Shakespeare's Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare (best books to read all time .TXT) 📗
- Author: William Shakespeare
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This is no less distinctly expressed in the last speeches of the play. After hearing the Friar's story, the Prince says:—
It is the parents who are punished. The scourge is laid upon their hate, and it was the love of their children by which Heaven found the means to wield that scourge. The Prince himself has a share in the penalty for tolerating the discords of the families. "We all," he says, "all are punished." But the good Friar's hope, expressed when he consented to perform the marriage,—
is now fulfilled. Both Capulet and Montague, as they join hands in amity over the dead bodies of their children, acknowledge the debt they owe to the "star-cross'd" love of those "poor sacrifices of their enmity." They vie with each other in doing honour to the guiltless victims of their "pernicious rage." Montague will raise the golden statue to Juliet, and Capulet promises as rich a monument to Romeo.
Da Porto and Paynter and Brooke, in like manner, refer to the reconciliation of the rival families as the fortunate result of the tragic history. Da Porto says: "Their fathers, weeping over the bodies of their children and overcome by mutual pity, embraced each other; so that the long enmity between them and their houses, which neither the prayers of their friends, nor the menaces of the Prince, nor even time itself had been able to extinguish, was ended by the piteous death of the two lovers." As Paynter puts it, "The Montesches and Capellets poured forth such abundance of tears, as with the same they did evacuate their ancient grudge and choler, whereby they were then reconciled: and they which could not be brought to atonement[3] by any wisdom or human counsel were in the end vanquished and made friends by pity." So Brooke, in his lumbering verse:—
And then the poem, like the play, ends with a reference to the monumental honour done to the lovers:
Escalus, prince of Verona.
Paris, a young nobleman, kinsman to the prince.
Montague, }
Capulet, } heads of two houses at variance with each other.
An old man of the Capulet family.
Romeo, son to Montague.
Mercutio, kinsman to the prince, and friend to Romeo.
Benvolio, nephew to Montague, and friend to Romeo.
Tybalt, nephew to Lady Capulet.
Friar Laurence, }
Friar John, } Franciscans.
Balthasar, servant to Romeo.
Sampson, }
Gregory, } servants to Capulet.
Peter, servant to Juliet's nurse.
Abram, servant to Montague.
An Apothecary.
Three Musicians.
Page to Paris; another Page; an Officer.
Lady Montague, wife to Montague.
Lady Capulet, wife to Capulet.
Juliet, daughter to Capulet.
Nurse to Juliet.
Citizens of Verona; Kinsfolk of both houses; Maskers, Guards, Watchmen, and Attendants.
Chorus.
Scene: Verona; Mantua.
The "Measure"
PROLOGUEVerona. A Public Place.
Enter Sampson and Gregory, of the house of Capulet,
with swords and bucklers
Sampson. Gregory, on my word, we'll not carry coals.
Gregory. No, for then we should be colliers.
Sampson. I mean, an we be in choler we'll draw.
Gregory. Ay, while you live, draw your neck out
o' the collar.
Sampson. I strike quickly, being moved.
Gregory. But thou art not quickly moved to strike.
Sampson. A dog of the house of Montague moves
me. 10
Gregory. To move is to stir, and to be valiant is
to stand; therefore, if thou art moved, thou runn'st
away.
Sampson. A dog of that house shall move me to
stand; I will take the wall of any man or maid of
Montague's.
Gregory. That shows thee a weak slave; for the
weakest goes to the wall.
Sampson. True; and therefore women, being the
weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall. Therefore 20
I will push Montague's men from the wall, and
thrust his maids to the wall.
Gregory. The quarrel is between our masters and
us their men.
Sampson. 'Tis all one, I will show myself a tyrant;
when I have fought with the men, I will be cruel
with the maids and cut off their heads.
Gregory. Draw thy tool; here comes two of the
house of the Montagues.
Sampson. My naked weapon is out; quarrel, I 30
will back thee.
Gregory. How? turn thy back and run?
Sampson. Fear me not.
Gregory. No, marry; I fear thee!
Sampson. Let us take the law of our sides; let
them begin.
Gregory. I will frown as I pass by, and let them
take it as they list.
Sampson. Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb
at them, which is a disgrace to them if they bear it. 40
Enter Abram and Balthasar
Abram. Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
Sampson. I do bite my thumb, sir.
Abram. Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
Sampson. [Aside to Gregory] Is the law of our
side, if I say ay?
Gregory. No.
Sampson. No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you,
sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.
Gregory. Do you quarrel, sir?
Abram. Quarrel, sir! no, sir. 50
Sampson. If you do, sir, I am for you; I serve as
good a man as you.
Abram. No better.
Sampson. Well, sir.
Gregory. [Aside to Sampson] Say 'better'; here
comes one of my master's kinsmen.
Sampson. Yes, better, sir.
Abram. You lie.
Sampson. Draw, if you be men.—Gregory, remember
thy swashing blow. [They fight. 60
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