[Illustration]
SHAKESPEARE'S
TRAGEDY OF
ROMEO AND JULIET
EDITED, WITH NOTES
BY
WILLIAM J. ROLFE, LITT.D.
FORMERLY HEAD MASTER OF THE HIGH SCHOOL
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
_ILLUSTRATED_
NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1879 AND 1898, BY
HARPER & BROTHERS.
COPYRIGHT, 1904 AND 1907, BY
WILLIAM J. ROLFE.
ROMEO AND JULIET.
W.P. 8
PREFACE
This edition of _Romeo and Juliet_, first published in 1879, is now
thoroughly revised on the same general plan as its predecessors in the
new series.
While I have omitted most of the notes on textual variations, I have
retained a sufficient number to illustrate the curious and significant
differences between the first and second quartos. Among the many new
notes are some calling attention to portions of the early draft of the
play--some of them very bad--which Shakespeare left unchanged when he
revised it.
The references to Dowden in the notes are to his recent and valuable
edition of the play, which I did not see until this of mine was on the
point of going to the printer. The quotation on page 288 of the Appendix
is from his _Shakspere: His Mind and Art_, which, by the way, was
reprinted in this country at my suggestion.
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION TO ROMEO AND JULIET 9
The History of the Play 9
The Sources of the Plot 14
General Comments on the Play 17
ROMEO AND JULIET 27
Act I 29
Act II 58
Act III 85
Act IV 118
Act V 136
NOTES 157
APPENDIX
Concerning Arthur Brooke 275
Comments on Some of the Characters 278
The Time-Analysis of the Play 290
List of Characters in the Play 291
INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES EXPLAINED 293
[Illustration: FUNERAL OF JULIET]
[Illustration: Verona]
INTRODUCTION TO ROMEO AND JULIET
THE HISTORY OF THE PLAY
The earliest edition of _Romeo and Juliet_, so far as we know, was a
quarto printed in 1597, the title-page of which asserts that "it hath
been often (with great applause) plaid publiquely." A second quarto
appeared in 1599, declared to be "newly corrected, augmented, and
amended."
Two other quartos appeared before the folio of 1623, one in 1609 and the
other undated; and it is doubtful which was the earlier. The undated
quarto is the first that bears the name of the author ("Written by W.
_Shake-speare_"), but this does not occur in some copies of the edition.
A fifth quarto was published in 1637.
The first quarto is much shorter than the second, the former having only
2232 lines, including the prologue, while the latter has 3007 lines
(Daniel). Some editors believe that the first quarto gives the author's
first draft of the play, and the second the form it took after he had
revised and enlarged it; but the majority of the best critics agree
substantially in the opinion that the first quarto was a pirated
edition, and represents in an abbreviated and imperfect form the play
subsequently printed in full in the second. The former was "made up
partly from copies of portions of the original play, partly from
recollection and from notes taken during the performance;" the latter
was from an authentic copy, and a careful comparison of the text with
the earlier one shows that in the meantime the play "underwent revision,
received some slight augmentation, and in some few places must have been
entirely rewritten." A marked instance of this rewriting--the only one
of considerable length--is in ii. 6. 6-37, where the first quarto reads
thus (spelling and pointing being modernized):--
_Jul._ Romeo.
_Rom._ My Juliet, welcome. As do waking eyes
Closed in Night's mists attend the frolick Day,
So Romeo hath expected Juliet,
And thou art come.
_Jul._ I am, if I be Day,
Come to my Sun: shine forth and make me fair.
_Rom._ All beauteous fairness dwelleth in thine eyes.
_Jul._ Romeo, from thine all brightness doth arise.
_Fri._ Come, wantons, come, the stealing hours do pass,
Defer embracements till some fitter time.
Part for a while, you shall not be alone
Till holy Church have joined ye both in one.
_Rom._ Lead, holy Father, all delay seems long.
_Jul._ Make haste, make haste, this lingering doth us wrong.
For convenient comparison I quote the later text here:--
_Juliet._ Good even to my ghostly confessor.
_Friar Laurence._ Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both.
_Juliet._ As much to him, else is his thanks too much.
_Romeo._ Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy
Be heap'd like mine and that thy skill be more
To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath
This neighbour air, and let rich music's tongue
Unfold the imagin'd happiness that both
Receive in either by this dear encounter.
_Juliet._ Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,
Brags of his substance, not of ornament.
They are but beggars that can count their worth;
But my true love is grown to such excess
I cannot sum up half my sum of wealth.
_Friar Laurence._ 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.
The "omission, mutilation, or botching" by which some German editors
would explain all differences between the earlier and later texts will
not suffice to account for such divergence as this. "The two dialogues
do not differ merely in expressiveness and effect; they embody different
conceptions of the characters;" and yet we cannot doubt that both were
written by Shakespeare.
But while the second quarto is "unquestionably our best authority" for
the text of the play, it is certain that it "was not printed from the
author's manuscript, but from a transcript, the writer of which was not
only careless, but thought fit to take unwarrantable liberties with the
text." The first quarto, with all its faults and imperfections, is often
useful in the detection and correction of these errors and corruptions,
and all the modern editors have made more or less use of its readings.
The third quarto (1609) was a reprint of the second, from which it
"differs by a few corrections, and more frequently by additional
errors." It is from this edition that the text of the first folio is
taken, with some changes, accidental or intentional, "all generally for
the worse," except in the punctuation, which is more correct, and the
stage directions, which are more complete, than in the quarto.
The date of the first draft of the play has been much discussed, but
cannot be said to have been settled. The majority of the editors believe
that it was begun as early as 1561, but I think that most of them lay
too much stress on the Nurse's reference (i. 3. 22, 35) to the
"earthquake," which occurred "eleven years" earlier, and which these
critics suppose to have been the one felt in England in 1580.
Aside from this and other attempts to fix the date by external evidence
of a doubtful character, the internal evidence confirms the opinion that
the tragedy was an early work of the poet, and that it was subsequently
"corrected, augmented, and amended." There is a good deal of rhyme, and
much of it in the form of alternate rhyme. The alliteration, the
frequent playing upon words, and the lyrical character of many passages
also lead to the same conclusion.
