PROLOGUE

CHORUS

Two households, both alike in dignity,

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

From ancient grudge, break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

5From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,

Whose misadventured piteous overthrows°

Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.

This fearful showing of their death-marked love,

10And the exhibition of their parents’ rage—

Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove—

Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage

 

That which–if you with patient ears attend—

Here goes unsaid, our toil shall strive to mend.

 

ACT 1, SCENE 1

Servants of the Capulet family start a fight with Montague family servants. Benvolio, a Montague, draws his sword and attempts to break up the fight. Tybalt, a Capulet, sees the drawn sword of Benvolio. Tybalt draws his sword and, after Benvolio tries to avoid conflict, Tybalt attacks. The fight escalates. Montague and Capulet enter the scene. The Prince enters and commands the fight to end. Frustrated with the family feud, the Prince declares a death sentence on anybody who starts more trouble.

In the aftermath, Lady Montague asks Benvolio if he’s seen Romeo, her son. Benvolio tells her that he saw Romeo earlier, but Romeo seemed troubled. Later, Benvolio approaches to ask Romeo about the mood he’s in. Romeo replies that he is in love with Rosaline, but saddened that she doesn’t seem to love him back.

On a street somewhere in Verona:

Enter two servingmen of the Capulets

SAMPSON

Gregory, on my word, we’ll not carry coals.^[1]

GREGORY

No, for then we should be colliers°.

SAMPSON

I mean that if we be in choler° we’ll draw.

GREGORY

Aye, while you live, draw your neck out of collar.^[2]

SAMPSON

5I strike quickly when moved.

GREGORY

But thou art not quickly moved to strike.

SAMPSON

A dog of the house of Montague would move me.

GREGORY

To move is to stir; and to be valiant is to stand:

Therefore if thou art moved, thou runn’st away.

SAMPSON

10A dog of that house shall move me to stand;

I will take the wall^[3] of any man or maid of Montague’s.

GREGORY

That shows thee a weak slave,^[4] for the weakest go to the wall.

SAMPSON

‘Tis true, and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever

thrust to the wall.^[5] Therefore, I will push Montague’s men from

15the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall.

GREGORY

The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.

SAMPSON

‘Tis the same. I will show myself a tyrant. When I have fought

with the men, I will be civil with the maids, and cut off their

heads.

GREGORY

20The heads of the maids?

SAMPSON

Aye, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads°; take it in

what sense thou wilt.

GREGORY

Those who feel it must take it in that sense.^[6]

SAMPSON

They shall feel me while I’m able to stand, and ‘tis known I’m a

25pretty piece of flesh.

GREGORY

‘Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou hadst been poor-

john.^[7] Draw thy tool! Here comes of the house of Montague.

Enter ABRAHAM and BALTHASAR, servingmen of the Montagues

SAMPSON

My naked weapon is out. Quarrel, I will back thee.

GREGORY

How? Turn thy back and run?

SAMPSON

30Fear this not.

GREGORY

No, marry°, I fear thee.

SAMPSON

Let us have the law on our side; let them begin.

GREGORY

I will frown as I pass by and let them take it as they will.

SAMPSON

Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them, which is

35disgrace to them if they bear it.

ABRAHAM

Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

SAMPSON

I do bite my thumb, sir.

ABRAHAM

Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

SAMPSON

[To GREGORY] Is the law on our side, if I say aye?

GREGORY

40No.

SAMPSON

No sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.

GREGORY

Do you quarrel, sir?

ABRAHAM

Quarrel, sir? No sir.

SAMPSON

If you do, sir, I am yours to fight. I serve as good a man as you.

ABRAHAM

45No better than mine.

SAMPSON

Well, sir.

Enter BENVOLIO

GREGORY

Say ours is better; here comes one of our master’s kinsmen.

SAMPSON

Yes: better, sir.

ABRAHAM

You lie.

SAMPSON

50Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy swashing blow.

They fight

BENVOLIO

Part, fools! Put up your swords; you know not what you do.

