SC. I.
ROMEO AND JULIET
135
| Par. | That may be must be, love, on Thursday next.20 |
| Jul. | What must be shall be. |
| Fri. | That's a certain text. |
| Par. | Come you to make confession to this father? |
| Jul. | To answer that, I should[C 1] confess to you. |
| Par. | Do not deny to him that you love me. |
| Jul. | I will confess to you that I love him.25 |
| Par. | So will ye,[C 2] I am sure, that you love me. |
| Jul. | If I do so, it will be of more price Being spoke behind your back, than to your face. |
| Par. | Poor soul, thy face is much abused with tears. |
| Jul. | The tears have got small victory by that;30 For it was bad enough before their spite. |
| Par. | Thou wrong'st it more than tears with that report. |
| Jul. | That is no slander, sir, which is a truth,[C 3] And what I spake, I spake it to my[C 4] face. |
| Par. | Thy face is mine, and thou hast slander'd it.35 |
| Jul. | It may be so, for it is not mine own.— Are you at leisure, holy father, now; Or shall I come to you at evening mass?[E 1] |
| Fri. | My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.— My lord, we[C 5] must entreat[E 2] the time alone.40 |
- ↑ 38. evening mass] See The Religion of Shakespeare, chiefly from the writings of Richard Simpson, by H. S. Bowdon (1899), pp. 271–274; it is there shown that mass was used of various church offices; that, in the stricter sense of mass, there was great latitude in ancient times as to the hour; that Pius V. (1566–72) prohibited evening masses; that the new law was slow in coming into operation in Germany, and perhaps in England; finally, that in Verona the forbidden custom lingered to the nineteenth century.
- ↑ 40. entreat] Schmidt explains "beg to be left alone." New Eng. Dict. reading with F, "you must entreat," explains beguile, pass (time); but the Dict. gives no other example of this sense.
