fellows who say “pardon me” and care so deeply about good manners that they can’t relax on a bench without groaning, “Oh, my aching bones!”

[ROMEO enters.]

BENVOLIO

Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo.

MERCUTIO

He looks skinny as a dried herring without its eggs. O flesh, flesh, you’ve turned pale as a fish. Now he’s just like Petrarch’s hopeless love poetry. In Romeo’s opinion, compared to his own lady love: Petrarch’s Laura was like a kitchen slave (though Laura clearly had a lover who was better at making rhymes); Dido was drab and dull; Cleopatra was a gypsy girl; Helen and Hero were food-for-nothing harlots; Thisbe might have had beautiful eyes, but that doesn’t matter. (to ROMEO) Signor Romeo, bonjour. There’s a French greeting to match the loose high-fashion French pants you’re wearing. You tricked us good last night.

ROMEO

Good morning to you both. What do you mean I tricked you?

MERCUTIO

You gave us the slip, sir, the slip. Do you understand me now?

ROMEO

I’m sorry, good Mercutio. My business was so important that I must be forgiven for stretching good manners and courtesy.

MERCUTIO

So what you’re saying is that your “business” forced you to flex your legs.

ROMEO

Meaning make a curtsy?

MERCUTIO

Now you’ve “hit it.”

ROMEO

What a courteous explanation.

MERCUTIO

Indeed, I am the very “pink” of courtesy.

ROMEO

As in pink flower

MERCUTIO

Right.

ROMEO

Well, then my pump is covered in flowers.

MERCUTIO

Ah, witty Romeo, now you’ve taken this joke so far that it’s worn out your pump. With the sole of your pump now worn away, the joke is all that remains.

ROMEO

This jest has such a thin sole, and is unique only because of its lameness.

MERCUTIO

Please break up this war of words, Benvolio. My wits can’t keep up.

ROMEO

Continue, continue, or I’ll proclaim victory.

MERCUTIO

No, if our witticisms go on a wild-goose chase, I’m done for. You have more wild goose in one of your jokes than I have in five of mine. Was I  even close to you in our goose chase?

ROMEO

You would not have been with me for anything if you weren’t there for the goose.

MERCUTIO

I’ll bite you on the ear for that joke.

ROMEO

No, good goose, don’t bite me.

MERCUTIO

Your wit is a bitter apple, a spicy sauce.

ROMEO

Isn’t that the perfect sauce for a sweet goose?

MERCUTIO

Oh, that joke is made of leather so thin it has been stretched from an inch wide to a full fat yard.

ROMEO

I stretched it for that word “fat.” Add that to the goose, and it makes you a fat goose.

MERCUTIO

Now, isn’t this jesting better than groaning about love? Now you’re being sociable. Now you’re Romeo. Now you are what you truly are, both naturally and through education. In contrast, this love of yours made you like some fool who runs all over the place looking for a hole in which to hide his precious trinket.

BENVOLIO

Stop there, stop there.

MERCUTIO

You’re asking me to stop my tale before it’s finished.

BENVOLIO

Continuing on would have made your tale too long.

MERCUTIO

You’re wrong there. I would have made it short. I had come to the full depth of my tale, and intended to say nothing more about it.

[The NURSE enters with her servant, PETER.]

ROMEO

Now here’s something.

BENVOLIO

A sail, a sail!

MERCUTIO

No, two sails—a man in a shirt and a woman in a dress.

NURSE

Peter!

PETER

In a moment.

NURSE

Give me my fan, Peter.

MERCUTIO

Good Peter, to hide her face, please give her the fan. Her fan is prettier than her face.

NURSE

Good morning, gentlemen.

MERCUTIO

Good afternoon, fair lady.

NURSE

Is it afternoon?

MERCUTIO

It’s not any earlier, I tell you. The rough hand of the clock is now upon the prick of noon.

NURSE

Get out! What kind of man are you?

MERCUTIO

A man, good lady, whom God has made for himself to ruin.

NURSE

I swear, that seems the truth. “For himself to ruin,” he says. Gentlemen, can any of you tell me where I can find young Romeo?

ROMEO

I can tell you, but young Romeo will be older when you have found him than he was when you began to look for him. I am the youngest man by that name, because there is none younger or worse.

NURSE

You speak well.

MERCUTIO

Is the worst well? Very well taken, in truth, very wise.

NURSE

If you’re Romeo, sir, I would like to have a private conversation with you.

BENVOLIO

She will invite him to dinner.

MERCUTIO

A pimp! A pimp! A pimp! That’s it!

ROMEO

What have you discovered?

MERCUTIO

[sings]

[speaks]

Well, she can’t be a prostitute unless she’s so stale and old that she’s only tasted when nothing else is available.

(sings)

Old rabbit meat

Old rabbit meat

Is good meat if you can’t get anything else,

But old moldy rabbit,

Is a waste of your coin

If it goes moldy before you can eat it

(speaking)

Romeo, are you going to your father’s? We’re having lunch there. Let’s go.

ROMEO

I’ll follow after you.

MERCUTIO

Farewell, old lady. Farewell, lady, lady, lady.

[BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO exit.]

NURSE

Please tell me, sir, who was that foulmouthed fellow with all his dirty jokes?

ROMEO

Nurse, he’s a gentleman who loves to hear himself talk. He says more in one minute than he will stand behind in a month.

NURSE

If he says anything against me, I’ll teach him a lesson, even if he were tougher than he is—and twenty wise-asses like him. And if I couldn’t take him down myself, I’ll find someone who can. That rotten scoundrel! I’m not one of his flirty girls. I’m not one of his low-life scheming friends. (to PETER) And you just stand aside, letting every punk make fun of me for pleasure?

PETER

I didn’t see anybody use you for pleasure. If I had, I’d have quickly pulled out my weapon, I assure you. I draw my sword as quickly as any other man if I see a good fight brewing and the law is on my side.

NURSE

Now, by God, I’m so pissed that I’m shaking. That jerk! (to ROMEO) Now, good sir, may I speak with you? My young mistress sent me to find you. What she told me to say, I will keep to myself. But first let me say: if you lead her into a fool’s paradise, as they say, it would be extremely indecent behavior, as they say. The girl is young. So if you should deceive her, it would be an awful thing to do to any woman and very poor manners.

ROMEO

Nurse, speak well of me to your mistress. I pledge to you—

NURSE

Your heart is good, and I promise, I will tell her that. Lord, Lord, she will be a joyful woman.

ROMEO

What are you going to tell her, Nurse? You’re not understanding me.

NURSE

I will tell her, sir, that you protest to her, which I think is a gentlemanly offer.  (Editor’s note: The Nurse here is mistaking the word “protest” for the word “propose.”)

ROMEO

Tell her to devise a way to come to confession this afternoon. And there, at Friar Lawrence’s cell, she can make confession and we will be married. (Holds out some money to the Nurse) Here is a reward for your efforts.

NURSE

No, truly, sir. I won’t take your money.

ROMEO

Go on, I insist.

NURSE

(taking the money) This afternoon, sir? She will be there.

ROMEO

Just a moment, good Nurse. In an hour, behind the abbey wall, one of my servants will meet you and give you a rope ladder. I’ll then use the ladder to secretly climb up to Juliet’s room tonight. Farewell. Be worthy of my trust, and I’ll repay your help. Farewell. Speak well of me to your mistress.

NURSE

May God in heaven bless you. Now listen, sir.

ROMEO

What, my dear Nurse?

NURSE

Can your servant be trusted? Have you ever heard the saying, “Two men may keep a secret, but only if one is far away.”

ROMEO

I guarantee, my man is as trustworthy.

NURSE

Well, sir, my mistress is the sweetest lady. Lord, Lord, when she was a little baby—Oh, there is one nobleman in the city, Paris, who would gladly lay claim to her. But Juliet, good soul that she is, would rather be with a toad, a toad, than him. Sometimes I make her angry by telling her that Paris is better looking than you. I swear to you, when I say that she turns as white as any sheet in the entire world. Don’t “rosemary” and “Romeo” begin with the same letter?

ROMEO

Yes, Nurse, what about that? Both begin with an  “R.”

NURSE

Ah, you jokester—that’s the dog’s name. “R” is for the—no, I know that word begins with another letter. (Editor’s note: the nurse is thinking of the word “arse.”) She says such pretty things about you and rosemary that it would do you good to hear them.

ROMEO

Speak well of me to your lady.

NURSE

Yes, a thousand times — Peter!

PETER

I’m ready.

NURSE

Go ahead of me, and quickly.

[All exit.]

Act 2, Scene 5

[JULIET enters.]

JULIET

It was nine o’clock when I sent the Nurse. She promised to be back in half an hour. Maybe she can’t find him. No, that makes no sense. Oh, she’s so slow! Love’s messengers should be thoughts, which fly ten times faster than sunbeams and drive the shadows back over the dark and scowling hills. That’s how fast swift-winged doves carry the goddess of Love in her chariot, and why Cupid has wings that propel him as quickly as the wind. Now the sun is at its highest point in the sky—it’s noon. Three hours have passed since nine o’clock, and yet she hasn’t returned. If she was young and in love, she’d move as fast as a struck tennis ball. My words would bounce her to my sweet love, and his words would bounce her back to me. But old folks act as though they’re dead—awkward, slow, heavy, and pale as lead.

[The NURSE and PETER enter.]

Oh God, she’s here! Sweet Nurse, what’s your news? Did you meet with him? Send your servant away.

NURSE

Peter, go back and wait at the gate.

[PETER exits.]

JULIET

Now, good sweet Nurse—Oh Lord, why do you look so sad? If your news is sad, tell it to me as if it’s happy. If it’s good, you’re messing it up by telling it to me with such a sour face like that.

NURSE

I’m weary. Give me some time alone. Oh, my bones are aching! What a journey this has been today.

JULIET

I wish you had my bones, and I had your news. I beg you, speak, good Nurse, speak.

NURSE

Jesus, what a rush! Can’t you wait for awhile? Don’t you see that I’m out of breath?

JULIET

How are you out of breath when you have the breath to tell me that you’re out of breath? The excuse you’re making while delaying telling me what you know is taking longer than it would to tell me your tale. Is your news good or bad? Answer that. Tell me that, and I’ll wait for the details. Tell me at least that. Is it good or bad?

NURSE

Well, you have made an unwise choice. You don’t know how to choose a man. Romeo? No, not him, even though his face is more handsome than any other man’s, his legs are prettier. His hands and feet and body aren’t much to speak of, and yet they’re beyond compare. He isn’t the most courteous man, but, I’d swear that he’s as gentle as a lamb. So do what you want, girl. Be good. Hey, have you already eaten lunch?

JULIET

No, no. I already knew everything you just said. What did he say about our marriage? What about that?

NURSE

Lord, I have such a headache! It’s pounding as if it’s about to break into twenty pieces. And on my other side my back is aching—ah, my back! Curse your heart for sending me out and about. I could get sick and die from all this journeying around.

JULIET

I swear, I’m sorry you’re in pain. Sweet, sweet, sweet Nurse, tell me, what says my love?

NURSE

Your love says, like an honorable, courteous, kind, handsome, and, I believe, virtuous gentleman — where is your mother?

JULIET

Where’s my mother? Why, she’s inside. Where else would she be? What a strange answer! “Your love says, like an honorable gentleman, ‘Where is your mother?’”

NURSE

Mary, mother of God! Are you in such a hurry? Indeed, you need to calm down. Is this the way to soothe my aching bones? From here on out, carry your own messages.

JULIET

What a fuss you’re making. Please, what did Romeo say?

NURSE

Do you have permission to go to confession today?

JULIET

I do.

NURSE

Then hurry up and go to Friar Lawrence’s cell. There waits a husband to make you his wife. Now the lustful blood is rushing up to your cheeks. You blush scarlet whenever you get excited at some news. Get to church. I must go elsewhere to get a rope ladder that your love will use to climb up to your window when it’s dark. I do the drudge work for your pleasure. But soon, tonight, you’ll be doing your “wifely work” with Romeo. Go. I’ll go to lunch. You go to Friar Lawrence’s cell.

JULIET

I go to claim my luck. Loyal Nurse, farewell.

[They exit.]

Act 2, Scene 6

[FRIAR LAWRENCE and ROMEO enter.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

May the heavens smile upon this holy act of marriage, so that afterwards nothing happens to make us feel sorrowful about it.

ROMEO

Amen, amen. But whatever sorrow comes, it couldn’t overwhelm the joy I feel from a single look at her. If you join our hands with holy words, then love-devouring death can do whatever it wants. It’s enough for me if I can just call her mine.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Such passionate joys have violent endings. They die in their moment of triumph, just like a spark and gunpowder, when they touch, destroy themselves in an explosion. Even the most delicious honey is loathsome when you’ve had too much, and takes away your appetite. Loving in moderation is therefore the key to long-lasting love. Going too fast is as bad as going too slow.

[JULIET rushes in and embraces ROMEO.]

Here comes the lady. Oh,a footstep as light as hers will never endure the rocky road of life. Lovers are so light they can walk on a spiderweb floating on a summer breeze, and yet not fall. That’s how flimsy and unreal pleasure is.

JULIET

Good evening, my spiritual confessor.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Romeo will thank you, my girl, for both of us.

JULIET

I’ll give him equal thanks, so we’re even.

ROMEO

Ah, Juliet if you’re as happy as I am, and you’re better with words, tell me about the happiness you imagine we’ll have in our marriage.

JULIET

I can imagine more than I can say—I have more on my mind than words. Anyone who can count how much he has is poor. My true love has made me so rich that I can’t count even half of my wealth.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Come, come with me, and we’ll do the job quickly. Because if you don’t mind, I’m not leaving you two alone until you’re united in marriage.

[They exit.]

Act 3, Scene 1

[MERCUTIO, his page, and BENVOLIO enter with other men.]

BENVOLIO

I’m begging you, good Mercutio, let’s go home. It’s hot, and the Capulets are all over the place. If we should meet up with them, we’ll end up fighting them. Hot days like today get people all worked up and angry.

MERCUTIO

You’re the kind of guy who walks into a bar, slaps his sword down on the table and says, “I hope I don’t have to use you.” By the time he’s having his second drink, he draws his sword on the bartender for no reason.

BENVOLIO

You think I’m like that?

MERCUTIO

Come now. You can be as hot-blooded as any man in Italy. You get angry at the smallest thing, and when you’re in the mood to get angry you always find something to get angry about.

BENVOLIO

So what?

MERCUTIO

So, if there were two men such as you, it wouldn’t take long for there to be none because each of you would kill the other. You, why, you would fight with a man if he had one more or one less hair in his beard than you have in yours. You’ll fight a man who’s cracking nuts simply because your own eyes are the color of hazelnuts. Only someone like you would look for that kind of fight. Your head is as full of fights as an egg is full of food, but your head has gotten scrambled like an egg from all your fighting. You once fought with a man who coughed in the street because he woke up your dog that was sleeping in the sun. And can you deny that you had a falling out with a tailor because he was wearing a new jacket before Easter? And with another for tying his new shoes with old laces? And yet you’re trying to tell me how to avoid fighting?

BENVOLIO

If I were as quick to get into fights as you are, my life insurance rates would be immense.

MERCUTIO

Your life insurance? You’re a fool!

[TYBALT, PETRUCHIO, and some other CAPULETS enter.]

BENVOLIO

By God, Here come the Capulets.

MERCUTIO

By my foot, I couldn’t care less.

TYBALT

(to his men) Follow me closely. I’ll speak to them. (to BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO) Good afternoon, gentlemen. I’d like to have a word with one of you.

MERCUTIO

You want a single word with one of us? Combine it with something else. Make it a word and a blow.

TYBALT

You’ll find me happy to do that, sir, if you give me a reason.

MERCUTIO

You can’t find a reason without my giving you one?

TYBALT

Mercutio, you hang with Romeo.

MERCUTIO

“Hang?” What, are we musicians in a band? If we look like musicians to you, you can expect to hear nothing but noise. (touching his sword) This is my fiddlestick. It will make you dance. My God — “hang!”

BENVOLIO

We’re talking here in public. Either let’s go somewhere private and calmly discuss your grievance, or else just go our separates ways. Here, everybody can see us.

MERCUTIO

Men’s eyes were made to see. Let them watch. I won’t move for anyone.

[ROMEO enters.]

TYBALT

Well, may peace be with you. Here comes the man I’m after.

MERCUTIO

I’ll be hanged if he’s your servant. Walk out into a field and he’ll chase you. That’s the only sense in which you can call him your “man.”

TYBALT

Romeo, I have just one thing to say to you: you’re a villain.

ROMEO

Tybalt, I love you for a reason that allows me to ignore the rage I would normally feel in response to such a greeting. I’m not a villain. Therefore, goodbye. I can see that you don’t know me at all.

TYBALT

Boy, these words don’t excuse the injuries you’ve done to me. Turn and draw your sword.

ROMEO

I’ve never done you harm. In fact, I love you more than you’ll be able to understand until you know the reason behind my love. And so, good Capulet—which is a name I love as dearly as my own—be satisfied.

MERCUTIO

Such a calm submission is both dishonorable and vile! The thrust of a sword will sweep it away. (draws his sword) Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you duel with me?

TYBALT

What do you want from me?

MERCUTIO

Good King of Cats, I want nothing more than one of your nine lives. I’ll boldly take that one, and, depending on how you behave after that, I just may also beat the rest of the eight out of you too. Will you draw your sword from its sheath? Hurry, or mine will be at your ears before you have yours out.

TYBALT

I’ll duel with you. (draws his sword)

ROMEO

Noble Mercutio, put your sword away.

MERCUTIO

(to TYBALT) Get on with it, sir, attack.

[MERCUTIO and TYBALT fight]

ROMEO

(draws his sword) Draw your sword, Benvolio, and help me beat down their weapons. Gentlemen, this is shameful Tybalt! Mercutio! The Prince has explicitly forbidden fighting in the streets of Verona. Stop! Tybalt! Good Mercutio!

ROMEO tries to break up the fight. TYBALT stabs Mercutio under ROMEO’s outstretched arm.

PETRUCHIO

Let’s get out of here, Tybalt.

[TYBALT, PETRUCHIO, and the other CAPULETS exit.]

MERCUTIO

I’m hurt. May a plague strike both your families. I’m done. Did he get away without injury?

BENVOLIO

What, are you hurt?

MERCUTIO

Yes, yes. A scratch, just a scratch. Yet it’s enough. Where is my page? Go, villain. Get a doctor.

[MERCUTIO’S PAGE exits.]

ROMEO

Have courage, man. The injury can’t be so bad.

MERCUTIO

It’s not as deep as a well or as wide as a church door, but it’s enough. Ask for me tomorrow, and you’ll find me a grave man. My time in this world is done, I believe. May a plague strike both your families. God! That dog, that rat, that mouse, that cat has scratched me to death! That braggart, that scoundrel, that villain who fights as if he learned it all from some manual! (To ROMEO) Why the devil did you step between us? He wounded me by reaching under your arm.

ROMEO

I was trying to do what was right.

MERCUTIO

Carry me inside some house, Benvolio, or else I will faint. May a plague strike both your families! They’ve made me into worm food. I’m finished. Curse your families!

[MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO exit.]

ROMEO

This gentleman, a kinsman of the Prince and my friend, was killed while fighting on my behalf, to defend me against Tybalt’s insults. Tybalt, who has been my own kinsman for an hour! Oh, sweet Juliet, your beauty has made me effeminate and softened the steel of my valor.

[BENVOLIO enters.]

BENVOLIO

Oh Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio is dead! His noble spirit has gone to heaven, but it was too early for him to leave this life.

ROMEO

Today’s dark fate will determine the future. These events only begin the sorrow that is to come.

[TYBALT enters.]

BENVOLIO

The furious Tybalt jas returned.

ROMEO

Alive and triumphant, while Mercutio is dead? Begone, respect and compassion. Rage and fury will be my guide. Now, Tybalt, take back the “villain” that you called me earlier. Mercutio’s soul is waiting just a bit above our heads for you to join him. Either you, I, or both of us must go with him.

TYBALT

Wretched boy, you hung out with him here on earth, and now you’re going to go with him to heaven.

ROMEO

Our fight will decide who goes to heaven.

[They fight. TYBALT falls and dies.]

BENVOLIO

Romeo, get away from here. The citizens are coming, and Tybalt is dead. Don’t just stand there staring. If you’re caught, the Prince will execute you. Get out of here!

ROMEO

Oh, fate has played me for a fool!

BENVOLIO

Why are you still here?

[ROMEO exits.]

[The CITIZENS OF THE WATCH enter.]

CITIZEN OF THE WATCH

Where did the man who killed Mercutio run? Tybalt, that murderer, which way did he go?

BENVOLIO

Tybalt is lying right there.

CITIZEN OF THE WATCH

(to TYBALT) Get up, sir, and come with me. By the name of the Prince, I command you to obey.

[The PRINCE enters with MONTAGUE, CAPULET, LADY MONTAGUE, LADY CAPULET, and OTHERS.]

PRINCE

Where are the evil instigators of this fight?

BENVOLIO

Oh, noble prince, I can explain everything about the unfortunate events that led to this deadly fight. There lies Tybalt, the man who killed your relative, brave Mercutio. Tybalt was then killed by young Romeo.

LADY CAPULET

Tybalt, my nephew! My brother’s son! Oh Prince, oh nephew, oh husband! Oh, my dear kinsman is dead! Prince, you are a man of honor, and therefore must respond to this murder by killing a Montague. Oh cousin, cousin!

PRINCE

Benvolio, who began this deadly fight?

BENVOLIO

Tybalt did, who then was killed by Romeo. Romeo spoke politely to Tybalt and begged him to see how ridiculous the disagreement was and to remember how displeased you would be if there was a fight. All this he said gently, calmly, kneeling down with humility. But he could not make peace. Tybalt’s anger was irrational, and he was deaf to any talk of peace. Soon Tybalt attacked Mercutio, who just as angry, fought back. They thrusted and parried. Romeo cried out, “Stop, my friends. Step apart,” jumped between, and forced down their swords. Tybalt, though, thrust his sword under Romeo’s arm and hit brave Mercutio’s heart. Then Tybalt ran. But, soon after, Tybalt returned to fight Romeo, who by now wanted revenge for Mercutio’s death. They began to fight as quick as lightning. Before I could separate them, Tybalt was killed. As Tybalt fell, Romeo turned and ran. This is the truth, I swear on my life.

LADY CAPULET

Benvolio is a Montague. His loyalty compels him to lie. He’s lying. There must have been twenty Montagues fighting, and together all twenty of them could only kill one man. I beg for justice that only you, Prince, can give. Romeo killed Tybalt. Romeo must die.

PRINCE

Romeo killed Tybalt. Tybalt killed Mercutio. Who should pay the price for Mercutio’s life?

MONTAGUE

Not Romeo, Prince. He was Mercutio’s friend. His “crime” was justice, because it took the life of Tybalt.

PRINCE

And for that crime, Romeo is now exiled from Verona. I’m now caught up in the strife between your families. My kinsman is now dead because of your damned dispute. I’ll punish you with a fine so large that you’ll regret the loss you’ve caused me. I refuse to listen to any of your pleas or excuses. Neither crying nor praying will help you to escape this punishment, so don’t even try. Romeo must leave the city immediately, or else, if he’s found, he’ll be immediately killed. Carry away this body, and obey my commands. Pardoning murderers just creates more murders by making every would-be murderer think that they’ll probably be pardoned too.

[They exit.]

Act 3, Scene 2

[JULIET enters alone.]

JULIET

Move faster you fiery-footed horses, bearing the sun toward its nighttime resting place. The mythological Phaeton would whip you so hard that you would already have brought the sun west and night would come immediately. Come night, with your darkness, so that Romeo can come to me without anyone knowing and leap into my arms. In the dark, lovers can still see enough, by the light of their own beauty, to make love. Or, if love is blind, then it is best suited to the night. Come, night, you widow dressed in black, and teach me how to win my love so that we both can lose our virginity. Hide the blood rushing to my cheeks in your darkness, until my shy love grows bold enough to think of love-making as simple and true. Come, night. Come, Romeo. You’re like a day during the night, lying on the wings of night even whiter than snow on the wings of a raven. Come, gentle night. Come, loving, dark night. Give me my Romeo. And when I die, take him and cut him into stars that will make the night sky so beautiful that the entire world will fall in love with the night and forget about the tasteless sun. Oh, I have bought the mansion of love, but not yet possessed it. I belong to Romeo, but have not yet been enjoyed by him. This day is so long and dull, just as the night before some festival is to an impatient child forced to wait to put on her fancy new clothes.

[The NURSE enters carrying the rope ladder.]

Oh, here comes my Nurse, bringing news. Every voice that speaks Romeo’s name speaks with heavenly beauty. Now, Nurse, what’s your news? What is that you have there? The rope ladder Romeo told you to get?

