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Romeo and Juliet - Act 3, scene 5
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Romeo and Juliet - Act 3, scene 5Act 3, scene 5
⌜Scene 5⌝
Synopsis:
Romeo and Juliet separate at the first light of day. Almost immediately her mother comes to announce that Juliet must marry Paris. When Juliet refuses, her father becomes enraged and vows to put her out on the streets. The Nurse recommends that Juliet forget the banished Romeo and regard Paris as a more desirable husband. Juliet is secretly outraged at the Nurse’s advice and decides to seek Friar Lawrence’s help.
Enter Romeo and Juliet aloft.JULIET
2057 Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day.
2058 It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
2059 That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear.
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2060
Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate tree.2061 5 Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.
ROMEO
2062 It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
2063 No nightingale. Look, love, what envious streaks
2064 Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east.
2065 Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day
2066 10 Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain-tops.
2067 I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
JULIET
2068 Yond light is not daylight, I know it, I.
2069 It is some meteor that the sun ⌜exhaled⌝
2070 To be to thee this night a torchbearer
2071 15 And light thee on thy way to Mantua.
2072 Therefore stay yet. Thou need’st not to be gone.
ROMEO
2073 Let me be ta’en; let me be put to death.
2074 I am content, so thou wilt have it so.
2075 I’ll say yon gray is not the morning’s eye;
2076 20 ’Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia’s brow.
2077 Nor that is not the lark whose notes do beat
2078 The vaulty heaven so high above our heads.
2079 I have more care to stay than will to go.
2080 Come death and welcome. Juliet wills it so.
2081 25 How is ’t, my soul? Let’s talk. It is not day.
JULIET
2082 It is, it is. Hie hence, begone, away!
2083 It is the lark that sings so out of tune,
2084 Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.
2085 Some say the lark makes sweet division.
2086 30 This doth not so, for she divideth us.
2087 Some say the lark and loathèd toad ⌜changed⌝ eyes.
2088 O, now I would they had changed voices too,
2089 Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,
2090 Hunting thee hence with hunt’s-up to the day.
2091 35 O, now begone. More light and light it grows.
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ROMEO 2092 More light and light, more dark and dark our woes.
Enter Nurse.
NURSE 2093 Madam.
JULIET 2094 Nurse?
NURSE
2095 Your lady mother is coming to your chamber.
2096 40 The day is broke; be wary; look about.⌜She exits.⌝
JULIET
2097 Then, window, let day in, and let life out.
ROMEO
2098 Farewell, farewell. One kiss and I’ll descend.
⌜They kiss, and Romeo descends.⌝
JULIET
2099 Art thou gone so? Love, lord, ay husband, friend!
2100 I must hear from thee every day in the hour,
2101 45 For in a minute there are many days.
2102 O, by this count I shall be much in years
2103 Ere I again behold my Romeo.
ROMEO 2104 Farewell.
2105 I will omit no opportunity
2106 50 That may convey my greetings, love, to thee.
JULIET
2107 O, think’st thou we shall ever meet again?
ROMEO
2108 I doubt it not; and all these woes shall serve
2109 For sweet discourses in our times to come.
⌜JULIET⌝
2110 O God, I have an ill-divining soul!
2111 55 Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low,
2112 As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.
2113 Either my eyesight fails or thou lookest pale.
ROMEO
2114 And trust me, love, in my eye so do you.
2115 Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu, adieu.He exits.
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JULIET 2116 60 O Fortune, Fortune, all men call thee fickle.
2117 If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him
2118 That is renowned for faith? Be fickle, Fortune,
2119 For then I hope thou wilt not keep him long,
2120 But send him back.
Enter ⌜Lady Capulet.⌝
LADY CAPULET 2121 65 Ho, daughter, are you up?
JULIET
2122 Who is ’t that calls? It is my lady mother.
2123 Is she not down so late or up so early?
2124 What unaccustomed cause procures her hither?
⌜Juliet descends.⌝
LADY CAPULET
2125 Why, how now, Juliet?
JULIET 2126 70 Madam, I am not well.
LADY CAPULET
2127 Evermore weeping for your cousin’s death?
2128 What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears?
2129 An if thou couldst, thou couldst not make him live.
2130 Therefore have done. Some grief shows much of
2131 75 love,
2132 But much of grief shows still some want of wit.
JULIET
2133 Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss.
