It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, Rather than Paris.-These are news indeed! Lady C. Here comes your father: tell him so yourself,

And see how he will take it at your hands.

Enter CAPULET and Nurse.

Cap. When the sun sets, the air doth drizzle dew;
But for the sunset of my brother's son,
It rains downright.—

How now! a conduit, girl? what, still in tears?
Evermore showering? In one little body
Thou counterfeit'st a bark, a sea, a wind:
For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
Do ebb and flow with tears: the bark thy body is,
Sailing in this salt flood: the winds, thy sighs;
Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them,
Without a sudden calm will overset
Thy tempest-tosséd body.-How now, wife!
Have you
delivered to her our decree?

Lady C. Ay, sir; but she will none, she gives

you thanks.

I would the fool were married to her grave! Cap. Soft, take me with you; take me with you, wife.

How! will she none? doth she not give us thanks?
Is she not proud, doth she not count her blessed,
Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom?
Jul. Not proud you have; but thankful that
you have.

Proud can I never be of what I hate :

But thankful even for hate that is meant love. Cap. How now, how now; chop-logic! What is this?

Proud, and, I thank you,-and, I thank you not-
Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds,
But settle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next,
To go with Paris to Saint Peter's church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you bag-
gage!

You tallow-face!

Lady C. Fie, fie! what, are you mad?
Jul. Good father, I beseech you on my knees,
Hear me with patience but to speak a word.
Cap. Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient
wretch!

I tell thee what,-get thee to church o' Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face.
Speak not, reply not, do not answer me:
My fingers itch.-Wife, we scarce thought us

blessed

That God hath lent us but this only child; But now I see this one is one too much, And that we have a curse in having her: Out on her, hilding!

Cap. God's bread! it makes me mad.
Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play,
Alone, in company, still my care hath been
To have her matched and having now provided
A gentleman of princely parentage,

Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly trained,
Stuffed (as they say) with honourable parts,
Proportioned as one's heart could wish a man,—
And then to have a wretched puling fool,
A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender,
To answer "I'll not wed," "I cannot love,"
"I am too young," "I pray you pardon me :"-
But an you will not wed, I'll pardon you:
Graze where you will, you shall not house with me:
Look to 't, think on 't; I do not use to jest.
Thursday is near; lay hand on heart; advise:
An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend;
An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die i' the streets;
For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee,
Nor what is mine shall never do thee good.
Trust to't; bethink you; I'll not be forsworn.
[Exit.

Jul. Is there no pity sitting in the clouds,
That sees into the bottom of my grief?
O, sweet my mother, cast me not away!
Delay this marriage for a month, a week;
Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed
In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.
Lady C. Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a
word;

Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.

That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you:
Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth.
Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
I think it best you married with the County.
O, he's a lovely gentleman!

Romeo's a dishclout to him. An eagle, madam,
Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye,
As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,
I think you are happy in this second match,
For it excels your first: or if it did not,

Your first is dead; or 't were as good he were,
As living here, and you no use of him.
Jul. Speakest thou from thy heart?
Nurse. From my soul too;

Or else beshrew them both.

Jul. Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much.

Go in; and tell my lady I am gone,
Having displeased my father, to Laurence' cell,
To make confession, and to be absolved.

Nurse. Marry, I will; and this is wisely done. [Exit.

Jul. Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend! Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn, Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue Which she hath praised him with above compare So many thousand times?-Go, counsellor ; Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain. I'll to the Friar, to know his remedy: If all else fail, myself have power to die. [Exit.

Par. Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death,

And therefore have I little talked of love;
For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.
Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous
That she doth give her sorrow so much sway,
And in his wisdom hastes our marriage
To stop the inundation of her tears;
Which, too much minded by herself alone,
May be put from her by society.
Now do you know the reason of this haste.
Fri. I would I knew not why it should be
slowed.
[Aside.

Look, sir, here comes the lady towards my cell.

Par. Thou wrong'st it, more than tears, with that report.

Jul. That is no slander, sir, that is a truth; And what I spake, I spake it to my face. Par. Thy face is mine, and thou hast slandered it. Jul. It may be so, for it is not mine own.— Are you at leisure, holy father, now; Or shall I come to you at evening mass?

