Romeo and Juliet

by Shakespeare, William

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

  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. Exit.

  237 Ancient damnation (1) damned old woman (2) ancient devil (note the term “wicked fiend” immediately following) 238 forsworn guilty of breaking a vow 242 Thou . . . twain i.e., you shall henceforth be separated from my trust

  [ACT 4

  Scene 1. Friar Lawrence’s cell.]

  Enter Friar [Lawrence] and County Paris.

  Friar. 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. You say you do not know the lady’s mind.

  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

  That she do give her sorrow so much sway,

  And in his wisdom hastes our marriage

  To stop the inundation of her tears,

  Which, too much minded° by herself alone,°

  May be put from her by society.

  Now do you know the reason of this haste.

  Friar. [Aside] I would I knew not why it should be

  slowed.—

  Look, sir, here comes the lady toward my cell.

  4.1.3 I . . . haste i.e., I shall not check his haste by being slow myself 5 Uneven irregular 13 minded thought about 13 by herself alone when she is alone

  Enter Juliet.

  Paris. Happily met, my lady and my wife!

  Juliet. That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.

  Paris. That “may be” must be, love, on Thursday next.

  Juliet. What must be shall be.

  Friar. That’s a certain text.

  Paris. Come you to make confession to this father?

  Juliet. To answer that, I should confess to you.

  Paris. Do not deny to him that you love me.

  Juliet. I 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. 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;

  And what I spake, I spake it to my face.

  Paris. Thy face is mine, and thou hast sland’red 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. My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.

  My lord, we must entreat the time alone.°

  31 before their spite before they marred it 38 evening mass (evening mass was still said occasionally in Shakespeare’s time) 40 entreat the time alone ask to have this time to ourselves

  Paris. God shield° I should disturb devotion!

  Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse ye.

  Till then, adieu, and keep this holy kiss. Exit.

  Juliet. O, shut the door, and when thou hast done so,

  Come weep with me—past hope, past care, past

  help!

  Friar. 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,

  On Thursday next be married to this County.

  Juliet. Tell me not, friar, that thou hearest of this,

  Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it.

  If in thy wisdom thou canst give no help,

  Do thou but call my resolution wise

  And with this knife I’ll help it presently.°

  God joined my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands;

  And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo’s sealed,

  Shall be the label° to another deed,°

  Or my true heart with treacherous revolt

  Turn to another, this shall slay them both.

  Therefore, out of thy long-experienced time,

  Give me some present counsel; or, behold,

  ’Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife

  Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that

  Which the commission° of thy years and art

  Could to no issue of true honor bring.

  Be not so long to speak. I long to die

  If what thou speak’st speak not of remedy.

  Friar. Hold, daughter. I do spy a kind of hope,

  Which craves as desperate an execution

  As that is desperate which we would prevent.

  If, rather than to marry County Paris,

  Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself,

  Then is it likely thou wilt undertake41 God shield God forbid 48 prorogue delay 54 presently at once 57 label bearer of the seal 57 deed (1) act (2) legal document 64 com- mission authority

  A thing like death to chide away this shame,

  That cop’st° with death himself to scape from it;

  And, if thou darest, I’ll give thee remedy.

  Juliet. O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,

  From off the battlements of any tower,

  Or walk in thievish° ways, or bid me lurk

  Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears,

  Or hide me nightly in a charnel house,°

  O’ercovered quite with dead men’s rattling bones,

  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,

  To live an unstained wife to my sweet love.

  Friar. 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.

  Take thou this vial, being then in bed,

  And this distilling° 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;°

  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,°

  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.

  75 cop’st negotiates 79 thievish infested with thieves 81 charnel house vault for old bones 83 reeky damp 83 chapless jawless 94 distilling infusing 96 humor fluid 97 native natural 97 surcease stop 100 wanny pale 100 windows lids 102 supple government i.e., faculty for maintaining motion

  Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes

  To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead.

  Then, as the manner of our country is,

  In thy best robes uncovered on the bier

  Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault

  Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.

>   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.

  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. 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.

  Farewell, dear father. Exit [with Friar].

  [Scene 2. Hall in Capulet’s house.]

  Enter Father Capulet, Mother, Nurse, and Servingmen, two or three.

  Capulet. So many guests invite as here are writ.

  [Exit a Servingman.]

  Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning° cooks.

  Servingman. You shall have none ill, sir; for I’ll try°

  if they can lick their fingers.

  113 against before 114 drift purpose 119 inconstant toy whim 4.2.2 cunning skillful 3 try test

  Capulet. How canst thou try them so?

  Servingman. 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, begone. [Exit Servingman.]

  We shall be much unfurnished° for this time.

  What, is my daughter gone to Friar Lawrence?

