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
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.
A hall,° a hall! Give room! And foot it, girls.
More light, you knaves, and turn the tables up,
And quench the fire; the room is grown too hot.
Ah, sirrah, this unlooked-for sport° comes well.
Nay, sit; nay, sit, good cousin Capulet;
For you and I are past our dancing days.
How long is’t now since last yourself and I
Were in a mask?
Second 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 masked.
Second Capulet. ’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. [To a Servingman] What lady’s that which
doth enrich the hand
Of yonder knight?
Servingman. I know not, sir.
19 walk a bout dance a turn 21 deny refuse 21 makes dainty seems to hesitate 28 A hall clear the floor 31 unlooked-for sport (they had not expected maskers) 42 ward minor
Romeo. O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear—
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows
As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand
And, touching hers, make blessèd my rude° hand.
Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!
For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.
Tybalt. This, by his voice, should be a Montague.
Fetch me my rapier, boy. What! Dares the slave
Come hither, covered with an antic face,°
To fleer° and scorn at our solemnity?
Now, by the stock and honor of my kin,
To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.
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.
’A bears him like a portly° gentleman,
And, to say truth, Verona brags of him
To be a virtuous and well-governed youth.
I would not for the wealth of all this town
Here in my house do him disparagement.
Therefore be patient; take no note of him.
It is my will, the which if thou respect,
Show a fair presence and put off these frowns,
An ill-beseeming semblance for a feast.
Tybalt. It fits when such a villain is a guest.
53 rude rough 58 antic face fantastic mask 59 fleer jeer 64 in spite insultingly 68 portly of good deportment
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!
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!
Tybalt. Patience perforce° with willful choler° meeting
Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.
I will withdraw; but this intrusion shall,
Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt’rest gall. Exit.
Romeo. If° I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine,° the gentle sin 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;
For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers’° kiss.
79 goodman (a term applied to someone below the rank of gentleman) 79 Go to (impatient exclamation) 81 God shall mend my soul (roughly equivalent to our “Indeed”) 82 mutiny disturbance 83 set cock-a-hoop be cock of the walk 86 scathe hurt, harm 88 princox impertinent youngster 91 Patience perforce enforced self-control 91 choler anger 95 If (here begins an English, or Shakespearean, sonnet) 96 shrine i.e., Juliet’s hand 96 the gentle sin is this this is the sin of well-bred people 102 palmer religious pilgrim (the term originally signified one who carried a palm branch; here it is used as a pun meaning one who holds another’s hand)
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 purged.
[Kisses her.]
Juliet. Then have my lips the sin that they have took.
Romeo. Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again. [Kisses her.]
Juliet. You kiss by th’ book.°
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 nursed her daughter that you talked 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.°
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.
107 do not move (1) do not initiate action (2) stand still 112 kiss by th’ book i.e., you take my words literally to get more kisses 117 withal with 119 the chinks plenty of money 120 My life is my foe’s debt my foe now owns my life 124 towards in preparation 125 Is it e’en so? (the maskers insist on leaving)
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.
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 here, that would not
dance?
Nurse. I know not.
Juliet. Go ask his name.—If he is marrièd,
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!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
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 learnt even now
Of one I danced withal. One calls within, “Juliet.”
Nurse. Anon,° anon!
Come, let’s away; the strangers all are gone.
Exeunt.
128 fay faith 142 Prodigious (1) monstrous (2) of evil portent 145 Anon at once
[ACT 2
PROLOGUE.
Enter] Chorus.
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.
Now Romeo is beloved and loves again,
Alike bewitchèd° by the charm of looks;
But to his foe supposed he must complain,°
And she steal love’s sweet bait from fearful
hooks.
Being held a foe, he may not have access
To breathe such vows as lovers use to° swear,
And she as much in love, her means much less
To meet her new belovèd anywhere;
But passion lends them power, time means, to meet,
Temp’ring extremities with extreme sweet.° [Exit.]
2. Prologue 2 young affection gapes the new love is eager 3 That fair i.e., Rosaline 6 Alike bewitchèd i.e., both are bewitched 7 complain address his lover’s suit 10 use to customarily 14 Temp’ring . . . sweet softening difficulties with extraordinary delights 33
[Scene 1. Near Capulet’s orchard.]
