Imatges de pàgina
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How now? a conduit, girl? what, still in tears? 700
Evermore showering? In one little body

Thou counterfeit'st a bark, a sea, a wind:
For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is,
Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, thy sighs;
Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them,—
Without a sudden calm, will overset

Thy tempest-tossed body.-How now, wife?
Have you deliver'd to her our decree?

La. Cap. Ay, sir; but she will none, she gives you thanks;

I would, the fool were married to her grave!

710

Cap. Soft, take me with you, take me with you,

wife..

How! will she none? doth she not give us thanks? Is she not proud? doth she not count her blest, Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought

So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom? Jul. Not proud, you have; but thankful, that you have :

Proud can I never be of what I hate;

But thankful even for hate, that is meant love.
Cap. How now! how now! chop logick? What is

this? 720 Proud-and, I thank you-and, I thank you not—

And yet not proud-Mistress minion, you,
Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds,
But settle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next,
To go with Paris to saint Peter's church

Or

Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.

Out, you green sickness carrion! out, you baggage! You tallow-face!

La. Cap. Fie, fie! what are you mad!

Jul. Good father, I beseech you on my knees, Hear me with patience but to speak a word.

731 Cap. Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient

wretch!

I tell thee what,-get thee to church o' Thursday, Or never after look me in the face:

Speak not, reply not, do not answer me;

My fingers itch.-Wife, we scarce thought us blest,
That God hath sent us but this only child;
But now I see this one is one too much,
And that we have a curse in having her :
Out on her, hilding!

Nurse. God in heaven bless her!

You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so.

740

Cap. And why, my lady wisdom? hold your

tongue,

Good prudence; smatter with your gossips, go.

Nurse. I speak no treason.

Cap. O, God ye good den!

Nurse. May not one speak?

Cap. Peace, you mumbling fool!

Utter your gravity o'er a gossip's bowl,

For here we need it not.

La. Cap. You are too hot.

750

Cap. God's bread! it makes me mad: Day, night,

late, early,

At

At home, abroad, alone, in company,
Waking, or sleeping, still my care hath been
To have her match'd: and having now provided
A gentleman of princely parentage,

760

Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly train'd,
Stuff'd (as they say) with honourable parts,
Proportion'd as one's thought would wish a man,—-
And then to have a wretched puling fool,
A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender,
To answer-I'll not wed, -I cannot love,—
I am too young, -I pray you, pardon me ;—
But, an you will not wed, I'll pardon you:

Graze where you will, you shall not house with me;
Look to't, think on't, I do not use to jest.

Thursday is near; lay hand on heart, advise:
An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend;

An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die i' the streets,
For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee,
Nor what is mine shall never do thee good:

770

Trust to't, bethink you, I'll not be forsworn. [Exit.
Jul. Is there no pity sitting in the clouds,

That sees into the bottom of my grief?—
O, sweet my mother, cast me not away!
Delay this marriage for a month, a week;
Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed
In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.

La. Cap. Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word;

Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee. [Exit.

Jul. O God!-0 nurse! how shall this be pre

vented?

My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven;
How shall that faith return again to earth,
Unless that husband send it me from heaven

781

By leaving earth ?-comfort me, counsel me.-
Alack, alack, that heaven should practise stratagems
Upon so soft a subject as myself!—

What say'st thou hast thou not a word of joy?
Some comfort, nurse.

Nurse. 'Faith, here 'tis : Romeo

Is banished; and all the world to nothing,
That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you ;
Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth.
Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
I think it best you married with the county.
Oh! he's a lovely gentleman!

Romeo's a dish-clout to him; an eagle, madam,
Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye
As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,

I think you are happy in this second match,
For it excels your first; or if it did not,
Your first is dead; or, 'twere as good he were,
As living here and you no use of him.
Jul. Speakest thou from thy heart?
Nurse. And from my soul too;

Or else beshrew them both.

Jul. Amen!

Nurse. What?

790

800

Jul.

Jul. Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much.

Go in; and tell my lady I am gone,

Having displeas'd my father, to Lawrence' cell,
To make confession, and to be absolv'd.

810

Nurse. Marry, I will; and this is wisely done. [Exit. Jul. Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend! Is it more sinto wish me thus forsworn, Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue Which she hath prais'd him with above compare So many thousand times?-Go, counsellor ; Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.— I'll to the friar, to know his remedy;

If all else fail, myself have power to die.

820

[Exit.

ACT IV. SCENE 1.

Friar LAWRENCE'S Cell. Enter Friar LAWRENCE,

and PARIS.

Friar.

On Thursday, sir? the time is

very short.

Par. My father Capulet will have it so ;

And I am nothing slow, to slack his haste.

Fri. You say, you do not know the lady's mind ; Uneven is the course, I like it not.

Par. Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death, And therefore little have I talk'd of love;

Iij

For

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