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ACT I, PROLOGUE

Chorus
001: Two households, both alike in dignity,
002: In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
003: From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
004: Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
005: From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
006: A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
007: Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
008: Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
009: The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
010: And the continuance of their parents' rage,
011: Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
012: Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
013: The which if you with patient ears attend,
014: What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

ACT I, SCENE I.

Verona. A public place.

Enter SAMPSON and GREGORY, of the house of Capulet, armed with swords and bucklers

SAMPSON
001: Gregory, o' my word, we'll not carry coals.

GREGORY
002: No, for then we should be colliers.

SAMPSON
003: I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw.

GREGORY
004: Ay, while you live, draw your neck out o' the collar.

SAMPSON
005: I strike quickly, being moved.

GREGORY
006: But thou art not quickly moved to strike.

SAMPSON
007: A dog of the house of Montague moves me.

GREGORY
008: To move is to stir; and to be valiant is to stand:
009: therefore, if thou art moved, thou runn'st away.

SAMPSON
010: A dog of that house shall move me to stand: I will
011: take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's.

GREGORY
012: That shows thee a weak slave; for the weakest goes
013: to the wall.

SAMPSON
014: True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels,
015: are ever thrust to the wall: therefore I will push
016: Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids
017: to the wall.

GREGORY
018: The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.

SAMPSON
019: 'Tis all one, I will show myself a tyrant: when I
020: have fought with the men, I will be cruel with the
021: maids, and cut off their heads.

GREGORY
022: The heads of the maids?

SAMPSON
023: Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads;
024: take it in what sense thou wilt.

GREGORY
025: They must take it in sense that feel it.

SAMPSON
026: Me they shall feel while I am able to stand: and
027: 'tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh.

GREGORY
028: 'Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou
029: hadst been poor John. Draw thy tool! here comes
030: two of the house of the Montagues.

SAMPSON
031: My naked weapon is out: quarrel, I will back thee.

GREGORY
032: How! turn thy back and run?

SAMPSON
033: Fear me not.

GREGORY
034: No, marry; I fear thee!

SAMPSON
035: Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin.

GREGORY
036: I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as
037: they list.

SAMPSON
038: Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them;
039: which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.

Enter ABRAHAM and BALTHASAR

ABRAHAM
040: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

SAMPSON
041: I do bite my thumb, sir.

ABRAHAM
042: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

SAMPSON [Aside to GREGORY]
043: Is the law of our side, if I say
044: ay?

GREGORY
045: No.

SAMPSON
046: No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I
047: bite my thumb, sir.

GREGORY
048: Do you quarrel, sir?

ABRAHAM
049: Quarrel sir! no, sir.

SAMPSON
050: If you do, sir, I am for you: I serve as good a man as you.

ABRAHAM
051: No better.

SAMPSON
052: Well, sir.

GREGORY
053: Say 'better:' here comes one of my master's kinsmen.

SAMPSON
054: Yes, better, sir.

ABRAHAM
055: You lie.

SAMPSON
056: Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy swashing blow.

They fight

Enter BENVOLIO

BENVOLIO
057: Part, fools!
058: Put up your swords; you know not what you do.

Beats down their swords

Enter TYBALT

TYBALT
059: What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?
060: Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death.

BENVOLIO
061: I do but keep the peace: put up thy sword,
062: Or manage it to part these men with me.

TYBALT
063: What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word,
064: As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee:
065: Have at thee, coward!

They fight

Enter, several of both houses, who join the fray; then enter Citizens, with clubs

First Citizen
066: Clubs, bills, and partisans! strike! beat them down!
067: Down with the Capulets! down with the Montagues!

Enter CAPULET in his gown, and LADY CAPULET

CAPULET
068: What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!

LADY CAPULET
069: A crutch, a crutch! why call you for a sword?

CAPULET
070: My sword, I say! Old Montague is come,
071: And flourishes his blade in spite of me.

Enter MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE

MONTAGUE
072: Thou villain Capulet,--Hold me not, let me go.

LADY MONTAGUE
073: Thou shalt not stir a foot to seek a foe.

