Have you delivered to her our decree?

CAPULET’S WIFE

Ay, sir, but she will none, she gives you thanks.

I would the fool were married to her grave.

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?

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—chopped logic? What is this?

‘Proud’, and ‘I thank you’, and ’I thank you not’,

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.

Out, you green-sickness carrion! Out, you baggage,

You tallow-face!

CAPULET’S WIFE Fie, fie, what, are you mad?

JULIET (kneeling)

Good father, I beseech you on my knees,

Hear me with patience but to speak a word.

CAPULET

Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch!

I tell thee what: get thee to church o’ Thursday,

Or never after look me in the face.

Speak not, reply not, do not answer me.

⌈Juliet rises⌉

My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest

That God had lent us but this only child,

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,

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.

CAPULET’S WIFE You are too hot.

CAPULET

God’s bread, it makes me mad. Day, night; work, play;

Alone, in company, still my care hath been

To have her matched; and having now provided

A gentleman of noble parentage,

Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly lined,

Stuffed, as they say, with honourable parts,

Proportioned as one’s thought would wish a man—

And then to have a wretched puling fool,

A whining maumet, in her fortune’s tender,

To answer ‘I’ll not wed, I cannot love;

I am too young, I pray you pardon me’!

But an 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.

An you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend.

An 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. Exit

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

In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.

CAPULET’S WIFE

Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word.

Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee. Exit

JULIET

O, God—ONurse, how shall this be prevented?

My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven.

How shall that faith return again to earth

Unless that husband send it me from heaven

By leaving earth? Comfort me, counsel me.

Alack, alack, that heaven should practise stratagems

Upon so soft a subject as myself!

What sayst thou? Hast thou not a word of joy?

Some comfort, Nurse.

NURSE Faith, here it is: Romeo

Is banished, and all the world to nothing

That he dares ne‘er come back to challenge you,

Or if he do, it needs must be by stealth.

Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,

I think it best you married with the County.

O, he’s a lovely gentleman!

Romeo’s a dishclout to him. An eagle, madam,

Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye

As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,

I think you are happy in this second match,

For it excels your first; or if it did not,

Your first is dead, or ’twere as good he were

As living hence and you no use of him.

JULIET Speak’st thou from thy heart?

NURSE

And from my soul, too, else beshrew them both.

JULIET Amen.

NURSE What?

JULIET

Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much.

Go in; and tell my lady I am gone,

Having displeased my father, to Laurence’ cell

To make confession and to be absolved.

NURSE

Marry, I will; and this is wisely done. ⌈Exit⌉

JULIET (watching her go)

Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!

Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn,

Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue

Which she hath praised him with above compare