<div>
<div>
<h3>SCENE I. Verona. A public place.</h3>
<div>
<p>Enter SAMPSON and GREGORY, of the house of Capulet, armed
with swords and bucklers
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>Gregory, o' my word, we'll not carry coals.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>GREGORY</strong>
</p>
<p>No, for then we should be colliers.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>GREGORY</strong>
</p>
<p>Ay, while you live, draw your neck out o' the collar.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>I strike quickly, being moved.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>GREGORY</strong>
</p>
<p>But thou art not quickly moved to strike.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>A dog of the house of Montague moves me.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>GREGORY</strong>
</p>
<p>To move is to stir; and to be valiant is to stand:
<br />
therefore, if thou art moved, thou runn'st away.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>A dog of that house shall move me to stand: I will
<br />
take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>GREGORY</strong>
</p>
<p>That shows thee a weak slave; for the weakest goes
<br />
to the wall.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels,
<br />
are ever thrust to the wall: therefore I will push
<br />
Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids
<br />
to the wall.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>GREGORY</strong>
</p>
<p>The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>'Tis all one, I will show myself a tyrant: when I
<br />
have fought with the men, I will be cruel with the
<br />
maids, and cut off their heads.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>GREGORY</strong>
</p>
<p>The heads of the maids?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads;
<br />
take it in what sense thou wilt.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>GREGORY</strong>
</p>
<p>They must take it in sense that feel it.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>Me they shall feel while I am able to stand: and
<br />
'tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>GREGORY</strong>
</p>
<p>'Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou
<br />
hadst been poor John. Draw thy tool! here comes
<br />
two of the house of the Montagues.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>My naked weapon is out: quarrel, I will back thee.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>GREGORY</strong>
</p>
<p>How! turn thy back and run?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>Fear me not.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>GREGORY</strong>
</p>
<p>No, marry; I fear thee!
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>GREGORY</strong>
</p>
<p>I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as
<br />
they list.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them;
<br />
which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.
<br />
</p>
<p>Enter ABRAHAM and BALTHASAR</p>
<p>
<strong>ABRAHAM</strong>
</p>
<p>Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>I do bite my thumb, sir.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ABRAHAM</strong>
</p>
<p>Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>[Aside to GREGORY] Is the law of our side, if I say
<br />
ay?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>GREGORY</strong>
</p>
<p>No.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I
<br />
bite my thumb, sir.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>GREGORY</strong>
</p>
<p>Do you quarrel, sir?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ABRAHAM</strong>
</p>
<p>Quarrel sir! no, sir.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>If you do, sir, I am for you: I serve as good a man as
you.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ABRAHAM</strong>
</p>
<p>No better.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>Well, sir.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>GREGORY</strong>
</p>
<p>Say 'better:' here comes one of my master's kinsmen.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>Yes, better, sir.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ABRAHAM</strong>
</p>
<p>You lie.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>SAMPSON</strong>
</p>
<p>Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy swashing
blow.
<br />
</p>
<p>They fight</p>
<p>Enter BENVOLIO</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>Part, fools!
<br />
Put up your swords; you know not what you do.
<br />
</p>
<p>Beats down their swords</p>
<p>Enter TYBALT</p>
<p>
<strong>TYBALT</strong>
</p>
<p>What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?
<br />
Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>I do but keep the peace: put up thy sword,
<br />
Or manage it to part these men with me.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>TYBALT</strong>
</p>
<p>What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word,
<br />
As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee:
<br />
Have at thee, coward!
<br />
</p>
<p>They fight</p>
<p>Enter, several of both houses, who join the fray; then enter
Citizens, with clubs
</p>
<p>
<strong>First Citizen</strong>
</p>
<p>Clubs, bills, and partisans! strike! beat them down!
<br />
Down with the Capulets! down with the Montagues!
