University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

The Monastery.
Enter Friar Lawrence and Paris.
Friar.
On Thursday, Sir! the time is very short.

Par.
My father Capulet will have it so,
And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.

Fri.
You say, you do not know the lady's mind:
Uneven is this course, I like it not.

Par.
Immoderately she weeps for Tibalt's death,
And therefore have I little talk'd of love,
For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.
Now, Sir, her father counts it dangerous
That she should give her sorrow so much sway;
And in his wisdom hastes our marriage,
To stop the inundation of her tears;
Now do you know the reason of this haste.

Fri.
I would I knew not why it should be slow'd,
Look, Sir, here comes the lady tow'rds my cell.

Enter Juliet.
Par.
Welcome my love, my lady, and my wife.

Jul.
That may be, Sir, when I may be a wife.

Par.
That may be, must be, love, on Thursday next.

Jul.
What must be, shall be.

Par.
Come you to make confession to this father?

Jul.
To answer that were to confess to you:
Are you at leisure, holy father, now,
Or shall I come to thee at evening mass?

Fri.
My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.
My lord, I must intreat the time alone.

Par.
Heav'n shield, I should disturb devotion:
Juliet, farewel.
[Exit Paris.

Jul.
Go, shut the door; and when thou hast done so,
Come, weep with me, past hope, past cure, past help.

Fri.
O Juliet, I already know your grief.

Jul.
Tell me not, Friar, that thou know'st my grief,
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 steel I'll help it presently.
Heav'n join'd my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands,
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo seal'd,
Shall be the label to another deed,
Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
Give to another, this shall slay them both:
Therefore out of thy long experienc'd time,
Give me some present counsel, or behold
'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody dagger
Shall play the umpire;—
Speak now, be brief; for I desire to die,
If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy.

Fri.
Hold, daughter; I do 'spy a kind of hope,
Which craves as desperate an execution,
As that is desperate which we would prevent.
If rather than to marry County Paris
Thou hast the strength or will to slay thyself,
Then it is likely thou wilt undertake
A thing like death to free thee from this marriage,
And if thou dar'st, I'll give thee remedy:

Jul.
O bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
From off the battlements of yonder tower;
Or chain me to some steepy mountain's top,
Where roaring bears and savage lions roam;
Or shut me nightly in a charnel-house,
O'er-cover'd quite with dead mens rattling bones,
With reeky shanks, and yellow chapless skulls,
Or bid me go into a new made grave,
And hide me with a dead man in his shroud:
Things that to hear them nam'd, have made me tremble;
And I will do it without fear or doubt,
To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love.

Fri.
Hold, Juliet, hie thee home, get thee to bed:
(Let not thy Nurse lie with thee in thy chamber:)
And when thou art alone, take thou this vial,
And this distilled liquor drink thou off,
When presently through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsie humour, which shall seize
Each vital spirit; for no pulse shall keep
His nat'ral progress, but surcease to beat.
No warmth, no breath shall testify thou liv'st;
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To paly ashes; the eyes windows fall
Like death, when he shuts up the day of life;
And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death
Thou 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,
In thy best robes uncover'd on the bier,
Thou shalt be born to that same ancient vault,
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
In the mean time, against thou shalt awake,
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift,
And hither shall he come; and he and I
Will watch thy waking, and that very night
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua;
If no unconstant toy nor womanish fear
Abate thy valour in the acting it.

Jul.
Give me, O give me, tell me not of fear.

[Taking the vial.
Fri.
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.

Jul.
Love, give me strength, and strength shall help afford.
Farewel, dear father—

[Exeunt.