If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully.-
Or if thou think'st I am too quickly won,
I'll frown, and be perverse, and say thee nay,
So thou wilt woo; but, else, not for the world.
In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond;

And therefore thou mayst think my havior light:
But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true
Than those that have more cunning to be strange.1
I should have been more strange, I must confess,
But that thou overheard'st, ere I was ware,
My true love's passion. Therefore pardon me;
And not impute this yielding to light love,
Which the dark night hath so discovered.

Rom. Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear,
That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops,-
Jul. O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,

Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.
Rom. What shall I swear by?

Do not swear at all;

Jul.
Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self,
Which is the god of my idolatry,

And I'll believe thee.

Rom.

If my heart's dear love—

Although I joy in thee,

Jul. Well, do not swear.

I have no joy of this contract to-night.

It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be,
Ere one can say-It lightens. Sweet, good night!
This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
Good night, good night! As sweet repose and rest
Come to thy heart, as that within my breast!

Rom. O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?
Jul. What satisfaction canst thou have to-night?
Rom. The exchange of thy love's faithful vow for
mine.

1 To be distant or shy.

2 All the intermediate lines from "Sweet, good night!" to "Stay but a little," &c. were added after the first impression in 1597.

Jul. I gave thee mine before thou didst request it; And yet I would it were to give again.

Rom. Wouldst thou withdraw it? For what purpose, love?

Jul. But to be frank, and give it thee again.
And yet I wish but for the thing I have.
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.

[Nurse calls within.
I hear some noise within; dear love, adieu!
Anon, good nurse !-Sweet Montague, be true.
Stay but a little, I will come again.

Rom. O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard, Being in night, all this is but a dream,

Too flattering-sweet to be substantial.

Re-enter JULIET, above.

[Exit.

Jul. Three words, dear Romeo, and good night, indeed.

If that thy bent of love be honorable,

Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow,
By one that I'll procure to come to thee,

Where, and what time, thou wilt perform the rite;
And all my fortunes at thy foot I'll lay,

And follow thee, my lord, throughout the world.
Nurse. [Within.] Madam !

Jul. I come anon.-But if thou mean'st not well, I do beseech thee,

Nurse. [Within.] Madam!

Jul.

By and by, I come :

To cease thy suit, and leave me to my grief:
To-morrow will I send.

Rom.

So thrive my soul,

Jul. A thousand times good night!

[Exit.

Rom. A thousand times the worse, to want thy

light.

Love goes toward love, as school-boys from their books; But love from love, toward school with heavy looks. [Retiring slowly.

Re-enter JULIET, above.

Jul. Hist! Romeo, hist!-O, for a falconer's voice, To lure this tassel-gentle1 back again!

Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud;)
Else would I tear the cave where echo lies,
And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine
With repetition of my Romeo's name.

Rom. It is my soul, that calls upon my name;
How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night,
Like softest music to attending ears!

Jul. Romeo!

Jul. I will not fail; 'tis twenty years till then. I have forgot why I did call thee back.

Rom. Let me stand here till thou remember it. Jul. I shall forget, to have thee still stand there, Remembering how I love thy company.

Rom. And I'll still stay, to have thee still forget, Forgetting any other home but this.

Jul. 'Tis almost morning; I would have thee gone; And yet no further than a wanton's bird;

Who lets it hop a little from her hand,
Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,
And with a silk thread plucks it back again,
So loving-jealous of his liberty.

Rom. I would I were thy bird.
Jul.
Sweet, so would I;
Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.

1 The tassel, or tiercel (for so it should be spelled), is the male of the gosshawk, and is said to be so called because it is a tierce or third less than the female. This is equally true of all birds of prey. This species of hawk had the epithet of gentle annexed to it, from the ease with which it was tamed, and its attachment to man.

2 The quarto of 1597 puts the cold, distant, and formal appellation Madam, into the mouth of Romeo.-The two subsequent quartos and the folio have "my niece." "My sweet" is the reading of the second folio.

Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say, Good night, till it be morrow. [Exit. Rom. Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy

breast!

'Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest!
Hence will I to my ghostly father's cell;
His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell.

SCENE III. Friar Laurence's Cell.

Enter FRIAR LAURENCE, with a basket.

[Exit.

Fri. The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,1

Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light;
And flecked 2 darkness like a drunkard reels

From forth day's path-way, made by Titan's wheels.3
Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye,
The day to cheer, and night's dank dew to dry,
I must fill up this osier cage of ours,

With baleful weeds, and precious-juiced flowers.
The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb;
What is her burying grave, that is her womb;
And from her womb children of divers kind
We sucking on her natural bosom find;
Many for many virtues excellent,

None but for some, and yet all different.
O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies

4

In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities;
For nought so vile that on the earth doth live,.
But to the earth some special good doth give;
Nor aught so good, but, strained from that fair use,
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse.

1 In the folio, and the three later quartos, these four lines are printed twice over, and given once to Romeo and once to the friar.

2 Flecked is spotted, dappled, streaked, or variegated.

3 This is the reading of the second folio. The quarto of 1597 reads :— "From forth day's path and Titan's firy wheels."

The quarto of 1599, and the folio, have “burning wheels."

4 Efficacious virtue.

Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied;
And vice sometime's by action dignified.
Within the infant rind of this small flower,
Poison hath residence, and med'cine power;
For this, being smelt, with that part1 cheers each part;
Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart.
Two such opposed foes encamp them still
In man as well as herbs, grace, and rude will;
And, where the worser is predominant,

Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.

Enter ROMEO.

Rom. Good morrow, father!

Benedicite!

Fri.
What early tongue so sweet saluteth me?—
Young son, it argues a distempered head,
So soon to bid good morrow to thy bed.
Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,
And where care lodges, sleep will never lie;
But where unbruised youth with unstuffed brain
Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign.
Therefore thy earliness doth me assure,

Thou art uproused by some distemperature;
Or if not so, then here I hit it right-

Our Romeo hath not been in bed to-night.

Rom. That last is true, the sweeter rest was mine. Fri. God pardon sin! wast thou with Rosaline? Rom. With Rosaline, my ghostly father? No; I have forgot that name, and that name's woe.

Fri. That's my good son; but where hast thou been, then?

Rom. I'll tell thee, ere thou ask it me again.

I have been feasting with mine enemy;

Where, on a sudden, one hath wounded me,
That's by me wounded; both our remedies
Within thy help and holy physic lies.

1 i. e. with its odor.

2 In the Anglo-Saxon and very old English, the third person plural of the present tense ends in eth, and often familiarly in es, as might be