Act 4, Scene 1
Friar Lawrence's Cell.
- [Enter Friar Lawrence and Paris.]
- Friar Lawrence
- 2214 On Thursday, sir? the time is very short.
- Paris
- 2215 My father Capulet will have it so;
- 2216 And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.
- Friar Lawrence
- 2217 You say you do not know the lady's mind:
- 2218 Uneven is the course; I like it not.
- Paris
- 2219 Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death,
- 2220 And therefore have I little talk'd of love;
- 2221 For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.
- 2222 Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous
- 2223 That she do give her sorrow so much sway;
- 2224 And, in his wisdom, hastes our marriage,
- 2225 To stop the inundation of her tears;
- 2226 Which, too much minded by herself alone,
- 2227 May be put from her by society:
- 2228 Now do you know the reason of this haste.
- [Aside.]
- Friar Lawrence
- 2229 I would I knew not why it should be slow'd.—
- 2230 Look, sir, here comes the lady toward my cell.
- [Enter Juliet.]
- Paris
- 2231 Happily met, my lady and my wife!
- Juliet
- 2232 That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.
- Paris
- 2233 That may be must be, love, on Thursday next.
- Juliet
- 2234 What must be shall be.
- Friar Lawrence
- 2235 That's a certain text.
- Paris
- 2236 Come you to make confession to this father?
- Juliet
- 2237 To answer that, I should confess to you.
- Paris
- 2238 Do not deny to him that you love me.
- Juliet
- 2239 I will confess to you that I love him.
- Paris
- 2240 So will ye, I am sure, that you love me.
- Juliet
- 2241 If I do so, it will be of more price,
- 2242 Being spoke behind your back than to your face.
- Paris
- 2243 Poor soul, thy face is much abus'd with tears.
- Juliet
- 2244 The tears have got small victory by that;
- 2245 For it was bad enough before their spite.
- Paris
- 2246 Thou wrong'st it more than tears with that report.
- Juliet
- 2247 That is no slander, sir, which is a truth;
- 2248 And what I spake, I spake it to my face.
- Paris
- 2249 Thy face is mine, and thou hast slander'd it.
- Juliet
- 2250 It may be so, for it is not mine own.—
- 2251 Are you at leisure, holy father, now;
- 2252 Or shall I come to you at evening mass?
- Friar Lawrence
- 2253 My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.—
- 2254 My lord, we must entreat the time alone.
- Paris
- 2255 God shield I should disturb devotion!—
- 2256 Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse you:
- 2257 Till then, adieu; and keep this holy kiss.
- [Exit.]
- Juliet
- 2258 O, shut the door! and when thou hast done so,
- 2259 Come weep with me; past hope, past cure, past help!
- Friar Lawrence
- 2260 Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief;
- 2261 It strains me past the compass of my wits:
- 2262 I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,
- 2263 On Thursday next be married to this county.
- Juliet
- 2264 Tell me not, friar, that thou hear'st of this,
- 2265 Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it:
- 2266 If, in thy wisdom, thou canst give no help,
- 2267 Do thou but call my resolution wise,
- 2268 And with this knife I'll help it presently.
- 2269 God join'd my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands;
- 2270 And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo's seal'd,
- 2271 Shall be the label to another deed,
- 2272 Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
- 2273 Turn to another, this shall slay them both:
- 2274 Therefore, out of thy long-experienc'd time,
- 2275 Give me some present counsel; or, behold,
- 2276 'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
- 2277 Shall play the empire; arbitrating that
- 2278 Which the commission of thy years and art
- 2279 Could to no issue of true honour bring.
- 2280 Be not so long to speak; I long to die,
- 2281 If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy.
- Friar Lawrence
- 2282 Hold, daughter. I do spy a kind of hope,
- 2283 Which craves as desperate an execution
- 2284 As that is desperate which we would prevent.
- 2285 If, rather than to marry County Paris
- 2286 Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself,
- 2287 Then is it likely thou wilt undertake
- 2288 A thing like death to chide away this shame,
- 2289 That cop'st with death himself to scape from it;
- 2290 And, if thou dar'st, I'll give thee remedy.
- Juliet
- 2291 O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
- 2292 From off the battlements of yonder tower;
- 2293 Or walk in thievish ways; or bid me lurk
- 2294 Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears;
- 2295 Or shut me nightly in a charnel-house,
- 2296 O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones,
- 2297 With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls;
- 2298 Or bid me go into a new-made grave,
- 2299 And hide me with a dead man in his shroud;
- 2300 Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble;
- 2301 And I will do it without fear or doubt,
- 2302 To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love.
- Friar Lawrence
- 2303 Hold, then; go home, be merry, give consent
- 2304 To marry Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow;
- 2305 To-morrow night look that thou lie alone,
- 2306 Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber:
- 2307 Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
- 2308 And this distilled liquor drink thou off:
- 2309 When, presently, through all thy veins shall run
- 2310 A cold and drowsy humour; for no pulse
- 2311 Shall keep his native progress, but surcease:
- 2312 No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou livest;
- 2313 The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
- 2314 To paly ashes; thy eyes' windows fall,
- 2315 Like death, when he shuts up the day of life;
- 2316 Each part, depriv'd of supple government,
- 2317 Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death:
- 2318 And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death
- 2319 Thou shalt continue two-and-forty hours,
- 2320 And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
- 2321 Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes
- 2322 To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead:
- 2323 Then,—as the manner of our country is,—
- 2324 In thy best robes, uncover'd, on the bier,
- 2325 Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault
- 2326 Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
- 2327 In the mean time, against thou shalt awake,
- 2328 Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift;
- 2329 And hither shall he come: and he and I
- 2330 Will watch thy waking, and that very night
- 2331 Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
- 2332 And this shall free thee from this present shame,
- 2333 If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear
- 2334 Abate thy valour in the acting it.
- Juliet
- 2335 Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear!
- Friar Lawrence
- 2336 Hold; get you gone, be strong and prosperous
- 2337 In this resolve: I'll send a friar with speed
- 2338 To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.
- Juliet
- 2339 Love give me strength! and strength shall help afford.
- 2340 Farewell, dear father.
- [Exeunt.]