Enter Friar ⌜Lawrence⌝ and County Paris.FRIAR LAWRENCE 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 LAWRENCE 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 of love, For Venus smiles not in a house of tears. Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous10 That she do 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 LAWRENCE, ⌜aside⌝ I would I knew not why it should be slowed.— Look, sir, here comes the lady toward my cell.Enter Juliet.
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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 LAWRENCE 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 you, 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 slandered it.JULIET It may be so, for it is not mine own.—
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Are you at leisure, holy father, now, Or shall I come to you at evening Mass?FRIAR LAWRENCE 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 you. Till then, adieu, and keep this holy kiss.He exits.JULIET 45 O, shut the door, and when thou hast done so, Come weep with me, past hope, past care, past help.FRIAR LAWRENCE O 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 hearest 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.⌜She shows him her knife.⌝ God joined my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands; And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo’s sealed, Shall be the label to another deed, Or my true heart with treacherous revolt60 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 that65 Which the commission of thy years and art Could to no issue of true honor bring. Be not so long to speak. I long to die If what thou speak’st speak not of remedy.
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FRIAR LAWRENCE 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 undertake75 A thing like death to chide away this shame, That cop’st 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 any tower,80 Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk Where serpents are. Chain me with roaring bears, Or hide me nightly in a charnel house, O’ercovered 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,90 To live an unstained wife to my sweet love.FRIAR LAWRENCE Hold, then. Go home; be merry; give consent To marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow. Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone; Let not the Nurse lie with thee in thy chamber.⌜Holding out a vial.⌝95 Take thou this vial, being then in bed, And this distilling liquor drink thou off; When presently through all thy veins shall run A cold and drowsy humor; for no pulse Shall keep his native progress, but surcease.100 No warmth, no ⌜breath⌝ shall testify thou livest.
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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,105 Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death, And in this borrowed 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 comes110 To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead. Then, as the manner of our country is, ⌜In⌝ thy best robes uncovered on the bier Thou ⌜shalt⌝ be borne to that same ancient vault Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.115 In the meantime, against thou shalt awake, 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.120 And this shall free thee from this present shame, If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear Abate thy valor in the acting it.JULIET Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear!FRIAR LAWRENCE, ⌜giving Juliet the vial⌝ Hold, get you gone. Be strong and prosperous125 In this resolve. I’ll send a friar with speed To Mantua with my letters to thy lord.JULIET Love give me strength, and strength shall help afford. Farewell, dear father.⌜They⌝ exit ⌜in different directions.⌝