The latest editors agree substantially with this view. Herford says:
"The evidence points to 1594-1595 as the time at which the play was
substantially composed, though it is tolerably certain that some parts
of our present text were written as late as 1596-1598, and possibly that
others are as early as 1591." Dowden sums up the matter thus: "On the
whole, we might place _Romeo and Juliet_, on grounds of internal
evidence, near _The Rape of Lucrece_; portions may be earlier in date;
certain passages of the revised version are certainly later; but I think
that 1595 may serve as an approximation to a central date, and cannot be
far astray."
For myself, while agreeing substantially with these authorities, I think
that a careful comparison of what are evidently the earliest portions
of the text with similar work in _Love's Labour's Lost_ (a play revised
like this, but retaining traces of the original form), _The Two
Gentlemen of Verona_, and other plays which the critics generally assign
to 1591 or 1592, proves conclusively that parts of _Romeo and Juliet_
must be of quite as early a date.
The earliest reference to the play in the literature of the time is in a
sonnet to Shakespeare by John Weever, written probably in 1595 or 1596,
though not published until 1599. After referring to _Venus and Adonis_
and _Lucrece_, Weever adds:--
"_Romeo_, _Richard_, more whose names I know not,
Their sugred tongues and power attractive beuty
Say they are saints," etc.
No other allusion of earlier date than the publication of the first
quarto has been discovered.
THE SOURCES OF THE PLOT
Girolamo della Corte, in his _Storia di Verona_, 1594, relates the story
of the play as a true event occurring in 1303; but the earlier annalists
of the city are silent on the subject. A tale very similar, the scene of
which is laid in Siena, appears in a collection of novels by Masuccio di
Salerno, printed at Naples in 1476; but Luigi da Porto, in his _La
Giulietta_,[1] published about 1530, is the first to call the lovers
Romeo and Juliet, and to make them the children of the rival Veronese
houses. The story was retold in French by Adrian Sevin, about 1542; and
a poetical version of it was published at Venice in 1553. It is also
found in Bandello's _Novelle_, 1554; and five years later Pierre
Boisteau translated it, with some variations, into French in his
_Histoire de Deux Amans_. The earliest English version of the romance
appeared in 1562 in a poem by Arthur Brooke founded upon Boisteau's
novel, and entitled _Romeus and Juliet_. A prose translation of
Boisteau's novel was given in Paynter's _Palace of Pleasure_, in 1567.
It was undoubtedly from these English sources, and chiefly from the poem
by Brooke, that Shakespeare drew his material. It is to be noted,
however, that Brooke speaks of having seen "the same argument lately set
forth on stage"; and it is possible that this lost play may also have
been known to Shakespeare, though we have no reason to suppose that he
made any use of it. That he followed Brooke's poem rather than Paynter's
prose version is evident from a careful comparison of the two with the
play.
Grant White remarks: "The tragedy follows the poem with a faithfulness
which might be called slavish, were it not that any variation from the
course of the old story was entirely unnecessary for the sake of
dramatic interest, and were there not shown in the progress of the
action, in the modification of one character and in the disposal of
another, all peculiar to the play, self-reliant dramatic intuition of
the highest order. For the rest, there is not a personage or a
situation, hardly a speech, essential to Brooke's poem, which has not
its counterpart--its exalted and glorified counterpart--in the
tragedy.... In brief, _Romeo and Juliet_ owes to Shakespeare only its
dramatic form and its poetic decoration. But what an exception is the
latter! It is to say that the earth owes to the sun only its verdure and
its flowers, the air only its perfume and its balm, the heavens only
their azure and their glow. Yet this must not lead us to forget that the
original tale is one of the most truthful and touching among the few
that have entranced the ear and stirred the heart of the world for ages,
or that in Shakespeare's transfiguration of it his fancy and his
youthful fire had a much larger share than his philosophy or his
imagination.
"The only variations from the story in the play are the three which have
just been alluded to: the compression of the action, which in the story
occupies four or five months, to within as many days, thus adding
impetuosity to a passion which had only depth, and enhancing dramatic
effect by quickening truth to vividness; the conversion of Mercutio from
a mere courtier, 'bolde emong the bashfull maydes,' 'courteous of his
speech and pleasant of devise,' into that splendid union of the knight
and the fine gentleman, in portraying which Shakespeare, with prophetic
eye piercing a century, shows us the fire of faded chivalry expiring in
a flash of wit; and the bringing-in of Paris (forgotten in the story
after his bridal disappointment) to die at Juliet's bier by the hand of
Romeo, thus gathering together all the threads of this love entanglement
to be cut at once by Fate."
[Footnote 1: A translation of _La Giulietta_, with an historical and
critical introduction by me, was published in Boston, 1893.]
GENERAL COMMENTS ON THE PLAY
Coleridge, in his _Notes and Lectures upon Shakespeare_, says: "The
stage in Shakespeare's time was a naked room with a blanket for a
curtain, but he made it a field for monarchs. That law of unity which
has its foundations, not in the factitious necessity of custom, but in
nature itself, the unity of feeling, is everywhere and at all times
observed by Shakespeare in his plays. Read _Romeo and Juliet_: all is
youth and spring--youth with its follies, its virtues, its
precipitancies; spring with its odours, its flowers, and its transiency.
It is one and the same feeling that commences, goes through, and ends
the play. The old men, the Capulets and the Montagues, are not common
old men; they have an eagerness, a heartiness, a vehemence, the effect
of spring; with Romeo, his change of passion, his sudden marriage, and
his rash death, are all the effects of youth; whilst in Juliet love has
all that is tender and melancholy in the nightingale, all that is
voluptuous in the rose, with whatever is sweet in the freshness of
spring; but it ends with a long deep sigh like the last breeze of the
Italian evening."
The play, like _The Merchant of Venice_, is thoroughly Italian in
atmosphere and colour. The season, though Coleridge refers to it
figuratively as spring, is really midsummer. The time is definitely
fixed by the Nurse's talk about the age of Juliet. She asks Lady Capulet
how long it is to Lammas-tide--that is, to August 1--and the reply is,
"A fortnight and odd days"--sixteen or seventeen days we may suppose,
making the time of the conversation not far from the middle of July.