Enter TYBALT

TYBALT

What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds°?

Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death.

BENVOLIO

I do but keep the peace. Put up thy sword

55Or manage it to part these men with me.

TYBALT

What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word,

As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.

Have at thee, coward!

They fight

Enter three or four citizens with clubs and partisans^[8]

CITIZENS OF THE WATCH

Clubs, bills,^[9] and partisans, strike!

60Beat them down!

Down with the Capulets!

Down with the Montagues!

Enter CAPULET, in his gown, and LADY CAPULET

CAPULET

What noise is this? Give me my longsword, ho°!

LADY CAPULET

A crutch you need! Why call you for a sword?

CAPULET

65My sword I say! Old Montague is come

And flourishes his blade to spite me.

Enter MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE

MONTAGUE

Thou villain Capulet! Hold me not! Let me go.

LADY MONTAGUE

Thou shalt not stir one foot to meet a foe.

Enter PRINCE ESKALES with his entourage

PRINCE

Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,

70Profaners with your neighbor-stainèd steel!

Will they not hear? What, ho! You men, you beasts,

That quench the fire of your pernicious rage

With purple fountains issuing from your veins.

On pain of torture, from those bloody hands

75Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground,

And hear the sentence of your movèd prince.

Three civil brawls bred by an airy word

From thee, old Capulet, and Montague,

Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets,

80And made Verona’s ancient citizens

Cast off their gravely-styled ornaments^[10]

To wield old partisans, in hands as old,

Cankered° with peace, to part your cankered hate.

If ever you disturb our streets again

85Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.

For now, all you rest depart away.

You, Capulet, shall go along with me;

And Montague, come you this afternoon

To know our further judgment in this case

90To old Free-town, our common judgment place.

Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.

Exit all but MONTAGUE, LADY MONTAGUE, and BENVOLIO

MONTAGUE

Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?^[11]

Speak, nephew. Were you here when it began?

BENVOLIO

Here were the servants of your adversary

95And yours, close fighting ere° I did approach.

I drew to part them; in the instant came

The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepared,

Which, as he breathed defiance to my ears,

He swung about its head and cut the winds,

100Which, nothing hurt at all, hissed it in scorn.

While we were interchanging thrusts and blows

Came more and more who fought on part and part,

Til the prince came, who parted either part.

LADY MONTAGUE

O, where is Romeo? Saw you him today?

105Right glad I am he was not at this fray.

BENVOLIO

Madam, an hour before the worshipped sun

Peered forth the golden window of the east,

A troubled mind drove me to walk abroad

Where, underneath the grove of sycamore

110Which westward rooteth on this city-side,

So early walking did I see your son.

Towards him I made, but he was ‘ware of me,

And stole into the covert of the wood.

I, presuming his affections as my own,

115Which then most sought where most might not be found,

Feeling one too many with my weary self,

Pursued my humor,^[12] not pursuing his,

And gladly shunned who gladly flew from me.

MONTAGUE

Many a morning hath he there been seen,

120With tears augmenting the fresh morning dew,

Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs.

And all so soon as the all-cheering sun

Doth in the farthest east begin to draw

The shady curtains from Aurora’s^[13] bed,

125Away from light steals home my heavy son,

And private in his chamber pens himself,

Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out,

And makes himself an artificial night.

Black and portentous° will his humor prove

130Unless good counsel may the cause remove.

BENVOLIO

My noble uncle, do you know the cause?

MONTAGUE

I neither know it nor can learn of him. 

BENVOLIO

Have you importuned^[14] him by any means? 

MONTAGUE

Both by myself and many other friends.

135But he, his own affections counselor

Is to himself—I will not say how well—

Keeping himself so secret and so close,

So far from sounding and discovery,

Like the flowerbud bit by an envious worm

140Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,

Or dedicate his beauty to the same.

Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow,

We would as willingly give cure as know. 

Enter ROMEO

BENVOLIO

See where he comes. So please you, step aside.

145I’ll know his grievance or be much denied.