Enter PRINCE, with Attendants

PRINCE
074: Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
075: Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel,--
076: Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts,
077: That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
078: With purple fountains issuing from your veins,
079: On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
080: Throw your mistemper'd weapons to the ground,
081: And hear the sentence of your moved prince.
082: Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
083: By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
084: Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets,
085: And made Verona's ancient citizens
086: Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments,
087: To wield old partisans, in hands as old,
088: Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate:
089: If ever you disturb our streets again,
090: Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
091: For this time, all the rest depart away:
092: You Capulet; shall go along with me:
093: And, Montague, come you this afternoon,
094: To know our further pleasure in this case,
095: To old Free-town, our common judgment-place.
096: Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.

Exeunt all but MONTAGUE, LADY MONTAGUE, and BENVOLIO

MONTAGUE
097: Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?
098: Speak, nephew, were you by when it began?

BENVOLIO
099: Here were the servants of your adversary,
100: And yours, close fighting ere I did approach:
101: I drew to part them: in the instant came
102: The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepared,
103: Which, as he breathed defiance to my ears,
104: He swung about his head and cut the winds,
105: Who nothing hurt withal hiss'd him in scorn:
106: While we were interchanging thrusts and blows,
107: Came more and more and fought on part and part,
108: Till the prince came, who parted either part.

LADY MONTAGUE
109: O, where is Romeo? saw you him to-day?
110: Right glad I am he was not at this fray.

BENVOLIO
111: Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun
112: Peer'd forth the golden window of the east,
113: A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad;
114: Where, underneath the grove of sycamore
115: That westward rooteth from the city's side,
116: So early walking did I see your son:
117: Towards him I made, but he was ware of me
118: And stole into the covert of the wood:
119: I, measuring his affections by my own,
120: That most are busied when they're most alone,
121: Pursued my humour not pursuing his,
122: And gladly shunn'd who gladly fled from me.

MONTAGUE
123: Many a morning hath he there been seen,
124: With tears augmenting the fresh morning dew.
125: Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs;
126: But all so soon as the all-cheering sun
127: Should in the furthest east begin to draw
128: The shady curtains from Aurora's bed,
129: Away from the light steals home my heavy son,
130: And private in his chamber pens himself,
131: Shuts up his windows, locks far daylight out
132: And makes himself an artificial night:
133: Black and portentous must this humour prove,
134: Unless good counsel may the cause remove.

BENVOLIO
135: My noble uncle, do you know the cause?

MONTAGUE
136: I neither know it nor can learn of him.

BENVOLIO
137: Have you importuned him by any means?

MONTAGUE
138: Both by myself and many other friends:
139: But he, his own affections' counsellor,
140: Is to himself--I will not say how true--
141: But to himself so secret and so close,
142: So far from sounding and discovery,
143: As is the bud bit with an envious worm,
144: Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,
145: Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.
146: Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow.
147: We would as willingly give cure as know.

Enter ROMEO

BENVOLIO
148: See, where he comes: so please you, step aside;
149: I'll know his grievance, or be much denied.

MONTAGUE
150: I would thou wert so happy by thy stay,
151: To hear true shrift. Come, madam, let's away.

Exeunt MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE

BENVOLIO
152: Good-morrow, cousin.

ROMEO
153: Is the day so young?

BENVOLIO
154: But new struck nine.

ROMEO
155: Ay me! sad hours seem long.
156: Was that my father that went hence so fast?

BENVOLIO
157: It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours?

ROMEO
158: Not having that, which, having, makes them short.

BENVOLIO
159: In love?

ROMEO
160: Out--

BENVOLIO
161: Of love?

ROMEO
162: Out of her favour, where I am in love.

BENVOLIO
163: Alas, that love, so gentle in his view,
164: Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!

ROMEO
165: Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,
166: Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!
167: Where shall we dine? O me! What fray was here?
168: Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
169: Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.
170: Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
171: O any thing, of nothing first create!
172: O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
173: Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
174: Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire,
175: sick health!
176: Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
177: This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
178: Dost thou not laugh?

BENVOLIO
179: No, coz, I rather weep.

ROMEO
180: Good heart, at what?

BENVOLIO
181: At thy good heart's oppression.

ROMEO
182: Why, such is love's transgression.
183: Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,
184: Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest
185: With more of thine: this love that thou hast shown
186: Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.
187: Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
188: Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
189: Being vex'd a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:
190: What is it else? a madness most discreet,
191: A choking gall and a preserving sweet.
192: Farewell, my coz.

