Ro.

Is she a Capulet?

O dear account! my life is my foe's debt.
Ben. Away; begone: the sport is at the best.
Ro. Ay, so I fear; the more is my unrest.
1 Cap. Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone ;
We have a trifling foolish banquet towards.—
Is it ev'n so? Why, then I thank

you

all;

I thank you, honest gentlemen; good night.
More torches here!-Come on, then let's to bed.
Ah, sirrah, [to 2 Cap.] by my fay,1 it waxes late;
I'll to my rest. [Exeunt all but Juliet and Nurse.
Ju. Come hither, nurse: what is yon gentleman ?
Nurse. The son and heir of old Tiberio.

Ju. What's he, that now is going out of door?
Nurse. Marry, that, I think, be young Petruchio.
Ju. What's he, that follows there, that would
not dance?

Nurse. I know not.

Ju. Go, ask his name: if he be married, My grave is like to be my wedding bed.

Nurse. His name is Romeo, and a Montague;
The only son of your great enemy.

Ju. My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy.
Nurse. What's this? what's this?
Ju.

A rhyme I learn'd even now

1 Faith.

Of one I danced withal.

Nurse.

[one calls within, Juliet.'] Anon, anon:—

Come, let's away; the strangers all are gone.

Enter CHORUS.

Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie,
And young affection gapes to be his heir;

[Exeunt.

That fair, for which love groan'd for, and would die,

With tender Juliet match'd, is now not fair. Now Romeo is beloved, and loves again,

Alike bewitched by the charm of looks;

But to his foe supposed he must complain,

And she steal love's sweet bait from fearful hooks:

Being held a foe, he may not have access

To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear; And she as much in love, her means much less To meet her new-beloved any where :

But passion lends them power, time means to meet,

Tempering extremities with extreme sweet. [Exit.

ACT II.

SCENE I.

An open place, adjoining Capulet's garden.

Enter ROMEO.

Ro. Can I go forward, when my heart is here? Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out. [he climbs the wall, and leaps down within it.

Enter BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO.

Ben. Romeo! my cousin Romeo!

Mer.

He is wise;

And, on my life, hath stolen him home to bed.

Ben. He ran this way, and leap'd this orchard

wall:

Call, good Mercutio.

Mer.

Nay, I'll conjure too.―
Romeo! humors! madman! passion! lover!
Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh,
Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied:
Cry but―Ah me! couple but-love and dove;
Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word,
One nickname for her purblind son and heir,
Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim,
When king Cophetua loved the beggar-maid.1

In allusion to the old ballad of the king and the beggar.

He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not;
The ape1 is dead, and I must conjure him.-
I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes,
By her high forehead, and her scarlet lip,

By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh,
And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,

That in thy likeness thou appear to us.

Ben. An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him. Mer. This cannot anger him: 'twould anger him To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle

Of some strange nature, letting it there stand
Till she had laid it, and conjured it down;
That were some spite: my invocation

Is fair and honest; and, in his mistress' name,
I conjure only but to raise up him.

Ben. Come, he hath hid himself among those

trees,

To be consorted with the humorous night:

Blind is his love, and best befits the dark.

Mer. If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark. Now will he sit under a medlar tree,

And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit,
As maids call medlars, when they laugh alone.-
O, Romeo, that she were, ah, that she were
An open et cætera, thou a poprin pear!
Romeo, good night :-I'll to my truckle-bed; "
This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep.

This word, in Shakspeare's time, was used as an expression of tenderness

2 For humid.

3 A bed that runs on wheels

Come, shall we go?

Ben.

Go, then; for 'tis in vain

To seek him here, that means not to be found.

[Exeunt

SCENE II.

Capulet's garden.

Enter ROMEO.

Ro. He jests at scars, that never felt a wound.—

[Juliet appears above, at a window But, soft! what light through yonder window

breaks ?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!

Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,

Who is already sick and pale with grief,

That thou her maid art far more fair than she:

Be not her maid, since she is envious;

Her vestal livery is but sick and green,

And none but fools do wear it: cast it off.

It is my lady; O, it is

my

love!

O, that she knew she were!

She speaks, yet she says nothing: what of that?
Her
eye discourses; I will answer it.

I am too bold; 'tis not to me she speaks:
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those

stars,