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

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 jauncing 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 Lawrence’ 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 Lawrence’s Cell.

       [Enter Friar Lawrence and Romeo.]

       Friar.

       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.

       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.

       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 summer air

       And yet not fall; so light is vanity.

       [Enter Juliet.]

       Juliet.

       Good-even to my ghostly confessor.

       Friar.

       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 imagin’d 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.

       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 these 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 him 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 full 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 an 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.