BENVOLIO
193: Soft! I will go along;
194: An if you leave me so, you do me wrong.

ROMEO
195: Tut, I have lost myself; I am not here;
196: This is not Romeo, he's some other where.

BENVOLIO
197: Tell me in sadness, who is that you love.

ROMEO
198: What, shall I groan and tell thee?

BENVOLIO
199: Groan! why, no.
200: But sadly tell me who.

ROMEO
201: Bid a sick man in sadness make his will:
202: Ah, word ill urged to one that is so ill!
203: In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.

BENVOLIO
204: I aim'd so near, when I supposed you loved.

ROMEO
205: A right good mark-man! And she's fair I love.

BENVOLIO
206: A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.

ROMEO
207: Well, in that hit you miss: she'll not be hit
208: With Cupid's arrow; she hath Dian's wit;
209: And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd,
210: From love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd.
211: She will not stay the siege of loving terms,
212: Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes,
213: Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold:
214: O, she is rich in beauty, only poor,
215: That when she dies with beauty dies her store.

BENVOLIO
216: Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?

ROMEO
217: She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste,
218: For beauty starved with her severity
219: Cuts beauty off from all posterity.
220: She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair,
221: To merit bliss by making me despair:
222: She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow
223: Do I live dead that live to tell it now.

BENVOLIO
224: Be ruled by me, forget to think of her.

ROMEO
225: O, teach me how I should forget to think.

BENVOLIO
226: By giving liberty unto thine eyes;
227: Examine other beauties.

ROMEO
228: 'Tis the way
229: To call hers exquisite, in question more:
230: These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows
231: Being black put us in mind they hide the fair;
232: He that is strucken blind cannot forget
233: The precious treasure of his eyesight lost:
234: Show me a mistress that is passing fair,
235: What doth her beauty serve, but as a note
236: Where I may read who pass'd that passing fair?
237: Farewell: thou canst not teach me to forget.

BENVOLIO
238: I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt.

Exeunt

ACT I, SCENE II.

A street.

Enter CAPULET, PARIS, and Servant

CAPULET
001: But Montague is bound as well as I,
002: In penalty alike; and 'tis not hard, I think,
003: For men so old as we to keep the peace.

PARIS
004: Of honourable reckoning are you both;
005: And pity 'tis you lived at odds so long.
006: But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?

CAPULET
007: But saying o'er what I have said before:
008: My child is yet a stranger in the world;
009: She hath not seen the change of fourteen years,
010: Let two more summers wither in their pride,
011: Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.

PARIS
012: Younger than she are happy mothers made.

CAPULET
013: And too soon marr'd are those so early made.
014: The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she,
015: She is the hopeful lady of my earth:
016: But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,
017: My will to her consent is but a part;
018: An she agree, within her scope of choice
019: Lies my consent and fair according voice.
020: This night I hold an old accustom'd feast,
021: Whereto I have invited many a guest,
022: Such as I love; and you, among the store,
023: One more, most welcome, makes my number more.
024: At my poor house look to behold this night
025: Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light:
026: Such comfort as do lusty young men feel
027: When well-apparell'd April on the heel
028: Of limping winter treads, even such delight
029: Among fresh female buds shall you this night
030: Inherit at my house; hear all, all see,
031: And like her most whose merit most shall be:
032: Which on more view, of many mine being one
033: May stand in number, though in reckoning none,
034: Come, go with me.
[To Servant, giving a paper]
035: Go, sirrah, trudge about
036: Through fair Verona; find those persons out
037: Whose names are written there, and to them say,
038: My house and welcome on their pleasure stay.

Exeunt CAPULET and PARIS

Servant
039: Find them out whose names are written here! It is
040: written, that the shoemaker should meddle with his
041: yard, and the tailor with his last, the fisher with
042: his pencil, and the painter with his nets; but I am
043: sent to find those persons whose names are here
044: writ, and can never find what names the writing
045: person hath here writ. I must to the learned.--In good time.

Enter BENVOLIO and ROMEO

BENVOLIO
046: Tut, man, one fire burns out another's burning,
047: One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish;
048: Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning;
049: One desperate grief cures with another's languish:
050: Take thou some new infection to thy eye,
051: And the rank poison of the old will die.

ROMEO
052: Your plaintain-leaf is excellent for that.

