Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub
[graphic]

La. Cap. That is, because the traitor lives. Ful. Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands.

'Would, none but I might venge my cousin's death! La. Cap. 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.

Jul. Indeed, I never shall be satisfied
With Romeo, till I behold him-dead-
Is my poor heart, so 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 nam'd,-and cannot come to him,--

To wreak the love I bore my cousin
Upon his body that hath slaughter'd him!
La. Cap. Find thou the means, and I'll find such
But now I'll tell thee joyful tidings, girl. [a man.
Ful. And joy comes well in such a needy time:
What are they, I beseech your ladyship?

La. Cap. Well, well, thou hast a careful father,
One, who, to put thee from thy heaviness, [child;
Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy,
That thou expect'st not, nor I look'd not for.
Jul. Madam, in happy time, what day is that?
La. Cap. Marry, my child, early next Thursday
The gallant, young, and noble gentleman, [morn,
The county Paris, at St. Peter's church,
Shall happily make thee a joyful bride.
Jul. Now, by St. 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!

La. Cap. Here comes your father; tell him so yourself,

And see how he will take it at your hands.

Enter Capulet and Nurse.

Cap. When the sun sets, the earth doth drizzle But for the sunset of my brother's son It rains downright.

[dew;

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?

La. Cap. Ay, sir; but she will none, she gives you thanks.

I would the fool were married to her grave!

Cap. 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 bless'd,
Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom?
Jul. Not proud, you have; but thankful, that you
Proud can I never be of what I hate ;
But thankful even for hate, that is meant love.
Cap. How now! how now, chop-logic! What is
this?

[have:

Proud, and, I thank you,-and, I thank you not ;—
Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds,
But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next,
To go with Paris to St. Peter's church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you baggage!
You tallow face!

La. Cap.

Fie, fie! what are you mad? Ful. Good father, I beseech you on my knees, Hear me with patience but to speak a word.

Cap. 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 bless'd
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.

Cap. And why, my lady wisdom? hold your tongue,

Good prudence; smatter with your gossips, go.
Nurse. I speak no treason.

Cap.

O, God ye good den!

Peace, you mumbling fool!

Nurse. May not one speak?

Cap.

Utter your gravity o'er a gossip's bowl, For here we need it not.

[blocks in formation]

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, an 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;
An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die i' 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.
Jul. 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.

La. Cap. Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word;

Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee. [Exit. Jul. O God!-O nurse! how shall this be pre

vented?

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 strata-
Upon so soft a subject as myself!
[gems
What say'st thou ? hast thou not a word of joy?
Some comfort, nurse.

Nurse.

'Faith, here't is: Romeo
Is banished; 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 't were as good he were,
As living here and you no use of him.
Jul. Speakest thou from thy heart?
Nurse.

Or else beshrew them both.

Jul. Nurse.

From my soul too ;

Amen!

What?

[blocks in formation]
[graphic][merged small]

SCENE I.-Friar Laurence's Cell.

Enter Friar Laurence and Paris.

Fri. On Thursday, sir? the time is very short. Par. My father Capulet will have it so : And I am nothing slow, to slack his haste.

Fri. You say, you do not know the lady's mind; Uneven is the course, I like it not.

Par. 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.
Fri. I would I knew not why it should be slow'd.
[Aside.
Look, sir, here comes the lady towards my cell.
Enter Juliet.

Par. Happily met, my lady, and my wife!
Jul. That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.
Par. That may be, must be, love, on Thursday

next.

Jul. What must be shall be. Fri. That's a certain text. Par. Come you to make confession to this father? Jul. To answer that, I should confess to you. Par. Do not deny to him, that you love me. Jul. I will confess to you, that I love him. Par. So will you, I am sure, that you love me. Jul. If I do so, it will be of more price, Being spoke behind your back, than to your face. Par. Poor soul, thy face is much abus'd with tears. Jul. The tears have got small victory by that; For it was bad enough, before their spite.

Par. Thou wrong'st it, more than tears, with that report.

Jul. That is no slander, sir, which is a truth; And what I spake, I spake it to my face.

Par. Thy face is mine, and thou hast slander'd it. Jul. 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? [now:Fri. My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, My lord, we must entreat the time alone.

Par. God shield, I should disturb devotion !Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse you : Till then, adieu! and keep this holy kiss.

[Exit Paris. Jul. O, shut the door! and when thou hast

done so,

Come weep with me: Past hope, past care, past
Fri. O Juliet, I already know thy grief; [help!
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.

Jul. 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-experienc'd 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.
Fri. 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 cop'st with death himself to 'scape from it;
And, if thou dar'st, I'll give thee remedy.

Jul. 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 hide 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
And I will do it without fear or doubt, [tremble;

To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love.
Fri. 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 phial, 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 liv'st;
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, depriv'd 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,
Be borne to burial in thy kindreds' grave:
Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault,
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
In the meantime, against thou shalt awake,
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift;
And hither shall he come; and he and I
Will watch thy waking, and that very night
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.

And this shall free thee from this present shame;
If no inconstant toy, nor womanish fear,
Abate thy valour in the acting it.

