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ROM. Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take. Thus from my lips by thine my sin is purged.

[Kissing her. JUL. Then have my lips the sin that they have

took.

ROM. Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again.

JUL.

You kiss by the book. NURSE. Madam, your mother craves a word with

you.

ROM. What is her mother?

NURSE.

Marry, bachelor,

110

Her mother is the lady of the house,

And a good lady, and a wise and virtuous:

I nursed her daughter, that you talk'd withal;
I tell you, he that can lay hold of her

Shall have the chinks.

ROM.

Is she a Capulet?

O dear account! my life is my foe's debt.
BEN. Away, be gone; the sport is at the best.
ROм. Ay, so I fear; the more is my unrest.
CAP. Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone;
We have a trifling foolish banquet towards.
Is it e'en so? why, then, I thank you all;

I thank you, honest gentlemen; good night.
More torches here! Come on then, let's to bed.

108 by the book] by rule, methodically.

Cf. I, iv, 39, supra.

115 the chinks] a colloquialism, which is still in use, for coin, money.
116 my life . . . debt] my life is at the mercy of my foe.
117 the sport. . . best] the best of the sport is over.
banquet towards] a . . . dessert ready, at hand.

120 a.

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120

Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late:

I'll to my rest.

JUL. Come hither, nurse.

[Exeunt all but Juliet and Nurse.

What is yond gentleman ?

NURSE. The son and heir of old Tiberio.

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

NURSE. I know not.

JUL. 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.

JUL. 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?
JUL.

A rhyme I learn'd even now
[One calls within "Juliet."

Of one I danced withal.

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

124 by my fay] by my faith.

130

140

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Enter Chorus

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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

PROLOGUE] See note on Act I, Prologue, 1-14.

2 gapes] yearns, longs.

3 That fair] That beauty.

The second "for" in this line is redundant.

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.

SCENE I-A LANE BY THE WALL OF CAPULET'S

ORCHARD

Enter ROMEO, alone

ROM. 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 with MERCUTIO

BEN. Romeo! my cousin Romeo!
MER.

He is wise;

And, on my life, hath stol'n 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! humours! madman! passion! lover!

Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh:

Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied;

14 Tempering . . . sweet] Compensating for the extremity of the perils with the acme of pleasure.

2 dull earth] the earthlier portion of Romeo's being, of which the "centre" is his soul. Cf. Sonnet cxlvi, 1: "Poor soul, the centre of this sinful earth," and I, ii, 15, supra, and note.

7 humours] whimsical fancies.

10

Cry but "ay me!" pronounce but "love" and "dove;" 10
Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word,

One nick-name for her purblind son and heir,
Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim
When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid!
He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not;
The ape 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: 't would anger him

11 gossip] crony.

13 Young Adam Cupid] Adam is Upton's emendation of the old reading Abraham. The change is supported by Much Ado, I, i, 223-224: "he that hits me let him be . . . called Adam” (i. e., a model marksman), in reference to the famous archer of ballad tradition, Adam Bell. Abraham is sometimes justified on the ground that the word was both used for the colour of “auburn” or “flaxen” hair, and was also applied to a beggarman. Both meanings might conceivably fit Cupid, but neither is relevant to the marksmanship with which he is credited here. Adam is probably the right reading. trim] Thus the First Quarto. The other early editions read true. But the words here are a quotation from the popular ballad of King Cophetua and the beggar-maid mentioned in the next line. That ballad has a stanza beginning with the line "The blinded boy that shoots so trim."

14 King Cophetua . . . beggar-maid] Shakespeare again refers to the popular ballad on this old tale in L. L. L., I, ii, 106, IV, i, 64, and 2 Hen. IV, V, iii, 106.

16 The ape] The poor fool; often used with a tender meaning.

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