Should in the farthest east begin to draw
The shady curtains from Auroras bed,
Away 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 must this humour prove,
Unless 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 importund him by any means?
Montague
Both by myself and many other friends;
But he, his own affections counsellor,
Is to himself-I will not say how true-
But to himself so secret and so close,
So far from sounding and discovery,
As is the bud bit with an envious worm
Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,
Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.
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;
Ill know his grievance or be much denied.
Montague
I would thou wert so happy by thy stay
To hear true shrift. Come, madam, lets away,
[Exeunt Montague and Lady Montague.]
Benvolio
Good morrow, cousin.
Romeo
Is the day so young?
Benvolio
But new struck nine.
Romeo
Ay me, sad hours seem long.
Was that my father that went hence so fast?
Benvolio
It was. What sadness lengthens Romeos hours?
Romeo
Not having that which, having, makes them short.
Benvolio
In love?
Romeo
Out.
Benvolio
Of love?
Romeo
Out of her favour where I am in love.
Benvolio
Alas that love so gentle in his view,
Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof.
Romeo
Alas that love, whose view is muffled still,
Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!
Where shall we dine? O me! What fray was here?
Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
Heres much to do with hate, but more with love:
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O anything, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh?
Benvolio
No coz, I rather weep.
Romeo
Good heart, at what?
Benvolio
At thy good hearts oppression.
Romeo
Why such is loves transgression.
Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,
Which thou wilt propagate to have it prest
With more of thine. This love that thou hast shown
Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.
Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs;
Being purgd, a fire sparkling in lovers eyes;
Being vexd, a sea nourishd with lovers tears:
What is it else? A madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.
Farewell, my coz.
[Going.]
Benvolio
Soft! I will go along:
And if you leave me so, you do me wrong.
Romeo
Tut! I have lost myself; I am not here.
This is not Romeo, hes some other where.
Benvolio
Tell me in sadness who is that you love?
Romeo
What, shall I groan and tell thee?
Benvolio
Groan! Why, no; but sadly tell me who.
Romeo
Bid a sick man in sadness make his will,
A word ill urgd to one that is so ill.
In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.
Benvolio
I aimd so near when I supposd you lovd.
Romeo
A right good markman, and shes fair I love.
Benvolio
A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.
Romeo
Well, in that hit you miss: shell not be hit
With Cupids arrow, she hath Dians wit;
And in emphasis proof of chastity well armd,
From loves weak childish bow she lives uncharmd.
She will not stay the siege of loving terms
Nor bide thencounter of assailing eyes,
Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold:
O shes rich in beauty, only poor
That when she dies, with beauty dies her store.
Benvolio
Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?
Romeo
She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste;
For beauty starvd with her severity,
Cuts beauty off from all posterity.
She is too fair, too wise; wisely too fair,
To merit bliss by making me despair.
She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow
Do I live dead, that live to tell it now.
Benvolio
Be ruld by me, forget to think of her.
Romeo
O teach me how I should forget to think.
Benvolio
By 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,
Being black, puts us in mind they hide the fair;
He that is strucken blind cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost.
Show me a mistress that is passing fair,
What doth her beauty serve but as a note
Where I may read who passd that passing fair?
Farewell, thou canst not teach me to forget.
Benvolio
Ill pay that doctrine, or else die in debt.
[Exeunt.]
Scene II
A Street. Enter Capulet, Paris and Servant.
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 honourable reckoning are you both,
And pity tis you livd at odds so long.
But now my lord, what say you to my suit?
Capulet
But saying oer what I have said before.
My child is yet a stranger in the world,
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;
Let 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 marrd are those so early made.
The earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she,
She is 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 agree, within her scope of choice
Lies my consent and fair according voice.
This night I hold an old accustomd 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
Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light:
Such comfort as do lusty young men feel
When well apparelld April on the heel
Of limping winter treads, even such delight
Among fresh female buds shall you this night
Inherit at my house. Hear all, all see,
And like her most whose merit most shall be:
Which, on more view of many, mine, being one,
May stand in number, though in reckoning none.
Come, go with me. Go, sirrah, trudge about
Through fair Verona; find those persons out
Whose names are written there, [gives a paper] and to them say,
My house and welcome on their pleasure stay.
[Exeunt Capulet and Paris]
Servant
Find them out whose names are written here! It is written that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard and the tailor with his last, 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
Tut, man, one fire burns out anothers burning,
One pain is lessend by anothers anguish;
Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning;
One desperate grief cures with anothers languish:
Take thou some new infection to thy eye,
And the rank poison of the old will die.
Romeo
Your plantain leaf is excellent for that.
Benvolio
For what, I pray thee?
Romeo
For your broken shin.
Benvolio
Why, Romeo, art thou mad?
Romeo
Not mad, but bound more than a madman is:
Shut up in prison, kept without my food,
Whippd and tormented and-God-den, good fellow.
Servant
God gi go-den. I pray, sir, can you read?
Romeo
Ay, mine own fortune in my misery.
Servant
Perhaps you have learned it without book.
But I pray, can you read anything you see?
Romeo
Ay, If I know the letters and the language.
Servant
Ye say honestly, rest you merry!
Romeo
Stay, fellow; I can read.
[He reads the letter.]
Signior Martino and his wife and daughters;
County Anselmo and his beauteous sisters;
The lady widow of Utruvio;