romeo and juliet essay grade 10 pdf pdf download

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English HL REVISION BOOKLET 2024 T2 Gr. 10

The program covers the following topics: Preparation for Paper 1 – Comprehension, advertising, editing, phrases and clauses, the apostrophe Preparation for Paper 2 - Writing a literary essay - Romeo and Juliet: Includes mini-essays and a full literature essay.

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romeo and juliet essay grade 10 pdf pdf download

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Romeo and Juliet 2025 plus memo

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Preview text, selborne college, grade 10 english home language 2025, “romeo and juliet”, guidelines on the writing of a literary essay, the literary essay is a formal piece of writing in which the learner critically examines a theoretical statement about a, work of literature and arrives at some conclusion., structure of the essay,  the literary essay is not a creative writing essay although the format / structure is the same.,  the literary essay is not a review, summary or merely retelling of the novel / short story / film / poem.,  the literary essay must be brainstormed and thoroughly planned.,  the literary essay consists of the following:,  introduction, o the purpose of the introduction is to give a gentle lead into the essay., o it should clarify the essay title and the approach that the learner proposes to take., o six or seven lines of normal handwriting are usually enough., o each paragraph of the essay must be well planned., o paragraphs must carry the argument and must not simply be a series of unconnected, unexplained, statements., o therefore, paragraphs consisting only of one sentence are usually a sign of poor style. usually, the first, sentence lays down the topic, the following sentences develop this, and the final sentence draws the topic, to a relevant conclusion.,  conclusion, o a conclusion is simply a brief summary of the main conclusions raised in each paragraph followed by a, bold, concluding statement., essay must be rooted in the text. do not use colloquialisms / slang., underline or quote titles. do not use contractions such as “can’t” and “won’t”., spell the characters’ names correctly. do not air your opinions /views without substantiation, from the text., use formal language. do not preach on moral issues., re-read the essay frequently to ensure that you are, keeping to the topic., do not use prepared essays that have to be molded to, edit / proofread your work. do not focus on strengthening the essay only by, quotations. remember that incidents and events can be, substantiate with examples from the text. do not write in the first person. (no i or we), write in the third person. do not use sub-headings, the tone of the essay must be serious and impersonal. do not use inflated language and verbosity., be concise. do not waffle on one idea., use inverted commas when quoting. avoid repetition., your essay must be a coherent essay. avoid a loosely written essay where ideas and, paragraphs are not linked., write in the present tense. do not write in the past tense, glossary of terms used in both essay and contextual type questions., term explanation, account for give the reasons behind, analyse write about the various aspects of, assess and evaluate weigh up the strength of value, compare and contrast write about the similarities and differences about two things you are directed to, describe recreate the picture for the reader’s imagination, discuss write about the various ideas and opinions that have been expressed on the subject., elaborate write more about this, add more information and details, examine look at the various areas and issues involved, explain make known in more detail. include specific details and information., justify support with all the evidence you can, outline write about the important aspects of, a tragedy by william shakespeare, about the play:, romeo and juliet is a tragedy written in 1595. shakespeare based the plot on several sources, including arthur, brooke’s tragicall hystory of romeus and juliet. the play dramatises the fate of two young lovers whose tragic, deaths are brought about by feuding between their families and by their own passionate temperaments. it leaves the, audience thinking “what if...” – much bad luck leads to a tragic ending. “romeo and juliet” is set in verona, italy., verona is strategically situated on the major trade routes from milan to venice and from italy to central europe. the, balcony scene (act 2, scene ii) from romeo and juliet is one of the best-known scenes in shakespeare’s plays and is, almost certainly the most frequently parodied. juliet’s line “o romeo, romeo—wherefore art thou romeo” is, perhaps as well-known as hamlet’s famous question, “to be or not to be...”, but is often misunderstood., the characters: (dramatis personae),  escalus – prince of verona – very annoyed at the ongoing feud between the montagues and the capulets –, banishes romeo to mantua, shows that he is merciful. concerned about maintaining public peace at all costs., rather inconsistent – promises execution of next person to break the peace but banishes romeo instead of, executing him. many have said that his ‘loose’ rule of verona caused the many fights and brawls.,  mercutio – kinsman of the prince and close friend of romeo. overflows with charisma, imagination, wit. he, finds romeo’s romanticised ideas about love tiresome – he tries to convince romeo to view love as a simple, matter of sexual appetite. rather arrogant. killed by tybalt. he dominates conversations. most volatile temper.,  paris – young count, relative of the prince and mercutio, suitor of juliet – killed by romeo, wishes to be placed, next to juliet in the family tomb.,  montague – head of the veronese family at feud with the capulets,  lady montague – wife of montague – she dies, grief-stricken with romeo’s exile from verona.,  romeo – son and heir of montague – at first introduced as a melancholic youth – becomes courageous,, eloquent and dynamic after meeting juliet. he is a very well-liked youth. commits suicide, rather than living, without juliet – ultimate display of loyalty to his love. 16 years old. serious about love but lacks self-control.,  benvolio – nephew of montague and friend of romeo and mercutio, his name suggests ‘benevolence”. (well-, wisher) he tries to diffuse the violent acts in public places. gentle and peace loving. has much common sense,, loyalty. tries to restrain mercutio and romeo whenever they break the peace.,  abram – (sometimes referred to as abraham) servant of montague,  balthasar – servant of montague attending on romeo – delivers the news of juliet’s supposed death to, romeo in mantua. witnesses romeo’s last moments in life at juliet’s tomb. loyal friend,  capulet – patriarch / head of the veronese family at feud with the montagues – wise, charismatic man, but a, ruthless father, does not want his rule questioned. very concerned with his public image.,  lady capulet – wife of capulet – distant figure in juliet’s life. ineffectual mother – relies on the nurse to, support her daughter.,  juliet – daughter of capulet. beautiful 13-year-old girl. starts the play as a naïve child who has thought little, about love and marriage. she is a docile and dutiful daughter until she meets romeo and marries him in secret. at, the end of the play, she has grown up and matured much. she is practical and headstrong but eventually, commits suicide rather than living without romeo.,  tybalt – nephew of lady capulet. rash, hot-blooded, violent. vain, fashionable. hates all montagues. killed by, romeo after he kills mercutio.,  old man – of the capulet family,  nurse – attends on juliet, her foster-mother, cares deeply for juliet. (name – angelica) sentimental character –, provides comic relief with her frequently inappropriate comments and speeches. she is a trusted and loyal servant, to the capulets.,  peter – servant of capulet attending on the nurse – invites the guest to the feast at the start of the play –, illiterate and a bad singer.,  sampson – of the capulet household – tries to pick a fight with the montagues,  gregory - of the capulet household - tries to pick a fight with the montagues,  anthony - of the capulet household,  potpan - of the capulet household,  servant - of the capulet household,  page – attends on count paris,  servingmen - of the capulet household,  friar lawrence – a franciscan monk – marries romeo and juliet (hoping that their marriage might end the, feud between the families) and orchestrates the plan that eventually fails. other than being a catholic holy man,, he is also an expert in the use of mystical potions and herbs. admits his guilt for romeo and juliet’s deaths to, escalus but is forgiven., acts and scenes analyses:, act i: prologue:, the chorus tells us the plot of the play, and what kind of play it is. we learn that two youths from opposing families will, fall in love and die. their deaths will mend the quarrel between the houses. prologue takes the form of a 14-line, act i, scene i, sampson and gregory, servants of the capulet household, go out looking for trouble. they try to pick a fight with, abram and balthasar, servants of the montague household. benvolio tries to stop the fight, but tybalt enters and, attacks benvolio. the citizens of verona attack both the capulets and the montagues. capulet and montague try to, join the fight but are restrained by their wives. prince escalus stops the riot, threatens everyone with death, takes, capulet with him and leaves. lady montague asks where romeo is and benvolio answers that he is wandering the, woods. benvolio offers to speak to romeo to find out what is bothering him. benvolio figures out that romeo’s, problem has to do with unrequited love – romeo won’t say who the lady is., act i, scene ii, paris asks capulet for juliet’s hand in marriage. capulet thinks she is too young but tells paris to woo her. capulet, invites paris to a feast to be held at capulet mansion that night. capulet sends a servant out to invite everybody else, to the feast. benvolio and romeo are still discussing romeo’s problem when they are interrupted by the servant, asking romeo to read the invite for him – it is the list of invitees to the feast. romeo discovers that rosaline (the, object of his unrequited affection) will be at the feast. benvolio challenges romeo to go to the feast to see other, beauties. romeo agrees, but only to see rosaline., act i, scene iii, lady capulet wants to have a serious conversation with juliet, but the nurse keeps interrupting with reminiscing about, juliet’s weaning. lady capulet tells juliet that paris wants to marry juliet and urges her to look upon him favourably., servants come to call everyone to the feast., act i, scene iv, mercutio tries to persuade romeo to dance at the capulet’s feast, but romeo says he is too sadly love-lorn to do, anything but hold a torch. romeo says it will not be wise to go to the feast, as he had a dream... mercutio mocks, romeo and goes on about queen mab. romeo is sure that some terrible fate awaits him, but he goes to the feast with, his friends., act i, scene v, romeo and his friends enter the capulet feast. capulet enters, greets the masked guests and invites them to dance., romeo spots juliet and admits to himself it is the first time he has seen true beauty. tybalt recognises romeo and, sends for his sword, but capulet orders tybalt to do nothing. tybalt swears to make romeo pay, and then leaves., romeo holds juliet’s hand and begs for a kiss, she gives him a few as everyone is leaving, they learn that they are, from opposing households, and they exclaim upon their fates for making them fall in love with their enemies., act ii: prologue:, the chorus tells us that romeo and juliet are suffering because they can’t meet, but that passion gives them power to, find a way to see each other., act ii, scene i, on his way home from capulet’s feast, romeo turns back and jumps over the wall of capulet’s garden. benvolio calls, for romeo and mercutio bawdily calls romeo, but he doesn’t appear, and they leave., act ii, scene ii, the balcony scene from romeo and juliet is one of the best-known scenes in shakespeare’s plays. juliet’s line “o, romeo, romeo—wherefore art thou romeo” is perhaps as well-known as hamlet’s famous question, “to be or not, to be...” but is often misunderstood. romeo, having fallen for juliet at a party he gate-crashed, has made his way to, her window to woo her. there he overhears her talking aloud of her own love for him, and her concern about the fact, that he is a montague, born of a family that are enemies to her own household: “wherefore”, or “why”, she asks, herself, could he not have been born with any other name romeo is surprised by her offering to take another name, for her love. the celestial imagery that romeo uses to describe juliet and her use of beautiful images from nature—a, rose, the sea—develop a richly romantic atmosphere. however, at the same time, juliet’s concern for the danger, facing romeo should he be found, and the interruptions of the nurse, who almost discovers their secret meeting,, builds up dramatic tension, foreshadowing the tragedy that will eventually engulf these “star-crossed lovers”. they, pledge their love for each other, and juliet is called away by her nurse. she tells romeo that she will send a, messenger the next day to find out where and when they will be married. romeo says he will go visit friar lawrence, to get help., act ii, scene iii, at dawn friar lawrence gathers herbs and comments on how – in both plants and people – everything has some, good, but that every good can be abused and turn to evil. romeo appears and tells the friar that he has fallen in love, with juliet and wants him to marry them. the friar criticises romeo for jumping so quickly from loving rosaline to, loving juliet and wanting to marry so soon. nevertheless, he agrees to marry them – he thinks that the marriage might, solve the problems between the montagues and the capulets., act ii, scene iv, mercutio wonders where romeo is. benvolio says that tybalt has sent a challenge to romeo. mercutio describes, tybalt as a conceited killer. romeo arrives and joins in the bawdy repartee. nurse arrives and is mocked by mercutio., she wants a word with romeo – gets times and place for his marriage to juliet., act ii, scene v, juliet impatiently awaits the return of the nurse with news from romeo. the nurse teases juliet by finding all kinds of, ways not to deliver the news. finally tells her to go to friar lawrence’s cell to be married., act ii, scene vi, just before the wedding, friar lawrence advises romeo to love moderately. romeo and juliet tell each other how, much they love each another and friar lawrence leads them off to be married., act iii, scene i, on the streets of verona, benvolio tries to persuade mercutio that it’s best to avoid the quarrel with the capulets., tybalt is looking for romeo, is challenged by mercutio, but them romeo arrives. romeo refuses to fight (they are now, family) but mercutio steps in and fight tybalt. as romeo is trying to stop the fight, tybalt stabs mercutio, and then runs, away. mercutio dies. romeo is ashamed of himself for letting mercutio do the fighting and when tybalt returns, he kills, him. benvolio persuades romeo to leave the scene. benvolio tells the prince what happened. lady capulet wants, romeo’s life – he must die to pay for killing tybalt. the prince levies fines and exiles romeo from verona., act iii, scene ii, juliet longs for the coming of the night and romeo. the nurse appears- she has seen tybalt’s corpse and heard that, romeo has been banished. the nurse is so overwrought that she makes juliet believe that romeo is dead. when the, nurse makes it clear that it is tybalt who is dead, and that romeo killed him, juliet is first angry and then defends, romeo. she is very sad that romeo has been banished. the nurse promises to make arrangements that romeo can, come visit juliet that night to say goodbye., act iii, scene iii, romeo learns that he has been banished from verona and weeps and moans on the floor of friar lawrence’s cell., the nurse arrives and tells romeo that juliet is also in a very bad shape. romeo is wild with guilt for making juliet, sad and tries to stab himself. friar lawrence stops him, tells him to go to juliet, then off to mantua until the prince can, be persuaded to pardon romeo. the nurse gives romeo a ring from juliet. romeo leaves in a better mood to go see, act iii, scene iv, on a sudden impulse, capulet promises paris that juliet will marry him the day after tomorrow., act iii, scene v, romeo has spent to night with juliet, he prepares to leave. romeo offers to stay and die, but juliet urges him to leave., the nurse hurries in with the news that juliet’s mother is coming. romeo kisses juliet and leaps out of the window., juliet asks romeo if they will ever see each other again. lady capulet assumes juliet is crying for tybalt. lady, capulet expresses her hatred of romeo she tells juliet that she is to marry paris. juliet declares that she will not, marry paris. her father is so enraged that he threatens to throw her (juliet) out of the house. juliet pleads with her, mother to intervene, but lady capulet refuses. juliet asks the nurse for advice – nurse says she should marry paris,, as romeo will not return, and paris is more handsome. to her parents, she says that she will marry paris, but, secretly she will go to friar lawrence’s cell and get advice. otherwise, she will kill herself., act iv, scene i, as paris makes arrangements with friar lawrence to perform the wedding, juliet appears. paris reminds her that they, are to be married on thursday. juliet says that she will rather kill herself than marry paris. the friar comes up with the, plan – juliet is to take a potion that will make her appear dead for 42 hours, so that the wedding can be called off and, romeo can come back and take her to mantua., act iv, scene ii, capulet is making arrangements when juliet appears, begs her father’s pardon and tells him she will marry paris. this, makes capulet so happy that he moves the wedding up to the next day, wednesday., act iv, scene iii, juliet persuades her mother and the nurse to leave her alone. she agonises over everything that could go wrong, is, terrified of visions of the grave and drinks to romeo., fatherly love despite capulet's severity with his daughter. shakespeare uses characterisation to make it clear that, violent emotions are as dangerous as violent deeds. in act 2, scene 4, mercutio and benvolio speak about tybalt,, who has challenged romeo to a duel. as much as romeo's friends show true loyalty and love for him, benvolio and, mercutio can barely contain their excitement over the prospect of a fight, knowing it could lead to romeo's death. they, make fun of romeo; referring to romeo's depression over rosaline, mercutio says of his friend, "he's already dead", in the same conversation, mercutio and benvolio divulge background information about the character of tybalt, and, the audience finds out that he has a significant reputation for swordsmanship and fighting. later, through an argument, between mercutio and benvolio, the audience learns how easily their anger can trigger violence. prejudice and a lack, of communication play a strong role in causing violence. throughout the play members of the capulet and montague, households assume the worst of their counterparts in the other family. tybalt assumes that romeo came disguised to, the party to mock his family. mercutio assumes that romeo refuses to fight tybalt because of weakness. paris, assumes that romeo has come to the capulet crypt to desecrate the bodies. in each case preconceived ideas, motivate the character to respond aggressively. this emphasises that the failure to communicate openly can be fatal., shakespeare builds the theme of authority by showing how each character wields his or her power over others. the, prince, representing the ideas of justice and law, has the highest level of authority over the other characters. his words, are the voice of reason. he is never swayed by emotion, even when his own kinsman, mercutio, is killed. he, recognizes the truth about violence. he says that rage is "pernicious" and weapons are "mistempered," or made for, evil purposes, and he works for peace. he judges fairly and banishes romeo instead of sentencing him to death. at, the end of the play, the prince issues the final proclamation about the friar's innocence, setting the law above religious, authority. friar lawrence represents religious authority. as a spiritual counsellor, he is the voice of wisdom. he, encourages romeo to be moderate in love and to see blessings when romeo sees only the negative in his situation., the friar delivers a core message: humankind is both good and evil, and "where the worser is predominant," it will, destroy the individual. the friar is manipulated by fate, and through his actions he gives fate the power to doom the, lovers. this happens because the friar tries to step outside the boundaries of his religious authority. he is not content, to be only a spiritual source of guidance to romeo and juliet. he tampers with their lives and tries to carve a path for, them, concocting lies and schemes to thwart secular customs. he helps romeo sneak around the law of banishment,, and he helps juliet outwit her family and fake her death. for violating these boundaries, he bears a part in the young, lovers' demise. shakespeare does not choose for him to be condemned by the law, implying that religious authority is, not as definitive as the other types of authority in the play. lord capulet wields social and parental authority, though he, allows his decisions to be influenced by paris. in act 1, scene 1, he tells paris that juliet is too young to be married,, but paris argues with him and changes his mind. later in the play, lord capulet says juliet is too much in mourning, over the death of tybalt to be married, and again, paris's presence changes lord capulet's mind. every time juliet, rebels against her parents, her emotional state mirrors the mental state her father was in before he was influenced by, paris. this implies that paris has emotional, political, or social authority over lord capulet, who, in choosing to yield to, paris's authority, forfeits his parental authority. if it were not for paris, who represents social pressures, lord capulet, would be a doting, compassionate father. in counterpoint to these characters, neither romeo nor juliet wants power, over the other. in fact, each one seeks to give the other authority. it has no place in their loving relationship., youth and age, much of the tension in the drama stems from clashes between the dispositions of young characters versus the, expectations of older ones. even though the older characters are tempered versions of the younger characters, they, show evidence of possessing the same passions they consistently urge the young to overcome. lord capulet and, tybalt's rage at the masquerade ball are similar, yet lord capulet calls tybalt a "saucy boy," seeming to forget that he, reached for a sword himself when he saw montague earlier that day. juliet and the older nurse's relationship mirrors, the one between romeo and the older friar. juliet and the nurse are alike in nature, both romantic and enthusiastic, about love. however, the nurse is more practical, likely through experience, something she cannot give to juliet. when, she advises juliet to marry paris after romeo is banished, they clash. the friar and romeo are alike in nature, both, poetic and lofty. the friar berates romeo in act 2, scene 3, telling him that confusion creates more confusion: "riddling, confession finds but riddling shift." yet the friar never considers speaking the truth as a resolution to any of romeo and, juliet's problems. it is as if he expects romeo to be wiser than himself., before juliet meets romeo, her identity is not called into question. she is comfortable performing the expectations, required of her in the roles of daughter and capulet family member, hoping neither for a marriage nor a change of, identity. because she has never had to define herself, she sheds her old identity easily after meeting romeo. the, audience understands this when she says, "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." in the play's beginning, romeo is seeking a relationship with rosaline. when, that fails, he loses his sense of self. romeo regains his identity through love for juliet. shakespeare contrasts, romeo's qualities and pursuits against the dispositions of his friends, mercutio and benvolio, and his enemy, tybalt., unlike these characters romeo does not actively engage in the old prejudices and hatred between the montagues and, capulets. romeo strikes out for the capulet party, not to embrace his role as a montague but as a means of shedding, the past and stepping into manhood. tragically, the characters who are still under the influence of the feud prevent, him from growing into his new identity as juliet's husband., the theme of light and dark:, many scenes in “romeo and juliet” are set either late at night or early in the morning. shakespeare often uses the, contrast between day and night to explore opposing alternatives in each situation. light is not always good (most of, the deaths occur in daytime) and night is not always evil (romeo and juliet are together at night-time) in “romeo and, juliet”. romeo imagines juliet transforms night into day, dark into light. he uses descriptions of light to describe her., he says she eclipses the stars as daylight overpowers a lamp and juliet, as the sun, is much brighter than the pale, moon. juliet almost convinces romeo that day had not yet broken (after their wedding night) so that he can stay, the tension between social and family identity:, a name vs an inner identity. juliet believes that love stems from one’s inner identity and that the feud between the, families is a product of outer identity, based only on a name. she thinks of romeo in individual terms, and thus her, love for him overrides her family’s hatred for his family. she says that if romeo were not called “romeo” or, “montague”, he would still be the person she loves., the inevitability of fate / the “tragic design” of the play, the chorus states that romeo and juliet are “star-cross’d” – that fate (a power vested in the movements of the stars), controls them. the power of fortune is explained. a sense of fate permeates the play – the characters are aware of it.

