Toolbox



Textual Analysis

[ Go ]

Shakespeare on Stage
American Shakespeare Center, Twelfth Night. To Jun. 16, 2013.
Folger Shakespeare Library, Twelfth Night. To Jun. 9, 2013.
American Shakespeare Center, Return to the Forbidden Planet. To Dec. 1, 2013.
American Shakespeare Center, Love's Labour's Lost. To Jun. 15, 2013.
American Shakespeare Center, The Duchess of Malfi. To Jun. 15, 2013.
More Performances…
‌

Romeo and Juliet (Folio 1, 1623)

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Roger Apfelbaum
Not Peer Reviewed
Enter Romeo alone.
Rom. Can I goe forward when my heart is here?
Turne backe dull earth, and find thy Center out.
750
Enter Benuolio, with Mercutio.
Ben. Romeo, my Cozen Romeo, Romeo.
Merc. He is wise,
And on my life hath stolne him home to bed.
Ben. He ran this way and leapt this Orchard wall.
755Call good Mercutio:
Nay, Ile coniure too.
Mer. Romeo, Humours, Madman, Passion, Louer,
Appeare thou in the likenesse of a sigh,
Speake but one rime, and I am satisfied:
760Cry me but ay me, Prouant, but Loue and day,
Speake to my goship Venus one faire word,
One Nickname for her purblind Sonne and her,
Young Abraham Cupid he that shot so true,
When King Cophetua lou'd the begger Maid,
765He heareth not, he stirreth not, he mouethnot,
The Ape is dead, I must coniure him,
I coniure thee by Rosalines bright eyes,
By her High forehead, and her Scarlet lip,
By her Fine foote, Straight leg, and Quiuering thigh,
770And the Demeanes, that there Adiacent lie,
That in thy likenesse thou appeare to vs.
Ben. And if he heare thee thou wilt anger him.
Mer. This cannot anger him, t'would anger him
To raise a spirit in his Mistresse circle,
775Of some strange nature, letting it stand
Till she had laid it, and coniured it downe,
That were some spight.
My inuocation is faire and honest, & in his Mistris name,
I coniure onely but to raise vp him.
780Ben. Come, he hath hid himselfe among these Trees
To be consorted with the Humerous night:
Blind is his Loue, and best befits the darke.
Mer. If Loue be blind, Loue cannot hit the marke,
Now will he sit vnder a Medler tree,
785And wish his Mistresse were that kind of Fruite,
As Maides call Medlers when they laugh alone,
O Romeo that she were, O that she were
An open, or thou a Poprin Peare,
Romeo goodnight, Ile to my Truckle bed,
790This Field-bed is to cold for me to sleepe,
Come shall we go?
Ben. Go then, for 'tis in vaine to seeke him here
That meanes not to be found.
Exeunt.