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 here, and you no use of him.

Ju. Speakest thou from thy heart?
Nurse.

Or else beshrew them both.

Ju.

Nurse.

From my soul too;

Amen!

To what?

Ju. 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.

Ju. 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 So many thousand times ?—Go, counsellor; Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.— I'll to the friar, to know his remedy;

If all else fail, myself have power to die. [Exit.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.

Friar Laurence's cell.

Enter FRIAR Laurence and PARIS.

F. Lau. On Thursday, sir? the time is very short.

Pa. My father Capulet will have it so ;

And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.

F. Lau. You say, you do not know the lady's mind:

Uneven is the course; I like it not.

Pa. Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death, And therefore have I little talk'd of love; For Venus smiles not in a house of tears. Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous, That she doth give her sorrow so much sway; And, in his wisdom, hastes our marriage, To stop the inundation of her tears; Which, too much minded by herself alone, May be put from her by society.

Now do you know the reason of this haste.

F. Lau. I would I knew not why it should be

slow'd.

[aside.

Look, sir, here comes the lady towards my cell.

Enter JULIET.

Pa. Happily met, my lady, and my wife!
Ju. That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.

Pa. That may be, must be, love, on Thursday

next.

Ju. What must be shall be.

F. Lau.

That's a certain text.

Pa. Come you to make confession to this father?
Ju. To answer that were to confess to you.
Pa. Do not deny to him, that you love me.
Ju. I will confess to you, that I love him.
Pa. So will you, I am sure, that you love me.
Ju. If I do so, it will be of more price,

Being spoke behind your back, than to your face.
Pa. Poor soul, thy face is much abused with

tears.

Ju. The tears have got small victory by that;

For it was bad enough before their spite.

Pa. Thou wrong'st it, more than tears, with that

report.

Ju. That is no slander, sir, that is a truth;

And what I spake, I spake it to my face.

Pa. Thy face is mine, and thou hast slander'd it.

Ju. It may be so, for it is not mine own.—

Are you at leisure, holy father, now;

Or shall I come to you at evening mass?

F. Lau. My leisure serves me, pensive daughter,

now.

My lord, we must entreat the time alone.

Pa. God shield, I should disturb devotion !—
Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse you:
Till then, adieu! and keep this holy kiss.

[Exit Paris.

Ju. O, shut the door; and when thou hast done

So,

Come weep with me; past hope, past cure, past

help!

F. Lau. Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief;
It strains me past the compass of my wits.

I hear thou must, and nothing must prorogue it,
On Thursday next be married to this county.

Ju. Tell me not, friar, that thou hear'st of this, Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it.

If, in thy wisdom, thou canst give no help,
Do thou but call my resolution wise,
And with this knife I'll help it presently.

God join'd my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands;
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo seal'd,
Shall be the label to another deed,

Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
Turn to another, this shall slay them both:
Therefore, out of thy long-experienced time,
Give me some present counsel; or, behold,
'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
Shall play the umpire; arbitrating that,
Which the commission of thy years and art
Could to no issue of true honor bring.

1 Authority, power.

Be not so long to speak; I long to die,

If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy.

F. Lau. Hold, daughter: I do spy a kind of hope,

Which craves as desperate an execution

As that is desperate which we would prevent.
If, rather than to marry county Paris,

Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself;
Then is it likely, thou wilt undertake

A thing like death to chide away this shame,
That copest with death himself to scape from it;
And, if thou darest, I'll give thee remedy.

Ju. O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
From off the battlements of yonder tower;
Or walk in thievish ways; or bid me lurk
Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears;
Or shut me nightly in a charnel-house,

O'ercover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones,
With reeky shanks, and yellow chapless sculls;
Or bid me go into a new-made grave,

And hide me with a dead man in his shroud;

Things that, to hear them told, have made me

tremble;

And I will do it without fear or doubt,

To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love.

F. Lau. Hold, then; go home; be merry; give

To marry

consent

Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow:

To-morrow night look that thou lie alone;

Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber.
Take thou this phial, being then in bed,