Act II
Prologue
Enter Chorus. | |
Chorus |
Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie,
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Scene I
A lane by the wall of Capulet’s orchard.
Enter Romeo. | |
Romeo |
Can I go forward when my heart is here?
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Enter Benvolio and Mercutio. | |
Benvolio | Romeo! my cousin Romeo! |
Mercutio |
He is wise;
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Benvolio |
He ran this way, and leap’d this orchard wall:
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Mercutio |
Nay, I’ll conjure too.
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Benvolio | And if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him. |
Mercutio |
This cannot anger him: ’twould anger him
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Benvolio |
Come, he hath hid himself among these trees,
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Mercutio |
If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.
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Benvolio |
Go, then; for ’tis in vain
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Scene II
Capulet’s orchard.
Enter Romeo. | |
Romeo |
He jests at scars that never felt a wound. Juliet appears above at a window.
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Juliet | Ay me! |
Romeo |
She speaks:
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Juliet |
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
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Romeo | Aside. Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this? |
Juliet |
’Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
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Romeo |
I take thee at thy word:
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Juliet |
What man art thou that thus bescreen’d in night
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Romeo |
By a name
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Juliet |
My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words
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Romeo | Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike. |
Juliet |
How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?
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Romeo |
With love’s light wings did I o’er-perch these walls;
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Juliet | If they do see thee, they will murder thee. |
Romeo |
Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye
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Juliet | I would not for the world they saw thee here. |
Romeo |
I have night’s cloak to hide me from their sight;
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Juliet | By whose direction found’st thou out this place? |
Romeo |
By love, who first did prompt me to inquire;
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Juliet |
Thou know’st the mask of night is on my face,
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Romeo |
Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear
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Juliet |
O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
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Romeo | What shall I swear by? |
Juliet |
Do not swear at all;
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Romeo | If my heart’s dear love— |
Juliet |
Well, do not swear: although I joy in thee,
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Romeo | O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied? |
Juliet | What satisfaction canst thou have to-night? |
Romeo | The exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine. |
Juliet |
I gave thee mine before thou didst request it:
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Romeo | Wouldst thou withdraw it? for what purpose, love? |
Juliet |
But to be frank, and give it thee again.
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Romeo |
O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard,
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Reenter Juliet, above. | |
Juliet |
Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed.
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Nurse | Within. Madam! |
Juliet |
I come, anon.—But if thou mean’st not well,
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Nurse | Within. Madam! |
Juliet |
By and by, I come:—
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Romeo | So thrive my soul— |
Juliet | A thousand times good night! Exit, above. |
Romeo |
A thousand times the worse, to want thy light.
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Reenter Juliet, above. | |
Juliet |
Hist! Romeo, hist! O, for a falconer’s voice,
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Romeo |
It is my soul that calls upon my name:
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Juliet | Romeo! |
Romeo | My dear? |
Juliet |
At what o’clock to-morrow
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Romeo | At the hour of nine. |
Juliet |
I will not fail: ’tis twenty years till then.
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Romeo | Let me stand here till thou remember it. |
Juliet |
I shall forget, to have thee still stand there,
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Romeo |
And I’ll still stay, to have thee still forget,
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Juliet |
’Tis almost morning; I would have thee gone:
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Romeo | I would I were thy bird. |
Juliet |
Sweet, so would I:
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Romeo |
Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast!
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Scene III
Friar Laurence’s cell.
Enter Friar Laurence, with a basket. | |
Friar Laurence |
The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,
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Enter Romeo. | |
Romeo | Good morrow, father. |
Friar Laurence |
Benedicite!
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Romeo | That last is true; the sweeter rest was mine. |
Friar Laurence | God pardon sin! wast thou with Rosaline? |
Romeo |
With Rosaline, my ghostly father? no;
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Friar Laurence | That’s my good son: but where hast thou been, then? |
Romeo |
I’ll tell thee, ere thou ask it me again.
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Friar Laurence |
Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift;
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Romeo |
Then plainly know my heart’s dear love is set
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Friar Laurence |
Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here!