LADY CAPULET
2134 So shall you feel the loss, but not the friend
2135 Which you weep for.
JULIET 2136 80 Feeling so the loss,
2137 I cannot choose but ever weep the friend.
LADY CAPULET
2138 Well, girl, thou weep’st not so much for his death
2139 As that the villain lives which slaughtered him.
JULIET
2140 What villain, madam?
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LADY CAPULET
2141
85 That same villain, Romeo.JULIET, ⌜aside⌝
2142 Villain and he be many miles asunder.—
2143 God pardon ⌜him.⌝ I do with all my heart,
2144 And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart.
LADY CAPULET
2145 That is because the traitor murderer lives.
JULIET
2146 90 Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands.
2147 Would none but I might venge my cousin’s death!
LADY CAPULET
2148 We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not.
2149 Then weep no more. I’ll send to one in Mantua,
2150 Where that same banished runagate doth live,
2151 95 Shall give him such an unaccustomed dram
2152 That he shall soon keep Tybalt company.
2153 And then, I hope, thou wilt be satisfied.
JULIET
2154 Indeed, I never shall be satisfied
2155 With Romeo till I behold him—dead—
2156 100 Is my poor heart, so for a kinsman vexed.
2157 Madam, if you could find out but a man
2158 To bear a poison, I would temper it,
2159 That Romeo should, upon receipt thereof,
2160 Soon sleep in quiet. O, how my heart abhors
2161 105 To hear him named and cannot come to him
2162 To wreak the love I bore my cousin
2163 Upon his body that hath slaughtered him.
LADY CAPULET
2164 Find thou the means, and I’ll find such a man.
2165 But now I’ll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.
JULIET
2166 110 And joy comes well in such a needy time.
2167 What are they, beseech your Ladyship?
LADY CAPULET
2168 Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child,
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2169
One who, to put thee from thy heaviness,2170 Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy
2171 115 That thou expects not, nor I looked not for.
JULIET
2172 Madam, in happy time! What day is that?
LADY CAPULET
2173 Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn
2174 The gallant, young, and noble gentleman,
2175 The County Paris, at Saint Peter’s Church
2176 120 Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.
JULIET
2177 Now, by Saint Peter’s Church, and Peter too,
2178 He shall not make me there a joyful bride!
2179 I wonder at this haste, that I must wed
2180 Ere he that should be husband comes to woo.
2181 125 I pray you, tell my lord and father, madam,
2182 I will not marry yet, and when I do I swear
2183 It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,
2184 Rather than Paris. These are news indeed!
LADY CAPULET
2185 Here comes your father. Tell him so yourself,
2186 130 And see how he will take it at your hands.
Enter Capulet and Nurse.
CAPULET
2187 When the sun sets, the earth doth drizzle dew,
2188 But for the sunset of my brother’s son
2189 It rains downright.
2190 How now, a conduit, girl? What, still in tears?
2191 135 Evermore show’ring? In one little body
2192 Thou counterfeits a bark, a sea, a wind.
2193 For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
2194 Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is,
2195 Sailing in this salt flood; the winds thy sighs,
2196 140 Who, raging with thy tears and they with them,
2197 Without a sudden calm, will overset
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2198
Thy tempest-tossèd body.—How now, wife?2199 Have you delivered to her our decree?
LADY CAPULET
2200 Ay, sir, but she will none, she ⌜gives⌝ you thanks.
2201 145 I would the fool were married to her grave.
CAPULET
2202 Soft, take me with you, take me with you, wife.
2203 How, will she none? Doth she not give us thanks?
2204 Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blessed,
2205 Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
2206 150 So worthy a gentleman to be her bride?
JULIET
2207 Not proud you have, but thankful that you have.
2208 Proud can I never be of what I hate,
2209 But thankful even for hate that is meant love.
CAPULET
2210 How, how, how, how? Chopped logic? What is this?
2211 155 “Proud,” and “I thank you,” and “I thank you not,”
2212 And yet “not proud”? Mistress minion you,
2213 Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds,
2214 But fettle your fine joints ’gainst Thursday next
2215 To go with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church,
2216 160 Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
2217 Out, you green-sickness carrion! Out, you baggage!
2218 You tallow face!
LADY CAPULET 2219 Fie, fie, what, are you mad?
