Shall I be married then tomorrow morning?

No, no, this shall forbid it. Lie thou there.

She lays down a knife

What if it be a poison which the friar

Subtly hath ministered to have me dead,

Lest in this marriage he should be dishonoured

Because he married me before to Romeo?

I fear it is—and yet methinks it should not,

For he hath still been tried a holy man.

How if, when I am laid into the tomb,

I wake before the time that Romeo

Come to redeem me? There’s a fearful point.

Shall I not then be stifled in the vault,

To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,

And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?

Or, if I live, is it not very like

The horrible conceit of death and night,

Together with the terror of the place—

As in a vault, an ancient receptacle

Where for this many hundred years the bones

Of all my buried ancestors are packed;

Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,

Lies fest‘ring in his shroud; where, as they say,

At some hours in the night spirits resort—

Alack, alack, is it not like that I,

So early waking—what with loathsome smells,

And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth,

That living mortals, hearing them, run mad—

O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,

Environèd with all these hideous fears,

And madly play with my forefathers’ joints,

And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud,

And, in this rage, with some great kinsman’s bone

As with a club dash out my desp’rate brains?

O, look! Methinks I see my cousin’s ghost

Seeking out Romeo that did spit his body

Upon a rapier’s point. Stay, Tybalt, stay!

Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here’s drink. I drink to thee.

She drinks from the vial and falls upon the bed, ⌈pulling closed the curtains⌉

4.4 Enter Capulet’s Wife, and the Nurse ⌈With herbs⌉

CAPULET’S WIFE

Hold, take these keys, and fetch more spices, Nurse.

NURSE

They call for dates and quinces in the pastry.

Enter Capulet

CAPULET

Come, stir, stir, stir! The second cock hath crowed.

The curfew bell hath rung. ’Tis three o’clock.

Look to the baked meats, good Angelica.

Spare not for cost.

NURSE Go, you cot-quean, go.

Get you to bed. Faith, you’ll be sick tomorrow

For this night’s watching.

CAPULET

No, not a whit. What, I have watched ere now

All night for lesser cause, and ne’er been sick.

CAPULET’S WIFE

Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time,

But I will watch you from such watching now.

Exeunt Capulet’s Wife and Nurse

CAPULET

A jealous-hood, a jealous-hood!

Enter three or four Servingmen, with spits and logs and baskets

Now, fellow, what is there?

FIRST SERVINGMAN

Things for the cook, sir, but I know not what.

CAPULET

Make haste, make haste.

Exit First Servingman ⌈and one or two others⌉

Sirrah, fetch drier logs.

Call Peter. He will show thee where they are.

SECOND SERVINGMAN

I have a head, sir, that will find out logs

And never trouble Peter for the matter.

CAPULET

Mass, and well said! A merry whoreson, ha!

Thou shalt be loggerhead. Exit Second Servingman

Good faith, ’tis day.

The County will be here with music straight,

For so he said he would.

Music plays within

I hear him near.

Nurse! Wife! What ho, what, Nurse, I say!

Enter the Nurse

Go waken Juliet. Go and trim her up.

I’ll go and chat with Paris. Hie, make haste,

Make haste, the bridegroom he is come already.

Make haste, I say. Exit

NURSE

Mistress, what, mistress! Juliet! Fast, I warrant her, she.

Why, lamb, why, lady! Fie, you slug-abed!

Why, love, I say, madam, sweetheart, why, bride!

What, not a word? You take your pennyworths now.

Sleep for a week, for the next night, I warrant,

The County Paris hath set up his rest

That you shall rest but little. God forgive me!

Marry, and amen. How sound is she asleep!

I needs must wake her. Madam, madam, madam!

Ay, let the County take you in your bed.

He’ll fright you up, i’faith. Will it not be?

⌈She draws back the curtains⌉

What, dressed and in your clothes, and down again?

I must needs wake you. Lady, lady, lady!

Alas, alas! Help, help! My lady’s dead.

O welladay, that ever I was born!

Some aqua-vitae, ho! My lord, my lady!

Enter Capulet’s Wife

CAPULET’S WIFE

What noise is here?

NURSE O lamentable day!

CAPULET’S WIFE

What is the matter?

NURSE Look, look. O heavy day!

CAPULET’S WIFE

O me, O me, my child, my only life!

Revive, look up, or I will die with thee.

Help, help, call help!

Enter Capulet

CAPULET

For shame, bring Juliet forth. Her lord is come.

NURSE

She’s dead, deceased. She’s dead, alack the day!

CAPULET’S WIFE

Alack the day, she’s dead, she’s dead, she’s dead!

CAPULET

Ha, let me see her! Out, alas, she’s cold.

Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff.

Life and these lips have long been separated.

Death lies on her like an untimely frost