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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    Not Peer Reviewed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 16/IV.i]
    Enter Friar and County Paris.
    Friar Laurence
    On Thursday, sir? The time is very short.
    2295Paris
    My Father Capulet will have it so,
    And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.
    Friar Laurence
    You say you do not know the lady's mind?
    Uneven is the course; I like it not.
    Paris
    Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death,
    2300And therefore have I little talk of love,
    For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.
    Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous
    That she do give her sorrow so much sway
    And in his wisdom hastes our marriage
    2305To stop the inundation of her tears,
    Which, too much minded by herself alone
    May be put from her by society.
    Now do you know the reason of this haste.
    Friar Laurence
    I would I knew not why it should be slowed.
    2310Look, sir, here comes the lady toward my cell.
    Enter Juliet.
    Paris
    Happily met, my lady and my wife.
    Juliet
    That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.
    Paris
    That "may be," must be, love, on Thursday next.
    2315Juliet
    What must be shall be.
    Friar Laurence
    That's a certain text.
    Paris
    Come you to make confession to this father?
    Juliet
    To answer that, I should confess to you.
    Paris
    Do not deny to him that you love me.
    2320Juliet
    I will confess to you that I love him.
    Paris
    So will ye, I am sure, that you love me.
    Juliet
    If I do so, it will be of more price,
    Being spoke behind your back, than to your face.
    Paris
    Poor soul, thy face is much abused with tears.
    2325Juliet
    The tears have got small victory by that,
    For it was bad enough before their spite.
    Paris
    Thou wrong'st it more than tears with that report.
    Juliet
    That is no slander, sir, which is a truth,
    And what I spake, I spake it to my face.
    2330Paris
    Thy face is mine, and thou hast slandered it.
    Juliet
    It may be so, for it is not mine own.
    Are you at leisure, holy Father, now,
    Or shall I come to you at evening mass?
    Friar Laurence
    My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.
    2335My lord, we must entreat the time alone.
    Paris
    God shield I should disturb devotion.
    Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse ye.
    Till then, adieu, and keep this holy kiss.
    [Kisses her.]
    Exit [Paris].
    Juliet
    O, shut the door, and when thou hast done so,
    2340Come weep with me, past hope, past care, past help.
    [Friar shuts door.]
    Friar Laurence
    O Juliet, I already know thy grief.
    It strains me past the compass of my wits,
    I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,
    On Thursday next be married to this County.
    2345Juliet
    Tell me not, Friar, that thou hearest of this,
    Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it.
    If in thy wisdom thou canst give no help,
    Do thou but call my resolution wise,
    And with this knife I'll help it presently.
    [Juliet displays a knife.]
    2350God joined my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands,
    And ere this hand by thee to Romeo's sealed
    Shall be the label to another deed,
    Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
    Turn to another, this shall slay them both.
    2355Therefore out of thy long-experienced time,
    Give me some present counsel, or behold,
    'Twixt my extremes and me, this bloody knife
    Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that
    Which the commission of thy years and art
    2360Could to no issue of true honor bring.
    Be not so long to speak; I long to die,
    If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy.
    Friar Laurence
    Hold, daughter, I do spy a kind of hope,
    Which craves as desperate an execution,
    2365As that is desperate which we would prevent.
    If, rather than to marry County Paris,
    Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself,
    Then is it likely thou wilt undertake
    A thing like death to chide away this shame,
    2370That cop'st with death himself to 'scape from it,
    And if thou dar'st, I'll give thee remedy.
    Juliet
    O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
    From of the battlements of any tower,
    Or walk in thievish wayes, or bid me lurk
    2375Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears,
    Or hide me nightly in a charnel house,
    O'ercovered quite with dead men's rattling bones,
    With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls,
    Or bid me go into a new-made grave,
    2380And hide me with a dead man in his shroud,
    Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble,
    And I will do it, without fear or doubt,
    To live an unstained wife to my sweet love.
    Friar Laurence
    Hold then. Go home, be merry, give consent
    2385To marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow;
    Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone.
    Let not the Nurse lie with thee in thy chamber.
    Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
    [Holds up vial.]
    And this distilling liquor drink thou off,
    2390When presently through all thy veins shall run
    A cold and drowsy humor, for no pulse
    Shall keep his native progress but surcease.
    No warmth, no breath shall testify thou liv'st;
    The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
    2395To paly ashes, thy eyes' windows fall
    Like death when he shuts up the day of life.
    Each part, deprived of supple government,
    Shall stiff and stark and cold appear like death,
    And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk death
    2400Thou shalt continue two and forty hours
    And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
    Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes
    To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead.
    Then, as the manner of our country is,
    2405In thy best robes, uncovered on the bier,
    Be borne to burial in thy kindred's grave.
    Thou shall be borne to that same ancient vault
    Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
    In the meantime, against thou shalt awake,
    2410Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift,
    And hither shall he come, and he and I
    2411.1Will watch thy waking, and that very night
    Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
    And this shall free thee from this present shame,
    If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear
    2415Abate thy valor in the acting it.
    Juliet
    Give me, give me, O, tell not me of fear.
    [Juliet takes the vial.]
    Friar Laurence
    Hold, get you gone; be strong and prosperous
    In this resolve. I'll send a friar with speed
    To Mantua with my letters to thy lord.
    2420Juliet
    Love give me strength, and strength shall help afford.
    Farewell, dear father.
    Exit.
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