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Romeo and Juliet: Act I, Scene 3

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Romeo and Juliet
Act I, Scene 3

Verona. A room in Capulet’s house.

Juliet

Juliet

Alternative title: The Blue Necklace

John William Waterhouse, 1898

  1. Enter Capulet’s Wife, and Nurse.

Lady Capulet

1
  1. Nurse, where’s my daughter? Call her forth to me.

Nurse

2 - 4
  1. Now by my maidenhead at twelve year old,
  2. I bade her come. What, lamb! What, ladybird!
  3. God forbid! Where’s this girl? What, Juliet!
  1. Enter Juliet.

Juliet

5
  1. How now, who calls?

Nurse

6
  1.                     Your mother.

Juliet

7 - 8
  1.              Madam, I am here,
  2. What is your will?

Lady Capulet

9 - 12
  1. This is the matter. Nurse, give leave a while,
  2. We must talk in secret. Nurse, come back again,
  3. I have rememb’red me, thou s’ hear our counsel.
  4. Thou knowest my daughter’s of a pretty age.

Nurse

13
  1. Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.

Lady Capulet

14
  1. She’s not fourteen.

Nurse

15 - 18
  1.                     I’ll lay fourteen of my teeth—
  2. And yet, to my teen be it spoken, I have but four—
  3. She’s not fourteen. How long is it now
  4. To Lammas-tide?

Lady Capulet

19
  1.                 A fortnight and odd days.

Nurse

20 - 52
  1. Even or odd, of all days in the year,
  2. Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen.
  3. Susan and she—God rest all Christian souls!—
  4. Were of an age. Well, Susan is with God,
  5. She was too good for me. But as I said,
  6. On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen,
  7. That shall she, marry, I remember it well.
  8. ’Tis since the earthquake now eleven years,
  9. And she was wean’d—I never shall forget it—
  10. Of all the days of the year, upon that day;
  11. For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
  12. Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall.
  13. My lord and you were then at Mantua—
  14. Nay, I do bear a brain—but as I said,
  15. When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
  16. Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,
  17. To see it tetchy and fall out wi’ th’ dug!
  18. Shake, quoth the dove-house; ’twas no need, I trow,
  19. To bid me trudge.
  20. And since that time it is eleven years,
  21. For then she could stand high-lone; nay, by th’ rood,
  22. She could have run and waddled all about;
  23. For even the day before, she broke her brow,
  24. And then my husband—God be with his soul!
  25. ’A was a merry man—took up the child.
  26. “Yea,” quoth he, “dost thou fall upon thy face?
  27. Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit,
  28. Wilt thou not, Jule?” and by my holidam,
  29. The pretty wretch left crying and said, “Ay.”
  30. To see now how a jest shall come about!
  31. I warrant, and I should live a thousand years,
  32. I never should forget it: “Wilt thou not, Jule?” quoth he;
  33. And, pretty fool, it stinted and said, “Ay.”
Juliet

Juliet

Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd.; 1896

Lady Capulet

53
  1. Enough of this, I pray thee hold thy peace.

Nurse

54 - 61
  1. Yes, madam, yet I cannot choose but laugh
  2. To think it should leave crying and say, “Ay.”
  3. And yet I warrant it had upon it brow
  4. A bump as big as a young cock’rel’s stone—
  5. A perilous knock—and it cried bitterly.
  6. “Yea,” quoth my husband, “fall’st upon thy face?
  7. Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age,
  8. Wilt thou not, Jule?” It stinted and said, “Ay.”

Juliet

62
  1. And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse, say I.

Nurse

63 - 66
  1. Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace!
  2. Thou wast the prettiest babe that e’er I nurs’d.
  3. And I might live to see thee married once,
  4. I have my wish.

Lady Capulet

67 - 69
  1. Marry, that “marry” is the very theme
  2. I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet,
  3. How stands your dispositions to be married?

Juliet

70
  1. It is an honor that I dream not of.

Nurse

71 - 72
  1. An honor! Were not I thine only nurse,
  2. I would say thou hadst suck’d wisdom from thy teat.

Lady Capulet

73 - 78
  1. Well, think of marriage now; younger than you,
  2. Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,
  3. Are made already mothers. By my count,
  4. I was your mother much upon these years
  5. That you are now a maid. Thus then in brief:
  6. The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.
Julia Marlowe as Juliet

Julia Marlowe as Juliet

White Studio, photographer; circa 1900

Nurse

79 - 80
  1. A man, young lady! Lady, such a man
  2. As all the world—why, he’s a man of wax.

Lady Capulet

81
  1. Verona’s summer hath not such a flower.

Nurse

82
  1. Nay, he’s a flower, in faith, a very flower.

Lady Capulet

83 - 98
  1. What say you? Can you love the gentleman?
  2. This night you shall behold him at our feast;
  3. Read o’er the volume of young Paris’ face,
  4. And find delight writ there with beauty’s pen;
  5. Examine every married lineament,
  6. And see how one another lends content;
  7. And what obscur’d in this fair volume lies
  8. Find written in the margent of his eyes.
  9. This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
  10. To beautify him, only lacks a cover.
  11. The fish lives in the sea, and ’tis much pride
  12. For fair without the fair within to hide.
  13. That book in many’s eyes doth share the glory,
  14. That in gold clasps locks in the golden story;
  15. So shall you share all that he doth possess,
  16. By having him, making yourself no less.

Nurse

99
  1. No less! Nay, bigger: women grow by men.

Lady Capulet

100
  1. Speak briefly, can you like of Paris’ love?

Juliet

101 - 103
  1. I’ll look to like, if looking liking move;
  2. But no more deep will I endart mine eye
  3. Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.
  1. Enter First Servingman.

First Servingman

104 - 107
  1. Madam, the guests are come, supper serv’d up, you call’d, my
  2. young lady ask’d for, the nurse curs’d in the pantry, and
  3. every thing in extremity. I must hence to wait; I beseech
  4. you follow straight.
  1. Exit.

Lady Capulet

108
  1. We follow thee. Juliet, the County stays.

Nurse

109
  1. Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.
  1. Exeunt.
Costume design for Juliet

Costume design for Juliet

Percy Anderson, circa 1900

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