Toolbox



Textual Analysis

[ Go ]

Shakespeare on Stage
SIP Editors, King Henry VIII. To Aug. 4, 2013.
American Shakespeare Center, All's Well That Ends Well. To Nov. 29, 2013.
SIP Editors, Measure for Measure. To Aug. 4, 2013.
Original Shakespeare Company, A Midsommer Night's Dreame (Midsummer Midsommer). To Jun. 21, 2013.
Original Shakespeare Company, Comedie of Errors. To Jun. 22, 2013.
More Performances…
‌

Romeo and Juliet (Quarto 1, 1597)

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Roger Apfelbaum
Not Peer Reviewed
Enter Iuliet.
1645Iul: Gallop apace you fierie footed steedes
To Phoebus mansion, such a Waggoner
As Phaeton, would quickly bring you thether,
And send in cloudie night immediately.
Enter Nurse wringing her hands, with the ladder
1676.1
of cordes in her lap.
But how now Nurse: O Lord, why lookst thou sad?
1680What hast thou there, the cordes?
Nur: I, I, the cordes: alacke we are vndone,
We are vndone, Ladie we are vndone.
Iul: What diuell art thou that torments me thus?
Nurs: Alack the day, hees dead, hees dead, hees dead.
Iul: This torture should be roard in dismall hell.
1693.1Can heauens be so enuious?
1695Nur: Romeo can if heauens cannot.
I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes,
God saue the sample, on his manly breast:
A bloodie coarse, a piteous bloodie coarse,
All pale as ashes, I swounded at the sight.
1704.1Iul: Ah Romeo, Romeo, what disaster hap
Hath seuerd thee from thy true Iuliet?
Ah why shou'd Heauen so much conspire with Woe,
Or Fate enuie our happie Marriage,
.5So soone to sunder vs by timelesse Death?
Nur: O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best frend I had,
O honest Tybalt, curteous Gentleman.
Iul: What storme is this that blowes so contrarie,
1715Is Tybalt dead, and Romeo murdered:
My deare loude cousen, and my dearest Lord.
Then let the trumpet sound a generall doome,
These two being dead, then liuing is there none.
Nur: Tybalt is dead, and Romeo banished,
1720Romeo that murdered him is banished.
Iul: Ah heauens, did Romeos hand shed Tybalts blood?
Nur: It did, it did, alacke the day it did.
Iul: O serpents hate, hid with a flowring face :
1724.1O painted sepulcher, including filth.
1735Was neuer booke containing so foule matter,
So fairly bound. Ah, what meant Romeo?
Nur: There is no truth, no faith, no honestie in men:
All false, all faithles, periurde, all forsworne.
Shame come to Romeo.
Iul: A blister on that tung, he was not borne to shame:
1745Vpon his face Shame is ashamde to sit.
But wherefore villaine didst thou kill my Cousen?
1755That villaine Cousen would have kild my husband.
All this is comfort. But there yet remaines
VVorse than his death, which faine I would forget:
But ah, it presseth to my memorie,
Romeo is banished. Ah that word Banished
Is worse than death. Romeo is banished,
Is Father, Mother, Tybalt, Iuliet,
All killd, all slaine, all dead, all banished.
Where are my Father and my Mother Nurse?
Nur: VVeeping and wayling ouer Tybalts coarse.
VVill you goe to them?
Iul.I, I, when theirs are spent,
1785Mine shall he shed for Romeos banishment.
Nur.Ladie, your Romeo will be here to night,
1795Ile to him, he is hid at Laurence Cell.
Iul.Doo so, and beare this Ring to my true Knight,
And bid him come to take his last farewell.
Exeunt.