This is confirmed by allusions to the weather and other natural
phenomena in the play. At the beginning of act iii, for instance,
Benvolio says to his friends:--
"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."
When the Nurse goes on the errand to Romeo (ii. 4), Peter carries her
fan, and she finds occasion to use it. "The nights are only softer days,
not made for sleep, but for lingering in moonlit gardens, where the
fruit-tree tops are tipped with silver and the nightingale sings on the
pomegranate bough." It is only in the coolness of the dawn that Friar
Laurence goes forth to gather herbs; and it is
"An hour before the worshipp'd sun
Peer'd forth the golden window of the east,"
that we find Romeo wandering in the grove of sycamore, "with tears
augmenting the fresh morning's dew," because Rosaline will not return
his love.
In one instance, overlooked by the commentators generally, Shakespeare
seems to forget the time of year. In the masquerade scene (i. 5) Old
Capulet bids the servants "quench the fire" because "the room is grown
too hot." In Brooke's poem, where the action covers four or five months,
this scene is in the winter. Shakespeare, in condensing the time to less
than a single week in summer, neglected to omit this reference to a
colder season.
Aside from this little slip, the time is the Italian summer from first
to last. And, as a French critic remarks, "the very form of the language
comes from the South." The tale originated in Italy; "it breathes the
very spirit of her national records, her old family feuds, the amorous
and bloody intrigues which fill her annals. No one can fail to recognize
Italy in its lyric rhythm, its blindness of passion, its blossoming and
abundant vitality, in its brilliant imagery, its bold composition." All
the characters are distinctively Italian. "In total effect," as another
has said, "the play is so Italian that one may read it with increasing
surprise and delight in Verona itself."
Although, as I have said, it is doubtful whether the story has any
historical basis, the Montagues and the Capulets were famous old
families in Verona. Dante alludes to them in the _Purgatorio_ (vi. 107),
though not as enemies:--
"Vieni a veder Montecchi e Cappelletti,
Monaldi e Filippeschi, uom senza cura,
Color già tristi, e costor con sospetti."[2]
The palace of the Capulets is to this day pointed out in Verona. It is
degraded to plebeian occupancy, and the only mark of its ancient dignity
is the badge of the family, the _cap_ carved in stone on the inner side
of the entrance to the court, which is of ample size, surrounded by
buildings that probably formed the main part of the mansion, but are now
divided into many tenements. The garden has disappeared, having been
covered with other buildings centuries ago.
The so-called "tomb of Juliet" is in a less disagreeable locality, but
is unquestionably a fraud, though it has been exhibited for a century or
two, and has received many tributes from credulous and sentimental
tourists. It is in the garden of an ancient convent, and consists of an
open, dilapidated stone sarcophagus (perhaps only an old horse-trough),
without inscription or any authentic history. It is kept in a kind of
shed, the walls of which are hung with faded wreaths and other mementoes
from visitors. One pays twenty-five centesimi (five cents) for the
privilege of inspecting it. Byron went to see it in 1816, and writes
(November 6) to his sister Augusta: "I brought away four small pieces
of it for you and the babes (at least the female part of them), and for
Ada and her mother, if she will accept it from you. I thought the
situation more appropriate to the history than if it had been less
blighted. This struck me more than all the antiquities, more even than
the amphitheatre." Maria Louisa, the French empress, got a piece of it,
which she had made into hearts and other forms for bracelets and
necklaces; and many other sentimental ladies followed the royal example
before the mutilation of the relic was prohibited by its guardians.
To return to the play--one would suppose that the keynote was struck
with sufficient clearness in the prologue to indicate Shakespeare's
purpose and the moral lesson that he meant to impress; but many of the
critics have nevertheless failed to understand it. They have assumed
that the misfortunes of the hero and heroine were mainly due to their
own rashness or imprudence in yielding to the impulses of passion
instead of obeying the dictates of reason. They think that the dramatist
speaks through Friar Laurence when he warns them against haste in the
marriage (ii. 6. 9 fol.):--
"These violent delights have violent ends,
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss consume; the sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness,
And in the taste confounds the appetite.
Therefore love moderately, long love doth so;
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow."
But the venerable celibate speaks for himself and in keeping with the
character, not for Shakespeare.
Neither does the poet, as some believe, intend to read a lesson against
clandestine marriage and disregard for the authority or approval of
parents in the match. The Friar, even at the first suggestion of the
hurried and secret marriage, does not oppose or discourage it on any
such grounds; nor, in the closing scene, does he blame either the lovers
or himself on that account. Nowhere in the play is there the slightest
suggestion of so-called "poetic justice" or retribution in the fate that
overtakes the unhappy pair.
It is the parents, not the children, that have sinned, and the sin of
the parents is visited upon their innocent offspring. This is the burden
of the prologue; and it is most emphatically repeated at the close of
the play.
The feud of the two households and the civil strife that it has caused
are the first things to which the attention of those who are to witness
the play is called. Next they are told that the children of these two
foes become lovers--not foolish, rash, imprudent lovers, not victims of
disobedience to their parents, not in any way responsible for what they
afterwards suffer--but "star-cross'd lovers." The fault is not in
themselves, but in their stars--in their _fate_ as the offspring of
these hostile parents. But their unfortunate and piteous overthrow is
the means by which the fatal feud of the two families is brought to an
end. The "death-mark'd love" of the children--love as pure as it was
passionate, love true from first to last to the divine law of
love--while by an evil destiny it brings death to themselves, involves
also the death of the _hate_ which was the primal cause of all the
tragic consequences.
This is no less distinctly expressed in the last speeches of the play.
After hearing the Friar's story, the Prince says:--
"Where be these enemies?--Capulet!--Montague!
See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love!
And I, for winking at your discords too,
Have lost a brace of kinsmen; all are punish'd.
_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,
That while 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 by his lady lie;
Poor sacrifices of our enmity!"
