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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    Not Peer Reviewed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 20/IV.v]
    2575Enter Nurse.
    Nurse
    Mistress! What, mistress! Juliet!--[To self] Fast, I warrant her, she.--
    [To Juliet]Why, lamb, why, lady! Fie, you slugabed!
    Why, love, I say! Madam! Sweetheart! Why, bride!
    What? Not a word? You take your pennyworths now;
    2580Sleep for a week. For the next night I warrant
    The County Paris hath set up his rest
    That you shall rest but little, God forgive me.
    Marry and amen, how sound is she asleep?
    I needs must wake her. Madam, madam, madam!
    2585Ay, let the County take you in your bed,
    He'll fright you up i'faith, will it not be?
    What, dressed, and in your clothes, and down again?
    I must needs wake you. Lady, lady, lady.--
    Alas, alas! Help, help! My lady's dead!
    2590O weraday that ever I was born.
    Some aqua-vitae, ho! My lord, my lady.[Enter Capulet's Wife.]
    Capulet's Wife
    What noise is here?
    Nurse
    O lamentable day.
    Capulet's Wife
    What is the matter?
    2595Nurse
    Look, look, o heavy day!
    Capulet's Wife
    O me, O me, my child, my only life.
    Revive, look up, or I will die with thee.
    Help, help, call help!
    Enter Father.
    2600Capulet
    For shame, bring Juliet forth; her lord is come.
    Nurse
    She's dead, deceased; she's dead, alack the day!
    Capulet's Wife
    Alack the day, she's dead, she's dead, she's dead.
    Capulet
    Ha, let me see her. Out, alas, she's cold,
    Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff.
    2605Life and these lips have long been separated;
    Death lies on her like an untimely frost
    Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.
    Nurse
    O lamentable day!
    Capulet's Wife
    O woeful time!
    2610Capulet
    Death that hath ta'en her hence to make me wail
    Ties up my tongue and will not let me speak.
    Enter Friar and the County.With Musicians
    Friar Laurence
    Come, is the bride ready to go to church?
    Capulet
    Ready to go but never to return.
    2615O son, the night before thy wedding day
    Hath death lain with thy wife. There she lies,
    Flower as she was, deflowered by him.
    Death is my son-in-law; death is my heir;
    My daughter he hath wedded. I will die
    2620And leave him all life living; all is death's.
    Paris
    Have I thought long to see this morning's face
    And doth it give me such a sight as this?
    Capulet's Wife
    Accursed, unhappy, wretched, hateful day.
    Most miserable hour that ere time saw
    2625In lasting labor of his pilgrimage!
    But one, poor one, one poor and loving child,
    But one thing to rejoice and solace in,
    And cruel death hath catched it from my sight.
    Nurse
    O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day!
    2630Most lamentable day, most woeful day
    That ever, ever, I did yet behold.
    O day, O day, O day, O hateful day!
    Never was seen so black a day as this.
    O woeful day, O woeful day!
    2635Paris
    Beguiled, divorcèd, wrongèd, spited, slain!
    Most detestable death, by thee beguiled,
    By cruel, cruel, thee quite overthrown.
    O love, O life, not life, but love in death.
    Capulet
    Despised, distressèd, hated, martyred, killed!
    2640Uncomfortable time, why cam'st thou now
    To murder, murder our solemnity?
    O child, O child, my soul and not my child!
    Dead art thou, alack, my child is dead,
    And with my child my joys are buried.
    2645Friar Laurence
    Peace, ho, for shame, confusions! Care lives not
    In these confusions. Heaven and yourself
    Had part in this fair maid; now heaven hath all
    And all the better is it for the maid.
    Your part in her you could not keep from death,
    2650But heaven keeps his part in eternal life.
    The most you sought was her promotion,
    For 'twas your heaven she should be advanced,
    And weep ye now, seeing she is advanced
    Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself?
    2655O, in this love, you love your child so ill
    That you run mad, seeing that she is well.
    She's not well married that lives married long,
    But she's best married that dies married young.
    Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary
    2660On this fair corpse, and, as the custom is,
    And in her best array, bear her to church.
    For though some nature bids us all lament,
    Yet nature's tears are reason's merriment.
    Capulet
    All things that we ordained festival
    2665Turn from their office to black funeral:
    Our instruments to melancholy bells,
    Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast,
    Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change,
    Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corpse,
    2670And all things change them to the contrary.
    Friar Laurence
    Sir, go you in, and Madam, go with him,
    And go, sir Paris, everyone prepare
    To follow this fair corpse unto her grave.
    The heavens do low'r upon you for some ill;
    2675Move them no more by crossing their high will.
    2675.1Exeunt all but Nurse and Minstrels.
    1 Minstrel
    Faith, we may put up our pipes and be gone.[They begin putting away their instruments.]
    Nurse
    Honest good fellows, ah, put up, put up,
    For well you know, this is a pitiful case.
    1 Minstrel
    Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended.
    2679.1Exit the Nurse.
    2680Enter Peter.
    Peter
    Musicians, oh musicians, "Heart's Ease," "Heart's Ease,"
    O, an you will have me live, play "Heart's Ease."
    1 Minstrel
    Why "Heart's Ease"?
    2685Peter
    O musicians, because my heart itself plays "My Heart is Full":
    2686.1O, play me some merry dump to comfort me.
    Minstrels
    Not a dump, we. 'Tis no time to play now.
    Peter
    You will not, then?
    1 Minstrel
    No.
    2690Peter
    I will then give it you soundly.
    1 Minstrel
    What will you give us?
    Peter
    No money on my faith, but the gleek.
    I will give you the minstrel.
    1 Minstrel
    Then will I give you the serving-creature.
    2695Peter
    [Draws dagger.]Then will I lay the serving-creature's dagger on your pate.
    I will carry no crotchets. I'll re you, I'll fa
    You; do you note me?
    1 Minstrel
    And you re us, and fa us, you note us.
    2 Minstrel
    Pray you put up your dagger, and put out your wit.
    Then have at you with my wit.
    Peter
    I will dry-beat you with an iron wit and put up my iron dagger.
    Answer me like men.
    2705
    [sings]When griping griefs the heart doth wound,
    Then music with her silver sound.
    Why "silver sound"? Why "music, with her silver sound"? What say
    you, Simon Catling?
    1 Minstrel
    Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound.
    2710Peter
    Prates. What say you, Hugh Rebec?
    2 Minstrel
    I say "silver sound," because musicians sound for silver.
    Peter
    Prates too. What say you, James Soundpost?
    3 Minstrel
    Faith, I know not what to say.
    Peter
    O, I cry you mercy, you are the singer.
    2715I will say for you; it is "music with her silver sound"
    Because musicians have no gold for sounding.
    [sings]
    Then music with her silver sound
    With speedy help doth lend redress.
    Exit [Peter].
    1 Minstrel
    What a pestilent knave is this same?
    27202 Minstrel
    Hang him, jack. Come, we'll in here, tarry for the mourners, and stay dinner.
    Exit [minstrels].
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