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  • Title: Romeo and Juliet (Modern, Quarto 2)
  • Editor: Erin Sadlack

    • ISBN: 1-55058-299-2

    Copyright Erin Sadlack. This text may be freely used for educational, non-profit purposes; for all other uses contact the Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Editor: Erin Sadlack
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Romeo and Juliet (Modern, Quarto 2)

    [Scene 1/I.i]
    Enter Sampson and Gregory, with swords and bucklers, of the house of Capulet.
    Sampson
    Gregory, on my word we'll not carry coals.
    Gregory
    No, for then we should be colliers.
    Sampson
    I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw.
    Gregory
    Ay, while you live, draw your neck out of collar.
    10Sampson
    I strike quickly being moved.
    Gregory
    But thou art not quickly moved to strike.
    Sampson
    A dog of the house of Montague moves me.
    Gregory
    To move is to stir, and to be valiant, is to stand. Therefore if thou art moved thou runn'st away.
    15Sampson
    A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montagues.
    Gregory
    That shows thee a weak slave, for the weakest goes to the wall.
    Sampson
    'Tis true, and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, 20are ever thrust to the wall. Therefore I will push Montague's men from the wall and thrust his maids to the wall.
    Gregory
    The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.
    Sampson
    'Tis all one. I will show myself a tyrant. When I have 25fought with the men, I will be civil with the maids; I will cut off their heads.
    Gregory
    The heads of the maids.
    Sampson
    Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads, take it in what sense thou wilt.
    30Gregory
    They must take it in sense that feel it.
    Sampson
    Me they shall feel while I am able to stand, and 'tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh.
    Gregory
    'Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou hadst been poor-john. Draw thy tool; here comes of the house of 35Montagues.
    Enter two other serving men.
    Sampson
    [Draws sword.]My naked weapon is out. Quarrel, I will back thee.
    Gregory
    How? Turn thy back and run?
    Sampson
    Fear me not.
    40Gregory
    No, marry, I fear thee.
    Sampson
    Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin.
    Gregory
    I will frown as I pass by and let them take it as they list.
    Sampson
    Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them, which is disgrace to them if they bear it.
    [Bites thumb.]
    45Abraham
    Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
    Sampson
    I do bite my thumb, sir.
    Abraham
    Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
    Sampson
    [To Gregory] Is the law of our side if I say "Ay"?
    Gregory
    [To Sampson] No.
    Sampson
    [To Abraham] No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite 50my thumb, sir.
    Gregory
    Do you quarrel, sir?
    Abraham
    Quarrel, sir? No, sir.
    Sampson
    But if you do, sir, I am for you. I serve as good a man as you.
    Abraham
    No better.
    55Sampson
    Well, sir.
    Enter Benvolio.
    Gregory
    [To Sampson] Say "Better." Here comes one of my master's kinsmen.
    Sampson
    [To Abraham] Yes, better, sir.
    Abraham
    You lie.
    Sampson
    Draw if you be men. Gregory, remember thy washing 60blow.
    They fight.
    Benvolio
    [Draws sword to intervene in their fight.]Part, fools! Put up your swords; you know not what you do.
    Enter Tybalt.
    Tybalt
    What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds? 65[Draws sword.]Turn thee, Benvolio; look upon thy death.
    Benvolio
    I do but keep the peace. Put up thy sword or manage it to part these men with me.
    Tybalt
    What, drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word as I hate hell, all Montagues and thee. 70Have at thee, coward![They fight.]
    Enter three or four citizens with clubs or partisans.
    Officer(s)
    Clubs, bills and partisans! Strike! Beat them down! Down with the Capulets! Down with the Montagues!
    Enter old Capulet, in his gown, and his wife.
    75Capulet
    What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!
    Capulet's Wife
    A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword?
    Capulet
    My sword, I say; old Mountague is come
    And flourishes his blade in spite of me.
    Enter old Montague and his wife.
    80Montague
    [Brandishes sword.]Thou villain Capulet!-- [To Wife] hold me not; let me go.
    [She holds onto him.]
    Montague's Wife
    Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe.
    Enter Prince Escalus with his train.
    Prince
    Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
    Profaners of this neighbor-stainèd steel--
    85Will they not hear? What, ho! [Fighters ignore him and keep fighting.]You men, you beasts
    That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
    With purple fountains issuing from your veins:
    On pain of torture, from those bloody hands,
    Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground
    90And hear the sentence of your movèd prince.[Fighters lay down weapons or sheathe swords.]
    Three civil brawls bred of an airy word,
    By thee old Capulet and Montague,
    Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets
    And made Verona's ancient citizens
    95Cast by their grave-beseeming ornaments
    To wield old partisans, in hands as old,
    Cankered with peace, to part your cankered hate.
    If ever you disturb our streets again,
    Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
    100For this time all the rest depart away.
    You, Capulet, shall go along with me.
    And Montague, come you this afternoon
    To know our farther pleasure in this case
    To old Freetown, our common judgment place.
    105Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.
    Exeunt [all but Montague, his Wife, and Benvolio].
    Montague
    Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?
    Speak, nephew, were you by when it began?
    Benvolio
    Here were the servants of your adversary
    And yours, close fighting ere I did approach.
    110I drew to part them; in the instant came
    The fiery Tybalt with his sword prepared,
    Which, as he breathed defiance to my ears,
    He swung about his head and cut the winds,
    Who nothing hurt withal, hissed him in scorn.
    115While we were interchanging thrusts and blows
    Came more and more, and fought on part and part,
    Till the Prince came, who parted either part.
