MaximumEdge.com | | Search | | E-Mail | | News | | Weather | | Finance | | Directory | | Music | | Lottery Results | | Horoscopes | | Translation | | Games | | E-Cards | | Maps | | Jobs | | Magazines | | DVDs |

MaximumEdge.com
Shakespeare

Home > Romeo and Juliet > ACT I - SCENE III. A room in Capulet's house.

Search: Romeo and Juliet


< (Previous) ACT I, SCENE IIACT I, IV (Next) >

ACT I - SCENE III. A room in Capulet's house.
Enter LADY CAPULET and Nurse

LADY CAPULET
1    Nurse, where's my daughter? call her forth to me.
Nurse
2    Now, by my maidenhead, at twelve year old,
3    I bade her come. What, lamb! what, ladybird!
4    God forbid! Where's this girl? What, Juliet!
Enter JULIET

JULIET
5    How now! who calls?
Nurse
6    Your mother.
JULIET
7    Madam, I am here.
8    What is your will?
LADY CAPULET
9    This is the matter:--Nurse, give leave awhile,
10   We must talk in secret:--nurse, come back again;
11   I have remember'd me, thou's hear our counsel.
12   Thou know'st my daughter's of a pretty age.
Nurse
13   Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.
LADY CAPULET
14   She's not fourteen.
Nurse
15   I'll lay fourteen of my teeth,--
16   And yet, to my teeth be it spoken, I have but four--
17   She is not fourteen. How long is it now
18   To Lammas-tide?
LADY CAPULET
19   A fortnight and odd days.
Nurse
20   Even or odd, of all days in the year,
21   Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen.
22   Susan and she--God rest all Christian souls!--
23   Were of an age: well, Susan is with God;
24   She was too good for me: but, as I said,
25   On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen;
26   That shall she, marry; I remember it well.
27   'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years;
28   And she was wean'd,--I never shall forget it,--
29   Of all the days of the year, upon that day:
30   For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
31   Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall;
32   My lord and you were then at Mantua:--
33   Nay, I do bear a brain:--but, as I said,
34   When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
35   Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,
36   To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug!
37   Shake quoth the dove-house: 'twas no need, I trow,
38   To bid me trudge:
39   And since that time it is eleven years;
40   For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood,
41   She could have run and waddled all about;
42   For even the day before, she broke her brow:
43   And then my husband--God be with his soul!
44   A' was a merry man--took up the child:
45   'Yea,' quoth he, 'dost thou fall upon thy face?
46   Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit;
47   Wilt thou not, Jule?' and, by my holidame,
48   The pretty wretch left crying and said 'Ay.'
49   To see, now, how a jest shall come about!
50   I warrant, an I should live a thousand years,
51   I never should forget it: 'Wilt thou not, Jule?' quoth he;
52   And, pretty fool, it stinted and said 'Ay.'
LADY CAPULET
53   Enough of this; I pray thee, hold thy peace.
Nurse
54   Yes, madam: yet I cannot choose but laugh,
55   To think it should leave crying and say 'Ay.'
56   And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow
57   A bump as big as a young cockerel's stone;
58   A parlous knock; and it cried bitterly:
59   'Yea,' quoth my husband,'fall'st upon thy face?
60   Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age;
61   Wilt thou not, Jule?' it stinted and said 'Ay.'
JULIET
62   And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse, say I.
Nurse
63   Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace!
64   Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nursed:
65   An I might live to see thee married once,
66   I have my wish.
LADY CAPULET
67   Marry, that 'marry' is the very theme
68   I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet,
69   How stands your disposition to be married?
JULIET
70   It is an honour that I dream not of.
Nurse
71   An honour! were not I thine only nurse,
72   I would say thou hadst suck'd wisdom from thy teat.
LADY CAPULET
73   Well, think of marriage now; younger than you,
74   Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,
75   Are made already mothers: by my count,
76   I was your mother much upon these years
77   That you are now a maid. Thus then in brief:
78   The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.
Nurse
79   A man, young lady! lady, such a man
80   As all the world--why, he's a man of wax.
LADY CAPULET
81   Verona's summer hath not such a flower.
Nurse
82   Nay, he's a flower; in faith, a very flower.
LADY CAPULET
83   What say you? can you love the gentleman?
84   This night you shall behold him at our feast;
85   Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face,
86   And find delight writ there with beauty's pen;
87   Examine every married lineament,
88   And see how one another lends content
89   And what obscured in this fair volume lies
90   Find written in the margent of his eyes.
91   This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
92   To beautify him, only lacks a cover:
93   The fish lives in the sea, and 'tis much pride
94   For fair without the fair within to hide:
95   That book in many's eyes doth share the glory,
96   That in gold clasps locks in the golden story;
97   So shall you share all that he doth possess,
98   By having him, making yourself no less.
Nurse
99   No less! nay, bigger; women grow by men.
LADY CAPULET
100  Speak briefly, can you like of Paris' love?
JULIET
101  I'll look to like, if looking liking move:
102  But no more deep will I endart mine eye
103  Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.
Enter a Servant

Servant
104  Madam, the guests are come, supper served up, you
105  called, my young lady asked for, the nurse cursed in
106  the pantry, and every thing in extremity. I must
107  hence to wait; I beseech you, follow straight.
LADY CAPULET
108  We follow thee.
Exit Servant
109  Juliet, the county stays.
Nurse
110  Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.
Exeunt

< (Previous) ACT I, SCENE IIACT I, IV (Next) >
Scene Index
ACT I
  • PROLOGUE
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV
  • SCENE V


  • ACT II
  • PROLOGUE
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV
  • SCENE V
  • SCENE VI


  • ACT III
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV
  • SCENE V


  • ACT IV
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV
  • SCENE V


  • ACT V
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III

  • ©1999-. All rights reserved.Contact
    Part of the MaximumEdge.com Network.Add Bookmark