Romeo defies the stars when he believes Juliet is dead. Romeo’s defiance plays into the hands of fate and his

determination to spend eternity with Juliet results in their deaths. Fate works all around the “star-cross’d” lovers – the

Feud between their families; the well-intentioned (but failed) plan of friar lawrence; the tragic timing of romeo’s, suicide and juliet’s awakening. all these events are manifestations of fate that bring about the deaths of the lovers., romeo and juliet are helpless victims of the arbitrary operation of fate – destiny forbade them to be together. the, reader is left with the question whether they were ever given the choice to be together., the forcefulness of love, “romeo and juliet” is the most famous love story in the english literary tradition. love is the dominant and most, important theme in the play. the play focuses on romantic love between romeo and juliet., love is a violent, ecstatic, overpowering force that supersedes all other values, loyalties and emotions. the young, lovers defy their entire social world:, families – “deny thy father” / “i’ll no longer be a capulet”, friends – romeo abandons mercutio and benvolio after the feast to visit juliet, ruler – romeo returns to verona despite escalus’ orders, shakespeare was not interested in portraying a pretty, dainty version of love – love in “romeo and juliet” is a brutal, and powerful force that captures individuals and catapults them against their world, and, at times, against themselves., “romeo and juliet” does not make a specific moral statement about the relationships between love and society,, religion and family, rather, it portrays the chaos and passion of being in love, combining images of love, violence,, death, religion and family in an impressionistic rush leading to the play’s tragic conclusion., hate in “romeo and juliet”, the role of hatred plays an important role in the play. the hatred between the montagues and the capulets ends up, killing their only two children. what was the hate for nothing..., the feud was ancient and merely existed because nobody had bothered to end it. if the two families had just stopped, feuding earlier on, the lives of the two ‘star-cross’d’ lovers could have been saved. hatred never leads up to any good., shakespeare tells us that it is senseless in fighting with someone just for the sake of fighting. this is an everlasting, queen mab’s role in “romeo and juliet”, in act i: iv, mercutio delivers a dazzling speech about the fairy queen mab, who rides through the night on her tiny, wagon bringing dreams to sleepers. one of the most noteworthy aspects of queen mab’s ride is that the dreams she, brings generally do not bring out the best side of the dreamers – they bring forth the vices that the dreamers are, addicted to – greed, violence, lust etc. although mercutio’s speech about queen mab is complete nonsense, it does, act as a symbolism of the fantasies, daydreams and desires of every human., mercutio suggests that all desires and fantasies are as nonsensical and fragile as mab and that they are basically, corrupting. this point of view is in stark contrast with that of romeo and juliet – they believe that love is real and, ennobling. the point is made that all dreams are fleeting and of the imagination – not real, because the entire play represents only five days in the lives of romeo and, juliet, the timeline is an important element., day one—sunday, a. the quarrel among the capulet and montague servants, 1. tybalt fights benvolio, 2. prince issues warning, b. romeo’s romantic nature, 1. his infatuation for rosaline, 2. his love for juliet is established, c. paris asks to marry juliet, d. lord capulet’s ball, 1. romeo and juliet meet, 2. tybalt’s anger is ignited against romeo, day two—monday, a. romeo incorporates friar lawrence’s help, b. the nurse meets with romeo to get the wedding plans, c. romeo and juliet are married, d. the fights on the streets of verona, 1. tybalt kills mercutio, 2. romeo kills tybalt, e. romeo is banished, f. friar lawrence devises a plan for romeo and juliet, g. paris is granted permission to marry juliet, day three—tuesday, a. juliet refuses to marry paris, b. friar lawrence devises another plan for juliet, 1. juliet drinks the sleeping potion, 2. friar lawrence sends a message to romeo, day four—wednesday, a. juliet is found “dead”, b. juliet is buried in the capulet monument, day five—thursday, a. romeo learns of juliet’s death, b. romeo buys poison, c. romeo kills paris and himself, d. friar lawrence learns that his message to romeo was not delivered, e. juliet kills herself, questions on every scene:, 1. explain the purpose of the prologue., 2. explain the conflict mentioned., 3. explain the reference to the stars., 4. briefly discuss the structure of the sonnet and explain what type of sonnet this is., 5. suggest why the use of this poetic form is appropriate for “romeo and juliet”., act 1, scene 1:, 1. what is the setting for the play, 2. what scene of conflict opens the action of the play, 3. which character tries to stop the fighting among the servants, 4. which character is aggressive and eager to fight, 5. briefly describe the events that led to the prince’s speech., 6. explain the words ‘neighbour-stainèd steel’., 7. what are the ‘purple fountains’ to which the prince refers in his speech, 8. explain ‘bred of an airy word’ (as used in the prince’s speech)., 9. what warning does the prince give to anyone who breaks the peace again, 10. in what state of mind is romeo when we first see him in the play give a reason for your answer., 11. what advice does benvolio have for romeo, act 1, scene 2:, 1. who has asked for juliet’s hand in marriage, 2. what does capulet mean by ‘my child is yet a stranger in the world’, 3. how old is juliet provide evidence for your answer., 4. what is paris’s reaction to capulet’s statement about his daughter’s age, 5. how does capulet defend his statement in response, 6. explain ‘an old accustomed feast’., 7. what modern saying means the same as when capulet says, ‘one more, most welcome, makes my number, 8. what are the ‘earth-treading stars’ of which capulet speaks comment on what this tells us about him., 9. explain how romeo finds out about the capulet ball., 10. how does benvolio try to remedy romeo’s love sickness is romeo convinced, plot – choose the correct answer., lord capulet and paris enter. capulet tells paris that there should be peace between his household and the, montague’s. paris remarks that both capulet and montague are honourable and respected men. then he asks, capulet whether he has thought about his request to marry juliet. capulet says that juliet is very, (shy/childish/young), only (13/14/15) years old, and he suggests that paris should wait another (one and a, half/two/two and a half) years. paris replies that other girls who are even (uglier/younger/less mature) than juliet, have made happy marriages and have become (rich/mothers/respected), but capulet replies that this has often, spoiled their beauty. all his other children (have died/are unmarried/are childless) and juliet is the only hope he has, for the future. however, he gives paris permission to court juliet and says that if juliet is willing, he will give his, consent. he says that that night he is giving a banquet for many of his friends. he invites paris to attend. capulet then, gives a servant a piece of paper with all the names of the guest written on it and tells him to find all the people and, invite them to the banquet. the servant is (a stranger to verona/blind/illiterate) and therefore unable to read the, names on the list. benvolio and romeo enter. benvolio is still trying to persuade romeo to (leave verona/look for, another love interest/consider a future in the church), for in that way he will forget the sadness that, (rosaline/livia/helena) has caused him. capulet’s servant asks romeo to read the names of the guests on the list, for him. among the names are those of rosaline, capulet’s (niece/sister/friend), and (escalus/tybalt/martino), his, nephew. romeo asks who is giving the feast where there will be (many beautiful girls/much well-prepared, food/many opportunities to study the girl he loves). during the evening romeo can compare rosaline to the other, girls and he will find that she pales in comparison. the scene ends with romeo swearing that he will be faithful to, act 1, scene 3:, 1. who is susan, 2. when is juliet’s birthday, 3. why does lady capulet visit with juliet what questions does she ask her, 4. how do the nurse and lady capulet feel about paris, 5. which other character in the play is a relative of paris, 6. describe the relationship between juliet and the nurse., 7. explain why the nurse is present during this very personal conversation between juliet and her mother., 8. “marry, that ‘marry’ is the very theme...” (line 64). explain the pun in this line., 9. how does lady capulet try to persuade juliet that she is not too young to get married, 14. despite the arrangements and her love for romeo, juliet has an uneasy feeling. what is it about their love that, makes her feel this way, act 2, scene 3:, 1. what is friar laurence’s special skill or area of knowledge, 2. explain friar laurence’s philosophy concerning the parts of a plant as compared to the potential actions of man., 3. what is ‘shrift’, 4. what does friar lawrence mean when he says, ‘young men’s love then lies not truly in their hearts, but in their, 5. why does the friar agree to marry romeo and juliet, 6. about what does the friar caution romeo quote a line to prove your answer., act 2, scene 4:, 1. why does mercutio think romeo has not been home after the banquet, 2. who has sent romeo a challenge for a duel, 3. why is mercutio worried about romeo’s duel with tybalt, 4. why does he call tybalt the ‘prince of cats’, 5. who teases romeo about rosaline and his lovesickness, 6. explain why romeo compares the nurse to a ship., 7. what does the nurse mean when she warns romeo not to ‘deal double’ with juliet, 8. what excuse is juliet to give for going to friar laurence’s cell, 9. where are romeo and juliet to be married, 10. how does romeo plan to get into juliet’s window, it is the morning after (capulet’s/montague’s/prince escalus’s) feast. mercutio asks benvolio if he has seen, romeo. benvolio says that all he knows it that romeo did not go home. mercutio thinks that romeo must still be, distressed about (juliet/rosaline/the nurse). benvolio reveals that tybalt has sent a (parcel/bloodied, dagger/letter) to the montague household. mercutio immediately realises that tybalt has challenged romeo to, (display his loyalty/a duel/display his strength). benvolio says that romeo will not be afraid to accept the, challenge. mercutio, however, says because romeo is so lovesick for rosaline, he will be no match for tybalt who is, an expert (swordsman/shot/soldier). romeo enters and mercutio accuses him of hiding from them the previous night, after the feast. romeo apologises but says that because of the circumstances he could be forgiven for his lack of, curtesy. there follows a (verbal/physical/emotional) duel of wits between romeo and mercutio. romeo proves, himself to be a match for mercutio and mercutio is delighted that romeo is again his lively self and not the, (“snivelling/drivelling/grovelling”) lover of before. juliet’s nurse and her servant, peter, enter. because of her veils, billowing in the wind, romeo compares her to a (puffed-up rooster/sailing ship/soaring kite). the nurse asks where, she can find a young man called romeo. mercutio finds much amusement in pretending that the ugly nurse wants to, make a date with romeo. he leaves with benvolio, leaving romeo alone with the nurse. the nurse asks romeo, about the cheeky mercutio. romeo replies that (his bark is worse than his bite/he is just a big fish in a small, pond/he is the salt of the earth). she is angry with the servant, peter, for not helping her while mercutio was, insulting her. peter replies that he saw no need to; but if there was a reason he is as ready as the next man to draw, (blood/the curtains/his sword). the nurse suddenly tells romeo that juliet has sent her. but first she tells romeo, that he must not (lead juliet into a fool’s paradise/be shrived and marry juliet/commend himself to juliet)., romeo tells the nurse that juliet must go to friar lawrence’s cell (when the stars are out/when the envious moon, appears/that afternoon) where he will marry her. romeo further tells the nurse that his servant will bring her a, (length of knotted bed linen/rope ladder/leather-soled shoes) so that he can climb up into juliet’s room that night., the nurse asks if romeo’s servant is (as rude as mercutio/a man of wax/trustworthy) and romeo reassures her., the nurse tells romeo how she teases juliet about (peter/paris/balthasar), but that juliet can think only of romeo., the nurse leaves., act 2, scene 5:, 1. at what time did juliet send the nurse to see romeo and find out the wedding plans, 2. how long has juliet been waiting for the nurse to return with the news from romeo, 3. what excuse does juliet give herself