PARIS              Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt’s death,                         And therefore have I little talked of love,                         For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.                         Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous                         That she do give her sorrow so much sway;                         And in his wisdom hastes our marriage                         To stop […]

Enter FRIAR [LAWRENCE] and COUNTY PARIS FRIAR              On Thursday, sir? the time is very short. PARIS              My father Capulet will have it so,                         And I am nothing slow to slack his haste. FRIAR              You say you do not know the lady’s mind?                         Uneven is the course, I like it not. (4.1.1-5) Towards the end of […]

JULIET                        Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!                         Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn,                         Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue                         Which she hath praised him with above compare                         So many thousand times? Go, counsellor,                         Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.                         I’ll to […]

JULIET                        Speak’st thou from thy heart? NURSE            And from my soul too, else beshrew them both. JULIET                        Amen. NURSE            What? JULIET                        Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much.                         Go in, and tell my lady I am gone,                         Having displeased my father, to Lawrence’s cell,                         To make confession, and to be absolved. NURSE            […]

Romeo and Juliet, dir. Erica Whyman, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 23 August 2018 This is not a review, but rather some responses to this production, which I enjoyed very much; I am already pleasurably anticipating seeing it again on the London transfer. It chimed with many of the things I’ve been interested in, […]

NURSE            O, he’s a lovely gentleman!                         Romeo’s a dishclout to him. An eagle, madam,                         Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye                         As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,                         I think you are happy in this second match,                         For it excels your first, or if it did not, […]

NURSE                                    Faith, here it is:                         Romeo is banished, and all the world to nothing                         That he dares ne’er come back to challenge you;                         Or if he do, it needs must be by stealth.                         Then since the case so stands as now it doth,                         I think it best you married with […]

JULIET                        O God! – O Nurse, how shall this be prevented? My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven; How shall that faith return again to earth, Unless that husband send it me from heaven By leaving earth? Comfort me, counsel me. Alack, alack, that heaven should practise stratagems Upon so soft a subject […]

JULIET                                    Is there no pity sitting in the clouds                                     That sees into the bottom of my grief?                                     O sweet my mother, cast me not away!                                     Delay this marriage for a month, a week,                                     Or if you do not, make the bridal bed                                     In that dim monument where Tybalt lies. LADY […]

CAPULET        Look to’t, think on’t, I do not use to jest.                         Thursday is near, lay hand on heart, advise:                         And you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend;                         And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets,                         For by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee,                         Nor what […]