NURSE

Yes, yes, the ladder.

JULIET

Oh no, what’s your news? Why are you wringing your hands?

NURSE

Alas! He’s dead. He’s dead. He’s dead! We’re done for, lady, done for! Curse the day! He’s gone. He’s killed. He’s dead!

JULIET

Can God be so cruel?

NURSE

Romeo can be, though God is not. Oh, Romeo, Romeo! Who ever would have guessed? Romeo!

JULIET

What kind of a devil are you to torment me in this way? This sort of torture is fit only for hell. Has Romeo killed himself? Say “yes” and that single word will poison me more terribly than could even the deadly gaze of the mythological cockatrice. I will cease to be myself if you say that Romeo killed himself. If he’s dead, say “Yes.” If not, say “No.” Those little words will determine my joy or pain.

NURSE

I saw the wound. I saw it with my own eyes. God bless that wound—here on his manly chest. A pitiful corpse, a bloody, pitiful corpse. Pale, pale as ashes and covered in blood. Gory with blood. I fainted at the sight of it.

JULIET

Oh, my poor, bankrupt heart is breaking. Go to prison, eyes, so you will never again be free to look at the world. I’ll bury my body in the earth, where it will lie motionless and share a single coffin with Romeo.

NURSE

Oh Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I ever had. Oh, well-mannered, honorable Tybalt. If only I had not lived long enough to see him die.

JULIET

What storm is this to cause so many different disasters? Has Romeo been killed, and Tybalt too? Tybalt, my dearest cousin, and Romeo who as my husband was even more dear to me? May the last trumpet play to signal the onset of doomsday, because who could remain alive if those two are gone?

NURSE

Tybalt is dead. Romeo has been banished. It was Romeo who killed Tybalt, which is why he was banished.

JULIET

Oh God, did Romeo’s hand shed Tybalt’s blood?

NURSE

It did, it did. Unfortunately it did.

JULIET

Oh, he has a traitor’s heart hidden behind a pretty face! Did any dragon ever nest in such a pretty cave? He’s a beautiful tyrant! A fiendish angel! A raven hiding under the feathers of a dove! A lamb that kills like a wolf! A hateful reality hidden by a beautiful appearance. The exact opposite of what he seemed. He seemed a saint but should be damned! He’s a villain who seemed honorable! Oh nature, what were you doing in hell when you placed the soul of a devil in the paradise of such a perfect man? Has any book with such awful contents ever had a more beautiful cover? Oh, how could such betrayal hide in such a gorgeous body!

NURSE

There is no trust, faith, or honesty in men. They all break their oaths. They’re all wicked. They all lie. Where’s my servant? — Get me some brandy — These griefs, these miseries, these sorrows make me old. Shame on Romeo!

JULIET

May blisters cover your tongue for making a wish like that! Romeo was not born to have anything to do with shame. Shame could never be connected to him, because he is destined only to experience great and total honor. Oh, I was such a beast to condemn him.

NURSE

You’re going to speak well of the man who killed your cousin?

JULIET

Should I speak badly of my own husband? Ah, my poor husband, who will speak well of you when I, your wife of three hours, have been calling you such dreadful names? But why, you villain, did you kill my cousin? Because my villain of a cousin would have killed you, my husband. I refuse to cry. These tears which seem like sadness for Tybalt’s death are actually tears of joy that Romeo is still alive. My husband, whom Tybalt would have killed, is alive. And Tybalt, who wanted to kill my husband, is dead. This is good news. So why am I crying? Because there was news that’s even worse than that of Tybalt’s death. Worse news that kills me inside. I wish I could forget it, but it forces its way into my memory the way sins obsess guilty minds. “Tybalt is dead, and Romeo has been banished.” That word “banished,” that single word “banished,” is worse than the death of ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt’s death would been misery enough even if nothing else had happened. Or, if misery loves company, and one grief must necessarily follow another, then it would have been better had the Nurse, after telling me that Tybalt was dead, then told me that my mother or my father, or even both, were gone. That would have pushed me into normal feelings of grief. But to tell me that Tybalt’s is dead and then say, “Romeo has been banished.” To say that is the same as saying that my father, my mother, Tybalt, Romeo, and Juliet have all been killed, are all dead. “Romeo has been banished.” The death contained in those four words is infinite, unmeasurable. No words can express that misery. Where are my father and mother, Nurse?

NURSE

Crying over Tybalt’s corpse. Will you join them? I’ll bring you there.

JULIET

Do they wash Tybalt’s wounds with their tears? My tears will still be flowing because of Romeo’s banishment when their tears for Tybalt have gone dry. Take this rope ladder, this poor rope ladder made useless because Romeo has been exiled. He made this ladder to be his passageway to my bed, but I am a virgin and now will die a virgin and a widow. Come with me, rope ladder. Come with me, Nurse. I’m going to my wedding bed. Death, not Romeo, will take my virginity!

NURSE

Go to your bedroom. I’ll go bring Romeo to comfort you. I know where he is. Pay attention: your Romeo will be here tonight. I’ll get him. He’s hiding in Friar Lawrence’s cell.

JULIET

(gives the NURSE a ring) Oh, find him! Give this ring to my true knight! Tell him to come here to give me his last goodbye.

[They exit.]

Act 3, Scene 3

[FRIAR LAWRENCE enters.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Romeo, come here. Come here, you frightened man. Trouble follows you, and you’re married to catastrophe.

[ROMEO enters.]

ROMEO

Father, what’s the news? Did the Prince state how I am to be punished? What unknown suffering is coming for me?

FRIAR LAWRENCE

My dear son, you’re too familiar with suffering. I do have news for you about the Prince’s punishment for you.

ROMEO

Is it anything less than my death?

FRIAR LAWRENCE

His judgment was gentler than that. You won’t be executed, but will be banished from Verona.

ROMEO

Banishment! Be merciful: say “death.” Exile is much worse to me than death. Don’t say “banishment.”

FRIAR LAWRENCE

You are banished from Verona. Be patient, the world is big and anything can happen.

ROMEO

The world outside Verona’s walls is like purgatory, torture, hell itself. Being banished from Verona is the same as being banished from the world, and being banished from the world is the same as death. Banishment is just a different name for death. So telling me that I’m banished is like cutting off my head with a golden ax and smiling while murdering me.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Oh, deadly sin! Oh, you rude, unthankful child! Your crime is punishable by death, but the Prince in his kindness defended you and bypassed the law by replacing death with banishment. This is mercy, but you can’t see it.

ROMEO

It’s torture, not mercy. Heaven is in Verona because this is where Juliet lives. Every cat and dog and little mouse, every unworthy creature, that lives in Verona lives in heaven because it can see her. But I won’t be able to. Carrion-eating flies will have more vitality, a more blessed existences, and more romance than I will. They can touch Juliet’s white hand and can steal kisses from her sweet lips, which, though she is a pure virgin, blush when they touch each other because they think it’s a sin. But Romeo can’t touch her hand or kiss her. Flies can kiss her, but I must fly from the city. Flies are free, but I’ve been banished. Do you still argue that exile isn’t death? You didn’t have some poison, sharpened knife, or some other weapon that you could have used to kill me quickly, nothing so disgraceful, other than banishment? Oh Friar, damned souls use the word “banishment” to describe hell. They howl the word. How, as a priest, confessor, and my friend, can you have the heart to say to me the word “banished?”

FRIAR LAWRENCE

You silly madman, listen to me for a second.

ROMEO

Now you’re just going to talk again about banishment.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

I’ll protect you from that word by using the cure for adversity—philosophy—which will comfort you even though you’ve been banished.

ROMEO

In the face of banishment, screw philosophy! Unless philosophy can create a Juliet, move an entire town to a new place, or reverse a prince’s punishment, it can’t help me. Stop talking.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Ah, I’ve discovered that madmen are deaf.

ROMEO

Why should madmen hear, when wise men can’t see?

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Let me argue with you about your situation.

ROMEO

You can’t talk about something you don’t feel. If you were as young as I am, in love with Juliet, married to her for just an hour, and had murdered Tybalt… If you loved her as I do and were banished as I am, then you could talk about it. Though instead you might tear out your hair and fall to the ground the way I do right now (ROMEO falls on the ground) in order to measure out your grave.

[Knocking sounds from offstage.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Get up. Someone’s knocking. Hide, good Romeo.

ROMEO

The only way I’ll hide is if my heartsick groans produce a mist that covers me from people’s searching eyes.

[Knocking]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

They knock again!— Who’s there?— Romeo, stand up. They’ll catch you.— Hold on a moment.—Romeo, stand up.

[Knocking]

Hide in my study.—Just a minute—For the love of God, don’t be so stupid! I’m coming. I’m coming.

[Knocking]

Who is it that is knocking so hard? Where do you come from? What do you want?

NURSE

(from offstage) Let me in, and I’ll tell you why I’m here. I come from Lady Juliet.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(opening the door) Welcome, then.

[The NURSE enters]

NURSE

Oh, holy Friar, Oh, tell me, holy Friar, where is my lady’s husband? Where’s Romeo?

FRIAR LAWRENCE

There, on the ground, drunk on his own tears.

NURSE

He’s acting like Juliet, exactly like her. Oh awful sympathy! What a dreadful predicament! She’s lying on the ground just like him, blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering. Stand up. Stand up. Stand up if you’re a man. For Juliet’s sake, for her sake, rise and stand. Why do you moan so terribly?

ROMEO

Nurse!

NURSE

Well, sir, well... death comes for everybody.

ROMEO

What of Juliet? How is she? Does she think that I’m a cold-blooded murderer because I corrupted our newfound love by killing her relative? Where is she? How is she? What does my wife say about our love?

NURSE

Oh, she says nothing, sir. Instead she weeps and weeps. She falls on her bed, then starts to get up, then calls out Tybalt’s name and then your name and then she falls back down on the bed.

ROMEO

She calls out my name as if it were a bullet that had shot from a gun and murdered her, just as I murdered her cousin. Tell me, Friar, in what vile part of my body does my name rest? Tell me, so I can cut it out of myself. (He draws his dagger)

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Stop! Don’t do anything out of desperation. Are you a man? You look like a man. But your tears are womanly. Your wildness is like the irrational fury of a beast. You’re like an inappropriate woman hiding within a man, or, even worse, a shameful beast hiding within a half-man, half-woman! You amaze me. By my holy order, I swear I thought you were stronger and more stable than this. Have you killed Tybalt? Will you kill yourself, and in performing such a sin also kill your wife, who shares your life? Why are you ranting about your birth, the heavens, and the earth? You are made of the joining of all three, and now want nothing to do with them? You bring shame to your body, your love, and your mind. You are blessed with all three, but like a moneylender you do not use your body, love, or mind for their true purpose. Without honor or nobility, your body is just a wax figure. The love that you swore is just a hollow lie, since you now threaten to kill the love that you vowed to cherish. Your mind, that key to both your body and your love, has failed to handle both of them. You’re like an unskilled soldier who accidentally explodes his own gunpowder because he does not know how to use it: you end up killing yourself with the very thing meant to protect you. Now get a hold of yourself, man! Your Juliet is alive (for whose sake you were just threatening to kill yourself). That is something to be happy about. Tybalt tried to kill you, but you killed Tybalt. That is something to be happy about. The law that promised death for you was mercifully changed into exile—another thing to be happy about. You have been blessed multiple times, and are surrounded by brightest happiness. But like a misbehaved and sullen girl, you’re pouting about your bad luck and thwarted love. Now listen to me: those who act the way you are now die miserable. Go, be with your love, as we planned. Climb up to her bedroom and comfort her. But make sure to leave before the watchmen take their positions, because they will stop you before you can escape to Mantua. You’ll live in Mantua until we can announce your marriage publicly, make peace between your families, and beg the Prince to pardon you. Then we’ll welcome you back with twenty hundred thousand times more joy than you’ll feel when leaving. Nurse, go to Juliet before Romeo follows. Give my regards to your lady, and tell her to hurry everybody in her house to bed. They’re sorrow is likely to make them want to go to sleep, anyway. Romeo is coming.

NURSE

O Lord, I could stay here all night listening to good advice like yours. Education is amazing! (speaking to ROMEO) My lord, I’ll tell my lady you will come.

ROMEO

Do that, and tell my beloved to be ready to scold me.

NURSE

Here, sir, take this ring she asked me to give you. (she gives ROMEO JULIET’s ring) Hurry, it’s getting late.

The NURSE exits.

ROMEO

This ring lifts my spirits!

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Now go. Good night. And remember that everything depends on you being out of Verona before the night watch takes its position, or that you disguise yourself and leave after daybreak. Stay awhile in Mantua. I’ll find your servant, and every once in a while through him I’ll send you news about every good thing that occurs for you here. Give me your hand. It’s late. Farewell. Good night.

ROMEO

Here I go to experience a joy greater than any other, but even so I’m sad to have to leave you so quickly. Farewell.

[They exit.]

Act 3, Scene 4

[Enter CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, and PARIS]

CAPULET

Everything has gone so badly, sir, that we haven’t had any time to speak with Juliet about marrying you. She loved her cousin Tybalt dearly, as did I. Well, we were all born to die. It’s very late, she won’t be coming downstairs tonight. In fact, if I wasn’t meeting with you I’d have gone to bed an hour ago.

PARIS

Painful times provide no chance for love. Lady Capulet, good night. Speak well of me to your daughter.

LADY CAPULET

I will. And I’ll find out how she feels about marrying you early tomorrow. Tonight she is locked in her room with her sadness.

CAPULET

Sir Paris, I’ll make a desperate present of my child’s love. I think she’ll do whatever I tell her to I say. No, I’m sure she will. Wife, go to see her before you go to bed. Explain to her how my son Paris loves her. And tell her, listen to me, on Wednesday—Wait—What day is today?

PARIS

Monday, my lord.

CAPULET

Monday! Ha, ha! Well, Wednesday is too soon. Make it Thursday. On Thursday, tell her, she’ll be married to this noble earl. Will you be ready, Paris? Are you opposed to rushing in this way? We won’t have a big party, inviting just a friend or two. Because Tybalt was just killed, people might think that we didn’t care enough about our cousin if celebrate too much. Therefore we’ll invite just a half dozen friends to the wedding, and no more. So, what do you say to Thursday?

PARIS

My lord, I wish Thursday were tomorrow.

CAPULET

Well, get on home. Thursday it will be, then. (to LADY CAPULET) Go see Juliet before you go to bed. Get her ready, my wife, for her wedding day. (to PARIS) Farewell, my lord. I’m going to my bedroom. My gosh! It’s so late that in moments we will be saying that it’s early. Good night.

[They all exit.]

Act 3, Scene 5

[ROMEO and JULIET enter above the stage.]

JULIET

You’re leaving? It’s not yet close to daytime. The sound you just heard was a nightingale, not a lark. Each night the nightingale sings on that pomegranate tree. Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.

ROMEO

It was the lark, who sings to greet the dawn, not the nightingale. Look, love, at the streaks illuminating the clouds parting in the east? Night is over. Day is creeping over the mountain tops. I must leave in order to live. If I stay, I’ll die.

JULIET

That light isn’t daylight, I know it. It’s some meteor sent from the sun to be a torchbearer in order to light your way to Mantua. So stay for a bit longer. You don’t have leave.

ROMEO

Let me be caught. Let me be put to death. I’ll be happy, if that’s how you want it. I’ll say the greyness over there is not the coming morning. Rather, it’s a pale reflection of the moon. And that isn’t the lark singing in the sky above our heads. I’d rather stay than go. Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it. How are you, my love? Let’s talk. It is not day.

JULIET

It’s day. It is. Get going, be gone, go away! It’s the lark that’s singing so harshly and out of tune. Some say the lark’s singing makes a sweet transition between day and night. That’s not true, because the song divides the two of us. Some say the lark and the disgusting toad traded eyes. Now I wish they had also traded voices because the lark’s voice pulls us from each other’s arms and sets men hunting after you. Oh, get going. It’s getting more and more light.

ROMEO

The lighter it gets, the darker is our misery.

[The NURSE enters]

NURSE

Madam.

JULIET

Nurse?

NURSE

Your mother is on her way to your bedroom. Day has arrived. Be careful. Watch out.

[The NURSE exits]

JULIET

The window lets day in, and now my life goes out the window.

ROMEO

Farewell, farewell! One more kiss, and I’ll go down.

[They kiss. ROMEO climbs out the window and down the wall.]

JULIET

Are you gone just like that, my love, my lord? Husband, lover, I must hear from you every day. There are many days in each minute. Oh, by this count I’ll be so much older before I see you again, my Romeo.

ROMEO

Farewell! I’ll take every opportunity to send my love to you.

JULIET

Oh, do you think we’ll ever meet again?

ROMEO

I don’t doubt it. When we’re older these difficulties will just be stories that we tell each other.

JULIET

Oh God, my soul senses some coming evil! It seems to me that, standing down there as you are, you look as if you are lying dead in the bottom of a tomb. Either my eyesight is failing me, or you look pale.

ROMEO

Trust me, love, in my eyes you look pale as well. Sadness steals our color. Goodbye, goodbye!

[ROMEO exits]

JULIET

Oh, Fortune. People say that you are fickle, always changing your mind. If you are so fickle, what will you do to Romeo, who’s so renowned for being faithful? Be fickle, fortune, and do not keep him away long. Instead send him back to Verona soon.

LADY CAPULET

(offstage) Hello, my daughter! Are you up?

JULIET

Who’s calling? My mother? Why is she up so late, or so early? What could possibly be her reason for coming to see me?

[LADY CAPULET enters.]

LADY CAPULET

What’s the matter, Juliet?

JULIET

Madam, I’m not feeling well.

LADY CAPULET

Are you going to weep forever about your cousin’s death? Do you think you can wash him out of his grave with tears? Even if you could, you couldn’t bring him back to life. So stop crying. Some grief shows a lot of love. But too much grief makes you look silly.

JULIET

Let me weep for such a terrible loss.

LADY CAPULET

Weeping like this will make you feel the loss, but won’t help you feel the friend you’ve lost.

JULIET

Feeling the loss so strongly, I can’t help but weep for him forever.

LADY CAPULET

Well, girl, you’re weeping not for his death, but rather because the villain who murdered him still lives.

JULIET

What villain, madam?

LADY CAPULET

That same villain, Romeo.

JULIET

(to herself) He’s far from a villain. (to LADY CAPULET) May God pardon him! I do, with all my heart. And yet he makes my heart grieve more than any other man.

LADY CAPULET

That’s because the traitorous murderer still lives.

JULIET

Yes, madam, because he lives outside the reach of my hands. I wish that I was the only one who could avenge my cousin’s death!

LADY CAPULET

We’ll get revenge for it, don’t you worry. Stop your weeping. I’ll send a note to a certain man we know in Mantua, which is where that banished renegade Romeo is living. The man will poison Romeo so that Romeo will soon be keeping Tybalt company in death. And then, I hope, you’ll be satisfied.

JULIET

In fact, I’ll never be satisfied with Romeo until I see him. . . dead is the way my poor heart feels when I think of my poor cousin. Madam, if you could only find a man with poison, I’d mix it myself so that Romeo would, once dosed with it, sleep quietly. Oh, I hate to hear his name and not be able to go after him! How I’d like to take my love for my cousin and take it out on the body of the man who killed him!

LADY CAPULET

Find a way to do it, and I’ll find the man we need to help you. But now I’ll tell you some joyful news, girl.

JULIET

It’s good when there is joy during such sad times. What’s the news, please?

LADY CAPULET

Well, you have a father who cares for you, child. To help you escape your sadness, he has arranged a soon-to-come day of joy that you didn’t expect and that I had not considered.

JULIET

Madam, quickly, what day is that?

LADY CAPULET

Well, my child, early Thursday morning, at Saint Peter’s Church, the gallant, young, and noble gentleman Count Paris will make you a joyful bride.

JULIET

Right now I swear by Saint Peter’s Church and Peter too that he will not make me a joyful bride. I’m confused by this sudden hurry. Why I would I marry this would-be husband before he’s even come to court me? I beg you, tell my father, madam, I won’t marry yet. And when I do marry, I swear, I’d marry Romeo, whom you know I hate, before I’d marry Paris. Now that is news!

LADY CAPULET

Here comes your father. Tell him so yourself, and see how he takes it from you.

[CAPULET and the NURSE enter.]

CAPULET

When the sun sets the air drizzles dew. But when the son of my brother died, the rain came in a downpour. (to JULIET) What’s with you? Are you a fountain? Still crying? Will you cry forever? You’re like a ship, the sea, and the winds. Like the sea, your eyes ebb and flow with tears. Your body is like the ship, sailing in the salt water of your tears. The winds are your sighs, which rage with tears and, unless you immediately calm down, will toss your body as if it’s in a storm and sink you. So what’s the story, wife? Have you told her about our announcement?

LADY CAPULET

Yes. And in reply she says thank you but no thanks. May the fool be married to her grave!

CAPULET

What? Explain this to me again, wife. She refuses? She doesn’t just say thank you? Is she not proud of the match? Is she not counting her blessings that we have found for her, unworthy as she is, such a noble gentleman to be her bridegroom?

JULIET

I’m not proud of what you found, but thankful for your efforts. I can’t be proud of what I hate. But I can be thankful for what I hate, if it was meant with love.

CAPULET

What, what, what, what? Insane logic! What is this? How can you say “proud” and “I thank you” and “no thank you” and “not proud?” You spoiled brat, don’t give me these “thank you no thank yous” and “proud not prouds.” Just get yourself together for Thursday when you’ll be going with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church. And if you refuse to go, I’ll drag you there. My god, you sick corpse! You worthless bit of baggage! You pale face!

LADY CAPULET

(to CAPULET) Shame on you! What, are you crazy?

JULIET

Good father, I’m on my knees, begging you, please be patient and le me say just one thing.

CAPULET

You disobedient wretch of a worthless girl! I’ll tell you what: get yourself to church on Thursday or never again look me in the face. Don’t speak. Don’t reply. Don’t answer me. (JULIET rises) My fingers itch to slap you. Wife, we never thought we had been blessed that God gave us just this one child, but now I see that this one is one too many. We were cursed when we had her. She sickens me, the good-for-nothing.

NURSE

God in heaven bless her! You’re wrong, my lord, to shout at her that way.

CAPULET

And why is that, my lady of such wisdom? Now shut up. Go chatter with your gossiping cronies.

NURSE

I’ve not said anything wrong.

CAPULET

Oh, God.

NURSE

Can’t I speak?

CAPULET

Quiet, you mumbling fool! Save your wisdom for your gossiping buddies. We don’t need it.

LADY CAPULET

You’re too angry.

CAPULET

By God! It makes me angry! Day and night, hour after hour, through tide and time, working or playing, alone or with company, I’ve worked to get her a fine match. Now, I’ve gotten her a noble gentleman, who’s good-looking, young, well-educated, and honorable, who’s the man of any girl’s dreams. And this wretched, crying fool, like a whining puppet, responds to this good fortune by answering, “I won’t marry. I can’t love. I’m too young. Forgive me.” Well, if you won’t get married, here’s how I’ll forgive you. Eat wherever you want, except in my house. Think about that. I’m not joking. Thursday is soon. Cover your heart with your hand and listen to my advice. Act like my daughter, and I’ll marry you to my friend. Don’t, and you can beg, starve, and die in the streets. By my soul, I’ll never again acknowledge or help you. Count on it. Think about it. I won’t break this oath.

[CAPULET exits.]

JULIET

Is there no god above that pities my grief? Oh, sweet mother, don’t throw me out! Delay this marriage for a month, or just a week. Or, else, make my wedding bed in the family crypt where Tybalt lies.

LADY CAPULET

Don’t talk to me. I won’t say a word. Do as you please, because I’m done with you.

[LADY CAPULET exits.]

JULIET

Oh God!—Oh Nurse, how can we stop this? My husband is alive on earth, our vows are up in heaven. How can those vows come back down to earth, unless my husband dies and goes to heaven and sends them back down by doing so? Comfort me. Tell me what to do. Oh, oh, why does God play like this with someone as small as me? What do you say? Don’t you have even one happy word? Comfort me, Nurse.

NURSE

Here’s what I think. Romeo’s banished. There’s no chance that he would ever come back to challenge you if you get married. And if he does come back, he can only do so by sneaking in. Since that’s the way things are, I think the best thing for you to do is to marry the count. He’s a lovely gentleman! Romeo’s a dishcloth compared to him. An eagle does not have eyes as green, quick, or beautiful as Paris does. Curse my heart, but I think you’re lucky to have this second husband, because he surpasses your first. And even if he didn’t, your first husband is dead, or as good as dead, since Romeo doesn’t live here and you don’t get to enjoy him.

JULIET

Do you speak from your heart?

NURSE

From my heart and my soul too. If not, curse them both.

JULIET

Amen!

