The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare/Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso/shakes/text/32/01_01

Text File | 1991-04-10 | 12KB | 376 lines

PROLOGUE.
 Enter CHORUS.

Chorus    Two households, both alike in dignity
        In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
    From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
        Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
    From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
        A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;
    Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
        Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
    The fearful passage of their death-marked love,
        And the continuance of their parents' rage,
    Which, but their children's end, naught could remove,
        Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
    The which if you with patient ears attend,
    What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
                                            [Exit.

Verona. A public Place.
 Enter SAMPSON and GREGORY, armed with swords and bucklers.

Sampson    Gregory, on my word, we'll not carry coals.

Gregory    No, for then we should be colliers.

Sampson    I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw.

Gregory    Ay, while you live, draw your neck out of collar.

Sampson    I strike quickly, being moved.

Gregory    But thou art not quickly moved to strike.

Sampson    A dog of the house of Montague moves me.

Gregory    To move is to stir, and to be valiant is to stand;
    therefore, if thou art moved, thou runnest away.

Sampson    A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I will take the
    wall of any man or maid of Montague's.

Gregory    That shows thee a weak slave, for the weakest goes to the
    wall.

Sampson    'Tis true; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels,
    are ever thrust to the wall; therefore I will push
    Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the
    wall.

Gregory    The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.

Sampson    'Tis all one. I will show myself a tyrant: when I have
    fought with the men, I will be civil with the maids - I
    will cut off their heads.

Gregory    The heads of the maids?

Sampson    Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads; take it
    in what sense thou wilt.

Gregory    They must take it in sense that feel it.

Sampson    Me they shall feel while I am able to stand; and 'tis known
    I am a pretty piece of flesh.

Gregory    'Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou hadst been
    poor-john. Draw thy tool; here comes of the house of
    Montagues.

                      Enter ABRAHAM and BALTHASAR.

Sampson    My naked weapon is out; quarrel, I will back thee.

Gregory    How - turn thy back and run?

Sampson    Fear me not.

Gregory    No, marry; I fear thee!

Sampson    Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin.

Gregory    I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as they
    list.

Sampson    Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them, which is
    disgrace to them if they bear it.

Abraham    Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

Sampson    I do bite my thumb, sir.

Abraham    Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

Sampson    [Aside to GREGORY.] Is the law of our side if I say 'Ay'?

Gregory    [Aside to SAMPSON.] No.

Sampson    No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir; but I bite my
    thumb, sir.

Gregory    Do you quarrel, sir?

Abraham    Quarrel, sir? No, sir.

Sampson    But if you do, sir, I am for you. I serve as good a man as
    you.

Abraham    No better.

Sampson    Well, sir.

                             Enter BENVOLIO.

Gregory    [Aside to SAMPSON.] Say 'better'; here comes one of my
    master's kinsmen.

Sampson    Yes, better, sir.

Abraham    You lie.

Sampson    Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy washing blow.
                                            [They fight.

Benvolio    Part, fools! Put up your swords; you know not what you do.

                              Enter TYBALT.

Tybalt    What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?
    Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death.

Benvolio    I do but keep the peace. Put up thy sword,
    Or manage it to part these men with me.

Tybalt    What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word
    As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.
    Have at thee, coward!
                                            [They fight.

          Enter three of four CITIZENS with clubs or partisans.

Citizens    Clubs, bills, and partisans! Strike! Beat them down! Down
    with the Capulets! Down with the Montagues!

             Enter old CAPULET in his gown, and LADY CAPULET.

Capulet    What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!

        Enter old MONTAGUE, drawing his sword, and LADY MONTAGUE.

Lady Capulet    A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword?

Capulet    My sword, I say! Old Montague is come,
    And flourishes his blade in spite of me.

Montague    Thou villain Capulet!
    [To LADY MONTAGUE.]    Hold me not; let me go!

Lady Montague    Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe.

                   Enter PRINCE ESCALUS with his TRAIN.

Prince    Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
    Profaners of this neighbour-staind steel-
    Will they not hear? What ho! You men, you beasts,
    That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
    With purple fountains issuing from your veins!
    On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
    Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground,
    And hear the sentence of your movd prince.
    Three civil brawls bred of an airy word
    By thee, old Capulet and Montague,
    Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets
    And made Verona's ancient citizens
    Cast by their grave-beseeming ornaments
    To wield old partisans, in hands as old,
    Cankered with peace, to part your cankered hate.
    If ever you disturb our streets again,
    Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
    For this time all the rest depart away.
    You, Capulet, shall go along with me;
    And, Montague, come you this afternoon
    To know our further pleasure in this case,
    To old Freetown, our common judgement-place.
    Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.
                                            [Exeunt all but MONTAGUE,
                                            LADY MONTAGUE, and BENVOLIO.

Montague    Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?
    Speak, nephew; were you by when it began?

