ACT 4, SCENE 1

Paris meets with Friar Lawrence, informing him that the wedding will be held on Thursday in a supposed attempt to soothe Juliet’s grief over murdered Tybalt. Juliet arrives for confession, and Paris attempts to pressure her into confessing her love for him. After Paris leaves, Juliet tells the Friar she is resolved to kill herself if he can offer no solution out of the impending marriage. The Friar offers her a plan: agree to the marriage, but drink a poison the night before that will make her appear dead while in reality leaving her asleep. The Friar will then send word to Romeo, who will return and rescue Juliet once she awakes in the family tomb. Juliet accepts.

Friar Lawrence’s cell in Verona:

Enter Friar Lawrence and County Paris

FRIAR LAWRENCE

On Thursday, sir? The time is very soon.

PARIS

My father Capulet will have it so,

And I am nothing slow to stall his haste.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

You say you do not know the Lady’s mind?

5Uneven is the course. I like it not.

PARIS

Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt’s death,

And therefore have I little talk of love,

For Venus^[1] smiles not in a house of tears.

Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous

10That she doth give her sorrow so much sway;

And in his wisdom hastes our marriage^[2]

To stop the inundation° of her tears,

Which, too much minded by herself alone,

May be put from her by society.^[3]

15Now you do know the reason of this haste.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

[To himself] I would I knew not why it should be slowed.^[4]

[To PARIS] 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

20That “may be” must be, love, on Thursday next.

JULIET

What must be shall be.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

That’s a certain text°.

PARIS

Come you to make confession to this father?^[5]

JULIET

To answer that, I would confess to you.

PARIS

25Do not deny to him that you love me.

JULIET

I will confess to you that I love him.^[6]

PARIS

So will ye – I am sure that you love me.

JULIET

If I do so, it will be of more worth

Being spoke behind your back than to your face.

PARIS

30Poor 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.^[7]

PARIS

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

JULIET

That is no slander, sir, when it’s a truth,

35And what I said, I said it to my face.

PARIS

Thy face is mine, and thou hast slandered 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 LAWRENCE

40My leisure serves me, somber daughter, now.

My lord, we must ask for this time alone.

PARIS

God shield I should disturb devotion!

Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse you.

Till then, adieu, and keep this holy kiss.

He kisses her

Exit Paris

JULIET

45O, shut the door! And when thou hast done so,

Come weep with me – past hope, past care, past help.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

O Juliet, I already know thy grief;

It strains me past the compass of my wits.

I hear thou must – and nothing may postpone it –

50On Thursday next be married to the County.

JULIET

Tell me not, Friar, that thou hearest 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,

55And with this knife I’ll help it presently.

God joined my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands.

And ere this hand – by thee to Romeo sealed –

Shall be the label to another deed,^[8]

Or my true heart with treacherous revolt

60Turn 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,

65Which the commission of thy years and art^[9]

Could not to this issue true honor bring.

Be not so long to speak; I long to die

If what thou speak’st speak not of remedy.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Hold, daughter! I do spy a kind of hope

70Which craves as desperate an execution

As that is desperate which we would prevent.^[10]

If rather than to marry County Paris

Thou hast the strength or will to slay thyself,

Then it is likely thou wilt undertake

75A thing like death to chide away this shame,

That copes with Death himself to ‘scape from it;

And, if thou darest, I’ll give thee remedy.

JULIET

O bid me leap – rather than marry Paris –

From off the battlements of any tower,

80Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk

Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears

Or hide me nightly in a charnel house,^[11]

O’ercovered quite° with dead men’s rattling bones,

With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls;^[12]

85Or bid me go into a new-made grave

And hide me with a dead man in his tomb;

Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble,

And I will do it without fear or doubt

To keep myself a faithful unstained wife

90To my dear lord, my dearest Romeo.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Hold then: go home, be merry, give consent

To marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow.

Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber.

And when thou art alone, take thou this vial,

95And this distilling liquor drink thou off,

When presently through all thy veins shall run

A cold and drowsy humor; for no pulse

Shall keep his native rhythm but surcease°.

No warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest;

100The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade

To many 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,

105And 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;

110Then, as the manner of our country is,^[13]

In thy best robes uncovered on the bier°

Be borne to burial in thy kindred’s grave;

Thou shall be borne to that same ancient vault

Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.

115In the meantime, by then thou shalt awake,

Shall Romeo by my letters know our plan,

And hither shall he come, and he and I

Will watch thy waking, and that very night

Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.

120And this shall free thee from this present shame,

If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear

Abate° thy valor in the acting it.

JULIET

Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear!

He gives her the vial

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Hold! Get you gone, be strong and prosperous

125In this resolve. I’ll send a Friar with speed

To Mantua with my letters to thy lord.^[14]

JULIET

Love give me strength, and strength shall help afford.

Farewell, dear Father.

Exit all

ACT 4, SCENE 2

Juliet returns to find her family preparing for the wedding. Repentant, she asks for forgiveness and agrees to marry Paris. Lord Capulet, in his excitement, decides to advance the ceremony from Thursday to Wednesday (tomorrow). Ignoring his wife’s protests, he instructs her to be with Juliet while he finishes preparations and sends word to Paris of the changed itinerary.

Somewhere within the Capulet estate:

Enter Capulet, Lady capulet, Nurse, and Servingmen

CAPULET

So many guests invite as here are writ.

Gives a list to a SERVANT, who then exits.

Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks.

SERVINGMAN

You shall have none ill°, sir, for I’ll test if they will lick their fingers.^[15]

CAPULET

How canst thou test them so?

SERVINGMAN

5Marry sir, ‘tis an ill cook that will not lick his own fingers:

Therefore he that will not lick his fingers goes not with me.

CAPULET

Go, be gone.

