The Complete Tragedies of William Shakespeare - All 12 Books in One Edition. William Shakespeare

Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied;

       And vice sometimes by action dignified.

       Within the infant rind of this small flower

       Poison hath residence, and medicine power:

       For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part;

       Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart.

       Two such opposed kings encamp them still

       In man as well as herbs,—grace and rude will;

       And where the worser is predominant,

       Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.

       [Enter Romeo.]

       Romeo.

       Good morrow, father!

       Friar.

       Benedicite!

       What early tongue so sweet saluteth me?—

       Young son, it argues a distemper’d head

       So soon to bid good morrow to thy bed:

       Care keeps his watch in every old man’s eye,

       And where care lodges sleep will never lie;

       But where unbruised youth with unstuff’d brain

       Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign:

       Therefore thy earliness doth me assure

       Thou art uprous’d with some distemperature;

       Or if not so, then here I hit it right,—

       Our Romeo hath not been in bed tonight.

       Romeo.

       That last is true; the sweeter rest was mine.

       Friar.

       God pardon sin! wast thou with Rosaline?

       Romeo.

       With Rosaline, my ghostly father? no;

       I have forgot that name, and that name’s woe.

       Friar.

       That’s my good son: but where hast thou been then?

       Romeo.

       I’ll tell thee ere thou ask it me again.

       I have been feasting with mine enemy;

       Where, on a sudden, one hath wounded me

       That’s by me wounded. Both our remedies

       Within thy help and holy physic lies;

       I bear no hatred, blessed man; for, lo,

       My intercession likewise steads my foe.

       Friar.

       Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift;

       Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift.

       Romeo.

       Then plainly know my heart’s dear love is set

       On the fair daughter of rich Capulet:

       As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine;

       And all combin’d, save what thou must combine

       By holy marriage: when, and where, and how

       We met, we woo’d, and made exchange of vow,

       I’ll tell thee as we pass; but this I pray,

       That thou consent to marry us to-day.

       Friar.

       Holy Saint Francis! what a change is here!

       Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear,

       So soon forsaken? young men’s love, then, lies

       Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.

       Jesu Maria, what a deal of brine

       Hath wash’d thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline!

       How much salt water thrown away in waste,

       To season love, that of it doth not taste!

       The sun not yet thy sighs from heaven clears,

       Thy old groans ring yet in mine ancient ears;

       Lo, here upon thy cheek the stain doth sit

       Of an old tear that is not wash’d off yet:

       If e’er thou wast thyself, and these woes thine,

       Thou and these woes were all for Rosaline;

       And art thou chang’d? Pronounce this sentence then,—

       Women may fall, when there’s no strength in men.

       Romeo.

       Thou chidd’st me oft for loving Rosaline.

       Friar.

       For doting, not for loving, pupil mine.

       Romeo.

       And bad’st me bury love.

       Friar.

       Not in a grave

       To lay one in, another out to have.

       Romeo.

       I pray thee chide not: she whom I love now

       Doth grace for grace and love for love allow;

       The other did not so.

       Friar.

       O, she knew well

       Thy love did read by rote, that could not spell.

       But come, young waverer, come go with me,

       In one respect I’ll thy assistant be;

       For this alliance may so happy prove,

       To turn your households’ rancour to pure love.

       Romeo.

       O, let us hence; I stand on sudden haste.

       Friar.

       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?—

       Came he not home tonight?

       Benvolio.

       Not to his father’s; I spoke with his man.

       Mercutio.

       Ah, that same pale hard-hearted wench, that Rosaline,

       Torments him so that he will sure run mad.

       Benvolio.

       Tybalt, the kinsman to old Capulet,

       Hath sent a letter to his father’s house.

       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 through 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’s the courageous captain of compliments. 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 hay.—

       Benvolio.