I never should forget it. ‘Wilt thou not, Jule?’ quoth he,

And, pretty fool, it stinted and said ‘Ay’.

CAPULET’S WIFE

Enough of this. I pray thee hold thy peace.

NURSE

Yes, madam. Yet I cannot choose but laugh

To think it should leave crying and say ‘Ay’.

And yet, I warrant, it had upon it brow

A bump as big as a young cock‘rel’s stone.

A perilous knock, and it cried bitterly.

‘Yea,’ quoth my husband, ‘fall’st upon thy face?

Thou wilt fall backward when thou com’st to age,

Wilt thou not, Jule?’ It stinted and said ‘Ay’.

JULIET

And stint thou too, I pray thee, Nurse, say I.

NURSE

Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace,

Thou wast the prettiest babe that e’er I nursed.

An I might live to see thee married once,

I have my wish.

CAPULET’S WIFE

Marry, that ’marry’ is the very theme

I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet,

How stands your dispositions to be married?

JULIET

It is an honour that I dream not of.

NURSE

‘An honour’! Were not I thine only nurse,

I would say thou hadst sucked wisdom from thy teat.

CAPULET’S WIFE

Well, think of marriage now. Younger than you

Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,

Are made already mothers. By my count

I was your mother much upon these years

That you are now a maid. Thus then, in brief:

The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.

NURSE

A man, young lady, lady, such a man

As all the world—why, he’s a man of wax.

CAPULET’S WIFE

Verona’s summer hath not such a flower.

NURSE

Nay, he’s a flower, in faith, a very flower.

CAPULET’S WIFE (to Juliet)

What say you ? Can you love the gentleman ?

This night you shall behold him at our feast.

Read o‘er the volume of young Paris’ face,

And find delight writ there with beauty’s pen.

Examine every married lineament,

And see how one another lends content;

And what obscured in this fair volume lies

Find written in the margin of his eyes.

This precious book of love, this unbound lover,

To beautify him only lacks a cover.

The fish lives in the sea, and ’tis much pride

For fair without the fair within to hide.

That book in many’s eyes doth share the glory

That in gold clasps locks in the golden story.

So shall you share all that he doth possess

By having him, making yourself no less.

NURSE

No less, nay, bigger. Women grow by men.

CAPULET’s WIFE (to Juliet)

Speak briefly: can you like of Paris’ love?

JULIET

I’ll look to like, if looking liking move;

But no more deep will I endart mine eye

Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.

Enter ⌈Peter⌉

⌈PETER⌉ Madam, the guests are come, supper served up,

you called, my young lady asked for, the Nurse cursed

in the pantry, and everything in extremity. I must hence

to wait. I beseech you follow straight.

CAPULET’S WIFE

We follow thee. Exit ⌈Peter⌉

Juliet, the County stays.

NURSE

Go, girl; seek happy nights to happy days. Exeunt

1.4 Enter Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio, as masquers, with five or six other masquers, ⌈bearing a drum and torches⌉

ROMEO

What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse,

Or shall we on without apology?

BENVOLIO

The date is out of such prolixity.

We’ll have no Cupid hoodwinked with a scarf,

Bearing a Tartar’s painted bow of lath,

Scaring the ladies like a crowkeeper,

Nor no without-book Prologue faintly spoke

After the prompter for our entrance.

But let them measure us by what they will,

We’ll measure them a measure, and be gone.

ROMEO

Give me a torch. I am not for this ambling;

Being but heavy, I will bear the light.

MERCUTIO

Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.

ROMEO

Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes

With nimble soles; I have a soul of lead

So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.

MERCUTIO

You are a lover; borrow Cupid’s wings,

And soar with them above a common bound.

ROMEO

I am too sore empiercèd with his shaft

To soar with his light feathers, and so bound

I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe;

Under love’s heavy burden do I sink.

MERCUTIO

And to sink in it should you burden love—

Too great oppression for a tender thing.

ROMEO

Is love a tender thing? It is too rough,

Too rude, too boist’rous, and it pricks like thorn.

MERCUTIO

If love be rough with you, be rough with love.

Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.

Give me a case to put my visage in,

A visor for a visor. What care I

What curious eye doth quote deformity?

Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me.

⌈They put on visors⌉

BENVOLIO

Come, knock and enter, and no sooner in

But every man betake him to his legs.

ROMEO

A torch for me. Let wantons light of heart

Tickle the sense-less rushes with their heels,

For I am proverbed with a grandsire phrase.

I’ll be a candle-holder and look on.

The game was ne’er so fair, and I am done.

⌈He takes a torch⌉

MERCUTIO

Tut, dun’s the mouse, the constable’s own word.