BENVOLIO
053: For what, I pray thee?

ROMEO
054: For your broken shin.

BENVOLIO
055: Why, Romeo, art thou mad?

ROMEO
056: Not mad, but bound more than a mad-man is;
057: Shut up in prison, kept without my food,
058: Whipp'd and tormented and--God-den, good fellow.

Servant
059: God gi' god-den. I pray, sir, can you read?

ROMEO
060: Ay, mine own fortune in my misery.

Servant
061: Perhaps you have learned it without book: but, I
062: pray, can you read any thing you see?

ROMEO
063: Ay, if I know the letters and the language.

Servant
064: Ye say honestly: rest you merry!

ROMEO [Reads]
065: Stay, fellow; I can read.
066: 'Signior Martino and his wife and daughters;
067: County Anselme and his beauteous sisters; the lady
068: widow of Vitravio; Signior Placentio and his lovely
069: nieces; Mercutio and his brother Valentine; mine
070: uncle Capulet, his wife and daughters; my fair niece
071: Rosaline; Livia; Signior Valentio and his cousin
072: Tybalt, Lucio and the lively Helena.' A fair
073: assembly: whither should they come?

Servant
074: Up.

ROMEO
075: Whither?

Servant
076: To supper; to our house.

ROMEO
077: Whose house?

Servant
078: My master's.

ROMEO
079: Indeed, I should have ask'd you that before.

Servant
080: Now I'll tell you without asking: my master is the
081: great rich Capulet; and if you be not of the house
082: of Montagues, I pray, come and crush a cup of wine.
083: Rest you merry!

Exit

BENVOLIO
084: At this same ancient feast of Capulet's
085: Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so lovest,
086: With all the admired beauties of Verona:
087: Go thither; and, with unattainted eye,
088: Compare her face with some that I shall show,
089: And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.

ROMEO
090: When the devout religion of mine eye
091: Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires;
092: And these, who often drown'd could never die,
093: Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars!
094: One fairer than my love! the all-seeing sun
095: Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun.

BENVOLIO
096: Tut, you saw her fair, none else being by,
097: Herself poised with herself in either eye:
098: But in that crystal scales let there be weigh'd
099: Your lady's love against some other maid
100: That I will show you shining at this feast,
101: And she shall scant show well that now shows best.

ROMEO
102: I'll go along, no such sight to be shown,
103: But to rejoice in splendor of mine own.

Exeunt

ACT I, SCENE III.

A room in Capulet's house.

Enter LADY CAPULET and Nurse

LADY CAPULET
001: Nurse, where's my daughter? call her forth to me.

Nurse
002: Now, by my maidenhead, at twelve year old,
003: I bade her come. What, lamb! what, ladybird!
004: God forbid! Where's this girl? What, Juliet!

Enter JULIET

JULIET
005: How now! who calls?

Nurse
006: Your mother.

JULIET
007: Madam, I am here.
008: What is your will?

LADY CAPULET
009: This is the matter:--Nurse, give leave awhile,
010: We must talk in secret:--nurse, come back again;
011: I have remember'd me, thou's hear our counsel.
012: Thou know'st my daughter's of a pretty age.

Nurse
013: Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.

LADY CAPULET
014: She's not fourteen.

Nurse
015: I'll lay fourteen of my teeth,--
016: And yet, to my teeth be it spoken, I have but four--
017: She is not fourteen. How long is it now
018: To Lammas-tide?

LADY CAPULET
019: A fortnight and odd days.

Nurse
020: Even or odd, of all days in the year,
021: Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen.
022: Susan and she--God rest all Christian souls!--
023: Were of an age: well, Susan is with God;
024: She was too good for me: but, as I said,
025: On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen;
026: That shall she, marry; I remember it well.
027: 'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years;
028: And she was wean'd,--I never shall forget it,--
029: Of all the days of the year, upon that day:
030: For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
031: Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall;
032: My lord and you were then at Mantua:--
033: Nay, I do bear a brain:--but, as I said,
034: When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
035: Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,
036: To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug!
037: Shake quoth the dove-house: 'twas no need, I trow,
038: To bid me trudge:
039: And since that time it is eleven years;
040: For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood,
041: She could have run and waddled all about;
042: For even the day before, she broke her brow:
043: And then my husband--God be with his soul!
044: A' was a merry man--took up the child:
045: 'Yea,' quoth he, 'dost thou fall upon thy face?
046: Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit;
047: Wilt thou not, Jule?' and, by my holidame,
048: The pretty wretch left crying and said 'Ay.'
049: To see, now, how a jest shall come about!
050: I warrant, an I should live a thousand years,
051: I never should forget it: 'Wilt thou not, Jule?' quoth he;
052: And, pretty fool, it stinted and said 'Ay.'