NURSE

What?

JULIET

Well, you have comforted me greatly. Go inside and tell my mother that, because I made my father angry, I’ve gone to Friar Lawrence’s cell to confess and be absolved.

NURSE

Indeed, I will. This is the wisest course.

[The NURSE exits.]

JULIET

Damned old lady! Oh, most wicked fiend! Is it a worse sin for her to tell me to break my vows or to criticize my husband with the same tongue she used to praise him so many times before? Be gone, Nurse, with your advice. I’ll never again tell you the true feelings of my heart. I’ll go to the Friar to see if he has a solution. And if all else fails, at least I have the power to kill myself.

[JULIET exits.]

Act 4, Scene 1

[FRIAR LAWRENCE and PARIS enter.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

On Thursday, sir? That’s extremely soon.

PARIS

My father-in-law Capulet wants it that way, and I’m not at all interested in slowing him down.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

You say you don’t know what Juliet wants. That’s a treacherous road. I don’t like it.

PARIS

She’s grieving too much over Tybalt’s death, so I haven’t talked to her about love. Romantic love can’t flourish during times of mourning. Now, sir, her father thinks it’s dangerous that she has given herself so fully to sorrow. In his wisdom, he’s rushing our marriage in order to stop her tears. She is alone all the time and thinking too much of her grief. Some company might help her to stop crying. Now you know the reason for this hurry to the wedding.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(to himself) I wish I didn’t know the reason why it should be slowed down. Look, sir, here comes the lady toward my cell.

[JULIET enters.]

PARIS

I’m happy to see you, my lady and my wife.

JULIET

That might be, sir, when I’m married.

PARIS

That “may be” must be, love, on Thursday.

JULIET

What must be will be.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

That’s a certain truth.

PARIS

Have you come to make confession to Father Lawrence?

JULIET

If I answered that, I’d be confessing to you.

PARIS

Don’t deny to him that you love me.

JULIET

I’ll confess to you that I love him.

PARIS

You will also confess, I’m sure, that you love me.

JULIET

If I do so, it will be worth more if I say it behind your back than if I say it to your face.

PARIS

Poor dear, your face has been abused by so many tears.

JULIET

The tears haven’t won much, since my face wasn’t all that nice before I started to cry.

PARIS

Now you’re abusing your face to say something untrue like that about it.

JULIET

It is no lie, sir. It’s the truth. And what I said, I said to my face.

PARIS

Your face is mine, and you have slandered it.

JULIET

That may be true, since my face is not my own.—(to FRIAR LAWRENCE) Are you free, Father, or should I come to you at evening mass?

FRIAR LAWRENCE

I have time, my sad daughter. (to PARIS) My lord, we must ask you for some time alone.

PARIS

God forbid that I should intrude on confession! Juliet, I will wake you early on Thursday. (kissing her) Until then, good-bye, and keep this holy kiss.

[PARIS exits.]

JULIET

Oh, shut the door! And when you’ve done that, come weep with me. My situation is beyond hope, beyond cure, beyond help!

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Oh, Juliet, I already know why you’re so sad. It’s too difficult a problem for me to know how to solve. I’ve heard that on the coming Thursday you must marry this count, and nothing can delay it.

JULIET

Don’t tell me, Friar, that you’ve heard all this unless you can tell me how I can prevent it. If with all your wisdom even you can’t help, then you must agree that my solution is wise, and that this knife is the key to the solution (JULIET reveals a knife). God joined my heart to Romeo’s, and you joined our hands. Before my hand or heart—which are bound to Romeo—are given to another man, I’ll use this knife to kill myself. So either use your long experience and education to give me some advice about what to do, or watch as I use this knife like a judge to honorably resolve the extreme situation in which I’m caught. Don’t wait long to speak. I want to die if what you say isn’t a solution.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Wait, daughter, I see a ray of hope. But it will require an act as desperate as the situation we want to avoid. If you have the willpower to kill yourself rather than marry Count Paris, then you’ll likely agree to experience something like death to escape this problem. You can wrestle with death itself in order to escape from death. If you dare to do it, I’ll give you the solution.

JULIET

To avoid marrying Paris I’d jump from the top of a tower; or walk down thief-infested alleys; or sit among a nest of serpents; or be chained up up with wild bears; or be shut up every night in a crypt full of rattling bones, stinking flesh, and skulls without jawbones; or climb into a freshly dug grave and hide beneath the shroud of a dead man. All those things make me tremble when I hear them said, but I’ll do them without fear or dread in order to be a pure wife to my sweet love.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Be strong, then. Go home, be cheerful, and agree to marry Paris. Tomorrow is Wednesday. Tomorrow night make sure that you go to sleep alone. Don’t let the Nurse sleep in your bedroom. (shows JULIET a vial) Drink this liquor when you’re in bed. A cold, sleepy feeling will then run through your veins, and your pulse will cease to beat. Your body will go cold, and you’ll stop breathing. The red of your lips and cheeks will fade to a pale ashy color, and your eyelids will close just as if you were dead. Your body will lose control over its own movement, and will become stiff as that of a corpse. You’ll remain in this simulation of death for forty-two hours, and then you’ll wake as if from a pleasant sleep. So when the bridegroom comes to wake you from your bed in the morning, he will think that you are dead. Then, as is the tradition of our city, you’ll be dressed in your best clothes and placed on an uncovered funeral platform and carried to the Capulet tomb that holds all of your dead relatives. Meanwhile, before you wake up, I’ll send word to Romeo of our plan. He’ll come here, and we’ll keep a watch over you as you wake. That night, Romeo will take you with him to Mantua. So, as long as you don’t change your mind or let your womanly fear interfere with your courage, you’ll be free from the current situation which threatens to force you into sin.

JULIET

Give it to me! Don’t talk to me about fear.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(giving her the vial) Now go. Be strong and good luck. I’ll send a friar speeding to Mantua with my letter to Romeo.

JULIET

Love gives me strength, and strength the will, help me follow through on this plan. Goodbye, dear Father.

[They exit in opposite directions.]

Act 4, Scene 2

CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, and the NURSE enter, along with two or three SERVINGMEN

CAPULET

(giving a paper to the FIRST SERVINGMAN) Invite all the guests written on this list.

[The FIRST SERVINGMAN exits.]

(to SECOND SERVINGMAN) Go hire twenty skilled cooks.

SECOND SERVINGMAN

I won’t hire any bad cooks. I’ll test them by making them lick their fingers.

CAPULET

How does that work?

SECOND SERVINGMAN

Well, sir, it’s a bad cook who refuses to lick his own fingers. So I won’t hire any cooks who won’t lick their own fingers.

CAPULET

Get going.

[The SECOND SERVINGMAN exits.]

We’re not going to be prepared for this wedding celebration. (to the NURSE) Has my daughter gone to see Friar Lawrence?

NURSE

Yes, that’s the truth.

CAPULET

Well, there’s a chance he may do her some good. She’s a stubborn good-for-nothing little wench.

[JULIET enters.]

NURSE

Look, she’s back from confession looking happier.

CAPULET

How are you, my headstrong daughter? Where have you been?

JULIET

Where I learned to repent for the sin of being disobedient to my father and his commands. I am instructed by holy Father Lawrence to kneel down and beg your forgiveness. (she kneels) Forgive me, I beg you. From now on I’ll do what you tell me to.

CAPULET

Send for the Count. Tell him about this. We’ll move the wedding to tomorrow morning.

JULIET

I met the youthful lord at Lawrence’s cell. I treated him with the proper love, without breaking the proper rules of modesty.

CAPULET

I’m glad! This is good. Stand up.

[JULIET stands up.]

This is how it should be. I want to see the count. Yes, okay, go, I say, and bring him here. Now, I swear before God, our whole city owes a great deal to this friar.

JULIET

Nurse, will you come with me to my room and help me pick out the clothes and jewelry that I should wear tomorrow?

LADY CAPULET

No, not until Thursday. There’s enough time.

CAPULET

Go, Nurse. Go with her. We’ll go to the church and have the wedding tomorrow.

[JULIET and the NURSE exit.]

LADY CAPULET

We won’t have enough food or drink for the party. It’s almost night already.

CAPULET

Nonsense, I’ll get to work and everything will work out well, I promise, wife. Go to Juliet and help to dress her. I’m not going to go to bed tonight. Leave me alone. I’ll act as the housewife for once.

[LADY CAPULET exits]

What? They’re all gone? Well, I’ll walk by myself to Count Paris to prepare him for tomorrow. My heart is wonderfully glad that this rebellious girl has now returned to her proper place.

[CAPULET exits]

Act 4, Scene 3

[JULIET and the NURSE enter.]

JULIET

Yes, those clothes are the best. But, gentle Nurse, I beg you, please let me be by myself tonight. I need to say many prayers in order to convince the heavens to bless me despite my situation. You know very well that my life is difficult and full of sin.

[LADY CAPULET enters.]

LADY CAPULET

Are you busy? Do you need my help?

JULIET

No, madam. We’ve selected the things that would be best for me to wear at the ceremony tomorrow. So, if it’s all right with you, please leave me alone now. Let the Nurse stay up tonight with you. I’m sure your hands are full getting ready for this sudden marriage celebration.

LADY CAPULET

Good night. Go to bed and get your rest, it’s no surprise that you should need it.

[LADY CAPULET and the NURSE exit.]

JULIET

Goodbye! God alone knows when we will meet again. A small cold fear pierces my veins and almost freezes the heat of life out of me. I’ll call them back to comfort me. Nurse!—No, what would she do here? My terrible situation requires that I act alone. This is the vial. (holds out the vial) What if this mixture doesn’t work at all? Will I end up being married tomorrow morning? No, no. This knife will stop it. Lie down right there, knife. (she lays down her knife) What if the Friar secretly made this potion to kill me because he feared he would be disgraced if he marries me to Paris after already marrying me to Romeo? I fear it is poison. And yet, I think, it can’t be poison because he is a trusted holy man. What if, when I am put in the tomb, I wake up before Romeo comes to release me? That’s a terrifying thought. Won’t I be stifled in that tomb, where there’s no fresh air to breathe, and die of suffocation before my Romeo comes? Or if I live, isn’t it very likely that the death and darkness surrounding me and the terrifying nature of the place—packed as it is with centuries of my ancestors’ bones, and Tybalt’s own bloody body freshly entombed and rotting, and with the spirits of the dead wandering around—isn’t it likely that when I wake up and smell the terrible odors, and hear the awful shrieks of the dead that could drive people crazy, that I myself will go insane and begin to play with my ancestors’ bones and pull Tybalt’s mangled corpse from its death shroud? In raging insanity, will I take some bone of one of my ancestors and bash out my brains? Oh, look! I think I see my cousin Tybalt’s ghost looking for Romeo, who killed him. Wait, Tybalt, wait! Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here’s a drink. I drink to you.

[JULIET drinks from the vial and falls down on her bed, hidden by her bed curtains.]

Act 4, Scene 4

[LADY CAPULET and the NURSE enter.]

LADY CAPULET

Wait. Take these keys and go get more spices, Nurse.

NURSE

They’re calling for dates and quinces in the kitchen.

[CAPULET enters.]

CAPULET

Come on, get moving, get moving, get moving! The second cock has crowed. The curfew-bell has rung. It’s three o’clock. Go get the baked meats, good Angelica. Don’t worry about the cost.

NURSE

Oh, you cottage housewife, you. Go to bed, my God. You’ll be sick tomorrow from staying up all night.

CAPULET

No, no, not at all. I’ve stayed up all night before for less important reasons, and never gotten sick from it.

LADY CAPULET

Yes, you were a woman-chaser in your time. But I’ll keep an eye on you to make sure you don’t stay up for those reasons any more.

[LADY CAPULET and the NURSE exit.]

CAPULET

She has become a jealous woman, a jealous woman!

[Three or four SERVINGMEN enter carrying spits, logs, and baskets.]

Now, fellow, what are you carrying?

FIRST SERVINGMAN

Things for the cook, sir. But I don’t know exactly.

CAPULET

Hurry up, hurry up.

[The FIRST SERVINGMAN exits.]

(to SECOND SERVINGMAN) Fetch logs that are drier. Call Peter. He’ll show you where they are.

SECOND SERVINGMAN

I can find the logs without bothering Peter.

[The SECOND SERVINGMAN exits.]

CAPULET

Right, and well said. What a funny son of a whore that guy is, ha! His head is full of logs. My God, it’s daytime. The count will be here soon with music, as he said he would. I hear him coming.

[Music plays offstage.]

Nurse! Wife! What? Nurse!

[The NURSE returns.]

Go wake Juliet and get her dressed. I’ll go and chat with Paris. Go, hurry up, hurry up! The bridegroom is here already. Hurry up, I say.

[All exit.]

Act 4, Scene 5

[The NURSE enters.]

NURSE

Mistress! Hey, mistress! Juliet! Fast asleep, I bet. Hey, lamb! Hey, lady! Hey, you sleepyhead! Hey, love, I say! Madam! Sweetheart! Hey, bride! What, not a single word to say? Enjoy this last bit of sleep now. Get a week’s worth of sleep, because tonight, I bet, Count Paris will make sure that you don’t get much rest. God forgive me. Indeed, and amen. How sound asleep she is! I have to wake her. Madam, madam, madam! Yeah, let the count take you in your bed. He’ll wake you up, no doubt. Won’t he? (opens the bed curtains) What? Still dressed in your clothes but asleep. I must wake you. Lady, lady, lady! No, no! Help, help! My lady’s dead! Oh curse the day I was born! Hey! Get me some liquor! My lord! My lady!

[LADY CAPULET enters.]

LADY CAPULET

What’s with all the noise?

NURSE

Oh, terrible day!

LADY CAPULET

What’s the matter?

NURSE

Look, look! Oh, what an awful day!

LADY CAPULET

Oh no, oh no! My child, my reason for being, come back, look up, or I’ll die with you! Help, help! Call for help.

[CAPULET enters.]

CAPULET

For shame, get Juliet out here. Her bridegroom has arrived.

NURSE

She’s dead, deceased, dead. Curse the day!

LADY CAPULET

Curse the day. She’s dead, she’s dead, she’s dead!

CAPULET

What? Let me see her. No! She’s cold. Her blood has stopped, and her joints are stiff. Life left her body a long while ago. Death rests on her like an unexpected frost that killed the most beautiful flower.

NURSE

Oh terrible day!

LADY CAPULET

Oh awful time!

CAPULET

Death, which has taken her away to make me cry, ties up my tongue and will not let me speak.

[FRIAR LAWRENCE and PARIS enter with MUSICIANS.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Come, is the bride ready to go to church?

CAPULET

She’s ready to go, but not to return. (to PARIS) Oh son! On the night before your wedding day, death has slept with your wife. There she lies, a flower who was deflowered by death. Death is my son-in-law. Death is my heir. Death has married my daughter. I will die and leave everything to Death. Life, living, it all is now Death’s.

PARIS

Have I waited to see this morning for so long, only for it to look like this?

LADY CAPULET

Accursed, unhappy, wretched, hateful day! The most miserable hour that ever existed in all of time. I had just one child, one poor child, one poor and loving child. Just one thing to rejoice and find comfort in. Now cruel Death has stolen it from my sight!

NURSE

Oh misery! Oh miserable, miserable, miserable day! The saddest day, most miserable day that I ever, ever saw! Oh day! Oh day! Oh day! Oh hateful day! There has never been a day as black as this one. Oh miserable day, Oh miserable day!

PARIS

She was tricked, divorced, wronged, spited, killed! Detestable Death tricked her. Cruel, cruel Death murdered her. Oh love! Oh life! There is no life because my love is dead.

CAPULET

Despised, distressed, hated, martyred, killed! Why did you come now, Death, to murder, murder our joy? Oh child! Oh child! My soul and not my child! You are dead! No! My child is dead. My child will be buried together with my joy.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Quiet, for shame! Your outcries are no cure for confusion. Both you and heaven played a part in giving you your child. Now heaven has her, and she is better off. The part of her that came from you could not stop her from dying, but the part she got from heaven gives her eternal life. The most you could hope for her was that she marry well. Your idea of heaven for her was that she move up the social ladder. Yet now you weep, even though she has risen up above the clouds, all the way to heaven itself? Oh, by mourning her death you love your child so poorly, going mad even though she is well and in heaven. It is better for a girl to die young while her marriage is still fresh and loving than to be married for a long time. Dry your tears, and place your rosemary (editor’s note: rosemary signifies enduring love) on this beautiful corpse. And, as is the custom, put her in her finest clothes and carry her to church. It’s human nature to shed tears, but reason says that we should be joyful.

CAPULET

The things that we prepared for the wedding now will be used instead for the funeral. Our music instruments will be exchanged for mourning bells. Our wedding banquet will be instead a sad burial feast. Our celebratory hymns will change to sad funeral dirges. Our bridal flowers will cover a buried corpse. Everything will be used for the purpose opposite that which we expected.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Sir, you go in. Madam, go with him. And you too, Sir Paris. Everyone prepare to follow this beautiful corpse to her grave. The heavens hang over you for some unknown reason. Stop fighting heaven’s will and it will no longer move against you.

[CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, PARIS, and FRIAR LAWRENCE exit.]

FIRST MUSICIAN

I guess we can put our pipes away and leave.

NURSE

Honest good men, yes, put them away, away. As you know, this is a sad case.

[The NURSE exits.]

FIRST MUSICIAN

Yes, but this case at least can be mended. (editor’s note: the musician is referring to the case for his flute, which is broken)

[PETER enters.]

PETER

Musicians, oh, musicians, play “Heart’s Ease,” “Heart’s Ease.” Oh, if you want me to live, play “Heart’s Ease.”

FIRST MUSICIAN

Why “Heart’s Ease”?

PETER

Oh, musicians, because my heart itself is playing “My Heart is Full of Woe.” Oh, play me some happy mournful tune to comfort me.

FIRST MUSICIAN

No, we won’t play a sad song. Now is not the time for it.

PETER

You won’t, then?

FIRST MUSICIAN

No.

PETER

Then I’ll give you something you won’t forget.

FIRST MUSICIAN

What will you give us?

PETER

Not money, I swear. But I’ll insult you, and call you rogues.

FIRST MUSICIAN

Then I’ll call you a lowly servant.

PETER

Then I’ll take my serving knife to smack you upside the head. I won’t need to sing. I’ll make you sing. Do you hear me?

FIRST MUSICIAN

If you make us sing, you’ll hear us.

SECOND MUSICIAN

Please, put away your knife and show some wits.

PETER

I’ll attack you with my wit! I’ll put away my iron dagger and thrash you with my wicked wit. Answer me like men.

(sings)

When grief wounds your heart,

And sadness presses on your mind,

Then music with her silver sound—

(speaks) Why “silver sound”? What does  “music with her silver sound” mean? What do you say, Simon Catling?

FIRST MUSICIAN

Well, sir, because silver has a sweet sound.

PETER

A witty reply! What do you say, Hugh Rebeck?

SECOND MUSICIAN

I say “silver sound,” because musicians play music to earn silver.

PETER

More wit! What do you say, James Soundpost?

THIRD MUSICIAN

Well, I don’t know what to say.

PETER

Oh, I beg your pardon. You’re the singer (editor’s note: singers were considered unintelligent). I’ll answer for you. It is “music with her silver sound,” because musicians will never get rich.

(sings)

Then music with her silver sound

Quickly makes you feel all right.

[PETER exits.]

FIRST MUSICIAN

What an annoying jerk this guy is!

SECOND MUSICIAN

Screw him, Jack! Come on, we’ll go in there, wait for the mourners to return, and stay for dinner.

[MUSICIANS exit.]

Act 5, Scene 1

[ROMEO enters.]

ROMEO

If I can trust the favorable truth of sleep, then my dreams foretell some joyful news is on its way. Love sits lightly in my heart, and all day an odd feeling has seemed to lift me up with cheerful thoughts. I had a dream that my lady came and found me dead—what a strange dream to allow a dead man to think—and breathed life back into me by kissing my lips. I revived and became an emperor. Oh! How sweet it would be to be with my love, when just my dreams of love fill me with so much joy.

[ROMEO’s servant BALTHASAR enters.]

News from Verona!—What is it, Balthasar? Have you brought me a letter from the friar? How is my wife? Is my father well? How is my Juliet? I ask that again because nothing can be bad if she is well.

BALTHASAR

Then she is well, and nothing is bad. Her body sleeps in the Capulet crypt, and her immortal soul lives with the angels. I saw her buried in her family’s tomb, and rushed here to tell you the news. Oh, pardon me for bringing this bad news, but you told me it was my duty to do so, sir.

ROMEO

Is it true? Then I defy you, fate! (to BALTHASAR) You know where I’m staying. Go there and get me some ink and paper, and hire some horses. I will leave here tonight.

BALTHASAR

I beg you, sir, have patience. You look pale and wild, as if you’re about to do something reckless.

ROMEO

Come now, you’re being silly. Leave me and do what I told you to do. Do you really not have a letter for me from the friar?

BALTHASAR

No, my good lord.

ROMEO

No matter. Get going and hire those horses. I’ll be with you soon.

[BALTHASAR exits]

Well, Juliet, I’ll lie with you tonight. Let me think how. Evil acts are quick to enter the thoughts of desperate men! I remember a pharmacist who lives around here and who I recently noted wears tattered clothes and has jutting brows, and who knows his medicinal herbs. He looks poor, as if misery had worn him to the bone. A tortoise shell hung in his shabby shop, along with a stuffed alligator and the skins of odd-shaped fish. A few empty boxes sat on his shelves, as well as green clay pots, empty water skins, and some musty seeds. Old strands of string and rose petals pressed into cakes were scattered about on display. Seeing his poverty, I said to myself, “If a man needed some poison”—which to sell in Mantua is punishable by immediate death—“here is a miserable wretch who’d sell it to him.” Oh, this idea came before I even knew I needed the poison. But this is the poor man who will sell it to me. As I remember, this is the house. Since today’s a holiday, the beggar’s shop is shut. Hey! Pharmacist!

[The APOTHECARY enters.]

APOTHECARY

Who’s that calling so loudly?

ROMEO

Come here, man. I see that you are poor. Here’s forty ducats. Let me have a bit of poison, something that spreads so fast through the veins that the tired-out person who takes it will lose the breath of life as quickly as gunpowder explodes from the inside of canon.

APOTHECARY

I have such deadly poisons. But it’s the death-penalty to sell them in Mantua.

ROMEO

How can you be so poor and wretched and still be afraid to die? Your cheeks are thin from hunger. Starvation and oppression are visible in your eyes. Your poverty, and the contempt of others for your situation, is like a monkey on your back. The world is not your friend, and neither are the world’s laws. The world doesn’t provide a law that will make you rich. So don’t be poor. Break the law, and take this money. (he holds out money)

APOTHECARY

It is my poverty, not my morals, that forces me to agree.

ROMEO

I pay your poverty, not your morals.

APOTHECARY

(gives ROMEO poison) Put this in any kind of liquid you want and drink it. Even if you had the strength of twenty men, it would kill you quickly.

ROMEO

(gives APOTHECARY money) There is your gold, which is a worse poison to men’s souls, and commits more murders in this terrible world, than these poor mixtures that you’re forbidden to sell. I’ve sold you poison; you haven’t sold me any. Goodbye. Get some food, and put some flesh on your bones. Come with me, medicine, which is no poison. We go to Juliet’s grave, where I will use you.

[They exit.]

Act 5, Scene 2

[FRIAR JOHN enters.]

FRIAR JOHN

Holy Franciscan Friar! Brother, hey!

[FRIAR LAWRENCE enters.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

That voice sounds like Friar John. Welcome back from Mantua. What does Romeo say? Or, if he wrote down his thoughts, give me his letter.

FRIAR JOHN

I went to find another poor friar from our order to accompany me. He was in this city visiting the sick. I found him, but the town health officials suspected that we had both been in a house where people were infected with the plague. They sealed up the house and refused to let us out. So I was stuck, and couldn’t go to Mantua.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Then who took my letter to Romeo?

FRIAR JOHN

I couldn’t send it—Here it is (he gives FRIAR LAWRENCE a letter)—nor could I get a messenger to bring it to you because they were scared of getting infected.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Terrible fate! By my brotherhood, the letter was not just a friendly greeting. It was full of important news. That it was never sent may result in great ruin. Friar John, go and get me an iron crowbar and bring it straight back to my cell.

FRIAR JOHN

Brother, I’ll go and bring it to you.

[FRIAR JOHN exits.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Now I must go to the crypt alone. Within three hours beautiful Juliet will wake. She’ll yell at me because Romeo doesn’t know what’s happening. I’ll write again to Mantua, and hide her in my cell until Romeo comes. That poor living corpse, locked inside a dead man’s tomb!

[FRIAR LAWRENCE exits.]

Act 5, Scene 3

[PARIS enters with his PAGE.]