It is the parents who are punished. The scourge is laid upon their
_hate_, and it was the _love_ of their children by which Heaven found
the means to wield that scourge. The Prince himself has a share in the
penalty for tolerating the discords of the families. "We all," he says,
"_all_ are punished." But the good Friar's hope, expressed when he
consented to perform the marriage,--
"For this alliance may so happy prove
To turn your households' rancour to pure love,"--
is now fulfilled. Both Capulet and Montague, as they join hands in amity
over the dead bodies of their children, acknowledge the debt they owe to
the "star-cross'd" love of those "poor sacrifices of their enmity." They
vie with each other in doing honour to the guiltless victims of their
"pernicious rage." Montague will raise the golden statue to Juliet, and
Capulet promises as rich a monument to Romeo.
Da Porto and Paynter and Brooke, in like manner, refer to the
reconciliation of the rival families as the fortunate result of the
tragic history. Da Porto says: "Their fathers, weeping over the bodies
of their children and overcome by mutual pity, embraced each other; so
that the long enmity between them and their houses, which neither the
prayers of their friends, nor the menaces of the Prince, nor even time
itself had been able to extinguish, was ended by the piteous death of
the two lovers." As Paynter puts it, "The Montesches and Capellets
poured forth such abundance of tears, as with the same they did evacuate
their ancient grudge and choler, whereby they were then reconciled: and
they which could not be brought to atonement[3] by any wisdom or human
counsel were in the end vanquished and made friends by pity." So
Brooke, in his lumbering verse:--
"The straungenes of the chaunce, when tryed was the truth,
The Montagewes and Capelets hath moved so to ruth,
That with their emptyed teares, theyr choler and theyr rage
Was emptied quite; and they whose wrath no wisdom could asswage,
Nor threatning of the prince, ne mynd of murthers donne
At length (so mighty Jove it would) by pitye they are wonne."
And then the poem, like the play, ends with a reference to the
monumental honour done to the lovers:
"And lest that length of time might from our myndes remove
The memory of so perfect, sound, and so approved love,
The bodies dead, removed from vaulte where they did dye,
In stately tombe, on pillers great of marble, rayse they hye.
On every syde above were set, and eke beneath,
Great store of cunning Epitaphes, in honor of theyr death.
And even at this day the tombe is to be seene;
So that among the monumentes that in Verona been,
There is no monument more worthy of the sight,
Then is the tombe of Juliet and Romeus her knight."
[Footnote 2:
"Come see the Capulets and Montagues,--
Monaldi,--Filippeschi, reckless one!
These now in fear, already wretched those."
(Wright's translation.)
]
[Footnote 3: In the original sense of reconciliation; as in _Rich. III_.
i. 3. 36:
"he desires to make atonement
Betwixt the Duke of Gloster and your brothers," etc.
]
ROMEO AND JULIET _DRAMATIS PERSONÆ_
ESCALUS, prince of Verona.
PARIS, a young nobleman, kinsman to the prince.
MONTAGUE, }
CAPULET, } heads of two houses at variance with each other.
An old man of the Capulet family.
ROMEO, son to Montague.
MERCUTIO, kinsman to the prince, and friend to Romeo.
BENVOLIO, nephew to Montague, and friend to Romeo.
TYBALT, nephew to Lady Capulet.
FRIAR LAURENCE, }
FRIAR JOHN, } Franciscans.
BALTHASAR, servant to Romeo.
SAMPSON, }
GREGORY, } servants to Capulet.
PETER, servant to Juliet's nurse.
ABRAM, servant to Montague.
An Apothecary.
Three Musicians.
Page to Paris; another Page; an Officer.
LADY MONTAGUE, wife to Montague.
LADY CAPULET, wife to Capulet.
JULIET, daughter to Capulet.
Nurse to Juliet.
Citizens of Verona; Kinsfolk of both houses; Maskers, Guards, Watchmen,
and Attendants.
Chorus.
SCENE: _Verona_; _Mantua_.
[Illustration: THE "MEASURE"]
PROLOGUE
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life,
Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage,
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
ACT I
SCENE I. _Verona. A Public Place_.
_Enter_ SAMPSON _and_ GREGORY, _of the house of Capulet, with swords and
bucklers_
_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
o' the collar.
_Sampson._ I strike quickly, being moved.
_Gregory._ But thou art not quickly moved to strike.
_Sampson._ A dog of the house of Montague moves
me. 10
_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._ True; and therefore women, being the
weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall. Therefore 20
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 cruel
with the maids and cut off their heads.
_Gregory._ Draw thy tool; here comes two of the
house of the Montagues.
_Sampson._ My naked weapon is out; quarrel, I 30
will back thee.
_Gregory._ How? turn thy back and run?
_Sampson._ Fear me not.
_Gregory._ No, marry; I fear thee!
_Sampson._ Let us take the law of our sides; let
them begin.
_Gregory._ I will frown as I pass by, and let them
take it as they list.
_Sampson._ Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb
at them, which is a disgrace to them if they bear it. 40
_Enter_ ABRAM _and_ BALTHASAR
_Abram._ Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
_Sampson._ I do bite my thumb, sir.
_Abram._ Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
_Sampson._ [_Aside to Gregory_] Is the law of our
side, if I say ay?
_Gregory._ No.
_Sampson._ No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you,
sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.
_Gregory._ Do you quarrel, sir?
_Abram._ Quarrel, sir! no, sir. 50
_Sampson._ If you do, sir, I am for you; I serve as
good a man as you.
_Abram._ No better.
_Sampson._ Well, sir.
_Gregory._ [_Aside to Sampson_] Say 'better'; here
comes one of my master's kinsmen.
_Sampson._ Yes, better, sir.
_Abram._ You lie.
_Sampson._ Draw, if you be men.--Gregory, remember
thy swashing blow. [_They fight._ 60
_Enter_ BENVOLIO
_Benvolio._ Part, fools!
Put up your swords; you know not what you do.
[_Beats down their swords._
_Enter_ TYBALT
_Tybalt._ What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?
Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death.
_Benvolio._ I do but keep the peace; put up thy sword,
Or manage it to part these men with me.