MONTAGUE

I wish thee fortune in thy stay

To hear the truth. Come, Madam, let’s away.

Exit MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE

BENVOLIO

Good morrow, cousin.

ROMEO

Is the day so young?

BENVOLIO

150It’s newly struck nine.

ROMEO

Aye me! Sad hours seem long.

Was that my father that went hence so fast?

BENVOLIO

It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo’s hours?

ROMEO

Not having that, which having, makes them short.

BENVOLIO

155In love.

ROMEO

Out.

BENVOLIO

Of love.

ROMEO

Out of her favor where I am in love.

BENVOLIO

Alas that love, so gentle in his view,^[15]

160Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof.

ROMEO

Alas, that love, whose view is blinded still,

Should without eyes see the path to our will.

Where shall we dine? Gods me, what fray was here?

Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.

165That’s much to do with hate, but more with love.

Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate,

O anything that nothing first creates!

O heavy lightness, serious vanity!

Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,

170Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,

Still-waking sleep. All is not what it is!

This love feel I, for that who feels no love in this.

Dost thou not laugh?

BENVOLIO

No, coz, I rather weep.

ROMEO

175Good heart, at what?

BENVOLIO

At thy good heart’s oppression.

ROMEO

Why, such is love’s transgression.

Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast

Which thou wilt propagate to have them pressed

180With more of yours. This love that thou hast shown

Dost add more grief to too much of mine own.

Love is a smoke raised from the fumes of sighs;

When cleared, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes;

When vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears.

185What is it else? A madness most discreet,^[16]

A choking gall°, and a preserving sweet.

Farewell, my coz.

BENVOLIO

Wait, I will go along

And if you leave me so, you do me wrong.

ROMEO

190Tut°, I have lost myself. I am not here.

This is not Romeo; he’s some other where.

BENVOLIO

Tell me in sadness: whom is it that you love?

ROMEO

What, shall I groan and tell thee?

BENVOLIO

Groan? Why no, but sadly tell me who.

ROMEO

195A sick man in sadness makes his will,

Ill are urging words to one already ill.

In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.

BENVOLIO

I aimed so near, when I supposed you loved.

ROMEO

A right good marksman! And she’s fair I love.

BENVOLIO

200A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.

ROMEO

Well, in that hit you miss. She’ll not be hit

With Cupid’s arrow; she hath Diana’s^[17] wit

And, proving chastity strong and well-armed,

From love’s weak childish bow she lives uncharmed.

205She will not stay the siege of loving words,

Nor bear th’ encounter of assailing eyes,

Nor ope° her lap to saint-seducing gold,

O, she is rich in beauty; only poor,

For when she dies, with beauty dies her store.

BENVOLIO

210Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?

ROMEO

She hath, and in that sparing, makes huge waste.

For beauty, starved by chaste severity,

Cuts beauty off from all posterity°.

She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair,

215To merit bliss° by causing me despair.

She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow,

Do I live dead that live to tell it now.

BENVOLIO

Be ruled by me: forget to think of her.

ROMEO

O, teach me how I should forget to think!

BENVOLIO

220By giving liberty unto thine eyes:

Examine other beauties.

ROMEO

‘Tis the way

To call hers exquisite, in question more.

These happy masks that kiss fair ladies’ brows,

225Being black, puts to mind that they hide the fair.

He that is struck blind cannot forget

The previous treasure of his eyesight lost.

Show me a mistress that is passing fair;

What doth her beauty serve but as a note

230Where I may read who passed that passing fair.

Farewell. Thou canst not teach me how to forget.

BENVOLIO

I’ll pay that doctrine or else die in debt.

 Exit all

ACT 1, SCENE 2

Paris, a member of the Prince’s family, speaks to Capulet about marrying his daughter Juliet. They debate about whether or not Juliet is old enough, at age thirteen, to be married. Elsewhere, Romeo and Benvolio are talking about Romeo’s love of Rosaline. One of Capulet’s servants invites them to a party Capulet is throwing—not knowing they are Montagues. Benvolio encourages Romeo to go, thinking that it will be a good chance to take his mind off of Rosaline. Romeo agrees to go because Rosaline will be at the party.