    Montague's Wife
    O, where is Romeo? Saw you him today?
    Right glad I am he was not at this fray.
    120Benvolio
    Madam, an hour before the worshiped sun
    Peered forth the golden window of the east,
    A troubled mind drew me to walk abroad,
    Where underneath the grove of sycamore,
    That westward rooteth from this city side,
    125So early walking did I see your son.
    Towards him I made, but he was ware of me
    And stole into the covert of the wood.
    I, measuring his affections by my own,
    Which then most sought where most might not be found.
    130Being one too many by my weary self,
    Pursued my humor, not pursuing his,
    And gladly shunned who gladly fled from me.
    Montague
    Many a morning hath he there been seen
    With tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew.
    135Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs.
    But all so soon as the all-cheering sun
    Should in the farthest east begin to draw
    The shady curtains from Aurora's bed,
    Away from light steals home my heavy son,
    140And private in his chamber pens himself,
    Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out,
    And makes himself an artificial night.
    Black and portentous must this humor prove,
    Unless good counsel may the cause remove.
    145Benvolio
    My noble uncle, do you know the cause?
    Montague
    I neither know it nor can learn of him.
    Benvolio
    Have you importuned him by any means?
    Montague
    Both by my self and many other friends,
    But he, his own affections' counselor,
    150Is to himself--I will not say how true--
    But to himself so secret and so close,
    So far from sounding and discovery,
    As is the bud bit with an envious worm
    Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air
    155Or dedicate his beauty to the same.
    Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow,
    We would as willingly give cure as know.
    Enter Romeo.
    Benvolio
    See where he comes. [Points to Romeo.]So please you, step aside.
    160I'll know his grievance or be much denied.
    Montague
    I would thou wert so happy by thy stay
    To hear true shrift.-- [To Wife] Come, madam, let's away.
    Exeunt [Montague and Wife].
    Benvolio
    Good morrow, cousin.
    Romeo
    Is the day so young?
    165Benvolio
    But new struck nine.
    Romeo
    Ay me, sad hours seem long.
    Was that my father that went hence so fast?
    Benvolio
    It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours?
    Romeo
    Not having that, which having, makes them short.
    170Benvolio
    In love?
    Romeo
    Out.
    Benvolio
    Of love?
    Romeo
    Out of her favor where I am in love.
    Benvolio
    Alas that love, so gentle in his view,
    175Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof.
    Romeo
    Alas that love, whose view is muffled still,
    Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will.
    Where shall we dine? O me! What fray was here?
    Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
    180Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.
    Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate,
    O any thing of nothing first created!
    O heavy lightness, serious vanity,
    Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
    185Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,
    Still-waking sleep that is not what it is.
    This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
    Dost thou not laugh?
    Benvolio
    No, coz, I rather weep.
    190Romeo
    Good heart, at what?
    Benvolio
    At thy good heart's oppression.
    Romeo
    Why, such is love's transgression.
    Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,
    Which thou wilt propagate to have it pressed
    195With more of thine; this love that thou hast shown
    Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.
    Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs,
    Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes,
    Being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears,
    200What is it else? A madness, most discreet,
    A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.
    Farewell, my coz.
    Benvolio
    Soft, I will go along
    And if you leave me so, you do me wrong.
    205Romeo
    Tut, I have lost myself; I am not here.
    This is not Romeo; he's some other where.
    Benvolio
    Tell me in sadness, who is that you love?
    Romeo
    What, shall I groan and tell thee?
    Benvolio
    Groan? Why, no, but sadly tell me who.
    210Romeo
    A sick man in sadness makes his will.
    A word ill-urged to one that is so ill.
    In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.
    Benvolio
    [Exasperated tone.]I aimed so near, when I supposed you loved.
    Romeo
    A right good mark-man! And she's fair I love.
    215Benvolio
    A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.
    Romeo
    Well, in that hit you miss. She'll not be hit
    With Cupid's arrow; she hath Dian's wit,
    And in strong proof of chastity well armed,
    From love's weak childish bow she lives uncharmed.
    220She will not stay the siege of loving terms,
    Nor bide th'encounter of assailing eyes,
    Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold,
    O she is rich, in beauty only poor,
    That when she dies, with beauty dies her store.
    225Benvolio
    Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?
    Romeo
    She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste.
    For beauty starved with her severity
    Cuts beauty off from all posterity.
    She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair
    230To merit bliss by making me despair.
    She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow,
    Do I live dead, that live to tell it now.
    Benvolio
    Be ruled by me; forget to think of her.
    Romeo
    O, teach me how I should forget to think.
    235Benvolio
    By giving liberty unto thine eyes.
    Examine other beauties.
    Romeo
    'Tis the way to call hers--exquisite--in question more;
    These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows,
    Being black, puts us in mind they hide the fair.
    240He that is strucken blind cannot forget
    The precious treasure of his eyesight lost.
    Show me a mistress that is passing fair,
    What doth her beauty serve but as a note
    Where I may read who passed that passing fair?
    245Farewell, thou canst not teach me to forget.
    Benvolio
    I'll pay that doctrine or else die in debt.
    Exeunt.
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