_Tybalt._ What, drawn and talk of peace! I hate the word,
As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee;
Have at thee, coward!
[_They fight._
_Enter several of both houses who join the fray; then enter_ Citizens,
_with clubs_
_First Citizen_. Clubs, bills, and partisans! strike! beat them down! 70
Down with the Capulets! down with the Montagues!
_Enter_ CAPULET _in his gown, and_ LADY CAPULET
_Capulet._ What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!
_Lady Capulet_. A crutch, a crutch! why call you for a sword?
_Capulet._ My sword, I say! Old Montague is come,
And flourishes his blade in spite of me.
_Enter_ MONTAGUE _and_ LADY MONTAGUE
_Montague._ Thou villain Capulet!--Hold me not, let me go.
_Lady Montague._ Thou shalt not stir a foot to seek a foe.
_Enter_ PRINCE, _with his train_
_Prince._ Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel,--
Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts, 80
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins,
On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
Throw your mistemper'd weapons to the ground,
And hear the sentence of your moved prince.--
Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets,
And made Verona's ancient citizens
Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments, 90
To wield old partisans, in hands as old,
Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate.
If ever you disturb our streets again,
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.--
For this time, all the rest depart away.--
You, Capulet, shall go along with me;--
And, Montague, come you this afternoon,
To know our further pleasure in this case,
To old Freetown, our common judgment-place.--
Once more, on pain of death, all men depart. 100
[_Exeunt all but Montague, Lady Montague, and Benvolio._
_Montague._ Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?
Speak, nephew, were you by when it began?
_Benvolio._ Here were the servants of your adversary
And yours close fighting ere I did approach.
I drew to part them; in the instant came
The fiery Tybalt with his sword prepar'd,
Which, as he breath'd defiance to my ears,
He swung about his head and cut the winds,
Who, nothing hurt withal, hiss'd him in scorn.
While we were interchanging thrusts and blows, 110
Came more and more, and fought on part and part,
Till the prince came, who parted either part.
_Lady Montague._ O, where is Romeo? saw you him to-day?
Right glad I am he was not at this fray.
_Benvolio._ Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun
Peer'd forth the golden window of the east,
A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad;
Where, underneath the grove of sycamore
That westward rooteth from the city's side,
So early walking did I see your son. 120
Towards him I made, but he was ware of me
And stole into the covert of the wood;
I, measuring his affections by my own,
Which then most sought where most might not be found,
Being one too many by my weary self,
Pursued my humour, not pursuing his,
And gladly shunn'd 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; 130
But all so soon as the all-cheering sun
Should in the farthest east begin to draw
The shady curtains from Aurora's bed,
Away from light steals home my heavy son,
And private in his chamber pens himself,
Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out,
And makes himself an artificial night.
Black and portentous must this humour prove,
Unless good counsel may the cause remove. 139
_Benvolio._ My noble uncle, do you know the cause?
_Montague._ I neither know it nor can learn of him.
_Benvolio._ Have you importun'd him by any means?
_Montague._ Both by myself and many other friends;
But he, his own affections' counsellor,
Is to himself--I will not say how true--
But to himself so secret and so close,
So far from sounding and discovery,
As is the bud bit with an envious worm
Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air
Or dedicate his beauty to the sun. 150
Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow,
We would as willingly give cure as know.
_Enter_ ROMEO
_Benvolio._ See, where he comes! So please you, step aside;
I'll know his grievance or be much denied.
_Montague._ I would thou wert so happy by thy stay
To hear true shrift.--Come, madam, let's away.
[_Exeunt Montague and Lady._
_Benvolio._ Good morrow, cousin.
_Romeo._ Is the day so young?
_Benvolio._ But new struck nine.
_Romeo._ Ay me! sad hours seem long.
Was that my father that went hence so fast?
_Benvolio._ It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours? 160
_Romeo._ Not having that which, having, makes them short.
_Benvolio._ In love?
_Romeo._ Out--
_Benvolio._ Of love?
_Romeo._ Out of her favour where I am in love.
_Benvolio._ Alas, that love, so gentle in his view,
Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!
_Romeo._ Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,
Should without eyes see pathways to his will!
Where shall we dine?--O me! What fray was here?
Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all. 171
Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O any thing, of nothing first created!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh?
_Benvolio._ No, coz, I rather weep. 180
_Romeo._ Good heart, at what?
_Benvolio._ At thy good heart's oppression.
_Romeo._ Why, such is love's transgression.
Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,
Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest
With more of thine; this love that thou hast shown
Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.
Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs;
Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
Being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears.
What is it else? a madness most discreet, 190
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.
Farewell, my coz.
_Benvolio._ Soft! I will go along;
An if you leave me so, you do me wrong.
_Romeo._ Tut, I have lost myself, I am not here;
This is not Romeo, he's some other where.
_Benvolio._ Tell me in sadness who is that you love.
_Romeo._ What, shall I groan and tell thee?
_Benvolio._ Groan! why, no,
But sadly tell me who.
_Romeo._ Bid a sick man in sadness make his will;
Ah, word ill urg'd to one that is so ill! 200
In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.
_Benvolio._ I aim'd so near when I suppos'd you lov'd.
_Romeo._ A right good mark-man! And she's fair I love.
_Benvolio._ A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.
_Romeo._ Well, in that hit you miss. She'll not be hit
With Cupid's arrow; she hath Dian's wit,
And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd,
From Love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd.
She will not stay the siege of loving terms,
Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes, 210
Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold.
O, she is rich in beauty! only poor
That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store.
_Benvolio._ Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?
_Romeo._ She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste;
For beauty starv'd 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 220
Do I live dead that live to tell it now.
_Benvolio._ Be rul'd by me, forget to think of her.
_Romeo._ O, teach me how I should forget to think.
_Benvolio._ By giving liberty unto thine eyes;
Examine other beauties.
_Romeo._ 'Tis the way
To call hers, exquisite, in question more.
These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows,
Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair.
He that is strucken blind cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost. 230
Show me a mistress that is passing fair,
What doth her beauty serve but as a note
Where I may read who pass'd that passing fair?
Farewell; thou canst not teach me to forget.
_Benvolio._ I'll pay that doctrine or else die in debt.