Lord Capulet’s private office within the Capulet estate; then on a street somewhere in Verona:

Enter CAPULET, COUNTY PARIS, and PETER, the servingman

CAPULET

But Montague is bound as well as I,

In penalty alike, and ‘tis not hard, I think,

For men so old as we to keep the peace.

PARIS

Of honorable reckoning are you both,

5And pity ‘tis you’ve lived at odds so long.

But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?

CAPULET

But saying more that I have said before,

My child is yet a stranger in the world.

She hath not seen the change of fourteen years.

10Let two more summers wither in their pride

Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.

PARIS

Younger than she are happy mothers made.

CAPULET

And too soon marred are those so early made.

Earth hath swallowéd all my hopes but she.

15She’s the hopeful Lady of my earth.

But woo her, gentle Paris; get her heart.

My will to her consent is but a part.

And she agreed within her scope of choice

Lies my consent, and fair according voice.

20This night I hold an old accustomed feast,

Whereto I have invited many a guest.

Such as I love, and you among the store,

One more, most welcome, makes my number more.

At my poor° house, look to behold this night

25Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light.

Such delight as do lusty young men feel

With well-appareled April on the heel

Of limping winter steps. The same delight

Among fresh fennel buds^[18] shall you this night

30Inherit at my house. Hear all, all see.

You’ll like her most, whose merit most shall be

Which one more view of many, mine being one,

May stand in number, though in reckoning none.

Come, go with me.

He hands PETER a paper

35[To PETER] Go, sirrah,^[19] trudge about

Through fair Verona, find those persons out

Whose names are written there, and to them say

My house and welcome on their pleasure stay.

Exit CAPULET and PARIS

PETER

Find them out whose names are written here? It is written that

40the shoe-maker should meddle with his yard,^[20] and the tailor with

his last,^[21] the fisher with his pencil, and the painter with his nets.

But I am sent to find those persons whose names are here writ,

and can never find what names the writing person hath here writ.

I must to the learned in good time.

Enter BENVOLIO and ROMEO

BENVOLIO

45Tut, man, one fire burns out another’s burning.

One pain is lessened by another’s anguish.

Turn dizzy, and be helped by backward turning.

One desperate grief cures with another’s languish.

Take thou some new infection to thine eye,

50And the rank poison of the old will die.

ROMEO

Your plantain leaf^[22] is excellent for that.

BENVOLIO

For what, I pray thee?

ROMEO

For your broken shin.

ROMEO kicks BENVOLIO

BENVOLIO

Why, Romeo, art thou mad?

ROMEO

55Not mad, but bound more than a madman^[23] is.

Shut up in prison, kept without my food,

Whipt and tormented, and–[To PETER] Good e’en, good fellow.

PETER

God ‘i’ good e’en.^[24] I pray, sir, can you read?

ROMEO

Aye, mine own fortune in my misery.

PETER

60Perhaps you have learned it without book.

But I pray, can you read anything you see?

ROMEO

If I know the letters and the language.

PETER

A honest answer. Rest you merry.

ROMEO

Stay, fellow, I can read.

65“Signeur Martino, and his wife and daughters; Count Anselme and

his beauteous sisters; the lady widow of Vitruvio; Seigneur

Placentio, and his lovely nieces; Mercutio and his brother

Valentine; mine uncle Capulet; his wife and daughters; my fair

niece Rosaline and Livia; Seigneur Valentio, and his cousin

70Tybalt; Lucio and the lively Hellena.”

A fair assembly. Whither° should they come?

PETER

Up.

ROMEO

Whither to supper?

PETER

To our house.

ROMEO

75Whose house?

PETER

My master’s.

ROMEO

Indeed, I should have asked thee that before.

PETER

Now I’ll tell you without asking. My master is the great rich

Capulet, and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray

80come and crush a cup of wine. Rest you merry!

