Prescanned Shakespeare.com
presented by Acoustic Learning


Romeo and Juliet

Act I, Scene 4

A street.
 
[Enter ROMEO, MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, with five or six Maskers, Torch-bearers, and others]
 
ROMEO
        ,                  ,          ,          ,        ,
      What shall | this speech | be spoke | for our | excuse?
           ,         ,        ,      ,    ,
      Or shall | we on | without | apol|ogy?
 
BENVOLIO
            ,        ,         ,        ,    ,
      The date | is out | of such | prolix|ity,
              ,        ,        ,     ,              ,
      We'll have | no Cup|id, hood|winked with | a scarf,
        ,          ,          ,       ,         ,
      Bearing | a Tar|tar's paint|ed bow | of lath,
        ,            ,        ,        ,    ,
      Scaring | the lad|ies like | a crow-|keeper.
           ,           ,       ,        ,           ,
      But let | them meas|ure us | by what | they will,
              ,        ,        ,        ,         ,
      We'll meas|ure them | a meas|ure, and | be gone.
 
ROMEO
        ,           ,     ,       ,     2        ,
      Give me | a torch,| I am | not for this | ambling.
       ,           ,     ,          ,          ,
      Being | but hea|vy I | will bear | the light.
 
MERCUTIO
       T    Tx    T   2   ,          ,          ,
      Nay gentle Rom|eo, we | must have | you dance.
 
ROMEO
          ,       ,          ,          ,         ,
      Not^I | believe | me, you | have dan|cing shoes
            ,        ,         ,        ,         ,
      With nim|ble soles,| I have | a soul | of lead
             ,         ,          ,        ,        ,
      So* stakes | me to | the ground,| I can|not move.
 
MERCUTIO
       ,           ,       ,       ,         ,
      You are | a lov|er, bor|row Cup|id's wings,
            ,           ,       ,       ,        ,
      And soar | with them | above | a com|mon bound.
 
ROMEO
              ,    ,        ,        ,          ,
      I am / too sore | enpier|ced with | his shaft,
           ,                 ,     ,               ,   ,
      To soar | with his / light feath|ers, and / so bound:
       2    ,      ,         ,       T    T   T
      I cannot|  bound a | pitch a|bove dull woe,
       Tx      T    T       ,      ,       ,
      Under love's hea|vy burd|en do | I sink.  ??
 
MERCUTIO
                 ,   ,         ,          ,        ,
      And to / sink in | it should | you burd|en love,
            ,         ,        ,       ,        ,
      Too great | oppres|sion for | a tend|er thing.
 
ROMEO
           ,       ,        ,              ,    ,
      Is love | a tend|er thing?| It is / too rough,
            ,          ,     2     ,     .    T     T    T
      Too rude,| too bois|terous, and | it pricks like thorn.
 
MERCUTIO
           ,         ,           ,         ,            ,
      If love | be rough | with you,| be rough | with love,
              ,          ,       2     ,      T    T    T
      Prick^love | for prick|ing, and you | beat love down,   ??
        ,           ,        ,        ,       ,
      Give me | a case | to put | my vis|age in,
         ,      ,       ,        ,         ,
      A vis|or for | a vis|or, what | care^I
            ,    2   ,           ,         ,     ,
      What cur|ious eye | doth quote | deform|ities?
        ,              ,       ,             ,          ,
      Here are | the beet|le brows | shall blush | for me.
 
BENVOLIO
        T    T    .   T       ,        ,       ,
      Come knock and ent|er, and | no soon|er in,
           ,      ,        ,         ,         ,
      But eve|ry man | betake | him to | his legs.
 
ROMEO
          ,          ,        ,         ,          ,
      A torch | for me,| let want|ons light | of heart
       ,             ,          ,       ,            ,
      Tickle | the sense|less rush|es with | their heels:
          ,        ,          ,    .   T    T     T
      For I | am prov|erbed with | a grandsire phrase,
        ,           ,       ,             ,   ,
      I'll be | a cand|le-hold|er and / look on,
            ,          ,         ,        ,        ,
      The game | was nere | so fair,| and I | am done.
 
MERCUTIO
       T     T    .    T           ,             ,    ,
      Tut, dun's the mouse,| the const|able's / own word,
           ,         ,            ,           ,          ,
      If thou | art dun,| we'll draw | thee from | the mire
                 ,    ,          ,          ,           ,
      Of this / sir-reve|rence love,| wherein | thou stickst
       ,            ,          ,         ,         ,
      Up to | the ears,| Come^we | burn^day|light ho.
 
