Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Act 2 - Scene 5
Capulet’s orchard.
Juliet : The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse;
[p]In half an hour
she promised to return.
[p]Perchance she cannot meet him: that's not
so.
[p]O, she is lame! love's heralds should be thoughts,
[p]Which ten
times faster glide than the sun's beams,
[p]Driving back shadows over
louring hills:
[p]Therefore do nimble-pinion'd doves draw love,
[p]And
therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.
[p]Now is the sun upon the
highmost hill
[p]Of this day's journey, and from nine till
twelve
[p]Is three long hours, yet she is not come.
[p]Had she
affections and warm youthful blood,
[p]She would be as swift in motion
as a ball;
[p]My words would bandy her to my sweet love,
[p]And his to
me:
[p]But old folks, many feign as they were dead;
[p]Unwieldy, slow,
heavy and pale as lead.
[p]O God, she comes!
[p][Enter Nurse and
PETER]
[p]O honey nurse, what news?
[p]Hast thou met with him? Send
thy man away.
Nurse : Peter, stay at the gate.
Juliet : Now, good sweet nurse,--O Lord, why look'st thou sad?
[p]Though news
be sad, yet tell them merrily;
[p]If good, thou shamest the music of
sweet news
[p]By playing it to me with so sour a face.
Nurse : I am a-weary, give me leave awhile:
[p]Fie, how my bones ache! what a
jaunt have I had!
Juliet : I would thou hadst my bones, and I thy news:
[p]Nay, come, I pray
thee, speak; good, good nurse, speak.
Nurse : Jesu, what haste? can you not stay awhile?
[p]Do you not see that I am
out of breath?
Juliet : How art thou out of breath, when thou hast breath
[p]To say to me that
thou art out of breath?
[p]The excuse that thou dost make in this
delay
[p]Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse.
[p]Is thy news
good, or bad? answer to that;
[p]Say either, and I'll stay the
circumstance:
[p]Let me be satisfied, is't good or bad?
Nurse : Well, you have made a simple choice; you know not
[p]how to choose a
man: Romeo! no, not he; though his
[p]face be better than any man's,
yet his leg excels
[p]all men's; and for a hand, and a foot, and a
body,
[p]though they be not to be talked on, yet they are
[p]past
compare: he is not the flower of courtesy,
[p]but, I'll warrant him,
as gentle as a lamb. Go thy
[p]ways, wench; serve God. What, have you
dined at home?
Juliet : No, no: but all this did I know before.
[p]What says he of our
marriage? what of that?
Nurse : Lord, how my head aches! what a head have I!
[p]It beats as it would
fall in twenty pieces.
[p]My back o' t' other side,--O, my back, my
back!
[p]Beshrew your heart for sending me about,
[p]To catch my death
with jaunting up and down!
Juliet : I' faith, I am sorry that thou art not well.
[p]Sweet, sweet, sweet
nurse, tell me, what says my love?
Nurse : Your love says, like an honest gentleman, and a
[p]courteous, and a
kind, and a handsome, and, I
[p]warrant, a virtuous,--Where is your
mother?
Juliet : Where is my mother! why, she is within;
[p]Where should she be? How
oddly thou repliest!
[p]'Your love says, like an honest
gentleman,
[p]Where is your mother?'
Nurse : O God's lady dear!
[p]Are you so hot? marry, come up, I trow;
[p]Is
this the poultice for my aching bones?
[p]Henceforward do your
messages yourself.
Juliet : Here's such a coil! come, what says Romeo?
Nurse : Have you got leave to go to shrift to-day?
Juliet : I have.
Nurse : Then hie you hence to Friar Laurence' cell;
[p]There stays a husband
to make you a wife:
[p]Now comes the wanton blood up in your
cheeks,
[p]They'll be in scarlet straight at any news.
[p]Hie you to
church; I must another way,
[p]To fetch a ladder, by the which your
love
[p]Must climb a bird's nest soon when it is dark:
[p]I am the
drudge and toil in your delight,
[p]But you shall bear the burden soon
at night.
[p]Go; I'll to dinner: hie you to the cell.
Juliet : Hie to high fortune! Honest nurse, farewell.
Previous: Act 2 - Scene 4
Next: Act 2 - Scene 6