<br />
</p>
<p>Enter CAPULET in his gown, and LADY CAPULET</p>
<p>
<strong>CAPULET</strong>
</p>
<p>What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>LADY CAPULET</strong>
</p>
<p>A crutch, a crutch! why call you for a sword?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>CAPULET</strong>
</p>
<p>My sword, I say! Old Montague is come,
<br />
And flourishes his blade in spite of me.
<br />
</p>
<p>Enter MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE</p>
<p>
<strong>MONTAGUE</strong>
</p>
<p>Thou villain Capulet,—Hold me not, let me go.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>LADY MONTAGUE</strong>
</p>
<p>Thou shalt not stir a foot to seek a foe.
<br />
</p>
<p>Enter PRINCE, with Attendants</p>
<p>
<strong>PRINCE</strong>
</p>
<p>Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
<br />
Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel,—
<br />
Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts,
<br />
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
<br />
With purple fountains issuing from your veins,
<br />
On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
<br />
Throw your mistemper'd weapons to the ground,
<br />
And hear the sentence of your moved prince.
<br />
Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
<br />
By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
<br />
Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets,
<br />
And made Verona's ancient citizens
<br />
Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments,
<br />
To wield old partisans, in hands as old,
<br />
Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate:
<br />
If ever you disturb our streets again,
<br />
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
<br />
For this time, all the rest depart away:
<br />
You Capulet; shall go along with me:
<br />
And, Montague, come you this afternoon,
<br />
To know our further pleasure in this case,
<br />
To old Free-town, our common judgment-place.
<br />
Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.
<br />
</p>
<p>Exeunt all but MONTAGUE, LADY MONTAGUE, and
BENVOLIO
</p>
<p>
<strong>MONTAGUE</strong>
</p>
<p>Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?
<br />
Speak, nephew, were you by when it began?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>Here were the servants of your adversary,
<br />
And yours, close fighting ere I did approach:
<br />
I drew to part them: in the instant came
<br />
The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepared,
<br />
Which, as he breathed defiance to my ears,
<br />
He swung about his head and cut the winds,
<br />
Who nothing hurt withal hiss'd him in scorn:
<br />
While we were interchanging thrusts and blows,
<br />
Came more and more and fought on part and part,
<br />
Till the prince came, who parted either part.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>LADY MONTAGUE</strong>
</p>
<p>O, where is Romeo? saw you him to-day?
<br />
Right glad I am he was not at this fray.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun
<br />
Peer'd forth the golden window of the east,
<br />
A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad;
<br />
Where, underneath the grove of sycamore
<br />
That westward rooteth from the city's side,
<br />
So early walking did I see your son:
<br />
Towards him I made, but he was ware of me
<br />
And stole into the covert of the wood:
<br />
I, measuring his affections by my own,
<br />
That most are busied when they're most alone,
<br />
Pursued my humour not pursuing his,
<br />
And gladly shunn'd who gladly fled from me.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>MONTAGUE</strong>
</p>
<p>Many a morning hath he there been seen,
<br />
With tears augmenting the fresh morning dew.
<br />
Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs;
<br />
But all so soon as the all-cheering sun
<br />
Should in the furthest east begin to draw
<br />
The shady curtains from Aurora's bed,
<br />
Away from the light steals home my heavy son,
<br />
And private in his chamber pens himself,
<br />
Shuts up his windows, locks far daylight out
<br />
And makes himself an artificial night:
<br />
Black and portentous must this humour prove,
<br />
Unless good counsel may the cause remove.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>My noble uncle, do you know the cause?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>MONTAGUE</strong>
</p>
<p>I neither know it nor can learn of him.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>Have you importuned him by any means?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>MONTAGUE</strong>
</p>
<p>Both by myself and many other friends:
<br />
But he, his own affections' counsellor,
<br />
Is to himself—I will not say how true—
<br />
But to himself so secret and so close,
<br />
So far from sounding and discovery,
<br />
As is the bud bit with an envious worm,
<br />
Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,
<br />
Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.
<br />
Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow.
