Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (most read book in the world TXT) 📕

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 in 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. Juliet

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 Capulet

Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word:
Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee. Exit.

Juliet

O God!⁠—O nurse, how shall this be prevented?
My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven;
How shall that faith return again to earth,
Unless that husband send it me from heaven
By leaving earth? comfort me, counsel me.
Alack, alack, that heaven should practise stratagems
Upon so soft a subject as myself!
What say’st thou? hast thou not a word of joy?
Some comfort, nurse.

Nurse

Faith, here it is.
Romeo is banish’d; and all the world to nothing,
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 ’twere as good he were,
As living here and you no use of him.

Juliet Speakest thou from thy heart? Nurse

And from my soul too;
Or else beshrew them both.

Juliet Amen! Nurse What? Juliet

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. Juliet

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.

Act IV Scene I

Friar Laurence’s cell.

Enter Friar Laurence and Paris. Friar Laurence On Thursday, sir? the time is very short. Paris

My father Capulet will have it so;
And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.

Friar Laurence

You say you do not know the lady’s mind:
Uneven is the course, I like it not.

Paris

Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt’s death,
And therefore have I little talk’d 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.

Friar Laurence

Aside. I would I knew not why it should be slow’d.
Look, sir, here comes the lady towards my cell.

Enter Juliet. Paris Happily met, my lady and my wife! Juliet That may be, sir, when I may be a wife. Paris That may be must be, love, on Thursday next. Juliet What must be shall be. Friar Laurence That’s a certain text. Paris Come you to make confession to this father? Juliet To answer that, I should confess to you. Paris Do not deny to him that you love me. Juliet I will confess to you that I love him. Paris So will ye, I am sure, that you love me. Juliet

If I do so, it will be of more price,
Being spoke behind your back, than to your face.

Paris Poor soul, thy face is much abused with tears. Juliet

The tears have got small victory by that;
For it was bad enough before their spite.

Paris Thou wrong’st it, more than tears, with that report. Juliet

That is no slander, sir, which is a truth;
And what I spake, I spake it to my face.

Paris Thy face is mine, and thou hast slander’d it. Juliet

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?

Friar Laurence

My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.
My lord, we must entreat the time alone.

Paris

God shield I should disturb devotion!
Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse ye:
Till then, adieu; and keep this holy kiss. Exit.

Juliet

O shut the door! and when thou hast done so,
Come weep with me; past hope, past cure, past help!

Friar Laurence

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.

Juliet

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 join’d my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands;
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo seal’d,
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.

Friar Laurence

Hold, daughter: I do spy a kind of hope,
Which craves as desperate