BENVOLIO

At this same ancient feast of Capulets

Sups the fair Rosaline, whom thou so loves,

With all the admired beauties of Verona.

Go thither°, and with unattainted° eye

85Compare her face with some that I shall show

And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.

ROMEO

If the devout religion of mine eye

Allows such falsehood, then turn tears to fires

And these who, often drowned, could never die,

90Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars!

One fairer than my love? The all-seeing Sun

Ne’er saw her match since first the world begun.

BENVOLIO

Tut! You found her fair none else being by,

Herself poised, with herself in either eye.

95But in those crystal scales there let be weighed

Your lady’s love against some other maid

That I will show you, shining at this feast,

And she shall scant° show well that now seems best.

ROMEO

I’ll go along, no such sight to be shown,

100But to rejoice in splendor of mine own.

Exit all

 

ACT 1, SCENE 3

After a humorous exchange with the Nurse, Lady Capulet asks for Juliet’s thoughts on marriage. Juliet hasn’t thought about it much. Lady Capulet hints that Juliet should consider marrying Paris, who will be coming to the party tonight. Juliet agrees to observe him and consider the possibility.

Somewhere within the Capulet estate:

Enter LADY CAPULET and NURSE

LADY CAPULET

Nurse, where’s my daughter? Call her forth to me.

NURSE

Now by my maidenhead, at twelve year old I bid her come.

[Calls to JULIET] What, lamb! What, lady-bird!

God forbid, where’s the girl? [Calls to JULIET] What, Juliet?

Enter JULIET

JULIET

5How now, who calls?

NURSE

Your mother.

JULIET

Madam, I am here. What is your will?

LADY CAPULET

This is the matter.—Nurse, give leave a while.

We must talk in secret.—Nurse, come back again,

10I have remembered thou may hear our counsel.

Thou knowest my daughter’s of a pretty age.

NURSE

 Faith, I call tell her age unto an hour.

LADY CAPULET

She’s not fourteen.

NURSE

I’ll bet fourteen of my teeth—and yet to my teen° be it spoken, I

15have just four—She’s not fourteen. How long is it now to

Lammastide?^[25]

LADY CAPULET

A fortnight° and a few odd days.

NURSE

Even or odd, of all the days in the year,

Come Lammas-Eve at night shall she be fourteen.

20Susan^[26] and she—God rest all Christian souls!—

Were born that day. Well Susan is with God.

She was too good for me. But as I said,

On Lammas-Eve at night shall she be fourteen,

That shall she. Marry, I remember it well.

25‘Tis since the earthquake now eleven years,

And she was weaned (I never shall forget it),

Of all the days of the year, upon that day.

For I had then laid worm-wood^[27] to my dug°

Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall.

30My Lord and you were then at Mantua.

Nay, I do bear a brain. But as I said,

When it^[28] did taste the worm-wood on the nipple

Of my dug, and felt it bitter, pretty fool,

To see it tetchy,^[29] and fall out with the dug.

35“Shake,” quoth the dove-house. ‘Twas no need, I trow

To bid me trudge:^[30]

And since that time it is eleven years,

For then she could stand alone. Nay, by the rood°,

She could have run and waddled all about

40Or even the day before, she broke her brow,

And then my husband—God be with his soul,

He was a merry man—took up the child,

“Yea,” quoth he, “dost thou fall upon thy face?

Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit,

45Wilt thou not, Jule?” And, by my holidam,^[31]

The pretty wretch quit crying and said, “Aye.”

To see now how a jest shall come about!

I warrant that should I live a thousand years,

I never should forget it. “Wilt thou not, Jule?” quoth he.

50And the pretty fool stopped crying and said, “Aye.”

LADY CAPULET

Enough of this. I pray thee, hold thy peace.

NURSE

Yes, Madam. Yet, I cannot choose but laugh,

To think she should stop crying and say, “Aye.”

And yet I warrant she had upon her brow

55A bump as big as a young cockerel’s stone.^[32]

A perilous knock, and she cried bitterly.