PARIS

Give me your torch, boy. Now go and stand far away from me. Actually, put out the torch out so no one can see me. Hide under the yew-trees over there and put your ear against the ground so that you’ll hear anyone walking through the graveyard. If you hear someone approach, signal me with a whistle Give me those flowers. Do as I tell you. Go.

[The PAGE puts out the torch and gives the flowers to PARIS.]

PAGE

(to himself) I am almost afraid to stand here alone in the graveyard, but I’ll do it.

[The PAGE moves away]

PARIS

(scattering flowers at the door of JULIET’s closed tomb) Sweet flower, I’m covering your bridal bed with flowers—Oh, misery! The canopy of your bed is dust and stones. Each night I’ll water these flowers. Or, if I don’t do that, the ritual I will keep for you each night will be to put flowers on your grave and weep.

[The PAGE whistles]

The boy warns that someone is approaching. What cursed person would be wandering out here tonight, interfering with my rituals of true love? Whoever it is is carrying a torch! I’ll hide in the darkness for awhile.

[PARIS hides. ROMEO and BALTHASAR enter carrying a torch, pickax, and crowbar.]

ROMEO

Give me the pickaxe and the crowbar. (he takes them from BALTHASAR) Now, take this letter. Deliver it to my father early in the morning. (he gives the letter to BALTHASAR) Give me the torch. (he takes the torch from BALTHASAR) By your life, I command that whatever you hear or see you stay away and do not interrupt me in my actions. I’m going to go down into this tomb in part to look upon my wife’s face, but more importantly to take a precious ring from her dead finger. I must use the ring for urgent business. So go, get out of here. And if you get suspicious and return to spy on what I’m doing, I swear I’ll tear you limb from limb and throw your body parts around this graveyard, which is so hungry for death. The times, and my plan, are wild and savage, and I am more fierce and unstoppable than a hungry tiger or the raging sea.

BALTHASAR

I’ll go, sir, and not interfere.

ROMEO

That’s how you will show me friendship. Take this. (he gives BALTHASAR money) Live and be prosperous. Farewell, good fellow.

BALTHASAR

(to himself) Despite everything I just said, I’ll hide nearby. The look on his face makes me nervous, and I have doubts about his story of what he plans to do.

[BALTHASAR moves away and falls asleep.]

ROMEO

(speaking to the door of the tomb) You hateful mouth, you womb of death. You’ve feasted on the most precious girl on Earth, so now I’m going to force open your rotten jaws and cram more food into you. (ROMEO begins to open the tomb with his tools)

PARIS

(to himself) It’s that arrogant Montague who was banished. He’s the one who murdered my love’s cousin Tybalt, which caused Juliet the grief that they think killed her. And here he’s come to do something terrible and shameful to the dead bodies. I’ll arrest him. (to ROMEO) Stop your sinful work, vile Montague! Would you pursue vengeance even beyond death? Condemned villain, I arrest you. Obey and come with me, for you must die.

ROMEO

I must indeed, which is why I came. Good and noble young man, don’t tempt a desperate man. Run from here and leave me. Think about the dead who rest here. Let them terrify you. I beg you, young man, don’t make me so angry that I have to add another sin to those I already have committed. Oh, get out of here! I swear by God, I love you more than I love myself. For I’ve come here with weapons to use against myself. Don’t stay here, go away. Live, and afterwards say that a merciful madman told you to run away.

PARIS

I defy your threats. I’m arresting you as a criminal.

ROMEO

Your really provoking me? Then let’s fight, boy!

[ROMEO and PARIS fight.]

PAGE

Oh Lord, they’re fighting! I’ll go call the watch.

[The PAGE exits.]

PARIS

(he falls) Oh, I’ve been killed! If you are merciful, open the tomb and lay me next to Juliet.

[PARIS dies.]

ROMEO

I promise, I will. Let me look at this face. It’s Mercutio’s relative, noble Count Paris. What did my servant tell me while we were riding here? I was so upset I wasn’t paying attention to him. I think he told me Paris was supposed to marry Juliet. Isn’t that what he said? Or was I dreaming? Or am I crazy and, hearing him say something about Juliet, I jumped to the wrong conclusion? (speaking to Paris’s body) Oh, give me your hand. You and I both had equal measures of bad fortune! I’ll bury you in a magnificent grave. (ROMEO opens the tomb to reveal JULIET inside.) A grave? No! It is a cupola atop a tower, my dead young man. Juliet lies here, and her beauty fills this tomb like a festival chamber full of light. Dead man, lie down right there—another dead man is burying you.(ROMEO lays PARIS in the tomb) Men are often happy just before their death. Their nurses call it the lightness before death. Oh, how can I call this lightness? Oh, my love, my wife! Though death has sucked the honey from your breath, it has not yet had the power to ruin your beauty. You are not conquered. A beautiful banner of red still lingers on your lips and cheeks. The paleness of death has not yet reached them. Tybalt, are you lying there in your bloody shroud? Oh, what better favor can I do for you than to use the hand that cut short your youth you to kill your murderer. Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet, why are you still so beautiful? Should I believe that death itself loves you, and that the hungry, hated monster keeps you here in the dark to be his lover? To make sure that doesn’t happen, I’ll stay with you forever and never again leave this dark tomb. Here, here I’ll remain with worms that are your chamber-maids. Oh, I’ll rest here forever and escape the control of the bad fortune that has plagued my body. Eyes, see for the last time! Arms, make your last embrace! And lips, you doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss the infinite deal I have made with death. (ROMEO kisses JULIET and takes out the poison) Come, bitter transport, come, unpleasant guide! You desperate pilot, crash this seasick and weary ship into the rocks. Here’s to my love! (he drinks the poison) Oh, honest  pharmacist, your drugs work quickly. With this kiss, I die.

[ROMEO dies.]

[FRIAR LAWRENCE enters carrying a lantern, crowbar, and shovel.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Saint Francis, speed my steps! How often tonight have my old feet stumbled on gravestones! Who’s there?

BALTHASAR

I am, a friend, who knows you well.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

God bless you! Tell me, good friend, what’s that torch lying over there for seemingly no reason that’s offering its light to no one but worms and eyeless skulls? As far as I can tell, it seems to be burning in the Capulet tomb.

BALTHASAR

It is there, holy father, as is my master, whom you love.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Who is it?

BALTHASAR

Romeo.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

How long has he been there?

BALTHASAR

For a full half hour.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Go with me to the tomb.

BALTHASAR

I don’t dare, sir. My master thinks I’ve gone from here. He threatened to kill me if I stayed to watch his actions.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Stay, then. I’ll go alone. Now I’m frightened. Oh, I’m very worried something terrible and unfortunate has happened.

BALTHASAR

As I slept under this yew-tree, I dreamed that my master fought someone else, and that my master killed him.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(approaching the tomb) Romeo! Oh no! What’s this blood staining the stony entrance of this tomb? Why are these swords, discolored by gore and blood, lying here, abandoned, in this place of peace? (he looks inside the tomb) Romeo! Oh, he’s pale! Who else? What, Paris too? And covered in blood? Ah, during what cruel hour did this sad turn of fortune occur? The lady moves.

[JULIET wakes up.]

JULIET

Oh comforting friar! Where is my husband? I remember well where I should be, and here I am. Where is my Romeo?

[A noise sounds from outside the tomb.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

I hear a noise. Lady, come with me from this tomb of death, sickness, and unnatural sleep. A power greater than us has ruined our plans. Come, come away. Your husband lies dead, resting against your chest. Paris too, is dead. Come, I’ll bring you to join a sisterhood of holy nuns. Don’t wait here asking questions. The watch is coming. Come, come with me, good Juliet, I dare not stay any longer.

JULIET

Go, go away. I’m not leaving.

[FRIAR LAWRENCE exits.]

What’s this? A cup, held in my true love’s hand? Poison, I see, has caused his death. How selfish, drinking it all, leaving not a drop to help me follow after you. I’ll kiss your lips. Maybe I’ll be lucky and there’s still some poison on your lips, a bit of medicine that will return me to my Romeo with a kiss. (she kisses ROMEO) Your lips are warm.

[WATCHMEN and PARIS’s PAGE enter.]

CHIEF WATCHMAN

(to the PAGE) Lead, boy. Which way?

JULIET

A noise! I’ll act fast. Oh, what luck: here’s a dagger! I’ll be your sheath. Rust inside my body and let me die. (she stabs herself with ROMEO’s dagger and dies)

PAGE

This is the place. There, where that torch is burning.

CHIEF WATCHMAN

The ground is bloody. Search the graveyard. Go, a few of you, and arrest anyone you find.

[Some WATCHMEN exit.]

What a pitiful sight! The count lies here dead. And Juliet is bleeding. Her body is still warm even though she has been dead and buried for the last two days. Go, tell the Prince. Run to the Capulets. Wake up the Montagues. Have some others search.

[A few more WATCHMEN exit, in different directions.]

We see the ground on which these bodies lie, but we won’t be able to figure out the true cause of all these awful events without an investigation.

[The SECOND WATCHMAN reenters with BALTHASAR.]

SECOND WATCHMAN

Here’s Romeo’s servant. We found him in the churchyard.

CHIEF WATCHMAN

Hold him securely until the Prince arrives.

[The THIRD WATCHMAN reenters with FRIAR LAWRENCE.]

THIRD WATCHMAN

Here’s a friar who’s trembling, sighing, and weeping. We took this pickaxe and this shovel from him, as he was leaving the graveyard.

CHIEF WATCHMAN

Very suspicious. Hold the friar too.

[The PRINCE enters with his ATTENDANTS.]

PRINCE

What disaster has occurred so early in the morning that it forces me from my bed?

[CAPULET and LADY CAPULET enter.]

CAPULET

What has happened to cause everyone to start shrieking?

LADY CAPULET

Some people in the street are crying “Romeo.” Others cry “Juliet,” and still others “Paris.” They’re all running and screaming toward our tomb.

PRINCE

What terror has occurred to result in all this startling noise?

CHIEF WATCHMAN

Prince, here lies Count Paris killed. And Romeo dead. And Juliet, who was dead before, but is warm like someone newly killed.

PRINCE

Find out how this foul murder came to happen.

CHIEF WATCHMAN

Here is a friar, and dead Romeo’s servant. They’re carrying tools for opening a tomb.

CAPULET

Oh heavens! Oh wife, look at how our daughter bleeds! That dagger is in the wrong place. It should be in the empty sheath on the back of that Montague, but instead is mis-sheathed in my daughter’s chest.

LADY CAPULET

Woe is me! Seeing my daughter dead is like a warning bell of my own imminent death.

[MONTAGUE enters.]

PRINCE

Come, Montague. You’re up early to see your son and heir killed at too young an age.

MONTAGUE

My liege, my wife died tonight. Her sadness about my son’s exile stopped her breath. What further misery must I endure in my old age?

PRINCE

Look, and you’ll see.

MONTAGUE

(seeing ROMEO’s body) Oh, you rude boy! What terrible manners to die before your father.

PRINCE

Quiet your outrage for a time, until we can clear up the remaining uncertanties about the cause of all this. Once we do know what happened, I will lead you in expressing our pain, and lead you all the way to our death. In the meantime, hold on, and let your patience control your desire to act. Bring forth the men under suspicion.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

I am the most suspected, and least able to defend myself, because I was here at the time of this terrible murder. Here I stand, to be questioned and punished. I have already condemned myself.

PRINCE

Then tell us immediately what you know about all this.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

I’ll be brief, because the time I have left to live is not long enough to tell a long story. Romeo, who lies there dead, was Juliet’s husband. And she, who lies there dead, was Romeo’s faithful wife. I married them. Their secret wedding day was the same day Tybalt died. His untimely death led to the banishment of the bridegroom. Juliet was distraught not over Tybalt’s death but rather Romeo’s banishment. To end her grief, you arranged for her to marry Count Paris. At that point she came to me, and, looking wild, threatened to kill herself unless I came up with a plan to help her escape this second marriage. Then I gave her a special sleeping potion that, as I had planned, made it seem as if she had died. Meanwhile, I wrote to Romeo to tell him to come here tonight, this awful night, to help get her out of her temporary grave when the sleeping potion wore off. But the man who carried my letter, Friar John, was stopped by an accident, and returned my letter to me last night. So at the time when Juliet was schedule to wake, I came here alone to take her out of her family’s tomb. My plan was to hide her in my cell until I could get word to Romeo. But when I arrived, just a few minutes before Juliet awoke, Paris and Romeo were already here, lying dead. She woke up, and I begged her to come out of the tomb with me and bear this work of God with patience. But then a noise frightened me, and I ran from the tomb. She was too desperate to leave with me, and, it seems, she killed herself. I know all of this. And her Nurse knows about the marriage. If any of this misfortune is my fault, let me be sacrificed and punished under the strictest law.

PRINCE

We have always known you to be a holy man. Where is Romeo’s servant? What does he say about all this?

BALTHASAR

I brought my master news of Juliet’s death. And then with great haste he rode from Mantua to this tomb. (he shows a letter) Early this morning he told me to give this letter to his father. Then he threatened to kill me if I did not leave when he went into the tomb.

PRINCE

Give me the letter. I’ll read it. (he takes the letter from BALTHASAR) Where is the count’s page, who called the watch? Boy, what was your master doing here?

PAGE

He came with flowers to put on his lady’s grave. He asked me to stand apart from him, and so I did. Soon after someone with a torch came to open the tomb. One thing led to another and my master drew his sword to fight him. That’s when I ran away to call the watch.

PRINCE

(he skims the letter) This letter corroborates the friar’s story. It describes the course of their love and how he heard of her death. Then he writes that he bought poison from a poor pharmacist and came to this tomb to die and lie with Juliet. Where are these enemies? Capulet! Montague! Do you see how your hate has cursed you? Heaven has in response conspired to kill your joys with love. And because I did not take a firm hand against your feud, I’ve lost two of my family as well. Everyone is punished.

CAPULET

Oh, brother Montague, give me your hand. This handshake is my daughter’s dowry. I can ask you for nothing more.

MONTAGUE

But I can give you more. I’ll raise a golden statue of her. So long as this city is called Verona, there will be no figure praised more than that of true and faithful Juliet.

CAPULET

The statue of Romeo I’ll make to lie beside Juliet will be just as rich. Our hate was not worth their sacrifice.

PRINCE

This morning we have come to a gloomy peace. The sun, out of sorrow, will not show itself. Let’s go, to talk more about these sad things. Some will be pardoned, and some punished.There was never a story more full of misery than this tale of Juliet and Romeo.

[All exit.]

Just the Original Play

Prologue

[The CHORUS enters]

CHORUS

Two households, both alike in dignity

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

(5) 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

(10) 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.

[Exit]

Act 1, Scene 1

[SAMPSON and GREGORY, servants of the Capulet family, enter carrying swords and small shields.]

SAMPSON

Gregory, on my word, we’ll not carry coals.

GREGORY

No, for then we should be colliers.

SAMPSON

I mean, an we be in choler, we’ll draw.

GREGORY

Ay, while you live, draw your neck out of collar.

SAMPSON

(5) I strike quickly, being moved.

GREGORY

But thou art not quickly moved to strike.

SAMPSON

(10) A dog of the house of Montague moves me.

GREGORY

To move is to stir, and to be valiant is to stand. Therefore if thou art moved thou runn’st away.

SAMPSON

A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague’s.

GREGORY

That shows thee a weak slave, for the weakest goes to the wall.

SAMPSON

(15) ‘Tis true, and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall. Therefore I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall.

GREGORY

The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.

SAMPSON

‘Tis all one. I will show myself a tyrant. When I have fought with the men, I will be civil with the maids. I will cut off their heads.

GREGORY

(20) The heads of the maids?

SAMPSON

Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads.

Take it in what sense thou wilt.

GREGORY

(25) They must take it in sense that feel it.

SAMPSON

Me they shall feel while I am able to stand, and

’tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh.

GREGORY

‘Tis well thou art not fish. If thou hadst, thou hadst been poor-john.

[ABRAM and another servant of the Montagues enter.]

Draw thy tool! Here comes of the house of Montagues.

SAMPSON

(30) 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

(35) I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as they list.

SAMPSON

Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them, which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it. (bites his thumb)

[ABRAHAM and BALTHASAR enter]

ABRAM

Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

SAMPSON

I do bite my thumb, sir.

ABRAM

Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

SAMPSON

(aside to GREGORY)

(40) Is the law of our side if I say “ay”?

GREGORY

(aside to SAMPSON)

No.

SAMPSON

No, sir. I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.

GREGORY

(45) Do you quarrel, sir?

ABRAM

Quarrel, sir? No, sir.

SAMPSON

But if you do, sir, I am for you. I serve as good a man as you.

ABRAM

No better.

SAMPSON

Well, sir.

[BENVOLIO enters.]

GREGORY

(50) (aside to SAMPSON) Say “better.” Here comes one of my master’s kinsmen.

SAMPSON

(to ABRAM) Yes, better, sir.

ABRAM

You lie.

SAMPSON

Draw, if you be men.—Gregory, remember thy washing blow.

[They fight]

BENVOLIO

(55) (beats down their swords) Part, fools!

Put up your swords. You know not what you do.

[TYBALT enters.]

TYBALT

What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?

Turn thee, Benvolio. Look upon thy death.

BENVOLIO

I do but keep the peace. Put up thy sword,

Or manage it to part these men with me.

TYBALT

(60) What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word,

As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.

Have at thee, coward!

[BENVOLIO and TYBALT fight. Other Montagues and Capulets enter and also start fighting. Veronese CITIZENS enter, carrying clubs.]

CITIZENS

Clubs, bills, and partisans! Strike! Beat them down!

Down with the Capulets! Down with the Montagues!

[CAPULET, in a sleeping gown, enters with LADY CAPULET.]

CAPULET

(65) What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!

LADY CAPULET

A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword?

[MONTAGUE enters, sword drawn, with LADY MONTAGUE.]

CAPULET

My sword, I say! Old Montague is come,

And flourishes his blade in spite of me.

MONTAGUE

Thou villain Capulet! Hold me not. Let me go.

LADY MONTAGUE

(70) Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe.

[PRINCE ESCALUS enters with his attendants.]

PRINCE

Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,

Profaners of this neighbor-stainèd steel!—

Will they not hear?—What, ho! You men, you beasts,

That quench the fire of your pernicious rage

(75) 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,

(80) 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,

(85) 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,

(90) 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.

[Everyone exits except MONTAGUE, LADY MONTAGUE, and BENVOLIO.]

MONTAGUE

Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?

(95) Speak, nephew. Were you by when it began?

BENVOLIO

Here were the servants of your adversary,

And yours, close fighting ere I did approach.

I drew to part them. In the instant came

The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepared,

(100) 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,

(105) Till the Prince came, who parted either part.

LADY MONTAGUE

Oh, where is Romeo? Saw you him today?

Right glad I am he was not at this fray.

BENVOLIO

Madam, an hour before the worshipped sun

Peered forth the golden window of the east,

(110) 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

(115) 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,

(120) And gladly shunned who gladly fled from me.

MONTAGUE

Many a morning hath he there been seen,

With tears augmenting the fresh morning’s dew,

Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs.

But all so soon as the all-cheering sun

(125) 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,

(130) And makes himself an artificial night.

Black and portentous must this humor prove

Unless good counsel may the cause remove.

BENVOLIO

My noble uncle, do you know the cause?

MONTAGUE

I neither know it nor can learn of him.

BENVOLIO

(135) Have you importuned him by any means?

MONTAGUE

Both by myself and many other friends.

But he, his own affections’ counselor,

Is to himself—I will not say how true,

But to himself so secret and so close,

(140) 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.

(145) We would as willingly give cure as know.

[ROMEO enters.]

BENVOLIO

See, where he comes. So please you, step aside.

I’ll know his grievance or be much denied.

MONTAGUE

I would thou wert so happy by thy stay

To hear true shrift.—Come, madam, let’s away.

[MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE exit. ROMEO enters.]

BENVOLIO

(150) Good morrow, cousin.

ROMEO

Is the day so young?

BENVOLIO

But new struck nine.

ROMEO

Ay me! Sad hours seem long.

Was that my father that went hence so fast?

BENVOLIO

It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo’s hours?

ROMEO

Not having that which, having, makes them short.

BENVOLIO

(155) In love?

ROMEO

Out.

BENVOLIO

Of love?

ROMEO

Out of her favor, where I am in love.

BENVOLIO

Alas, that love, so gentle in his view,

Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!

ROMEO

Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,

(160) 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.

(165) Here’s much to do with hate but more with love.

Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate,

O anything of nothing first created!

O heavy lightness, serious vanity,

Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

(170) Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,

Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!

This love feel I, that feel no love in this.

Dost thou not laugh?

BENVOLIO

No, coz, I rather weep.

ROMEO

Good heart, at what?

BENVOLIO

(175) At thy good heart’s oppression.

ROMEO

Why, such is love’s transgression.

Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,

Which thou wilt propagate, to have it pressed

With more of thine. This love that thou hast shown

(180) 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 vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears.

What is it else? A madness most discreet,

(185) A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.

Farewell, my coz.

BENVOLIO

Soft! I will go along.

And if you leave me so, you do me wrong.

ROMEO

Tut, I have lost myself. I am not here.

This is not Romeo. He’s some other where.

BENVOLIO

(190) Tell me in sadness, who is that you love.

ROMEO

What, shall I groan and tell thee?

BENVOLIO

Groan! Why, no. But sadly, tell me who.

ROMEO

A sick man in sadness makes his will,

A word ill urged to one that is so ill.

(195) In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.

BENVOLIO

I aimed so near when I supposed you loved.

ROMEO

A right good markman! And she’s fair I love.

BENVOLIO

A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.

ROMEO

Well, in that hit you miss. She’ll not be hit

(200) With Cupid’s arrow. She hath Dian’s wit.

And, in strong proof of chastity well armed

From love’s weak childish bow, she lives uncharmed.

She will not stay the siege of loving terms,

Nor bide th’ encounter of assailing eyes,

(205) Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold.

Oh, she is rich in beauty, only poor

That when she dies, with beauty dies her store.

BENVOLIO

Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?

ROMEO

She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste,

(210) 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

(215) Do I live dead that live to tell it now.

BENVOLIO

Be ruled by me. Forget to think of her.

ROMEO

O, teach me how I should forget to think!

BENVOLIO

By giving liberty unto thine eyes.

Examine other beauties.

ROMEO

‘Tis the way

(220) 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.

(225) Show me a mistress that is passing fair;

What doth her beauty serve but as a note

Where I may read who passed that passing fair?

Farewell. Thou canst not teach me to forget.

BENVOLIO

I’ll pay that doctrine or else die in debt.

[They exit.]

Act 1, Scene 2

[CAPULET, PARIS, and a servant, PETER, enter]

CAPULET

But Montague is bound as well as I,

In penalty alike. And ’tis not hard, I think,

For men so old as we to keep the peace.

PARIS

Of honorable reckoning are you both.

(5) And pity ’tis you lived at odds so long.

But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?

CAPULET

But saying o’er what I have said before.

My child is yet a stranger in the world.

She hath not seen the change of fourteen years.

(10) Let two more summers wither in their pride

Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.

PARIS

Younger than she are happy mothers made.

CAPULET

And too soon marred are those so early made.

Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she.

(15) 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.

An she agreed within her scope of choice,

Lies my consent and fair according voice.

(20) 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

(25) Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light.

Such comfort as do lusty young men feel

When well-appareled April on the heel

Of limping winter treads. Even such delight

Among fresh fennel buds shall you this night

(30) 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 PETER, giving him a paper)

(35) Go, sirrah, trudge about

Through fair Verona. Find those persons out

Whose names are written there, and to them say

My house and welcome on their pleasure stay.

[CAPULET and PARIS exit.]

PETER

(40) Find them out whose names are written here? It is written, that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard and the tailor with his last, the fisher with his pencil and the painter with his nets. But I am sent to find those persons whose names are here writ, and can never find what names the writing person hath here writ. I must to the learned in good time!

[BENVOLIO and ROMEO enter]

BENVOLIO

(45) Tut man, one fire burns out another’s burning.

One pain is lessened by another’s anguish.

Turn giddy, and be helped by backward turning.

One desperate grief cures with another’s languish.

Take thou some new infection to thy eye,

(50) And the rank poison of the old will die.

ROMEO

Your plantain leaf is excellent for that.

BENVOLIO

For what, I pray thee?

ROMEO

For your broken shin.

BENVOLIO

Why Romeo, art thou mad?

ROMEO

(55) Not mad, but bound more than a madman is,

Shut up in prison, kept without my food,

Whipped and tormented and—Good e’en, good fellow.

PETER

God ‘i’ good e’en. I pray, sir, can you read?

ROMEO

Ay, mine own fortune in my misery.

PETER

(60) Perhaps you have learned it without book. But I pray, can you read anything you see?

