Romeo and Juliet

Enter Chorus.CHORUS.Two households, both alike in dignity,In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.From forth the fatal loins of these two foesA pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrowsDoth with their death bury their parents’ strife.The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,And the continuance of their parents’ rage,Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove,Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;The which, if you with patient ears attend,What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. [ Exit. ]

Enter Capulet, Paris and Servant.CAPULET.But Montague is bound as well as I,In penalty alike; and ’tis not hard, I think,For men so old as we to keep the peace.PARIS.Of honourable reckoning are you both,And pity ’tis you liv’d at odds so long.But now my lord, what say you to my suit?CAPULET.But saying o’er what I have said before.My child is yet a stranger in the world,She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;Let two more summers wither in their prideEre we may think her ripe to be a bride.PARIS.Younger than she are happy mothers made.CAPULET.And too soon marr’d are those so early made.The earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she,She is the hopeful lady of my earth:But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,My will to her consent is but a part;And she agree, within her scope of choiceLies my consent and fair according voice.This night I hold an old accustom’d feast,Whereto I have invited many a guest,Such as I love, and you among the store,One more

SCENE IV. A Street. Enter Romeo, Mercutio, Benvolio, with five or six Maskers; Torch-bearers and others.ROMEO.What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse?Or shall we on without apology?BENVOLIO.The date is out of such prolixity:We’ll have no Cupid hoodwink’d with a scarf,Bearing a Tartar’s painted bow of lath,Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper;Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spokeAfter the prompter, for our entrance:But let them measure us by what they will,We’ll measure them a measure, and be gone.ROMEO.Give me a torch, I am not for this ambling;Being but heavy I will bear the light.MERCUTIO.Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.ROMEO.Not I, believe me, you have dancing shoes,With nimble soles, I have a soul of leadSo stakes me to the ground I cannot move.MERCUTIO.You are a lover, borrow Cupid’s wings,And soar with them above a common bound.ROMEO.I am too sore enpierced with his shaftTo soar with his light feathers, and so bound,I

Enter Chorus.CHORUS.Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie,And young affection gapes to be his heir;That fair for which love groan’d for and would die,With tender Juliet match’d, is now not fair.Now Romeo is belov’d, and loves again,Alike bewitched by the charm of looks;But to his foe suppos’d he must complain,And she steal love’s sweet bait from fearful hooks:Being held a foe, he may not have accessTo breathe such vows as lovers use to swear;And she as much in love, her means much lessTo meet her new beloved anywhere.But passion lends them power, time means, to meet,Tempering extremities with extreme sweet. [ Exit. ]

Enter Romeo.ROMEO.He jests at scars that never felt a wound. Juliet appears above at a window.But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon,Who is already sick and pale with grief,That thou her maid art far more fair than she.Be not her maid since she is envious;Her vestal livery is but sick and green,And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.It is my lady, O it is my love!O, that she knew she were!She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that?Her eye discourses, I will answer it.I am too bold, ’tis not to me she speaks.Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,Having some business, do entreat her eyesTo twinkle in their spheres till they return.What if her eyes were there, they in her head?The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heavenWould through the airy region stream so brightThat birds would sing and think it were not ni