To live an unstained wife to my sweet love.
FRIAR LAURENCE
Hold, then; go home, be merry, give consent
To marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow.
Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone.
Let not the Nurse lie with thee in thy chamber.
Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
And this distilling liquor drink thou off,
When presently through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humour; for no pulse
Shall keep his native progress, but surcease.
No warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest.
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To wanny 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 continue 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 meantime, 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 inconstant toy nor womanish fear
Abate thy valour in the acting it.
JULIET
Give me, give me O, tell not me of fear!
FRIAR LAURENCE (giving her the vial)
Hold, get you gone. Be strong and prosperous
In this resolve. I’ll send a friar with speed
To Mantua with my letters to thy lord.
JULIET
Love give me strength, and strength shall help afford.
Farewell, dear father. Exeunt [severally]
4.2 Enter Capulet, his Wife, the Nurse, and ⌈two⌉ Servingmen
CAPULET (giving a Servingman a paper)
So many guests invite as here are writ.⌈Exit Servingman⌉
(To the other Servingman) Sirrah, go hire me twenty
cunning cooks.
SERVINGMAN You shall have none ill, sir, for I’ll try if they can lick their fingers.
CAPULET How canst thou try them so?
SERVINGMAN Marry, sir, ’tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers, therefore he that cannot lick his fingers goes not with me.
CAPULET Go, be gone. ⌈Exit Servingman⌉
We shall be much unfurnished for this time.
(To the Nurse) What, is my daughter gone to Friar
Laurence?
NURSE Ay, forsooth.
CAPULET
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.
CAPULET (to Juliet)
How now, my headstrong, where have you been gadding ?
JULIET
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
To beg your pardon. (Kneeling) Pardon, I beseech you.
Henceforward I am ever ruled by you.
CAPULET ⌈to the Nurse⌉
Send for the County; go tell him of this.
I’ll have this knot knit up tomorrow morning.
JULIET
I met the youthful lord at Laurence’ cell,
And gave him what becoming love I might,
Not stepping o’er the bounds of modesty.
CAPULET
Why, I am glad on’t. This is well. Stand up.Juliet rises
This is as’t should be. Let me see the County.
⌈To Nurse⌉ 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.
JULIET
Nurse, will you go with me into my closet
To help me sort such needful ornaments
As you think fit to furnish me tomorrow?
CAPULET’S WIFE
No, not till Thursday. There is time enough.
CAPULET
Go, Nurse, go with her. We’ll to church tomorrow.
Exeunt Juliet and Nurse
CAPULET’S WIFE
We shall be short in our provision.
’Tis now near night.
CAPULET Tush, I will stir about,
And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, wife.
Go thou to Juliet, help to deck up her.
I’ll not to bed tonight. Let me alone.
I’ll play the housewife for this once. What, ho!
They are all forth. Well, I will walk myself
To County Paris to prepare up him
Against tomorrow. My heart is wondrous light,
Since this same wayward girl is so reclaimed.
Exeunt ⌈severally⌉
4.3 Enter Juliet and the Nurse ⌈with garments⌉
JULIET
Ay, those attires are best. But, gentle Nurse,
I pray thee leave me to myself tonight,
For I have need of many orisons
To move the heavens to smile upon my state,
Which—well thou knowest—is cross and full of sin.
Enter Capulet’s Wife
CAPULET’S WIFE
What, are you busy, ho? Need you my help?
JULIET
No, madam, we have culled such necessaries
As are behoveful for our state tomorrow.
So please you, let me now be left alone,
And let the Nurse this night sit up with you,
For I am sure you have your hands full all
In this so sudden business.
CAPULET’S WIFE Good night.
Get thee to bed, and rest, for thou hast need.
Exeunt Capulet’s Wife ⌈and Nurse⌉
JULIET
Farewell. God knows when we shall meet again.
I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins
That almost freezes up the heat of life.
I’ll call them back again to comfort me.
Nurse!—What should she do here?⌈She opens curtains, behind which is seen her bed⌉
My dismal scene I needs must act alone.
Come, vial. What if this mixture do not work at all?
Shall I be married then tomorrow morning?