ROMEO

Ay, if I know the letters and the language.

PETER

Ye say honestly. Rest you merry.

ROMEO

Stay, fellow. I can read. (he reads the letter)

(65) “Seigneur Martino and his wife and daughters;

County Anselme and his beauteous sisters;

The lady widow of Vitruvio;

Seigneur Placentio and his lovely nieces;

Mercutio and his brother Valentine;

(70) Mine uncle Capulet, his wife and daughters;

My fair niece Rosaline and Livia;

Seigneur Valentio and his cousin Tybalt;

Lucio and the lively Helena.”

A fair assembly. Whither should they come?

PETER

(75) Up.

ROMEO

Whither?

PETER

To supper; to our house.

ROMEO

Whose house?

PETER

My master’s.

ROMEO

(80) Indeed, I should have asked thee that before.

PETER

Now I’ll tell you without asking. My master is the great rich Capulet, and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray come and crush a cup of wine. Rest you merry!

[PETER exits.]

BENVOLIO

At this same ancient feast of Capulet’s

(85) Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so loves

With all the admired beauties of Verona.

Go thither, and with unattainted eye

Compare her face with some that I shall show,

And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.

ROMEO

(90) When the devout religion of mine eye

Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires,

And these, who, often drowned, could never die,

Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars!

One fairer than my love? The all-seeing sun

Ne’er saw her match since first the world begun.

BENVOLIO

Tut, you saw her fair, none else being by,

Herself poised with herself in either eye.

But in that crystal scales let there be weighed

Your lady’s love against some other maid

(100) That I will show you shining at the feast,

And she shall scant show well that now shows best.

ROMEO

I’ll go along, no such sight to be shown,

But to rejoice in splendor of mine own.

[They exit.]

Act 1, Scene 3

[LADY CAPULET and the NURSE enter.]

LADY CAPULET

Nurse, where’s my daughter? Call her forth to me.

NURSE

Now, by my maidenhead at twelve year old

I bade her come. What, lamb! What, ladybird!

God forbid! Where’s this girl? What, Juliet!

[JULIET enters.]

JULIET

(5) How now, who calls?

NURSE

Your mother.

JULIET

Madam, I am here. What is your will?

LADY CAPULET

This is the matter.—Nurse, give leave awhile,

We must talk in secret.—Nurse, come back again.

(10) I have remembered me. Thou’s hear our counsel.

Thou know’st my daughter’s of a pretty age.

NURSE

Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.

LADY CAPULET

She’s not fourteen.

NURSE

I’ll lay fourteen of my teeth—and yet, to my teen be it spoken, I have but four—she is not fourteen. How long is it now to Lammastide?

LADY CAPULET

A fortnight and odd days.

NURSE

Even or odd, of all days in the year,

Come Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen.

(20) 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.

(25) ‘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.

(30) 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!

(35) “Shake!” quoth the dovehouse. ‘Twas no need, I trow,

To bid me trudge.

And since that time it is eleven years,

For then she could stand alone. Nay, by the rood,

She could have run and waddled all about,

(40) 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,

(45) Wilt thou not, Jule?” and, by my holy dame,

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.

(50) And, pretty fool, it stinted and said “ay.”

LADY CAPULET

Enough of this. I pray thee, hold thy peace.

NURSE

Yes, madam. Yet I cannot choose but laugh

To think it should leave crying and say “ay.”

And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow

(55) A bump as big as a young cockerel’s stone,

A perilous knock, and it cried bitterly.

“Yea,” quoth my husband, “Fall’st upon thy face?

Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age.

Wilt thou not, Jule?” It stinted and said “ay.”

JULIET

(60) And stint thou too, I pray thee, Nurse, say I.

NURSE

Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace!

Thou wast the prettiest babe that e’er I nursed.

An I might live to see thee married once,

I have my wish.

LADY CAPULET

(65) Marry, that “marry” is the very theme

I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet,

How stands your disposition to be married?

JULIET

It is an honor that I dream not of.

NURSE

An honor! Were not I thine only nurse,

(70) I would say thou hadst sucked wisdom from thy teat.

LADY CAPULET

Well, think of marriage now. Younger than you

Here in Verona, ladies of esteem

Are made already mothers. By my count,

I was your mother much upon these years

(75) That you are now a maid. Thus then in brief:

The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.

NURSE

A man, young lady! Lady, such a man

As all the world. Why, he’s a man of wax.

LADY CAPULET

Verona’s summer hath not such a flower.

NURSE

(80) Nay, he’s a flower. In faith, a very flower.

LADY CAPULET

What say you? Can you love the gentleman?

This night you shall behold him at our feast.

Read o’er the volume of young Paris’ face

And find delight writ there with beauty’s pen.

(85) Examine every married lineament

And see how one another lends content,

And what obscured in this fair volume lies

Find written in the margin of his eyes.

This precious book of love, this unbound lover,

(90) 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.

(95) So shall you share all that he doth possess

By having him, making yourself no less.

NURSE

No less? Nay, bigger. Women grow by men.

LADY CAPULET

Speak briefly. Can you like of Paris, love?

JULIET

I’ll look to like if looking liking move.

(100) But no more deep will I endart mine eye

Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.

[PETER enters.]

PETER

Madam, the guests are come, supper served up, you 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.

LADY CAPULET

We follow thee.—Juliet, the county stays.

NURSE

Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.

[All exit.]

Act 1, Scene 4

ROMEO, MERCUTIO, and BENVOLIO enter wearing party masks. Five other men wearing party masks and carrying torches enter with them.

ROMEO

What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse?

Or shall we on without apology?

BENVOLIO

The date is out of such prolixity.

We’ll have no Cupid hoodwinked with a scarf,

(5) 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.

(10) We’ll measure them a measure and be gone.

ROMEO

Give me a torch. I am not for this ambling.

Being but heavy, I will bear the light.

MERCUTIO

Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.

ROMEO

Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes

(15) With nimble soles. I have a soul of lead

So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.

MERCUTIO

You are a lover. Borrow Cupid’s wings

And soar with them above a common bound.

ROMEO

I am too sore enpiercèd with his shaft

(20) To soar with his light feathers, and so bound,

I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe.

Under love’s heavy burden do I sink.

MERCUTIO

And to sink in it, should you burthen love—

Too great oppression for a tender thing.

ROMEO

(25) Is love a tender thing? It is too rough,

Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn.

MERCUTIO

If love be rough with you, be rough with love.

Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.—

Give me a case to put my visage in!

(30) A visor for a visor.—What care I

What curious eye doth cote deformities?

Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me.

BENVOLIO

Come, knock and enter. And no sooner in

But every man betake him to his legs.

ROMEO

(35) A torch for me. Let wantons light of heart

Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels.

For I am proverbed with a grandsire phrase,

I’ll be a candle holder, and look on.

The game was ne’er so fair, and I am done.

MERCUTIO

(40) Tut, dun’s the mouse, the constable’s own word.

If thou art dun, we’ll draw thee from the mire,

Or—save your reverence—love, wherein thou stick’st

Up to the ears. Come, we burn daylight, ho!

ROMEO

Nay, that’s not so.

MERCUTIO

I mean, sir, in delay.

(45) We waste our lights in vain, like lights by day.

Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits

Five times in that ere once in our five wits.

ROMEO

And we mean well in going to this mask,

But ’tis no wit to go.

MERCUTIO

Why, may one ask?

ROMEO

(50) I dreamt a dream tonight.

MERCUTIO

And so did I.

ROMEO

Well, what was yours?

MERCUTIO

That dreamers often lie.

ROMEO

In bed asleep while they do dream things true.

MERCUTIO

Oh, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.

BENVOLIO

Queen Mab, what’s she

MERCUTIO

(55) 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.

(60) Her wagon spokes made of long spinners’ legs,

The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,

Her traces of the smallest spider’s web,

Her collars of the moonshine’s watery beams,

Her whip of cricket’s bone, the lash of film,

(65) 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,

(70) 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 curtsies straight;

O’er lawyers’ fingers, who straight dream on fees;

(75) 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.

(80) 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,

(85) 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

(90) That plaits 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,

(95) Making them women of good carriage.

This is she—

ROMEO

Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!

Thou talk’st of nothing.

MERCUTIO

True, I talk of dreams,

Which are the children of an idle brain,

Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,

(100) 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 face to the dew-dropping south.

BENVOLIO

(105) This wind you talk of, blows us from ourselves.

Supper is done, and we shall come too late.

ROMEO

I fear too early, for my mind misgives

Some consequence yet hanging in the stars

Shall bitterly begin his fearful date

(110) 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.

BENVOLIO

(115) Strike, drum.

[They march around the stage and exit.]

Act 1, Scene 5

[PETER and other SERVINGMEN enter, carrying napkins.]

PETER

Where’s Potpan, that he helps not to take away? He shift a trencher? He scrape a trencher!

FIRST SERVINGMAN

When good manners shall lie all in one or two men’s hands, and they unwashed too, ’tis a foul thing.

PETER

(5) Away with the joint-stools, remove the court-cupboard, look to the plate. Good thou, save me a piece of marchpane, and, as thou loves me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone and Nell.—Antony and Potpan!

SECOND SERVINGMAN

Ay, boy, ready.

PETER

(10) You are looked for and called for, asked for and sought for, in the great chamber.

FIRST SERVINGMAN

We cannot be here and there too. Cheerly, boys. Be brisk

0awhile, and the longer liver take all.

[PETER and the SERVINGMEN exit.]

[CAPULET enters with his cousin, TYBALT, LADY CAPULET, JULIET, and other Capulets. They meet ROMEO, BENVOLIO, MERCUTIO, and other guests and MASKERS]

CAPULET

Welcome, gentlemen! Ladies that have their toes

(15) 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 ye now?—

Welcome, gentlemen! I have seen the day

(20) That I have worn a visor and could tell

A whispering tale in a fair lady’s ear

Such as would please. ‘Tis gone, ’tis gone, ’tis gone.—

You are welcome, gentlemen.—Come, musicians, play.

(music plays and they dance)

(25) 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,

(30) For you and I are past our dancing days.

How long is ’t now since last yourself and I

Were in a mask?

CAPULETS’ COUSIN

By’r Lady, thirty years.

CAPULET

What, man, ’tis not so much, ’tis not so much.

‘Tis since the nuptials of Lucentio,

(35) Come Pentecost as quickly as it will,

Some five and twenty years, and then we masked.

CAPULET’S COUSIN

‘Tis more, ’tis more. His son is elder, sir.

His son is thirty.

CAPULET

Will you tell me that?

His son was but a ward two years ago.

ROMEO

(40) (to a SERVINGMAN) What lady is that which doth enrich the hand

Of yonder knight?

SERVINGMAN

I know not, sir.

ROMEO

Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night

Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear,

(45) 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.

(50) Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!

For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.

TYBALT

This, by his voice, should be a Montague.—

(to his PAGE) Fetch me my rapier, boy.—

What, dares the slave

(55) Come hither, covered with an antic face,

To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?

Now, by the stock and honor of my kin,

To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.

CAPULET

Why, how now, kinsman? Wherefore storm you so?

TYBALT

(60) Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe,

A villain that is hither come in spite

To scorn at our solemnity this night.

CAPULET

Young Romeo is it?

TYBALT

‘Tis he, that villain Romeo.

CAPULET

Content thee, gentle coz. Let him alone.

(65) 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 the town

Here in my house do him disparagement.

(70) Therefore be patient. Take no note of him.

It is my will, the which if thou respect,

Show a fair presence and put off these frowns,

An ill-beseeming semblance for a feast.

TYBALT

It fits when such a villain is a guest.

(75) I’ll not endure him.

CAPULET

He shall be endured.

What, goodman boy! I say, he shall. Go to.

Am I the master here, or you? Go to.

You’ll not endure him! God shall mend my soul,

You’ll make a mutiny among my guests.

(80) You will set cock-a-hoop. You’ll be the man!

TYBALT

Why, uncle, ’tis a shame.

CAPULET

Go to, go to.

You are a saucy boy. Is ’t so, indeed?

This trick may chance to scathe you, I know what.

You must contrary me. Marry, ’tis time.—

(85) 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!

[The music plays again, and the guests dance]

TYBALT

Patience perforce with willful choler meeting

Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.

(90) I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall

Now seeming sweet, convert to bitterest gall.

[TYBALT exits.]

ROMEO

(taking JULIET’s hand) If I profane with my unworthiest hand

This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:

(95) My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand

To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

JULIET

Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,

Which mannerly devotion shows in this,

For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,

And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.

ROMEO

(100) Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?

JULIET

Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

ROMEO

O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do.

They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

JULIET

Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake.

ROMEO

(105) Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take.

[He kisses her]

Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged.

JULIET

Then have my lips the sin that they have took.

ROMEO

Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!

(110) Give me my sin again.

[They kiss again]

JULIET

You kiss by th’ book.

NURSE

Madam, your mother craves a word with you.

[JULIET moves away]

ROMEO

What is her mother?

NURSE

Marry, bachelor,

Her mother is the lady of the house,

And a good lady, and a wise and virtuous.

(115) I nursed her daughter that you talked withal.

I tell you, he that can lay hold of her

Shall have the chinks.

ROMEO

(aside) Is she a Capulet?

O dear account! My life is my foe’s debt.

BENVOLIO

(to ROMEO) Away, begone. The sport is at the best.

ROMEO

(120) Ay, so I fear. The more is my unrest.

CAPULET

Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone.

We have a trifling foolish banquet towards.—

Is it e’en so? Why, then, I thank you all.

I thank you, honest gentlemen. Good night.—

(125) More torches here!—Come on then, let’s to bed.

Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late.

I’ll to my rest.

[Everyone except JULIET and NURSE begins to exit.]

JULIET

Come hither, Nurse. What is yond gentleman?

NURSE

The son and heir of old Tiberio.

JULIET

(130) What’s he that now is going out of door?

NURSE

Marry, that, I think, be young Petruchio.

JULIET

What’s he that follows here, that would not dance?

NURSE

I know not.

JULIET

Go ask his name.—If he be married.

(135) My grave is like to be my wedding bed.

NURSE

His name is Romeo, and a Montague,

The only son of your great enemy.

JULIET

(aside) My only love sprung from my only hate!

Too early seen unknown, and known too late!

(140) Prodigious birth of love it is to me,

That I must love a loathèd enemy.

NURSE

What’s this? What’s this?

JULIET

A rhyme I learned even now

Of one I danced withal.

[Somebody calls “Juliet!” offstage.]

NURSE

Anon, anon!

Come, let’s away. The strangers all are gone.

[They exit.]

Act 2, Prologue

[The CHORUS enters.]

CHORUS

Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie,

And young affection gapes to be his heir.

That fair for which love groaned for and would die

With tender Juliet matched, is now not fair.

(5) 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

(10) To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear.

And she as much in love, her means much less

To meet her new beloved anywhere.

But passion lends them power, time means, to meet,

Tempering extremities with extreme sweet.

[The CHORUS exits.]

Act 2, Scene 1

[ROMEO enters alone.]

ROMEO

Can I go forward when my heart is here?

Turn back, dull earth, and find thy center out.

[ROMEO moves away. BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO enter.]

BENVOLIO

Romeo, my cousin Romeo! Romeo!

MERCUTIO

He is wise,

And, on my life, hath stol’n him home to bed.

BENVOLIO

(5) He ran this way and leapt this orchard wall.

Call, good Mercutio.

MERCUTIO

Nay, I’ll conjure too!

Romeo! Humours, madman, passion, lover!

Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh!

Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied.

(10) 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 true

When King Cophetua loved the beggar maid.—

(15) 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,

(20) And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,

That in thy likeness thou appear to us.

BENVOLIO

An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him.

MERCUTIO

This cannot anger him. ‘Twould anger him

To raise a spirit in his mistress’ circle

(25) Of some strange nature, letting it there stand

Till she had laid it and conjured it down.

That were some spite. My invocation

Is fair and honest. In his mistress’ name

I conjure only but to raise up him.

BENVOLIO

(30) To be consorted with the humorous night.

Blind is his love and best befits the dark.

MERCUTIO

If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.

Now will he sit under a medlar tree

(35) And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit

As maids call medlars when they laugh alone.—

O Romeo, that she were! Oh, that she were

An open arse, and thou a poperin pear.

Romeo, good night. I’ll to my truckle bed.

(40) This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep.—

Come, shall we go?

BENVOLIO

Go, then, for ’tis in vain

To seek him here that means not to be found.

[BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO exit.]

Act 2, Scene 2

[ROMEO returns.]

ROMEO

He jests at scars that never felt a wound.

[JULIET enters on the balcony.]

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,

(5) 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!

(10) It is my lady. Oh, it is my love.

Oh, that she knew she were!

She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that?

Her eye discourses. I will answer it.—

I am too bold. ‘Tis not to me she speaks.

(15) 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

(20) 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.

Oh, that I were a glove upon that hand

(25) That I might touch that cheek!

JULIET

Ay me!

ROMEO

(aside) She speaks.

O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art

As glorious to this night, being o’er my head,

As is a wingèd messenger of heaven

Unto the white, upturnèd, wondering eyes

(30) Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him

When he bestrides the lazy-puffing clouds

And sails upon the bosom of the air.

JULIET

O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?

Deny thy father and refuse thy name.

(35) Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,

And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.

ROMEO

(aside) Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?

JULIET

‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy.

Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.

(40) What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,

Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part

Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other word would smell as sweet.

(45) So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called,

Retain that dear perfection which he owes

Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,

And for that name, which is no part of thee

Take all myself.

ROMEO

I take thee at thy word.

(50) Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized.

Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

JULIET

What man art thou that, thus bescreened in night,

So stumblest on my counsel?

ROMEO

By a name

I know not how to tell thee who I am.

(55) My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself

Because it is an enemy to thee.

Had I it written, I would tear the word.

JULIET

My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words

Of that tongue’s uttering, yet I know the sound.

(60) Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?

ROMEO

Neither, fair maid, if either thee dislike.

JULIET

How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?

The orchard walls are high and hard to climb,

And the place death, considering who thou art,

(65) If any of my kinsmen find thee here.

ROMEO

With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls,

For stony limits cannot hold love out,

And what love can do, that dares love attempt.

Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me.

JULIET

(70) If they do see thee they will murder thee.

ROMEO

Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye

Than twenty of their swords. Look thou but sweet,

And I am proof against their enmity.

JULIET

I would not for the world they saw thee here.

ROMEO

(75) I have night’s cloak to hide me from their eyes,

And but thou love me, let them find me here.

My life were better ended by their hate

Than death proroguèd, wanting of thy love.

JULIET

By whose direction found’st thou out this place?

ROMEO

(80) By love, that first did prompt me to inquire.

He lent me counsel and I lent him eyes.

I am no pilot. Yet, wert thou as far

As that vast shore washed with the farthest sea,

I would adventure for such merchandise.

JULIET

(85) Thou know’st the mask of night is on my face,

Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek

For that which thou hast heard me speak tonight.

Fain would I dwell on form. Fain, fain deny

What I have spoke. But farewell compliment!

(90) 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.

(95) Or if thou think’st 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.

(100) But trust me, gentleman, I’ll prove more true

Than those that have more coying to be strange.

I should have been more strange, I must confess,

But that thou overheard’st, ere I was ‘ware,

My true love’s passion. Therefore pardon me,

(105) And not impute this yielding to light love,

Which the dark night hath so discovered.

ROMEO

Lady, by yonder blessèd moon I vow,

That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops—

JULIET

O, swear not by the moon, th’ inconstant moon,

(110) That monthly changes in her circle orb,

Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.

ROMEO

What shall I swear by?

JULIET

Do not swear at all.

Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self,

Which is the god of my idolatry,

(115) And I’ll believe thee.

ROMEO

If my heart’s dear love—

JULIET

Well, do not swear. Although I joy in thee,

I have no joy of this contract tonight.

It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,

Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be

(120) Ere one can say “It lightens.” Sweet, good night.

This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath,

May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.

Good night, good night! As sweet repose and rest

Come to thy heart as that within my breast.

ROMEO

(125) O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?

JULIET

What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?

ROMEO

Th’ exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine.

JULIET

I gave thee mine before thou didst request it,

And yet I would it were to give again.

ROMEO

(130) Wouldst thou withdraw it? For what purpose, love?

JULIET

But to be frank, and give it thee again.

And yet I wish but for the thing I have.

My bounty is as boundless as the sea,

My love as deep. The more I give to thee,

(135) The more I have, for both are infinite.

[The NURSE calls from offstage.]

I hear some noise within. Dear love, adieu.—

Anon, good Nurse!—Sweet Montague, be true.

Stay but a little. I will come again.

[JULIET exits.]

ROMEO

O blessèd, blessèd night! I am afeard,

(140) Being in night, all this is but a dream,

Too flattering sweet to be substantial.

[JULIET enters on her balcony.]

JULIET

Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed.

If that thy bent of love be honorable,

Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow

(145) By one that I’ll procure to come to thee

Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite,

And all my fortunes at thy foot I’ll lay

And follow thee my lord throughout the world.

NURSE

(from within) Madam!

JULIET

(150) I come, anon.—But if thou mean’st not well,

I do beseech thee—

NURSE

(from within) Madam!

JULIET

By and by, I come.—

To cease thy strife and leave me to my grief.

(155) Tomorrow will I send.

ROMEO

So thrive my soul—

JULIET

A thousand times good night!

[JULIET exits.]

ROMEO

A thousand times the worse to want thy light.

Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books,

(160) But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.

[ROMEO starts to leave. JULIET returns, on her balcony.]

JULIET

Hist! Romeo, hist!—Oh, for a falconer’s voice,

To lure this tassel-gentle back again!

Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud,

Else would I tear the cave where Echo lies,

(165) And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine,

With repetition of “My Romeo!”

ROMEO

It is my soul that calls upon my name.

How silver-sweet sound lovers’ tongues by night,

Like softest music to attending ears!

JULIET

(170) Romeo!

ROMEO

My nyas?

JULIET

What o’clock tomorrow

Shall I send to thee?

ROMEO

By the hour of nine.

JULIET

I will not fail. ‘Tis twenty year till then.

I have forgot why I did call thee back.

ROMEO

Let me stand here till thou remember it.

JULIET

(175) I shall forget, to have thee still stand there,

Remembering how I love thy company.

ROMEO

And I’ll still stay, to have thee still forget,

Forgetting any other home but this.

JULIET

‘Tis almost morning. I would have thee gone.

(180) And yet no further than a wanton’s bird,

That lets it hop a little from his hand

Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,

And with a silken thread plucks it back again,

So loving-jealous of his liberty.

ROMEO

(185) I would I were thy bird.

JULIET

Sweet, so would I.

Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.

Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow

That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

[JULIET exits.]

ROMEO

Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast.

(190) Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest.

Hence will I to my ghostly friar’s close cell,

His help to crave and my dear hap to tell.

[He exits.]

Act 2, Scene 3

[FRIAR LAWRENCE enters by himself, carrying a basket.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,

Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light,

And fleckled darkness like a drunkard reels

From forth day’s path and Titan’s fiery wheels.

(5) Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye,

The day to cheer and night’s dank dew to dry,

I must upfill this osier cage of ours

With baleful weeds and precious-juicèd flowers.

The earth, that’s natu re’s mother, is her tomb.

(10) 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.

(15) Oh, mickle is the powerful grace that lies

In herbs, plants, 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

(20) Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse.

Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied,

And vice sometime by action dignified.

[ROMEO enters.]

Within the infant rind of this small flower

Poison hath residence and medicine power.

(25) 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,

(30) Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.

ROMEO

Good morrow, Father.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Benedicite.

What early tongue so sweet saluteth me?

Young son, it argues a distempered head

So soon to bid good morrow to thy bed.

(35) 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

Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign.

Therefore thy earliness doth me assure

(40) Thou art uproused by some distemperature.

Or if not so, then here I hit it right:

Our Romeo hath not been in bed tonight.

ROMEO

That last is true. The sweeter rest was mine.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

God pardon sin! Wast thou with Rosaline?

ROMEO

(45) With Rosaline, my ghostly Father? No.

I have forgot that name and that name’s woe.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

That’s my good son. But where hast thou been, then?

ROMEO

I’ll tell thee ere thou ask it me again.

I have been feasting with mine enemy,

(50) 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.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(55) Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift.

Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift.

ROMEO

Then plainly know my heart’s dear love is set

On the fair daughter of rich Capulet.

As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine,

(60) And all combined, save what thou must combine

By holy marriage. When and where and how

We met, we wooed and made exchange of vow,

I’ll tell thee as we pass, but this I pray:

That thou consent to marry us today.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(65) Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here!

Is Rosaline, whom 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

(70) 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 ring yet in my ancient ears.

(75) 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:

(80) Women may fall when there’s no strength in men.

ROMEO

Thou chid’st me oft for loving Rosaline.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

For doting, not for loving, pupil mine.

