Complete Plays, The Read online

  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 sum
mer 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

  ACT III

  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