Benvolio    Here were the servants of your adversary
    And yours, close fighting ere I did approach.
    I drew to part them; in the instant came
    The fiery Tybalt with his sword prepared,
    Which, as he breathed defiance to my ears,
    He swung about his head and cut the winds,
    Who, nothing hurt withal, hissed him in scorn.
    While we were interchanging thrusts and blows,
    Came more and more, and fought on part and part,
    Till the prince came, who parted either part.

Lady Montague    O where is Romeo? Saw you him today?
    Right glad I am he was not at this fray.

Benvolio    Madam, an hour before the worshipped sun
    Peered forth the golden window of the east,
    A troubled mind drive me to walk abroad,
    Where, underneath the grove of sycamore
    That westward rooteth from this city side,
    So early walking did I see your son.
    Towards him I made, but he was ware of me
    And stole into the covert of the wood.
    I, measuring his affections by my own,
    Which then most sought where most might not be found,
    Being one too many by my weary self,
    Pursued my humour not pursuing his,
    And gladly shunned who gladly fled from me.

Montague    Many a morning hath he there been seen,
    With tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew,
    Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs;
    But all so soon as the all-cheering sun
    Should in the furthest east begin to draw
    The shady curtains from Aurora's bed,
    Away from light steals home my heavy son,
    And private in his chamber pens himself,
    Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out,
    And makes himself an artificial night.
    Black and portentous must this humour prove
    Unless good counsel may the cause remove.

Benvolio    My noble uncle, do you know the cause?

Montague    I neither know it nor can learn of him.

Benvolio    Have you importuned him by any means?

Montague    Both by myself and many other friends;
    But he, his own affections counsellor,
    Is to himself - I will not say how true-
    But to himself so secret and so close,
    So far from sounding and discovery,
    As is the bud bit with an envious worm
    Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air
    Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.
    Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow,
    We would as willingly give cure as know.

                               Enter ROMEO.

Benvolio    See where he comes. So please you, step aside;
    I'll know his grievance or be much denied.

Montague    I would thou wert so happy by thy stay
    To hear true shrift. Come, madam, let's away.
                             [Exeunt MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE.
Benvolio    Good morrow, cousin.

Romeo                            Is the day so young?

Benvolio    But new struck nine.

Romeo                        Ay me! - sad hours seem long.
    Was that my father that went hence so fast?

Benvolio    It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours?

Romeo    Not having that which, having, makes them short.

Benvolio    In love?

Romeo    Out.

Benvolio    Of love?

Romeo    Out of her favour, where I am in love.

Benvolio    Alas that love, so gentle in his view,
    Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof.

Romeo    Alas that love, whose view is muffled still,
    Should without eyes see pathways to his will.
    Where shall we dine? O me! - what fray was here?
    Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
    Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.
    Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate,
    O anything, of nothing first create!
    O heavy lightness, serious vanity,
    Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
    Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,
    Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
    This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
    Dost thou not laugh?

Benvolio                        No, coz, I rather weep.

Romeo    Good heart, at what?

Benvolio                            At thy good heart's oppression.

Romeo    Why, such is love's transgression.
    Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,
    Which thou wilt propagate, to have it pressed
    With more of thine. This love that thou hast shown
    Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.
    Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs;
    Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
    Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers' tears;
    What is it else? A madness most discreet,
    A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.
    Farewell, my coz.
                                            [Going.
Benvolio                        Soft, I will go along;
    And if you leave me so, you do me wrong.

Romeo    Tut, I have lost myself; I am not here.
    This is not Romeo, he's some other where.

Benvolio    Tell me in sadness, who is that you love?

Romeo    What, shall I groan and tell thee?

Benvolio    Groan? Why no; but sadly tell me who.

Romeo    Bid a sick man in sadness make his will?
    A word ill urged to one that is so ill.
    In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.

Benvolio    I aimed so near when I supposed you loved.

Romeo    A right good markman! And she's fair I love.

Benvolio    A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.

Romeo    Well, in that hit you miss: she'll not be hit
    With Cupid's arrow. She hath Dian's wit,
    And, in strong proof of chastity well armed,
    From love's weak childish bow she lives unharmed.
    She will not stay the siege of loving terms,
    Nor bide th' encounter of assailing eyes,
    Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold.
    O she is rich in beauty, only poor
    That when she dies, with beauty dies her store.

Benvolio    Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?

Romeo    She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste;
    For beauty, starved with her severity,
    Cuts beauty off from all posterity.
    She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair,
    To merit bliss by making me despair.
    She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow
    Do I live dead, that live to tell it now.

Benvolio    Be ruled by me; forget to think of her.

Romeo    O, teach me how I should forget to think!

Benvolio    By giving liberty unto thine eyes;
    Examine other beauties.

Romeo                                'Tis the way
    To call hers, exquisite, in question more.
    These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows,
    Being black, puts us in mind they hide the fair.
    He that is strucken blind cannot forget
    The precious treasure of his eyesight lost.
    Show me a mistress that is passing fair,
    What doth her beauty serve but as a note
    Where I may read who passed that passing fair?
    Farewell; thou canst not teach me to forget.

Benvolio    I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt.
                                            [Exeunt.