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But old folks, many feign as they were dead;1
Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.

O here she comes!

Enter Nurse and PETER.

O honey nurse, what news?

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[Exit PETER.

why look'st thou sad?

Hast thou met with him? Send thy man away.
NURSE. Peter, stay at the gate.
JUL. Now, good sweet nurse,
Though news be sad, yet tell them merrily;
If good, thou sham'st the musick of sweet news
By playing it to me with so sour a face.

NURSE. I am weary, give me leave a while;
Fye, how my bones ake! What a jaunt3 have I had!
JUL. I would, thou hadst my bones, and I thy news:
Nay, come, I pray thee, speak; good, good nurse, speak.
NURSE. What haste? can you not stay a while?

Do you not see that I am out of breath?

JUL. How art thou out of breath, when thou hast breath To say to me that thou art out of breath?

The excuse that thou dost make in this delay,
Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse.
Is thy news good, or bad? answer to that;
Say either, and I'll stay the circumstance:
Let me be satisfied, Is't good or bad?

NURSE. Well, you have made a simple choice; you know not how to choose a man: Romeo! no, not he; though his face be better than any man's, yet his leg excels all men's; and for a hand and a foot, they are past compare: He is not the flower of courtesy, but, I'll warrant him as gentle as a lamb. What, have you dined at home?

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JUL. No, no: But all this did I know before;

What says he of our marriage? what of that?

NURSE. O, how my head akes! what a head have I! It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces.

My back o' t'other side. O, my back, my back! -
Beshrew your heart, for sending me about,
To catch my death with jaunting up and down!

1) That is, many old people are slow in their movements, as though they have no life in them.

2) Moved with difficulty,

ous.

3) An excursion, a short journey. The verb jaunting, used by the Nurse, a few lines lower down, means runponder-ning about in all directions. 4) Beyond comparison.

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ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT II. SC. VI.

JUL. I' faith, I am sorry that thou art not well: Sweet, sweet, sweet nurse, tell me, what says my love?1 NURSE. Your love says, like an honest gentleman, And a courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, And, I warrant, a virtuous: Where is your mother? JUL. Where is my mother? - why, she is within; Where should she be? How oddly thou reply'st; Your love says like an honest gentleman,

Where is your mother?

NURSE.

Marry, come up, I trow:

Is this the poultice for my aking bones?
Henceforward do your messages yourself.
JUL. Here's such a coil, 2

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come, what says Romeo? NURSE. Have you got leave to go to shrift to-day? JUL. I have.

NURSE. Then hie3 you hence to friar Laurence' cell, There stays a husband to make you a wife:

Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks,
They'll be in scarlet straight at any news.
Hie you to church; I must another way:
I am the drudge, and toil in your delight.
Go, I'll to dinner; hie you to the cell.

JUL. Hie to high fortune! honest nurse, farewell.

SCENE VI. Friar Laurence's Cell.

Enter FRIAR LAURENCE and ROMEO.

FRI. So smile the heavens upon this holy act,
That after-hours with sorrow chide us not.

ROM. Amen, amen! but come what sorrow can,
It cannot countervail the exchange of joy
That one short minute gives me in her sight:
Do thou but close our hands with holy words,
Then love-devouring death do what he dare,
It is enough I may but call her mine.

FRI. These violent delights have violent ends,
And in their triumph die; like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume: The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness,

1) My lover.

2) Tumult, bustle.

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3) To hasten, a word chiefly used

[Exeunt.

in poetry, often with the reciprocal
pronoun; as, hie thee home.
4) As they come in contact.

And in the taste confounds the appetite:
Therefore, love moderately; long love doth so;
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.

Enter JULIET.

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Here comes the lady: O, so light a foot
Will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint:

A lover may bestride the gossamers1
That idle in the wanton summer air,
And yet not fall; so light is vanity.

JUL. Good even to my ghostly cónfessor.

FRI. Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both.
JUL. As much to him, else are his thanks too much.
ROM. Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy

Be heap'd like mine, and that thy skill be more
To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath
This neighbour air, and let rich musick's tongue
Unfold the imagin'd happiness that both

Receive in either by this dear encounter.

JUL. Conceit,4 more rich in matter than in words,

5

Brags of his substance, not of ornament:

They are but beggars that can count their worth;

But my true love is grown to such excess,

I cannot sum up half my sum of wealth.

FRI. Come, come with me, and we will make short work; And holy church incorporate two in one."

[Exeunt.