for the nurse’s delay, 4. who is peter and why did he accompany the nurse, 5. how does the nurse react when she finally returns, 6. discuss the possible reasons for the nurse’s delaying tactics., 7. how does the nurse feel about the marriage, 8. list the details of the wedding arrangements., 9. explain the rules of courtship during this period. compare the actions of paris and of romeo regarding courting, and marriage., act 2, scene 6:, 1. of what is the friar afraid, 2. explain the ‘holy words’ to which romeo refers., 3. explain what friar lawrence means when he says, ‘these violent delights have violent ends.’, 4. how much do the lovers say their love has grown, 5. how many people know of the marriage, 6. where does the marriage take place, 7. what is another name for the friar, act 3, scene 1:, 1. how can the heat of the day be symbolic what mood is shakespeare creating, 2. who begs mercutio to leave the streets of verona because the capulets might also be out on this extremely hot, 3. what does this say about him, 4. who comes to the public square looking for a fight with romeo, 5. what does mercutio call tybalt, 6. how does tybalt insult romeo and try to get him to fight him, 7. why won’t romeo fight tybalt, 8. why does mercutio fight tybalt, 9. how is mercutio killed, 10. mercutio blames one person for his being stabbed. name this person and why mercutio blames him., 11. romeo blames someone for his (romeo’s) part in mercutio’s murder. name this person and why romeo blames, 12. quote to prove that mercutio’s friends are initially unaware of the seriousness of his wound., 13. explain mercutio’s words: ‘a plague a’both your houses.’, 14. explain the pun in ‘ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.’, 15. why does romeo kill tybalt, 16. why does romeo state that he is ‘fortune’s fool’, 17. who tells the prince about the murders, 18. what is romeo’s punishment, act 3, scene 2:, 1. what is juliet wishing for at the start of this scene, 2. what news does the nurse bring juliet, 3. explain the miscommunication/confusion between juliet and the nurse., 4. explain juliet’s two reactions to hearing of romeo’s guilt in tybalt’s murder. explain why she feels this way., 5. why does juliet state that she is ‘maiden-widowed’, 6. what does the nurse tell juliet about romeo’s whereabouts, juliet longs for the (rope ladder/night/morning) to come so that she can be with romeo and so consummate their, marriage. the nurse comes in and juliet thinks that she must be bringing good news about romeo. however, the, nurse is wringing her hands in (grief/pain/frustration). when juliet asks her what the matter is, the nurse simply says, that (a man/a loved one/“he”) is dead. juliet immediately thinks that it is (her father/romeo/tybalt) who is dead., the nurse’s speech is confused, and juliet is in torment to know the truth. she asks if romeo has killed himself. if that, is the case, juliet will (accept paris’s proposal/exile herself to mantua/kill herself). the nurse says how she, herself saw the wound on the corpse. juliet still thinks that the nurse is referring to romeo and again says that if he is, dead, she will die also. the nurse then mentions that tybalt is dead. this (angers/confuses/infuriates) juliet even, more and she now thinks that both romeo, her husband, and tybalt, her cousin, are dead. the nurse then explains to, juliet that romeo is (exiled/sentenced to death/imprisoned) because he killed tybalt. juliet’s first reaction is to, (commend/belittle/curse) romeo for being (deceitful/underhanded/a loyal friend), for showing an outward, appearance of gentleness only to hide an inner viciousness and evil: “was ever (man/book/letter) containing such, (sweet/vile/treacherous) matter so (fairly/falsely/distastefully) bound” the nurse agrees with her and says that no, man can be trusted. juliet then jumps to (an illogical conclusion/romeo’s defence/release nervous energy) and, the nurse is shocked that juliet can defend the man who killed her cousin. juliet regrets that she accused him of being, deceitful, as she now realises that if romeo had not killed tybalt, then (tybalt would have killed him/their secret, would have been revealed/romeo would from then on be known as a coward). she finds comfort in the fact that, romeo is still alive. but then she remembers that romeo has been banished from verona. that is worse than if she, had been told that her mother and father, as well as tybalt, had been killed. she asks the nurse where her father and, mother are. the nurse tells her that they are (plotting revenge/mourning for tybalt/asleep as their grief has, overwhelmed them). juliet tells the nurse to take the rope ladder by which romeo was meant to come to her that, night. the nurse says that she will fetch romeo from (his parents’ house/friar lawrence’s cell/mantua) and that he, will come to juliet that night. overjoyed, juliet gives the nurse a (ring/love potion/letter) to take to romeo., act 3, scene 3:, 1. what day is it in scene 3, 2. where did romeo run to hide after the murder of tybalt, 4. if the potion does not work, what does juliet plan to do, 5. what are juliet’s nine fears before she drinks the potion, act 4, scene 4:, 1. scene 4 takes place at what time in the morning, 2. scene 4 takes place on what day, 3. how do the capulets know that paris is approaching, 4. who is sent to wake up juliet, act 4, scene 5:, 1. why does the nurse call juliet ‘lamb, lady, slug-a-bed’, 2. what does the nurse find, 3. describe the reactions of lord capulet, lady capulet, the nurse and friar laurence to the death of juliet., 4. capulet says that ‘death lies on her like an untimely frost upon the sweetest flower of all the field’. explain this line., 5. when paris asks if juliet is ready to go to church, capulet responds by saying, ‘ready to go, but never to return.’, explain his answer., 6. paris states that he has been ‘beguiled, divorced, wronged, spited, slain’. explain each of the words in view of, juliet’s death., 7. who tries to console the capulets by saying that juliet is better off in heaven why does he say this, 8. how do the wedding preparations change after they find juliet, act 5, scene 1:, 1. where does scene 1 take place why is romeo there, 2. what was romeo’s dream how is his dream an example of dramatic irony, 3. who brings romeo the news that juliet is dead, 4. why does romeo say, “i defy you, stars” upon hearing of juliet’s death refer to an important theme., 5. describe how and why romeo intends to ‘defy the stars’., 6. balthasar says, “i do beseech you sir, have patience.” is romeo patient substantiate your answer by referring to, two previous incidents., 7. why does romeo go to the apothecary, 8. ‘the trunk may be discharged of breath, as violently as hasty powder fired’ identify and explain this figure of, 9. according to the above quote, which two qualities does romeo expect from the poison, 10. how much does romeo pay for the poison, 11. why does the apothecary hesitate in selling romeo the poison, 12. what persuades the apothecary to go ahead and sell romeo the poison, 13. explain how this scene contains dramatic irony., 14. is romeo brave or foolish to return to verona discuss your view., act 5, scene 2:, 1. whom does friar laurence entrust with the important letter to romeo, 2. what information does the letter contain, 3. explain the consequence of the letter not reaching romeo., 4. why is the letter not delivered to romeo state three reasons., 5. how long will it be before juliet wakes up, 6. friar lawrence calls juliet a ‘poor living corpse’. identify and explain the effectiveness of the figure of speech., romeo, alone in (venice/mantua/hiding), tells of a dream which has made him very happy. he dreamt that he was, (dead/unconscious/mortally wounded) but that juliet revived him by kissing him. romeo’s servant,, (peter/balthasar/samson), arrives from verona and romeo eagerly asks him for news of his parents and juliet. his, servant tells him how he saw the ‘dead’ juliet buried in the (church’s cemetery/graveyard on the outskirts of the, city/family vault). romeo challenges (death/destiny/the earth) to do its worst and tells his servant to prepare, (horses/a wagon/a disguise) as he wishes to leave that same night. the manservant, alarmed by romeo’s, (devastation/hysterics/wild looks), begs him to be calm. romeo tells him to do as ordered. romeo thinks of ways of, joining juliet in (death/verona/sorrow). immediately he remembers an apothecary whose shop is close by. he, remembers that the apothecary is (corrupt/heavily in debt/thin and poor) and so would be willing to break the law, and sell poison to get some money. by reminding the apothecary of his (poverty/criminal record/unpaid bills),, romeo persuades him to hand over the poison. romeo pays him with gold, saying that gold has caused more harm in, the world than poison ever has. romeo them determines to go to the tomb where juliet is lying so that he can (pay, his last respects/poison paris whom he suspects will be holding vigil there/kill himself there by drinking, poison). friar john returns from his attempt to deliver friar lawrence’s (parcel/letter/warning) to romeo. he was, unable to deliver it because he stayed with another friar who had been in contact with people who (were placed, under house arrest for suspected crimes against the city/needed to be evacuated immediately/suffered from, the plague). consequently, the house in which friar john had stayed had been locked up and no one was available, to deliver the letter to romeo. friar lawrence is (unperturbed/alarmed/grief-stricken). the letter told that juliet only, appears to be dead. he asks friar john to fetch a (crowbar/skeleton key/barge-pole) and determines to break open, the door to the tomb. juliet will soon wake up and he will keep her (hidden in the furthest corner of the vault/in a, secret hide-out just outside verona’s limits/at his cell) until he can get news to romeo., act 5, scene 3:, 1. why is paris at juliet’s tomb what does this say about his character and how he felt about juliet, 2. why does paris think romeo has come to the capulet tomb, 3. what is paris’ last request, 4. who kills paris why, 5. romeo states that often, when men are about to die, they make jokes. who else in the play also did that, 6. what is the ‘bitter conduct’ to which romeo refers in line 116, 7. if romeo had not been so hasty in drinking the poison, what would he have noticed about juliet, 8. name the people who died in this scene., 9. where does friar laurence want to take juliet, 10. why does juliet say, ‘o comfortable friar’, 11. what ‘greater power’ has ‘thwarted’ their plans explain your answer by referring to a major theme in the play., 12. why does juliet kiss romeo’s lips, 13. explain why the line ‘thy lips are warm’ is particularly sad., 14. juliet says that the poison will restore her. this is an oxymoron. analyse the imagery used here., 15. how does juliet kill herself, 16. who is suspected the most as a murderer and why, 17. what four accounts does the prince hear, 18. how have the deaths of romeo and juliet affected the entire city of verona, a fairly long quiz that test content knowledge and quotations, 1. what word finishes this line said by romeo: “love goes towards love, as schoolboys from their...”, 2. fill in the missing word: “romeo, romeo, wherefore ... thou romeo”, 3. when romeo sees juliet at a window: “but, soft what ... through yonder window breaks”, 4. juliet to nurse: “o, god did romeo’s hand shed ... blood” whose blood, 5. after mercutio is fatally wounded: “a plague o’ both your ...”, 6. friar laurence says to romeo “...’s sweet milk philosophy”, 7. in the prologue romeo and juliet are referred to as a “pair of ... lovers”, 8. to whom does romeo go when he hears of juliet’s supposed death, 9. “that which we call a ... by any other name would smell as sweet.”, 10. where does the play take place, 11. prince ... attempts to prevent any further conflicts by decreeing death for any individual who disturbs the peace in, 12. with whom is romeo in love with at the start of the play, 13. how many siblings did romeo have, 14. was romeo married when he killed tybalt, 15. on which day was juliet supposed to marry paris, 16. how did juliet die, 17. how old was juliet when she married romeo, 18. who was the first person romeo killed, 19. who was the second person romeo killed, 20. who was the third person romeo killed, 21. where was romeo banished to, 22. what held up the priest who was supposed to tell romeo and juliet’s plan, 23. who married romeo and juliet, 24. who said “o, swear not by the moon...”, 25. what do romeo, juliet, lady montague and paris have in common, 26. true or false: juliet blushes easily., and yet another quiz..., 1. to which city does romeo go after he is banished from verona, 2. why is romeo exiled, 3. who performs romeo and juliet’s marriage, 4. who is the fairy that mercutio says visits romeo in his dreams, 5. what does the nurse advise juliet to do after romeo is exiled, 6. where did romeo and juliet meet, 7. who killed mercutio, 8. which character first persuades romeo to go to the feast.