Fri. My leisure serves me, pensive daughter,

now.

My lord, we must entreat the time alone.

Par. God shield I should disturb devotion!Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse you: Till then, adieu! and keep this holy kiss. [Exit. Jul. O, shut the door! and when thou hast done so, with help!

Come weep

me; past hope, past cure, past

Fri. Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief; It strains me past the compass of my wits. I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it, On Thursday next be married to this County.

Jul. Tell me not, friar, that thou hear'st of this, Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it: If in thy wisdom thou canst give no help, Do thou but call my resolution wise, And with this knife I'll help it presently. God joined my heart and Romeo's; thou our hands; And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo sealed, Shall be the label to another deed, Or my true heart with treacherous revolt Turn to another, this shall slay them both : Therefore, out of thy long-experienced time, Give me some present counsel; or, behold, "Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife Shall play the umpire; arbitrating that Which the commission of thy years and art Could to no issue of true honour bring.Be not so long to speak: I long to die, If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy.

Fri. Hold, daughter: I do spy a kind of hope, Which craves as desperate an execution

Or bid me go into a new-made grave,
And hide me with a dead man in his shroud;
(Things that, to hear them told, have made me
tremble ;)

And I will do it without fear or doubt,
To live an unstained wife to my sweet love.
Fri. Hold, then: go home, be merry, give consent
To marry Paris. Wednesday is to-morrow:
To-morrow night look that thou lie alone,
Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber:
Take thou this phial, being then in bed,

And this distilléd liquor drink thou off:
When presently through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humour, which shall seize
Each vital spirit; for no pulse shall keep
His natural progress, but surcease to beat :
No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou liv'st:
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To paly ashes; thy eyes' windows fall,
Like death when he shuts up the day of life;
Each part, deprived of supple government,
Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death:

And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt remain full two-and-forty hours,
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
Now when the bridegroom in the morning comes
To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead:
Then (as the manner of our country is),
In thy best robes, uncovered on the bier,
Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault

Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.

In the mean time, against thou shalt awake,
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift;
And hither shall he come; and he and I
Will watch thy waking, and that very night
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
And this shall free thee from this present shame;
If no unconstant toy, nor womanish fear,
Abate thy valour in the acting it.

Jul. Give me,
Fri. Hold; get you gone, be strong and pros-

give me! O tell me not of fear.

Cap. So many guests invite as here are writ.— [Exit 1st Servant.

Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks. 2nd Serv. You shall have none ill, sir; for I'll

try if they can lick their fingers.

Cap. How canst thou try them so?

2nd Serv. Marry, sir, 't is an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers: therefore he that cannot lick his fingers goes not with me.

Cap. Go, begone.- [Exit 2nd Servant. We shall be much unfurnished for this time.What, is my daughter gone to Friar Laurence? Nurse. Ay, forsooth.

Cap. Well, he may chance to do some good on her :

A peevish self-willed harlotry it is.

Enter JULIET.

Nurse. See where she comes from shrift with merry look.

Cap. How now, my headstrong, where have you been gadding?

Jul. Where I have learned me to repent the sin Of disobedient opposition

To you and your behests; and am enjoined

By holy Laurence to fall prostrate here,
And beg your pardon :-Pardon, I beseech you!
Henceforward I am ever ruled by you.

Cap. Send for the County; go tell him of this:
I'll have this knot knit up to-morrow morning.
Jul. I met the youthful lord at Laurence' cell;
And gave him what becoméd love I might,
Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty.

Cap. Why, I am glad on 't; this is well;— stand up:

This is as 't should be.-Let me see the County;
Ay marry, go, I say, and fetch him hither.—
Now, afore God, this reverend holy friar,
All our whole city is much bound to him.
Jul. Nurse, will you go with me into my closet,
To help me sort such needful ornaments
As you think fit to furnish me to-morrow?

Lady C. No, not till Thursday: there is time enough.

Cap. Go, nurse, go with her :-we 'll to church to-morrow. [Exeunt JULIET and Nurse. Lady C. We shall be short in our provision: 'Tis now near night.