[_Exeunt._
SCENE II. _A Street_
_Enter_ CAPULET, PARIS, _and_ Servant
_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 honourable reckoning are you both,
And pity 'tis you liv'd at odds so long.
But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?
_Capulet._ But saying o'er what I have said before.
My child is yet a stranger in the world;
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years.
Let two more summers wither in their pride 10
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.
_Paris._ Younger than she are happy mothers made.
_Capulet._ And too soon marr'd are those so early made.
The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she,
She is the hopeful lady of my earth.
But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,
My will to her consent is but a part;
An she agree, within her scope of choice
Lies my consent and fair according voice.
This night I hold an old accustom'd feast, 20
Whereto I have invited many a guest,
Such as I love; and you, among the store,
One more, most welcome, makes my number more.
At my poor house look to behold this night
Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light.
Such comfort as do lusty young men feel
When well-apparell'd April on the heel
Of limping winter treads, even such delight
Among fresh female buds shall you this night
Inherit at my house. Hear all, all see, 30
And like her most whose merit most shall be;
Which on more view of many, mine being one
May stand in number, though in reckoning none.
Come, go with me.--[_To Servant, giving a paper_] Go, sirrah, trudge
about
Through fair Verona; find those persons out
Whose names are written there, and to them say,
My house and welcome on their pleasure stay.
[_Exeunt Capulet and Paris._
_Servant._ 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 40
fisher with his pencil and the painter with his nets;
but I am sent to find those persons whose names are
here writ, and can never find what names the writing
person hath here writ. I must to the learned.--In
good time.
_Enter_ BENVOLIO _and_ ROMEO
_Benvolio._ Tut, man, one fire burns out another's burning,
One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish;
Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning;
One desperate grief cures with another's languish.
Take thou some new infection to thy eye, 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._ Not mad, but bound more than a madman is;
Shut up in prison, kept without my food,
Whipp'd and tormented and--Good-den, good fellow.
_Servant._ God gi' good-den.--I pray, sir, can you
read?
_Romeo._ Ay, mine own fortune in my misery. 60
_Servant._ Perhaps you have learned it without book;
but, I pray, can you read any thing you see?
_Romeo._ Ay, if I know the letters and the language.
_Servant._ Ye say honestly; rest you merry!
_Romeo._ Stay, fellow; I can read.
[Reads] _'Signior Martino and his wife and daughters;
County Anselme and his beauteous sisters; the
lady widow of Vitruvio; Signior Placentio and his
lovely nieces; Mercutio and his brother Valentine;
mine uncle Capulet, his wife and daughters; my fair 70
niece Rosaline; Livia; Signior Valentio and his
cousin Tybalt; Lucio and the lively Helena?'_
A fair assembly; whither should they come?
_Servant._ Up.
_Romeo._ Whither?
_Servant._ To supper; to our house.
_Romeo._ Whose house?
_Servant._ My master's.
_Romeo._ Indeed, I should have ask'd you that before.
_Servant._ Now I'll tell you without asking. My 80
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! [_Exit._
_Benvolio._ At this same ancient feast of Capulet's
Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so lov'st,
With all the admired beauties of Verona.
Go thither, and with unattainted eye
Compare her face with some that I shall show,
And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.
_Romeo._ When the devout religion of mine eye 90
Maintains such falsehood then turn tears to fires;
And these, who often drown'd could never die,
Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars!
One fairer than my love! the all-seeing sun
Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun.
_Benvolio._ Tut! you saw her fair, none else being by,
Herself pois'd with herself in either eye;
But in that crystal scales let there be weigh'd
Your lady's love against some other maid
That I will show you shining at this feast, 100
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 splendour of mine own.
[_Exeunt._
SCENE III. _A Room in Capulet's House_
_Enter_ LADY CAPULET _and_ Nurse
_Lady Capulet._ Nurse, where's my daughter? call her forth to me.
_Nurse._ Now, by my maidenhead at twelve year old,
I bade her come.--What, lamb! what, lady-bird!--
God forbid!--Where's this girl?--What, Juliet!
_Enter_ Juliet
_Juliet._ How now! who calls?
_Nurse._ Your mother.
_Juliet._ Madam, I am here.
What is your will?
_Lady Capulet._ This is the matter:--Nurse, give leave awhile,
We must talk in secret.--Nurse, come back again;
I have remember'd me, thou's hear our counsel.
Thou know'st my daughter's of a pretty age. 10
_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 Lammas-tide?
_Lady Capulet._ A fortnight and odd days.
_Nurse._ Even or odd, of all days in the year,
Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen.
Susan and she--God rest all Christian souls!--
Were of an age; well, Susan is with God,
She was too good for me; but, as I said, 20
On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen;
That shall she, marry; I remember it well.
'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years;
And she was wean'd,--I never shall forget it,--
Of all the days of the year, upon that day,
For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall;
My lord and you were then at Mantua,--
Nay, I do bear a brain;--but, as I said,
When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple 30
Of my dug, and felt it bitter, pretty fool,
To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug!
Shake, quoth the dove-house; 'twas no need, I trow,
To bid me trudge.
And since that time it is eleven years,
For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood,
She could have run and waddled all about.--
God mark thee to his grace!
Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nurs'd;
An I might live to see thee married once, 40
I have my wish.
_Lady Capulet._ Marry, that 'marry' is the very theme
I came to talk of.--Tell me, daughter Juliet,
How stands your disposition to be married?
_Juliet._ It is an honour that I dream not of.
_Nurse._ An honour! were not I thine only nurse,
I would say thou hadst suck'd 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, 50
I was your mother much upon these years
That you are now a maid. Thus then in brief:
The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.
_Nurse._ A man, young lady! lady, such a man
As all the world--why, he's a man of wax.
_Lady Capulet._ Verona's summer hath not such a flower.
_Nurse._ Nay, he's a flower; in faith, a very flower.
Lady Capulet. What say you? can you love the gentleman?
This night you shall behold him at our feast;
Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face, 60
And find delight writ there with beauty's pen.
Examine every married lineament
And see how one another lends content;
And what obscur'd in this fair volume lies
Find written in the margent of his eyes.
