| ACT ISCENE III | A room in Capulet's house. | |
| | Enter LADY CAPULET and Nurse | |
| LADY CAPULET | Nurse, where's my daughter? call her forth to me. | |
| Nurse | Now, by my maidenhead, at twelve year old, | |
| | I bade her come. What, lamb! what, ladybird! | |
| | God forbid! Where's this girl? What, Juliet! | 5 |
| | Enter JULIET | |
| JULIET | How now! who calls? | |
| Nurse | Your mother. | |
| JULIET | Madam, I am here. | |
| | What is your will? | |
| LADY CAPULET | This is the matter:--Nurse, give leave awhile, | 10 |
| | We must talk in secret:--nurse, come back again; | |
| | I have remember'd me, thou's hear our counsel. | |
| | Thou know'st my daughter's of a pretty age. | |
| Nurse | Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour. | |
| LADY CAPULET | She's not fourteen. | 15 |
| Nurse | I'll lay fourteen of my teeth,-- | |
| | And yet, to my teeth be it spoken, I have but four-- | |
| | She is not fourteen. How long is it now | |
| | To Lammas-tide? | |
| LADY CAPULET | A fortnight and odd days. | 20 |
| Nurse | Even or odd, of all days in the year, | |
| | Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen. | |
| | Susan and she--God rest all Christian souls!-- | |
| | Were of an age: well, Susan is with God; | |
| | She was too good for me: but, as I said, | 25 |
| | On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen; | |
| | That shall she, marry; I remember it well. | |
| | 'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years; | |
| | And she was wean'd,--I never shall forget it,-- | |
| | Of all the days of the year, upon that day: | 30 |
| | For I had then laid wormwood to my dug, | |
| | Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall; | |
| | My lord and you were then at Mantua:-- | |
| | Nay, I do bear a brain:--but, as I said, | |
| | When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple | 35 |
| | Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool, | |
| | To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug! | |
| | Shake quoth the dove-house: 'twas no need, I trow, | |
| | To bid me trudge: | |
| | And since that time it is eleven years; | 40 |
| | For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood, | |
| | She could have run and waddled all about; | |
| | For even the day before, she broke her brow: | |
| | And then my husband--God be with his soul! | |
| | A' was a merry man--took up the child: | 45 |
| | 'Yea,' quoth he, 'dost thou fall upon thy face? | |
| | Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit; | |
| | Wilt thou not, Jule?' and, by my holidame, | |
| | The pretty wretch left crying and said 'Ay.' | |
| | To see, now, how a jest shall come about! | 50 |
| | I warrant, an I should live a thousand years, | |
| | I never should forget it: 'Wilt thou not, Jule?' quoth he; | |
| | And, pretty fool, it stinted and said 'Ay.' | |
| LADY CAPULET | Enough of this; I pray thee, hold thy peace. | |
| Nurse | Yes, madam: yet I cannot choose but laugh, | 55 |
| | To think it should leave crying and say 'Ay.' | |
| | And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow | |
| | A bump as big as a young cockerel's stone; | |
| | A parlous knock; and it cried bitterly: | |
| | 'Yea,' quoth my husband,'fall'st upon thy face? | 60 |
| | Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age; | |
| | Wilt thou not, Jule?' it stinted and said 'Ay.' | |
| JULIET | And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse, say I. | |
| Nurse | Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace! | |
| | Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nursed: | 65 |
| | An I might live to see thee married once, | |
| | I have my wish. | |
| LADY CAPULET | Marry, that 'marry' is the very theme | |
| | I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet, | |
| | How stands your disposition to be married? | 70 |
| JULIET | It is an honour that I dream not of. | |
| Nurse | An honour! were not I thine only nurse, | |
| | I would say thou hadst suck'd wisdom from thy teat. | |
| LADY CAPULET | Well, think of marriage now; younger than you, | |
| | Here in Verona, ladies of esteem, | 75 |
| | Are made already mothers: by my count, | |
| | I was your mother much upon these years | |
| | That you are now a maid. Thus then in brief: | |
| | The valiant Paris seeks you for his love. | |
| Nurse | A man, young lady! lady, such a man | 80 |
| | As all the world--why, he's a man of wax. | |
| LADY CAPULET | Verona's summer hath not such a flower. | |
| Nurse | Nay, he's a flower; in faith, a very flower. | |
| LADY CAPULET | What say you? can you love the gentleman? | |
| | This night you shall behold him at our feast; | 85 |
| | Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face, | |
| | And find delight writ there with beauty's pen; | |
| | Examine every married lineament, | |
| | And see how one another lends content | |
| | And what obscured in this fair volume lies | 90 |
| | Find written in the margent of his eyes. | |
| | This precious book of love, this unbound lover, | |
| | To beautify him, only lacks a cover: | |
| | The fish lives in the sea, and 'tis much pride | |
| | For fair without the fair within to hide: | 95 |
| | That book in many's eyes doth share the glory, | |
| | That in gold clasps locks in the golden story; | |
| | So shall you share all that he doth possess, | |
| | By having him, making yourself no less. | |
| Nurse | No less! nay, bigger; women grow by men. | 100 |
| LADY CAPULET | Speak briefly, can you like of Paris' love? | |
| JULIET | I'll look to like, if looking liking move: | |
| | But no more deep will I endart mine eye | |
| | Than your consent gives strength to make it fly. | |
| | Enter a Servant | |
| Servant | Madam, the guests are come, supper served up, you | 105 |
| | called, my young lady asked for, the nurse cursed in | |
| | the pantry, and every thing in extremity. I must | |
| | hence to wait; I beseech you, follow straight. | |
| LADY CAPULET | We follow thee. | |
| | Exit Servant | |
| | Juliet, the county stays. | 110 |
| Nurse | Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days. | |
| | Exeunt | |
