Complete Plays, The (13 page)
Read Complete Plays, The Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
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Lucius, all hail, Rome’s gracious governor!
Lucius
Thanks, gentle Romans: may I govern so,
To heal Rome’s harms, and wipe away her woe!
But, gentle people, give me aim awhile,
For nature puts me to a heavy task:
Stand all aloof: but, uncle, draw you near,
To shed obsequious tears upon this trunk.
O, take this warm kiss on thy pale cold lips,
Kissing Titus
These sorrowful drops upon thy blood-stain’d face,
The last true duties of thy noble son!
Marcus Andronicus
Tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss,
Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips:
O were the sum of these that I should pay
Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them!
Lucius
Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn of us
To melt in showers: thy grandsire loved thee well:
Many a time he danced thee on his knee,
Sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow:
Many a matter hath he told to thee,
Meet and agreeing with thine infancy;
In that respect, then, like a loving child,
Shed yet some small drops from thy tender spring,
Because kind nature doth require it so:
Friends should associate friends in grief and woe:
Bid him farewell; commit him to the grave;
Do him that kindness, and take leave of him.
Young Lucius
O grandsire, grandsire! even with all my heart
Would I were dead, so you did live again!
O Lord, I cannot speak to him for weeping;
My tears will choke me, if I ope my mouth.
Re-enter Attendants with Aaron
Aemilius
You sad Andronici, have done with woes:
Give sentence on this execrable wretch,
That hath been breeder of these dire events.
Lucius
Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish him;
There let him stand, and rave, and cry for food;
If any one relieves or pities him,
For the offence he dies. This is our doom:
Some stay to see him fasten’d in the earth.
Aaron
O, why should wrath be mute, and fury dumb?
I am no baby, I, that with base prayers
I should repent the evils I have done:
Ten thousand worse than ever yet I did
Would I perform, if I might have my will;
If one good deed in all my life I did,
I do repent it from my very soul.
Lucius
Some loving friends convey the emperor hence,
And give him burial in his father’s grave:
My father and Lavinia shall forthwith
Be closed in our household’s monument.
As for that heinous tiger, Tamora,
No funeral rite, nor man m mourning weeds,
No mournful bell shall ring her burial;
But throw her forth to beasts and birds of prey:
Her life was beast-like, and devoid of pity;
And, being so, shall have like want of pity.
See justice done on Aaron, that damn’d Moor,
By whom our heavy haps had their beginning:
Then, afterwards, to order well the state,
That like events may ne’er it ruinate.
Exeunt
Romeo and Juliet
T
ABLE
OF
C
ONTENTS
S
CENE
III. A
ROOM
IN
C
APULET
’
S
HOUSE
.
S
CENE
V. A
HALL
IN
C
APULET
’
S
HOUSE
.
S
CENE
I. A
LANE
BY
THE
WALL
OF
C
APULET
’
S
ORCHARD
.
S
CENE
III. F
RIAR
L
AURENCE
’
S
CELL
.
S
CENE
III. F
RIAR
L
AURENCE
’
S
CELL
.
S
CENE
IV. A
ROOM
IN
C
APULET
’
S
HOUSE
.
S
CENE
II. H
ALL
IN
C
APULET
’
S
HOUSE
.
S
CENE
IV. H
ALL
IN
C
APULET
’
S
HOUSE
.
S
CENE
III. A
CHURCHYARD
;
IN
IT
A
TOMB
BELONGING
TO
THE
C
APULETS
.
C
HARACTERS
OF
THE
P
LAY
Chorus.
Escalus, Prince of Verona.
Paris, a young Count, kinsman to the Prince.
Montague, heads of two houses at variance with each other.
Capulet, heads of two houses at variance with each other.
An old Man, of the Capulet family.
Romeo, son to Montague.
Tybalt, nephew to Lady Capulet.
Mercutio, kinsman to the Prince and friend to Romeo.
Benvolio, nephew to Montague, and friend to Romeo
Tybalt, nephew to Lady Capulet.
Friar Laurence, Franciscan.
Friar John, Franciscan.
Balthasar, servant to Romeo.
Abram, servant to Montague.
Sampson, servant to Capulet.
Gregory, servant to Capulet.
Peter, servant to Juliet's nurse.
An Apothecary.
Three Musicians.
An Officer.
Lady Montague, wife to Montague.
Lady Capulet, wife to Capulet.
Juliet, daughter to Capulet.
Nurse to Juliet.
Citizens of Verona; Gentlemen and Gentlewomen of both houses; Maskers, Torchbearers, Pages, Guards, Watchmen, Servants, and Attendants.
Scene: Verona; Mantua.
A
CT
I
P
ROLOGUE
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,
And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
S
CENE
I. V
ERONA
. A
PUBLIC
PLACE
.
Enter Sampson and Gregory, of the house of Capulet, armed with swords and bucklers
Sampson
Gregory, o’ my word, we’ll not carry coals.
Gregory
No, for then we should be colliers.
Sampson
I mean, an we be in choler, we’ll draw.
Gregory
Ay, while you live, draw your neck out o’ the collar.
Sampson
I strike quickly, being moved.
Gregory
But thou art not quickly moved to strike.
Sampson
A dog of the house of Montague moves me.
Gregory
To move is to stir; and to be valiant is to stand: therefore, if thou art moved, thou runn’st away.
Sampson
A dog of that house shall move me to stand: I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague’s.
Gregory
That shows thee a weak slave; for the weakest goes to the wall.
Sampson
True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall: therefore I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall.
Gregory
The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.
Sampson
’Tis all one, I will show myself a tyrant: when I have fought with the men, I will be cruel with the maids, and cut off their heads.
Gregory
The heads of the maids?
Sampson
Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads; take it in what sense thou wilt.
Gregory
They must take it in sense that feel it.
Sampson
Me they shall feel while I am able to stand: and
’tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh.
Gregory
’Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou hadst been poor John. Draw thy tool! here comes two of the house of the Montagues.
Sampson
My naked weapon is out: quarrel, I will back thee.
Gregory
How! turn thy back and run?
Sampson
Fear me not.
Gregory
No, marry; I fear thee!
Sampson
Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin.
Gregory
I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as they list.
Sampson
Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.
Enter Abraham and Balthasar
Abraham
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
Sampson
I do bite my thumb, sir.
Abraham
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
Sampson
[Aside to Gregory]
Is the law of our side, if I say ay?
Gregory
No.
Sampson
No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.
Gregory
Do you quarrel, sir?
Abraham
Quarrel sir! no, sir.
Sampson
If you do, sir, I am for you: I serve as good a man as you.
Abraham
No better.
Sampson
Well, sir.
Gregory
Say ‘better:’ here comes one of my master’s kinsmen.
Sampson
Yes, better, sir.