This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
To beautify him, only lacks a cover;
The fish lives in the sea, and 'tis much pride
For fair without the fair within to hide.
That book in many's eyes doth share the glory, 70
That in gold clasps locks in the golden story;
So shall you share all that he doth possess,
By having him making yourself no less.
Speak briefly, can you like of Paris' love?
_Juliet._ I'll look to like, if looking liking move;
But no more deep will I endart mine eye
Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.
_Enter a_ Servant
_Servant._ 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 80
extremity. I must hence to wait; I beseech you,
follow straight.
_Lady Capulet._ We follow thee.--[_Exit Servant._] Juliet, the county
stays.
_Nurse._ Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days. [_Exeunt._
SCENE IV. _A Street_
_Enter_ ROMEO, MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, _with five or six_ Maskers,
Torch-bearers, _and others_
_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 hoodwink'd with a scarf,
Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath,
Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper;
Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke
After the prompter, for our entrance.
But let them measure us by what they will,
We'll measure them a measure, and be gone. 10
_Romeo._ Give me a torch; I am not for this ambling.
Being but heavy, I will bear the light.
_Mercutio._ Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.
_Romeo._ Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes
With nimble soles; I have a soul of lead
So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.
_Mercutio._ You are a lover; borrow Cupid's wings,
And soar with them above a common bound.
_Romeo._ I am too sore enpierced with his shaft
To soar with his light feathers, and, so bound, 20
I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe;
Under love's heavy burden do I sink.
_Mercutio._ And, to sink in it, should you burden love;
Too great oppression for a tender thing.
_Romeo._ Is love a tender thing? it is too rough,
Too rude, too 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; [_Putting on a mask_]
A visor for a visor! what care I 30
What curious eye doth quote deformities?
Here are the beetle-brows shall blush for me.
_Benvolio._ Come, knock and enter; and no sooner in
But every man betake him to his legs.
_Romeo._ A torch for me; let wantons light of heart
Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels,
For I am proverb'd with a grandsire phrase:
I'll be a candle-holder and look on.
The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done.
_Mercutio._ Tut, dun's the mouse, the constable's own word; 40
If thou art Dun, we'll draw thee from the mire
Of this sir-reverence love, wherein thou stick'st
Up to the ears.--Come, we burn daylight, ho!
_Romeo._ Nay, that's not so.
_Mercutio._ I mean, sir, in delay
We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day.
Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits
Five times in that ere once in our five wits.
_Romeo._ And we mean well in going to this mask;
But 'tis no wit to go.
_Mercutio._ Why, may one ask?
_Romeo._ I dreamt a dream to-night.
_Mercutio._ And so did I. 50
_Romeo._ Well, what was yours?
_Mercutio._ That dreamers often lie.
_Romeo._ In bed asleep, while they do dream things true.
_Mercutio._ O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers, 60
The traces of the smallest spider's web,
The collars of the moonshine's watery beams,
Her whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film,
Her waggoner a small grey-coated gnat,
Not half so big as a round little worm
Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid;
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers.
And in this state she gallops night by night 70
Through lover's brains, and then they dream of love;
O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight;
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees;
O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream,
Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are.
Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;
And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail
Tickling a parson's nose as a' lies asleep, 80
Then dreams he of another benefice.
Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
Of healths five-fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,
And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two
And sleeps again. This is that very Mab
That plats the manes of horses in the night,
And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs, 90
Which once untangled much misfortune bodes.
This is she--
_Romeo._ Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!
Thou talk'st of nothing.
_Mercutio._ True, I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,
Which is as thin of substance as the air,
And more inconstant than the wind, who wooes
Even now the frozen bosom of the North,
And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence,
Turning his face to the dew-dropping South. 100
_Benvolio._ This wind you talk of blows us from ourselves;
Supper is done, and we shall come too late.
_Romeo._ I fear, too early; for my mind misgives
Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars,
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night's revels, and expire the term
Of a despised life clos'd 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. 110
_Benvolio._ Strike, drum. [_Exeunt._
SCENE V. _A Hall in Capulet's House_
Musicians _waiting_. _Enter_ Servingmen _with napkins_
1 _Servingman._ Where's Potpan, that he helps not to take away? He shift
a trencher! he scrape a trencher!
2 _Servingman._ When good manners shall lie all in one or two men's
hands and they unwashed too, 'tis a foul thing.
1 _Servingman._ Away with the joint-stools, remove the court-cupboard,
look to the plate.--Good thou, save me a piece of marchpane; and, as
thou lovest me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone and 10
Nell.--Antony!--and Potpan!
2 _Servingman._ Ay, boy, ready.
1 _Servingman._ You are looked for and called for, asked for and sought
for, in the great chamber.
2 _Servingman._ We cannot be here and there too.--Cheerly, boys; be
brisk a while, and the longer liver take all.
_Enter_ CAPULET, _with_ JULIET _and others of his house_, _meeting the_
GUESTS _and_ Maskers
_Capulet._ Welcome, gentlemen! ladies that have their toes
Unplagu'd with corns will have a bout with you.--
Ah ha, my mistresses! which of you all 20
Will now deny to dance? she that makes dainty,
She, I'll swear, hath corns; am I come near ye now?--
Welcome, gentlemen! I have seen the day
That I have worn a visor and could tell
A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear,
Such as would please; 'tis gone, 'tis gone, 'tis gone.--
You are welcome, gentlemen!--Come, musicians, play.--
A hall, a hall! give room! and foot it, girls.--
[_Music plays, and they dance._
More light, you knaves; and turn the tables up,
And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot.-- 30
Ah, sirrah, this unlook'd-for sport comes well.--
Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin Capulet,
For you and I are past our dancing days.
How long is 't now since last yourself and I
Were in a mask?
_2 Capulet._ By 'r lady, thirty years.
_Capulet._ What, man! 'tis not so much, 'tis not so much!
'Tis since the nuptial of Lucentio,
Come Pentecost as quickly as it will,
Some five and twenty years; and then we mask'd.
_2 Capulet._ 'Tis more, 'tis more! His son is elder, sir; 40
His son is thirty.
