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BEN. Then she hath sworn, that she will still live chaste? ROM. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste;1 For beauty, starv'd with her severity,

Cuts beauty off from all posterity.

She is too fair, too wise; wisely too fair, 2
To merit bliss by making me despair:
She hath forsworn to love; and in that vow,
Do I live dead, that live to tell it now.

BEN. Be rul'd by me, forget to think of her.
ROM. O, teach me how I should forget to think.
BEN. By giving liberty unto thine eyes;
Examine other beauties.

ROM.

"Tis the way

To call hers, exquisite, in question more:3
These happy masks, that kiss fair ladies brows, 4
Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair;
He, that is strucken blind, cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost;
Show me a mistress that is passing fair,5.
What doth her beauty serve, but as a note
Where I may read, who pass'd that passing fair?
Farewell; thou canst not teach me to forget.
BEN. I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt.

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[Exeunt.

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Enter CAPULET, PARIS, and Servant.

CAP. And Montague is bound as well as I, In penalty alike; and 'tis not hard, I think, For men so old as we to keep the peace.

PAR. Of honourable reckoning" are you both;

her graces to the grave, and leave | ject of thought and conversation. the world no copy." Malone.

1) i. e. in that parsimony she shows a very great prodigality.

2) There is in her too much sanctimonious wisdom united with beauty, which induces her to continue chaste with the hopes of attaining heavenly bliss. Malone.

3) More into talk; to make her unparalleled beauty more the sub

Malone.

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And pity 'tis, you liv'd at odds1 so long.
But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?

CAP. But saying o'er what I have said before:
My child is yet a stranger in the world,
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;
Let two more summers wither in their pritë,
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.

PAR. Younger than she are happy mothers made.?
CAP. And too soon marr'd are those so early made.3
The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she, 4
She is the hopeful lady of my earth:5
But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,
My will to her consent is but a part;
An she agree, within her scope of choice
Lies my consent and fair according voice.
This night I hold an old accustom'd feast,
Whereto I have invited many a guest,

Such as I love; and you, among the store,
One more, most welcome, makes my number more.
At my poor house, look to behold this night
Earth-treading stars, that make dark heaven light:7
Such comfort, as do lusty young men feel
When well-apparell'd April on the heel
Of limping 10 winter treads, even such delight
Among fresh female buds shall you this night
Inherit at my house; hear all, all see,
And like her most, whose merit most shall be:
Such, amongst view of many, mine, being one,

1) Quarrel, dispute.

2) Are made, have become.

3) To mar, to injure, to spoil, to damage. This is perhaps intended to be an allusion to Making and marring, an unlawful game of that time. 4) Except her.

5) She is my only remaining child. Here earth is singularly used for land, landed estate. Lady of my earth, for heiress or mistress of my land. Steevens judges this phrase to be a Gallicism, fille de terre meaning an heiress.

6) To, in this instance, signifies in comparison with, in proportion to.

shine the stars of heaven, and make them appear dark by their own superior brightness; a poetical expression, as we likewise speak of beauties that eclipse the sun.

8) The old man tells Paris that he should feel the same sort of pleasure in an assembly of beauties, which young folk feel in that season when they are most gay and amorous.

9) i. e. the fairly dressed, the bloomy spring.

10) To limp, to walk lamely.

11) To inherit, in the language of Shakspeare's age, is to possess. Ma

7) That is, earthly stars that out-lone.

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May stand in number, though in reckoning none.
Come, go with me: Go, sirrah,2 trudge about3
Through fair Verona; find those persons out,

Whose names are written there, [Gives a Paper.] and to them say,

My house and welcome on their pleasure stay.

[Exeunt CAPULET and PARIS. SERV, Find them out, whose names are written here? It is written that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard, and the tailor with his last, the fisher with his pencil, and the painter with his nets; but I am sent to find those persons, whose names are here writ, and can never find what names the writing person hath here writ. I must to the learned: In good time.

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Enter BENVOLIO and ROMEO.

BEN. Tut, man! one fire burns out another's burning,
One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish;

Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning:

One desperate grief cure with another's languish :
Take thou some new infection to thy eye,
And the rank poison of the old will die.

ROM. Your plantain leaf is excellent for that.
BEN. For what, I pray thee?

ROM.

For your broken shin."
BEN. Why, Romeo, art thou mad?

ROM. Not mad, but bound more than a madman is:
Shut up in prison, kept without my food,

Whipp'd, and tormented, and Good e'en, good fellow, SERV. God gi' good e'en. I pray, sir, can you read? ROм. Ay, mine own fortune in my misery.