LADY CAPULET
053: Enough of this; I pray thee, hold thy peace.

Nurse
054: Yes, madam: yet I cannot choose but laugh,
055: To think it should leave crying and say 'Ay.'
056: And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow
057: A bump as big as a young cockerel's stone;
058: A parlous knock; and it cried bitterly:
059: 'Yea,' quoth my husband,'fall'st upon thy face?
060: Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age;
061: Wilt thou not, Jule?' it stinted and said 'Ay.'

JULIET
062: And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse, say I.

Nurse
063: Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace!
064: Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nursed:
065: An I might live to see thee married once,
066: I have my wish.

LADY CAPULET
067: Marry, that 'marry' is the very theme
068: I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet,
069: How stands your disposition to be married?

JULIET
070: It is an honour that I dream not of.

Nurse
071: An honour! were not I thine only nurse,
072: I would say thou hadst suck'd wisdom from thy teat.

LADY CAPULET
073: Well, think of marriage now; younger than you,
074: Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,
075: Are made already mothers: by my count,
076: I was your mother much upon these years
077: That you are now a maid. Thus then in brief:
078: The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.

Nurse
079: A man, young lady! lady, such a man
080: As all the world--why, he's a man of wax.

LADY CAPULET
081: Verona's summer hath not such a flower.

Nurse
082: Nay, he's a flower; in faith, a very flower.

LADY CAPULET
083: What say you? can you love the gentleman?
084: This night you shall behold him at our feast;
085: Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face,
086: And find delight writ there with beauty's pen;
087: Examine every married lineament,
088: And see how one another lends content
089: And what obscured in this fair volume lies
090: Find written in the margent of his eyes.
091: This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
092: To beautify him, only lacks a cover:
093: The fish lives in the sea, and 'tis much pride
094: For fair without the fair within to hide:
095: That book in many's eyes doth share the glory,
096: That in gold clasps locks in the golden story;
097: So shall you share all that he doth possess,
098: By having him, making yourself no less.

Nurse
099: No less! nay, bigger; women grow by men.

LADY CAPULET
100: Speak briefly, can you like of Paris' love?

JULIET
101: I'll look to like, if looking liking move:
102: But no more deep will I endart mine eye
103: Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.

Enter a Servant

Servant
104: Madam, the guests are come, supper served up, you
105: called, my young lady asked for, the nurse cursed in
106: the pantry, and every thing in extremity. I must
107: hence to wait; I beseech you, follow straight.

LADY CAPULET
108: We follow thee.
[Exit Servant]
109: Juliet, the county stays.

Nurse
110: Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.

Exeunt

ACT I, SCENE IV.

A street.

Enter ROMEO, MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, with five or six Maskers, Torch-bearers, and others

ROMEO
001: What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse?
002: Or shall we on without a apology?

BENVOLIO
003: The date is out of such prolixity:
004: We'll have no Cupid hoodwink'd with a scarf,
005: Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath,
006: Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper;
007: Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke
008: After the prompter, for our entrance:
009: But let them measure us by what they will;
010: We'll measure them a measure, and be gone.

ROMEO
011: Give me a torch: I am not for this ambling;
012: Being but heavy, I will bear the light.

MERCUTIO
013: Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.

ROMEO
014: Not I, believe me: you have dancing shoes
015: With nimble soles: I have a soul of lead
016: So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.

MERCUTIO
017: You are a lover; borrow Cupid's wings,
018: And soar with them above a common bound.

ROMEO
019: I am too sore enpierced with his shaft
020: To soar with his light feathers, and so bound,
021: I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe:
022: Under love's heavy burden do I sink.

MERCUTIO
023: And, to sink in it, should you burden love;
024: Too great oppression for a tender thing.

ROMEO
025: Is love a tender thing? it is too rough,
026: Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn.

