MERCUTIO     Give me a case to put my visage in, [Puts on a mask.]                         A visor for a visor! what care I                         What curious eye doth cote deformities?                         Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me. BENVOLIO      Come knock and enter, and no sooner in,                         But every man betake him […]

MERCUTIO     You are a lover, borrow Cupid’s wings,                         And soar with them above a common bound. ROMEO           I am too sore enpiercèd with his shaft                         To soar with his light feathers, and so bound                         I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe:                         Under love’s heavy burden do I sink. MERCUTIO     And […]

ROMEO           Give me a torch, I am not for this ambling;                         Being but heavy, I will bear the light. MERCUTIO     Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance. ROMEO           Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes                         With nimble soles, I have a soul of lead                         So stakes me to the ground […]

Enter ROMEO, MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, with five or six other MASKERS, TORCH-BEARERS ROMEO           What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse?                         Or shall we on without apology? BENVOLIO      The date is out of such prolixity:                         We’ll have no Cupid hoodwinked with a scarf,                         Bearing a Tartar’s painted bow of lath,                         Scaring […]

LADY CAPULET         Speak briefly, can you like of Paris’ love? JULIET                                    I’ll look to like, if looking liking move;                                     But no more deep will I endart mine eye                                     Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.                                                 Enter SERVINGMAN SERVINGMAN            Madam, the guests are come, supper served up, you called, my young […]

LADY CAPULET         The fish lives in the sea, and ’tis much pride                                     For fair without the fair within to hide;                                     That book in many’s eyes doth share the glory                                     That in gold clasps locks in the golden story:                                     So shall you share all that he doth possess,                                     By having him, […]

LADY CAPULET         What say you, can you love the gentleman?                                     This night you shall behold him at our feast;                                     Read o’er the volume of young Paris’ face,                                     And find delight writ there with beauty’s pen;                                     Examine every married lineament,                                     And see how one another lends content;                                     And what obscured […]

LADY CAPULET         Well, think of marriage now; younger than you,                                     Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,                                     Are made already mothers. By my count,                                     I was your mother much upon these years                                     That you are now a maid. Thus then in brief:                                     The valiant Paris seeks you for his love. NURSE                        […]

NURSE                        Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace,                                     Thou wast the prettiest babe that e’er I nursed.                                     And I might live to see thee married once,                                     I have my wish. LADY CAPULET         Marry, that ‘marry’ is the very theme                                     I came to talk of. Tell me, my daughter […]

LADY CAPULET         Enough of this, I pray thee hold thy peace. NURSE                        Yes, madam, yet I cannot choose but laugh,                                     To think it should leave crying and say ‘Ay’:                                     And yet I warrant it had upon it brow                                     A bump as big as a young cock’rel’s stone,                                     A perilous knock, and […]