ROMEO

And badest me bury love.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Not in a grave,

To lay one in, another out to have.

ROMEO

(85) I pray thee, chide not. Her I love now

Doth grace for grace and love for love allow.

The other did not so.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Oh, she knew well

Thy love did read by rote, that could not spell.

But come, young waverer, come, go with me,

(90) In one respect I’ll thy assistant be,

For this alliance may so happy prove

To turn your households’ rancor to pure love.

ROMEO

Oh, let us hence. I stand on sudden haste.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.

[They exit.]

Act 2, Scene 4

[BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO enter.]

MERCUTIO

Where the devil should this Romeo be?

Came he not home tonight?

BENVOLIO

Not to his father’s. I spoke with his man.

MERCUTIO

Why, that same pale hard-hearted wench, that Rosaline,

(5) Torments him so, that he will sure run mad.

BENVOLIO

Tybalt, the kinsman to old Capulet,

Hath sent a letter to his father’s house.

MERCUTIO

A challenge, on my life.

BENVOLIO

Romeo will answer it.

MERCUTIO

(10) Any man that can write may answer a letter.

BENVOLIO

Nay, he will answer the letter’s master, how he dares, being dared.

MERCUTIO

(15) Alas, poor Romeo! He is already dead, stabbed with a white wench’s black eye, shot through the ear with a love song, the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy’s butt shaft. And is he a man to encounter Tybalt?

BENVOLIO

Why, what is Tybalt?

MERCUTIO

(20) More than Prince of Cats. Oh, he’s the courageous captain of compliments. He fights as you sing prick-song, keeps time, distance, and proportion. He rests his minim rests—one, two, and the third in your bosom. The very butcher of a silk button, a duelist, a duelist, a gentleman of the very first house of the first and second cause. Ah, the immortal passado, the punto reverso, the hai!

BENVOLIO

(25) The what?

MERCUTIO

The pox on such antic, lisping, affecting fantasmines, these new tuners of accents! “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? Oh, their bones, their bones!

[ROMEO enters.]

BENVOLIO

Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo.

MERCUTIO

(35) Without his roe, like a dried herring. O flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified! Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in. Laura to his lady was but 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 grey eye or so, but not to the purpose.— Signior Romeo, bonjour! There’s a French salutation to your French slop. You gave us the counterfeit fairly last night.

ROMEO

Good morrow to you both. What counterfeit did I give you?

MERCUTIO

(45) The slip, sir, the slip. Can you not conceive?

ROMEO

Pardon, good Mercutio, my business was great, and in such a case as mine a man may strain courtesy.

MERCUTIO

That’s as much as to say, such a case as yours constrains a man to bow in the hams.

ROMEO

(50) Meaning “to curtsy”?

MERCUTIO

Thou hast most kindly hit it.

ROMEO

A most courteous exposition.

MERCUTIO

Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy.

ROMEO

Pink for flower.

MERCUTIO

(55) Right.

ROMEO

Why, then is my pump well flowered.

MERCUTIO

Sure wit, follow me this jest now till thou hast worn out thy pump, that when the single sole of it is worn, the jest may remain, after the wearing solely singular.

ROMEO

(60) O single-soled jest, solely singular for the singleness.

MERCUTIO

Come between us, good Benvolio. My wits faints.

ROMEO

Switch and spurs, switch and spurs, or I’ll cry a match.

MERCUTIO

(65) Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase, I am done, for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five. Was I with you there for the goose?

ROMEO

Thou wast never with me for anything when thou wast not there for the goose.

MERCUTIO

I will bite thee by the ear for that jest.

ROMEO

Nay, good goose, bite not.

MERCUTIO

(70) Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting. It is a most sharp sauce.

ROMEO

And is it not well served into a sweet goose?

MERCUTIO

Oh, here’s a wit of cheveril, that stretches from an inch narrow to an ell broad!

ROMEO

(75) I stretch it out for that word “broad,” which, added to the goose, proves thee far and wide a broad goose.

MERCUTIO

Why, is not this better now than groaning for love? Now art thou sociable. Now art thou Romeo. Now art thou what thou art—by art as well as by nature, for this driveling love is like a great natural that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole.

BENVOLIO

(80) Stop there, stop there.

MERCUTIO

Thou desirest me to stop in my tale against the hair.

BENVOLIO

Thou wouldst else have made thy tale large.

MERCUTIO

(85) Oh, thou art deceived. I would have made it short, for I was come to the whole depth of my tale, and meant, indeed, to occupy the argument no longer.

[The NURSE enters with her servant, PETER.]

ROMEO

Here’s goodly gear.

BENVOLIO

A sail, a sail!

MERCUTIO

Two, two—a shirt and a smock.

NURSE

(90) Peter!

PETER

Anon!

NURSE

My fan, Peter.

MERCUTIO

Good, Peter, to hide her face, for her fan’s the fairer face.

NURSE

God ye good morrow, gentlemen.

MERCUTIO

(95) God ye good e’en, fair gentlewoman.

NURSE

Is it good e’en?

MERCUTIO

‘Tis no less, I tell you, for the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon.

NURSE

Out upon you! What a man are you?

MERCUTIO

One, gentlewoman, that God hath made, himself to mar.

NURSE

(100) By my troth, it is well said. “For himself to mar,” quoth he? Gentlemen, can any of you tell me where I may find the young Romeo?

ROMEO

I can tell you, but young Romeo will be older when you have found him than he was when you sought him. I am the youngest of that name, for fault of a worse.

NURSE

(105) You say well.

MERCUTIO

Yea, is the worst well? Very well took, i’ faith, wisely, wisely.

NURSE

If you be he, sir, I desire some confidence with you.

BENVOLIO

She will indite him to some supper.

MERCUTIO

(110) A bawd, a bawd, a bawd! So ho!

ROMEO

What hast thou found?

MERCUTIO

No hare, sir, unless a hare, sir, in a Lenten pie—that is, something stale and hoar ere it be spent.

[sings]

An old hare hoar,

(115) 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.

[speaks]

(120) Romeo, will you come to your father’s? We’ll to dinner, thither.

(sings)

(speaking)

ROMEO

I will follow you.

MERCUTIO

Farewell, ancient lady. Farewell, lady, lady, lady.

[BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO exit.]

NURSE

I pray you, sir, what saucy merchant was this that was so full of his ropery?

ROMEO

(125) A gentleman, Nurse, that loves to hear himself talk, and will speak more in a minute than he will stand to in a month.

NURSE

An he speak any thing against me, I’ll take him down, an he were lustier than he is, and twenty such Jacks. And if I cannot, I’ll find those that shall. Scurvy knave! I am none of his flirt-gills. I am none of his skains-mates. (to PETER) And thou must stand by, too, and suffer every knave to use me at his pleasure?

PETER

I saw no man use you at his pleasure. If I had, my weapon should quickly have been out, I warrant you. I dare draw as soon as another man if I see occasion in a good quarrel and the law on my side.

NURSE

Now, afore God, I am so vexed that every part about me quivers. Scurvy knave! (to ROMEO) Pray you, sir, a word. And as I told you, my young lady bid me inquire you out. What she bade me say, I will keep to myself. But first let me tell ye, if ye should lead her into a fool’s paradise, as they say, it were a very gross kind of behavior, as they say. For the gentlewoman is young, and therefore, if you should deal double with her, truly it were an ill thing to be offered to any gentlewoman, and very weak dealing.

ROMEO

(145) Nurse, commend me to thy lady and mistress. I protest unto thee—

NURSE

Good heart, and i’ faith, I will tell her as much. Lord, Lord, she will be a joyful woman.

ROMEO

(150) What wilt thou tell her, Nurse? Thou dost not mark me.

NURSE

I will tell her, sir, that you do protest, which, as I take it, is a gentlemanlike offer.

ROMEO

Bid her devise

Some means to come to shrift this afternoon.

(155) And there she shall at Friar Lawrence’ cell

Be shrived and married. (gives her coins) Here is for thy pains.

NURSE

No, truly, sir. Not a penny.

ROMEO

Go to. I say you shall.

NURSE

(takes the money) This afternoon, sir? Well, she shall be there.

ROMEO

And stay, good Nurse. Behind the abbey wall

(160) Within this hour my man shall be with thee

And bring thee cords made like a tackled stair,

Which to the high top-gallant of my joy

Must be my convoy in the secret night.

Farewell. Be trusty, and I’ll quit thy pains.

(165) Farewell. Commend me to thy mistress.

NURSE

Now God in heaven bless thee! Hark you, sir.

ROMEO

What sayst thou, my dear Nurse?

NURSE

Is your man secret? Did you ne’er hear say,

“Two may keep counsel, putting one away”?

ROMEO

(170) Warrant thee, my man’s as true as steel.

NURSE

Well, sir, my mistress is the sweetest lady.—Lord, Lord! when ’twas a little prating thing.—Oh, there is a nobleman in town, one Paris, that would fain lay knife aboard, but she, good soul, had as lief see a toad, a very toad, as see him. I anger her sometimes and tell her that Paris is the properer man. But, I’ll warrant you, when I say so, she looks as pale as any clout in the versal world. Doth not rosemary and Romeo begin both with a letter?

ROMEO

(180) Ay, Nurse, what of that? Both with an R.

NURSE

Ah, mocker, that’s the dog’s name. R is for the—No, I know it begins with some other letter, and she hath the prettiest sententious of it, of you and rosemary, that it would do you good to hear it.

ROMEO

(185) Commend me to thy lady.

NURSE

Ay, a thousand times —Peter!

PETER

Anon!

NURSE

Before and apace.

[All exit.]

Act 2, Scene 5

[JULIET enters.]

JULIET

The clock struck nine when I did send the Nurse.

In half an hour she promised to return.

Perchance she cannot meet him. That’s not so.

Oh, she is lame! Love’s heralds should be thoughts,

(5) Which ten times faster glide than the sun’s beams,

Driving back shadows over louring hills.

Therefore do nimble-pinioned doves draw love

And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.

Now is the sun upon the highmost hill

(10) 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,

(15) And his to me.

But old folks, many feign as they were dead,

Unwieldy, slow, heavy, and pale as lead.

[The NURSE and PETER enter.]

O God, she comes.—O honey Nurse, what news?

Hast thou met with him? Send thy man away.

NURSE

(20) Peter, stay at the gate.

[PETER exits.]

JULIET

Now, good sweet Nurse— O Lord, why look’st thou sad?

Though news be sad, yet tell them merrily.

If good, thou shamest the music of sweet news

By playing it to me with so sour a face.

NURSE

(25) I am aweary. Give me leave awhile.

Fie, how my bones ache! What a jaunt have I!

JULIET

I would thou hadst my bones and I thy news.

Nay, come, I pray thee, speak. Good, good Nurse, speak.

NURSE

Jesu, what haste! Can you not stay awhile?

(30) Do you not see that I am out of breath?

JULIET

How art thou out of breath when thou hast breath

To say to me that thou art out of breath?

The excuse that thou dost make in this delay

Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse.

(35) Is thy news good, or bad? Answer to that.

Say either, and I’ll stay the circumstance.

Let me be satisfied. Is ’t good or bad?

NURSE

Well, you have made a simple choice. You know not how to choose a man. Romeo! No, not he, though his face be better than any man’s, yet his leg excels all men’s, and for a hand and a foot and a body, though they be not to be talked on, yet they are past compare. He is not the flower of courtesy, but, I’ll warrant him, as gentle as a lamb. Go thy ways, wench. Serve God. What, have you dined at home?

JULIET

(45) No, no. But all this did I know before.

What says he of our marriage? What of that?

NURSE

Lord, how my head aches! What a head have I!

It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces.

(50) My back a’ t’ other side. Ah, my back, my back!

Beshrew your heart for sending me about,

To catch my death with jaunting up and down!

JULIET

I’ faith, I am sorry that thou art not well.

Sweet, sweet, sweet Nurse, tell me, what says my love?

NURSE

(55) Your love says, like an honest gentleman, and a courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, and, I warrant, a virtuous— Where is your mother?

JULIET

Where is my mother? Why, she is within.

Where should she be? How oddly thou repliest!

(60) “Your love says, like an honest gentleman,

‘Where is your mother?’”

NURSE

O God’s lady dear,

Are you so hot? Marry, come up, I trow.

Is this the poultice for my aching bones?

Henceforward do your messages yourself.

JULIET

(65) Here’s such a coil. Come, what says Romeo?

NURSE

Have you got leave to go to shrift today?

JULIET

I have.

NURSE

Then hie you hence to Friar Lawrence’s cell.

There stays a husband to make you a wife.

(70) 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.

(75) I am the drudge and toil in your delight,

But you shall bear the burden soon at night.

Go. I’ll to dinner. Hie you to the cell.

JULIET

Hie to high fortune! Honest Nurse, farewell.

[They exit.]

Act 2, Scene 6

[FRIAR LAWRENCE and ROMEO enter.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

So smile the heavens upon this holy act

That after-hours with sorrow chide us not.

ROMEO

Amen, amen. But come what sorrow can,

It cannot countervail the exchange of joy

(5) That one short minute gives me in her sight.

Do thou but close our hands with holy words,

Then love-devouring death do what he dare;

It is enough I may but call her mine.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

These violent delights have violent ends

(10) 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.

(15) Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.

[JULIET rushes in and embraces ROMEO.]

Here comes the lady. Oh, 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,

(20) And yet not fall. So light is vanity.

JULIET

Good even to my ghostly confessor.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both.

JULIET

As much to him, else is his thanks too much.

ROMEO

Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy

(25) Be heaped like mine, and that thy skill be more

To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath

This neighbor air, and let rich music’s tongue

Unfold the imagined happiness that both

Receive in either by this dear encounter.

JULIET

(30) Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,

Brags of his substance, not of ornament.

They are but beggars that can count their worth.

But my true love is grown to such excess

I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(35) Come, come with me, and we will make short work.

For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone

Till holy church incorporate two in one.

[They exit.]

Act 3, Scene 1

[MERCUTIO, his page, and BENVOLIO enter with other men.]

BENVOLIO

I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire.

The day is hot; the Capulets, abroad;

And if we meet we shall not ’scape a brawl,

For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.

MERCUTIO

(5) Thou art like one of those fellows that, when he enters the confines of a tavern, claps me his sword upon the table and says “God send me no need of thee!” and, by the operation of the second cup, draws it on the drawer when indeed there is no need.

BENVOLIO

(10) Am I like such a fellow?

MERCUTIO

Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood as any in Italy, and as soon moved to be moody, and as soon moody to be moved.

BENVOLIO

And what to?

MERCUTIO

(15) Nay, an there were two such, we should have none shortly, for one would kill the other. Thou, why, thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more or a hair less in his beard than thou hast. Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes. What eye but such an eye would spy out such a quarrel? Thy head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of meat, and yet thy head hath been beaten as addle as an egg for quarreling. Thou hast quarreled with a man for coughing in the street because he hath wakened thy dog that hath lain asleep in the sun. Didst thou not fall out with a tailor for wearing his new doublet before Easter? With another, for tying his new shoes with old ribbon? And yet thou wilt tutor me from quarreling!

BENVOLIO

(30) An I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any man should buy the fee simple of my life for an hour and a quarter.

MERCUTIO

The fee simple? O simple!

[TYBALT, PETRUCHIO, and some other CAPULETS enter.]

BENVOLIO

By my head, here comes the Capulets.

MERCUTIO

By my heel, I care not.

TYBALT

Follow me close, for I will speak to them.

(35) Gentlemen, good e’en. A word with one of you.

MERCUTIO

And but one word with one of us? Couple it with something. Make it a word and a blow.

TYBALT

You shall find me apt enough to that, sir, an you will give me occasion.

MERCUTIO

Could you not take some occasion without giving?

TYBALT

(40) Mercutio, thou consort’st with Romeo.

MERCUTIO

Consort? What, dost thou make us minstrels? An thou make minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords. Here’s my fiddlestick. Here’s that shall make you dance. Zounds, “consort”!

BENVOLIO

(45) We talk here in the public haunt of men.

Either withdraw unto some private place,

And reason coldly of your grievances,

Or else depart. Here all eyes gaze on us.

MERCUTIO

Men’s eyes were made to look and let them gaze.

(50) I will not budge for no man’s pleasure, I.

[ROMEO enters.]

TYBALT

Well, peace be with you, sir. Here comes my man.

MERCUTIO

But I’ll be hanged, sir, if he wear your livery.

Marry, go before to field, he’ll be your follower.

Your worship in that sense may call him “man.”

TYBALT

(55) Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford

No better term than this: thou art a villain.

ROMEO

Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee

Doth much excuse the appertaining rage

To such a greeting. Villain am I none.

(60) Therefore, farewell. I see thou know’st me not.

TYBALT

Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries

That thou hast done me. Therefore turn and draw.

ROMEO

I do protest I never injured thee,

But love thee better than thou canst devise,

(65) Till thou shalt know the reason of my love.

And so, good Capulet—which name I tender

As dearly as my own—be satisfied.

MERCUTIO

O calm dishonourable, vile submission!

Alla stoccata carries it away. (draws his sword)

(70) Tybalt, you ratcatcher, will you walk?

TYBALT

What wouldst thou have with me?

MERCUTIO

(75) Good King of Cats, nothing but one of your nine lives, that I mean to make bold withal, and, as you shall use me hereafter, dry-beat the rest of the eight. Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher by the ears? Make haste, lest mine be about your ears ere it be out.

TYBALT

I am for you. (draws his sword)

ROMEO

Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up.

MERCUTIO

Come, sir, your passado.

[MERCUTIO and TYBALT fight]

ROMEO

(80) (draws his sword) Draw, Benvolio. Beat down their weapons.

Gentlemen, for shame! Forbear this outrage.

Tybalt, Mercutio! The Prince expressly hath

Forbidden bandying in Verona streets.

Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio!

ROMEO tries to break up the fight. TYBALT stabs Mercutio under ROMEO’s outstretched arm.

PETRUCHIO

(85) Away, Tybalt.

[TYBALT, PETRUCHIO, and the other CAPULETS exit.]

MERCUTIO

I am hurt.

A plague o’ both your houses! I am sped.

Is he gone and hath nothing?

BENVOLIO

What, art thou hurt?

MERCUTIO

Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch. Marry, ’tis enough.

(90) Where is my page?—Go, villain, fetch a surgeon.

[MERCUTIO’S PAGE exits.]

ROMEO

Courage, man. The hurt cannot be much.

MERCUTIO

No, ’tis not so deep as a well nor so wide as a church-door, but ’tis enough, ’twill serve. Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o’ both your houses! Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat to scratch a man to death! A braggart, a rogue, a villain that fights by the book of arithmetic! Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.

ROMEO

(100) I thought all for the best.

MERCUTIO

Help me into some house, Benvolio,

Or I shall faint. A plague o’ both your houses!

They have made worms’ meat of me. I have it,

And soundly too. Your houses!

[MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO exit.]

ROMEO

(105) This gentleman, the Prince’s near ally,

My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt

In my behalf. My reputation stained

With Tybalt’s slander.—Tybalt, that an hour

Hath been my kinsman! O sweet Juliet,

(110) Thy beauty hath made me effeminate

And in my temper softened valor’s steel!

[BENVOLIO enters.]

BENVOLIO

O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio is dead!

That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds,

Which too untimely here did scorn the earth.

ROMEO

(115) This day’s black fate on more days doth depend.

This but begins the woe others must end.

[TYBALT enters.]

BENVOLIO

Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.

ROMEO

Alive in triumph—and Mercutio slain!

Away to heaven, respective lenity,

(120) 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.

(125) Either thou or I, or both, must go with him.

TYBALT

Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort him here

Shalt with him hence.

ROMEO

This shall determine that.

[They fight. TYBALT falls and dies.]

BENVOLIO

Romeo, away, be gone!

The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain.

(130) Stand not amazed. The Prince will doom thee death

If thou art taken. Hence, be gone, away!

ROMEO

Oh, I am fortune’s fool!

BENVOLIO

Why dost thou stay?

[ROMEO exits.]

[The CITIZENS OF THE WATCH enter.]

CITIZEN OF THE WATCH

Which way ran he that killed Mercutio?

(135) Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he?

BENVOLIO

There lies that Tybalt.

CITIZEN OF THE WATCH

(to TYBALT) Up, sir, go with me.

I charge thee in the Prince’s name, obey.

[The PRINCE enters with MONTAGUE, CAPULET, LADY MONTAGUE, LADY CAPULET, and OTHERS.]

PRINCE

Where are the vile beginners of this fray?

BENVOLIO

(140) O noble prince, I can discover all

The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl.

There lies the man, slain by young Romeo,

That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio.

LADY CAPULET

Tybalt, my cousin! O my brother’s child!

(145) O Prince! O cousin! Husband! Oh, the blood is spilled

Of my dear kinsman! Prince, as thou art true,

For blood of ours shed blood of Montague.

O cousin, cousin!

PRINCE

Benvolio, who began this bloody fray?

BENVOLIO

Tybalt here slain, whom Romeo’s hand did slay.

(150) Romeo, that spoke him fair, bade him bethink

How nice the quarrel was and urged withal

Your high displeasure. All this uttered

With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bowed,

Could not take truce with the unruly spleen

(155) 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

(160) 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,

(165) 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,

(170) And to ’t they go like lightning, for ere I

Could draw to part them was stout Tybalt slain.

And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly.

This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.

LADY CAPULET

He is a kinsman to the Montague.

(175) Affection makes him false. He speaks not true.

Some twenty of them fought in this black strife,

And all those twenty could but kill one life.

I beg for justice, which thou, Prince, must give.

Romeo slew Tybalt. Romeo must not live.

PRINCE

(180) Romeo slew him; he slew Mercutio.

Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?

MONTAGUE

Not Romeo, Prince, he was Mercutio’s friend.

His fault concludes but what the law should end,

The life of Tybalt.

PRINCE

And for that offence

(185) 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.

(190) 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’s found, that hour is his last.

Bear hence this body and attend our will.

Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.

[They exit.]

Act 3, Scene 2

[JULIET enters alone.]

JULIET

Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,

Toward Phoebus’ lodging. Such a wagoner

As Phaeton would whip you to the west

And bring in cloudy night immediately.

(5) 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,

(10) 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,

(15) 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.

(20) 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

(25) And pay no worship to the garish sun.

Oh, 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

(30) To an impatient child that hath new robes

And may not wear them.

[The NURSE enters carrying the rope ladder.]

Oh, here comes my Nurse,

And she brings news, and every tongue that speaks

But Romeo’s name speaks heavenly eloquence.—

Now, Nurse, what news? What hast thou there? The cords

That Romeo bid thee fetch?

NURSE

(35) Ay, ay, the cords.

JULIET

Ay me, what news? Why dost thou wring thy hands?

NURSE

Ah, weraday! He’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead!

We are undone, lady, we are undone!

Alack the day! He’s gone, he’s killed, he’s dead!

JULIET

(40) Can heaven be so envious?

NURSE

Romeo can,

Though heaven cannot. O Romeo, Romeo!

Who ever would have thought it? Romeo!

JULIET

What devil art thou that dost torment me thus?

(45) 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,

(50) Or those eyes shut that makes thee answer “ay.”

If he be slain, say “ay,” or if not, “no.”

Brief sounds determine of my weal or woe.

NURSE

I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes—

God save the mark!—here on his manly breast.

(55) A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse.

Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaubed in blood,

All in gore blood. I swoonèd at the sight.

JULIET

O, break, my heart, poor bankrupt, break at once!

To prison, eyes, ne’er look on liberty.

(60) Vile earth, to earth resign. End motion here,

And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier.

NURSE

O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had!

O courteous Tybalt! Honest gentleman!

That ever I should live to see thee dead.

JULIET

(65) What storm is this that blows so contrary?

Is Romeo slaughtered, and is Tybalt dead?

My dearest cousin and my dearer lord?

Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom!

For who is living if those two are gone?

NURSE

(70) Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banishèd.

Romeo that killed him—he is banishèd.

JULIET

O God, did Romeo’s hand shed Tybalt’s blood?

NURSE

It did, it did. Alas the day, it did.

JULIET

O serpent heart hid with a flowering face!

(75) 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.

(80) 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 moral paradise of such sweet flesh?

Was ever book containing such vile matter

(85) So fairly bound? Oh, that deceit should dwell

In such a gorgeous palace!

NURSE

There’s no trust,

No faith, no honesty in men. All perjured,

All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.

Ah, where’s my man?—Give me some aqua vitae.—

(90) These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old.

Shame come to Romeo!

JULIET

Blistered be thy tongue

For such a wish! He was not born to shame.

Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit,

For ’tis a throne where honor may be crowned.

(95) Sole monarch of the universal earth,

Oh, what a beast was I to chide at him!

NURSE

Will you speak well of him that killed your cousin?

JULIET

Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?

Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name,

(100) 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,

(105) 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,

(110) That murdered me. I would forget it fain,

But oh, it presses to my memory,

Like damnèd guilty deeds to sinners’ minds.