Enter Romeo alone.
Romeo. Can I go forward when my heart is here?
Turn back, dull earth, and find thy center out.°
Enter Benvolio with Mercutio. [Romeo retires.]
Benvolio. Romeo! My cousin Romeo! Romeo!
Mercutio. He is wise
And, on my life, hath stol’n him home to bed.
Benvolio. He ran this way and leapt this orchard wall.
Call, good Mercutio.
Mercutio. Nay, I’ll conjure too.
Romeo! Humors! Madman! Passion! Lover!
Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh;
Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied!
Cry but “Ay me!” pronounce but “love” and
“dove”;
Speak to my gossip° Venus one fair word,
One nickname for her purblind° son and heir,
Young Abraham Cupid,° he that shot so true
When King Cophetua loved the beggar maid!°
He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not;
The ape is dead,° and I must conjure him.
I conjure thee by Rosaline’s bright eyes,
By her high forehead and her scarlet lip,2.1.1-2 Can . . . out (Romeo refuses to pass Capulet’s house, commanding his body, or earth, to stop and join its proper soul, or center—i.e., Juliet) 11 gossip crony 12 purblind quite blind 13 Abraham Cupid (the phrase may mean “ancient youth” or, since “abram man” was slang for “trickster,” “rascally Cupid”) 14 King Cophetua . . . maid (reference to an old familiar ballad) 16 The ape is dead i.e., Romeo plays dead, like a performing ape
By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh,
And the demesnes° that there adjacent lie,
That in thy likeness thou appear to us!
Benvolio. And if° he hear thee, thou wilt anger him.
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 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. Come, he hath hid himself among these trees
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
And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit
As maids call medlars° when they laugh alone.
O, Romeo, that she were, O that she were
An open et cetera, thou a pop’rin° pear!
Romeo, good night. I’ll to my truckle bed;°
This field bed is too cold for me to sleep.
Come, shall we go?
Benvolio. Go then, for ’tis in vain
To seek him here that means not to be found.
Exit [with others].
20 demesnes domains 22 And if if 24 circle (conjurers worked within a magic circle, but there is also a bawdy innuendo, as in stand, laid, down, raise) 27 spite vexation 28 fair and honest respectable 31 consorted associated 31 humorous (1) damp (2) moody 36 medlars applelike fruit, eaten when decayed (like pop’rin, in line 38, the word was often used to refer to sexual organs) 39 I’ll to my truckle bed I’ll go to my trundle bed, or baby bed (i.e., I’m innocent in affairs of this kind)
[Scene 2. Capulet’s orchard.]
Romeo. [Coming forward] He jests at scars that never
felt a wound.
[Enter Juliet at a window.]
But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou her maid° art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid, since she is envious.
Her vestal livery° is but sick and green,°
And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off.
It is my lady! O, it is my love!
O, that she knew she were!
She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that?
Her eye discourses; I will answer it.
I am too bold; ’tis not to me she speaks.
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres° till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
See how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O, that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!
Juliet. Ay me!
2.2.6 her maid (the moon is here thought of as Diana, goddess and patroness of virgins) 8 vestal livery i.e., virginity 8 sick and green sickly, bearing the characteristics of greensickness, the virgin’s malady 17 spheres orbits
Romeo. 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 wond’ring eyes
Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him
&n
bsp; 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;
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.
What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face. O, be some other name
Belonging to a man.
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes°
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name;
And for thy name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself.
Romeo. I take thee at thy word.
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.
My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself39 though not even if you were not 46 owes owns
Because it is an enemy to thee.
Had I it written, I would tear the word.
Juliet. My ears have yet not drunk a hundred words
Of thy tongue’s uttering, yet I know the sound.
Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?
Romeo. Neither, fair maid, if either thee dislike.°
Juliet. How camest thou hither, tell me, and where-
fore?
The orchard walls are high and hard to climb,
And the place death, considering who thou art,
If any of my kinsmen find thee here.
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.
Romeo and Juliet Page 11