<br />
We would as willingly give cure as know.
<br />
</p>
<p>Enter ROMEO</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>See, where he comes: so please you, step aside;
<br />
I'll know his grievance, or be much denied.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>MONTAGUE</strong>
</p>
<p>I would thou wert so happy by thy stay,
<br />
To hear true shrift. Come, madam, let's away.
<br />
</p>
<p>Exeunt MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>Good-morrow, cousin.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ROMEO</strong>
</p>
<p>Is the day so young?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>But new struck nine.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ROMEO</strong>
</p>
<p>Ay me! sad hours seem long.
<br />
Was that my father that went hence so fast?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ROMEO</strong>
</p>
<p>Not having that, which, having, makes them short.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>In love?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ROMEO</strong>
</p>
<p>Out—
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>Of love?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ROMEO</strong>
</p>
<p>Out of her favour, where I am in love.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>Alas, that love, so gentle in his view,
<br />
Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ROMEO</strong>
</p>
<p>Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,
<br />
Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!
<br />
Where shall we dine? O me! What fray was here?
<br />
Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
<br />
Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.
<br />
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
<br />
O any thing, of nothing first create!
<br />
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
<br />
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
<br />
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire,
<br />
sick health!
<br />
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
<br />
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
<br />
Dost thou not laugh?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>No, coz, I rather weep.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ROMEO</strong>
</p>
<p>Good heart, at what?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>At thy good heart's oppression.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ROMEO</strong>
</p>
<p>Why, such is love's transgression.
<br />
Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,
<br />
Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest
<br />
With more of thine: this love that thou hast shown
<br />
Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.
<br />
Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
<br />
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
<br />
Being vex'd a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:
<br />
What is it else? a madness most discreet,
<br />
A choking gall and a preserving sweet.
<br />
Farewell, my coz.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>Soft! I will go along;
<br />
An if you leave me so, you do me wrong.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ROMEO</strong>
</p>
<p>Tut, I have lost myself; I am not here;
<br />
This is not Romeo, he's some other where.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>Tell me in sadness, who is that you love.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ROMEO</strong>
</p>
<p>What, shall I groan and tell thee?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>Groan! why, no.
<br />
But sadly tell me who.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ROMEO</strong>
</p>
<p>Bid a sick man in sadness make his will:
<br />
Ah, word ill urged to one that is so ill!
<br />
In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>I aim'd so near, when I supposed you loved.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ROMEO</strong>
</p>
<p>A right good mark-man! And she's fair I love.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ROMEO</strong>
</p>
<p>Well, in that hit you miss: she'll not be hit
<br />
With Cupid's arrow; she hath Dian's wit;
<br />
And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd,
<br />
From love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd.
<br />
She will not stay the siege of loving terms,
<br />
Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes,
<br />
Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold:
<br />
O, she is rich in beauty, only poor,
<br />
That when she dies with beauty dies her store.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ROMEO</strong>
</p>
<p>She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste,
<br />
For beauty starved with her severity
<br />
Cuts beauty off from all posterity.
<br />
She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair,
<br />
To merit bliss by making me despair:
<br />
She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow
<br />
Do I live dead that live to tell it now.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>Be ruled by me, forget to think of her.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ROMEO</strong>
</p>
<p>O, teach me how I should forget to think.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>By giving liberty unto thine eyes;
<br />
Examine other beauties.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>ROMEO</strong>
</p>
<p>'Tis the way
<br />
To call hers exquisite, in question more:
<br />
These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows
<br />
Being black put us in mind they hide the fair;
<br />
He that is strucken blind cannot forget
<br />
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost:
<br />
Show me a mistress that is passing fair,
<br />
What doth her beauty serve, but as a note
<br />
Where I may read who pass'd that passing fair?
<br />
Farewell: thou canst not teach me to forget.
<br />
</p>
<p>
<strong>BENVOLIO</strong>
</p>
<p>I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt.
<br />
</p>
<p>Exeunt</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>