AcT 4, ScEnE 1


JuLiEt O shut the door! And when thou hast done so, Come weep with me: past hope, past cure, past help!


FrIaR LaUrEnCe Oh, Juliet, I already know thy grief; It strains me past the compass of my wits.18 I hear thou must – and nothing may prorogue19 On Thursday next be married to this County.


50


JuLiEt Tell me not, Friar, that thou hear’st of this, Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it. If, in thy wisdom, thou canst give no help, Do thou but call my resolution20


wise,


And with this knife I’ll help it presently. God joined my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands; And ere21


this hand, by thee to Romeo’s sealed,22 60


Shall be the label to another deed,23 Or my true heart with treacherous revolt Turn to another, this shall slay them both! Therefore, out of thy long-experienced time, Give me some present counsel, or, behold, ’Twixt my extremes and me,24


Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that Which the commission of thy years and art Could to no issue of true honour bring.25 Be not so long to speak; I long to die. If what thou speak’st, speak not of remedy.


70


FrIaR LaUrEnCe Hold, daughter! I do spy a kind of hope, Which craves as desperate an execution As that is desperate which we would prevent.26 If, rather than to marry County Paris, Thou hast the strength of will to slay27


thyself,


Then is it likely thou wilt undertake A thing like death to chide away this shame, 28 That cop’st with29


And, if thou dar’st, I’ll give thee remedy.


JuLiEt O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, From off the battlements of yonder tower, Or walk in thievish ways;31


or bid me lurk 80


Where serpents are! Chain me with roaring bears, Or hide me nightly in a charnel-house,32 O’ercovered quite with dead men’s rattling bones, With reeky shanks33


and yellow chapless34


Or bid me go into a new-made grave, And hide me with a dead man in his shroud!35


wife to my sweet love.


skulls! –


Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble – And I will do it without fear or doubt, To live an unstained36


death himself to scape from it.30 18 it –


It strains…my wits: it is a problem too difficult for me to solve


19 prorogue: delay


20


resolution: determination


21 22 23


ere: before sealed: joined


Shall be…deed: will identify I’m married to someone else (as she will wear Paris’s wedding ring)


this bloody knife 24


’Twixt…and me: between my terrible circumstances and myself


25


this bloody knife…bring: this bloody knife will be the judge, deciding something that neither your age nor skill could honourably solve


26


27 28


Which craves…we would prevent: which requires a solution as desperate as the situation we’re trying to prevent slay: kill


chide away this shame: i.e. prevent the shame of being married to two people


29 cop’st with: i.e. deals with 30


scape from it: escape from it (the marriage to Paris)


31 32 33


thievish ways: places where thieves are


charnel-house: a place where skeletons and bones were stored


reeky shanks: stinking leg- bones


34 chapless: jawless 35


shroud: cloth used for wrapping dead bodies


36 unstained: pure 153


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