Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare (e novels to read online .TXT) 📗

news:
Nay, come, I pray thee speak; - good, good nurse, speak.

Nurse.
Jesu, what haste? can you not stay awhile?
Do you not see that I am out of breath?

Juliet.
How art thou out of breath, when thou hast breath
To say to me that thou art out of breath?
The excuse that thou dost make in this delay
Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse.
Is thy news good or bad? answer to that;
Say either, and I'll stay the circumstance:
Let me be satisfied, is't good or bad?

Nurse.
Well, you have made a simple choice; you know not how to
choose a man: Romeo! no, not he; rhough 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.
What says he of our marriage? what of that?

Nurse.
Lord, how my head aches! what a head have I!
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.
By my heel, I care not.

[Enter Tybalt and others.]

Tybalt.
Follow me close, for I will speak to them. - Gentlemen, good-den:
a word with one of you.

Mercutio.
And but one word with one of us? Couple it with something; make
it a word and a blow.

Tybalt.
You shall find me apt enough to that, sir, an you will give
me occasion.

Mercutio.
Could you not take some occasion without giving?

Tybalt.
Mercutio, thou consortest with Romeo, -

Mercutio.
Consort! what, dost thou make us minstrels? An thou make
minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords: here's my
fiddlestick; here's that shall make you dance. Zounds, consort!

Benvolio.
We talk here in the public haunt of men:
Either withdraw unto some private place,
And reason coldly of your grievances,
Or else depart; here all eyes gaze on us.

Mercutio.
Men's eyes were made to look, and let them gaze;
I will not budge for no man's pleasure, I.

Tybalt.
Well, peace be with you, sir. - Here comes my man.

[Enter Romeo.]

Mercutio.
But I'll be hanged, sir, if he wear your livery:
Marry, go before to field, he'll be your follower;
Your worship in that sense may call him man.

Tybalt.
Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford
No better term than this, - Thou art a villain.

Romeo.
Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee
Doth much excuse the appertaining rage
To such a greeting. Villain am I none;
Therefore farewell; I see thou know'st me not.

Tybalt.
Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries
That thou hast done me; therefore turn and draw.

Romeo.
I do protest I never injur'd thee;
But love thee better than thou canst devise
Till thou shalt know the reason of my love:
And so good Capulet, - which name I tender
As dearly as mine own, - be satisfied.

Mercutio.
O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!
Alla stoccata carries it away. [Draws.]
Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk?

Tybalt.
What wouldst thou have with me?

Mercutio.
Good king of cats, nothing but one of your nine lives; that I
mean to make bold withal, and, as you shall use me hereafter,
dry-beat the rest of the eight. Will you pluck your sword out of
his pitcher by the ears? make haste, lest mine be about your ears
ere it be out.

Tybalt.
I am for you. [Drawing.]

Romeo.
Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up.

Mercutio.
Come, sir, your passado.

[They fight.]

Romeo.
Draw, Benvolio; beat down their weapons. -
Gentlemen, for shame! forbear this outrage! -
Tybalt, - Mercutio, - the prince expressly hath
Forbid this bandying in Verona streets. -
Hold, Tybalt! - good Mercutio! -
[Exeunt Tybalt with his Partizans.]

Mercutio.
I am hurt; -
A plague o' both your houses! - I am sped. -
Is he gone, and hath nothing?

Benvolio.
What, art thou hurt?

Mercutio.
Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch; marry, 'tis enough. -
Where is my page? - go, villain, fetch a surgeon.

[Exit Page.]

Romeo.
Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much.

Mercutio.
No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door;
but 'tis enough, 'twill serve: ask for me to-morrow, and you
shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this
world. - A plague o' both your houses! - Zounds, a dog, a rat, a
mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death! a braggart, a rogue, a
villain, that fights by the book of arithmetic! - Why the devil
came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.

Romeo.
I thought all for the best.

Mercutio.
Help me into some house, Benvolio,
Or I shall faint. - A plague o' both your houses!
They have made worms' meat of me:
I have it, and soundly too. - Your houses!

[Exit Mercutio and Benvolio.]

Romeo.
This gentleman, the prince's near ally,
My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt
In my behalf; my reputation stain'd
With Tybalt's slander, - Tybalt, that an hour
Hath been my kinsman. - O sweet Juliet,
Thy beauty hath made me effeminate
And in my temper soften'd valour's steel.

[Re-enter Benvolio.]

Benvolio.
O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio's dead!
That gallant spirit hath aspir'd the clouds,
Which too untimely here did scorn the earth.

Romeo.
This day's black fate on more days doth depend;
This but begins the woe others must end.

Benvolio.
Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.

Romeo.
Alive in triumph! and Mercutio slain!
Away to heaven respective lenity,
And fire-ey'd fury be