Enter Lady Capulet.

La. Cap. Ho, daughter, are you up?

Jul. Who is't that calls? is it my lady mother?
What unaccustom'd cause procures her hither?
La. Cap. Why how now, Juliet ?

Jul. Madam, I'm not well.

La. Cap. Evermore weeping for your coufin's death? What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears? Jul. Yet let me weep for fuch a feeling lofs. La. Cap. I come to bring thee joyful tidings, girl. Jul. And joy comes well in fuch a needful time. What are they, I befeech your ladyfhip?

La. Cap. Well, well, thou haft a careful father, child; One who to put thee from thy heaviness,

Hath forted out & fudden day of joy,

That thou expect'ft not, nor I look'd not for.
Jul. Madam, in happy time, what day is this?
La. Cap. Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn,
The gallant, young and noble gentleman,

The County Paris, at St. Peter's church,
Shall happily make thee a joyful bride.

Jul. I wonder at this hafte, that I must wed
Ere he that must be husband comes to woo.
I pray you tell my lord and father, madam,
I cannot marry yet.

La. Cap. Here comes your father, tell him so yourself, And fee how he will take it at your hands.

Enter Capulet and Nurse.

Cap. How now? a conduit, girl? what, ftill in tears; Evermore showering? Why how now, wife? Have you deliver'd to her our decree ?

La. Cap. Ay, Sir; but she will none, fhe gives you thanks: I would the fool were married to her

grave.

Cap. Soft, take me with you, take me with you, wife, How, will the none? doth the not give us thanks? Is fhe not proud; doth fhe not count her bleft, (Unworthy as she is,) that we have wrought So worthy gentleman to be her bridegroom? C

Jul.

Jul. Proud can I never be of what I hate,
But thankful even for hate, that is meant love.
Cap. Thank me no thankings,

But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next,
Το go with Paris to St Peter's church:

Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
La. Cap. Fy, fy, what are you mad?

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

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,
Wife, we scarce thought us bleft,

That God had fent us but this only child,
But now I fee this one is one too much,
And that we have a curfe in having her:
Out on her, hilding.

Nurfe. Heaven bless her:

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

Cap. And why, my lady wisdom? hold your tongue, Good prudence, fmatter with your goffips, go.

Nurfe. I fpeak no treason.

Cap. Peace, you mumbling fool;

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

For here we need it not.

La. Cap. You are too hot.

Cap. Good wife, it makes me mad; day, night, late, early, At home, abroad; alone, in company,

Waking or fleeping; ftill my care hath been

To have her match'd; and having now provided
A gentleman of noble parentage,

Of fair demeans; youthful and nobly allied,
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 anfwer, I'll not wed, I cannot love,
I am too young, I pray you pardon me.
But if you will not wed, look to't, think on't,
I do not use to jest— Thursday is near.

If

If you be mine, I'll give you to my friend:
If you be not, hang, beg, ftarve, die i'th' streets;
For, by my foul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee.

Jul. Is there no pity fitting in the clouds,
That fees into the bottom of my grief?
O fweet, my mother, caft 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 Tibalt lies.

[Ext.

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 heav'n! O nurse, how fhall this be prevented? Alack, alack, that heav'n fhould practise stratagems Upon fo foft a fubject as myself.

Nurfe. Rife, faith here it is:

Romeo is banish'd; 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 fince the case so stands, I think it beft

You married with the count.

Jul. Speakeft thou from thy heart?
Nurse. And from my foul too,

Or elfe befhrew them both.

Jul. Amen, amen.

Nurse. What?

Jul. Well, thou haft comforted me marvellous much; Go in, and tell my lady I am gone,

Having difpleas'd my father, to Lawrence' cell,

To make confeffion, and to be abfolv'd.

Nurje. Marry, I will, and this is wifely done. [Exit.
Jul. Ancient damnation! Oh moft wicked fiend!

Is it more fin to wish me thus forfworn,
Or to difpraise my lord with that fame tongue
Which the hath prais'd him with above compare,
So many thousand times? go, counsellor,

Thou and my bofom henceforth shall be twain ; /
I'll to the friar to know his remedy;

If all elfe fail, myself have power to die.

C2

[Exit.

ACT

A C T IV. SCENE I.

The MONASTERY.

Enter Friar Lawrence and Paris.

FRIAR.

N Thursday, Sir! the time is very short.
Par. My father Capulet will have it fo,

And I am nothing flow to flack his haste.

Fri. You fay, you do not know the lady's mind:
Uneven is this courfe, I like it not.

Par. Immoderately the weeps for Tibalt's death,
And therefore have I little talk'd of love,

For Venus fmiles not in a house of tears.

Now, Sir, her father counts it dangerous

That she should give her forrow fo much fway;
And in his wifdom haftes our marriage,
To stop the inundation of her tears;

Now do you know the reason of this hafte ?

Fri. I would I knew not why it should be flow'd.
Look, Sir, here comes the lady tow'rds my cell.

Enter Juliet.

Par. Welcome my love, my lady, and my wife.
Jul. That may be, Sir, when I may be a wife.
Par. That may be, muft be, love, on Thursday next,
Jul. What must be, fhall be.

Par. Come you to make confeffion to this father ?
Jul. To answer that were to confefs to you:

Are you at leifure, holy father, now,

Or fhall I come to you at evening mass?

Fri. My leifure ferves me, penfive daughter, now.

My lord, I muft intreat the time alone.

Par. Heav'n fhield, I should disturb devotion:

Juliet,

Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouze you:
Till then adieu! and keep this holy kiss.

[Exit Paris. Jul. Go, fhut the door; and when thou hait done fo, Come weep with me, past hope, paft cure, past help. Fri. O Juliet, I already know thy grief.

Jul. Tell me not, Friar, that thou know't my grief,
Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it,
If in thy wisdom thou canft give no help,
Do thou but call my refolution wife,
And with this fteel I'll help it prefently.

Heav'n join'd my heart and Romeo's; thou our hands,
And ere this hand, by thee to Romco feal'd,
Shall be the label to another deed,

Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
Give to another, this fhall flay them both:
Therefore out of thy long-experienc'd time,
Give me fome prefent counsel, or behold
'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody dagger
Shall play the umpire;-

Speak now, be brief; for I defire to die,
If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy.

Fri. Hold, daughter; I do efpy a kind of hope,
Which craves as defperate an execution,

As that is defperate which we would prevent.
If rather than to marry County Paris
Thou haft the ftrength or will to flay thyself,
Then it is likely thou wilt undertake

A thing like death to free thee from this marriage,
And if thou dar'ft, I'll give thee remedy.

Jul. O bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
From off the battlements of yonder tower:
Or chain me to fome fteepy mountain's top,
Where roaring bears and favage lions roam!
Or fhut me nightly in a charnel-house,
O'er-cover'd quite with dead-mens rattling bones,
With reeky thanks, and yellow chapless fculls,
Or bid me go into a new-made grave,

And hide me with a dead man in his fhroud,

Things that to hear them nam'd, have made me tremble; And I will do it without fear or doubt,

C 3

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