William Shakespeare ACT I SCENE I. A public place.Enter Sampson and Gregory armed with swords and bucklers. SAMPSON.Gregory, on word, we’ll not carry coals. GREGORY.No, for then we should be colliers. SAMPSON.I mean, if 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 ...Read More

SCENE II. A Street.Enter Capulet, Paris and Servant. CAPULET.But Montague is bound as well as I,In penalty alike; and not hard, I think,For men so old as we to keep the peace. PARIS.Of honourable reckoning are you both,And pity ’tis you liv’d at odds so long.But now my lord, what say you to my suit? CAPULET.But saying o’er what I have said before.My child is yet a stranger in the world,She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;Let two more summers wither in their prideEre we may think her ripe to be a bride. PARIS.Younger than she are ...Read More

SCENE III. Room in Capulet’s House.Enter Lady Capulet and Nurse. LADY CAPULET.Nurse, where’s my daughter? Call her forth to 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 knowest my daughter’s of a pretty age. NURSE.Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour. LADY CAPULET.She’s not ...Read More

SCENE IV. A Street.Enter Romeo, Mercutio, Benvolio, with five or six Maskers; Torch-bearers and others. ROMEO.What, shall this speech spoke for our excuse?Or shall we on without apology? BENVOLIO.The date is out of such prolixity:We’ll have no Cupid hoodwink’d with a scarf,Bearing a Tartar’s painted bow of lath,Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper;Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spokeAfter 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 ...Read More

SCENE V. A Hall in Capulet’s House.Musicians waiting. Enter Servants. FIRST SERVANT.Where’s Potpan, that he helps not to take shift a trencher! He scrape a trencher! SECOND SERVANT.When good manners shall lie all in one or two men’s hands, and they unwash’d too, ’tis a foul thing. FIRST SERVANT.Away with the join-stools, remove the court-cupboard, look to the plate. Good thou, save me a piece of marchpane; and as thou loves 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 ...Read More

ACT IIEnter Chorus. CHORUS.Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie,And young affection gapes to be his heir;That fair which love groan’d for and would die,With tender Juliet match’d, is now not fair.Now Romeo is belov’d, and loves again,Alike bewitched by the charm of looks;But to his foe suppos’d he must complain,And she steal love’s sweet bait from fearful hooks:Being held a foe, he may not have accessTo breathe such vows as lovers use to swear;And she as much in love, her means much lessTo meet her new beloved anywhere.But passion lends them power, time means, to meet,Tempering extremities ...Read More

SCENE II. Capulet’s Garden.Enter Romeo. ROMEO.He jests at scars that never felt a wound. Juliet appears above at a 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. ...Read More

SCENE III. Friar Lawrence’s Cell.Enter Friar Lawrence with a basket. FRIAR LAWRENCE.Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye,The to cheer, and night’s dank dew to dry,I must upfill this osier cage of oursWith 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 kindWe 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 liesIn plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities.For naught so vile that on the earth ...Read More

SCENE IV. A Street.Enter Benvolio and Mercutio. MERCUTIO.Where the devil should this Romeo be? Came he not home tonight? to his father’s; I spoke with his man. MERCUTIO.Why, that same pale hard-hearted wench, that Rosaline, torments him so that he will sure run mad. BENVOLIO.Tybalt, the kinsman to 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 ...Read More

SCENE V. Capulet’s Garden.Enter Juliet. JULIET.The clock struck nine when I did send the Nurse,In half an hour she 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 glides than the sun’s beams,Driving back shadows over lowering hills:Therefore do nimble-pinion’d doves draw love,And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.Now is the sun upon the highmost hillOf this day’s journey, and from nine till twelveIs three long hours, yet she is not come.Had she affections and warm youthful blood,She’d be as swift in motion as a ball;My words would ...Read More

SCENE VI. Friar Lawrence’s Cell.Enter Friar Lawrence and Romeo. FRIAR LAWRENCE.So smile the heavens upon this holy actThat after-hours sorrow chide us not. ROMEO.Amen, amen, but come what sorrow can,It cannot countervail the exchange of joyThat 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 LAWRENCE.These violent delights have violent ends,And in their triumph die; like fire and powder,Which as they kiss consume. The sweetest honeyIs loathsome in his own deliciousness,And in the taste confounds the appetite.Therefore ...Read More

ACT IIISCENE I. A public Place.Enter Mercutio, Benvolio, Page and Servants. BENVOLIO.I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire:The day 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 these 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 him on the drawer, when indeed there is no need. BENVOLIO.Am I like such a fellow? MERCUTIO.Come, ...Read More

