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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    Not Peer Reviewed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)

    Enter Romeo.
    Rom:If I may trust the flattering Eye of Sleepe,
    My Dreame presagde some good euent to come.
    2725My bosome Lord sits chearfull in his throne,
    And I am comforted with pleasing dreames.
    Me thought I was this night alreadie dead:
    (Strange dreames that giue a dead man leaue to thinke)
    And that my Ladie Iuliet came to me,
    2730And breathd such life with kisses in my lips,
    That I reuiude and was an Emperour.
    Enter Balthasar his man booted.
    2735Newes from Verona. How now Balthasar,
    How doth my Ladie? Is my Father well?
    How fares my Iuliet? that I aske againe:
    If she be well, then nothing can be ill.
    2740Balt:Then nothing can be ill, for she is well,
    Her bodie sleepes in Capels Monument,
    And her immortall parts with Angels dwell.
    2745Pardon me Sir, that am the Messenger of such bad tidings.
    Rom:Is it euen so? then I defie my Starres.
    I3 Goe
    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:
    of Romeo and Iuliet.
    Rom:Art thou so bare and full of pouertie,
    And doost thou feare to violate the Law?
    The Law is not thy frend, nor the Lawes frend,
    2801.1And therefore make no conscience of the law:
    Vpon thy backe hangs ragged Miserie,
    And starued Famine dwelleth in thy cheekes.
    Apo:My pouertie but not my will consents.
    2805Rom:I pay thy pouertie, but not thy will.
    Apo:Hold take you this, and put it in anie liquid thing
    you will, and it will serue had you the liues of twenty men.
    Rom:Hold, take this gold, worse poyson to mens soules
    Than this which thou hast giuen me. Goe hye thee hence,
    Goe buy the cloathes, and get thee into flesh.
    2815Come cordiall and not poyson, goe with mee
    To Iuliets Graue: for there must I vse thee. Exeunt.
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