ROMEO
            ,           ,
      Nay that's | not so.
 
MERCUTIO
                               ,        ,      ,
                           I mean | sir I | delay,
           ,            ,      .   T      T       T          ,
      We waste | our lights | in vain, lights, lights, | by day;
        ,          ,    ,                   ,         ,
      Take our | good mean/ing, for | our judg|ment sits
        T    T    .   T          ,               ,    ,
      Five times in that,| ere once | in our / five wits.
 
ROMEO
       .   T   T    T        ,      ,           ,
      And we mean well | in go|ing to | this masque,
            ,        ,        ,
      But 'tis | no wit | to go.
 
MERCUTIO
                                  ,             ,
                                 Why may | one ask?
 
ROMEO
           ,          ,         ,
      I dreamed | a dream | tonight.
 
MERCUTIO
                                         ,       ,
                                    And so | did I.
 
ROMEO
             ,          ,
      Well what | was yours?
 
MERCUTIO
                                    ,        ,      ,
                             That drea|mers of|ten lie.
 
ROMEO
          ,       ,             ,         ,              ,
      In bed | asleep,| while they | do dream | things^true.
 
MERCUTIO
O then I see Queen Mab hath been with you: She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes in shape no bigger than an agate stone, on the fore-finger of an alderman, drawn with a team of little atomies, over men's noses as they lie asleep: her wagon spokes made of long spiders' legs: the cover of the wings of grasshoppers, the traces of the smallest spider's web, the collars of the moonshine's watery beams, her whip of cricket's bone,the lash of film, her wagoner, a small grey-coated gnat, not so big as a round little worm, pricked from the lazy finger of a man. Her chariot is an empty hazelnut, made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, time out of mind, the fairies' coachmakers: and in this state she gallops night by night, through lovers' brains: and then they dream of love. On courtiers' knees, that dream on curtsies straight: Ore lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees, ore ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream, which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues, because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are. Sometime she gallops ore a courtier's nose, and then dreams he of smelling out a suit: and sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail, tickling a parson's nose as he lies asleep, then dreams he of another benefice. Sometime she driveth ore a soldier's neck, and then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades: of healths five fathom deep, and then anon drums in his ears, at which he starts and wakes; and being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two and sleeps again: This is that very Mab that plats the manes of horses in the night: and bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs, which once untangled, much misfortune bodes, this is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, that presses them, and learns them first to bear, making them women of good carriage: this is she.
 
ROMEO
Peace, peace, Mercutio peace,
              ,         ,
      Thou talkst | of noth|ing.
 
MERCUTIO
                                   ,        ,          ,
                                 True,| I talk | of dreams:
             ,          ,        ,       ,      ,
      Which are | the child|ren of | an id|le brain,
         ,         ,               ,   ,     ,
      Begot | of noth|ing, but / vain fant|asy,
             ,        ,        ,          ,        ,
      Which^is | as thin | of sub|stance as | the air,
            ,        ,         ,          ,          ,
      And more | inconst|ant than | the wind,| who woos
            ,          ,      ,      ,         ,
      Eene^now | the froz|en bos|om of | the north:
           ,      ,          ,       ,            ,
      And be|ing ang|ered, puffs | away | from thence,
        ,             ,              ,    ,         ,
      Turning | his face | to the / dew-drop|ping south.
 
BENVOLIO
             ,          ,         ,          ,          ,
      This wind | you talk | of blows | us from | ourselves,
       ,            ,         ,           ,          ,
      Supper | is done,| and we | shall come | too late.
 
ROMEO
          ,         ,             ,   ,         ,
      I fear | too^ear|ly, for / my mind | misgives,
             ,      ,           ,       ,         ,
      Some cons|equence | yet hang|ing in | the stars,
             ,      ,      ,          ,        ,
      Shall bit|terly | begin | his fear|ful date
             ,       ,     ,                 ,          ,
      With this | night's rev/els, and | expire | the term
                  ,     ,    ,      ,        ,
      Of a de//spised life clos|ed in | my breast:
           ,      ,   ,                ,       ,
      By some | vile for/feit of | untime|ly death.
           ,          ,          ,        ,         ,
      But he | that hath | the steer|age of | my course,
          ,         ,     T  T  .  T      ,
      Direct | my sail:| On lusty gent|lemen.
 
BENVOLIO
        __      __
      Strike | drum.  \\
 
[Exeunt]

← Previous Scene | Next Scene →


Home