Romeo climbs into the Capulet orchard rather than leave with Benvolio and Mercutio. Mercutio calls for Romeo with bawdy references to Rosaline, but Romeo remains hidden. Unable to find Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio abandon their search and go home.
SCENE II. Capulet’s Garden.
Enter Romeo.
ROMEO
He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
Juliet appears above at a window.
ROMEO
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon,Who is already sick and pale with grief,That thou her maid art far more fair than she.Be not her maid since she is envious;Her vestal livery is but sick and green,And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.It is my lady, O it is my love!O, that she knew she were!She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that?Her eye discourses, I will answer it.I am too bold, ’tis not to me she speaks.Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,Having some business, do entreat her eyesTo twinkle in their spheres till they return.What if her eyes were there, they in her head?The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heavenWould through the airy region stream so brightThat birds would sing and think it were not night.See how she leans her cheek upon her hand.O that I were a glove upon that hand,That I might touch that cheek.
JULIET
Ay me.
ROMEO
She speaks.O speak again bright angel, for thou artAs glorious to this night, being o’er my head,As is a winged messenger of heavenUnto the white-upturned wondering eyesOf mortals that fall back to gaze on himWhen he bestrides the lazy-puffing cloudsAnd sails upon the bosom of the air.
JULIET
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?Deny thy father and refuse thy name.Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
ROMEO
Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?
JULIET
’Tis but thy name that is my enemy;Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.What’s Montague? It is nor hand nor foot,Nor arm, nor face, nor any other partBelonging to a man. O be some other name.What’s in a name? That which we call a roseBy any other name would smell as sweet;So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,Retain that dear perfection which he owesWithout that title. Romeo, doff thy name,And for thy name, which is no part of thee,Take all myself.
ROMEO
I take thee at thy word.Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptis’d;Henceforth I never will be Romeo.
JULIET
What man art thou that, thus bescreen’d in nightSo stumblest on my counsel?
ROMEO
By a nameI know not how to tell thee who I am:My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself,Because it is an enemy to thee.Had I it written, I would tear the word.
JULIET
My ears have yet not drunk a hundred wordsOf thy tongue’s utterance, yet I know the sound.Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?
ROMEO
Neither, fair maid, if either thee dislike.
JULIET
How cam’st thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?The orchard walls are high and hard to climb,And the place death, considering who thou art,If any of my kinsmen find thee here.
ROMEO
With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls,For stony limits cannot hold love out,And what love can do, that dares love attempt:Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me.
JULIET
If they do see thee, they will murder thee.
ROMEO
Alack, there lies more peril in thine eyeThan twenty of their swords. Look thou but sweet,And I am proof against their enmity.
JULIET
I would not for the world they saw thee here.
ROMEO
I have night’s cloak to hide me from their eyes,And but thou love me, let them find me here.My life were better ended by their hateThan death prorogued, wanting of thy love.
JULIET
By whose direction found’st thou out this place?
ROMEO
By love, that first did prompt me to enquire;He lent me counsel, and I lent him eyes.I am no pilot; yet wert thou as farAs that vast shore wash’d with the farthest sea,I should adventure for such merchandise.
JULIET
Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face,Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheekFor that which thou hast heard me speak tonight.Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain denyWhat I have spoke; but farewell compliment.Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say Ay,And I will take thy word. Yet, if thou swear’st,Thou mayst prove false. At lovers’ perjuries,They say Jove laughs. O gentle Romeo,If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully.Or if thou thinkest I am too quickly won,I’ll frown and be perverse, and say thee nay,So thou wilt woo. But else, not for the world.In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond;And therefore thou mayst think my ’haviour lightThe lungs, especially those of an animal used as food.:But trust me, gentleman, I’ll prove more trueThan those that have more cunning to be strange.I should have been more strange, I must confess,But that thou overheard’st, ere I was ’ware,My true-love passion; therefore pardon me,And not impute this yielding to light love,Which the dark night hath so discovered.
ROMEO
Lady, by yonder blessed moon I vow,That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops,—
JULIET
O swear not by the moon, th’inconstant moon,That monthly changes in her circled orb,Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.
ROMEO
What shall I swear by?
JULIET
Do not swear at all.Or if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self,Which is the god of my idolatry,And I’ll believe thee.
ROMEO
If my heart’s dear love,—
JULIET
Well, do not swear. Although I joy in thee,I have no joy of this contract tonight;It is too rash, too unadvis’d, too sudden,Too like the lightning, which doth cease to beEre one can say “It lightens.” Sweet, good night.This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath,May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.Good night, good night. As sweet repose and restCome to thy heart as that within my breast.
ROMEO
O wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?
JULIET
What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?
ROMEO
Th’exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine.
JULIET
I gave thee mine before thou didst request it;And yet I would it were to give again.
ROMEO
Would’st thou withdraw it? For what purpose, love?
JULIET
But to be frankAn enclosure or pen in which pigs are confined and fattened. and give it thee again.And yet I wish but for the thing I have;My bounty is as boundless as the sea,My love as deep; the more I give to thee,The more I have, for both are infinite.I hear some noise within. Dear love, adieu.Nurse calls within.Anon, good Nurse!—Sweet Montague be true.Stay but a little, I will come again.
Exit.
ROMEO
O blessed, blessed night. I am afeard,Being in night, all this is but a dream,Too flattering sweet to be substantial.
Enter Juliet above.
JULIET
Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed.If that thy bent of love be honourable,Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow,By one that I’ll procure to come to thee,Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite,And all my fortunes at thy foot I’ll layAnd follow thee my lord throughout the world.
NURSE
Madam.
JULIET
I come, anon.— But if thou meanest not well,I do beseech thee,—
NURSE
Madam.
JULIET
By and by I come—To cease thy strife and leave me to my grief.Tomorrow will I send.
ROMEO
So thrive my soul,—
JULIET
A thousand times good night.
Exit.
ROMEO
A thousand times the worse, to want thy light.Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books,But love from love, towards school with heavy looks.
Retiring slowly.
Re-enter Juliet, above.
JULIET
Hist! Romeo, hist! O for a falconer’s voiceTo lurea falconer’s baited device used to recall a trained hawk. this tassel-gentle back again.Bondage is hoarse and may not speak aloud,Else would I tear the cave where Echo lies,And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mineWith repetition of my Romeo’s name.
ROMEO
It is my soul that calls upon my name.How silver-sweet sound lovers’ tongues by night,Like softest music to attending ears.
JULIET
Romeo.
ROMEO
My nyasa fledgling or inexperienced youngster.?
JULIET
What o’clock tomorrowShall I send to thee?
ROMEO
By the hour of nine.
JULIET
I will not fail. ’Tis twenty years till then.I have forgot why I did call thee back.
ROMEO
Let me stand here till thou remember it.
JULIET
I shall forget, to have thee still stand there,Remembering how I love thy company.
ROMEO
And I’ll still stay, to have thee still forget,Forgetting any other home but this.
JULIET
’Tis almost morning; I would have thee gone,And yet no farther than a wanton’s bird,That lets it hop a little from her hand,Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,And with a silk thread plucks it back again,So loving-jealous of his liberty.
ROMEO
I would I were thy bird.
JULIET
Sweet, so would I:Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrowThat I shall say good night till it be morrow.
Exit.
ROMEO
Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast.Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest.Hence will I to my ghostly Sire’s cell,His help to crave and my dear hap to tell.