Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Act 3 - Scene 5
Capulet’s orchard.
Juliet : Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:
[p]It was the nightingale,
and not the lark,
[p]That pierced the fearful hollow of thine
ear;
[p]Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree:
[p]Believe me,
love, it was the nightingale.
Romeo : It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
[p]No nightingale: look,
love, what envious streaks
[p]Do lace the severing clouds in yonder
east:
[p]Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
[p]Stands
tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
[p]I must be gone and live, or stay
and die.
Juliet : Yon light is not day-light, I know it, I:
[p]It is some meteor that
the sun exhales,
[p]To be to thee this night a torch-bearer,
[p]And
light thee on thy way to Mantua:
[p]Therefore stay yet; thou need'st
not to be gone.
Romeo : Let me be ta'en, let me be put to death;
[p]I am content, so thou wilt
have it so.
[p]I'll say yon grey is not the morning's eye,
[p]'Tis but
the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow;
[p]Nor that is not the lark, whose
notes do beat
[p]The vaulty heaven so high above our heads:
[p]I have
more care to stay than will to go:
[p]Come, death, and welcome! Juliet
wills it so.
[p]How is't, my soul? let's talk; it is not day.
Juliet : It is, it is: hie hence, be gone, away!
[p]It is the lark that sings
so out of tune,
[p]Straining harsh discords and unpleasing
sharps.
[p]Some say the lark makes sweet division;
[p]This doth not
so, for she divideth us:
[p]Some say the lark and loathed toad change
eyes,
[p]O, now I would they had changed voices too!
[p]Since arm from
arm that voice doth us affray,
[p]Hunting thee hence with hunt's-up to
the day,
[p]O, now be gone; more light and light it grows.
Romeo : More light and light; more dark and dark our woes!
Nurse : Madam!
Juliet : Nurse?
Nurse : Your lady mother is coming to your chamber:
[p]The day is broke; be
wary, look about.
Juliet : Then, window, let day in, and let life out.
Romeo : Farewell, farewell! one kiss, and I'll descend.
Juliet : Art thou gone so? love, lord, ay, husband, friend!
[p]I must hear from
thee every day in the hour,
[p]For in a minute there are many
days:
[p]O, by this count I shall be much in years
[p]Ere I again
behold my Romeo!
Romeo : Farewell!
[p]I will omit no opportunity
[p]That may convey my
greetings, love, to thee.
Juliet : O think'st thou we shall ever meet again?
Romeo : I doubt it not; and all these woes shall serve
[p]For sweet discourses
in our time to come.
Juliet : O God, I have an ill-divining soul!
[p]Methinks I see thee, now thou
art below,
[p]As one dead in the bottom of a tomb:
[p]Either my
eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale.
Romeo : And trust me, love, in my eye so do you:
[p]Dry sorrow drinks our
blood. Adieu, adieu!
Juliet : O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle:
[p]If thou art fickle,
what dost thou with him.
[p]That is renown'd for faith? Be fickle,
fortune;
[p]For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long,
[p]But send
him back.
Lady Capulet : [Within] Ho, daughter! are you up?
Juliet : Who is't that calls? is it my lady mother?
[p]Is she not down so late,
or up so early?
[p]What unaccustom'd cause procures her hither?
Lady Capulet : Why, how now, Juliet!
Juliet : Madam, I am not well.
Lady Capulet : Evermore weeping for your cousin's death?
[p]What, wilt thou wash him
from his grave with tears?
[p]An if thou couldst, thou couldst not
make him live;
[p]Therefore, have done: some grief shows much of
love;
[p]But much of grief shows still some want of wit.
Juliet : Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss.
Lady Capulet : So shall you feel the loss, but not the friend
[p]Which you weep for.
Juliet : Feeling so the loss,
[p]Cannot choose but ever weep the friend.
Lady Capulet : Well, girl, thou weep'st not so much for his death,
[p]As that the
villain lives which slaughter'd him.
Juliet : What villain madam?
Lady Capulet : That same villain, Romeo.