  Nurse. Ay, forsooth.

  Capulet. Well, he may chance to do some good on her.

  A peevish self-willed harlotry it is.°

  Enter Juliet.

  Nurse. See where she comes from shrift with merry

  look.

  Capulet. How now, my headstrong? Where have you

  been gadding?

  Juliet. Where I have learnt me to repent the sin

  Of disobedient opposition

  To you and your behests, and am enjoined

  By holy Lawrence to fall prostrate here

  To beg your pardon. Pardon, I beseech you!

  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,

  Not stepping o’er the bounds of modesty.

  Capulet. Why, I am glad on’t. This is well. Stand 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,

  All our whole city is much bound to him.

  6-7 cannot lick his own fingers i.e., cannot taste his own cooking 10 unfurnished unprovisioned 14 A peevish self-willed harlotry it is she’s a silly good-for-nothing 26 becomèd proper

  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. Go, nurse, go with her. We’ll to church

  tomorrow. Exeunt [Juliet and Nurse].

  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.

  I’ll not to bed tonight; let me alone.

  I’ll play the housewife for this once. What, ho!

  They are all forth; well, I will walk myself

  To County Paris, to prepare up him

  Against° tomorrow. My heart is wondrous light,

  Since this same wayward girl is so reclaimed.

  Exit [with Mother].

  [Scene 3. Juliet’s chamber.]

  Enter Juliet and Nurse.

  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,°

  Which, well thou knowest, is cross° and full of sin.

  Enter Mother.

  Lady Capulet. What, are you busy, ho? Need you my

  help?

  33 closet private chamber 46 Against in anticipation of 4.3.3 orisons prayers 4 state condition 5 cross perverse

  Juliet. No, madam; we have culled such necessaries

  As are behoveful° for our state° tomorrow.

  So please you, let me now be left alone,

  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.

  Exeunt [Mother and Nurse].

  Juliet. Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again.

  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.

  Come, 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 down a dagger.]

  What if it be a poison which the friar

  Subtly hath minist’red° 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,

  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,

  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—

  As in a vault, an ancient receptacle8 behoveful expedient 8 state pomp 15 faint causing faintness 25 minist’red provided 29 still always 29 tried proved 37 conceit thought

  Where for this many hundred years the bones

  Of all my buried ancestors are packed;

  Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,°

  Lies fest’ring in his shroud; where, as they say,

  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—

  O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,°

  Environèd with all these hideous fears,

  And madly play with my forefathers’ joints,

  And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud,

  And, in this rage, with some great kinsman’s bone

  As with a club dash out my desp’rate brains?

  O, 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, I drink to thee.

  [She falls upon her bed within the curtains.]

  [Scene 4. Hall in Capulet’s house.]

  Enter Lady of the House and Nurse.

  Lady
Capulet. Hold, take these keys and fetch more

  spices, nurse.

  Nurse. They call for dates and quinces in the pastry.°

  Enter old Capulet.

  Capulet. Come, stir, stir, stir! The second cock hath

  crowed,

  The curfew bell hath rung, ’tis three o’clock.

  42 green in earth newly entombed 47 mandrakes plant with forked root, resembling the human body (supposed to shriek when uprooted and drive the hearer mad) 49 distraught driven mad 4.4.2 pastry pastry cook’s room

  Look to the baked meats,° good Angelica;°

  Spare not for cost.

  Nurse. Go, you cotquean,° 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

  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.

  Exit Lady and Nurse.

  Capulet. A jealous hood,° a jealous hood!

  Enter three or four [Fellows] with spits and

  logs and baskets.

  Now, fellow,

  What is there?

  First Fellow. Things for the cook, sir; but I know not

  what.

  Capulet. Make haste, make haste. [Exit first Fellow.]

  Sirrah, fetch drier logs.

  Call Peter; he will show thee where they are.

  Second Fellow. I have a head, sir, that will find out

  logs°

  And never trouble Peter for the matter.

  Capulet. Mass,° and well said; a merry whoreson,° ha!

  Thou shalt be loggerhead.° [Exit second Fellow,

  with the others.] Good faith, ’tis day.

  The County will be here with music straight,

  For so he said he would. Play music.

  5 baked meats meat pies 5 Angelica (the Nurse’s name) 6 cotquean man who does woman’s work 8 watching staying awake 11 mouse hunt night prowler, woman chaser 13 A jealous hood i.e., you wear the cap of a jealous person 18 will find out logs has an affinity for logs (i.e., is wooden also) 20 Mass by the Mass 20 whoreson rascal 21 loggerhead blockhead

  I hear him near.

  Nurse! Wife! What, ho! What, nurse, I say!

  Enter Nurse.

  Go waken Juliet; go and trim her up.