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Romeo and Juliet Full Play

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 misadventured piteous overthrows Do with their death bury their parents’ strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love, And the continuance of their parents’ rage, Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove, Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage; The which if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

SCENE I. Verona. A public place.

Enter SAMPSON and GREGORY, of the house of Capulet, armed with swords and bucklers SAMPSON Gregory, o’ my word, we’ll not carry coals. GREGORY No, for then we should be colliers. SAMPSON I mean, an we be in choler, we’ll draw. GREGORY Ay, while you live, draw your neck out o’ the collar. SAMPSON I strike quickly, being moved. GREGORY But thou art not quickly moved to strike. SAMPSON A dog of the house of Montague moves me. GREGORY To move is to stir; and to be valiant is to stand: 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 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 The heads of the maids? SAMPSON Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads; take it in what sense thou wilt. GREGORY 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. Draw thy tool! here comes two of the house of the Montagues. SAMPSON My naked weapon is out: quarrel, I will back thee. GREGORY How! turn thy back and run? SAMPSON Fear me not. GREGORY No, marry; I fear thee! SAMPSON Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin. GREGORY I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it 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. Enter ABRAHAM and BALTHASAR ABRAHAM Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? SAMPSON I do bite my thumb, sir. ABRAHAM Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? SAMPSON [Aside to GREGORY] Is the law of our side, if I 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? ABRAHAM Quarrel sir! no, sir. SAMPSON If you do, sir, I am for you: I serve as good a man as you. ABRAHAM No better. SAMPSON Well, sir. GREGORY Say ‘better:’ here comes one of my master’s kinsmen. SAMPSON Yes, better, sir. ABRAHAM You lie. SAMPSON Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy swashing blow. They fight 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! 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 Attendants PRINCE Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel,– Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts, That quench the fire of your pernicious rage With purple fountains issuing from your veins, On pain of torture, from those bloody hands Throw your mistemper’d weapons to the ground, And hear the sentence of your moved prince. Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word, By thee, old Capulet, and Montague, Have thrice disturb’d the quiet of our streets, And made Verona’s ancient citizens Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments, To wield old partisans, in hands as old, Canker’d with peace, to part your canker’d hate: If ever you disturb our streets again, Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace. For this time, all the rest depart away: You Capulet; shall go along with me: And, Montague, come you this afternoon, To know our further pleasure in this case, To old Free-town, our common judgment-place. Once more, on pain of death, all men depart. Exeunt all but MONTAGUE, LADY MONTAGUE, and BENVOLIO 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 prepared, Which, as he breathed defiance to my ears, He swung about his head and cut the winds, Who nothing hurt withal hiss’d him in scorn: While we were interchanging thrusts and blows, Came more and more and fought on part and part, Till the prince came, who parted either part. 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: Towards him I made, but he was ware of me And stole into the covert of the wood: I, measuring his affections by my own, That most are busied when they’re most alone, Pursued my humour not pursuing his, And gladly shunn’d who gladly fled from me. MONTAGUE Many a morning hath he there been seen, With tears augmenting the fresh morning dew. Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs; But all so soon as the all-cheering sun Should in the furthest east begin to draw The shady curtains from Aurora’s bed, Away from the light steals home my heavy son, And private in his chamber pens himself, Shuts up his windows, locks far daylight out And makes himself an artificial night: Black and portentous must this humour prove, Unless good counsel may the cause remove. BENVOLIO My noble uncle, do you know the cause? MONTAGUE I neither know it nor can learn of him. BENVOLIO Have you importuned him by any means? MONTAGUE Both by myself and many other friends: But he, his own affections’ counsellor, Is to himself–I will not say how true– But to himself so secret and so close, So far from sounding and discovery, As is the bud bit with an envious worm, Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air, Or dedicate his beauty to the sun. Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow. We would as willingly give cure as know. Enter ROMEO 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 MONTAGUE 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? 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. Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love. Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate! O any thing, of nothing first create! O heavy lightness! serious vanity! Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! This love feel I, that feel no love in this. Dost thou not laugh? BENVOLIO No, coz, I rather weep. 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 raised with the fume of sighs; Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes; Being vex’d a sea nourish’d with lovers’ tears: What is it else? a madness most discreet, A choking gall and a preserving sweet. Farewell, my coz. 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 urged to one that is so ill! In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman. BENVOLIO I aim’d so near, when I supposed you loved. ROMEO A right good mark-man! And she’s fair I love. BENVOLIO A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit. ROMEO Well, in that hit you miss: she’ll not be 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, 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 starved with her severity Cuts beauty off from all posterity. She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair, To merit bliss by making me despair: She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow Do I live dead that live to tell it now. 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 To call hers exquisite, in question more: These happy masks that kiss fair ladies’ brows Being black put us in mind they hide the fair; He that is strucken blind cannot forget The precious treasure of his eyesight lost: Show me a mistress that is passing fair, What doth her beauty serve, but as a note Where I may read who pass’d that passing fair? Farewell: thou canst not teach me to forget. 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 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, 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 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, Whereto I have invited many a guest, Such as I love; and you, among the store, One more, most welcome, makes my number more. At my poor house look to behold this night Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light: Such comfort as do lusty young men feel When well-apparell’d April on the heel Of limping winter treads, even such delight Among fresh female buds shall you this night Inherit at my house; hear all, all see, And like her most whose merit most shall be: Which on more view, of many mine being one May stand in number, though in reckoning none, Come, go with me. To Servant, giving a paper Go, sirrah, trudge about Through fair Verona; find those persons out Whose names are written there, and to them say, My house and welcome on their pleasure stay. Exeunt CAPULET and PARIS 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 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, And the rank poison of the old will die. ROMEO Your plaintain-leaf is excellent for that. BENVOLIO For what, I pray thee? ROMEO For your broken shin. BENVOLIO Why, Romeo, art thou mad? ROMEO Not mad, but bound more than a mad-man is; Shut up in prison, kept without my food, Whipp’d and tormented and–God-den, good fellow. Servant God gi’ god-den. I pray, sir, can you read? ROMEO Ay, mine own fortune in my misery. Servant Perhaps you have learned it without book: but, 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 Vitravio; Signior Placentio and his lovely nieces; Mercutio and his brother Valentine; mine uncle Capulet, his wife and daughters; my fair niece Rosaline; Livia; Signior Valentio and his cousin Tybalt, Lucio and the lively Helena.’ A fair assembly: whither should they come? 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 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 lovest, With all the admired beauties of Verona: Go thither; and, with unattainted eye, Compare her face with some that I shall show, And I will make thee think thy swan a crow. ROMEO When the devout religion of mine eye 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 poised with herself in either eye: But in that crystal scales let there be weigh’d Your lady’s love against some other maid That I will show you shining at this feast, And she shall scant show well that now shows best. ROMEO I’ll go along, no such sight to be shown, But to rejoice in splendor 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, ladybird! 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. 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 teeth 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, On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen; That shall she, marry; I remember it well. Tis since the earthquake now eleven years; And she was wean’d,–I never shall forget it,– Of all the days of the year, upon that day: For I had then laid wormwood to my dug, Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall; My lord and you were then at Mantua:– Nay, I do bear a brain:–but, as I said, When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool, To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug! Shake quoth the dove-house: ’twas no need, I trow, To bid me trudge: And since that time it is eleven years; For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood, She could have run and waddled all about; For even the day before, she broke her brow: And then my husband–God be with his soul! A’ was a merry man–took up the child: Yea,’ quoth he, ‘dost thou fall upon thy face? Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit; Wilt thou not, Jule?’ and, by my holidame, The pretty wretch left crying and said ‘Ay.’ To see, now, how a jest shall come about! I warrant, an I should live a thousand years, I never should forget it: ‘Wilt thou not, Jule?’ quoth he; And, pretty fool, it stinted and said ‘Ay.’ 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 A bump as big as a young cockerel’s stone; A parlous knock; and it cried bitterly: Yea,’ quoth my husband,’fall’st upon thy face? Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age; Wilt thou not, Jule?’ it stinted and said ‘Ay.’ JULIET 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 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, 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, And find delight writ there with beauty’s pen; Examine every married lineament, And see how one another lends content And what obscured in this fair volume lies Find written in the margent of his eyes. This precious book of love, this unbound lover, To beautify him, only lacks a cover: The fish lives in the sea, and ’tis much pride For fair without the fair within to hide: That book in many’s eyes doth share the glory, That in gold clasps locks in the golden story; So shall you share all that he doth possess, By having him, making yourself no less. 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: 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 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 a 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. 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, 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: A visor for a visor! what care I 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: 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 dream’d a dream to-night. MERCUTIO And so did I. ROMEO Well, what was yours? MERCUTIO That dreamers often lie. ROMEO In bed asleep, while they do dream things true. MERCUTIO O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you. She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate-stone On the fore-finger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomies Athwart men’s noses as they lie asleep; Her wagon-spokes made of long spiders’ legs, The cover of the wings of grasshoppers, The traces of the smallest spider’s web, The collars of the moonshine’s watery beams, Her whip of cricket’s bone, the lash of film, Her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat, Not so big as a round little worm Prick’d from the lazy finger of a maid; Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, Time out o’ mind the fairies’ coachmakers. And in this state she gallops night by night Through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love; O’er courtiers’ knees, that dream on court’sies straight, O’er lawyers’ fingers, who straight dream on fees, O’er ladies ‘ lips, who straight on kisses dream, Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues, Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are: Sometime she gallops o’er a courtier’s nose, And then dreams he of smelling out a suit; And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig’s tail Tickling a parson’s nose as a’ lies asleep, Then dreams, he of another benefice: Sometime she driveth o’er a soldier’s neck, And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, Of healths five-fathom deep; and then anon Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes, And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two And sleeps again. This is that very Mab That plats the manes of horses in the night, And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs, Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes: This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, That presses them and learns them first to bear, Making them women of good carriage: This is she– 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. 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 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 Strike, drum. Exeunt

