Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare (cool books to read .txt) š
- Author: William Shakespeare
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A visor for a visor! what care I
What curious eye doth quote deformities? Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me.
BENVOLIO: Come, knock and enter; and no sooner in,
But every man betake him to his legs.
ROMEO: A torch for me: let wantons light of heart
Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels, For I am proverbād with a grandsire phrase; Iāll be a candle-holder, and look on.
The game was neāer so fair, and I am done.
MERCUTIO: Tut, dunās the mouse, the constableās own word:
If thou art dun, weāll draw thee from the mire Of this sir-reverence love, wherein thou stickāst Up to the ears. Come, we burn daylight, ho!
ROMEO: Nay, thatās not so.
MERCUTIO: I mean, sir, in delay We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day. Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits Five times in that ere once in our five wits.
ROMEO: And we mean well in going to this mask; But ātis no wit to go.
MERCUTIO: Why, may one ask?
ROMEO: I dreamād a dream to-night. MERCUTIO: And so did I. ROMEO: Well, what was yours?
MERCUTIO: That dreamers often lie. ROMEO: In bed asleep, while they do dream things true.
MERCUTIO: O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairiesā midwife, and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate-stone On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart menās noses as they lie asleep;
Her wagon-spokes made of long spidersā legs, The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
The traces of the smallest spiderās web,
The collars of the moonshineās watery beams, Her whip of cricketās bone, the lash of film,
Her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat,
Not so big as a round little worm Prickād from the lazy finger of a maid; Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, Time out oā mind the fairiesā coachmakers. And in this state she gallops night by night
Through loversā brains, and then they dream of love; Oāer courtiersā knees, that dream on courtāsies straight,
Oāer lawyersā fingers, who straight dream on fees, Oāer ladies ā lips, who straight on kisses dream, Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues, Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are: Sometime she gallops oāer a courtierās nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;
And sometime comes she with a tithe-pigās tail
Tickling a parsonās nose as aā lies asleep, Then dreams, he of another benefice: Sometime she driveth oāer a soldierās neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
Of healths five-fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,
And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two
And sleeps again. This is that very Mab
That plats the manes of horses in the night, And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs, Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes: This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, That presses them and learns them first to bear, Making them women of good carriage:
This is sheā
ROMEO: Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace! Thou talkāst of nothing.
MERCUTIO: True, I talk of dreams, Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy, Which is as thin of substance as the air
And more inconstant than the wind, who wooes
Even now the frozen bosom of the north, And, being angerād, puffs away from thence, Turning his face to the dew-dropping south.
BENVOLIO: This wind, you talk of, blows us from our selves;
Supper is done, and we shall come too late.
ROMEO: I fear, too early: for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this nightās revels and expire the term
Of a despised life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
But He, that hath the steerage of my course, Direct my sail! On, lusty gentlemen.
BENVOLIO: Strike, drum. [Exeunt.]
SCENE V: A hall in Capuletās house.
[Musicians waiting. Enter Servingmen with napkins.] First Servant: Whereās Potpan, that he helps not to
take away? He shift a trencher? he scrape a trencher!
Second Servant: When good manners shall lie all in
one or two menās hands and they unwashed too, ātis a foul thing.
First Servant: Away with the joint-stools, remove the court-cupboard, look to the plate. Good thou, save me a piece of marchpane; and, as thou lovest me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone and Nell. Antony, and Potpan!
Second Servant: Ay, boy, ready.
First Servant: You are looked for and called for, asked for and sought for, in the great chamber.
Second Servant: We cannot be here and there too. Cheerly, boys; be brisk awhile, and the longer liver take all.
{Enter CAPULET, with JULIET and others of his house, meeting the Guests and Maskers.}
CAPULET: Welcome, gentlemen! ladies that have their
toes
Unplagued with corns will have a bout with you. Ah ha, my mistresses! which of you all
Will now deny to dance? she that makes dainty, She, Iāll swear, hath corns; am I come near ye now? Welcome, gentlemen! I have seen the day
That I have worn a visor and could tell
A whispering tale in a fair ladyās ear,
Such as would please: ātis gone, ātis gone,
ātis gone:
You are welcome, gentlemen! come, musicians, play. A hall, a hall! give room! and foot it, girls.
[Music plays, and they dance.]
More light, you knaves; and turn the tables up, And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot. Ah, sirrah, this unlookād-for sport comes well. Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin Capulet;
For you and I are past our dancing days: How long isāt now since last yourself and I Were in a mask?
Second Capulet: Byār lady, thirty years.
CAPULET: What, man! ātis not so much, ātis not so much:
āTis since the nuptials of Lucentio, Come pentecost as quickly as it will,
Some five and twenty years; and then we maskād.
Second Capulet: āTis more, ātis more, his son is elder, sir;
His son is thirty.
CAPULET: Will you tell me that? His son was but a ward two years ago.
ROMEO: [To a Servingman] What lady is that, which doth enrich the hand
Of yonder knight? Servant: I know not, sir.
