The Tragedy Of Romeo And Juliet

1 Enter Friar Lawrence and Paris.
2 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
3 On Thursday, sir? The time is very short.
4 PARIS.
5 My father Capulet will have it so;
6 And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.
7 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
8 You say you do not know the lady’s mind.
9 Uneven is the course; I like it not.
10 PARIS.
11 Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt’s death,
12 And therefore have I little talk’d of love;
13 For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.
14 Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous
15 That she do give her sorrow so much sway;
16 And in his wisdom, hastes our marriage,
17 To stop the inundation of her tears,
18 Which, too much minded by herself alone,
19 May be put from her by society.
20 Now do you know the reason of this haste.
21 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
22 [_Aside._] I would I knew not why it should be slow’d.—
23 Look, sir, here comes the lady toward my cell.
24 Enter Juliet.
25 PARIS.
26 Happily met, my lady and my wife!
27 JULIET.
28 That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.
29 PARIS.
30 That may be, must be, love, on Thursday next.
31 JULIET.
32 What must be shall be.
33 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
34 That’s a certain text.
35 PARIS.
36 Come you to make confession to this father?
37 JULIET.
38 To answer that, I should confess to you.
39 PARIS.
40 Do not deny to him that you love me.
41 JULIET.
42 I will confess to you that I love him.
43 PARIS.
44 So will ye, I am sure, that you love me.
45 JULIET.
46 If I do so, it will be of more price,
47 Being spoke behind your back than to your face.
48 PARIS.
49 Poor soul, thy face is much abus’d with tears.
50 JULIET.
51 The tears have got small victory by that;
52 For it was bad enough before their spite.
53 PARIS.
54 Thou wrong’st it more than tears with that report.
55 JULIET.
56 That is no slander, sir, which is a truth,
57 And what I spake, I spake it to my face.
58 PARIS.
59 Thy face is mine, and thou hast slander’d it.
60 JULIET.
61 It may be so, for it is not mine own.
62 Are you at leisure, holy father, now,
63 Or shall I come to you at evening mass?
64 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
65 My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.—
66 My lord, we must entreat the time alone.
67 PARIS.
68 God shield I should disturb devotion!—
69 Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse ye,
70 Till then, adieu; and keep this holy kiss.
71 [_Exit._]
72 JULIET.
73 O shut the door, and when thou hast done so,
74 Come weep with me, past hope, past cure, past help!
75 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
76 O Juliet, I already know thy grief;
77 It strains me past the compass of my wits.
78 I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,
79 On Thursday next be married to this County.
80 JULIET.
81 Tell me not, Friar, that thou hear’st of this,
82 Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it.
83 If in thy wisdom, thou canst give no help,
84 Do thou but call my resolution wise,
85 And with this knife I’ll help it presently.
86 God join’d my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands;
87 And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo’s seal’d,
88 Shall be the label to another deed,
89 Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
90 Turn to another, this shall slay them both.
91 Therefore, out of thy long-experienc’d time,
92 Give me some present counsel, or behold
93 ’Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
94 Shall play the empire, arbitrating that
95 Which the commission of thy years and art
96 Could to no issue of true honour bring.
97 Be not so long to speak. I long to die,
98 If what thou speak’st speak not of remedy.
99 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
100 Hold, daughter. I do spy a kind of hope,
101 Which craves as desperate an execution
102 As that is desperate which we would prevent.
103 If, rather than to marry County Paris
104 Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself,
105 Then is it likely thou wilt undertake
106 A thing like death to chide away this shame,
107 That cop’st with death himself to scape from it.
108 And if thou dar’st, I’ll give thee remedy.
109 JULIET.
110 O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
111 From off the battlements of yonder tower,
112 Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk
113 Where serpents are. Chain me with roaring bears;
114 Or hide me nightly in a charnel-house,
115 O’er-cover’d quite with dead men’s rattling bones,
116 With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls.
117 Or bid me go into a new-made grave,
118 And hide me with a dead man in his shroud;
119 Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble,
120 And I will do it without fear or doubt,
121 To live an unstain’d wife to my sweet love.
122 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
123 Hold then. Go home, be merry, give consent
124 To marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow;
125 Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone,
126 Let not thy Nurse lie with thee in thy chamber.
127 Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
128 And this distilled liquor drink thou off,
129 When presently through all thy veins shall run
130 A cold and drowsy humour; for no pulse
131 Shall keep his native progress, but surcease.
132 No warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest,
133 The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
134 To paly ashes; thy eyes’ windows fall,
135 Like death when he shuts up the day of life.
136 Each part depriv’d of supple government,
137 Shall stiff and stark and cold appear like death.
138 And in this borrow’d likeness of shrunk death
139 Thou shalt continue two and forty hours,
140 And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
141 Now when the bridegroom in the morning comes
142 To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead.
143 Then as the manner of our country is,
144 In thy best robes, uncover’d, on the bier,
145 Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault
146 Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
147 In the meantime, against thou shalt awake,
148 Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift,
149 And hither shall he come, and he and I
150 Will watch thy waking, and that very night
151 Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
152 And this shall free thee from this present shame,
153 If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear
154 Abate thy valour in the acting it.
155 JULIET.
156 Give me, give me! O tell not me of fear!
157 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
158 Hold; get you gone, be strong and prosperous
159 In this resolve. I’ll send a friar with speed
160 To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.
161 JULIET.
162 Love give me strength, and strength shall help afford.
163 Farewell, dear father.
164 [_Exeunt._]