No, no, this shall forbid it. Lie thou there.She lays down a knife
What if it be a poison which the friar
Subtly hath ministered to have me dead,
Lest in this marriage he should be dishonoured
Because he married me before to Romeo?
I fear it is—and yet methinks it should not,
For he hath still been tried a holy man.
How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
I wake before the time that Romeo
Come to redeem me? There’s a fearful point.
Shall I not then be stifled in the vault,
To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,
And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?
Or, if I live, is it not very like
The horrible conceit of death and night,
Together with the terror of the place—
As in a vault, an ancient receptacle
Where for this many hundred years the bones
&n
bsp; Of all my buried ancestors are packed;
Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
Lies fest‘ring in his shroud; where, as they say,
At some hours in the night spirits resort—
Alack, alack, is it not like that I,
So early waking—what with loathsome smells,
And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth,
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad—
O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,
Environèd with all these hideous fears,
And madly play with my forefathers’ joints,
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud,
And, in this rage, with some great kinsman’s bone
As with a club dash out my desp’rate brains?
O, look! Methinks I see my cousin’s ghost
Seeking out Romeo that did spit his body
Upon a rapier’s point. Stay, Tybalt, stay!
Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here’s drink. I drink to thee.She drinks from the vial and falls upon the bed, ⌈pulling closed the curtains⌉
4.4 Enter Capulet’s Wife, and the Nurse ⌈With herbs⌉
CAPULET’S WIFE
Hold, take these keys, and fetch more spices, Nurse.
NURSE
They call for dates and quinces in the pastry.
Enter Capulet
CAPULET
Come, stir, stir, stir! The second cock hath crowed.
The curfew bell hath rung. ’Tis three o’clock.
Look to the baked meats, good Angelica.
Spare not for cost.
NURSE Go, you cot-quean, go.
Get you to bed. Faith, you’ll be sick tomorrow
For this night’s watching.
CAPULET
No, not a whit. What, I have watched ere now
All night for lesser cause, and ne’er been sick.
CAPULET’S WIFE
Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time,
But I will watch you from such watching now.
Exeunt Capulet’s Wife and Nurse
CAPULET
A jealous-hood, a jealous-hood!
Enter three or four Servingmen, with spits and logs and baskets
Now, fellow, what is there?
FIRST SERVINGMAN
Things for the cook, sir, but I know not what.
CAPULET
Make haste, make haste.Exit First Servingman ⌈and one or two others⌉
Sirrah, fetch drier logs.
Call Peter. He will show thee where they are.
SECOND SERVINGMAN
I have a head, sir, that will find out logs
And never trouble Peter for the matter.
CAPULET
Mass, and well said! A merry whoreson, ha!
Thou shalt be loggerhead. Exit Second Servingman
Good faith, ’tis day.
The County will be here with music straight,
For so he said he would.
Music plays within
I hear him near.
Nurse! Wife! What ho, what, Nurse, I say!Enter the Nurse
Go waken Juliet. Go and trim her up.
I’ll go and chat with Paris. Hie, make haste,
Make haste, the bridegroom he is come already.
Make haste, I say. Exit
NURSE
Mistress, what, mistress! Juliet! Fast, I warrant her, she.
Why, lamb, why, lady! Fie, you slug-abed!
Why, love, I say, madam, sweetheart, why, bride!
What, not a word? You take your pennyworths now.
Sleep for a week, for the next night, I warrant,
The County Paris hath set up his rest
That you shall rest but little. God forgive me!
Marry, and amen. How sound is she asleep!
I needs must wake her. Madam, madam, madam!
Ay, let the County take you in your bed.
He’ll fright you up, i’faith. Will it not be?
⌈She draws back the curtains⌉
What, dressed and in your clothes, and down again?
I must needs wake you. Lady, lady, lady!
Alas, alas! Help, help! My lady’s dead.
O welladay, that ever I was born!
Some aqua-vitae, ho! My lord, my lady!
Enter Capulet’s Wife
CAPULET’S WIFE
What noise is here?
NURSE O lamentable day!
CAPULET’S WIFE
What is the matter?
NURSE Look, look. O heavy day!
CAPULET’S WIFE
O me, O me, my child, my only life!
Revive, look up, or I will die with thee.
Help, help, call help!