SCENE V. A hall in Capulet’s house.

Musicians waiting. Enter Servingmen with napkins First Servant Where’s Potpan, that he helps not to take away? He shift a trencher? he scrape a trencher! Second Servant When good manners shall lie all in one or two men’s hands and they unwashed too, ’tis a foul thing. First Servant 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 Nell. Antony, and Potpan! Second Servant Ay, boy, ready. First Servant You are looked for and called for, asked for and sought for, in the great chamber. Second Servant We cannot be here and there too. Cheerly, boys; be brisk awhile, 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 Unplagued with corns will have a bout with you. Ah ha, my mistresses! which of you all Will now deny to dance? she that makes dainty, She, I’ll swear, hath corns; am I come near ye now? Welcome, gentlemen! I have seen the day That I have worn a visor and could tell A whispering tale in a fair lady’s ear, Such as would please: ’tis gone, ’tis gone, ’tis gone: You are welcome, gentlemen! come, musicians, play. A hall, a hall! give room! and foot it, girls. Music plays, and they dance More light, you knaves; and turn the tables up, And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot. Ah, sirrah, this unlook’d-for sport comes well. Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin Capulet; For you and I are past our dancing days: How long is’t now since last yourself and I Were in a mask? Second Capulet By’r lady, thirty years. CAPULET What, man! ’tis not so much, ’tis not so much: Tis since the nuptials of Lucentio, Come pentecost as quickly as it will, Some five and twenty years; and then we mask’d. 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 is that, which doth enrich the hand Of yonder knight? Servant I know not, sir. ROMEO O, 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; Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear! So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows, As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows. The measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand, And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand. Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night. 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, 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: I would not for the wealth of all the town Here in my house do him disparagement: Therefore be patient, take no note of him: It is my will, the which if thou respect, Show a fair presence and put off these frowns, And ill-beseeming semblance for a feast. TYBALT It fits, when such a villain is a guest: 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 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; 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 yours, my sin is purged. JULIET Then have my lips the sin that they have took. ROMEO Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again. JULIET You kiss by the 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 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. BENVOLIO Away, begone; the sport is at the best. ROMEO Ay, so I fear; the more is my unrest. CAPULET Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone; 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. JULIET What’s he that now is going out of door? Nurse Marry, that, I think, be young Petrucio. JULIET What’s he that follows there, that would not dance? Nurse I know not. JULIET Go ask his name: if he be married. 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 loathed enemy. Nurse What’s this? what’s this? JULIET A rhyme I learn’d even now Of one I danced withal. One calls within ‘Juliet.’ Nurse Anon, anon! Come, let’s away; the strangers all are gone. Exeunt

Enter Chorus 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 beloved and loves again, Alike betwitched 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-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! MERCUTIO He is wise; And, on my lie, hath stol’n 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;’ Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word, One nick-name for her purblind son and heir, Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim, 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, 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, and in his mistres s’ 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. Romeo, that she were, O, that she were An open et caetera, thou a poperin 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. Exeunt

SCENE II. Capulet’s orchard.

Enter ROMEO ROMEO He jests at scars that never felt a wound. JULIET appears above 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! ROMEO She speaks: O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art As glorious to this night, being o’er my head As is a winged messenger of heaven Unto the white-upturned wondering eyes Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him When he bestrides the lazy-pacing 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, 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 name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, 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: Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized; Henceforth I never will be Romeo. JULIET What man art thou that thus bescreen’d 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 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 utterance, yet I know the sound: Art thou not Romeo and a Montague? ROMEO Neither, fair saint, 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, If any of my kinsmen find thee here. ROMEO With love’s light wings did I o’er-perch these walls; For stony limits cannot hold love out, And what love can do that dares love attempt; Therefore thy kinsmen are no let to me. JULIET 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 I have night’s cloak to hide me from their sight; And but thou love me, let them find me here: My life were better ended by their hate, Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love. JULIET By whose direction found’st thou out this place? ROMEO By love, who 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 wash’d with the farthest sea, I would adventure for such merchandise. JULIET 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 to-night Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain deny What I have spoke: but farewell compliment! 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 Then say, Jove laughs. O gentle Romeo, If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully: Or if thou think’st I am too quickly won, I’ll frown and be perverse an 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: But trust me, gentleman, I’ll prove more true Than those that have more cunning 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, And not impute this yielding to light love, Which the dark night hath so discovered. ROMEO Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops– JULIET O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, That monthly changes in her circled 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, 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 to-night: It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden; Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be 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 O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied? JULIET What satisfaction canst thou have to-night? ROMEO The 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 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, The more I have, for both are infinite. Nurse calls within I hear some noise within; dear love, adieu! Anon, good nurse! Sweet Montague, be true. Stay but a little, I will come again. Exit, above ROMEO O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard. Being in night, all this is but a dream, Too flattering-sweet to be substantial. Re-enter JULIET, above JULIET Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed. If that thy bent of love be honourable, Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow, 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 [Within] Madam! JULIET I come, anon.–But if thou mean’st not well, I do beseech thee– Nurse [Within] Madam! JULIET By and by, I come:– To cease thy suit, and leave me to my grief: To-morrow will I send. ROMEO So thrive my soul– JULIET A thousand times good night! Exit, above ROMEO A thousand times the worse, to want thy light. Love goes toward love, as schoolboys from their books, But love from love, toward school with heavy looks. Retiring Re-enter JULIET, above JULIET Hist! Romeo, hist! O, 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, And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine, With repetition of my Romeo’s name. 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 Romeo! ROMEO My dear? JULIET At what o’clock to-morrow Shall I send to thee? ROMEO At the hour of nine. JULIET I will not fail: ’tis twenty years till then. I have forgot why I did call thee back. ROMEO Let me stand here till thou remember it. JULIET 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: And yet no further than a wanton’s bird; Who lets it hop a little from her hand, Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves, And with a silk thread plucks it back again, So loving-jealous of his liberty. ROMEO 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. Exit above ROMEO Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast! Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest! Hence will I to my ghostly father’s cell, His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell. Exit

SCENE III. Friar Laurence’s cell.

Enter FRIAR LAURENCE, with a basket FRIAR LAURENCE The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night, Chequering the eastern clouds with streaks of light, And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels From forth day’s path and Titan’s fiery wheels: Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye, The day to cheer and night’s dank dew to dry, I must up-fill this osier cage of ours With baleful weeds and precious-juiced flowers. The earth that’s nature’s mother is her tomb; 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. O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities: For nought so vile that on the earth doth live But to the earth some special good doth give, Nor aught so good but strain’d from that fair use Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse: Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied; And vice sometimes by action dignified. Within the infant rind of this small flower Poison hath residence and medicine power: For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part; Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart. Two such opposed kings encamp them still In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will; And where the worser is predominant, Full soon the canker death eats up that plant. Enter ROMEO ROMEO Good morrow, father. FRIAR LAURENCE Benedicite! What early tongue so sweet saluteth me? Young son, it argues a distemper’d head So soon to bid good morrow to thy bed: Care keeps his watch in every old man’s eye, And where care lodges, sleep will never lie; But where unbruised youth with unstuff’d brain Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign: Therefore thy earliness doth me assure Thou art up-roused by some distemperature; Or if not so, then here I hit it right, Our Romeo hath not been in bed to-night. ROMEO That last is true; the sweeter rest was mine. FRIAR LAURENCE God pardon sin! wast thou with Rosaline? ROMEO With Rosaline, my ghostly father? no; I have forgot that name, and that name’s woe. FRIAR LAURENCE 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, 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, blessed man, for, lo, My intercession likewise steads my foe. FRIAR LAURENCE 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; And all combined, save what thou must combine By holy marriage: when and where and how We met, we woo’d and made exchange of vow, I’ll tell thee as we pass; but this I pray, That thou consent to marry us to-day. FRIAR LAURENCE 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 Hath wash’d 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; Lo, here upon thy cheek the stain doth sit Of an old tear that is not wash’d 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, Women may fall, when there’s no strength in men. ROMEO Thou chid’st me oft for loving Rosaline. FRIAR LAURENCE For doting, not for loving, pupil mine. ROMEO And bad’st me bury love. FRIAR LAURENCE Not in a grave, To lay one in, another out to have. ROMEO I pray thee, chide not; she whom I love now Doth grace for grace and love for love allow; The other did not so. FRIAR LAURENCE O, she knew well Thy love did read by rote and could not spell. But come, young waverer, come, go with me, In one respect I’ll thy assistant be; For this alliance may so happy prove, To turn your households’ rancour to pure love. ROMEO O, let us hence; I stand on sudden haste. FRIAR LAURENCE Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast. Exeunt

