BENVOLIO.
Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun
Peer'd forth the golden window of the east,
A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad;
Where, — underneath the grove of sycamore
That westward rooteth from the city's side, —
So early walking did I see your son:
Towards him I made; but he was ware of me,
And stole into the covert of the wood:
I, measuring his affections by my own, —
That most are busied when they're most alone, —
Pursu'd my humour, not pursuing his,
And gladly shunn'd who gladly fled from me.
MONTAGUE.
Many a morning hath he there been seen,
With tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew,
Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs:
But all so soon as the all-cheering sun
Should in the farthest east begin to draw
The shady curtains from Aurora's bed,
Away from light steals home my heavy son,
And private in his chamber pens himself;
Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out
And makes himself an artificial night:
Black and portentous must this humour prove,
Unless good counsel may the cause remove.
BENVOLIO.
My noble uncle, do you know the cause?
MONTAGUE.
I neither know it nor can learn of him.
BENVOLIO.
Have you importun'd him by any means?
MONTAGUE.
Both by myself and many other friends;
But he, his own affections' counsellor,
Is to himself, — I will not say how true, —
But to himself so secret and so close,
So far from sounding and discovery,
As is the bud bit with an envious worm
Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,
Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.
Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow,
We would as willingly give cure as know.
BENVOLIO.
See, where he comes: so please you step aside;
I'll know his grievance or be much denied.
MONTAGUE.
I would thou wert so happy by thy stay
To hear true shrift. — Come, madam, let's away,
[Exeunt Montague and Lady.]
[Enter Romeo.]
BENVOLIO.
Good morrow, cousin.
ROMEO.
Is the day so young?
BENVOLIO.
But new struck nine.
ROMEO.
Ay me! sad hours seem long.
Was that my father that went hence so fast?
BENVOLIO.
It was. — What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours?
ROMEO.
Not having that which, having, makes them short.
BENVOLIO.
In love?
ROMEO.
Out, —
BENVOLIO.
Of love?
ROMEO.
Out of her favour where I am in love.
BENVOLIO.
Alas, that love, so gentle in his view,
Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!
ROMEO.
Alas that love, whose view is muffled still,
Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will! —
Where shall we dine? — O me! — What fray was here?
Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
Here's much to do with hate, but more with love: —
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O anything, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! —
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh?
BENVOLIO.
No, coz, I rather weep.
ROMEO.
Good heart, at what?
BENVOLIO.
At thy good heart's oppression.
ROMEO.
Why, such is love's transgression. —
Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast;
Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest
With more of thine: this love that thou hast shown
Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.
Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs;
Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
Being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:
What is it else? a madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet. —
Farewell, my coz.
[Going.]
BENVOLIO.
Soft! I will go along:
An if you leave me so, you do me wrong.
ROMEO.
Tut! I have lost myself; I am not here:
This is not Romeo, he's some other where.
BENVOLIO.
Tell me in sadness who is that you love?
ROMEO.
What, shall I groan and tell thee?
BENVOLIO.
Groan! why, no;
But sadly tell me who.
ROMEO.
Bid a sick man in sadness make his will, —
Ah, word ill urg'd to one that is so ill! —
In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.
BENVOLIO.
I aim'd so near when I suppos'd you lov'd.
ROMEO.
A right good markman! — And she's fair I love.
BENVOLIO.
A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.
ROMEO.
Well, in that hit you miss: she'll not be hit
With Cupid's arrow, — she hath Dian's wit;
And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd,
From love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd.
She will not stay the siege of loving terms
Nor bide th' encounter of assailing eyes,
Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold:
O, she's rich in beauty; only poor
That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store.
BENVOLIO.
Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?
ROMEO.
She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste;
For beauty, starv'd with her severity,
Cuts beauty off from all posterity.
She is too fair, too wise; wisely too fair,
To merit bliss by making me despair:
She hath forsworn to love; and in that vow
Do I live dead that live to tell it now.
BENVOLIO.
Be rul'd by me, forget to think of her.
ROMEO.
O, teach me how I should forget to think.
BENVOLIO.
By giving liberty unto thine eyes;
Examine other beauties.
ROMEO.
'Tis the way
To call hers, exquisite, in question more:
These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows,
Being black, puts us in mind they hide the fair;
He that is strucken blind cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost:
Show me a mistress that is passing fair,
What doth her beauty serve but as a note
Where I may read who pass'd that passing fair?
Farewell: thou canst not teach me to forget.
BENVOLIO.
I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt.
[Exeunt.]
Glossary
we'll not carry coals an old-fashioned saying, which meant to submit to insults.
colliers coal miners.
draw your neck out of collar Gregory puns on the word "draw" here, implying that Sampson will draw or slip his head out of a hangman's noose (collar).
maidenhead virginity.
I will bite my thumb at them, which is a disgrace to them if they bear it an Italian insult, a provocative, probably obscene gesture.
bills medieval weapons having a hook-shaped blade with a spike at the back, mounted on a long staff.
partisans broad-bladed weapons with a long shaft, used especially in the 16th century.
purple fountains jets of blood.
mistemper'd bad-tempered, angry; here, also referring to weapons which have been tempered, or made hard, in blood rather than water.
moved angry.
artificial night Romeo's behavior is unnatural (artificial).
true shrift confession.
love so gentle in his view love, often represented as Cupid, appears gentle.
in proof when actually experienced.
stay undergo.
posterity Rosaline's celibacy will prevent her passing on her beauty to her children or descendants.
forsworn promised not to love.
do I live dead Romeo regards Rosaline's decision to remain chaste as a form of living death.