Jul. Give me, give me! O tell not me of fear.
Fri. Hold; get you gone, be strong and prosper-

[ous

In this resolve: I'll send a friar with speed
To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.
Jul. Love, give me strength! and strength shall
help afford.

Farewell, dear father!

[Exeunt.

SCENE II-A Room in Capulet's House. Enter Capulet, Lady Capulet, Nurse, and Servants.

Cap. So many guests invite as here are writ.—

Cap. How now, my headstrong? where have you been gadding?

Jul. 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,

To beg your pardon :-Pardon, I beseech you!
Henceforward I am ever rul'd by you.

Cap. Send for the county; go tell him of this;
I'll have this knot knit up to-morrow morning.
Jul. I met the youthful lord at Laurence' cell;
And gave him what becomed love I might,
Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty.

[up :

Cap. Why, I am glad on 't; this is well,-stand This is as 't should be.-Let me see the county; Ay, marry, go, I say, and fetch him hither.Now, afore God, this reverend holy friar, All our whole city is much bound to him.

Jul. 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? [enough.
La. Cap. No, not till Thursday; there is time
Cap. Go, nurse, go with her :-we'll to church to-
morrow. [Exeunt Juliet and Nurse.
La. Cap. We shall be short in our provision;
'T is now near night.
Cap.
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 wond'rous light,
Since this same wayward girl is so reclaim'd. [Exe.

SCENE III.-Juliet's Chamber.

Enter Juliet and Nurse.

[blocks in formation]

Jul. 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.
[Exit Servant.
La. Cap.

Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks.

2 Serv. You shall have none ill, sir; for I'll try if they can lick their fingers.

Cap. How canst thou try them so?

2 Serv. Marry, sir, 't is an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers: therefore he that cannot lick his fingers goes not with me.

Cap. Go, begone.

[Exit Servant. We shall be much unfurnish'd for this time.What, is my daughter gone to Friar Laurence? Nurse. Ay, forsooth.

Cap. Well, he may chance to do some good on A peevish self-will'd harlotry it is.

Enter Juliet.

[her :

Nurse. See, where she comes from shrift with merry look.

Good night!

Get thee to bed, and rest; for thou hast need.
[Exeunt Lady Capulet and Nurse.
Jul. 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, phial.—

What if this mixture do not work at al'?
Shall I be married then to-morrow morning?
No, no ;-this shall forbid it :-lie thou there.-
[Laying down a 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 pack'd;
Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
Lies fest'ring in his shroud; where, as they say,
At some hours in the night spirits resort;—
Alack, alack! it is 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 forefathers' joints?
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud?
And, in this rage, with some great kinsman's bone,
As with a club, dash out my 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, Romeo, Romeo, I drink to thee.

[She throws herself on the bea.

SCENE IV.-Capulet's Hall.
Enter Lady Capulet and Nurse.

La. Cap. Hold, take these keys, and fetch more
spices, nurse.
Nurse. They call for dates and quinces in the pastry.
Enter Capulet.

Cap. Come, stir, stir, stir! the second cock hath crow'd.

The curfeu bell hath rung, 't is three o'clock :-
Look to the bak'd meats, good Angelica :
Spare not for cost.

Go, you cot-quean, go,

Nurse.
Get you to bed; 'faith, you'll be sick to-morrow
For this night's watching.

[now Cap. No, not a whit; What! I have watch'd ere All night for lesser cause, and ne'er been sick. La. Cap. Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time; But I will watch you from such watching now. [Exeunt Lady Capulet and Nurse. Cap. A jealous-hood, a jealous-hood!-Now, felWhat's there? [low, Enter Servants, with spits, logs, and baskets. 1 Serv. Things for the cook, sir; but I know not what.

Cap. Make haste, make haste. [Exit 1 Serv.]— Sirrah, fetch drier logs;

Call Peter, he will show thee where they are.

2 Serv. I have a head, sir, that will find out logs, And never trouble Peter for the matter. [Exit.

Cap. 'Mass, and well said; A merry whoreson ! ha,

Thou shalt be logger-head.- Good father, 't is day :

The county will be here with music straight,

[Music within.

For so he said he would. I hear him nearNurse!-wife !-what, ho!-what, nurse, I say! 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; Juliet on the Bed.
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! sweetheart !—why,
bride!-
[now;
What, not a word?-you take your pennyworths
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?
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-vitæ, ho !-iny lord! my lady!
Enter Lady Capulet.

La. Cap. What noise is here?

Nurse.

O lamentable day!

La. Cap. What is the matter? Nurse. Look, look! O heavy day! La. Cap. O me, O me !-my child, my only life, Revive, look up, or I will die with thee !Help, help!-call help.

[blocks in formation]

Cap. 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! La. Cap.

O woeful time ! Cap. Death, that hath ta'en her hence to make me Ties up my tongue, and will not let me speak. [wail, Enter Friar Laurence and Paris, with Musicians. Fri. Come, is the bride ready to go to church? Cap. 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 leaving, all is death's. Par. Have I thought long to see this morning's And doth it give me such a sight as this? La. Cap. Accurs'd, unhappy, wretched, hateful Most miserable hour, that e'er time saw In lasting labour of his pilgrimage!

[face,

[day!

« НазадПродовжити »