Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Roger Apfelbaum
Not Peer Reviewed

Romeo and Juliet (Quarto 1, 1597)

The excellent Tragedie

Goe get mee incke and paper, hyre post horse,
2750I will not stay in Mantua to night.
Balt:Pardon me Sir, I will not leaue you thus,
Your lookes are dangerous and full of feare:
I dare not, nor I will not leaue you yet.
2755Rom:Doo as I bid thee, get me incke and paper,
2755.1And hyre those horse: stay not I say.

Exit Balthasar.

Well Iuliet, I will lye with thee to night.
Lets see for meanes. As I doo remember
Here dwells a Pothecarie whom oft I noted
2765As I past by, whose needie shop is stufft
With beggerly accounts of emptie boxes:
2770And in the same an Aligarta hangs,
Olde endes of packthred, and cakes of Roses,
2775Are thinly strewed to make vp a show.
Him as I noted, thus with my selfe I thought:
And if a man should need a poyson now,
(Whose present sale is death in Mantua)
Here he might buy it. This thought of mine
2780Did but forerunne my need: and here about he dwels.
2780.1Being Holiday the Beggers shop is shut.
What ho Apothecarie, come forth I say.

2785Enter Apothecarie.

Apo:Who calls, what would you sir?
Rom:Heeres twentie duckates,
Giue me a dram of some such speeding geere,
2790As will dispatch the wearie takers life,
As suddenly as powder being fierd
From forth a Cannons mouth.
2795Apo:Such drugs I haue I must of force confesse,
But yet the law is death to those that sell them.
Rom: