The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet: ACT IV
Introduction ACT I ACT II ACT III ACT IV SCENE I. Friar Laurence's cell. SCENE II. Hall in Capulet's house. SCENE III. Juliet's chamber. SCENE IV. Hall in Capulet's house. SCENE V. Juliet's chamber. ACT V About the Play Feedback			Search: All the plays Hamlet Coriolanus Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Richard II Richard III Titus Andronicus Antony and Cleopatra Timon of Athens Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 Henry the Fifth Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry VIII King John Pericles Troilus and Cressida All's Well... As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline A Midsummer... Love's Labour's Lost Measure for Measure The Merry Wives... Much Ado about Nothing The Merchant of Venice Twelfth Night The Taming of... The Tempest The Two Gentlemen... The Winter's Tale    for: SCENE I. Friar Laurence's cell. Enter FRIAR LAURENCE and PARIS FRIAR LAURENCE       On Thursday, sir? the time is very short. PARIS       My father Capulet will have it so;       And I am nothing slow to slack his haste. FRIAR LAURENCE       You say you do not know the lady's mind: 5     Uneven is the course, I like it not. PARIS       Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death,       And therefore have I little talk'd of love;       For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.       Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous 10    That she doth give her sorrow so much sway,       And in his wisdom hastes our marriage,       To stop the inundation of her tears;       Which, too much minded by herself alone,       May be put from her by society: 15    Now do you know the reason of this haste. FRIAR LAURENCE       (Aside) I would I knew not why it should be slow'd.       Look, sir, here comes the lady towards my cell. Enter JULIET PARIS       Happily met, my lady and my wife! JULIET       That may be, sir, when I may be a wife. PARIS 20    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 25    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,       Being spoke behind your back, than to your face. PARIS 30    Poor soul, thy face is much abused with tears. JULIET       The tears have got small victory by that;       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; 35    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.       Are you at leisure, holy father, now;       Or shall I come to you at evening mass? FRIAR LAURENCE 40    My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.       My lord, we must entreat the time alone. PARIS       God shield I should disturb devotion!       Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse ye:       Till then, adieu; and keep this holy kiss. Exit JULIET 45    O shut the door! and when thou hast done so,       Come weep with me; past hope, past cure, past help! FRIAR LAURENCE       Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief;       It strains me past the compass of my wits:       I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it, 50    On Thursday next be married to this county. JULIET       Tell me not, friar, that thou hear'st of this,       Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it:       If, in thy wisdom, thou canst give no help,       Do thou but call my resolution wise, 55    And with this knife I'll help it presently.       God join'd my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands;       And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo seal'd,       Shall be the label to another deed,       Or my true heart with treacherous revolt 60    Turn to another, this shall slay them both:       Therefore, out of thy long-experienced time,       Give me some present counsel, or, behold,       'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife       Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that 65    Which the commission of thy years and art       Could to no issue of true honour bring.       Be not so long to speak; I long to die,       If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy. FRIAR LAURENCE       Hold, daughter: I do spy a kind of hope, 70    Which craves as desperate an execution.       As that is desperate which we would prevent.       If, rather than to marry County Paris,       Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself,       Then is it likely thou wilt undertake 75    A thing like death to chide away this shame,       That copest with death himself to scape from it:       And, if thou darest, I'll give thee remedy. JULIET       O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,       From off the battlements of yonder tower; 80    Or walk in thievish ways; or bid me lurk       Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears;       Or shut me nightly in a charnel-house,       O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones,       With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls; 85    Or bid me go into a new-made grave       And hide me with a dead man in his shroud;       Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble;       And I will do it without fear or doubt,       To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love. FRIAR LAURENCE 90    Hold, then; go home, be merry, give consent       To marry Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow:       To-morrow night look that thou lie alone;       Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber:       Take thou this vial, being then in bed, 95    And this distilled liquor drink thou off;       When presently through all thy veins shall run       A cold and drowsy humour, for no pulse       Shall keep his native progress, but surcease:       No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou livest; 100   The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade       To paly ashes, thy eyes' windows fall,       Like death, when he shuts up the day of life;       Each part, deprived of supple government,       Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death: 105   And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death       Thou shalt continue two and forty hours,       And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.       Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes       To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead: 110   Then, as the manner of our country is,       In thy best robes uncover'd on the bier       Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault       Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.       In the mean time, against thou shalt awake, 115   Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift,       And hither shall he come: and he and I       Will watch thy waking, and that very night       Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.       And this shall free thee from this present shame; 120   If no inconstant toy, nor womanish fear,       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       In this resolve: I'll send a friar with speed 125   To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord. JULIET       Love give me strength! and strength shall help afford.       Farewell, dear father! Exeunt Return to top of page ... or ... Go to next scene