_Capulet._ Will you tell me that?
His son was but a ward two years ago.
_Romeo._ [_To a Servingman_] What lady is that, which doth enrich the
hand
Of yonder knight?
_Servingman._ I know not, sir.
_Romeo._ O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows 50
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
_Tybalt._ This, by his voice, should be a Montague.--
Fetch me my rapier, boy.--What dares the slave
Come hither, cover'd with an antic face,
To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?
Now, by the stock and honour of my kin, 60
To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.
_Capulet._ Why, how now, kinsman! wherefore storm you so?
_Tybalt._ Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe,
A villain that is hither come in spite,
To scorn at our solemnity this night.
_Capulet._ Young Romeo is it?
_Tybalt._ 'Tis he, that villain Romeo.
_Capulet._ Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone.
He bears him like a portly gentleman;
And, to say truth, Verona brags of him
To be a virtuous and well-govern'd youth. 70
I would not for the wealth of all the town
Here in my house do him disparagement;
Therefore be patient, take no note of him.
It is my will, the which if thou respect,
Show a fair presence and put off these frowns,
An ill-beseeming semblance for a feast.
_Tybalt._ It fits when such a villain is a guest;
I'll not endure him.
_Capulet._ He shall be endur'd;
What, goodman boy! I say he shall. Go to;
Am I the master here, or you? go to. 80
You'll not endure him!--God shall mend my soul!--
You'll make a mutiny among my guests!
You will set cock-a-hoop! you'll be the man!
_Tybalt._ Why, uncle, 'tis a shame.
_Capulet._ Go to, go to;
You are a saucy boy.--Is 't so, indeed?--
This trick may chance to scathe you,--I know what.
You must contrary me! marry, 'tis time.--
Well said, my hearts!--You are a princox; go!
Be quiet, or--More light, more light!--For shame!
I'll make you quiet. What!--Cheerly, my hearts! 90
_Tybalt._ Patience perforce with wilful choler meeting
Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.
I will withdraw; but this intrusion shall,
Now seeming sweet, convert to bitter gall. [Exit.
_Romeo._ [_To Juliet_] If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
_Juliet._ Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this; 100
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
_Romeo._ Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
_Juliet._ Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
_Romeo._ O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
_Juliet._ Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.
_Romeo._ Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
Thus from my lips by thine my sin is purg'd. [_Kissing her._
_Juliet._ Then have my lips the sin that they have took.
_Romeo._ Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urg'd!
Give me my sin again.
_Juliet._ You kiss by the book. 112
_Nurse._ Madam, your mother craves a word with you.
_Romeo._ What is her mother?
_Nurse._ Marry, bachelor,
Her mother is the lady of the house,
And a good lady, and a wise and virtuous.
I nurs'd her daughter that you talk'd withal;
I tell you, he that can lay hold of her
Shall have the chinks.
_Romeo._ Is she a Capulet?
O dear account! my life is my foe's debt. 120
_Benvolio._ Away, be gone; the sport is at the best.
_Romeo._ Ay, so I fear; the more is my unrest.
_Capulet._ Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone;
We have a trifling foolish banquet towards.--
Is it e'en so? why, then, I thank you all;
I thank you, honest gentlemen; good night.--
More torches here!--Come on then, let's to bed.
Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late;
I'll to my rest. [_Exeunt all but Juliet and Nurse._
_Juliet._ Come hither, nurse. What is yond gentleman?
_Nurse._ The son and heir of old Tiberio. 131
_Juliet._ What's he that now is going out of door?
_Nurse._ Marry, that, I think, be young Petruchio.
_Juliet._ What's he that follows there, that would not dance?
_Nurse._ I know not.
_Juliet._ Go, ask his name.--If he be married,
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._ My only love sprung from my only hate! 140
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy.
_Nurse._ What's this? what's this?
_Juliet._ A rhyme I learn'd even now
Of one I danc'd withal. [_One calls within_ 'Juliet.'
_Nurse._ Anon, anon!--
Come, let's away; the strangers all are gone. [_Exeunt._
[Illustration: Capulet's Garden]
ACT II
_Enter_ Chorus
Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie,
And young affection gapes to be his heir;
That fair for which love groan'd for and would die,
With tender Juliet match'd, is now not fair.
Now Romeo is belov'd and loves again,
Alike bewitched by the charm of looks,
But to his foe suppos'd he must complain,
And she steal love's sweet bait from fearful hooks.
Being held a foe, he may not have access
To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear;
And she as much in love, her means much less
To meet her new-beloved any where.
But passion lends them power, time means, to meet,
Tempering extremities with extreme sweet. [_Exit._
SCENE I. _A Lane by the Wall of Capulet's Orchard_
_Enter_ ROMEO
_Romeo._ Can I go forward when my heart is here?--
Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out.
[_He climbs the wall, and leaps down within it._
_Enter_ BENVOLIO _and_ MERCUTIO
_Benvolio._ Romeo! my cousin Romeo! Romeo!
_Mercutio._ He is wise,
And, on my life, hath stolen him home to bed.
_Benvolio._ He ran this way, and leap'd 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;
Cry but 'Ay me!' pronounce but 'love' and 'dove'; 10
Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word,
One nickname for her purblind son and heir,
Young Abraham Cupid, he that shot so trim
When King Cophetua lov'd the beggar-maid!--
He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not;
The ape is dead, and I must conjure him.--
I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes,
By her high forehead and her scarlet lip,
That in thy likeness thou appear to us!
_Benvolio._ An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him. 20
_Mercutio._ This cannot anger him; 'twould anger him
To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle
Of some strange nature, letting it there stand
Till she had laid it and conjur'd it down.
That were some spite; my invocation
Is fair and honest, and in his mistress' name
I conjure only but to raise up him.
_Benvolio._ Come, he hath hid himself among these trees,
To be consorted with the humorous night;
Blind is his love and best befits the dark. 30
_Mercutio._ If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.--
Romeo, good night.--I'll to my truckle-bed;
This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep.
Come, shall we go?
_Benvolio._ Go, then; for 'tis in vain
To seek him here that means not to be found. [_Exeunt._