Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Act 1 - Scene 2
A street.
Romeo : When the devout religion of mine eye
[p]Maintains such falsehood, then
turn tears to fires;
[p]And these, who often drown'd could never
die,
[p]Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars!
[p]One fairer than
my love! the all-seeing sun
[p]Ne'er saw her match since first the
world begun.
Benvolio : Tut, you saw her fair, none else being by,
[p]Herself poised with
herself in either eye:
[p]But in that crystal scales let there be
weigh'd
[p]Your lady's love against some other maid
[p]That I will
show you shining at this feast,
[p]And she shall scant show well that
now shows best.
Romeo : I'll go along, no such sight to be shown,
[p]But to rejoice in
splendor of mine own.
Capulet : But Montague is bound as well as I,
[p]In penalty alike; and 'tis not
hard, I think,
[p]For men so old as we to keep the peace.
Paris : Of honourable reckoning are you both;
[p]And pity 'tis you lived at
odds so long.
[p]But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?
Capulet : But saying o'er what I have said before:
[p]My child is yet a stranger
in the world;
[p]She hath not seen the change of fourteen
years,
[p]Let two more summers wither in their pride,
[p]Ere we may
think her ripe to be a bride.
Paris : Younger than she are happy mothers made.
Capulet : And too soon marr'd are those so early made.
[p]The earth hath
swallow'd all my hopes but she,
[p]She is the hopeful lady of my
earth:
[p]But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,
[p]My will to her
consent is but a part;
[p]An she agree, within her scope of
choice
[p]Lies my consent and fair according voice.
[p]This night I
hold an old accustom'd feast,
[p]Whereto I have invited many a
guest,
[p]Such as I love; and you, among the store,
[p]One more, most
welcome, makes my number more.
[p]At my poor house look to behold this
night
[p]Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light:
[p]Such
comfort as do lusty young men feel
[p]When well-apparell'd April on
the heel
[p]Of limping winter treads, even such delight
[p]Among fresh
female buds shall you this night
[p]Inherit at my house; hear all, all
see,
[p]And like her most whose merit most shall be:
[p]Which on more
view, of many mine being one
[p]May stand in number, though in
reckoning none,
[p]Come, go with me.
[p][To Servant, giving a
paper]
[p]Go, sirrah, trudge about
[p]Through fair Verona; find those
persons out
[p]Whose names are written there, and to them say,
[p]My
house and welcome on their pleasure stay.
Servant : Find them out whose names are written here! It is
[p]written, that the
shoemaker should meddle with his
[p]yard, and the tailor with his
last, the fisher with
[p]his pencil, and the painter with his nets;
but I am
[p]sent to find those persons whose names are here
[p]writ,
and can never find what names the writing
[p]person hath here writ. I
must to the learned.--In good time.
Benvolio : Tut, man, one fire burns out another's burning,
[p]One pain is
lessen'd by another's anguish;
[p]Turn giddy, and be holp by backward
turning;
[p]One desperate grief cures with another's languish:
[p]Take
thou some new infection to thy eye,
[p]And the rank poison of the old
will die.
Romeo : Your plaintain-leaf is excellent for that.
Benvolio : For what, I pray thee?
Romeo : For your broken shin.
Benvolio : Why, Romeo, art thou mad?
Romeo : Not mad, but bound more than a mad-man is;
[p]Shut up in prison, kept
without my food,
[p]Whipp'd and tormented and--God-den, good fellow.
Servant : God gi' god-den. I pray, sir, can you read?
Romeo : Ay, mine own fortune in my misery.
Servant : Perhaps you have learned it without book: but, I
[p]pray, can you read
any thing you see?
Romeo : Ay, if I know the letters and the language.
Servant : Ye say honestly: rest you merry!
Romeo : Stay, fellow; I can read.
[p][Reads]
[p]'Signior Martino and his wife
and daughters;
[p]County Anselme and his beauteous sisters; the
lady
[p]widow of Vitravio; Signior Placentio and his lovely
[p]nieces;
Mercutio and his brother Valentine; mine
[p]uncle Capulet, his wife
and daughters; my fair niece
[p]Rosaline; Livia; Signior Valentio and
his cousin
[p]Tybalt, Lucio and the lively Helena.' A
fair
[p]assembly: whither should they come?
Servant : Up.
Romeo : Whither?
Servant : To supper; to our house.
Romeo : Whose house?
Servant : My master's.
Romeo : Indeed, I should have ask'd you that before.
Servant : Now I'll tell you without asking: my master is the
[p]great rich
Capulet; and if you be not of the house
[p]of Montagues, I pray, come
and crush a cup of wine.
[p]Rest you merry!
Benvolio : At this same ancient feast of Capulet's
[p]Sups the fair Rosaline whom
thou so lovest,
[p]With all the admired beauties of Verona:
[p]Go
thither; and, with unattainted eye,
[p]Compare her face with some that
I shall show,
[p]And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.
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