Signior Placentio and his lovely nieces;
Mercutio and his brother Valentine;
Mine uncle Capulet, his wife, and daughters;
My fair niece Rosaline and Livia;
Signior Valentio and his cousin Tybalt;
Lucio and the lively Helena.
A fair assembly. [Gives back the paper] Whither should they come?
Servant
Up.
Romeo
Whither to supper?
Servant
To our house.
Romeo
Whose house?
Servant
My masters.
Romeo
Indeed I should have askd you that before.
Servant
Now Ill tell you without asking. My master is the great rich Capulet, and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray come and crush a cup of wine. Rest you merry.
[Exit.]
Benvolio
At this same ancient feast of Capulets
Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so lovst;
With all the admired beauties of Verona.
Go thither and with unattainted eye,
Compare her face with some that I shall show,
And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.
Romeo
When the devout religion of mine eye
Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fire;
And these who, often drownd, could never die,
Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars.
One fairer than my love? The all-seeing sun
Neer saw her match since first the world begun.
Benvolio
Tut, you saw her fair, none else being by,
Herself poisd with herself in either eye:
But in that crystal scales let there be weighd
Your ladys love against some other maid
That I will show you shining at this feast,
And she shall scant show well that now shows best.
Romeo
Ill go along, no such sight to be shown,
But to rejoice in splendour of my own.
[Exeunt.]
Scene III
Room in Capulets House. Enter Lady Capulet
and Nurse.
Lady Capulet
Nurse, wheres my daughter? Call her forth to me.
Nurse
Now, by my maidenhead, at twelve year old,
I bade her come. What, lamb! What ladybird!
God forbid! Wheres this girl? What, Juliet!
Enter Juliet.
Juliet
How now, who calls?
Nurse
Your mother.
Juliet
Madam, I am here. What is your will?
Lady Capulet
This is the matter. Nurse, give leave awhile,
We must talk in secret. Nurse, come back again,
I have rememberd me, thous hear our counsel.
Thou knowest my daughters of a pretty age.
Nurse
Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.
Lady Capulet
Shes not fourteen.
Nurse
Ill lay fourteen of my teeth,
And yet, to my teen be it spoken, I have but four,
She is not fourteen. How long is it now
To Lammas-tide?
Lady Capulet
A fortnight and odd days.
Nurse
Even or odd, of all days in the year,
Come Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen.
Susan and she, God rest all Christian souls!-
Were of an age. 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.
Tis since the earthquake now eleven years;
And she was weand, I never shall forget it-,
Of all the days of the year, upon that day:
For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
Sitting in the sun under the dovehouse wall;
My lord and you were then at Mantua:
Nay, I do bear a brain. But as I said,
When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,
To see it tetchy, and fall out with the dug!
Shake, quoth the dovehouse: twas no need, I trow,
To bid me trudge.
And since that time it is eleven years;
For then she could stand alone; nay, by throod
She could have run and waddled all about;
For even the day before she broke her brow,
And then my husband, God be with his soul!
A 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;
Wilt thou not, Jule? and, by my holidame,
The pretty wretch left crying, and said Ay.
To see now how a jest shall come about.
I warrant, and I should live a thousand years,
I never should forget it. Wilt thou not, Jule? quoth he;
And, pretty fool, it stinted, and said Ay.
Lady Capulet
Enough of this; I pray thee hold thy peace.
Nurse
Yes, madam, yet I cannot choose but laugh,
To think it should leave crying, and say Ay;
And yet I warrant it had upon it brow
A bump as big as a young cockerels stone;
A perilous knock, and it cried bitterly.
Yea, quoth my husband, fallst upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age;
Wilt thou not, Jule? it stinted, and said Ay.
Juliet
And stint thou too, I pray thee, Nurse, say I.
Nurse
Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace
Thou wast the prettiest babe that eer I nursd:
And I might live to see thee married once, I have my wish.
Lady Capulet
Marry, 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 honour that I dream not of.
Nurse
An honour! Were not I thine only Nurse,
I would say thou hadst suckd wisdom from thy 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
That you are now a maid. Thus, then, in brief;
The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.
Nurse
A man, young lady! Lady, such a man
As all the world-why hes a man of wax.
Lady Capulet
Veronas summer hath not such a flower.
Nurse
Nay, hes 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 oer the volume of young Paris face,
And find delight writ there with beautys pen.
Examine every married lineament,
And see how one another lends content;
And what obscurd in this fair volume lies,
Find written in the margent of his eyes.
This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
To beautify him, only lacks a cover:
The fish lives in the sea; and tis much pride
For fair without the fair within to hide.
That book in manys eyes doth share the glory,
That in gold clasps locks in the golden story;
So 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
Ill look to like, if looking liking move:
But no more deep will I endart mine eye
Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.
Enter a Servant.
Servant
Madam, the guests are come, supper served up, you called, my young lady asked for, the Nurse cursed in the pantry, and everything in extremity. I must hence to wait, I beseech you follow straight.
Lady Capulet
We follow thee.
[Exit Servant]
Juliet, the County stays.
Nurse
Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.
[Exeunt.]
Scene IV
A Street. Enter Romeo, Mercutio, Benvolio, with five or six Maskers; Torch-bearers and others.
Romeo
What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse?
Or shall we on without apology?
Benvolio
The date is out of such prolixity:
Well have no Cupid hoodwinkd with a scarf,
Bearing a Tartars painted bow of lath,
Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper;
Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke
After the prompter, for our entrance:
But let them measure us by what they will,
Well measure them a measure, and be gone.
Romeo
Give me a torch, I am not for this ambling;
Being 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
So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.
Mercutio
You are a lover, borrow Cupids wings,
And soar with them above a common bound.
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.
Under loves heavy burden do I sink.
Mercutio
And, to sink in it, should 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
If 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: [Putting on a mask.]