Enter BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO MERCUTIO Where the devil should this Romeo be? Came he not home to-night? BENVOLIO Not to his father’s; I spoke with his man. MERCUTIO Ah, that same pale hard-hearted wench, that Rosaline. Torments him so, that he will sure run mad. BENVOLIO Tybalt, the kinsman of old Capulet, Hath sent a letter to his father’s house. MERCUTIO A challenge, on my life. BENVOLIO Romeo will answer it. MERCUTIO Any man that can write may answer a letter. BENVOLIO Nay, he will answer the letter’s master, how he dares, being dared. MERCUTIO 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 More than prince of cats, I can tell you. O, he is the courageous captain of compliments. He fights as you sing prick-song, keeps time, distance, and proportion; rests me his minim rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom: the very butcher of a silk button, a duellist, a duellist; a gentleman of the very first house, of the first and second cause: ah, the immortal passado! the punto reverso! the hai! BENVOLIO The what? MERCUTIO The pox of such antic, lisping, affecting fantasticoes; 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 perdona-mi’s, who stand so much on the new form, that they cannot at ease on the old bench? O, their bones, their bones! Enter ROMEO BENVOLIO Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo. MERCUTIO Without his roe, like a dried herring: 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 be-rhyme her; Dido a dowdy; Cleopatra a gipsy; Helen and Hero hildings and harlots; Thisbe a grey eye or so, but not to the purpose. Signior Romeo, bon jour! 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 The ship, 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 Meaning, to court’sy. 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 Right. ROMEO Why, then is my pump well flowered. MERCUTIO Well said: 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 sole singular. ROMEO O single-soled jest, solely singular for the singleness. MERCUTIO Come between us, good Benvolio; my wits faint. ROMEO Switch and spurs, switch and spurs; or I’ll cry a match. MERCUTIO Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I have 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 any thing 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 Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting; it is a most sharp sauce. ROMEO And is it not well served in to a sweet goose? MERCUTIO O here’s a wit of cheveril, that stretches from an inch narrow to an ell broad! ROMEO 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 drivelling love is like a great natural, that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole. BENVOLIO 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 O, 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. ROMEO Here’s goodly gear! Enter Nurse and PETER MERCUTIO A sail, a sail! BENVOLIO Two, two; a shirt and a smock. Nurse 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 God ye good den, fair gentlewoman. Nurse Is it good den? 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! ROMEO One, gentlewoman, that God hath made for himself to mar. Nurse By my troth, it is well said; ‘for himself to mar,’ quoth a’? 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 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 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, 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. Romeo, will you come to your father’s? we’ll to dinner, thither. ROMEO I will follow you. MERCUTIO Farewell, ancient lady; farewell, Singing lady, lady, lady.’ Exeunt MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO Nurse Marry, farewell! I pray you, sir, what saucy merchant was this, that was so full of his ropery? ROMEO 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 a’ speak any thing against me, I’ll take him down, an a’ 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. And thou must stand by too, and suffer every knave to use me at his pleasure? PETER I saw no man use you a 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! Pray you, sir, a word: and as I told you, my young lady bade 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 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 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; And there she shall at Friar Laurence’ cell Be shrived and married. Here is for thy pains. Nurse No truly sir; not a penny. ROMEO Go to; I say you shall. Nurse This afternoon, sir? well, she shall be there. ROMEO And stay, good nurse, behind the abbey wall: 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: Farewell; commend me to thy mistress. Nurse Now God in heaven bless thee! Hark you, sir. ROMEO What say’st thou, my dear nurse? Nurse Is your man secret? Did you ne’er hear say, Two may keep counsel, putting one away? ROMEO I 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:–O, 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 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 Commend me to thy lady. Nurse Ay, a thousand times. Exit Romeo Peter! PETER Anon! Nurse Peter, take my fan, and go before and apace. Exeunt

SCENE V. Capulet’s orchard.

Enter JULIET 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. O, she is lame! love’s heralds should be thoughts, Which ten times faster glide than the sun’s beams, Driving back shadows over louring hills: Therefore do nimble-pinion’d doves draw love, And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings. Now is the sun upon the highmost hill 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, And his to me: But old folks, many feign as they were dead; Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead. O God, she comes! Enter Nurse and PETER O honey nurse, what news? Hast thou met with him? Send thy man away. Nurse Peter, stay at the gate. Exit PETER 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 I am a-weary, give me leave awhile: Fie, how my bones ache! what a jaunt have I had! 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? 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. 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 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. My back o’ t’ other side,–O, 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 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! 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 Here’s such a coil! come, what says Romeo? Nurse Have you got leave to go to shrift to-day? JULIET I have. Nurse Then hie you hence to Friar Laurence’ cell; There stays a husband to make you a wife: 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: 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. Exeunt

SCENE VI. Friar Laurence’s cell.

Enter FRIAR LAURENCE and ROMEO FRIAR LAURENCE 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 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 LAURENCE 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. Enter JULIET Here comes the lady: O, so light a foot Will ne’er wear out the everlasting flint: A lover may bestride the gossamer That idles in the wanton summer air, And yet not fall; so light is vanity. 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 imagined 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 sum of half my 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. Exeunt

SCENE I. A public place.

Enter MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, Page, and Servants 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 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 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 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 fun of quarrels as an egg is full of meat, and yet thy head hath been beaten as addle as an egg for quarrelling: thou hast quarrelled 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 riband? and yet thou wilt tutor me from quarrelling! BENVOLIO 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! BENVOLIO By my head, here come the Capulets. MERCUTIO By my heel, I care not. Enter TYBALT and others TYBALT Follow me close, for I will speak to them. Gentlemen, good den: 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 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 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; I will not budge for no man’s pleasure, I. Enter ROMEO 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 Romeo, the hate 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; 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, 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 Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk? TYBALT What wouldst thou have with me? MERCUTIO 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, drybeat the rest of the eight. Will you pluck your sword out of his pitcher by the ears? make haste, lest mine be about your ears ere it be out. TYBALT I am for you. Drawing ROMEO Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up. MERCUTIO Come, sir, your passado. They fight ROMEO 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! TYBALT under ROMEO’s arm stabs MERCUTIO, and flies with his followers 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. Where is my page? Go, villain, fetch a surgeon. Exit Page 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 to-morrow, 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 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! Exeunt MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO ROMEO This gentleman, the prince’s near ally, My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt In my behalf; my reputation stain’d With Tybalt’s slander,–Tybalt, that an hour Hath been my kinsman! O sweet Juliet, Thy beauty hath made me effeminate And in my temper soften’d valour’s steel! Re-enter BENVOLIO BENVOLIO O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio’s dead! That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds, Which too untimely here did scorn the earth. ROMEO This day’s black fate on more days doth depend; This but begins the woe, others must end. BENVOLIO Here comes the furious Tybalt back again. ROMEO Alive, in triumph! and Mercutio slain! Away to heaven, respective lenity, And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now! Re-enter TYBALT 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: 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 BENVOLIO Romeo, away, be gone! The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain. Stand not amazed: the prince will doom thee death, If thou art taken: hence, be gone, away! ROMEO O, I am fortune’s fool! BENVOLIO Why dost thou stay? Exit ROMEO Enter Citizens, & c First Citizen Which way ran he that kill’d Mercutio? Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he? BENVOLIO There lies that Tybalt. First Citizen Up, sir, go with me; I charge thee in the princes name, obey. Enter Prince, attended; MONTAGUE, CAPULET, their Wives, and others PRINCE Where are the vile beginners of this fray? BENVOLIO 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! O prince! O cousin! husband! O, the blood is spilt O 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; 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 bow’d, Could not take truce with the unruly spleen 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 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, 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 entertain’d revenge, 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; 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 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 Immediately we do exile him hence: I have an interest in your hate’s 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: 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. Exeunt

Enter JULIET JULIET Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, Towards Phoebus’ lodging: such a wagoner As Phaethon would whip you to the west, And bring in cloudy night immediately. Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, That runaway’s eyes may wink and Romeo Leap to these arms, untalk’d of and unseen. Lovers can see to do their amorous rites By their own beauties; or, if love be blind, It best agrees with night. Come, civil night, Thou sober-suited matron, all in black, And learn me how to lose a winning match, Play’d for a pair of stainless maidenhoods: Hood my unmann’d blood, bating in my cheeks, With thy black mantle; till strange love, grown 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 on a raven’s back. Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-brow’d night, Give me my Romeo; and, when he 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 And pay no worship to the garish sun. O, I have bought the mansion of a love, But not possess’d it, and, though I am sold, Not yet enjoy’d: so tedious is this day As is the night before some festival To an impatient child that hath new robes And may not wear them. O, here comes my nurse, And she brings news; and every tongue that speaks But Romeo’s name speaks heavenly eloquence. Enter Nurse, with cords Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there? the cords That Romeo bid thee fetch? Nurse Ay, ay, the cords. Throws them down JULIET Ay me! what news? why dost thou wring thy hands? Nurse Ah, well-a-day! he’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead! We are undone, lady, we are undone! Alack the day! he’s gone, he’s kill’d, he’s dead! JULIET 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? This torture should be roar’d in dismal hell. Hath Romeo slain himself? say thou but ‘I,’ 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; Or those eyes shut, that make thee answer ‘I.’ If he be slain, say ‘I’; 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: A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse; Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaub’d in blood, All in gore-blood; I swounded at the sight. JULIET O, break, my heart! poor bankrupt, break at once! To prison, eyes, ne’er look on liberty! 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 What storm is this that blows so contrary? Is Romeo slaughter’d, and is Tybalt dead? My dear-loved cousin, and my dearer lord? Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom! For who is living, if those two are gone? Nurse Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished; Romeo that kill’d him, he is banished. 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! Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical! Dove-feather’d raven! wolvish-ravening lamb! Despised substance of divinest show! Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st, A damned saint, an honourable 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 So fairly bound? O 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: These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old. Shame come to Romeo! JULIET Blister’d 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 honour may be crown’d Sole monarch of the universal earth. O, what a beast was I to chide at him! Nurse Will you speak well of him that kill’d your cousin? JULIET Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband? Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name, When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it? But, wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin? That villain cousin would have kill’d my husband: Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring; Your tributary drops belong to woe, 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, That murder’d me: I would forget it fain; But, O, it presses to my memory, Like damned guilty deeds to sinners’ minds: Tybalt is dead, and Romeo–banished;’ That ‘banished,’ that one word ‘banished,’ 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 rank’d with other griefs, Why follow’d not, when she said ‘Tybalt’s dead,’ Thy father, or thy mother, nay, or both, Which modern lamentations might have moved? But with a rear-ward following Tybalt’s death, Romeo is banished,’ to speak that word, Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet, All slain, all dead. ‘Romeo is banished!’ 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: 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: He made you for a highway to my bed; But I, a maid, die maiden-widowed. 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 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 Laurence’ cell. JULIET O, find him! give this ring to my true knight, And bid him come to take his last farewell. Exeunt

Enter FRIAR LAURENCE FRIAR LAURENCE Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man: Affliction is enamour’d of thy parts, And thou art wedded to calamity. Enter ROMEO ROMEO Father, what news? what is the prince’s doom? What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand, That I yet know not? FRIAR LAURENCE Too familiar Is my dear son with such sour company: I bring thee tidings of the prince’s doom. ROMEO What less than dooms-day is the prince’s doom? FRIAR LAURENCE A gentler judgment vanish’d 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 LAURENCE Hence from Verona art thou banished: Be patient, for the world is broad and wide. ROMEO There is no world without Verona walls, But purgatory, torture, hell itself. Hence-banished is banish’d from the world, And world’s exile is death: then banished, Is death mis-term’d: calling death banishment, Thou cutt’st my head off with a golden axe, And smilest upon the stroke that murders me. FRIAR LAURENCE O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness! Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind prince, Taking thy part, hath rush’d aside the law, And turn’d that black word death to banishment: This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not. ROMEO Tis torture, and not mercy: heaven is here, 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 honourable state, more courtship lives In carrion-flies than Romeo: they my 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; But Romeo may not; he is banished: Flies may do this, but I from this must fly: They are free men, but I am banished. And say’st thou yet that exile is not death? Hadst thou no poison mix’d, no sharp-ground knife, No sudden mean of death, though ne’er so mean, But ‘banished’ to kill me?–‘banished’? O friar, the damned use that word in hell; Howlings attend it: how hast thou the heart, Being a divine, a ghostly confessor, A sin-absolver, and my friend profess’d, To mangle me with that word ‘banished’? FRIAR LAURENCE Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a word. ROMEO O, thou wilt speak again of banishment. FRIAR LAURENCE I’ll give thee armour to keep off that word: Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy, To comfort thee, though thou art banished. ROMEO Yet ‘banished’? Hang up philosophy! Unless philosophy can make a Juliet, Displant a town, reverse a prince’s doom, It helps not, it prevails not: talk no more. FRIAR LAURENCE O, then I see that madmen have no ears. ROMEO How should they, when that wise men have no eyes? FRIAR LAURENCE Let me dispute with thee of thy estate. ROMEO Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel: Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love, An hour but married, Tybalt murdered, Doting like me and like me banished, Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair, And fall upon the ground, as I do now, Taking the measure of an unmade grave. Knocking within FRIAR LAURENCE Arise; one knocks; good Romeo, hide thyself. ROMEO Not I; unless the breath of heartsick groans, Mist-like, infold me from the search of eyes. Knocking FRIAR LAURENCE Hark, how they knock! Who’s there? Romeo, arise; 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 [Within] Let me come in, and you shall know my errand; I come from Lady Juliet. FRIAR LAURENCE Welcome, then. Enter Nurse Nurse O holy friar, O, tell me, holy friar, Where is my lady’s lord, where’s Romeo? FRIAR LAURENCE There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk. Nurse O, he is even in my mistress’ case, Just in her case! O woful sympathy! Piteous predicament! Even so lies she, Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering. Stand up, stand up; stand, and you be a man: For Juliet’s sake, for her sake, rise and stand; Why should you fall into so deep an O? ROMEO Nurse! Nurse Ah sir! ah sir! Well, death’s the end of all. ROMEO Spakest thou of Juliet? how is it with her? Doth she not think me an old murderer, Now I have stain’d the childhood of our joy With blood removed but little from her own? Where is she? and how doth she? and what says My conceal’d lady to our cancell’d love? Nurse O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps; 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, Did murder her; as that name’s cursed hand Murder’d 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. Drawing his sword FRIAR LAURENCE Hold thy desperate hand: Art thou a man? thy form cries out thou art: Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote The unreasonable fury of a beast: Unseemly woman in a seeming man! Or ill-beseeming beast in seeming both! Thou hast amazed me: by my holy order, I thought thy disposition better temper’d. Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself? And stay thy lady too that lives in thee, By doing damned hate upon thyself? Why rail’st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth? 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 Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit: Thy noble shape is but a form of wax, Digressing from the valour of a man; Thy dear love sworn but hollow perjury, Killing that love which thou hast vow’d to cherish; Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love, Misshapen in the conduct of them both, Like powder in a skitless soldier’s flask, Is set afire by thine own ignorance, And thou dismember’d with thine own defence. 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 are thou happy too: The law that threaten’d death becomes thy friend And turns it to exile; there art thou happy: A pack of blessings lights up 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: 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; 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. 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 stay’d here all the night To hear good counsel: O, 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: Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late. Exit ROMEO How well my comfort is revived by this! FRIAR LAURENCE 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: 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, It were a grief, so brief to part with thee: Farewell. Exeunt

SCENE IV. A room in Capulet’s house.

