Romeo and Juliet
ACT I SCENE V | A hall in Capulet’s house. | |
[Musicians waiting. Enter Servingmen, with napkins] | ||
First Servant | Where’s 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 men’s | |
hands and they unwashed too, ’tis 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. | 11 | |
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, I’ll 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 | 20 | |
A whispering tale in a fair lady’s ear, | ||
Such as would please: ’tis gone, ’tis gone, ’tis 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 unlook’d-for sport comes well. | ||
Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin Capulet; | ||
For you and I are past our dancing days: | 29 | |
How long is’t now since last yourself and I | ||
Were in a mask? | ||
Second Capulet | By’r lady, thirty years. | |
CAPULET | What, man! ’tis not so much, ’tis not so much: | |
‘Tis since the nuptials of Lucentio, | ||
Come pentecost as quickly as it will, | ||
Some five and twenty years; and then we mask’d. | ||
Second Capulet | ‘Tis more, ’tis 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? | 40 | |
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 Ethiope’s ear; | ||
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear! | ||
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows, | ||
As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows. | ||
The measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand, | ||
And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand. | ||
Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! | ||
For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night. | 51 | |
TYBALT | This, by his voice, should be a Montague. | |
Fetch me my rapier, boy. What dares the slave | ||
Come hither, cover’d with an antic face, | ||
To fleer and scorn at our solemnity? | ||
Now, by the stock and honour 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, | 60 | |
To scorn at our solemnity this night. | ||
CAPULET | Young Romeo is it? | |
TYBALT | ‘Tis 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-govern’d 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, | 70 | |
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: | |
I’ll 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. | ||
You’ll not endure him! God shall mend my soul! | ||
You’ll make a mutiny among my guests! | ||
You will set cock-a-hoop! you’ll be the man! | ||
TYBALT | Why, uncle, ’tis a shame. | |
CAPULET | Go to, go to; | 80 |
You are a saucy boy: is’t so, indeed? | ||
This trick may chance to scathe you, I know what: | ||
You must contrary me! marry, ’tis time. | ||
Well said, my hearts! You are a princox; go: | ||
Be quiet, or — More light, more light! For shame! | ||
I’ll 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. | 90 | |
[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 pilgrims’ hands do touch, | ||
And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss. | ||
ROMEO | Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? | |
JULIET | Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer. | 100 |
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 prayers’ sake. | |
ROMEO | Then move not, while my prayer’s 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? | 110 |
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 talk’d 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 foe’s debt. | ||
BENVOLIO | Away, be gone; 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. | 120 | |
Is it e’en so? why, then, I thank you all | ||
I thank you, honest gentlemen; good night. | ||
More torches here! Come on then, let’s to bed. | ||
Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late: | ||
I’ll 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 | What’s he that now is going out of door? | |
Nurse | Marry, that, I think, be young Petrucio. | |
JULIET | What’s he that follows there, that would not dance? | |
Nurse | I know not. | 131 |
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 | What’s this? what’s this? | |
JULIET | A rhyme I learn’d even now | |
Of one I danced withal. | ||
[One calls within ‘Juliet.’] | ||
Nurse | Anon, anon! | |
Come, let’s away; the strangers all are gone. | ||
[Exeunt] |
Next: Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 1