BALTHASAR   I saw her laid low in her kindred’s vault,                         And presently took post to tell it you.                         O pardon me for bringing these ill news,                         Since you did leave it for my office, sir. ROMEO           Is it e’en so? then I defy you, stars!                         Thou knowest my lodging, get me […]

Enter Romeo’s man [BALTHASAR, booted]. ROMEO           News from Verona! How now, Balthasar?                         Dost thou not bring me letters from the Friar?                         How doth my lady? Is my father well?                         How doth my Juliet? That I ask again,                         For nothing can be ill if she be well. BALTHASAR   Then she is well and […]

ROMEO           I dreamt my lady came and found me dead                         (Strange dream that gives a dead man leave to think!),                         And breathed such life with kisses in my lips                         That I revived and was an emperor.                         Ah me, how sweet is love itself possessed,                         When but love’s shadows are so […]

[5.1]    Enter ROMEO. ROMEO           If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep, My dreams presage some joyful news at hand. My bosom’s lord sits lightly in his throne, And all this day an unaccustomed spirit Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts. (5.1.1-5) Finally, Romeo has got some sleep. It’s Wednesday afternoon, his first […]

PETER                                    Prates too! What say you, James Soundpost? THIRD MUSICIAN      Faith, I know not what to say. PETER                        O, I cry you mercy, you are the singer; I will say for you: It is ‘music with her silver sound’ because musicians have no gold for sounding.                                                 ‘Then music with her silver sound                                                 With […]

PETER                        Then have at you with my wit! I will dry-beat you with an iron wit, and put up my iron dagger. Answer me like men:                                                 ‘When griping griefs the heart doth wound,                                                 And doleful dumps the mind oppress,                                                 Then music with her silver sound—’ Why ‘silver sound’? why ‘music with her […]

PETER                                    I will then give it to you soundly. FIRST MUSICIAN       What will you give us? PETER                                    No money, on my faith, but the gleek; I will give you the minstrel. FIRST MUSICIAN       Then will I give you the serving-creature. PETER                                    Then will I lay the serving-creature’s dagger on your pate. I will carry no […]

FIRST MUSICIAN       Faith, we may put up our pipes and be gone. NURSE                        Honest good fellows, ah put up, put up,                                     For well you know this is a pitiful case.      [Exit.] FIRST MUSICIAN       Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended.                                                 EnterPETER. PETER                        Musicians, O musicians, ‘Heart’s ease’, ‘Heart’s ease’! O, and […]

FRIAR              Sir, go you in, and, madam, go with him,                         And go, Sir Paris. Everyone prepare                         To follow this fair corse unto her grave.                         The heavens do low’r upon you for some ill;                         Move them no more by crossing their high will. [They all, but the Nurse and the Musicians, go […]

CAPULET        All things that we ordainèd festival,                         Turn from their office to black funeral:                         Our instruments to melancholy bells,                         Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast;                         Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change;                         Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse;                         And all things change them to the […]