Paris is talking with Friar Lawrence about the coming wedding when Juliet arrives. After Paris leaves, she threatens suicide if Friar Lawrence cannot save her from marrying Paris. Friar Lawrence gives her a potion that will make her appear as if dead the morning of the wedding. He assures her that when she awakes in the vault, Romeo will be there to take her away.
Enter Friar ⌜ Lawrence ⌝ and County Paris.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
2312 On Thursday, sir? The time is very short.
PARIS
2313 My father Capulet will have it so,
2314 And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
2315 You say you do not know the lady’s mind?
2316 5 Uneven is the course. I like it not.
PARIS
2317 Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt’s death,
2318 And therefore have I little talk of love,
2319 For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.
2320 Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous
2321 10 That she do give her sorrow so much sway,
2322 And in his wisdom hastes our marriage
2323 To stop the inundation of her tears,
2324 Which, too much minded by herself alone,
2325 May be put from her by society.
2326 15 Now do you know the reason of this haste.
FRIAR LAWRENCE , ⌜ aside ⌝
2327 I would I knew not why it should be slowed.—
2328 Look, sir, here comes the lady toward my cell.
PARIS
2329 Happily met, my lady and my wife.
JULIET
2330 That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.
PARIS
2331 20 That “may be” must be, love, on Thursday next.
JULIET
2332 What must be shall be.
FRIAR LAWRENCE 2333 That’s a certain text.
PARIS
2334 Come you to make confession to this father?
JULIET
2335 To answer that, I should confess to you.
PARIS
2336 25 Do not deny to him that you love me.
JULIET
2337 I will confess to you that I love him.
PARIS
2338 So will you, I am sure, that you love me.
JULIET
2339 If I do so, it will be of more price
2340 Being spoke behind your back than to your face.
PARIS
2341 30 Poor soul, thy face is much abused with tears.
JULIET
2342 The tears have got small victory by that,
2343 For it was bad enough before their spite.
PARIS
2344 Thou wrong’st it more than tears with that report.
JULIET
2345 That is no slander, sir, which is a truth,
2346 35 And what I spake, I spake it to my face.
PARIS
2347 Thy face is mine, and thou hast slandered it.
JULIET
2348 It may be so, for it is not mine own.—
2349 Are you at leisure, holy father, now,
2350 Or shall I come to you at evening Mass?
FRIAR LAWRENCE
2351 40 My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.—
2352 My lord, we must entreat the time alone.
PARIS
2353 God shield I should disturb devotion!—
2354 Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse you.
2355 Till then, adieu, and keep this holy kiss. He exits.
JULIET
2356 45 O, shut the door, and when thou hast done so,
2357 Come weep with me, past hope, past care, past help.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
2358 O Juliet, I already know thy grief.
2359 It strains me past the compass of my wits.
2360 I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,
2361 50 On Thursday next be married to this County.
JULIET
2362 Tell me not, friar, that thou hearest of this,
2363 Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it.
2364 If in thy wisdom thou canst give no help,
2365 Do thou but call my resolution wise,
2366 55 And with this knife I’ll help it presently.
⌜ She shows him her knife. ⌝
2367 God joined my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands;
2368 And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo’s sealed,
2369 Shall be the label to another deed,
2370 Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
2371 60 Turn to another, this shall slay them both.
2372 Therefore out of thy long-experienced time
2373 Give me some present counsel, or, behold,
2374 ’Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
2375 Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that
2376 65 Which the commission of thy years and art
2377 Could to no issue of true honor bring.
2378 Be not so long to speak. I long to die
2379 If what thou speak’st speak not of remedy.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
2380 Hold, daughter, I do spy a kind of hope,
2381 70 Which craves as desperate an execution
2382 As that is desperate which we would prevent.
2383 If, rather than to marry County Paris,
2384 Thou hast the strength of will to ⌜ slay ⌝ thyself,
2385 Then is it likely thou wilt undertake
2386 75 A thing like death to chide away this shame,
2387 That cop’st with death himself to ’scape from it;
2388 And if thou darest, I’ll give thee remedy.
JULIET
2389 O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
2390 From off the battlements of any tower,
2391 80 Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk
2392 Where serpents are. Chain me with roaring bears,
2393 Or hide me nightly in a charnel house,
2394 O’ercovered quite with dead men’s rattling bones,
2395 With reeky shanks and yellow ⌜ chapless ⌝ skulls.
2396 85 Or bid me go into a new-made grave
2397 And hide me with a dead man in his ⌜ shroud ⌝
2398 (Things that to hear them told have made me
2399 tremble),
2400 And I will do it without fear or doubt,
2401 90 To live an unstained wife to my sweet love.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
2402 Hold, then. Go home; be merry; give consent
2403 To marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow.
2404 Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone;
2405 Let not the Nurse lie with thee in thy chamber.
⌜ Holding out a vial. ⌝
2406 95 Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
2407 And this distilling liquor drink thou off;
2408 When presently through all thy veins shall run
2409 A cold and drowsy humor; for no pulse
2410 Shall keep his native progress, but surcease.
2411 100 No warmth, no ⌜ breath ⌝ shall testify thou livest.
2412 The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
2413 To ⌜ paly ⌝ ashes, thy eyes’ windows fall
2414 Like death when he shuts up the day of life.
2415 Each part, deprived of supple government,
2416 105 Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death,
2417 And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk death
2418 Thou shalt continue two and forty hours
2419 And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
2420 Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes
2421 110 To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead.
2422 Then, as the manner of our country is,
2423 ⌜ In ⌝ thy best robes uncovered on the bier
2424 Thou ⌜ shalt ⌝ be borne to that same ancient vault
2425 Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
2426 115 In the meantime, against thou shalt awake,
2427 Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift,
2428 And hither shall he come, and he and I
2429 Will watch thy ⌜ waking, ⌝ and that very night
2430 Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
2431 120 And this shall free thee from this present shame,
2432 If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear
2433 Abate thy valor in the acting it.
JULIET
2434 Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear!
FRIAR LAWRENCE , ⌜ giving Juliet the vial ⌝
2435 Hold, get you gone. Be strong and prosperous
2436 125 In this resolve. I’ll send a friar with speed
2437 To Mantua with my letters to thy lord.
JULIET
2438 Love give me strength, and strength shall help
2439 afford.
2440 Farewell, dear father.
⌜ They ⌝ exit ⌜ in different directions. ⌝