Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Enter Friar Lawrence and County Paris. FRIAR LAWRENCE
On Thursday, sir? The time is very short. PARIS
My father Capulet will have it so,
And I am nothing slow to slack his haste. FRIAR LAWRENCE
You say you do not know the lady’s mind?
Uneven is the course. I like it not. 5 PARIS
Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt’s death,
And therefore have I little talk of love,
For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.
Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous
That she do give her sorrow so much sway, 10
And in his wisdom hastes our marriage
To stop the inundation of her tears,
Which, too much minded by herself alone,
May be put from her by society.
Now do you know the reason of this haste. 15 FRIAR LAWRENCE, aside
I would I knew not why it should be slowed.—
Look, sir, here comes the lady toward my cell. | Paris has stopped by Friar Lawrence's church to make plans for his upcoming marriage to Juliet. The Friar is quietly freaking out, since he's not a big fan of enabling bigamy. |
Enter Juliet. PARIS
Happily met, my lady and my wife. JULIET
That may be, sir, when I may be a wife. PARIS
That “may be” must be, love, on Thursday next. 20 JULIET
What must be shall be. FRIAR LAWRENCE That’s a certain text. PARIS
Come you to make confession to this father? JULIET
To answer that, I should confess to you. PARIS
Do not deny to him that you love me. 25 JULIET
I will confess to you that I love him. PARIS
So will you, I am sure, that you love me. JULIET
If I do so, it will be of more price
Being spoke behind your back than to your face. | Juliet rushes in to see the friar talking with the last person on earth she wants to see: Paris. He greets her with a chipper, "Nice to see you future wife," and it's pretty much downhill from there. Juliet plays awesome defense on Paris's flirty comments. If we were keeping score, it'd be about 5-0 Juliet right now. |
PARIS
Poor soul, thy face is much abused with tears. 30 JULIET
The tears have got small victory by that,
For it was bad enough before their spite. PARIS
Thou wrong’st it more than tears with that report. JULIET
That is no slander, sir, which is a truth,
And what I spake, I spake it to my face. 35 PARIS
Thy face is mine, and thou hast slandered it. JULIET
It may be so, for it is not mine own.—
Are you at leisure, holy father, now,
Or shall I come to you at evening Mass? FRIAR LAWRENCE
My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.— 40
My lord, we must entreat the time alone. PARIS
God shield I should disturb devotion!—
Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse you.
Till then, adieu, and keep this holy kiss. He exits. | Paris continues to try to start up a conversation with Juliet, but she won't cooperate. Eventually, Paris takes the hint that Juliet needs to make confession to the Friar, and he leaves—but not before giving Juliet an unwanted and uninspiring kiss. |
JULIET
O, shut the door, and when thou hast done so, 45
Come weep with me, past hope, past care, past help. FRIAR LAWRENCE
O Juliet, I already know thy grief.
It strains me past the compass of my wits.
I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,
On Thursday next be married to this County. 50 JULIET
Tell me not, friar, that thou hearest 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 resolution wise,
And with this knife I’ll help it presently. 55 She shows him her knife. God joined my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands;
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo’s sealed,
Shall be the label to another deed,
Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
Turn to another, this shall slay them both. 60
Therefore out of thy long-experienced time
Give me some present counsel, or, behold,
’Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that
Which the commission of thy years and art 65
Could to no issue of true honor bring.
Be not so long to speak. I long to die
If what thou speak’st speak not of remedy. | Left alone with Friar Lawrence, Juliet...whips out a dagger and tells him she will kill herself if he can't think of a way for her to avoid marrying Paris. |
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Hold, daughter, I do spy a kind of hope,
Which craves as desperate an execution 70
As that is desperate which we would prevent.
If, rather than to marry County Paris,
Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself,
Then is it likely thou wilt undertake
A thing like death to chide away this shame, 75
That cop’st with death himself to ’scape from it;
And if thou darest, I’ll give thee remedy. | Confronted with his second suicidal teen in under 24 hours, Friar Lawrence remains calm. Once again, he says he has a better plan, and he's pretty sure that if Juliet is willing to kill herself, she'll be willing to go through with it...because his plan, apparently, involves a think like death. |
JULIET
O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
From off the battlements of any tower,
Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk 80
Where serpents are. Chain me with roaring bears,
Or hide me nightly in a charnel house,
O’ercovered quite with dead men’s rattling bones,
With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls.
Or bid me go into a new-made grave 85
And hide me with a dead man in his shroud
(Things that to hear them told have made me
tremble),
And I will do it without fear or doubt,
To live an unstained wife to my sweet love. 90 | Juliet's in. She'll leap off a tower, become a thief, hang out with snakes, be chained up with roaring bears, hide in a pile of skeletons—basically anything to keep from marrying Paris. |
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Hold, then. Go home; be merry; give consent
To marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow.
Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone;
Let not the Nurse lie with thee in thy chamber.
Holding out a vial.
Take thou this vial, being then in bed, 95
And this distilling liquor drink thou off;
When presently through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humor; for no pulse
Shall keep his native progress, but surcease.
No warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest. 100
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To paly ashes, thy eyes’ windows fall
Like death when he shuts up the day of life.
Each part, deprived of supple government,
Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death, 105
And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt continue two and forty hours
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes
To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead. 110
Then, as the manner of our country is,
In thy best robes uncovered on the bier
Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
In the meantime, against thou shalt awake, 115
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift,
And hither shall he come, and he and I
Will watch thy waking, and that very night
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
And this shall free thee from this present shame, 120
If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear
Abate thy valor in the acting it. | The Friar tells Juliet his idea. He knows of a weird potion that will make Juliet appear as if she is dead for forty-two hours. Conveniently, the Capulets don't actually bury their dead in the ground, which otherwise would kind of screw up the plan. Instead, they stick them in a big tomb. If everyone thinks Juliet is dead, the Friar explains, she won't have to marry Paris. Then he and Romeo can come to the tomb and wait for her to wake up, and then she and Romeo can go to Mantua together. The Friar promises to send a letter to Romeo so he knows what's going on. |
JULIET
Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear! FRIAR LAWRENCE, giving Juliet the vial
Hold, get you gone. Be strong and prosperous
In this resolve. I’ll send a friar with speed 125
To Mantua with my letters to thy lord. JULIET
Love give me strength, and strength shall help
afford.
Farewell, dear father. They exit in different directions. | Juliet thinks this is a great idea. What could possibly go wrong? She takes the potion, thanks the Friar, and heads home. |