ROMEO: O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiopeās ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear! So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady oāer her fellows shows.
The measure done, Iāll watch her place of stand, And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand. Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I neāer saw true beauty till this night.
TYBALT: This, by his voice, should be a Montague. Fetch me my rapier, boy. What dares the slave Come hither, coverād with an antic face,
To fleer and scorn at our solemnity? Now, by the stock and honor of my kin, To strike him dead, I hold it not a sin.
CAPULET: Why, how now, kinsman! wherefore storm you so?
TYBALT: Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe, A villain that is hither come in spite,
To scorn at our solemnity this night. CAPULET: Young Romeo is it?
TYBALT: āTis he, that villain Romeo.
CAPULET: Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone; He bears him like a portly gentleman;
And, to say truth, Verona brags of him
To be a virtuous and well-governād youth: I would not for the wealth of all the town Here in my house do him disparagement: Therefore be patient, take no note of him: It is my will, the which if thou respect,
Show a fair presence and put off these frowns, And ill-beseeming semblance for a feast.
TYBALT: It fits, when such a villain is a guest: Iāll not endure him.
CAPULET: He shall be endured: What, goodman boy! I say, he shall: go to; Am I the master here, or you? go to.
Youāll not endure him! God shall mend my soul! Youāll make a mutiny among my guests!
You will set cock-a-hoop! youāll be the man! TYBALT: Why, uncle, ātis a shame.
CAPULET: Go to, go to;
You are a saucy boy: isāt so, indeed?
This trick may chance to scathe you, I know what: You must contrary me! marry, ātis time.
Well said, my hearts! You are a princox; go:
Be quiet, orāMore light, more light! For shame! Iāll make you quiet. What, cheerly, my hearts!
TYBALT: Patience perforce with wilful choler meeting
Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting. I will withdraw: but this intrusion shall
Now seeming sweet convert to bitter gall. [Exit.]
ROMEO: [To JULIET] If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
JULIET: Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrimsā hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmersā kiss.
ROMEO: Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? JULIET: Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer. ROMEO: O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
JULIET: Saints do not move, though grant for prayersā
sake.
ROMEO: Then move not, while my prayerās effect I take. Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.
JULIET: Then have my lips the sin that they have took. ROMEO: Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again.
JULIET: You kiss by the book.
Nurse: Madam, your mother craves a word with you.
ROMEO: What is her mother?
Nurse: Marry, bachelor, Her mother is the lady of the house,
And a good lady, and a wise and virtuous
I nursed her daughter, that you talkād withal; I tell you, he that can lay hold of her
Shall have the chinks.
ROMEO: Is she a Capulet? O dear account! my life is my foeās debt.
BENVOLIO: Away, begone; the sport is at the best. ROMEO: Ay, so I fear; the more is my unrest. CAPULET: Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone;
We have a trifling foolish banquet towards.
Is it eāen so? why, then, I thank you all
I thank you, honest gentlemen; good night. More torches here! Come on then, letās to bed. Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late:
Iāll to my rest.
[Exeunt all but JULIET and Nurse.]
JULIET: Come hither, nurse. What is yond gentleman? Nurse: The son and heir of old Tiberio.
JULIET: Whatās he that now is going out of door? Nurse: Marry, that, I think, be young Petrucio.
JULIET: Whatās he that follows there, that would not dance?
Nurse: I know not.
JULIET: Go ask his name: if he be married. My grave is like to be my wedding bed.
Nurse: His name is Romeo, and a Montague; The only son of your great enemy.
JULIET: My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late! Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy.
Nurse: Whatās this? whatās this?
JULIET: A rhyme I learnād even now
Of one I danced withal.
[One calls within āJuliet.ā] Nurse: Anon, anon!
Come, letās away; the strangers all are gone. [Exeunt.]
Act II
PROLOGUE
ACT II
[Enter Chorus.]
SCENE I: A lane by the wall of Capuletās orchard. [Enter ROMEO.]
ROMEO: Can I go forward when my heart is here? Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out.
Chorus: Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie, And young affection gapes to be his heir;
That fair for which love groanād for and would die, With tender Juliet matchād, is now not fair.
Now Romeo is beloved and loves again, Alike betwitched by the charm of looks, But to his foe supposed he must complain,
And she steal loveās sweet bait from fearful hooks: Being held a foe, he may not have access
To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear; And she as much in love, her means much less To meet her new-beloved any where:
But passion lends them power, time means, to meet
Tempering extremities with extreme sweet. [Exit.]
[He climbs the wall, and leaps down within it.] [Enter BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO.]
BENVOLIO: Romeo! my cousin Romeo!
MERCUTIO: He is wise;
And, on my lie, hath stolān him home to bed.
BENVOLIO: He ran this way, and leapād this orchard wall:
Call, good Mercutio.
MERCUTIO: Nay, Iāll conjure too. Romeo! humors! madman! passion! lover!
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