SCENE II. A Room in Capulet’s House.Enter Juliet. JULIET.Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,Towards Phoebus’ lodging. Such a waggonerAs Phaeton whip you to the westAnd bring in cloudy night immediately.Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,That runaway’s eyes may wink, and RomeoLeap to these arms, untalk’d of and unseen.Lovers can see to do their amorous ritesBy 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 ...Read More

SCENE III. Friar Lawrence’s cell.Enter Friar Lawrence. FRIAR LAWRENCE.Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man.Affliction is enanmour’d of partsAnd 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 LAWRENCE.Too familiarIs my dear son with such sour company.I bring thee tidings of the Prince’s doom. ROMEO.What less than doomsday is the Prince’s doom? FRIAR LAWRENCE.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. ...Read More

SCENE IV. A Room in Capulet’s House.Enter Capulet, Lady Capulet and Paris. CAPULET.Things have fallen out, sir, so unluckilyThat have had no time to move our daughter.Look you, she lov’d her kinsman Tybalt dearly,And so did I. Well, we were born to die.’Tis very late; she’ll not come down tonight.I promise you, but for your company,I would have been abed an hour ago. PARIS.These times of woe afford no tune to woo.Madam, good night. Commend me to your daughter. LADY CAPULET.I will, and know her mind early tomorrow;Tonight she’s mew’d up to her heaviness. CAPULET.Sir Paris, I will make ...Read More

SCENE V. An open Gallery to Juliet’s Chamber, overlooking the Garden.Enter Romeo and Juliet. JULIET.Wilt thou be gone? It not yet near day.It was the nightingale, and not the lark,That pierc’d the fearful hollow of thine ear;Nightly she sings on yond 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 streaksDo lace the severing clouds in yonder east.Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund dayStands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.I must be gone and live, or stay and die. JULIET.Yond light is not daylight, I ...Read More

ACT IVSCENE I. Friar Lawrence’s Cell.Enter Friar Lawrence and Paris. FRIAR LAWRENCE.On Thursday, sir? The time is very short. father Capulet will have it so;And I am nothing slow to slack his haste. FRIAR LAWRENCE.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 dangerousThat she do give her sorrow so much sway;And in his wisdom, hastes our marriage,To stop the inundation of her tears,Which, too much ...Read More

SCENE II. Hall in Capulet’s House.Enter Capulet, Lady Capulet, Nurse and Servants. CAPULET.So many guests invite as here are [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, begone. [Exit second Servant.] We shall be much unfurnish’d for this time.What, is my daughter gone to Friar Lawrence? NURSE.Ay, forsooth. CAPULET.Well, he ...Read More

SCENE III. Juliet’s Chamber.Enter Juliet and Nurse. JULIET.Ay, those attires are best. But, gentle Nurse,I pray thee leave me myself tonight;For I have need of many orisonsTo 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 necessariesAs are behoveful for our state tomorrow.So please you, let me now be left alone,And let the nurse this night sit up with you,For I am sure you have your hands full allIn this so sudden ...Read More

SCENE IV. Hall in Capulet’s House.Enter Lady Capulet and Nurse. LADY CAPULET.Hold, take these keys and fetch more spices, 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 bak’d meats, good Angelica;Spare not for cost. NURSE.Go, you cot-quean, go,Get you to bed; faith, you’ll be sick tomorrowFor this night’s watching. CAPULET.No, not a whit. What! I have watch’d ere nowAll night for lesser cause, and ne’er been sick. LADY CAPULET.Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time;But I ...Read More

SCENE V. Juliet’s Chamber; Juliet on the bed.Enter Nurse. NURSE.Mistress! What, mistress! Juliet! Fast, I warrant her, she.Why, lamb, lady, fie, you slug-abed!Why, love, I say! Madam! Sweetheart! 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 restThat you shall rest but little. God forgive me!Marry and amen. How sound is she asleep!I needs must 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?What, dress’d, and in your clothes, and down ...Read More

ACT VSCENE I. Mantua. A Street.Enter Romeo. ROMEO.If I may trust the flattering eye of sleep,My dreams presage some news at hand.My bosom’s lord sits lightly in his throne;And all this day an unaccustom’d spiritLifts 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 breath’d such life with kisses in my lips,That I reviv’d, 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. News from Verona! How now, Balthasar?Dost thou not bring ...Read More

SCENE II. Friar Lawrence’s Cell.Enter Friar John. FRIAR JOHN.Holy Franciscan Friar! Brother, ho! Enter Friar Lawrence. FRIAR LAWRENCE.This same 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 barefoot 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 houseWhere 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 LAWRENCE.Who bare my ...Read More

SCENE III. A churchyard; in it a Monument belonging to the Capulets.Enter Paris, and his Page bearing flowers and torch. PARIS.Give me thy torch, boy. Hence and stand aloof.Yet put it out, for I would not be seen.Under yond yew tree lay thee all along,Holding thy 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 aloneHere in the ...Read More