“Tybalt is dead, and Romeo banishèd.”

That “banishèd,” that one word “banishèd”

(115) 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,”

(120) “Thy father” or “thy mother,” nay, or both,

Which modern lamentations might have moved?

But with a rearward following Tybalt’s death,

“Romeo is banishèd.” To speak that word,

Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,

(125) All slain, all dead. “Romeo is banishèd.”

There is no end, no limit, measure, bound,

In that word’s death. No words can that woe sound. Where is my father and my mother, Nurse?

NURSE

Weeping and wailing over Tybalt’s corse.

(130) Will you go to them? I will bring you thither.

JULIET

Wash they his wounds with tears? Mine shall be spent

When theirs are dry, for Romeo’s banishment.

Take up those cords.—Poor ropes, you are beguiled,

Both you and I, for Romeo is exiled.

(135) 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!

NURSE

Hie to your chamber. I’ll find Romeo

(140) To comfort you. I wot well where he is.

Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at night.

I’ll to him. He is hid at Lawrence’ cell.

JULIET

(gives the NURSE a ring)O, find him! Give this ring to my true knight,

And bid him come to take his last farewell.

[They exit.]

Act 3, Scene 3

[FRIAR LAWRENCE enters.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Romeo, come forth. Come forth, thou fearful man.

Affliction is enamoured of thy parts,

And thou art wedded to calamity.

[ROMEO enters.]

ROMEO

Father, what news? What is the Prince’s doom?

(5) What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand

That I yet know not?

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Too familiar

Is my dear son with such sour company.

I bring thee tidings of the Prince’s doom.

ROMEO

What less than doomsday is the Prince’s doom?

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(10) A gentler judgment vanished from his lips:

Not body’s death, but body’s banishment.

ROMEO

Ha, banishment! Be merciful, say “death,”

For exile hath more terror in his look,

Much more than death. Do not say “banishment.”

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(15) Hence from Verona art thou banishèd.

Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.

ROMEO

There is no world without Verona walls

But purgatory, torture, hell itself.

Hence “banishèd” is banished from the world,

(20) And world’s exile is death. Then “banishèd,”

Is death mistermed. Calling death “banishment,”

Thou cutt’st my head off with a golden ax

And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!

(25) Thy fault our law calls death, but the kind Prince,

Taking thy part, hath rushed aside the law,

And turned that black word “death” to “banishment.”

This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not.

ROMEO

‘Tis torture and not mercy. Heaven is here,

(30) 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

(35) 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.

(40) 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 sayst thou yet that exile is not death?

Hadst thou no poison mixed, no sharp-ground knife,

(45) 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,

(50) A sin-absolver, and my friend professed,

To mangle me with that word “banishèd”?

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Thou fond mad man, hear me a little speak.

ROMEO

Oh, thou wilt speak again of banishment.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

I’ll give thee armor to keep off that word—

(55) Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy—

To comfort thee though thou art banishèd.

ROMEO

Yet “banishèd”? Hang up philosophy!

Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,

Displant a town, reverse a prince’s doom,

(60) It helps not, it prevails not. Talk no more.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Oh, then I see that madmen have no ears.

ROMEO

How should they, when that wise men have no eyes?

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Let me dispute with thee of thy estate.

ROMEO

Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel.

(65) 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,

(70) Taking the measure of an unmade grave.

[Knocking sounds from offstage.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Arise. One knocks. Good Romeo, hide thyself.

ROMEO

Not I, unless the breath of heartsick groans,

Mistlike, infold me from the search of eyes.

[Knocking]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Hark, how they knock!—Who’s there?—Romeo, arise.

(75) Thou wilt be taken.—Stay awhile.—Stand up.

[Knocking]

Run to my study.—By and by!—God’s will,

What simpleness is this!—I come, I come.

[Knocking]

Who knocks so hard? Whence come you? What’s your will?

NURSE

(from within) Let me come in, and you shall know my errand.

(80) I come from Lady Juliet.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(opens the door) Welcome then.

[The NURSE enters]

NURSE

O holy Friar, O, tell me, holy Friar,

Where is my lady’s lord? Where’s Romeo?

FRIAR LAWRENCE

There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk.

NURSE

Oh, he is even in my mistress’ case,

(85) Just in her case. O woeful sympathy,

Piteous predicament! Even so lies she,

Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering.

Stand up, stand up. Stand, an you be a man.

For Juliet’s sake, for her sake, rise and stand.

(90) Why should you fall into so deep an O?

ROMEO

Nurse!

NURSE

Ah sir, ah sir. Death’s the end of all.

ROMEO

Spakest thou of Juliet? How is it with her?

Doth she not think me an old murderer,

(95) Now I have stained the childhood of our joy

With blood removed but little from her own?

Where is she? And how doth she? And what says

My concealed lady to our canceled love?

NURSE

Oh, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps,

(100) And now falls on her bed, and then starts up,

And “Tybalt” calls, and then on Romeo cries,

And then down falls again.

ROMEO

As if that name,

Shot from the deadly level of a gun,

(105) Did murder her, as that name’s cursed hand

Murdered her kinsman. O, tell me, Friar, tell me,

In what vile part of this anatomy

Doth my name lodge? Tell me, that I may sack

The hateful mansion. (draws his dagger)

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Hold thy desperate hand.

Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art.

(110) 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,

(115) 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 rail’st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth?

(120) 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

(125) 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;

(130) Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,

Misshapen in the conduct of them both,

Like powder in a skill-less soldier’s flask,

Is set afire by thine own ignorance;

And thou dismembered with thine own defence.

(135) What, rouse thee, man! Thy Juliet is alive,

For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead—

There art thou happy. Tybalt would kill thee,

But thou slew’st Tybalt—there art thou happy.

The law that threatened death becomes thy friend

(140) 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 pout’st upon thy fortune and thy love.

(145) 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,

(150) 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.—

(155) Go before, Nurse. Commend me to thy lady,

And bid her hasten all the house to bed,

Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto.

Romeo is coming.

NURSE

O Lord, I could have stayed here all the night

(160) To hear good counsel. Oh, what learning is!

My lord, I’ll tell my lady you will come.

ROMEO

Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide.

NURSE

Here, sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir.

(gives ROMEO JULIET’s ring)

(165) Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late.

Exit NURSE

ROMEO

How well my comfort is revived by this!

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Go hence. Good night. And here stands all your state:

Either be gone before the watch be set,

Or by the break of day disguised from hence.

(170) Sojourn in Mantua. I’ll find out your man,

And he shall signify from time to time

Every good hap to you that chances here.

Give me thy hand. ‘Tis late. Farewell, good night.

ROMEO

But that a joy past joy calls out on me,

(175) It were a grief so brief to part with thee.

Farewell.

[They exit.]

Act 3, Scene 4

[Enter CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, and PARIS]

CAPULET

Things have fall’n out, sir, so unluckily,

That we have had no time to move our daughter.

Look you, she loved her kinsman Tybalt dearly,

And so did I. Well, we were born to die.

(5) ‘Tis very late. She’ll not come down tonight.

I promise you, but for your company,

I would have been abed an hour ago.

PARIS

These times of woe afford no time to woo.

Madam, good night. Commend me to your daughter.

LADY CAPULET

(10) I will, and know her mind early tomorrow.

Tonight she is mewed up to her heaviness.

CAPULET

Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender

Of my child’s love. I think she will be ruled

In all respects by me. Nay, more, I doubt it not.—

(15) Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed.

Acquaint her here of my son Paris’ love,

And bid her, mark you me, on Wednesday next—

But, soft! What day is this?

PARIS

Monday, my lord.

CAPULET

(20) Monday! Ha, ha. Well, Wednesday is too soon,

O’ Thursday let it be.—O’ Thursday, tell her,

She shall be married to this noble earl.—

Will you be ready? Do you like this haste?

We’ll keep no great ado, a friend or two.

(25) For, hark you, Tybalt being slain so late,

It may be thought we held him carelessly,

Being our kinsman, if we revel much.

Therefore we’ll have some half a dozen friends,

And there an end. But what say you to Thursday?

PARIS

(30) My lord, I would that Thursday were tomorrow.

CAPULET

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!

(35) Afore me! It is so very late,

That we may call it early by and by.—

Good night.

[They all exit.]

Act 3, Scene 5

[ROMEO and JULIET enter above the stage.]

JULIET

Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day.

It was the nightingale, and not the lark,

That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear.

Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree.

(5) Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.

ROMEO

It was the lark, the herald of the morn,

No nightingale. Look, love, what envious streaks

Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east.

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day

(10) Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

I must be gone and live, or stay and die.

JULIET

Yon light is not daylight, I know it, I.

It is some meteor that the sun exhales

To be to thee this night a torchbearer,

(15) And light thee on thy way to Mantua.

Therefore stay yet. Thou need’st not to be gone.

ROMEO

Let me be ta’en. Let me be put to death.

I am content, so thou wilt have it so.

I’ll say yon grey is not the morning’s eye.

(20) ‘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.—

(25) How is ’t, my soul? Let’s talk. It is not day.

JULIET

It is, it is. Hie hence! Be gone, away!

It is the lark that sings so out of tune,

Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.

Some say the lark makes sweet division.

(30) This doth not so, for she divideth us.

Some say the lark and loathèd toad change eyes.

Oh, 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.

(35) O, now be gone. More light and light it grows.

ROMEO

More light and light, more dark and dark our woes!

[The NURSE enters]

NURSE

Madam.

JULIET

Nurse?

NURSE

Your lady mother is coming to your chamber.

(40) The day is broke. Be wary, look about.

[The NURSE exits]

JULIET

Then, window, let day in and let life out.

ROMEO

Farewell, farewell. One kiss, and I’ll descend.

[They kiss. ROMEO climbs out the window and down the wall.]

JULIET

Art thou gone so, love, lord? Ay, husband, friend,

I must hear from thee every day in the hour,

(45) For in a minute there are many days.

Oh, by this count I shall be much in years

Ere I again behold my Romeo.

ROMEO

Farewell!

I will omit no opportunity

That may convey my greetings, love, to thee.

JULIET

(50) Oh, think’st thou we shall ever meet again?

ROMEO

I doubt it not, and all these woes shall serve

For sweet discourses in our time to come.

JULIET

O God, I have an ill-divining soul.

Methinks I see thee now, thou art so low

(55) As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.

Either my eyesight fails, or thou look’st pale.

ROMEO

And trust me, love, in my eye so do you.

Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu, adieu!

[ROMEO exits]

JULIET

O Fortune, Fortune! All men call thee fickle.

(60) 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.

LADY CAPULET

(from within) Ho, daughter, are you up?

JULIET

(65) Who is ’t that calls? Is it my lady mother?

Is she not down so late or up so early?

What unaccustomed cause procures her hither?

[LADY CAPULET enters.]

LADY CAPULET

Why, how now, Juliet?

JULIET

Madam, I am not well.

LADY CAPULET

Evermore weeping for your cousin’s death?

(70) What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears?

An if thou couldst, thou couldst not make him live.

Therefore, have done. Some grief shows much of love,

But much of grief shows still some want of wit.

JULIET

Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss.

LADY CAPULET

(75) So shall you feel the loss, but not the friend

Which you weep for.

JULIET

Feeling so the loss,

Cannot choose but ever weep the friend.

LADY CAPULET

Well, girl, thou weep’st not so much for his death,

As that the villain lives which slaughtered him.

JULIET

(80) What villain, madam?

LADY CAPULET

That same villain, Romeo.

JULIET

(aside) Villain and he be many miles asunder.

(to LADY CAPULET) God pardon him! I do, with all my heart,

And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart.

LADY CAPULET

That is because the traitor murderer lives.

JULIET

(85) Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands.

Would none but I might venge my cousin’s death!

LADY CAPULET

We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not.

Then weep no more. I’ll send to one in Mantua,

Where that same banished runagate doth live,

(90) Shall give him such an unaccustomed dram

That he shall soon keep Tybalt company.

And then, I hope, thou wilt be satisfied.

JULIET

Indeed, I never shall be satisfied

With Romeo, till I behold him—dead—

(95) Is my poor heart 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. Oh, how my heart abhors

(100) To hear him named, and cannot come to him.

To wreak the love I bore my cousin

Upon his body that slaughtered him!

LADY CAPULET

Find thou the means, and I’ll find such a man.

But now I’ll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.

JULIET

(105) And joy comes well in such a needy time.

What are they, beseech your ladyship?

LADY CAPULET

Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child.

One who, to put thee from thy heaviness,

Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy

(110) That thou expect’st not, nor I looked not for.

JULIET

Madam, in happy time, what day is that?

LADY CAPULET

Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn,

The gallant, young, and noble gentleman,

The County Paris, at Saint Peter’s Church,

(115) Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.

JULIET

Now, by Saint Peter’s Church and Peter too,

He shall not make me there a joyful bride.

I wonder at this haste, that I must wed

Ere he, that should be husband, comes to woo.

(120) I pray you, tell my lord and father, madam,

I will not marry yet. And when I do, I swear

It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,

Rather than Paris. These are news indeed!

LADY CAPULET

Here comes your father. Tell him so yourself,

(125) And see how he will take it at your hands.

[CAPULET and the NURSE enter.]

CAPULET

When the sun sets the air doth drizzle dew,

But for the sunset of my brother’s son

It rains downright.

How now? A conduit, girl? What, still in tears,

(130) 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,

Do ebb and flow with tears. The bark thy body is,

Sailing in this salt flood. The winds thy sighs,

(135) Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them,

Without a sudden calm will overset

Thy tempest-tossèd body.—How now, wife?

Have you delivered to her our decree?

LADY CAPULET

Ay, sir, but she will none, she gives you thanks.

(140) I would the fool were married to her grave!

CAPULET

Soft, take me with you, take me with you, wife.

How, will she none? Doth she not give us thanks?

Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blessed,

Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought

(145) So worthy a gentleman to be her bride?

JULIET

Not proud you have, but thankful that you have.

Proud can I never be of what I hate,

But thankful even for hate that is meant love.

CAPULET

How, how, how, how? Chopped logic! What is this?

(150) “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,

(155) Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.

Out, you green sickness, carrion! Out, you baggage!

You tallow face!

LADY CAPULET

Fie, fie! What, are you mad?

JULIET

Good Father, I beseech you on my knees,

Hear me with patience but to speak a word.

CAPULET

(160) Hang thee, young baggage! Disobedient wretch!

I tell thee what: get thee to church o’ Thursday,

Or never after look me in the face.

Speak not. Reply not. Do not answer me.

My fingers itch.—Wife, we scarce thought us blest

(165) That God had lent us but this only child,

But now I see this one is one too much

And that we have a curse in having her.

Out on her, hilding!

NURSE

God in heaven bless her!

You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so.

CAPULET

(170) And why, my Lady Wisdom? Hold your tongue,

Good prudence. Smatter with your gossips, go.

NURSE

I speak no treason.

CAPULET

Oh, God ‘i’ good e’en.

NURSE

May not one speak?

CAPULET

Peace, you mumbling fool!

Utter your gravity o’er a gossip’s bowl,

(175) For here we need it not.

LADY CAPULET

You are too hot.

CAPULET

God’s bread! It makes me mad.

Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play,

Alone, in company, still my care hath been

To have her matched. And having now provided

(180) A gentleman of noble parentage,

Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly trained,

Stuffed, as they say, with honorable parts,

Proportioned as one’s thought would wish a man—

And then to have a wretched puling fool,

(185) 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.

(190) Look to ’t, think on ’t, I do not use to jest.

Thursday is near. Lay hand on heart, advise.

An you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend.

An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets,

For, by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee,

(195) Nor what is mine shall never do thee good.

Trust to ’t, bethink you. I’ll not be forsworn.

[CAPULET exits.]

JULIET

Is there no pity sitting in the clouds

That sees into the bottom of my grief?—

O sweet my mother, cast me not away!

(200) Delay this marriage for a month, a week.

Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed

In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.

LADY CAPULET

Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word.

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

[LADY CAPULET exits.]

JULIET

(205) 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.—

(210) Alack, alack, that heaven should practice stratagems

Upon so soft a subject as myself.—

What sayst thou? Hast thou not a word of joy?

Some comfort, Nurse.

NURSE

Faith, here it is.

Romeo is banishèd, and all the world to nothing

(215) 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.

Oh, he’s a lovely gentleman.

(220) Romeo’s a dishclout to him. An eagle, madam,

Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye

As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,

I think you are happy in this second match,

For it excels your first. Or if it did not,

(225) Your first is dead, or ’twere as good he were,

As living here and you no use of him.

JULIET

Speakest thou from thy heart?

NURSE

And from my soul too, else beshrew them both.

JULIET

Amen!

NURSE

(230) What?

JULIET

Well, thou hast comforted me marvelous much.

Go in, and tell my lady I am gone,

Having displeased my father, to Lawrence’s cell

To make confession and to be absolved.

NURSE

(235) Marry, I will, and this is wisely done.

[The NURSE exits.]

JULIET

Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!

Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn,

Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue

Which she hath praised him with above compare

(240) 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.

[JULIET exits.]

Act 4, Scene 1

[FRIAR LAWRENCE and PARIS enter.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

On Thursday, sir? The time is very short.

PARIS

My father Capulet will have it so,

And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

You say you do not know the lady’s mind.

(5) Uneven is the course. I like it not.

PARIS

Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt’s death,

And therefore have I little talked of love,

For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.

Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous

(10) 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.

(15) Now do you know the reason of this haste.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(aside) I would I knew not why it should be slowed.—

Look, sir, here comes the lady toward my cell.

[JULIET enters.]

PARIS

Happily met, my lady and my wife.

JULIET

That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.

PARIS

(20) That “may be” must be, love, on Thursday next.

JULIET

What must be shall be.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

That’s a certain text.

PARIS

Come you to make confession to this Father?

JULIET

To answer that, I should confess to you.

PARIS

(25) Do not deny to him that you love me.

JULIET

I will confess to you that I love him.

PARIS

So will ye, I am sure, that you love me.

JULIET

If I do so, it will be of more price

Being spoke behind your back than to your face.

PARIS

(30) Poor soul, thy face is much abused with tears.

JULIET

The tears have got small victory by that,

For it was bad enough before their spite.

PARIS

Thou wrong’st it more than tears with that report.

JULIET

That is no slander, sir, which is a truth,

(35) And what I spake, I spake it to my face.

PARIS

Thy face is mine, and thou hast slandered it.

JULIET

It may be so, for it is not mine own.—

Are you at leisure, holy Father, now,

Or shall I come to you at evening mass?

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(40) My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.—

My lord, we must entreat the time alone.

PARIS

God shield I should disturb devotion!—

Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse ye.

(kisses her) Till then, adieu, and keep this holy kiss.

[PARIS exits.]

JULIET

(45) O, shut the door! And when thou hast done so,

Come weep with me, past hope, past cure, past help.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

O Juliet, I already know thy grief.

It strains me past the compass of my wits.

I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,

(50) On Thursday next be married to this county.

JULIET

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,

(55) And with this knife I’ll help it presently.

(shows him a knife)

God joined my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands.

And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo sealed,

Shall be the label to another deed,

(60) 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

(65) Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that

Which the commission of thy years and art

Could to no issue of true honor bring.

Be not so long to speak. I long to die

If what thou speak’st speak not of remedy.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(70) 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,

(75) Then is it likely thou wilt undertake

A thing like death to chide away this shame,

That copest with death himself to ’scape from it.

An if thou darest, I’ll give thee remedy.

JULIET

O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,

(80) 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 shut me nightly in a charnel house,

O’ercovered quite with dead men’s rattling bones,

(85) 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,

(90) To live an unstained wife to my sweet love.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Hold, then. Go home, be merry. Give consent

To marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow.

Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone.

Let not the Nurse lie with thee in thy chamber.

(shows her a vial)

(95) Take thou this vial, being then in bed,

And this distillèd 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.

(100) No warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest.

The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade

To wanny ashes, thy eyes’ windows fall

Like death when he shuts up the day of life.

Each part, deprived of supple government,

(105) 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

(110) 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.

(115) 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.

(120) And this shall free thee from this present shame,

If no inconstant toy, nor womanish fear,

Abate thy valor in the acting it.

JULIET

Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear!

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(gives her the vial)

(125) Hold. Get you gone. Be strong and prosperous

In this resolve. I’ll send a friar with speed

To Mantua with my letters to thy lord.

JULIET

Love give me strength, and strength shall help afford.

(130) Farewell, dear Father.

[They exit in opposite directions.]

Act 4, Scene 2

CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, and the NURSE enter, along with two or three SERVINGMEN

CAPULET

(gives paper to FIRST SERVINGMAN) So many guests invite as here are writ.

[The FIRST SERVINGMAN exits.]

(to SECOND SERVINGMAN) Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks.

SECOND SERVINGMAN

You shall have none ill, sir, for I’ll try if they can lick their fingers.

CAPULET

How canst thou try them so?

SECOND SERVINGMAN

(5) Marry, sir, ’tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers. Therefore he that cannot lick his fingers goes not with me.

CAPULET

Go, be gone.

[The SECOND SERVINGMAN exits.]

We shall be much unfurnished for this time.

What, is my daughter gone to Friar Lawrence?

NURSE

Ay, forsooth.

CAPULET

(10) Well, he may chance to do some good on her.

A peevish self-willed harlotry it is.

[JULIET enters.]

NURSE

See where she comes from shrift with merry look.

CAPULET

How now, my headstrong? Where have you been gadding?

JULIET

Where I have learned me to repent the sin

(15) Of disobedient opposition

To you and your behests, and am enjoined

By holy Lawrence to fall prostrate here

To beg your pardon. (falls to her knees)

Pardon, I beseech you!

(20) Henceforward I am ever ruled by you.

CAPULET

Send for the county. Go tell him of this.

I’ll have this knot knit up tomorrow morning.

JULIET

I met the youthful lord at Lawrence’ cell,

And gave him what becomèd love I might,

(25) Not stepping o’er the bounds of modesty.

CAPULET

Why, I am glad on ’t. This is well. Stand up.

[JULIET stands up.]

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!

(30) Our whole city is much bound to him.

JULIET

Nurse, will you go with me into my closet

To help me sort such needful ornaments

As you think fit to furnish me tomorrow?

LADY CAPULET

No, not till Thursday. There is time enough.

CAPULET

(35) Go, Nurse. Go with her. We’ll to church tomorrow.

[JULIET and the NURSE exit.]

LADY CAPULET

We shall be short in our provision.

‘Tis now near night.

CAPULET

Tush, I will stir about,

And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, wife.

Go thou to Juliet, help to deck up her.

(40) I’ll not to bed tonight. Let me alone.

I’ll play the housewife for this once.

[LADY CAPULET exits]

—What, ho?

They are all forth?—Well, I will walk myself

To County Paris, to prepare him up

Against tomorrow. My heart is wondrous light

(40) Since this same wayward girl is so reclaimed.

[CAPULET exits]

Act 4, Scene 3

[JULIET and the NURSE enter.]

JULIET

Ay, those attires are best. But, gentle Nurse,

I pray thee, leave me to myself tonight,

For I have need of many orisons

To move the heavens to smile upon my state,

(5) Which, well thou know’st, is cross and full of sin.

[LADY CAPULET enters.]

LADY CAPULET

What, are you busy, ho? Need you my help?

JULIET

No, madam. We have culled such necessaries

As are behooveful for our state tomorrow.

So please you, let me now be left alone,

(10) And let the Nurse this night sit up with you.

For, I am sure, you have your hands full all

In this so sudden business.

LADY CAPULET

Good night.

Get thee to bed and rest, for thou hast need.

[LADY CAPULET and the NURSE exit.]

JULIET

Farewell!—God knows when we shall meet again.

(15) 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.

(20) Come, vial. (holds out the vial)

What if this mixture do not work at all?

Shall I be married then tomorrow morning?

No, no. This shall forbid it. Lie thou there.

(lays her knife down)

(25) What if it be a poison, which the friar

Subtly hath ministered to have me dead,

Lest in this marriage he should be dishonored

Because he married me before to Romeo?

I fear it is. And yet, methinks, it should not,

(30) 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

(35) 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—

(40) As in a vault, an ancient receptacle,

Where for these many hundred years the bones

Of all my buried ancestors are packed;

Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,

Lies festering in his shroud; where, as they say,

(45) 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—?

(50) Oh, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,

Environèd with all these hideous fears,

And madly play with my forefather’s joints,

And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud,

And, in this rage, with some great kinsman’s bone,

(55) As with a club, dash out my desperate brains?

Oh, 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.

[JULIET drinks from the vial and falls down on her bed, hidden by her bed curtains.]

Act 4, Scene 4

[LADY CAPULET and the NURSE enter.]

LADY CAPULET

Hold, take these keys, and fetch more spices, Nurse.

NURSE

They call for dates and quinces in the pastry.