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Enter MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, Page, and Servants.

BEN. I pray thee, good Mercutio, let's retire; The day is hot, the Capulets abroad,

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1) A fine, filmy substance, like cobwebs, floating in the air, especially in autumn on a stubble-field, and probably formed by a species of spider.

2) To paint, to display.
3) That is, the air around,
4) Imagination.

5) To be proud of any thing. 6) i. e. and holy church may legally unite you two.

7) It is observed, that in Italy almost all assassinations are committed during the heat of summer, and in the hot season the people for the most part are more unruly.

And, if we meet, we shall not 'scape a brawl;

For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.

MER. Thou art like one of those fellows, that, when he enters the confines of a tavern, claps me his sword upon the table, and says, Heaven send me no need of thee! and, by the operation of the second cup, draws it on the drawer, when, indeed, there is no need.

BEN. Am I like such a fellow?

MER. Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood as any in Italy; and as soon moved to be moody, and as soon moody to be moved.

BEN. And what to?

5

MER. Nay, an there were two such, we should have none shortly, for one would kill the other. Thou! why thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more, or a hair less, in his beard, than thou hast. Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes; What eye, but such an eye, would spy out such a quarrel? Thy head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of meat; and yet thy head hath been beaten as addle as an egg, for quarrelling. Thou hast quarrelled with a man for coughing in the street, because he hath wakened thy dog that hath lain asleep in the sun. Didst thou not fall out with a tailor for wearing his new doublet before Easter? with another, for tying his new shoes with` old riband? and yet thou wilt tutor me from quarrelling?

BEN. An I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any man should buy the fee-simple of my life for an hour and a quarter. MER. The fee-simple? O simple!

1) This word, the French confins, | boundery, border, edge, is used generally in the plural, and applied chiefly to countries, territories, cities, rivers, etc., and, we say, figuratively, the confines of light, of death or the grave.

2) There was formerly, in colloquial language, a redundant use made of the pronoun me, which now seems very strange. Instances of it occur very frequently in the writings of Shakspearc. See p. 50, 6).

3) One whose business is to draw liquors from the cask, a waiter.

4) Jack, the diminutive of John,

familiarly, a fellow, especially a cunning fellow.

5) Light brown, of the colour of a hazel.

6) Translate, full of yolk. 7) Producing nothing, barren. 8) Thou wilt endeavour to restrain me, by prudential advice, from quarrelling. Malone.

9) A fee-simple is what is called in law an allodial estate, an estate in which the owner has the whole property, in opposition to a limited fee; an estate limited or clogged with certain conditions. A fee is synonymous with fief and feud.

Enter TYBALT, and others.

BEN. By my head, here come the Capulets.
MER. By my heel, I care not.

TYB. Follow me close, for I will speak to them. Gentlemen, good den; a word with one of you.

MER. And but one word with one of us? Couple it with something; make it a word and a blow.

TYB. You will find me apt enough to that, sir, if you will give me occasion.

MER. Could you not take some occasion without giving?
TYB. Mercutio, thou consortest with Romeo,

MER. Consort? what, dost thou make us minstrels ?1an thou make minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords: here's my fiddlestick; here's that shall make you dance. Consort! BEN. We talk here in the publick haunt of men: Either withdraw into some private place,

Or reason coldly of your grievances,
Or else depart; here all eyes gaze on us.

2

MER. Men's eyes were made to look, and let them gaze; I will not budges for no man's pleasure, I.

Enter ROMEO.

TYB. Well, peace be with you, sir! here comes my man. MER. But I'll be hanged, sir, if he wear your livery: Marry, go before to field, he'll be your follower; Your worship, in that sense, may call him

man.'

TYB. Romeo, the hate I bear thee, can afford
No better term than this Thou art a villain.

ROM. Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee
Doth much excuse the appertaining_rage
To such a greeting: Villain am I none;
Therefore, farewell; I see, thou know'st me not.

TYB. Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries
That thou hast done me; therefore turn, and draw.
ROM. I do protest I never injur'd thee;

But love thee better than thou canst devise,
Till thou shalt know the reason of my love:
And so, good Capulet,

which name I tender 4

As dearly as mine own, be satisfied.

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1) Musicians. Mercutio takes of-ly resorts. Translate, in the street, fence at the word consort, which he on the market place. understands in its old meaning of concert.

2) A place to which one frequent

ROMEO AND JULIET.

3) To move off, to stir; but the use of the word is vulgar.

4) To hold, to esteem.

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