The Nurse delays giving her news by complaining of weariness while Juliet anxiously presses her. The Nurse finally tells Juliet to go to Friar Laurence’s cell, where Romeo waits to marry her.
SCENE VI. Friar Lawrence’s Cell.
Enter Friar Lawrence and Romeo.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
So smile the heavens upon this holy actThat after-hours with sorrow chide us not.
ROMEO
Amen, amen, but come what sorrow can,It cannot countervail the exchange of joyThat one short minute gives me in her sight.Do thou but close our hands with holy words,Then love-devouring death do what he dare,It is enough I may but call her mine.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
These violent delights have violent ends,And in their triumph die; like fire and powder,Which as they kiss consume. The sweetest honeyIs loathsome in his own deliciousness,And in the taste confounds the appetite.Therefore love moderately: long love doth so;Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.
Enter Juliet.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Here comes the lady. O, so light a footWill ne’er wear out the everlasting flint.A lover may bestride the gossamersThat idles in the wanton summer airAnd yet not fall; so light is vanity.
JULIET
Good even to my ghostly confessor.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both.
JULIET
As much to him, else is his thanks too much.
ROMEO
Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joyBe heap’d like mine, and that thy skill be moreTo blazon it, then sweeten with thy breathThis neighbour air, and let rich music’s tongueUnfold the imagin’d happiness that bothReceive in either by this dear encounter.
JULIET
Conceit more rich in matter than in words,Brags of his substance, not of ornament.They are but beggars that can count their worth;But my true love is grown to such excess,I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Come, come with me, and we will make short work,For, by your leaves, you shall not stay aloneTill holy church incorporate two in one.