[CAPULET enters.]

CAPULET

Come, stir, stir, stir! The second cock hath crowed.

The curfew bell hath rung. ‘Tis three o’clock.—

(5) Look to the baked meats, good Angelica.

Spare not for the cost.

NURSE

Go, you cot-quean, go.

Get you to bed, faith. You’ll be sick tomorrow

For this night’s watching.

CAPULET

No, not a whit, what. I have watched ere now

(10) All night for lesser cause, and ne’er been sick.

LADY CAPULET

Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time,

But I will watch you from such watching now.

[LADY CAPULET and the NURSE exit.]

CAPULET

A jealous hood, a jealous hood!

Enter three or four SERVINGMEN with spits and logs and baskets

[Three or four SERVINGMEN enter carrying spits, logs, and baskets.]

Now, fellow,

What is there?

FIRST SERVINGMAN

(15) Things for the cook, sir, but I know not what.

CAPULET

Make haste, make haste, sirrah.

[The FIRST SERVINGMAN exits.]

(to SECOND SERVINGMAN) Fetch drier logs.

Call Peter. He will show thee where they are.

SECOND SERVINGMAN

I have a head, sir, that will find out logs,

(20) And never trouble Peter for the matter.

[The SECOND SERVINGMAN exits.]

CAPULET

Mass, and well said. A merry whoreson, ha!

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.—

[Music plays offstage.]

(25) Nurse! Wife! What, ho? What, Nurse, I say!

[The NURSE returns.]

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.

[All exit.]

Act 4, Scene 5

[The NURSE enters.]

NURSE

Mistress! What, mistress! Juliet!—Fast, I warrant her, she.—

Why, lamb! Why, lady! Fie, you slug-a-bed.

Why, love, I say. Madam! Sweet-heart! Why, bride!

(5) 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!

(10) I must needs wake her.—Madam, madam, madam!

Ay, let the county take you in your bed.

He’ll fright you up, i’ faith. Will it not be?

(opens the bed curtains)

What, dressed and in your clothes, and down again?

(15) I must needs wake you. Lady, lady, lady!—

Alas, alas! Help, help! My lady’s dead!—

Oh, welladay, that ever I was born!—

Some aqua vitae, ho!—My lord! My lady!

[LADY CAPULET enters.]

LADY CAPULET

What noise is here?

NURSE

O lamentable day!

LADY CAPULET

What is the matter?

NURSE

Look, look. O heavy day!

LADY CAPULET

(20) O me, O me! My child, my only life,

Revive, look up, or I will die with thee!—

Help, help! Call help.

[CAPULET enters.]

CAPULET

For shame, bring Juliet forth. Her lord is come.

NURSE

She’s dead, deceased, she’s dead. Alack the day!

LADY CAPULET

(25) Alack the day. She’s dead, she’s dead, she’s dead!

CAPULET

Ha? Let me see her. Out, alas! She’s cold.

Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff.

Life and these lips have long been separated.

Death lies on her like an untimely frost

(30) Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.

NURSE

O lamentable day!

LADY CAPULET

O woeful time.

CAPULET

Death, that hath ta’en her hence to make me wail,

Ties up my tongue and will not let me speak.

[FRIAR LAWRENCE and PARIS enter with MUSICIANS.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Come, is the bride ready to go to church?

CAPULET

(35) Ready to go, but never to return.

O son! The night before thy wedding day

Hath death lain with thy wife. There she lies,

Flower as she was, deflowered by him.

Death is my son-in-law. Death is my heir.

(40) My daughter he hath wedded. I will die,

And leave him all. Life, living, all is Death’s.

PARIS

Have I thought long to see this morning’s face,

And doth it give me such a sight as this?

LADY CAPULET

Accursed, unhappy, wretched, hateful day!

(45) Most miserable hour that e’er time saw

In lasting labor of his pilgrimage.

But one, poor one, one poor and loving child,

But one thing to rejoice and solace in,

And cruel death hath catched it from my sight!

NURSE

(50) O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day!

Most lamentable day, most woeful day

That ever, ever, I did yet behold!

O day, O day, O day, O hateful day!

Never was seen so black a day as this.

(55) O woeful day, O woeful day!

PARIS

Beguiled, divorcèd, wrongèd, spited, slain!

Most detestable Death, by thee beguiled,

By cruel, cruel thee quite overthrown!

O love! O life! Not life, but love in death.

CAPULET

(60) Despised, distressèd, hated, martyred, killed!

Uncomfortable time, why camest 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,

(65) And with my child my joys are buried.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Peace, ho, for shame! Confusion’s cure lives not

In these confusions. Heaven and yourself

(70) 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,

(75) For ’twas your heaven she should be advanced.

And weep ye now, seeing she is advanced

Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself?

Oh, in this love, you love your child so ill

That you run mad, seeing that she is well.

(80) 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 some nature bids us all lament,

Yet nature’s tears are reason’s merriment.

CAPULET

(85) All things that we ordained festival

Turn from their office to black funeral.

Our instruments to melancholy bells,

Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast.

Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change,

(90) Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse,

And all things change them to the contrary.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Sir, go you in, and, madam, go with him;

And go, Sir Paris. Every one prepare

To follow this fair corse unto her grave.

(95) The heavens do lour upon you for some ill.

Move them no more by crossing their high will.

[CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, PARIS, and FRIAR LAWRENCE exit.]

FIRST MUSICIAN

Faith, we may put up our pipes and be gone.

NURSE

Honest good fellows, ah, put up, put up,

For, well you know, this is a pitiful case.

[The NURSE exits.]

FIRST MUSICIAN

(100) Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended.

[PETER enters.]

PETER

Musicians, O musicians, “Heart’s Ease,” “Heart’s Ease.” O, an you will have me live, play “Heart’s Ease.”

FIRST MUSICIAN

Why “Heart’s ease?”

PETER

O musicians, because my heart itself plays “My Heart is Full.” O, play me some merry dump to comfort me.

FIRST MUSICIAN

Not a dump, we. ‘Tis no time to play now.

PETER

(105) You will not then?

FIRST MUSICIAN

No.

PETER

I will then give it you soundly.

FIRST MUSICIAN

What will you give us?

PETER

No money, on my faith, but the gleek. I will give you the minstrel.

FIRST MUSICIAN

(110) Then I will give you the serving creature.

PETER

Then will I lay the serving creature’s dagger on your pate. I will carry no crotchets. I’ll re you, I’ll fa you. Do you note me?

FIRST MUSICIAN

An you re us and fa us, you note us.

SECOND MUSICIAN

Pray you, put up your dagger and put out your wit.

PETER

(115) Then have at you with my wit. I will dry-beat you with an iron wit and put up my iron dagger. Answer me like men.

(sings)

When griping grief the heart doth wound

And doleful dumps the mind oppress,

Then music with her silver sound—

(speaks) Why “silver sound”? Why “music with her silver sound”? What say you, Simon Catling?

FIRST MUSICIAN

(120) Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound.

PETER

Pretty.—What say you, Hugh Rebeck?

SECOND MUSICIAN

I say, “silver sound” because musicians sound for silver.

PETER

Pretty too.—What say you, James Soundpost?

THIRD MUSICIAN

Faith, I know not what to say.

PETER

(125) Oh, I cry you mercy, you are the singer. I will say for you. It is “music with her silver sound” because musicians have no gold for sounding.

(sings)

Then music with her silver sound

With speedy help doth lend redress.

[PETER exits.]

FIRST MUSICIAN

What a pestilent knave is this same!

SECOND MUSICIAN

Hang him, Jack! Come, we’ll in here, tarry for the mourners and stay dinner.

[MUSICIANS exit.]

Act 5, Scene 1

[ROMEO enters.]

ROMEO

If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep,

My dreams presage some joyful news at hand.

My bosom’s lord sits lightly in his throne,

And all this day an unaccustomed spirit

(5) 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.

(10) Ah me! How sweet is love itself possessed

When but love’s shadows are so rich in joy!

[ROMEO’s servant BALTHASAR enters.]

News from Verona!—How now, Balthasar?

Dost thou not bring me letters from the friar?

How doth my lady? Is my father well?

(15) How fares my Juliet? That I ask again,

For nothing can be ill if she be well.

BALTHASAR

Then she is well, and nothing can be ill.

Her body sleeps in Capels’ monument,

And her immortal part with angels lives.

(20) I saw her laid low in her kindred’s vault

And presently took post to tell it you.

O, pardon me for bringing these ill news,

Since you did leave it for my office, sir.

ROMEO

Is it e’en so? Then I defy you, stars!

(25) Thou know’st my lodging. Get me ink and paper,

And hire post horses. I will hence tonight.

BALTHASAR

I do beseech you, sir, have patience.

Your looks are pale and wild, and do import

Some misadventure.

ROMEO

(30) Tush, thou art deceived.

Leave me and do the thing I bid thee do.

Hast thou no letters to me from the friar?

BALTHASAR

No, my good lord.

ROMEO

No matter. Get thee gone,

(35) And hire those horses. I’ll be with thee straight.

[BALTHASAR exits]

Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight.

Let’s see for means. O mischief, thou art swift

To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!

I do remember an apothecary—

(40) 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,

(45) 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,

(50) Were thinly scattered to make up a show.

Noting this penury, to myself I said,

“An if a man did need a poison now”—

Whose sale is present death in Mantua—

“Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.”

(55) Oh, 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!

[The APOTHECARY enters.]

APOTHECARY

Who calls so loud?

ROMEO

(60) Come hither, man. I see that thou art poor.

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,

(65) And that the trunk may be discharged of breath

As violently as hasty powder fired

Doth hurry from the fatal cannon’s womb.

APOTHECARY

Such mortal drugs I have, but Mantua’s law

Is death to any he that utters them.

ROMEO

(70) Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness,

And fear’st to die? Famine is in thy cheeks.

Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes.

Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back.

The world is not thy friend nor the world’s law.

(75) The world affords no law to make thee rich.

Then be not poor, but break it, and take this.

(holds out money)

APOTHECARY

My poverty, but not my will, consents.

ROMEO

I pay thy poverty and not thy will.

APOTHECARY

(80) (gives ROMEO poison) Put this in any liquid thing you will

And drink it off; and, if you had the strength

Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight.

ROMEO

(gives APOTHECARY money)

There is thy gold, worse poison to men’s souls,

(85) 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

(90) To Juliet’s grave, for there must I use thee.

[They exit.]

Act 5, Scene 2

[FRIAR JOHN enters.]

FRIAR JOHN

Holy Franciscan Friar! Brother, ho!

[FRIAR LAWRENCE enters.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

This same should be the voice of Friar John.

Welcome from Mantua. What says Romeo?

Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter.

FRIAR JOHN

(5) Going to find a barefoot brother out,

One of our order, to associate me,

Here in this city visiting the sick,

And finding him, the searchers of the town,

Suspecting that we both were in a house

(10) ere the infectious pestilence did reign,

Sealed up the doors and would not let us forth.

So that my speed to Mantua there was stayed.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Who bare my letter, then, to Romeo?

FRIAR JOHN

I could not send it—here it is again—

(gives FRIAR LAWRENCE a letter)

(15) Nor get a messenger to bring it thee,

So fearful were they of infection.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood,

The letter was not nice but full of charge,

Of dear import, and the neglecting it

(20) May do much danger. Friar John, go hence.

Get me an iron crow and bring it straight

Unto my cell.

FRIAR JOHN

Brother, I’ll go and bring it thee.

[FRIAR JOHN exits.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Now must I to the monument alone.

(25) 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.

(30) Poor living corse, closed in a dead man’s tomb!

[FRIAR LAWRENCE exits.]

Act 5, Scene 3

[PARIS enters with his PAGE.]

PARIS

Give me thy torch, boy. Hence, and stand aloof.

Yet put it out, for I would not be seen.

Under yon yew trees lay thee all along,

Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground—

(5) So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread,

Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves,

But thou shalt hear it. Whistle then to me,

As signal that thou hear’st something approach.

Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee, go.

[The PAGE puts out the torch and gives the flowers to PARIS.]

PAGE

(10) (aside) I am almost afraid to stand alone

Here in the churchyard. Yet I will adventure.

[The PAGE moves away]

PARIS

(scatters flowers at JULIET’S closed tomb)

Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew—

O woe! Thy canopy is dust and stones—

(15) 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 PAGE whistles]

The boy gives warning something doth approach.

(20) What cursèd foot wanders this way tonight

To cross my obsequies and true love’s rite?

What with a torch! Muffle me, night, awhile.

[PARIS hides. ROMEO and BALTHASAR enter carrying a torch, pickax, and crowbar.]

ROMEO

Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron.

(takes them from BALTHASAR)

(25) Hold, take this letter. Early in the morning

See thou deliver it to my lord and father.

(gives letter to BALTHASAR)

Give me the light.

(takes torch from BALTHASAR)

Upon thy life I charge thee,

(30) Whate’er thou hear’st 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

(35) A precious ring, a ring that I must use

In dear employment. Therefore hence, be gone.

But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry

In what I farther shall intend to do,

By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint

(40) And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs.

The time and my intents are savage, wild,

More fierce and more inexorable far

Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.

BALTHASAR

(45) I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you.

ROMEO

So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that.

(gives BALTHASAR money)

Live and be prosperous, and farewell, good fellow.

BALTHASAR

(aside) For all this same, I’ll hide me hereabout.

(50) His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt.

[BALTHASAR moves away and falls asleep.]

ROMEO

Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,

Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth,

Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,

(55) And in despite I’ll cram thee with more food!

(begins to opens the tomb with his tools)

PARIS

(aside) This is that banished haughty Montague,

That murdered my love’s cousin, with which grief,

It is supposed the fair creature died.

And here is come to do some villainous shame

(60) To the dead bodies. I will apprehend him.

(to ROMEO) 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.

ROMEO

(65) I must indeed, and therefore came I hither.

Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man.

Fly hence and leave me. Think upon these gone.

Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth,

Put not another sin upon my head

(70) By urging me to fury. O, be gone!

By heaven, I love thee better than myself,

For I come hither armed against myself.

Stay not, be gone. Live, and hereafter say

A madman’s mercy bid thee run away.

PARIS

(75) I do defy thy commination

And apprehend thee for a felon here.

ROMEO

Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee, boy!

[ROMEO and PARIS fight.]

PAGE

O Lord, they fight! I will go call the watch.

[The PAGE exits.]

PARIS

(falls) Oh, I am slain! If thou be merciful,

(80) Open the tomb. Lay me with Juliet.

[PARIS dies.]

ROMEO

In faith, I will.—Let me peruse this face.

Mercutio’s kinsman, noble County Paris.

What said my man, when my betossèd soul

Did not attend him as we rode? I think

(85) 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.

(90) I’ll bury thee in a triumphant grave.

(ROMEO opens the tomb to reveal JULIET inside)

A grave? Oh, 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.

(lays PARIS in the tomb)

(95) How oft when men are at the point of death

Have they been merry, which their keepers call

A lightning before death! Oh, how may I

Call this a lightning?—O my love, my wife!

Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath,

Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.

(100) 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,

(105) 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,

(110) 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

(115) With worms that are thy chamber maids. Oh, 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

(120) The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss

A dateless bargain to engrossing death.

(kisses JULIET, takes out the poison)

Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide.

Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on

(125) The dashing rocks thy seasick, weary bark.

Here’s to my love! (drinks the poison) O true apothecary,

Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.

[ROMEO dies.]

[FRIAR LAWRENCE enters carrying a lantern, crowbar, and shovel.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Saint Francis be my speed! How oft tonight

Have my old feet stumbled at graves!—Who’s there?

BALTHASAR

(130) Here’s one, a friend, and one that knows you well.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend,

What torch is yond that vainly lends his light

To grubs and eyeless skulls? As I discern,

It burneth in the Capels’ monument.

BALTHASAR

It doth so, holy sir, and there’s my master,

One that you love.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Who is it?

BALTHASAR

Romeo.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(135) How long hath he been there?

BALTHASAR

Full half an hour.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Go with me to the vault.

BALTHASAR

I dare not, sir.

My master knows not but I am gone hence,

And fearfully did menace me with death

If I did stay to look on his intents.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(140) Stay, then. I’ll go alone. Fear comes upon me.

Oh, much I fear some ill unthrifty thing.

BALTHASAR

As I did sleep under this yew tree here,

I dreamt my master and another fought,

And that my master slew him.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(approaches the tomb)

Romeo!—

(145) Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains

The stony entrance of the sepulcher?

What mean these masterless and gory swords

To lie discolored by this place of peace?

(looks inside the tomb)

Romeo! O, pale!—Who else? What, Paris too?

(150) And steeped in blood?—Ah, what an unkind hour

Is guilty of this lamentable chance!

The lady stirs.

[JULIET wakes up.]

JULIET

O comfortable Friar! Where is my lord?

I do remember well where I should be,

And there I am. Where is my Romeo?

A noise sounds from outside the tomb

[A noise sounds from outside the tomb.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE

(155) I hear some noise. Lady, come from that nest

Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep.

A greater power than we can contradict

Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away.

Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead,

(160) And Paris too. Come, I’ll dispose of thee

Among a sisterhood of holy nuns.

Stay not to question, for the watch is coming.

Come, go, good Juliet. I dare no longer stay.

JULIET

Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.—

[FRIAR LAWRENCE exits.]

(165) 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,

(170) To make me die with a restorative.

(kisses ROMEO)

Thy lips are warm.

[WATCHMEN and PARIS’s PAGE enter.]

CHIEF WATCHMAN

(to PAGE) Lead, boy. Which way?

JULIET

Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger,

This is thy sheath. There rust and let me die.

(stabs herself with ROMEO’s dagger and dies)

PAGE

This is the place. There, where the torch doth burn.

CHIEF WATCHMAN

(175) The ground is bloody.—Search about the churchyard.

Go, some of you. Whoe’er you find, attach.

[Some WATCHMEN exit.]

Pitiful sight! Here lies the county slain,

And Juliet bleeding, warm and newly dead,

Who here hath lain these two days buried.—

(180) Go, tell the Prince. Run to the Capulets.

Raise up the Montagues.

Some others search.

[A few more WATCHMEN exit, in different directions.]

We see the ground whereon these woes do lie,

But the true ground of all these piteous woes

(185) We cannot without circumstance descry.

[The SECOND WATCHMAN reenters with BALTHASAR.]

SECOND WATCHMAN

Here’s Romeo’s man. We found him in the churchyard.

CHIEF WATCHMAN

Hold him in safety till the Prince come hither.

[The THIRD WATCHMAN reenters with FRIAR LAWRENCE.]

THIRD WATCHMAN

Here is a friar that trembles, sighs and weeps.

We took this mattock and this spade from him

(190) As he was coming from this churchyard’s side.

CHIEF WATCHMAN

A great suspicion. Stay the friar too.

[The PRINCE enters with his ATTENDANTS.]

PRINCE

What misadventure is so early up

That calls our person from our morning rest?

[CAPULET and LADY CAPULET enter.]

CAPULET

What should it be, that they shriek so abroad?

LADY CAPULET

(195) Oh, the people in the street cry “Romeo,”

Some “Juliet,” and some “Paris,” and all run

With open outcry toward our monument.

PRINCE

What fear is this which startles in our ears?

CHIEF WATCHMAN

Sovereign, here lies the County Paris slain,

(200) And Romeo dead, and Juliet, dead before,

Warm and new killed.

PRINCE

Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes.

CHIEF WATCHMAN

Here is a friar, and slaughtered Romeo’s man,

With instruments upon them fit to open

(205) These dead men’s tombs.

CAPULET

O heavens! O wife, look how our daughter bleeds!

This dagger hath mista’en—for, lo, his house

Is empty on the back of Montague,

And it mis-sheathèd in my daughter’s bosom.

LADY CAPULET

(210) O me! This sight of death is as a bell,

That warns my old age to a sepulcher.

[MONTAGUE enters.]

PRINCE

Come, Montague, for thou art early up

To see thy son and heir now early down.

MONTAGUE

Alas, my liege, my wife is dead tonight.

(215) Grief of my son’s exile hath stopped her breath.

What further woe conspires against mine age?

PRINCE

Look, and thou shalt see.

MONTAGUE

(to ROMEO) O thou untaught! What manners is in this,

To press before thy father to a grave?

PRINCE

(220) Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while,

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.—

(225) Bring forth the parties of suspicion.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

I am the greatest, able to do least,

Yet most suspected, as the time and place

Doth make against me, of this direful murder.

And here I stand, both to impeach and purge,

(230) Myself condemnèd and myself excused.

PRINCE

Then say at once what thou dost know in this.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

I will be brief, for my short date of breath

Is not so long as is a tedious tale.

Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet,

(235) 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 the city—

For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined.

You, to remove that siege of grief from her,

(240) Betrothed and would have married her perforce

To County Paris. Then comes she to me,

And with wild looks bid me devise some mean

To rid her from this second marriage,

Or in my cell there would she kill herself.

(245) 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,

(250) 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

(255) 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,

(260) 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.

(265) 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

(270) Miscarried by my fault, let my old life

Be sacrificed some hour before his time

Unto the rigor of severest law.

PRINCE

We still have known thee for a holy man.—

(275) Where’s Romeo’s man? What can he say in this?

BALTHASAR

I brought my master news of Juliet’s death,

And then in post he came from Mantua

To this same place, to this same monument.

(shows a letter) This letter he early bid me give his father,

And threatened me with death, going in the vault,

(280) If I departed not and left him there.

PRINCE

Give me the letter. I will look on it.

(takes letter from BALTHASAR)

Where is the county’s page, that raised the watch?—

Sirrah, what made your master in this place?

PAGE

(285) He came with flowers to strew his lady’s grave,

And bid me stand aloof, and so I did.

Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb,

And by and by my master drew on him,

And then I ran away to call the watch.

PRINCE

(290) (skims the letter) This letter doth make good the friar’s words,

Their course of love, the tidings of her death.

And here he writes that he did buy a poison

Of a poor ‘pothecary, and therewithal

(295) 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

(300) Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished.

CAPULET

O brother Montague, give me thy hand.

This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more

Can I demand.

MONTAGUE

But I can give thee more,

For I will raise her statue in pure gold,

(305) That whiles Verona by that name is known,

There shall no figure at such rate be set

As that of true and faithful Juliet.

CAPULET

As rich shall Romeo’s by his lady’s lie,

Poor sacrifices of our enmity.

PRINCE

(310) A glooming peace this morning with it brings.

The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head.

Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things.

Some shall be pardoned, and some punishèd.

For never was a story of more woe

(315) Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

[All exit.]

Table of Contents

Copyright

Background Information

Historical and Literary Context

Cast of Characters

Key Themes

Key Symbols

The Original Play + Modern Translation

Prologue

A ct 1, Scene 1

Act 1, Scene 2

Act 1, Scene 3

Ac t 1, Scene 4

A ct 1, Scene 5

Ac t 2, Prologue

A ct 2, Scene 1

A ct 2, Scene 2

Act 2, Scene 3

Act 2, S cene 4

Act 2 , Scene 5

Act 2, Scene 6

Act 3, Scene 1

Act 3, S cene 2

Act 3, Scene 3

Act 3, Scene 4

Ac t 3, Scene 5

Act 4, Scene 1

Act 4, Scene 2

Ac t 4, Scene 3

Act 4, Scene 4

A ct 4, Scene 5

Ac t 5, Scene 1

Act 5, Scene 2

Act 5, Scene 3

Just the Modern Translation

Prolo gue

Ac t 1, Scene 1

Act 1, Scene 2

Act 1, Scene 3

Act 1, Scene 4

Act 1, Sce ne 5

Act 2, Prologue

Act 2, Scene 1

Act 2 , Scene 2

Act 2, Scene 3

Ac t 2, Scene 4

Act 2 , Scene 5

Act 2 , Scene 6

Ac t 3, Scene 1

A ct 3, Scene 2

Ac t 3, Scene 3

Act 3, Scene 4

Act 3, Scene 5

Act 4, Scene 1

Act 4, Scene 2

Act 4, Scene 3

Act 4, Scene 4

Act 4, Scene 5

Act 5, Scene 1

Act 5, Scene 2

Act 5, Scene 3

Just the Original Play

Pro logue

Act 1, Scene 1

Act 1, Scene 2

Act 1, Scene 3

Act 1, Scene 4

Act 1, Scene 5

Act 2, P rologue

Act 2, Scene 1

Act 2, Scene 2

Act 2 , Scene 3

Act 2, Scene 4

Act 2, Scene 5

Act 2, Scene 6

Act 3, Scene 1

Act 3, Scene 2

Act 3, Scene 3

Act 3, Scene 4

Act 3, Scene 5

Act 4, Scene 1

Act 4, Scene 2

Act 4, Scene 3

Act 4, Scene 4

Act 4, Scene 5

Act 5, Scene 1

Act 5, Scene 2

Act 5, Scene 3