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  • Title: Romeo and Juliet (Quarto 1, 1597)
  • Editor: Roger Apfelbaum
  • ISBN: 1-55058-299-2

    Copyright Internet Shakespeare Editions. This text may be freely used for educational, non-proift purposes; for all other uses contact the Coordinating Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Editor: Roger Apfelbaum
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Romeo and Juliet (Quarto 1, 1597)


    of Romeo and Iuliet.

    Had I it written I would teare the word.
    Iul: My eares haue not yet drunk a hundred words
    855Of that tongues vtterance, yet I know the sound:
    Art thou not Romeo and a Mountague?
    Ro: Neyther faire Saint, if eyther thee displease.
    Iu: How camst thou hether, tell me and wherfore?
    860The Orchard walles are high and hard to clime,
    And the place death considering who thou art,
    If any of my kinsmen finde thee here.
    Ro: By loues light winges did I oreperch these wals,
    865For stonie limits cannot hold loue out,
    And what loue can doo,that dares loue attempt,
    Therefore thy kinsmen are no let to me.
    Iul: If they doe finde thee they will murder thee.
    Ro: Alas there lies more perrill in thine eyes,
    870Then twentie of their swords, looke thou but sweete,
    And I am proofe against their enmitie.
    Iul: I would not for the world they shuld find thee (here.
    Ro: I haue nights cloak to hide thee from their sight,
    And but thou loue me let them finde me here:
    875For life were better ended by their hate,
    Than death proroged wanting of thy loue.
    Iu: By whose directions foundst thou out this place.
    Ro: By loue, who first did prompt me to enquire,
    I he gaue me counsaile and I lent him eyes.
    880I am no Pilot: yet wert thou as farre
    As that vast shore, washt with the furthest sea,
    I would aduenture for such Marchandise.
    Iul: Thou knowst the maske of night is on my face,
    Els would a Maiden blush bepaint my cheeks:
    885For that which thou haste heard me speake to night,
    Faine would I dwell on forme, faine faine denie,
    D2 Wha