Juliet : [Aside] Villain and he be many miles asunder.--
[p]God Pardon him! I
do, with all my heart;
[p]And yet no man like he doth grieve my
heart.
Lady Capulet : That is, because the traitor murderer lives.
Juliet : Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands:
[p]Would none but I might
venge my cousin's death!
Lady Capulet : We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not:
[p]Then weep no more.
I'll send to one in Mantua,
[p]Where that same banish'd runagate doth
live,
[p]Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram,
[p]That he shall
soon keep Tybalt company:
[p]And then, I hope, thou wilt be
satisfied.
Juliet : Indeed, I never shall be satisfied
[p]With Romeo, till I behold
him--dead--
[p]Is my poor heart for a kinsman vex'd.
[p]Madam, if you
could find out but a man
[p]To bear a poison, I would temper
it;
[p]That Romeo should, upon receipt thereof,
[p]Soon sleep in
quiet. O, how my heart abhors
[p]To hear him named, and cannot come to
him.
[p]To wreak the love I bore my cousin
[p]Upon his body that
slaughter'd him!
Lady Capulet : Find thou the means, and I'll find such a man.
[p]But now I'll tell
thee joyful tidings, girl.
Juliet : And joy comes well in such a needy time:
[p]What are they, I beseech
your ladyship?
Lady Capulet : Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child;
[p]One who, to put thee
from thy heaviness,
[p]Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy,
[p]That
thou expect'st not nor I look'd not for.
Juliet : Madam, in happy time, what day is that?
Lady Capulet : Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn,
[p]The gallant, young and
noble gentleman,
[p]The County Paris, at Saint Peter's
Church,
[p]Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.
Juliet : Now, by Saint Peter's Church and Peter too,
[p]He shall not make me
there a joyful bride.
[p]I wonder at this haste; that I must
wed
[p]Ere he, that should be husband, comes to woo.
[p]I pray you,
tell my lord and father, madam,
[p]I will not marry yet; and, when I
do, I swear,
[p]It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,
[p]Rather
than Paris. These are news indeed!
Lady Capulet : Here comes your father; tell him so yourself,
[p]And see how he will
take it at your hands.
Capulet : When the sun sets, the air doth drizzle dew;
[p]But for the sunset of
my brother's son
[p]It rains downright.
[p]How now! a conduit, girl?
what, still in tears?
[p]Evermore showering? In one little
body
[p]Thou counterfeit'st a bark, a sea, a wind;
[p]For still thy
eyes, which I may call the sea,
[p]Do ebb and flow with tears; the
bark thy body is,
[p]Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, thy
sighs;
[p]Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them,
[p]Without a
sudden calm, will overset
[p]Thy tempest-tossed body. How now,
wife!
[p]Have you deliver'd to her our decree?
Lady Capulet : Ay, sir; but she will none, she gives you thanks.
[p]I would the fool
were married to her grave!
Capulet : Soft! take me with you, take me with you, wife.
[p]How! will she none?
doth she not give us thanks?
[p]Is she not proud? doth she not count
her blest,
[p]Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
[p]So worthy a
gentleman to be her bridegroom?
Juliet : Not proud, you have; but thankful, that you have:
[p]Proud can I never
be of what I hate;
[p]But thankful even for hate, that is meant love.
Capulet : How now, how now, chop-logic! What is this?
[p]'Proud,' and 'I thank
you,' and 'I thank you not;'
[p]And yet 'not proud,' mistress minion,
you,
[p]Thank me no thankings, nor, proud me no prouds,
[p]But fettle
your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next,
[p]To go with Paris to Saint
Peter's Church,
[p]Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
[p]Out,
you green-sickness carrion! out, you baggage!
[p]You tallow-face!
Lady Capulet : Fie, fie! what, are you mad?
Juliet : Good father, I beseech you on my knees,
[p]Hear me with patience but
to speak a word.
Capulet : Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch!
[p]I tell thee what: get
thee to church o' Thursday,
[p]Or never after look me in the
face:
[p]Speak not, reply not, do not answer me;
[p]My fingers itch.
