ACT II.
Scene I. An open place adjoining Capulet's Garden.
[Enter Romeo.]
ROMEO.
Can I go forward when my heart is here?
Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out.
[He climbs the wall and leaps down within it.]
[Enter Benvolio and Mercutio.]
BENVOLIO.
Romeo! my cousin Romeo!
MERCUTIO.
He is wise;
And, on my life, hath stol'n him home to bed.
BENVOLIO.
He ran this way, and leap'd this orchard wall:
Call, good Mercutio.
MERCUTIO.
Nay, I'll conjure too. —
Romeo! humours! madman! passion! lover!
Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh:
Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied;
Cry but 'Ah me!' pronounce but Love and dove;
Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word,
One nickname for her purblind son and heir,
Young auburn Cupid, he that shot so trim
When King Cophetua lov'd the beggar-maid! —
He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not;
The ape is dead, and I must conjure him. —
I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes,
By her high forehead and her scarlet lip,
By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh,
And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,
That in thy likeness thou appear to us!
BENVOLIO.
An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him.
MERCUTIO.
This cannot anger him: 'twould anger him
To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle,
Of some strange nature, letting it there stand
Till she had laid it, and conjur'd it down;
That were some spite: my invocation
Is fair and honest, and, in his mistress' name,
I conjure only but to raise up him.
BENVOLIO.
Come, he hath hid himself among these trees,
To be consorted with the humorous night:
Blind is his love, and best befits the dark.
MERCUTIO.
If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.
Now will he sit under a medlar tree,
And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit
As maids call medlars when they laugh alone. —
Romeo, good night. — I'll to my truckle-bed;
This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep:
Come, shall we go?
BENVOLIO.
Go then; for 'tis in vain
To seek him here that means not to be found.
[Exeunt.]
Glossary
dull earth Romeo's description of himself.
conjure to summon a demon or spirit as by a magic spell. Mercutio attempts to raise or draw Romeo from his hiding place.
when King . . . lov'd the beggar maid a 16th-century ballad.
the ape is dead Romeo is described as a performing monkey who is playing dead and will not respond to Mercutio's conjuration.
demesnes a region or domain. Here Mercutio uses it to refer bawdily to the female genitalia.
to raise a spirit in his mistresses circle Mercutio puns on circle as both the magician's magic circle and the female genitalia.
consorted associated with.
medlars small, brown, apple-like fruit.
open-arse slang term for a medlar; "arse" is the buttocks.
poperin pear Mercutio compares the pear with the shape of the male genitals and puns on the name: pop-her-in.
truckle-bed a low bed on small wheels or casters, that can be rolled under another bed when not in use.
field-bed bed upon the ground.
