BENVOLIO      And I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any man should buy the fee-simple of my life for an hour and a quarter. MERCUTIO     The fee-simple? O simple! EnterTYBALT, PETRUCHIO, and others. BENVOLIO      By my head, here comes the Capulets. MERCUTIO     By my heel, I care not. (3.1.27-31) Benvolio seems to have […]

MERCUTIO     Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood as any in Italy, and as soon moved to be moody, and as soon moody to be moved. BENVOLIO      And what to? MERCUTIO     Nay, and there were two such, we should have none shortly, for one would kill the other. Thou? why, thou […]

[3.1] Enter MERCUTIO [and his PAGE], BENVOLIO, and MEN. BENVOLIO      I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire:                         The day is hot, the Capels are abroad,                         And if we meet we shall not scape a brawl,                         For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring. MERCUTIO     Thou art like one of these fellows that, when […]

ROMEO           Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy                         Be heaped like mine, and that thy skill be more                         To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath                         This neighbour air, and let rich music’s tongue                         Unfold the imagined happiness that both                         Receive in either by this dear encounter. JULIET                        Conceit, […]

FRIAR              Here comes the lady. O, so light a foot                         Will ne’er wear out the everlasting flint;                         A lover may bestride the gossamers                         That idles in the wanton summer air,                         And yet not fall, so light is vanity. JULIET                        Good even to my ghostly confessor. FRIAR              Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, […]

FRIAR              These violent delights have violent ends,                         And in their triumph die like fire and powder,                         Which as they kiss consume. The sweetest honey                         Is loathsome in his own deliciousness,                         And in the taste confounds the appetite.                         Therefore love moderately, long love doth so;                         Too swift arrives as tardy […]

[2.6] Enter FRIAR [LAWRENCE] and ROMEO. FRIAR              So smile the heavens upon this holy act,                         That after-hours with sorrow chide us not. ROMEO           Amen, amen! but come what sorrow can,                         It cannot countervail the exchange of joy                         That one short minute gives me in her sight.                         Do thou but close our hands with […]

NURSE            Have you got leave to go to shrift today? JULIET           I have. NURSE            Then hie you hence to Friar Lawrence’ cell,                         There stays a husband to make you a wife.                         Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks,                         They’ll be in scarlet straight at any […]

NURSE            Your love says, like an honest gentleman,                         And a courteous, and a kind, and a handsome,                         And I warrant a virtuous—Where is your mother? JULIET                        Where is my mother? why, she is within,                         Where should she be? How oddly thou repliest:                         ‘Your love says, like an honest gentleman,                         “Where […]

NURSE            Well, you have made a simple choice, you know not how to choose a man: Romeo? no, not he; though his face be better than any man’s, yet his leg excels all men’s, and for a hand and a foot and a body, though they be not to be talked on, yet they are […]