“Yea,” quoth my husband, “fall’st upon thy face,

Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age.

Wilt thou not, Jule?” She stopped and said, “Aye.”

JULIET

60And stop thou too. I pray thee, Nurse, say “Aye.”

NURSE

Peace, I am done. God mark thee to his grace.

Thou wast the prettiest babe that e’re I nursed,

If I might live to see thee married once,

I’ll have my wish.

LADY CAPULET

65Marry, that “marry” is the very theme

I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet,

How stands your disposition to be married?

JULIET

It is an honor that I dream not of.

NURSE

An honor! Were not I thine only nurse,

70I would say thou had’st sucked wisdom from my teat.

LADY CAPULET

Well, think of marriage now. Younger than you,

Here in Verona, ladies of esteem

Are made already mothers. By my count

I was your mother much upon these years

75That you are now a maid. Thus in brief:

The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.

NURSE

A man, young Lady! Lady, such a man

As all the world. Why, he’s a man of wax.^[33]

LADY CAPULET

Verona’s summer hath not such a flower.

NURSE

80Nay, he’s a flower, in faith°, a very flower.

LADY CAPULET

What say you? Can you love the gentleman?

This night you shall behold him at our feast.

Read o’er the volume of young Paris’ face,

And find delight writ there with beauty’s pen.

85Examine every several lineament

And see how to each other lends content,

And what obscured in this fair volume lies

Find written in the margent of his eyes.

This precious book of love, this unbound lover,

90To beautify him, only lacks a cover.

The fish lives in the sea, and ‘tis much pride

For fair without,^[34] the fair within to hide.

That book in many eyes doth share the glory

That in gold clasps locks in the golden story.

95So shall you share all that he doth possess,

By having him, making yourself no less.

NURSE

No less? Nay, bigger. Women grow by men.

LADY CAPULET

Speak briefly. Can you like of Paris’ love?

JULIET

I’ll look to like, if looking liking move.

100But no more deep will I endart^[35] mine eye,

Then your consent gives me strength to make fly.

Enter SERVINGMAN

SERVINGMAN

Madam, the guests are come, supper served up, you called for, my

young lady asked for, the nurse cursed in the pantry, and

everything is in chaos. I must wait upon them. I beseech you,

105follow quick.

LADY CAPULET

We follow thee. Juliet, the County° awaits.

NURSE

Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.

Exit all

ACT 1, SCENE 4

Romeo, along with Benvolio and their friend Mercutio, leave for the party. As they go Romeo claims, among other concerns, that he will not dance. Mercutio twists Romeo’s melancholy comments into sexual jokes. Romeo, not interested in Mercutio’s humor, says that a dream convinced him that attending the party is a bad idea. Mercutio launches into a speech about Queen Mab, the fairy queen, who visits people in their dreams. Though the speech begins in a lighthearted manner, it takes a dark turn. Romeo snaps Mercutio out of his speech. Benvolio convinces them to get moving and get to the party.

On a street somewhere in Verona, near the Capulet estate:

Enter ROMEO, MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, with five or six other maskers, torch-bearers

ROMEO

What speech shall be spoken to excuse us?

Or shall we move on without apology?

BENVOLIO

The date is out of such prolixity.^[36]

We’ll have no Cupid, tricked and blindfolded,

5Bearing a Tartar’s painted bow of lath,^[37]

Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper°.

But let them measure us by what they will;

We’ll measure them a measure, and be gone.

ROMEO

Give me a torch, I am not for this ambling°.

10Being but heavy, I will bear the light.

MERCUTIO

Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.

ROMEO

Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes

With nimble soles; I have a soul of lead

That so stakes me to the ground I cannot move.

MERCUTIO

15You are a lover: borrow Cupid’s wings

And soar above a common bound.^[38]

ROMEO

I am too sore enpierced with his shaft

To soar with his light feathers, and so bound

I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe.^[39]

20Under love’s heavy burden do I sink.

MERCUTIO

And, to sink in it, so you burden love:

Too great oppression for a tender thing.

