Excerpt from Romeo and Juliet

Transcription

1 ACT 1, SCENE 4 [A street, that night. ROMEO, MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO & Others with torches and drum] ROMEO What shall this speech be spoke for our excuse? apology for intruding Or shall we on without apology? go on into the party BENVOLIO The date is out of such prolixity. such speeches are out of date We'll have no Cupid hoodwinked with a scarf, blindfolded Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath, carrying, wood Scaring the ladies like a crow keeper, scarecrow [Nor no without book prologue, faintly spoke memorized speech After the prompter, for our entrance.] 1 But let them measure us by what they will. judge how they want We'll measure them a measure and be gone. dance a dance ROMEO Give me a torch, I am not for this ambling. dancing Being but heavy, I will bear the light. heavy hearted, carry 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 lead So stakes me to the ground I cannot move. that MERCUTIO You are a lover. Borrow Cupid's wings in love And soar with them above a common bound. leap/limit ROMEO I am too sore enpiercèd with his shaft wounded, arrow To soar with his light feathers, and so bound I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe. leap to any height, my sorrow Under love's heavy burden do I sink.

2 MERCUTIO And to sink in it, should you burden love, you'd burden love by sinking in it Too great oppression for a tender thing. ROMEO Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn. quarrelsome MERCUTIO If love be rough with you, be rough with love! Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down. pricking you, (bawdy) Give me a case to put my visage in: mask, face A visor for a visor. What care I an ugly mask for my ugly face What curious eye doth cote deformities? eyes stare at my Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me. here's the beetle face that'll BENVOLIO Come, knock and enter, and no sooner in, as soon as we're inside But every man betake him to his legs. start dancing ROMEO A torch for me. Let wantons light of heart playful people Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels, carpet For I am proverbed with a grandsire phrase : I will follow a proverb I'll be a candle holder and look on. (proverb) The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done 1. party, bright (proverb) MERCUTIO Tut, dun's the mouse, a mouse is grey brown (proverb) the constable's own word. so keep quiet as a mouse If thou art Dun, we'll draw thee from the mire a horse named Dun, pull, mud Of save your reverence love, wherein thou stick'st pardon me, are stuck Up to the ears. Come, we burn daylight, ho! waste ROMEO Nay, that's not so. MERCUTIO I mean, sir, in delay We waste our lights in vain, like 1 lamps 1 by day. torches, lights 2 : lamps lit in day

3 Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits _ the obvious, Five times in that ere once in our five + wits. there's much wisdom in it ROMEO And we mean well in going to this mask, masquerade party But 'tis no wit to go. not wise MERCUTIO Why, may one ask? ROMEO I dreamt a dream tonight. last night MERCUTIO And so did I ROMEO Well, what was yours? MERCUTIO That dreamers often lie! (pun) ROMEO In bed asleep, while they do dream things true! MERCUTIO O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you! [ BENVOLIO Queen Mab? What's she?] 1 MERCUTIO She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate stone gem stone On the forefinger of an alderman, officer Drawn with a team of little atomies pulled by, tiny creatures Over 2 men's noses as they lie asleep. athwart 1 Her wagon spokes made of long spinners ' 2 legs, spiders' The cover of the wings of grasshoppers, canopy The 1 traces of the smallest spider 2 web, her 2, harnesses, spider's 5 The 1 collars of the moonshine's watery beams, her 2, harness collars, moonbeams Her whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film, gossamer Her wagoner a small grey coated gnat, driver Not half so big as a round little worm Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid 2. man 1 Her chariot is an empty hazelnut,

4 Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, cabinetmaker, worm Time out o' mind the fairies' coach makers. for time long forgotten And in this state she gallops night by night Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love; O'er 1 courtiers' knees, who 1 dream on curtsies straight ; on 2, that 2, right away O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees; right away O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream, right away dream of kisses Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues often, gives them blisters (herpes) Because their breaths 1 with sweetmeats tainted are. breath 2, smell of sweet foods (bawdy) Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose, And then dreams he of smelling out a suit ; high paying job And sometime comes she with a tithe pig 's tail pig donated to the church Tickling a parson 's nose as he + lies asleep, clergyman Then he dreams of another benefice. getting more church money Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck, And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, crossing enemy lines, ambushes Of healths five fathom deep, and then anon long drinking bouts, soon Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes, is startled And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two And sleeps again. This is that very Mab That plats the manes of horses in the night, braids And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs, mats the hair of old hags Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes. brings misfortune (superstition) This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, That presses them and learns them first to bear, teaches, bear children (bawdy) Making them women of good carriage. This is she ROMEO Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace! Thou talk'st of nothing. MERCUTIO True, I talk of dreams, Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy, born, foolish

5 Which is as thin of substance as the air And more inconstant than the wind, who woos changeable Even now the frozen bosom of the north, And, being angered, puffs away from thence, blows away from there Turning his face 1 to the dew dropping south. side 2, rainy south BENVOLIO This wind you talk of blows us from ourselves! plans Supper is done, and we shall come too late! ROMEO I fear too early, for my mind misgives fears Some consequence yet hanging in the stars still Shall bitterly begin his fearful date With this night's revels, and expire the term party, end the life Of a despised life closed in my breast my hated life By some vile forfeit of untimely death. evil, early death But He that hath the steerage of my course Direct my sail 1! On, lusty gentlemen! suit 2, let's go, merry BENVOLIO Strike, drum! play, drummer [All exit]