MERCUTIO
027: If love be rough with you, be rough with love;
028: Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.
029: Give me a case to put my visage in:
030: A visor for a visor! what care I
031: What curious eye doth quote deformities?
032: Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me.

BENVOLIO
033: Come, knock and enter; and no sooner in,
034: But every man betake him to his legs.

ROMEO
035: A torch for me: let wantons light of heart
036: Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels,
037: For I am proverb'd with a grandsire phrase;
038: I'll be a candle-holder, and look on.
039: The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done.

MERCUTIO
040: Tut, dun's the mouse, the constable's own word:
041: If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire
042: Of this sir-reverence love, wherein thou stick'st
043: Up to the ears. Come, we burn daylight, ho!

ROMEO
044: Nay, that's not so.

MERCUTIO
045: I mean, sir, in delay
046: We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day.
047: Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits
048: Five times in that ere once in our five wits.

ROMEO
049: And we mean well in going to this mask;
050: But 'tis no wit to go.

MERCUTIO
051: Why, may one ask?

ROMEO
052: I dream'd a dream to-night.

MERCUTIO
053: And so did I.

ROMEO
054: Well, what was yours?

MERCUTIO
055: That dreamers often lie.

ROMEO
056: In bed asleep, while they do dream things true.

MERCUTIO
057: O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
058: She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
059: In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
060: On the fore-finger of an alderman,
061: Drawn with a team of little atomies
062: Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
063: Her wagon-spokes made of long spiders' legs,
064: The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
065: The traces of the smallest spider's web,
066: The collars of the moonshine's watery beams,
067: Her whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film,
068: Her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat,
069: Not so big as a round little worm
070: Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid;
071: Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut
072: Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
073: Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers.
074: And in this state she gallops night by night
075: Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love;
076: O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight,
077: O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees,
078: O'er ladies ' lips, who straight on kisses dream,
079: Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
080: Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are:
081: Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
082: And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;
083: And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail
084: Tickling a parson's nose as a' lies asleep,
085: Then dreams, he of another benefice:
086: Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck,
087: And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
088: Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
089: Of healths five-fathom deep; and then anon
090: Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,
091: And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two
092: And sleeps again. This is that very Mab
093: That plats the manes of horses in the night,
094: And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,
095: Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes:
096: This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
097: That presses them and learns them first to bear,
098: Making them women of good carriage:
099: This is she--

ROMEO
100: Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!
101: Thou talk'st of nothing.

MERCUTIO
102: True, I talk of dreams,
103: Which are the children of an idle brain,
104: Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,
105: Which is as thin of substance as the air
106: And more inconstant than the wind, who wooes
107: Even now the frozen bosom of the north,
108: And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence,
109: Turning his face to the dew-dropping south.

BENVOLIO
110: This wind, you talk of, blows us from ourselves;
111: Supper is done, and we shall come too late.

ROMEO
112: I fear, too early: for my mind misgives
113: Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
114: Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
115: With this night's revels and expire the term
116: Of a despised life closed in my breast
117: By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
118: But He, that hath the steerage of my course,
119: Direct my sail! On, lusty gentlemen.

BENVOLIO
120: Strike, drum.

Exeunt

ACT I, SCENE V.

A hall in Capulet's house.

Musicians waiting. Enter Servingmen with napkins

First Servant
001: Where's Potpan, that he helps not to take away? He
002: shift a trencher? he scrape a trencher!

Second Servant
003: When good manners shall lie all in one or two men's
004: hands and they unwashed too, 'tis a foul thing.

First Servant
005: Away with the joint-stools, remove the
006: court-cupboard, look to the plate. Good thou, save
007: me a piece of marchpane; and, as thou lovest me, let
008: the porter let in Susan Grindstone and Nell.
009: Antony, and Potpan!

Second Servant
010: Ay, boy, ready.

First Servant
011: You are looked for and called for, asked for and
012: sought for, in the great chamber.

Second Servant
013: We cannot be here and there too. Cheerly, boys; be
014: brisk awhile, and the longer liver take all.

Enter CAPULET, with JULIET and others of his house, meeting the Guests and Maskers

CAPULET
015: Welcome, gentlemen! ladies that have their toes
016: Unplagued with corns will have a bout with you.
017: Ah ha, my mistresses! which of you all
018: Will now deny to dance? she that makes dainty,