Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 1
Friar Laurence’s cell.
Friar Laurence : On Thursday, sir? the time is very short.
Paris : My father Capulet will have it so;
[p]And I am nothing slow to slack
his haste.
Friar Laurence : You say you do not know the lady's mind:
[p]Uneven is the course, I
like it not.
Paris : Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death,
[p]And therefore have I
little talk'd of love;
[p]For Venus smiles not in a house of
tears.
[p]Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous
[p]That she doth
give her sorrow so much sway,
[p]And in his wisdom hastes our
marriage,
[p]To stop the inundation of her tears;
[p]Which, too much
minded by herself alone,
[p]May be put from her by society:
[p]Now do
you know the reason of this haste.
Friar Laurence : [Aside] I would I knew not why it should be slow'd.
[p]Look, sir, here
comes the lady towards my cell.
Paris : Happily met, my lady and my wife!
Juliet : That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.
Paris : That may be must be, love, on Thursday next.
Juliet : What must be shall be.
Friar Laurence : That's a certain text.
Paris : Come you to make confession to this father?
Juliet : To answer that, I should confess to you.
Paris : Do not deny to him that you love me.
Juliet : I will confess to you that I love him.
Paris : So will ye, I am sure, that you love me.
Juliet : If I do so, it will be of more price,
[p]Being spoke behind your back,
than to your face.
Paris : Poor soul, thy face is much abused with tears.
Juliet : The tears have got small victory by that;
[p]For it was bad enough
before their spite.
Paris : Thou wrong'st it, more than tears, with that report.
Juliet : That is no slander, sir, which is a truth;
[p]And what I spake, I
spake it to my face.
Paris : Thy face is mine, and thou hast slander'd it.
Juliet : It may be so, for it is not mine own.
[p]Are you at leisure, holy
father, now;
[p]Or shall I come to you at evening mass?
Friar Laurence : My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.
[p]My lord, we must
entreat the time alone.
Paris : God shield I should disturb devotion!
[p]Juliet, on Thursday early
will I rouse ye:
[p]Till then, adieu; and keep this holy kiss.
Juliet : O shut the door! and when thou hast done so,
[p]Come weep with me;
past hope, past cure, past help!
Friar Laurence : Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief;
[p]It strains me past the
compass of my wits:
[p]I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue
it,
[p]On Thursday next be married to this county.
Juliet : Tell me not, friar, that thou hear'st of this,
[p]Unless thou tell me
how I may prevent it:
[p]If, in thy wisdom, thou canst give no
help,
[p]Do thou but call my resolution wise,
[p]And with this knife
I'll help it presently.
[p]God join'd my heart and Romeo's, thou our
hands;
[p]And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo seal'd,
[p]Shall be the
label to another deed,
[p]Or my true heart with treacherous
revolt
[p]Turn to another, this shall slay them both:
[p]Therefore,
out of thy long-experienced time,
[p]Give me some present counsel, or,
behold,
[p]'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
[p]Shall play
the umpire, arbitrating that
[p]Which the commission of thy years and
art
[p]Could to no issue of true honour bring.
[p]Be not so long to
speak; I long to die,
[p]If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy.
Friar Laurence : Hold, daughter: I do spy a kind of hope,
[p]Which craves as desperate
an execution.
[p]As that is desperate which we would prevent.
[p]If,
rather than to marry County Paris,
[p]Thou hast the strength of will
to slay thyself,
[p]Then is it likely thou wilt undertake
[p]A thing
like death to chide away this shame,
[p]That copest with death himself
to scape from it:
[p]And, if thou darest, I'll give thee remedy.
Juliet : O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
[p]From off the battlements
of yonder tower;
[p]Or walk in thievish ways; or bid me lurk
[p]Where
serpents are; chain me with roaring bears;
[p]Or shut me nightly in a
charnel-house,
[p]O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling
bones,
[p]With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls;
[p]Or bid me
go into a new-made grave
[p]And hide me with a dead man in his
shroud;
[p]Things that, to hear them told, have made me
tremble;
[p]And I will do it without fear or doubt,
[p]To live an
unstain'd wife to my sweet love.
Friar Laurence : Hold, then; go home, be merry, give consent
[p]To marry Paris:
Wednesday is to-morrow:
[p]To-morrow night look that thou lie
alone;
[p]Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber:
[p]Take thou
this vial, being then in bed,
[p]And this distilled liquor drink thou
off;
[p]When presently through all thy veins shall run
[p]A cold and
drowsy humour, for no pulse
[p]Shall keep his native progress, but
surcease:
[p]No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou livest;
[p]The
roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
[p]To paly ashes, thy eyes'
windows fall,
[p]Like death, when he shuts up the day of life;
[p]Each
part, deprived of supple government,
[p]Shall, stiff and stark and
cold, appear like death:
[p]And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk
death
[p]Thou shalt continue two and forty hours,
[p]And then awake as
from a pleasant sleep.
[p]Now, when the bridegroom in the morning
comes
[p]To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead:
[p]Then, as
the manner of our country is,
[p]In thy best robes uncover'd on the
bier
[p]Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault
[p]Where all
the kindred of the Capulets lie.
[p]In the mean time, against thou
shalt awake,
[p]Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift,
[p]And
hither shall he come: and he and I
[p]Will watch thy waking, and that
very night
[p]Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
[p]And this shall
free thee from this present shame;
[p]If no inconstant toy, nor
womanish fear,
[p]Abate thy valour in the acting it.
Juliet : Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear!
Friar Laurence : Hold; get you gone, be strong and prosperous
[p]In this resolve: I'll
send a friar with speed
[p]To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.
Juliet : Love give me strength! and strength shall help afford.
[p]Farewell,
dear father!
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Next: Act 4 - Scene 2