Enter Capulet
CAPULET
For shame, bring Juliet forth. Her lord is come.
NURSE
She’s dead, deceased. She’s dead, alack the day!
CAPULET’S WIFE
Alack the day, she’s dead, she’s dead, she’s dead!
CAPULET
Ha, let me see her! Out, alas, she’s cold.
Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff.
Life and these lips have long been separated.
Death lies on her like an untimely frost
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.
NURSE
O lamentable day!
CAPULET’S WIFE O woeful time!
CAPULET
Death, that hath ta’en her hence to make me wail,
Ties up my tongue, and will not let me speak.
Enter Friar Laurence and Paris, with Musicians
FRIAR LAURENCE
Come, is the bride ready to go to church?
CAPULET
Ready to go, but never to return.
(To Paris) O son, the night before thy wedding day
Hath death lain with thy wife. See, there she lies,
Flower as she was, deflowered by him.
Death is my son-in-law, death is my heir.
My daughter he hath wedded. I will die,
And leave him all. Life, living, all is death’s.
⌈Paris, Capulet and his Wife, and the Nurse all at once wring their hands and cry out together:⌉
PARIS
Have I thought long to see this morning’s face,
And doth it give me such a sight as this?
Beguiled, divorced, wronged, spited, slain!
Most detestable death, by thee beguiled,
By cruel, cruel thee quite overthrown.
O love, O life: not life, but love in death.
CAPULET’S WIFE
Accursed, unhappy, wretched, hateful day!
Most miserable hour that e’er time saw
In lasting labour of his pilgrimage!
But one, poor one, one poor and loving child,
But one thing to rejoice and solace in,
And cruel death hath catched it from my sight!
NURSE
O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day!
Most lamentable day! Most woeful day
That ever, ever, I did yet behold!
O day, O day, O day, O hateful day,
Never was seen so black a day as this I
O woeful day, O woeful day! 85
CAPULET
Despised, distressed, hated, martyred, killed!
Uncomfortable time, why cam’st thou now
To murder, murder our solemnity?
O child, O child, my soul and not my child!
Dead art thou, alack, my child is dead,
And with my child my joys are buried.
FRIAR LAURENCE
Peace, ho, for shame! Confusion’s cure lives not
In these confusions. Heaven and yourself
Had part in this fair maid. Now heaven hath all,
And all the better is it for the maid.
Your part in her you could not keep from death,
But heaven keeps his part in eternal life.
; The most you sought was her promotion,
For ’twas your heaven she should be advanced,
And weep ye now, seeing she is advanced
Above the clouds as high as heaven itself?
O, in this love you love your child so ill
That you run mad, seeing that she is well.
She’s not well married that lives married long,
But she’s best married that dies married young.
Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary
On this fair corpse, and, as the custom is,
All in her best array bear her to church;
For though fond nature bids us all lament,
Yet nature’s tears are reason’s merriment.
CAPULET
All things that we ordained festival
Turn from their office to black funeral.
Our instruments to melancholy bells,
Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast,
Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change;
Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corpse,
And all things change them to the contrary.
FRIAR LAURENCE
Sir, go you in; and madam, go with him,
And go, Sir Paris. Everyone prepare
To follow this fair corpse unto her grave.
The heavens do lour upon you for some ill.
Move them no more by crossing their high will.
⌈They cast rosemary on Juliet, and shut the curtains.⌉ Exeunt all but the Nurse and Musicians
⌈FIRST⌉ MUSICIAN Faith, we may put up our pipes and be gone.
NURSE
Honest good fellows, ah, put up, put up,
For well you know this is a pitiful case.
⌈FIRST⌉ MUSICIAN
Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended.
Exit Nurse Enter Peter
PETER Musicians, O, musicians! ‘Heart’s ease’, ‘Heart’s ease’; O,an you will have me live, play ‘Heart’s ease’.
⌈FIRST⌉ MUSICIAN Why ‘Heart’s ease’?
PETER O, musicians, because my heart itself plays ‘My heart is full of woe’. O, play me some merry dump to comfort me.
⌈FIRST⌉ MUSICIAN Not a dump, we. ’Tis no time to play now.
PETER You will not then?
FIRST MUSICIAN No.
The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works Page 134