JULIET                        O shut the door, and when thou hast done so,                         Come weep with me, past hope, past cure, past help! FRIAR              O Juliet, I already know thy grief,                         It strains me past the compass of my wits.                         I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,                         On Thursday next be […]

JULIET                        Are you at leisure, holy father, now,                         Or shall I come to you at evening mass? FRIAR              My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.                         My lord, we must entreat the time alone. PARIS              God shield I should disturb devotion!                         Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse ye;                         Till then adieu, […]

PARIS              Poor soul, thy face is much abused with tears. JULIET                        The tears have got small victory by that,                         For it was bad enough before their spite. PARIS              Thou wrong’st it more than tears with that report. JULIET                        That is no slander, sir, which is a truth,                         And what I spake, I spake […]

PARIS              Come you to make confession to this father? JULIET                        To answer that, I should confess to you. PARIS              Do not deny to him that you love me. JULIET                        I will confess to you that I love him. PARIS              So will ye, I am sure, that you love me. JULIET                        If I do so, it […]

PARIS              Now do you know the reason of this haste. FRIAR              [Aside] I would I knew not why it should be slowed. –                         Look, sir, here comes the lady toward my cell.                                     Enter JULIET. PARIS              Happily met, my lady and my wife! JULIET                        That may be, sir, when I may be a wife. PARIS              […]

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, […]