Romeo + Juliet Page #2

ROMEO:

She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste.

BENVOLIO:

Be ruled by me, forget to think of her.

ROMEO:

Teach me how I should forget to think.

BENVOLIO:

By giving liberty unto thine eyes; Examine other

beauties. 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.

Good day, good fellow.

NEWSCASTER:

Now I'll tell you without asking the great rich

Capulet holds an old accustomed feast--A fair

assembly. Signior Placentio and his lovely daughters.

The lady widow of Vitravio; and her lovely nieces

Rosaline.

BENVOLIO:

At this same ancient feast of Capulet's Sups the fair

Rosaline whom thou so lovest, With all the admired

beauties of Verona:

NEWSCASTER:

If you be not of the house of Montague come and crush

a cup of wine.

BENVOLIO:

Go thither; and, with untainted eye, Compare her face

with some that I shall show, And I will make thee

think thy swan a crow.

ROMEO:

I'll go along, no such sight to be shown, But to

rejoice in splendor of mine own.

LADY CAPULET:

J U L I E T ! ! ! ! Juliet! Juliet! Juliet! Nurse.

Nurse, where's my daughter? call her forth to me.

NURSE:

I bade her come. God forbid! Juliet! Juliet! Juliet!

JULIET:

Madam, I am here. What is your will?

LADY CAPULET:

Nurse, give leave awhile, We must talk in secret.

Nurse, come back again; I have remember'd me, thou's

hear our counsel. Nurse, Thou know'st my daughter's

of a pretty age.

NURSE:

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

LADY CAPULET:

By my count, I was your mother much upon these years,

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:

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; This precious

book of love, this unbound lover, To beautify him,

only lacks a cover: So shall you share all that he

doth possess, By having him, making yourself no less.

NURSE:

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 to

give strength to make it fly.

SERVANT:

Madam, the guests are come.

LADY CAPULET:

Go! We follow thee. Juliet, Blah!

NURSE:

Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.

MERCUTIO:

Young hearts run free. Never be caught up, caught up

like Rosaline and thee. Nay, gentle Romeo, we must

have you dance.

ROMEO:

Not I, Not I believe me: you have dancing shoes With

nimble soles:
I have a soul of lead

MERCUTIO:

You are a lover; borrow Cupid's wings, And soar with

them above a common bound.

ROMEO:

Under love's heavy burden do I sink.

MERCUTIO:

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.

BENVOLIO:

Every man betake him to his legs.

ROMEO:

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 Over

men's noses as they lie asleep; Her chariot is an

empty hazel-nut Her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat,

And in this state she gallops night by night Through

lovers' brains, and then they dream of love; O'er

lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees,

Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck, And then

dreams he of cutting foreign throats, And being thus

frighted swears a prayer or two And sleeps again.

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--This is

she!

ROMEO:

Peace, good 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 within my

breast By some vile forfeit of untimely death. But

He, that hath the steerage of my course, Direct my

sail! On, lusty gentlemen.

ROMEO:

Your drugs are quick.

CAPULET:

Ahhh! I have seen the day That I could tell A

whispering tale in a fair lady's ear, Such as would

please.

NURSE:

Madam, your mother calls. Come, lets away.

PARIS:

Will you now deny to dance?

LADY CAPULET:

A man young lady, such a man.

TYBALT:

What dares the slave Come hither, 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 that villain Romeo, a Montague, our

foe.

CAPULET:

Young Romeo is it?

TYBALT:

'Tis he.

CAPULET:

Content thee, gentle cuz, content thee. Let him

alone; 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

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