Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Roger Apfelbaum
Not Peer Reviewed

Romeo and Juliet (Quarto 1, 1597)

of Romeo and Iuliet.

Mer: If loue be blind, loue will not hit the marke,
Now will he sit vnder a Medler tree,
785And wish his Mistris were that kinde of fruite,
As maides call Medlers when they laugh alone.
Ah Romeo that she were, ah that she were
An open Et cetera, thou a poprin Peare.
Romeo God night, il'e to my trundle bed:
790This field bed is too cold for mee.
Come lets away, for tis but vaine,
To seeke him here that meanes not to be found.
Ro: He iests at scars that neuer felt a wound:
795But soft, what light forth yonder window breakes?
It is the East, and Iuliet is the Sunne,
Arise faire S nne, and kill the enuious Moone
That is alreadie sicke, and pale with griefe:
That thou her maid, art far more faire than she.
800Be not her maide since she is enuious,
Her vestall liuerie is but pale and greene,
And none but fooles doe weare it, cast it off.
She speakes, but she sayes nothing. What of that?
805Her eye discourseth, I will answere it.
I am too bold, tis not to me she speakes,
Two of the fairest starres in all the skies,
Hauing some busines, doe entreat her eyes
To twinckle in their spheares till they returne.
810What if her eyes were there, they in her head,
The brightnes of her cheekes would shame those stars:
As day-light doth a Lampe, her eyes in heauen,
Would through the airie region streame so bright,
That birdes would sing, and thinke it were not night.
815Oh now she leanes her cheekes vpon her hand,
I would I were the gloue to that same hand,
D That