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Capulet's orchard. We see the very same balcony where ROMEO and JULIET spoke the night before. |
| Juliet |
The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse; |
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In half an hour she promised to return. |
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Perchance she cannot meet him: that's not so. |
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O, she is lame! love's heralds should be thoughts, |
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Which ten times faster glide than the sun's beams, |
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Driving back shadows over louring hills: |
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Therefore do nimble-pinion'd doves draw love, |
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And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings. |
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Now is the sun upon the highmost hill |
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Of this day's journey, and from nine till twelve |
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Is three long hours, yet she is not come. |
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Had she affections and warm youthful blood, |
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She would be as swift in motion as a ball; |
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My words would bandy her to my sweet love, |
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But old folks, many feign as they were dead; |
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Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead. |
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O honey nurse, what news? |
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Hast thou met with him? Send thy man away. |
| Nurse |
Peter, stay at the gate. |
| Juliet |
Now, good sweet nurse,--O Lord, why look'st thou sad? |
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Though news be sad, yet tell them merrily; |
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If good, thou shamest the music of sweet news |
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By playing it to me with so sour a face. |
| Nurse |
I am a-weary, give me leave awhile: |
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Fie, how my bones ache! what a jaunt have I had! |
| Juliet |
I would thou hadst my bones, and I thy news: |
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Nay, come, I pray thee, speak; good, good nurse, speak. |
| Nurse |
Jesu, what haste? can you not stay awhile? |
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Do you not see that I am out of breath? |
| Juliet |
How art thou out of breath, when thou hast breath |
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To say to me that thou art out of breath? |
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The excuse that thou dost make in this delay |
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Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse. |
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Is thy news good, or bad? answer to that; |
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Say either, and I'll stay the circumstance: |
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Let me be satisfied, is't good or bad? |
| Nurse |
Well, you have made a simple choice; you know not |
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how to choose a man: Romeo! no, not he; though his |
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face be better than any man's, yet his leg excels |
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all men's; and for a hand, and a foot, and a body, |
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though they be not to be talked on, yet they are |
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past compare: he is not the flower of courtesy, |
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but, I'll warrant him, as gentle as a lamb. Go thy |
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ways, wench; serve God. What, have you dined at home? |
| Juliet |
No, no: but all this did I know before. |
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What says he of our marriage? what of that? |
| Nurse |
Lord, how my head aches! what a head have I! |
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It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces. |
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My back o' t' other side,--O, my back, my back! |
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Beshrew your heart for sending me about, |
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To catch my death with jaunting up and down! |
| Juliet |
I' faith, I am sorry that thou art not well. |
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Sweet, sweet, sweet nurse, tell me, what says my love? |
| Nurse |
Your love says, like an honest gentleman, and a |
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courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, and, I |
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warrant, a virtuous,--Where is your mother? |
| Juliet |
Where is my mother! why, she is within; |
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Where should she be? How oddly thou repliest! |
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'Your love says, like an honest gentleman, |
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Are you so hot? marry, come up, I trow; |
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Is this the poultice for my aching bones? |
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Henceforward do your messages yourself. |
| Juliet |
Here's such a coil! come, what says Romeo? |
| Nurse |
Have you got leave to go to shrift to-day? |
| Nurse |
Then hie you hence to Friar Laurence' cell; |
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There stays a husband to make you a wife: |
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Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks, |
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They'll be in scarlet straight at any news. |
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Hie you to church; I must another way, |
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To fetch a ladder, by the which your love |
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Must climb a bird's nest soon when it is dark: |
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I am the drudge and toil in your delight, |
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But you shall bear the burden soon at night. |
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Go; I'll to dinner: hie you to the cell. |
| Juliet |
Hie to high fortune! Honest nurse, farewell. |
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