Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (read ebook pdf .txt) 📖

/> Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
Lies festering 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,
Environed 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 desperate 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, I come! this do I drink to thee.

[Throws herself on the bed.]


Scene IV. Hall in Capulet's House.

[Enter Lady Capulet and Nurse.]

Lady Capulet.
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 crow'd,
The curfew bell hath rung, 'tis three o'clock: -
Look to the bak'd meats, good Angelica;
Spare not for cost.

Nurse.
Go, you cot-quean, go,
Get you to bed; faith, you'll be sick to-morrow
For this night's watching.

Capulet.
No, not a whit: what! I have watch'd ere now
All night for lesser cause, and ne'er been sick.

Lady Capulet.
Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time;
But I will watch you from such watching now.

[Exeunt Lady Capulet and Nurse.]

Capulet.
A jealous-hood, a jealous-hood! - Now, fellow,

[Enter Servants, with spits, logs and baskets.]

What's there?

1 Servant.
Things for the cook, sir; but I know not what.

Capulet.
Make haste, make haste. [Exit 1 Servant.]
- Sirrah, fetch drier logs:
Call Peter, he will show thee where they are.

2 Servant.
I have a head, sir, that will find out logs
And never trouble Peter for the matter.

[Exit.]

Capulet.
Mass, and well said; a merry whoreson, ha!
Thou shalt be logger-head. - Good faith, 'tis day.
The county will be here with music straight,
For so he said he would: - I hear him near.
[Music within.]
Nurse! - wife! - what, ho! - what, nurse, I say!

[Re-enter 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.

[Exeunt.]


Scene V. Juliet's Chamber; Juliet on the bed.

[Enter Nurse.]

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?
What, dress'd! and in your clothes! and down again!
I must needs wake you. - lady! lady! lady! -
Alas, alas! - Help, help! My lady's dead! -
O, well-a-day that ever I was born! -
Some aqua-vitae, ho! - my lord! my lady!

[Enter Lady Capulet.]

Lady Capulet
What noise is here?

Nurse.
O lamentable day!

Lady Capulet.
What is the matter?

Nurse.
Look, look! O heavy day!

Lady Capulet.
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, deceas'd, she's dead; alack the day!

Lady Capulet
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.
Accursed time! unfortunate old man!

Nurse.
O lamentable day!

Lady Capulet.
O woful 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 Lawrence and Paris, with Musicians.]

Friar.
Come, is the bride ready to go to church?

Capulet.
Ready to go, but never to return: -
O son, the night before thy wedding day
Hath death lain with thy bride: - 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.
Have I thought long to see this morning's face,
And doth it give me such a sight as this?

Lady Capulet.
Accurs'd, 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 catch'd 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:
O woeful day! O woeful day!

Paris.
Beguil'd, divorced, wronged, spited, slain!
Most detestable death, by thee beguil'd,
By cruel cruel thee quite overthrown! -
O love! O life! - not life, but love in death!

Capulet.
Despis'd, distressed, hated, martyr'd, kill'd! -
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, dead! - alack, my child is dead;
And with my child my joys are buried!

Friar.
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 advanc'd:
And weep ye now, seeing she is advanc'd
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 corse; and, as the custom is,
In all 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 corse,
And all things change them to the contrary.

Friar.
Sir, go you in, - and, madam, go with him; -
And go, Sir Paris; - every one prepare
To follow this fair corse unto her grave:
The heavens do lower upon you for some ill;
Move them no more by crossing their high will.

[Exeunt Capulet, Lady Capulet, Paris, and Friar.]

1 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.

[Exit.]

1 Musician.
Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended.

[Enter Peter.]

Peter.
Musicians, O, musicians, 'Heart's ease,' 'Heart's ease':
O, an you will have me live, play 'Heart's ease.'

1 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.

1 Musician.
Not a dump we: 'tis no time to play now.

Peter.
You will not then?

1 Musician.
No.

Peter.
I will then give it you soundly.

1 Musician.
What will you give us?

Peter.
No money, on my faith; but the gleek, - I will give you the
minstrel.

1 Musician.
Then will I give you the serving-creature.

Peter.
Then will I lay the serving-creature's dagger on your pate.
I will carry no crotchets: I'll re you, I'll fa you: do you note
me?

1 Musician.
An you re us and fa us, you note us.

2 Musician.
Pray you put up your dagger, and put out your wit.

Peter.
Then have at you with my wit! I will dry-beat you with an
iron wit, and put up my iron dagger. - Answer me like men:

'When griping grief the heart doth wound,
And doleful dumps the mind oppress,
Then music with her silver sound' -

why 'silver sound'? why 'music with her silver sound'? -
What say you, Simon Catling?

1 Musician.
Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound.

Peter.
Pretty! - What say you, Hugh Rebeck?

2 Musician.
I say 'silver sound' because musicians sound for silver.

Peter.
Pretty too! - What say you, James Soundpost?

3 Musician.
Faith, I know not what to say.

Peter.
O, I cry you mercy; you are the singer: I will say for you.
It is 'music with her silver sound' because musicians have no
gold for sounding: -

'Then music with her silver sound
With speedy help doth lend redress.'

[Exit.]

1 Musician.
What a pestilent knave is this same!

2 Musician.
Hang him, Jack! - Come, we'll in here; tarry for the
mourners, and stay dinner.

[Exeunt.]


Act V.

Scene I. Mantua. A Street.

[Enter Romeo.]

Romeo.
If I may trust the flattering eye of sleep,
My dreams presage some joyful news at hand;
My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne;
And all this day an unaccustom'd spirit
Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.
I dreamt my lady came and found me dead, -
Strange dream, that gives a dead man leave to think! -
And breath'd such life with kisses in my lips,
That I reviv'd, and was an emperor.
Ah me! how sweet is love itself possess'd,
When but love's shadows are so rich in joy!

[Enter Balthasar.]

News from Verona! - How now, Balthasar?
Dost thou not bring me letters from the friar?
How doth my lady? Is my father well?
How fares my Juliet? that I ask again;
For nothing can be ill if she be well.

Balthasar.
Then she is well, and nothing can be ill:
Her body sleeps in Capel's monument,
And her immortal part with angels lives.
I saw her laid low in her kindred's vault,
And presently took post to tell it you:
O, pardon me for bringing these ill news,