ROMEO

Is love a tender thing? It is too rough,

Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn.

MERCUTIO

25If love be rough with you, be rough with love,

Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.

Give me a case to put my visage° in,

A visor° for a visor. What care I

If a curious eye doth note deformities?^[40]

30Here are the beetle-brows^[41] that shall blush for me.

BENVOLIO

Come, knock and enter; and no sooner in,

But every man betake him to his legs.^[42]

ROMEO

A torch for me. Let wantons light of heart^[43]

Tickle the senseless rushes° with their heels,

35For I am proverbed with a grandsier phrase.^[44]

I’ll be a candle-holder, and look on,

The game was never so fair, and I am done.^[45]

MERCUTIO

Tut, dun’s the mouse, the constable’s own word,^[46]

If thou art done, we’ll draw thee from the mire°

40Or—save your reverence^[47]—love, wherein thou stickest

Up to the ears. Come, we burn daylight, ho!

ROMEO

Nay, that’s not so.

MERCUTIO

I mean, sir, in delay

We waste our lights in vain, like lights by day;

45Take our good meaning°, for our judgment’s fit

Five times in that, ere once in our fine wits.

ROMEO

And we mean well in going to this masque°,

But ‘tis no wit to go.

MERCUTIO

Why, may one ask?

ROMEO

50I dreamt a dream tonight.

MERCUTIO

And so did I.

ROMEO

Well, what was yours?

MERCUTIO

That dreamers often lie.

ROMEO

In bed asleep, while they do dream things true.

MERCUTIO

55O, then I see Queen Mab has been with you.

She is the Fairies’ midwife, and she comes

In shape no bigger than an agate-stone,

On the forefinger of an alderman°,

Drawn with a team of little atomies°

60Over men’s noses as they lie asleep.

Her wagon spokes made of long spinners’ legs°,

The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers,

Her traces° of the smallest spider web,

Her collars° of the moonshine’s watery beams,

65Her whip of cricket’s bone, the lash of philome°,

Her waggoner, a small gray-coated gnat

Not half so big as a round little worm

Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid.^[48]

Her chariot is an empty hazelnut,

70Made by the joiner° squirrel or old grub,

Time out o’ mind^[49] the fairies’ coach-makers.

In this state she gallops night by night

Through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love;

On courtiers’ knees, that dream on curtsies straight,^[50]

75O’er ladies’ lips, who strait on kisses dream—which

Oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues

Because their breaths with sweetmeats° tainted are.

Sometime she gallops o’er a lawyer’s nose,

Then dreams he of smelling out a suit.

80And sometime comes she with a tithe-pigs tail,^[51]

Tickling a person’s nose that lies asleep,

Then he dreams of another benefice.^[52]

Sometimes she drives over a soldier’s neck,

And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,

85Of breaches, ambuscados°, Spanish blades,

Of healths five-fathom deep,^[53] and then anon

Drums in his ears, at which he starts and wakes,

And being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two

And sleeps again. This is that very Mab

90That plaits the manes of horses in the night

And bakes the elklocks in foul sluttish hairs

Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes.^[54]

This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,

That presses them and learns them first to bear,

95Making them women of good carriage.

This is she—^[55]

ROMEO

Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!

Thou talkst of nothing.

MERCUTIO

True, I talk of dreams

100Which are the children of an idle brain,

Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,

Which is as thin of substance as the air,

And more inconstant than the wind, who woos

Even now the frozen bosom° of the North;

105And, being angered, puffs away from thence,

Turning his tide to the dew-dropping South.

BENVOLIO

This wind you talk of blows us from ourselves.

Supper is done, and we shall come too late.

ROMEO

I fear too early, for my mind misgives

110Some consequence yet hanging in the stars

Shall bitterly begin his fearful date

With this night’s revels, and expire the term

Of the despised life closed in my breast

By some vile forfeit of untimely death.

115But he that hath the steerage of my course,

Direct my suit. On, lusty gentlemen!

BENVOLIO

Strike, drum!

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