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Romeo | Thou chid’st me oft for loving Rosaline. |
Friar Laurence | For doting, not for loving, pupil mine. |
Romeo | And bad’st me bury love. |
Friar Laurence |
Not in a grave,
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Romeo |
I pray thee, chide not: she whom I love now
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Friar Laurence |
O, she knew well
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Romeo | O, let us hence; I stand on sudden haste. |
Friar Laurence | Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast. Exeunt. |
Scene IV
A street.
Enter Benvolio and Mercutio. | |
Mercutio |
Where the devil should this Romeo be?
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Benvolio | Not to his father’s; I spoke with his man. |
Mercutio |
Ah, that same pale hard-hearted wench, that Rosaline,
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Benvolio |
Tybalt, the kinsman of old Capulet,
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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 wench’s black eye; shot thorough the ear with a love-song; the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy’s butt-shaft: and is he a man to encounter Tybalt? |
Benvolio | Why, what is Tybalt? |
Mercutio | More than prince of cats, I can tell you. O, he is the courageous captain of complements. He fights as you sing prick-song, keeps time, distance, and proportion; rests me his minim rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom: the very butcher of a silk button, a duellist, a duellist; a gentleman of the very first house, of the first and second cause: ah, the immortal passado! the punto reverso! the hai! |
Benvolio | The what? |
Mercutio | The pox of such antic, lisping, affecting fantasticoes; these new tuners of accents! “By Jesu, a very good blade! a very tall man! a very good whore!” Why, is not this a lamentable thing, grandsire, that we should be thus afflicted with these strange flies, these fashion-mongers, these perdona-mi’s, who stand so much on the new form, that they cannot sit at ease on the old bench? O, their bones, their bones! |
Enter Romeo. | |
Benvolio | Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo. |
Mercutio | Without his roe, like a dried herring: O flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified! Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in: Laura to his lady was but a kitchen-wench; marry, she had a better love to be-rhyme her; Dido a dowdy; Cleopatra a gipsy; Helen and Hero hildings and harlots; Thisbe a grey eye or so, but not to the purpose. Signior Romeo, bon jour! there’s a French salutation to your French slop. You gave us the counterfeit fairly last night. |
Romeo | Good morrow to you both. What counterfeit did I give you? |
Mercutio | The slip, sir, the slip; can you not conceive? |
Romeo | Pardon, good Mercutio, my business was great; and in such a case as mine a man may strain courtesy. |
Mercutio | That’s as much as to say, such a case as yours constrains a man to bow in the hams. |
Romeo | Meaning, to court’sy. |
Mercutio | Thou hast most kindly hit it. |
Romeo | A most courteous exposition. |
Mercutio | Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy. |
Romeo | Pink for flower. |
Mercutio | Right. |
Romeo | Why, then is my pump well flowered. |
Mercutio | Well said: follow me this jest now till thou hast worn out thy pump, that when the single sole of it is worn, the jest may remain after the wearing sole singular. |
Romeo | O single-soled jest, solely singular for the singleness. |
Mercutio | Come between us, good Benvolio; my wits faint. |
Romeo | Switch and spurs, switch and spurs; or I’ll cry a match. |
Mercutio | Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I have done, for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five: was I with you there for the goose? |
Romeo | Thou wast never with me for anything when thou wast not there for the goose. |
Mercutio | I will bite thee by the ear for that jest. |
Romeo | Nay, good goose, bite not. |
Mercutio | Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting; it is a most sharp sauce. |
Romeo | And is it not well served in to a sweet goose? |
Mercutio | O here’s a wit of cheveril, that stretches from an inch narrow to an ell broad! |
Romeo | I stretch it out for that word “broad;” which added to the goose, proves thee far and wide a broad goose. |
Mercutio | Why, is not this better now than groaning for love? now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo; now art thou what thou art, by art as well as by nature: for this drivelling love is like a great natural, that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole. |
Benvolio | Stop there, stop there. |
Mercutio | Thou desirest me to stop in my tale against the hair. |
Benvolio | Thou wouldst else have made thy tale large. |
Mercutio | O, thou art deceived; I would have made it short: for I was come to the whole depth of my tale; and meant, indeed, to occupy the argument no longer. |
Romeo | Here’s goodly gear! |
Enter Nurse and Peter. | |
Mercutio | A sail, a sail! |
Benvolio | Two, two; a shirt and a smock. |
Nurse | Peter! |
Peter | Anon! |
Nurse | My fan, Peter. |
Mercutio | Good Peter, to hide her face; for her fan’s the fairer face. |
Nurse | God ye good morrow, gentlemen. |
Mercutio | God ye good den, fair gentlewoman. |
Nurse | Is it good den? |
Mercutio | ’Tis no less, I tell you, for the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon. |
Nurse | Out upon you! what a man are you! |
Romeo | One, gentlewoman, that God hath made for himself to mar. |
Nurse | By my troth, it is well said; “for himself to mar,” quoth a’? Gentlemen, can any of you tell me where I may find the young Romeo? |
Romeo | I can tell you; but young Romeo will be older when you have found him than he was when you sought him: I am the youngest of that name, for fault of a worse. |
Nurse | You say well. |
Mercutio | Yea, is the worst well? very well took, i’ faith; wisely, wisely. |
Nurse | If you be he, sir, I desire some confidence with you. |
Benvolio | She will indite him to some supper. |
Mercutio | A bawd, a bawd, a bawd! So ho! |
Romeo | What hast thou found? |
Mercutio |
No hare, sir; unless a hare, sir, in a Lenten pie, that is something stale and hoar ere it be spent. Sings.