SERV. Perhaps you have learn'd it without book: But I pray, can you read any thing you see?

1) My daughter will, it is true, be one of the number, but her beauty can be of no reckoning (i. e. estimation) among those you will see here. Reckoning for estimation, is used before in the fourth line of this very

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3) To trudge, to march with labour.

4) The old preterit and part. pass. of help.

5) Strong in quality.

6) A well known plant, whose leaves were supposed to have great virtue in curing wounds.

7) The forepart of the leg; compare the German Schienbein. 8) i. e. God give good evening.

Roм. Ay, if I know the letters, and the language.
SERV. Ye say honestly: Rest you merry!1
ROM. Stay, fellow; I can read.

[Reads.

Signior MARTINO, and his wife and daughters; County 2 ANSELME, and his beauteous sisters; The lady widow of VITRUVIO; Signior PLACENTIO, and his lovely nieces; MERCUTIO, and his brother VALENTINE; Mine uncle CAPULET, his wife, and daughters; My fair niece ROSALINE; LIVIA; Signior VALENTIO, and his cousin TYBALT; LUCIO, and the lively HELENA. A fair assembly; [Gives back the Note.] Whither should they

come?

SERV. Up.

ROM. Whither?

SERV. To supper; to our house.

ROм. Whose house?

SERV. My master's.

ROM. Indeed, I should have asked you that before.

SERV. Now I'll tell you without asking: My master is the great rich Capulet; and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray, come and crush a cup of wine. 3 Rest you

merry.

BEN. At this same ancient feast of Capulet's
Sups the fair Rosaline, whom thou so lov'st;
With all the admir'd beauties of Verona.
Go thither; and, with unattainted eye,
Compare her face with some that I shall show,
And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.

[Exit.

ROM. When the devout religion of mine eye Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires! And these, who, often drown'd, could never die, Transparent hereticks, be burnt for liars!

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One fairer than my love!" the all-seeing sun
Ne'er saw her match, since first the world begun.
BEN. Tut! you saw her fair, none else being by,
Herself pois'd with herself in either eye:

1) i. e. be happy; farewell. 2) Obsolete, for a count or lord. 3) i. e. to master or drink it; compare the German, ausstechen. This cant expression seems to have been once common among low people. They still say, in cant language to crack a bottle.

4) Not corrupted.

5) Pious faith or worship.

6) She whom I love; love for ob ject beloved.

7) One equal to another; one able to contest with another.

8) To poise, the French peser, to

But in those crystal scales, let there be weigh'd
Your lady's love against some other maid.
That I will show you, shining at this feast,

And she shall scant2 show well, that now shows best.
ROM. I'll go along, no such sight to be shown,
But to rejoice in splendour of mine own.

SCENE III. A Room in Capulet's House.

Enter LADY CAPULET and Nurse.

[Exeunt.

LA. CAP. Nurse, where's my daughter? call her forth

to me.

NURSE. What, lamb! what, lady-bird! what, Juliet!

JUL. How now, who calls?

NURSE.

JUL.

What is your will?

Enter JULIET.

Your mother.

Madam,3 I am here,

Nurse, give leave awhile,

LA. CAP. This is the matter:

We must talk in secret. Nurse, come back again;

I have remember'd me, thou shalt hear our counsel.
Thou know'st, my daughter's of a pretty age.

NURSE. Yes, I can tell her age unto an hour.
LA. CAP. She's not fourteen.

NURSE. I'll lay And yet, to my teen She is not fourteen: To Lammas - tide? 6 LA. CAP.

fourteen of my teeth,

be it spoken, I have but four, How long is it now

A fortnight, and odd' days.
NURSE. Even or odd, of all days in the year,
Come Lammas - eve at night, shall she be fourteen.
Susan and she were of an age, but Susan's dead;
She was too good for me: But as I said,

On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen;
That shall she, marry; I remember it well.

balance in weight; to examine, as by the balance; to weigh.

1) Your lady's love, the love you bear to your lady, used for the lady herself.

2) Scarcely, hardly.

3) Translate, gracious mother. 4) To wager, to pledge.

5) To my sorrow; to my grief.

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This old word is introduced by Shakspeare for the sake of the jingle between teen, and four, and fourteen.

6) The first day of August. Lammas, contracted from loaf-mass, breadfeast, or feast of first fruits.

7) Odd means, not even, i. e. in this phrase, something over a definite number.

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