Exit Servingman

We shall be much unfurnished° for this time.

What, is my daughter gone to Friar Lawrence?

NURSE

10Aye, forsooth.

CAPULET

Well he may chance to do some good on her.

A peevish, self-willed harlotry° it is.

Enter Juliet

LADY CAPULET

See, here she commeth from confession.

CAPULET

How now, my headstrong?

15Where have you been gadding°?

JULIET

Where I have learnt me to repent the sin

Of disobedient opposition

To you and your behests, and am enjoined°

By holy Lawrence to fall prostrate here [Juliet kneels]

20To beg your pardon. Pardon, I beseech you!

Henceforward I am ever ruled by you.

CAPULET

Now before God, this holy reverend Friar,

All our whole city is much bound° to him!

Send for the County. Go tell him of this.

25I’ll have this knot knit up tomorrow morning.^[16]

JULIET

I met the youthful lord at Lawrence’s cell,

And gave him what becomed love I might,

Not stepping o’er the bounds of modesty.

CAPULET

Why, I am glad on’t. This is well. Stand up.

30This is as’t should be. Let me see the County.

Aye, marry, go I say, and fetch him hither.

JULIET rises

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?

LADY CAPULET

35No, not till Thursday. There’s time enough.

CAPULET

Go, Nurse, go with her.

We’ll to church tomorrow.

Exit Juliet and Nurse

LADY CAPULET

Methinks on Thursday would be time enough.

CAPULET

I say I will have this dispatched tomorrow.

LADY CAPULET

40I pray, my Lord, let it be Thursday.

CAPULET

I say tomorrow while she’s in the mood.

LADY CAPULET

We shall be short in our provision°.

‘Tis now near night.

CAPULET

Tush, I will stir about.

45And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, wife.

Go thou to Juliet, help to deck° her up.

I’ll not to bed tonight. Let me alone;

I’ll play the housewife ^[17] for this once.— [calls servants] What ho?

They are all forth°.— Well, I will walk myself

50To County Paris, to prepare up him

Against tomorrow. My heart is wondrous light

Since this same wayward girl is so reclaimed.

Exit all

ACT 4, SCENE 3

Juliet sends the nurse and Lady Capulet from her bedroom on the pretext of getting rest. She then experiences a series of doubts about the plan: what if the poison doesn’t work? What if the Friar actually intends to kill her to preserve the sanctity of her first marriage? What if she wakes up too early and suffocates? What if waking in the tomb will drive her insane? She rebuts most of these fears and drinks the poison, falling into a death-like trance.

Juliet’s chambers within the Capulet estate:

Enter JULIET and NURSE

JULIET

Aye, 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,

5Which, well thou know’st, is cross and full of sin.

Enter LADY CAPULET

LADY CAPULET

What, are you busy – do you need my help?

JULIET

No, madam, we have culled° such necessaries

As are behooveful° for our state tomorrow.

So please you, let me now be left alone;

10And let the Nurse this night sit up with you,

For I am sure you have your hands full all

In this so sudden business.

LADY CAPULET

Goodnight.

Get thee to bed and rest, for thou hast need.

Exit NURSE and LADY CAPULET

JULIET

15Farewell:

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.—

20Nurse!—^[18] What should she do here?

My dismal scene I needs must act alone.

Come, vial.

Takes out vial.

What if this mixture should not work at all?

Shall I be married then tomorrow morning?

25No, no, this shall forbid it.

Takes out knife.

 Lie thou there.

What if it be a poison, which the Friar

Subtly hath ministered to have me dead,

Lest in this marriage he should be dishonored,

Because he married me before to Romeo?

30I 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

Comes to redeem me? There’s a fearful point:

35Shall 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,

40Together with the terror of the place—

As in the vault, an ancient receptacle

Where for these many hundred years the bones

Of all my buried ancestors are packed:

Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,^[19]

45Lies festering in his shroud; where, as they say,

At some hours in the night spirits resort°.

Alack, alack, is it not like that I

In early waking, what with loathsome smells,

And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth,^[20]

50That 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?

55And, 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!

60Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here’s drink; I drink to thee.^[21]

She drinks and falls upon her bed within the curtains.

ACT 4, SCENE 4

The Capulets work through the night in preparation. Hearing Paris’ arrival, Lord Capulet tells the Nurse to wake Juliet.

 Somewhere within the Capulet estate:

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.^[22]

Enter CAPULET

CAPULET

Come, stir, stir, stir! The second cock hath crowed;^[23]

The curfew bell hath rung. ‘Tis three o’clock:

5Look to the baked meats, good Angelica,^[24]

Spare not for cost.

NURSE

Go, you cotquean,^[25] go,

Get you to bed. Faith, you’ll be sick tomorrow

For this night’s watching.

CAPULET

10No, not a whit. What! I have watched ere now

All night for lesser cause, and ne’er been sick.

LADY CAPULET

Aye, you have been a mousehunt° in your time,

But I will watch you from such watching now.

 Exit LADY CAPULET and NURSE

CAPULET

A jealous-hood, a jealous-hood! Now, fellow, what is there?

Enter three or four SERVINGMEN with spits, logs, and baskets

FELLOW

15Things for the cook, sir, but I know not what.

CAPULET

Make haste, make haste, sirrah! Fetch drier logs.

Call Peter; he will show thee where they are.

FELLOW 

I have a head sir, that will find out logs,

And never trouble Peter for the matter.

CAPULET

20Mass,^[26] and well said. A merry whoreson,^[27] ha!

Thou shalt be loggerhead.^[28]—Good Father, ‘tis day.

 Play music

The County will be here with music soon,

For so he said he would. I hear him near.

Nurse! Wife! What ho! What, Nurse, I say!

 Enter NURSE

25Go waken Juliet, go 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 all but NURSE