Romeo, will you come to your father’s? we’ll to dinner, thither. |
Romeo | I will follow you. |
Mercutio | Farewell, ancient lady; farewell, Singing. “lady, lady, lady.” Exeunt Mercutio and Benvolio. |
Nurse | Marry, farewell! I pray you, sir, what saucy merchant was this, that was so full of his ropery? |
Romeo | A gentleman, nurse, that loves to hear himself talk, and will speak more in a minute than he will stand to in a month. |
Nurse | An a’ speak anything against me, I’ll take him down, an a’ were lustier than he is, and twenty such Jacks; and if I cannot, I’ll find those that shall. Scurvy knave! I am none of his flirt-gills; I am none of his skains-mates. And thou must stand by too, and suffer every knave to use me at his pleasure? |
Peter | I saw no man use you at his pleasure; if I had, my weapon should quickly have been out, I warrant you: I dare draw as soon as another man, if I see occasion in a good quarrel, and the law on my side. |
Nurse | Now, afore God, I am so vexed, that every part about me quivers. Scurvy knave! Pray you, sir, a word: and as I told you, my young lady bade me inquire you out; what she bade me say, I will keep to myself: but first let me tell ye, if ye should lead her into a fool’s paradise, as they say, it were a very gross kind of behavior, as they say: for the gentlewoman is young; and, therefore, if you should deal double with her, truly it were an ill thing to be offered to any gentlewoman, and very weak dealing. |
Romeo | Nurse, commend me to thy lady and mistress. I protest unto thee— |
Nurse | Good heart, and, i’ faith, I will tell her as much: Lord, Lord, she will be a joyful woman. |
Romeo | What wilt thou tell her, nurse? thou dost not mark me. |
Nurse | I will tell her, sir, that you do protest; which, as I take it, is a gentlemanlike offer. |
Romeo |
Bid her devise
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Nurse | No, truly, sir; not a penny. |
Romeo | Go to; I say you shall. |
Nurse | This afternoon, sir? well, she shall be there. |
Romeo |
And stay, good nurse, behind the abbey wall:
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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,
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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;
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Enter Nurse and Peter. | |
O honey nurse, what news?
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Nurse | Peter, stay at the gate. Exit Peter. |
Juliet |
Now, good sweet nurse—O Lord, why look’st thou sad?
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Nurse |
I am a-weary, give me leave awhile:
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Juliet |
I would thou hadst my bones, and I thy news.
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Nurse |
Jesu, what haste? can you not stay awhile?
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Juliet |
How art thou out of breath, when thou hast breath
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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.
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Nurse |
Lord, how my head aches! what a head have I!
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Juliet |
I’ faith, I am sorry that thou art not well.
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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;
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Nurse |
O God’s lady dear!
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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;
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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,
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Romeo |
Amen, amen! but come what sorrow can,
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Friar Laurence |
These violent delights have violent ends
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Enter Juliet. | |
Here comes the lady: O, so light a foot
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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
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Juliet |
Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,
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Friar Laurence |
Come, come with me, and we will make short work;
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