Wife, we scarce thought us blest
[p]That God had lent us but this only
child;
[p]But now I see this one is one too much,
[p]And that we have
a curse in having her:
[p]Out on her, hilding!
Nurse : God in heaven bless her!
[p]You are to blame, my lord, to rate her
so.
Capulet : And why, my lady wisdom? hold your tongue,
[p]Good prudence; smatter
with your gossips, go.
Nurse : I speak no treason.
Capulet : O, God ye god-den.
Nurse : May not one speak?
Capulet : Peace, you mumbling fool!
[p]Utter your gravity o'er a gossip's
bowl;
[p]For here we need it not.
Lady Capulet : You are too hot.
Capulet : God's bread! it makes me mad:
[p]Day, night, hour, tide, time, work,
play,
[p]Alone, in company, still my care hath been
[p]To have her
match'd: and having now provided
[p]A gentleman of noble
parentage,
[p]Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly
train'd,
[p]Stuff'd, as they say, with honourable
parts,
[p]Proportion'd as one's thought would wish a man;
[p]And then
to have a wretched puling fool,
[p]A whining mammet, in her fortune's
tender,
[p]To answer 'I'll not wed; I cannot love,
[p]I am too young;
I pray you, pardon me.'
[p]But, as you will not wed, I'll pardon
you:
[p]Graze where you will you shall not house with me:
[p]Look
to't, think on't, I do not use to jest.
[p]Thursday is near; lay hand
on heart, advise:
[p]An you be mine, I'll give you to my
friend;
[p]And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in
[p]the
streets,
[p]For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee,
[p]Nor what
is mine shall never do thee good:
[p]Trust to't, bethink you; I'll not
be forsworn.
Juliet : Is there no pity sitting in the clouds,
[p]That sees into the bottom
of my grief?
[p]O, sweet my mother, cast me not away!
[p]Delay this
marriage for a month, a week;
[p]Or, if you do not, make the bridal
bed
[p]In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.
Lady Capulet : Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word:
[p]Do as thou wilt, for I
have done with thee.
Juliet : O God!--O nurse, how shall this be prevented?
[p]My husband is on
earth, my faith in heaven;
[p]How shall that faith return again to
earth,
[p]Unless that husband send it me from heaven
[p]By leaving
earth? comfort me, counsel me.
[p]Alack, alack, that heaven should
practise stratagems
[p]Upon so soft a subject as myself!
[p]What
say'st thou? hast thou not a word of joy?
[p]Some comfort, nurse.
Nurse : Faith, here it is.
[p]Romeo is banish'd; and all the world to
nothing,
[p]That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you;
[p]Or, if
he do, it needs must be by stealth.
[p]Then, since the case so stands
as now it doth,
[p]I think it best you married with the county.
[p]O,
he's a lovely gentleman!
[p]Romeo's a dishclout to him: an eagle,
madam,
[p]Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye
[p]As Paris
hath. Beshrew my very heart,
[p]I think you are happy in this second
match,
[p]For it excels your first: or if it did not,
[p]Your first is
dead; or 'twere as good he were,
[p]As living here and you no use of
him.
Juliet : Speakest thou from thy heart?
Nurse : And from my soul too;
[p]Or else beshrew them both.
Juliet : Amen!
Nurse : What?
Juliet : Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much.
[p]Go in: and tell my
lady I am gone,
[p]Having displeased my father, to Laurence'
cell,
[p]To make confession and to be absolved.
Nurse : Marry, I will; and this is wisely done.
Juliet : Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!
[p]Is it more sin to wish me
thus forsworn,
[p]Or to dispraise my lord with that same
tongue
[p]Which she hath praised him with above compare
[p]So many
thousand times? Go, counsellor;
[p]Thou and my bosom henceforth shall
be twain.
[p]I'll to the friar, to know his remedy:
[p]If all else
fail, myself have power to die.
Previous: Act 3 - Scene 4
Next: Act 4 - Scene 1
