Playing ShakespeareRomeo + Juliet

Juliet

Madam, I am not well.

Lady Capulet

Evermore weeping for your cousin's death?
What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears? (70)
And if thou couldst, thou couldst not make him live.
Therefore have done: some grief shows much of love,
But much of grief shows still some want of wit.

Juliet

Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss.

Lady Capulet

So shall you feel the loss but not the friend (75)
Which you weep for.

Juliet

Feeling so the loss,
I cannot choose but ever weep the friend.

Lady Capulet

Well, girl, thou weepst not so much for his death
As that the villain lives which slaughter'd him.

Juliet

What villain madam?

Lady Capulet

That same villain, Romeo. (80)

Juliet

Villain and he be many miles asunder.
God pardon him. I do, with all my heart.
And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart.

Lady Capulet

That is because the traitor murderer lives.

Juliet

Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands. (85)
Would none but I might venge my cousin's death.

Lady Capulet

We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not.
Then weep no more. I'll send to one in Mantua,
Where that same banish'd runagate doth live,
Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram (90)
That he shall soon keep Tybalt company;
And then I hope thou wilt be satisfied.

Juliet

Indeed, I never shall be satisfied
With Romeo, till I behold him --dead--
Is my poor heart so for a kinsman vex'd. (95)
Madam, if you could find out but a man
To bear a poison, I would temper it –
That Romeo should upon receipt thereof
Soon sleep in quiet. O, how my heart abhors
To hear him nam’d, and cannot come to him (100)
To wreak the love I bore my cousin
Upon his body that slaughter'd him.

Lady Capulet

Find thou the means and I'll find such a man.
But now I'll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.

Juliet

And joy comes well in such a needy time. (105)
What are they, I beseech your ladyship?

Lady Capulet

Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child;
One who, to put thee from thy heaviness
Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy,
That thou expects not, nor I look'd not for. (110)

Juliet

Madam, in happy time, what day is that?

Lady Capulet

Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn,
The gallant, young and noble gentleman,
The County Paris, at Saint Peter's Church,
Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride. (115)

Juliet

Now, by Saint Peter's Church, and Peter too,
He shall not make me there a joyful bride.
I wonder at this haste, that I must wed
Ere he that should be husband, comes to woo.
I pray you, tell my lord and father, madam, (120)
I will not marry yet. And when I do, I swear
It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,
Rather than Paris. These are news indeed.

Lady Capulet

Here comes your father, tell him so yourself,
And see how he will take it at your hands. (125)

Enter CAPULET _and_ NURSE

Capulet

When the sun sets the air doth drizzle dew,
But for the sunset of my brother's son
It rains downright.
How now, a conduit, girl? What, still in tears?
Evermore showering? In one little body (130)
Thou counterfeits a bark, a sea, a wind.
For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
Do ebb and flow with tears. The bark thy body is,
Sailing in this salt flood, the winds, thy sighs,
Who raging with thy tears and they with them, (135)
Without a sudden calm will overset
Thy tempest-tossed body. How now, wife?
Have you deliver'd to her our decree?

Lady Capulet

Ay, sir, but she will none, she gives you thanks.
I would the fool were married to her grave. (140)

Capulet

Soft. Take me with you, take me with you, wife.
How? Will she none? Doth she not give us thanks?
Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blest,
Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
So worthy a gentleman to be her bride? (145)

Juliet

Not proud you have, but thankful that you have.
Proud can I never be of what I hate,
But thankful even for hate that is meant love.

Capulet

How, how, how, how? Chopp'd-logic? What is this?
'Proud', and 'I thank you', and 'I thank you not' (150)
And yet 'not proud'? Mistress minion, you,
Thank me no thankings nor proud me no prouds,
But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next,
To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither. (155)
Out, you green-sickness carrion! Out, you baggage!
You tallow-face!

Lady Capulet

Fie, fie. What, are you mad?

Juliet

Good father, I beseech you on my knees,
She kneels down
Hear me with patience but to speak a word.

Capulet

Hang thee young baggage, disobedient wretch! (160)
I tell thee what - get thee to church a Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face.
Speak not, reply not, do not answer me.
My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest
That God had lent us but this only child; (165)
But now I see this one is one too much,
And that we have a curse in having her.
Out on her, hilding.

Nurse

God in heaven bless her.
You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so.

Capulet

And why, my Lady Wisdom? Hold your tongue, (170)
Good Prudence! Smatter with your gossips, go.

Nurse

I speak no treason.

Capulet

O, God ’i’ good e’en!

Nurse

May not one speak?

Capulet

Peace, you mumbling fool!
Utter your gravity o'er a gossip's bowl,
For here we need it not.

Lady Capulet

You are too hot. (175)

Capulet

God's bread, it makes me mad! Day, night, work, play,
Alone, in company, still my care hath been
To have her match'd. And having now provided
A gentleman of noble parentage,
Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly lign'd, (180)
Stuff'd, as they say, with honourable parts,
Proportion'd as one's thought would wish a man –
And then to have a wretched puling fool,
A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender,
To answer 'I'll not wed, I cannot love, (185)
I am too young, I pray you pardon me!'
But, as you will not wed, I'll pardon you!
Graze where you will, you shall not house with me.
Look to't, think on't, I do not use to jest.
Thursday is near. Lay hand on heart. Advise. (190)
And you be mine I'll give you to my friend;
And you be not, hang! Beg! Starve! Die in the streets!
For by my soul I'll ne'er acknowledge thee,
Nor what is mine shall never do thee good.
Trust to't, bethink you. I'll not be forsworn. (195)

Exit CAPULET

Juliet

Is there no pity sitting in the clouds
That sees into the bottom of my grief?
O sweet my mother, cast me not away,
Delay this marriage for a month, a week,
Or if you do not, make the bridal bed (200)
In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.

Lady Capulet

Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word.
Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.

Exit LADY CAPULET