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. Tis very late, she’ll not come down to-night: I promise you, but for your company, I would have been a-bed an hour ago. PARIS These times of woe afford no time to woo. Madam, good night: commend me to your daughter. LADY CAPULET I will, and know her mind early to-morrow; To-night she is mew’d 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. 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 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; 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 My lord, I would that Thursday were to-morrow. 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! Afore me! it is so very very late, That we may call it early by and by. Good night. Exeunt

Enter ROMEO and JULIET above, at the window 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: 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 Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops. I must be gone and live, or stay and die. JULIET Yon light is not day-light, I know it, I: It is some meteor that the sun exhales, To be to thee this night a torch-bearer, 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, 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. 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; This doth not so, for she divideth us: Some say the lark and loathed toad change eyes, O, 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, O, now be gone; more light and light it grows. ROMEO More light and light; more dark and dark our woes! Enter Nurse, to the chamber Nurse Madam! JULIET Nurse? Nurse Your lady mother is coming to your chamber: The day is broke; be wary, look about. Exit JULIET Then, window, let day in, and let life out. ROMEO Farewell, farewell! one kiss, and I’ll descend. He goeth down JULIET Art thou gone so? love, lord, ay, husband, friend! I must hear from thee every day in the hour, For in a minute there are many days: O, 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 O 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 below, 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! Exit JULIET O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle: If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him. That is renown’d for faith? Be fickle, fortune; For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long, But send him back. LADY CAPULET [Within] Ho, daughter! are you up? JULIET Who is’t that calls? is it my lady mother? Is she not down so late, or up so early? What unaccustom’d cause procures her hither? Enter LADY CAPULET LADY CAPULET Why, how now, Juliet! JULIET Madam, I am not well. LADY CAPULET Evermore weeping for your cousin’s death? 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 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 slaughter’d him. JULIET What villain madam? LADY CAPULET That same villain, Romeo. JULIET [Aside] Villain and he be many miles asunder.– 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 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 banish’d runagate doth live, Shall give him such an unaccustom’d 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– Is my poor heart for a kinsman vex’d. 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. O, how my heart abhors To hear him named, and cannot come to him. To wreak the love I bore my cousin Upon his body that slaughter’d him! LADY CAPULET Find thou the means, and I’ll find such a man. But now I’ll tell thee joyful tidings, girl. JULIET And joy comes well in such a needy time: What are they, I 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, That thou expect’st not nor I look’d 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, 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. 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, And see how he will take it at your hands. Enter CAPULET and Nurse 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? 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; Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them, Without a sudden calm, will overset Thy tempest-tossed body. How now, wife! Have you deliver’d to her our decree? LADY CAPULET Ay, sir; but she will none, she gives you thanks. 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 blest, Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought So worthy a 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. CAPULET How now, how now, chop-logic! What is this? 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, 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 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 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 And why, my lady wisdom? hold your tongue, Good prudence; smatter with your gossips, go. Nurse I speak no treason. CAPULET O, God ye god-den. Nurse May not one speak? CAPULET Peace, you mumbling fool! Utter your gravity o’er a gossip’s bowl; 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 match’d: and having now provided A gentleman of noble parentage, Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly train’d, Stuff’d, as they say, with honourable parts, Proportion’d as one’s thought would wish a man; And then to have a wretched puling fool, 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, as you will not wed, I’ll pardon you: Graze where you will you shall not house with me: 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; And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets, For, by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee, Nor what is mine shall never do thee good: Trust to’t, bethink you; I’ll not be forsworn. Exit 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! 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. Exit JULIET 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. Alack, alack, that heaven should practise stratagems Upon so soft a subject as myself! What say’st thou? hast thou not a word of joy? Some comfort, nurse. Nurse Faith, here it is. Romeo is banish’d; and all the world to nothing, 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. O, he’s a lovely gentleman! 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, 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; Or else beshrew them both. JULIET Amen! Nurse What? JULIET Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much. Go in: and tell my lady I am gone, Having displeased my father, to Laurence’ cell, To make confession and to be absolved. Nurse Marry, I will; and this is wisely done. Exit 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 So many thousand times? Go, counsellor; 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

SCENE I. Friar Laurence’s cell.

Enter FRIAR LAURENCE and PARIS FRIAR LAURENCE 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 LAURENCE 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 talk’d of love; For Venus smiles not in a house of tears. Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous That she doth 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 LAURENCE [Aside] I would I knew not why it should be slow’d. Look, sir, here comes the lady towards my cell. 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 LAURENCE 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 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 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 slander’d 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 LAURENCE 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: 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 cure, past help! FRIAR LAURENCE Ah, 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 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, And with this knife I’ll help it presently. God join’d my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands; And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo seal’d, 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 honour bring. Be not so long to speak; I long to die, If what thou speak’st speak not of remedy. FRIAR LAURENCE 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 undertake A thing like death to chide away this shame, That copest 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 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’er-cover’d 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 unstain’d wife to my sweet love. FRIAR LAURENCE Hold, then; go home, be merry, give consent To marry Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow: To-morrow night look that thou lie alone; Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber: Take thou this vial, being then in bed, And this distilled liquor drink thou off; When presently through all thy veins shall run A cold and drowsy humour, 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 paly 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 borrow’d 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 To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead: Then, as the manner of our country is, In thy best robes uncover’d on the bier Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie. In the mean time, 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 valour in the acting it. JULIET Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear! FRIAR LAURENCE 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! Exeunt

SCENE II. Hall in Capulet’s house.

Enter CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, Nurse, and two Servingmen CAPULET So many guests invite as here are writ. Exit First Servant Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks. Second Servant You shall have none ill, sir; for I’ll try if they can lick their fingers. CAPULET How canst thou try them so? Second Servant 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. Exit Second Servant We shall be much unfurnished for this time. What, is my daughter gone to Friar Laurence? Nurse Ay, forsooth. CAPULET Well, he may chance to do some good on her: A peevish self-will’d harlotry it is. Nurse See where she comes from shrift with merry look. Enter JULIET CAPULET How now, my headstrong! where have you been gadding? JULIET Where I have learn’d me to repent the sin Of disobedient opposition To you and your behests, and am enjoin’d By holy Laurence to fall prostrate here, And 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 to-morrow morning. JULIET I met the youthful lord at Laurence’ cell; And gave him what becomed love I might, Not step 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, 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 to-morrow? LADY CAPULET No, not till Thursday; there is time enough. CAPULET Go, nurse, go with her: we’ll to church to-morrow. 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 to-night; 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 him up Against to-morrow: my heart is wondrous light, Since this same wayward girl is so reclaim’d. Exeunt

SCENE III. Juliet’s chamber.

Enter JULIET and Nurse JULIET Ay, those attires are best: but, gentle nurse, I pray thee, leave me to my self to-night, For I have need of many orisons To move the heavens to smile upon my state, Which, well thou know’st, is cross, and full of sin. Enter LADY CAPULET LADY CAPULET What, are you busy, ho? need you my help? JULIET No, madam; we have cull’d such necessaries As are behoveful for our state to-morrow: 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 LADY CAPULET 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 to-morrow morning? No, no: this shall forbid it: lie thou there. Laying down her dagger What if it be a poison, which the friar Subtly hath minister’d to have me dead, Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour’d, 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 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, 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, Environed 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, As with a club, dash out my desperate 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, I come! this do I drink to thee. She falls upon her bed, within the curtains

SCENE IV. Hall in Capulet’s house.

Enter LADY CAPULET and Nurse LADY CAPULET Hold, take these keys, and fetch more spices, nurse. Nurse They call for dates and quinces in the pastry. Enter CAPULET CAPULET Come, stir, stir, stir! the second cock hath crow’d, The curfew-bell hath rung, ’tis three o’clock: 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 to-morrow For this night’s watching. CAPULET No, not a whit: what! I have watch’d 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. Exeunt LADY CAPULET and Nurse CAPULET A jealous hood, a jealous hood! Enter three or four Servingmen, with spits, logs, and baskets Now, fellow, What’s there? First Servant Things for the cook, sir; but I know not what. CAPULET Make haste, make haste. Exit First Servant Sirrah, fetch drier logs: Call Peter, he will show thee where they are. Second Servant I have a head, sir, that will find out logs, And never trouble Peter for the matter. Exit CAPULET Mass, and well said; a merry whoreson, ha! Thou shalt be logger-head. Good faith, ’tis day: The county will be here with music straight, For so he said he would: I hear him near. Music within Nurse! Wife! What, ho! What, nurse, I say! Re-enter Nurse 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. Exeunt

SCENE V. Juliet’s chamber.

Enter Nurse 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! 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! 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? Undraws the curtains What, dress’d! and in your clothes! and down again! I must needs wake you; Lady! lady! lady! Alas, alas! Help, help! my lady’s dead! O, well-a-day, that ever I was born! Some aqua vitae, ho! My lord! my lady! Enter LADY CAPULET LADY CAPULET What noise is here? Nurse O lamentable day! LADY CAPULET What is the matter? Nurse Look, look! O heavy day! LADY CAPULET O me, O me! My child, my only life, Revive, look up, or I will die with thee! Help, help! Call help. Enter CAPULET CAPULET For shame, bring Juliet forth; her lord is come. Nurse She’s dead, deceased, she’s dead; alack the day! LADY CAPULET 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 Upon the sweetest flower of all the field. Nurse O lamentable day! LADY CAPULET O woful time! CAPULET Death, that hath ta’en her hence to make me wail, Ties up my tongue, and will not let me speak. Enter FRIAR LAURENCE and PARIS, with Musicians FRIAR LAURENCE Come, is the bride ready to go to church? CAPULET 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; 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! Most miserable hour that e’er time saw In lasting labour of his pilgrimage! But one, poor one, one poor and loving child, But one thing to rejoice and solace in, And cruel death hath catch’d it from my sight! Nurse O woe! O woful, woful, woful day! Most lamentable day, most woful 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: O woful day, O woful day! PARIS Beguiled, divorced, wronged, spited, slain! Most detestable death, by thee beguil’d, By cruel cruel thee quite overthrown! O love! O life! not life, but love in death! CAPULET Despised, distressed, hated, martyr’d, kill’d! 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; And with my child my joys are buried. FRIAR LAURENCE Peace, ho, for shame! confusion’s cure lives not In these confusions. Heaven and yourself 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; For ’twas your heaven she should be advanced: And weep ye now, seeing she is advanced Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself? O, in this love, you love your child so ill, That you run mad, seeing that she is well: 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, In all her best array bear her to church: For though fond nature bids us an lament, Yet nature’s tears are reason’s merriment. CAPULET 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, Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse, And all things change them to the contrary. FRIAR LAURENCE Sir, go you in; and, madam, go with him; And go, Sir Paris; every one prepare To follow this fair corse unto her grave: The heavens do lour upon you for some ill; Move them no more by crossing their high will. Exeunt CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, PARIS, and FRIAR LAURENCE First Musician Faith, we may put up our pipes, and be gone. Nurse Honest goodfellows, ah, put up, put up; For, well you know, this is a pitiful case. Exit First Musician Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended. Enter PETER 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 of woe:’ O, play me some merry dump, to comfort me. First Musician Not a dump we; ’tis no time to play now. PETER 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 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 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: When griping grief the heart doth wound, And doleful dumps the mind oppress, Then music with her silver sound’– why ‘silver sound’? why ‘music with her silver sound’? What say you, Simon Catling? Musician 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 O, 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: Then music with her silver sound With speedy help doth lend redress.’ Exit 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. Exeunt

SCENE I. Mantua. A street.

