CAPULET        Young Romeo, is it? TYBALT                                              ’Tis he, that villain Romeo. CAPULET        Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone,                         ’A bears him like a portly gentleman;                         And to say truth, Verona brags of him                         To be a virtuous and well-governed youth.                         I would not for the wealth of all this town […]

TYBALT          This, by his voice, should be a Montague.                         Fetch me my rapier, boy.                  [Exit Page]                                                             What dares the slave                         Come hither, covered with an antic face,                         To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?                         Now by the stock and honour of my kin,                         To strike him dead I hold […]

ROMEO           [To a Servingman] What lady’s that which doth enrich the hand                         Of yonder knight? SERVINGMAN                                    I know not, sir. ROMEO           O she doth teach the torches to burn bright!                         It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night                         As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear –                         Beauty too rich […]

CAPULET                    More light, you knaves, and turn the tables up;                                     And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot.                                     Ah, sirrah, this unlooked-for sport comes well.                                     Nay sit, nay sit good Cousin Capulet,                                     For you and I are past our dancing days.                                     How long is’t now since last yourself […]

Enter [CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, JULIET, TYBALT, and his PAGE, NURSE, and] all the GUESTS and GENTLEWOMEN to the Maskers. CAPULET        Welcome, gentlemen! Ladies that have their toes                         Unplagued with corns will walk a bout with you.                         Ah, my mistresses, which of you all                         Will now deny to dance? She that makes dainty, […]

SERVINGMEN come forth with napkins. FIRST SERVINGMAN             Where’s Potpan, that he helps not to take away? He shift a trencher? he scrape a trencher? SECOND SERVINGMAN         When good manners shall lie all in one or two men’s hands, and they unwashed too, ’tis a foul thing. FIRST SERVINGMAN             Away with the join-stools, remove the court-cupboard, […]

BENVOLIO      This wind you talk of blows us from ourselves:                         Supper is done, and we shall come too late. ROMEO           I fear too early, for my mind misgives                         Some consequence yet hanging in the stars                         Shall bitterly begin his fearful date                         With this night’s revels, and expire the term                         Of […]

MERCUTIO                             True, I talk of dreams,                         Which are the children of an idle brain,                         Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,                         Which is as thin of substance as the air,                         And more inconstant than the wind, who woos                         Even now the frozen bosom of the north,                         And being angered puffs […]

MERCUTIO                             This is that very Mab                         That plats the manes of horses in the night,                         And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs,                         Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes.                         This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,                         That presses them and learns them first to bear,                         Making […]

MERCUTIO     Sometimes she gallops o’er a courtier’s nose,                         And then he dreams of smelling out a suit;                         And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig’s tail                         Tickling a parson’s nose as ’a lies asleep,                         Then he dreams of another benefice.                         Sometime she driveth o’er a soldier’s neck,                         And then dreams […]