Act 4 — Scenes 3 and 4The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet

Page 57 of 72

Page 57

What if it be a poison, which the Friar Subtly hath minister’d to have me dead, Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour’d, Because he married me before to Romeo? I fear it is. And yet methinks it should not, For he hath still been tried a holy man. How if, when I am laid into the tomb, I wake before the time that Romeo Come to redeem me? There’s a fearful point! Shall I not then be stifled in the vault, To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in, And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes? Or, if I live, is it not very like, The horrible conceit of death and night, Together with the terror of the place, As in a vault, an ancient receptacle, Where for this many hundred years the bones Of all my buried ancestors are pack’d, Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth, Lies festering in his shroud; where, as they say, At some hours in the night spirits resort— Alack, alack, is it not like that I, So early waking, what with loathsome smells, And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth, That living mortals, hearing them, run mad. O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught, Environed with all these hideous fears, And madly play with my forefathers’ joints? And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud? And, in this rage, with some great kinsman’s bone, As with a club, dash out my desperate brains? O look, methinks I see my cousin’s ghost Seeking out Romeo that did spit his body Upon a rapier’s point. Stay, Tybalt, stay! Romeo, Romeo, Romeo, here’s drink! I drink to thee. (Throws herself on the bed.) Scene Four. Hall in Capulet’s House. Enter Lady Capulet and Nurse. Lady Capulet: Hold, take these keys and fetch more spices, Nurse. Nurse: They call for dates and quinces in the pastry. Enter Capulet. Capulet: Come, stir, stir, stir! The second cock hath crow’d, The curfew bell hath rung, ’tis three o’clock. Look to the bak'd meats, good Angelica; Spare not for cost. Nurse: Go, you cot-quean, go, Get you to bed; faith, you’ll be sick tomorrow For this night’s watching. Capulet: No, not a whit. What! I have watch’d ere now All night for lesser cause, and ne’er been sick.
0:00
--:--
Ad slot (mobile)