Room in Capuletโs House.
Enterย Lady Capuletย andย Nurse.
LADY CAPULET.
Nurse, whereโs 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! Whereโs this girl? What, Juliet!
Enterย 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,
We must talk in secret. Nurse, come back again,
I have rememberโd me, thouโs hear our counsel.
Thou knowest my daughterโs of a pretty age.
NURSE.
Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.
LADY CAPULET.
Sheโs not fourteen.
NURSE.
Iโll lay fourteen of my teeth,
And yet, to my teen 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.
NURSE.
Even or odd, of all days in the year,
Come Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen.
Susan and she,โGod rest all Christian souls!โ
Were of an age. Well, Susan is with God;
She was too good for me. But as I said,
On Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen;
That shall she, marry; I remember it well.
โTis since the earthquake now eleven years;
And she was weanโd,โI never shall forget itโ,
Of all the days of the year, upon that day:
For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
Sitting in the sun under the dovehouse 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
Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,
To see it tetchy, and fall out with the dug!
Shake, quoth the dovehouse: โtwas no need, I trow,
To bid me trudge.
And since that time it is eleven years;
For then she could stand alone; nay, by thโrood
She could have run and waddled all about;
For even the day before she broke her brow,
And then my husband,โGod be with his soul!
A was a merry man,โtook up the child:
โYea,โ quoth he, โdost thou fall upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit;
Wilt thou not, Jule?โ and, by my holidame,
The pretty wretch left crying, and said โAyโ.
To see now how a jest shall come about.
I warrant, and I should live a thousand years,
I never should forget it. โWilt thou not, Jule?โ quoth he;
And, pretty fool, it stinted, and said โAy.โ
LADY CAPULET.
Enough of this; I pray thee hold thy peace.
NURSE.
Yes, madam, yet I cannot choose but laugh,
To think it should leave crying, and say โAyโ;
And yet I warrant it had upon it brow
A bump as big as a young cockerelโs stone;
A perilous knock, and it cried bitterly.
โYea,โ quoth my husband, โfallโst upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age;
Wilt thou not, Jule?โ it stinted, and said โAyโ.
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 eโer I nursโd:
And 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?
JULIET.
It is an honour that I dream not of.
NURSE.
An honour! Were not I thine only nurse,
I would say thou hadst suckโd wisdom from thy teat.
LADY CAPULET.
Well, think of marriage now: younger than you,
Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,
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
As all the worldโwhy heโs a man of wax.
LADY CAPULET.
Veronaโs summer hath not such a flower.
NURSE.
Nay, heโs 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;
Read oโer the volume of young Parisโ face,
And find delight writ there with beautyโs pen.
Examine every married lineament,
And see how one another lends content;
And what obscurโd in this fair volume lies,
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 โtis much pride
For fair without the fair within to hide.
That book in manyโs 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.
LADY CAPULET.
Speak briefly, can you like of Parisโ love?
JULIET.
Iโll 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 aย Servant.
SERVANT.
Madam, the guests are come, supper served up, you called, my young lady asked for, the Nurse cursed in the pantry, and everything in extremity. I must hence to wait, I beseech you follow straight.
LADY CAPULET.
We follow thee.
[Exitย Servant.]
Juliet, the County stays.
NURSE.
Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.