MERCUTIO     Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut,                         Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,                         Time out a’mind the fairies’ coachmakers:                         Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners’ legs,                         The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,                         Her traces of the smallest spider web,                         Her collars of the moonshine’s wat’ry beams, […]

MERCUTIO     O then I see Queen Mab hath been with you:                         She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes                         In shape no bigger than an agate-stone                         On the forefinger of an alderman,                         Drawn with a team of little atomi                         Over men’s noses as they lie asleep. (1.4.53-58) Mercutio completes […]

MERCUTIO     Tut, dun’s the mouse, the constable’s own word.                         If thou art Dun, we’ll draw thee from the mire,                         Or (save your reverence) love, wherein thou stickest                         Up to the ears. Come, we burn daylight, ho! ROMEO           Nay, that’s not so. MERCUTIO                                         I mean, sir, in delay                         We waste our lights […]

MERCUTIO     Give me a case to put my visage in, [Puts on a mask.]                         A visor for a visor! what care I                         What curious eye doth cote deformities?                         Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me. BENVOLIO      Come knock and enter, and no sooner in,                         But every man betake him […]

MERCUTIO     You are a lover, borrow Cupid’s wings,                         And soar with them above a common bound. ROMEO           I am too sore enpiercèd with his shaft                         To soar with his light feathers, and so bound                         I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe:                         Under love’s heavy burden do I sink. MERCUTIO     And […]

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 lead                         So stakes me to the ground […]

Enter ROMEO, MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, with five or six other MASKERS, TORCH-BEARERS 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 hoodwinked with a scarf,                         Bearing a Tartar’s painted bow of lath,                         Scaring […]

LADY CAPULET         Speak briefly, can you like of Paris’ love? JULIET                                    I’ll look to like, if looking liking move;                                     But no more deep will I endart mine eye                                     Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.                                                 Enter SERVINGMAN SERVINGMAN            Madam, the guests are come, supper served up, you called, my young […]

LADY CAPULET         The fish lives in the sea, and ’tis much pride                                     For fair without the fair within to hide;                                     That book in many’s eyes doth share the glory                                     That in gold clasps locks in the golden story:                                     So shall you share all that he doth possess,                                     By having him, […]

LADY CAPULET         What say you, can you love the gentleman?                                     This night you shall behold him at our feast;                                     Read o’er the volume of young Paris’ face,                                     And find delight writ there with beauty’s pen;                                     Examine every married lineament,                                     And see how one another lends content;                                     And what obscured […]