Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Act 1 - Scene 3
A room in Capulet’s house.
Lady Capulet : Nurse, where's my daughter? call her forth to me.
Nurse : Now, by my maidenhead, at twelve year old,
[p]I bade her come. What,
lamb! what, ladybird!
[p]God forbid! Where's this girl? What, Juliet!
Juliet : How now! who calls?
Nurse : Your mother.
Juliet : Madam, I am here.
[p]What is your will?
Lady Capulet : This is the matter:--Nurse, give leave awhile,
[p]We must talk in
secret:--nurse, come back again;
[p]I have remember'd me, thou's hear
our counsel.
[p]Thou know'st my daughter's of a pretty age.
Nurse : Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.
Lady Capulet : She's not fourteen.
Nurse : I'll lay fourteen of my teeth,--
[p]And yet, to my teeth be it spoken,
I have but four--
[p]She is not fourteen. How long is it now
[p]To
Lammas-tide?
Lady Capulet : A fortnight and odd days.
Nurse : Even or odd, of all days in the year,
[p]Come Lammas-eve at night
shall she be fourteen.
[p]Susan and she--God rest all Christian
souls!--
[p]Were of an age: well, Susan is with God;
[p]She was too
good for me: but, as I said,
[p]On Lammas-eve at night shall she be
fourteen;
[p]That shall she, marry; I remember it well.
[p]'Tis since
the earthquake now eleven years;
[p]And she was wean'd,--I never shall
forget it,--
[p]Of all the days of the year, upon that day:
[p]For I
had then laid wormwood to my dug,
[p]Sitting in the sun under the
dove-house wall;
[p]My lord and you were then at Mantua:--
[p]Nay, I
do bear a brain:--but, as I said,
[p]When it did taste the wormwood on
the nipple
[p]Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,
[p]To see it
tetchy and fall out with the dug!
[p]Shake quoth the dove-house: 'twas
no need, I trow,
[p]To bid me trudge:
[p]And since that time it is
eleven years;
[p]For then she could stand alone; nay, by the
rood,
[p]She could have run and waddled all about;
[p]For even the day
before, she broke her brow:
[p]And then my husband--God be with his
soul!
[p]A' was a merry man--took up the child:
[p]'Yea,' quoth he,
'dost thou fall upon thy face?
[p]Thou wilt fall backward when thou
hast more wit;
[p]Wilt thou not, Jule?' and, by my holidame,
[p]The
pretty wretch left crying and said 'Ay.'
[p]To see, now, how a jest
shall come about!
[p]I warrant, an I should live a thousand
years,
[p]I never should forget it: 'Wilt thou not, Jule?' quoth
he;
[p]And, pretty fool, it stinted and said 'Ay.'
Lady Capulet : Enough of this; I pray thee, hold thy peace.
Nurse : Yes, madam: yet I cannot choose but laugh,
[p]To think it should leave
crying and say 'Ay.'
[p]And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow
[p]A
bump as big as a young cockerel's stone;
[p]A parlous knock; and it
cried bitterly:
[p]'Yea,' quoth my husband,'fall'st upon thy
face?
[p]Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age;
[p]Wilt thou
not, Jule?' it stinted and said 'Ay.'
Juliet : And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse, say I.
Nurse : Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace!
[p]Thou wast the
prettiest babe that e'er I nursed:
[p]An I might live to see thee
married once,
[p]I have my wish.
Lady Capulet : Marry, that 'marry' is the very theme
[p]I came to talk of. Tell me,
daughter Juliet,
[p]How stands your disposition to be married?
Juliet : It is an honour that I dream not of.
Nurse : An honour! were not I thine only nurse,
[p]I would say thou hadst
suck'd wisdom from thy teat.
Lady Capulet : Well, think of marriage now; younger than you,
[p]Here in Verona,
ladies of esteem,
[p]Are made already mothers: by my count,
[p]I was
your mother much upon these years
[p]That you are now a maid. Thus
then in brief:
[p]The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.
Nurse : A man, young lady! lady, such a man
[p]As all the world--why, he's a
man of wax.
Lady Capulet : Verona's summer hath not such a flower.
Nurse : Nay, he's a flower; in faith, a very flower.
Lady Capulet : What say you? can you love the gentleman?
[p]This night you shall
behold him at our feast;
[p]Read o'er the volume of young Paris'
face,
[p]And find delight writ there with beauty's pen;
[p]Examine
every married lineament,
[p]And see how one another lends
content
[p]And what obscured in this fair volume lies
[p]Find written
in the margent of his eyes.
[p]This precious book of love, this
unbound lover,
[p]To beautify him, only lacks a cover:
[p]The fish
lives in the sea, and 'tis much pride
[p]For fair without the fair
within to hide:
[p]That book in many's eyes doth share the
glory,
[p]That in gold clasps locks in the golden story;
[p]So shall
you share all that he doth possess,
[p]By having him, making yourself
no less.
Nurse : No less! nay, bigger; women grow by men.
Lady Capulet : Speak briefly, can you like of Paris' love?
Juliet : I'll look to like, if looking liking move:
[p]But no more deep will I
endart mine eye
[p]Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.
Servant : Madam, the guests are come, supper served up, you
[p]called, my young
lady asked for, the nurse cursed in
[p]the pantry, and every thing in
extremity. I must
[p]hence to wait; I beseech you, follow straight.
Lady Capulet : We follow thee.
[p][Exit Servant]
[p]Juliet, the county stays.
Nurse : Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.
Previous: Act 1 - Scene 2
Next: Act 1 - Scene 4