JULIET, ⌜kneeling⌝
2220 Good father, I beseech you on my knees,
2221 165 Hear me with patience but to speak a word.
CAPULET
2222 Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch!
2223 I tell thee what: get thee to church o’ Thursday,
2224 Or never after look me in the face.
2225 Speak not; reply not; do not answer me.
2226 170 My fingers itch.—Wife, we scarce thought us
2227 blessed
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2228
That God had lent us but this only child,2229 But now I see this one is one too much,
2230 And that we have a curse in having her.
2231 175 Out on her, hilding.
NURSE 2232 God in heaven bless her!
2233 You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so.
CAPULET
2234 And why, my Lady Wisdom? Hold your tongue.
2235 Good Prudence, smatter with your gossips, go.
NURSE
2236 180 I speak no treason.
⌜CAPULET⌝ 2237 O, God ’i’ g’ eden!
⌜NURSE⌝
2238 May not one speak?
CAPULET 2239 Peace, you mumbling fool!
2240 Utter your gravity o’er a gossip’s bowl,
2241 185 For here we need it not.
LADY CAPULET 2242 You are too hot.
CAPULET 2243 God’s bread, it makes me mad.
2244 Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play,
2245 Alone, in company, still my care hath been
2246 190 To have her matched. And having now provided
2247 A gentleman of noble parentage,
2248 Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly ⌜ligned,⌝
2249 Stuffed, as they say, with honorable parts,
2250 Proportioned as one’s thought would wish a man—
2251 195 And then to have a wretched puling fool,
2252 A whining mammet, in her fortune’s tender,
2253 To answer “I’ll not wed. I cannot love.
2254 I am too young. I pray you, pardon me.”
2255 But, an you will not wed, I’ll pardon you!
2256 200 Graze where you will, you shall not house with me.
2257 Look to ’t; think on ’t. I do not use to jest.
2258 Thursday is near. Lay hand on heart; advise.
2259 An you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend.
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2260
An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets,2261 205 For, by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee,
2262 Nor what is mine shall never do thee good.
2263 Trust to ’t; bethink you. I’ll not be forsworn.
He exits.
JULIET
2264 Is there no pity sitting in the clouds
2265 That sees into the bottom of my grief?—
2266 210 O sweet my mother, cast me not away.
2267 Delay this marriage for a month, a week,
2268 Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed
2269 In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.
LADY CAPULET
2270 Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word.
2271 215 Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.
She exits.
JULIET, ⌜rising⌝
2272 O God! O nurse, how shall this be prevented?
2273 My husband is on Earth, my faith in heaven.
2274 How shall that faith return again to Earth
2275 Unless that husband send it me from heaven
2276 220 By leaving Earth? Comfort me; counsel me.—
2277 Alack, alack, that heaven should practice stratagems
2278 Upon so soft a subject as myself.—
2279 What sayst thou? Hast thou not a word of joy?
2280 Some comfort, nurse.
NURSE 2281 225 Faith, here it is.
2282 Romeo is banished, and all the world to nothing
2283 That he dares ne’er come back to challenge you,
2284 Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth.
2285 Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
2286 230 I think it best you married with the County.
2287 O, he’s a lovely gentleman!
2288 Romeo’s a dishclout to him. An eagle, madam,
2289 Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye
2290 As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,
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2291
235 I think you are happy in this second match,2292 For it excels your first, or, if it did not,
2293 Your first is dead, or ’twere as good he were
2294 As living here and you no use of him.
JULIET
2295 Speak’st thou from thy heart?
NURSE
2296 240 And from my soul too, else beshrew them both.
JULIET 2297 Amen.
NURSE 2298 What?
JULIET
2299 Well, thou hast comforted me marvelous much.
2300 Go in and tell my lady I am gone,
2301 245 Having displeased my father, to Lawrence’ cell
2302 To make confession and to be absolved.
NURSE
2303 Marry, I will; and this is wisely done.⌜She exits.⌝
JULIET
2304 Ancient damnation, O most wicked fiend!
2305 Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn
2306 250 Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue
2307 Which she hath praised him with above compare
2308 So many thousand times? Go, counselor.
2309 Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.
2310 I’ll to the Friar to know his remedy.
2311 255 If all else fail, myself have power to die.
She exits.