Enter ROMEO 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 unaccustom’d spirit 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. Ah me! how sweet is love itself possess’d, When but love’s shadows are so rich in joy! Enter BALTHASAR, booted News from Verona!–How now, Balthasar! Dost thou not bring me letters from the friar? How doth my lady? Is my father well? 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 Capel’s monument, And her immortal part with angels lives. 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 even so? then I defy you, stars! Thou know’st my lodging: get me ink and paper, And hire post-horses; I will hence to-night. BALTHASAR I do beseech you, sir, have patience: Your looks are pale and wild, and do import Some misadventure. ROMEO 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, And hire those horses; I’ll be with thee straight. Exit BALTHASAR Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night. Let’s see for means: O mischief, thou art swift To enter in the thoughts of desperate men! I do remember an apothecary,– And hereabouts he dwells,–which late I noted In tatter’d weeds, with overwhelming brows, Culling of simples; meagre were his looks, Sharp misery had worn him to the bones: And in his needy shop a tortoise hung, An alligator stuff’d, 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, Were thinly scatter’d, 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.’ O, 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! Enter Apothecary Apothecary Who calls so loud? ROMEO 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 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 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; The world affords no law to make thee rich; Then be not poor, but break it, and take this. Apothecary My poverty, but not my will, consents. ROMEO I pay thy poverty, and not thy will. Apothecary 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 There is thy gold, worse poison to men’s souls, Doing more murders 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 To Juliet’s grave; for there must I use thee. Exeunt

SCENE II. Friar Laurence’s cell.

Enter FRIAR JOHN FRIAR JOHN Holy Franciscan friar! brother, ho! Enter FRIAR LAURENCE FRIAR LAURENCE 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 Going to find a bare-foot 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 Where the infectious pestilence did reign, Seal’d up the doors, and would not let us forth; So that my speed to Mantua there was stay’d. FRIAR LAURENCE Who bare my letter, then, to Romeo? FRIAR JOHN I could not send it,–here it is again,– Nor get a messenger to bring it thee, So fearful were they of infection. FRIAR LAURENCE Unhappy fortune! by my brotherhood, The letter was not nice but full of charge Of dear import, and the neglecting it 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. Exit FRIAR LAURENCE Now must I to the monument alone; Within 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; Poor living corse, closed in a dead man’s tomb! Exit

SCENE III. A churchyard; in it a tomb belonging to the Capulets.

Enter PARIS, and his Page bearing flowers and a torch PARIS Give me thy torch, boy: hence, and stand aloof: Yet put it out, for I would not be seen. Under yond yew-trees lay thee all along, Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground; 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. PAGE [Aside] I am almost afraid to stand alone Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure. Retires PARIS Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew,– O woe! thy canopy is dust and stones;– Which with sweet water nightly I will dew, Or, wanting that, with tears distill’d 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. What cursed foot wanders this way to-night, To cross my obsequies and true love’s rite? What with a torch! muffle me, night, awhile. Retires Enter ROMEO and BALTHASAR, with a torch, mattock, & c ROMEO Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron. Hold, take this letter; early in the morning See thou deliver it to my lord and father. Give me the light: upon thy life, I charge thee, 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 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 further shall intend to do, By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint 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 I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you. ROMEO So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that: Live, and be prosperous: and farewell, good fellow. BALTHASAR [Aside] For all this same, I’ll hide me hereabout: His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt. Retires ROMEO Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death, Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth, Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open, And, in despite, I’ll cram thee with more food! Opens the tomb PARIS This is that banish’d haughty Montague, That murder’d my love’s cousin, with which grief, It is supposed, the fair creature died; And here is come to do some villanous shame To the dead bodies: I will apprehend him. Comes forward Stop thy unhallow’d toil, vile Montague! Can vengeance be pursued further than death? Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee: Obey, and go with me; for thou must die. ROMEO 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, By urging me to fury: O, be gone! By heaven, I love thee better than myself; For I come hither arm’d against myself: Stay not, be gone; live, and hereafter say, A madman’s mercy bade thee run away. PARIS I do defy thy conjurations, And apprehend thee for a felon here. ROMEO Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee, boy! They fight PAGE O Lord, they fight! I will go call the watch. Exit PARIS O, I am slain! Falls If thou be merciful, Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet. Dies ROMEO In faith, I will. Let me peruse this face. Mercutio’s kinsman, noble County Paris! What said my man, when my betossed soul Did not attend him as we rode? I think 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! I’ll bury thee in a triumphant grave; A grave? O no! a lantern, slaughter’d 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 interr’d. Laying PARIS in the tomb How oft when men are at the point of death Have they been merry! which their keepers call A lightning before death: O, how may I Call this a lightning? O my love! my wife! Death, that hath suck’d the honey of thy breath, Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty: Thou art not conquer’d; beauty’s ensign yet Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, And death’s pale flag is not advanced there. Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet? O, what more favour can I do to thee, 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, And that the lean abhorred 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 With worms that are thy chamber-maids; O, 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 The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss A dateless bargain to engrossing death! Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide! Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark! Here’s to my love! Drinks O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. Dies Enter, at the other end of the churchyard, FRIAR LAURENCE, with a lantern, crow, and spade FRIAR LAURENCE Saint Francis be my speed! how oft to-night Have my old feet stumbled at graves! Who’s there? BALTHASAR Here’s one, a friend, and one that knows you well. FRIAR LAURENCE 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 Capel’s monument. BALTHASAR It doth so, holy sir; and there’s my master, One that you love. FRIAR LAURENCE Who is it? BALTHASAR Romeo. FRIAR LAURENCE How long hath he been there? BALTHASAR Full half an hour. FRIAR LAURENCE 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 LAURENCE Stay, then; I’ll go alone. Fear comes upon me: O, much I fear some ill unlucky 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 LAURENCE Romeo! Advances Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains The stony entrance of this sepulchre? What mean these masterless and gory swords To lie discolour’d by this place of peace? Enters the tomb Romeo! O, pale! Who else? what, Paris too? And steep’d in blood? Ah, what an unkind hour Is guilty of this lamentable chance! The lady stirs. JULIET wakes JULIET O comfortable friar! where is my lord? I do remember well where I should be, And there I am. Where is my Romeo? Noise within FRIAR LAURENCE 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; 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, Noise again I dare no longer stay. JULIET Go, get thee hence, for I will not away. Exit FRIAR LAURENCE 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, To make die with a restorative. Kisses him Thy lips are warm. First Watchman [Within] Lead, boy: which way? JULIET Yea, noise? then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger! Snatching ROMEO’s dagger This is thy sheath; Stabs herself there rust, and let me die. Falls on ROMEO’s body, and dies Enter Watch, with the Page of PARIS PAGE This is the place; there, where the torch doth burn. First Watchman The ground is bloody; search about the churchyard: Go, some of you, whoe’er you find attach. Pitiful sight! here lies the county slain, And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead, Who here hath lain these two days buried. Go, tell the prince: run to the Capulets: Raise up the Montagues: some others search: We see the ground whereon these woes do lie; But the true ground of all these piteous woes We cannot without circumstance descry. Re-enter some of the Watch, with BALTHASAR Second Watchman Here’s Romeo’s man; we found him in the churchyard. First Watchman Hold him in safety, till the prince come hither. Re-enter others of the Watch, with FRIAR LAURENCE Third Watchman Here is a friar, that trembles, sighs and weeps: We took this mattock and this spade from him, As he was coming from this churchyard side. First Watchman A great suspicion: stay the friar too. Enter the PRINCE and Attendants PRINCE What misadventure is so early up, That calls our person from our morning’s rest? Enter CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, and others CAPULET What should it be, that they so shriek abroad? LADY CAPULET 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? First Watchman Sovereign, here lies the County Paris slain; And Romeo dead; and Juliet, dead before, Warm and new kill’d. PRINCE Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes. First Watchman Here is a friar, and slaughter’d Romeo’s man; With instruments upon them, fit to open 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-sheathed in my daughter’s bosom! LADY CAPULET O me! this sight of death is as a bell, That warns my old age to a sepulchre. Enter MONTAGUE and others PRINCE Come, Montague; for thou art early up, To see thy son and heir more early down. MONTAGUE Alas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night; Grief of my son’s exile hath stopp’d her breath: What further woe conspires against mine age? PRINCE Look, and thou shalt see. MONTAGUE O thou untaught! what manners is in this? To press before thy father to a grave? PRINCE 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. Bring forth the parties of suspicion. FRIAR LAURENCE 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 Myself condemned and myself excused. PRINCE Then say at once what thou dost know in this. FRIAR LAURENCE 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; And she, there dead, that Romeo’s faithful wife: I married them; and their stol’n marriage-day Was Tybalt’s dooms-day, whose untimely death Banish’d the new-made bridegroom from the city, For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined. You, to remove that siege of grief from her, Betroth’d 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. Then gave I her, so tutor’d 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, That he should hither come as this dire night, To help to take her from her borrow’d grave, Being the time the potion’s force should cease. But he which bore my letter, Friar John, Was stay’d by accident, and yesternight Return’d my letter back. Then all alone At the prefixed 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: But when I came, some minute ere the time Of her awaking, 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: 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 Miscarried by my fault, let my old life Be sacrificed, some hour before his time, Unto the rigour of severest law. PRINCE We still have known thee for a holy man. 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. This letter he early bid me give his father, And threatened me with death, going in the vault, I departed not and left him there. PRINCE Give me the letter; I will look on it. Where is the county’s page, that raised the watch? Sirrah, what made your master in this place? PAGE 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 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 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 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’s by his lady’s lie; Poor sacrifices of our enmity! PRINCE 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 pardon’d, and some punished: For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. Exeunt

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12. Romeo was attacked by Tybalt, who killed Romeo's friend Mercutio. Romeo killed Tybalt in the duel. Prince Escalus ruled that Romeo was responsible for disturbing the peace in Verona, and banished him. 13. They are husband and wife. 14. He is a caring person (Father in the church). He helps Romeo and Juliet to secretly marry.
PDF Grade 10 English Paper 2 Literature June 2015 Task 7 Time: 1h30
5.2 According to the text, how do Rosaline and Juliet differ in their love for Romeo? (2) 5.3 How does Friar Lawrence intend to be an assistant? (1) 5.4 What reason does Friar Lawrence give for wanting to help Romeo? (2) 5.5 Explain the expression, your households rancour. (2) 5.6 Briefly explain what happens in the next scene. (1) [10]
PDF NAME: Bria Hooper DURATION UNIT GRADE: 10
NAME: Bria Hooper DURATION: 4 wks UNIT: Romeo and Juliet GRADE: 10 Rational: I think that Shakespeare is one of the world's greatest psychologists.All of his plays touch upon universal themes and issues that are worth being explored in the classroom and I want to help make the themes relevant to the students.
PDF Year 10 English Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Knowledge Book for
Metre The regular use of unstressed and stressed syllables in poetry Narrative A piece of writing that tells a story Onomatopoeia The use of words whose sounds copies the thing or process they describe Pathos The effect in literature which makes the reader feel sadness or pity Personification The attribution of human feelings, emotions, or sensations to an inanimate
English HL REVISION BOOKLET 2024 T2 Gr. 10
The program covers the following topics: Preparation for Paper 1 - Comprehension, advertising, editing, phrases and clauses, the apostrophe Preparation for Paper 2 - Writing a literary essay - Romeo and Juliet: Includes mini-essays and a full literature essay.
PDF Curriculum Grade 10 -12 Directorate Ncs (Caps) English Home Language
3. To examine the characters of Romeo, Juliet, and others, including their motivations, relationships, and transformations throughout the story. 4. To analyse Shakespeare's use of language, including metaphors, imagery, and poetic devices, and its impact on the play's meaning and emotional resonance. 5.
Romeo and Juliet 2025 plus memo
Grade 10 English Home Language 2025 "Romeo and Juliet" Guidelines on the writing of a literary essay Definition The literary essay is a formal piece of writing in which the learner critically examines a theoretical statement about a work of literature and arrives at some conclusion. Structure of the essay
Romeo And Juliet PDF: Free Download Of Full Play ️
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PDF Romeo and Juliet (SparkNotes)
Juliet from a distance and instantly falls in love with her; he forgets about Rosaline completely. As Romeo watches Juliet, entranced, a young Capulet, Tybalt, recognizes him, and is enraged that a Montague would sneak into a Capulet feast. He prepares to attack, but Capulet holds him back. Soon, Romeo speaks to Juliet, and the two experi-
PDF Romeo and Juliet Essay
A jab at the dreamy ideal of true love that Romeo and Juliet hold onto throughout the play, this challenges the overarching themes in the play of "star-crossed lovers". Of course, Romeo ignores this and brushes Mercutio off: "Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!/Thou talk'st of nothing." Romeo is set on the idea that he is in love.