The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (Dowden)/Act 2/Scene 5

SCENE V.—The Same. Capulet's Orchard.^{[C 1]}

Enter Juliet.

Jul.

The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse; In half an hour she promised to return. Perchance she cannot meet him: that's not so. O, she is lame! love's heralds[C 2][E 1] should be thoughts, Which ten times faster glide[C 3] than the sun's beams5 Driving back[E 2] shadows over louring[C 4] hills: Therefore do nimble-pinioned[C 5] doves draw Love,[E 3] And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings. Now is the sun upon the highmost[E 4] hill Of this day's journey, and from nine till twelve10 Is three[C 6] long hours, yet she is not come. Had she affections, and warm youthful blood, She'd[C 7] be as swift in motion as a ball; My words would bandy[E 5] her to my sweet love, And his to me:15 But old folks, many feign[C 8][E 6] as they were dead; Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.—

Enter Nurse, with Peter.

⁠	O God, she comes!—O honey nurse, what news? Hast thou met with him? Send thy man away.

Nurse.

Peter, stay at the gate.⁠[Exit Peter.[C 9]20

Jul.	Now, good sweet nurse, O Lord, why look'st thou sad? Though news be sad, yet tell them[E 7] merrily; If good, thou sham'st the music of sweet news By playing it to me with so sour a face.

Nurse.

I am aweary; give me leave[C 10] awhile:25 Fie, how my bones ache! What a jaunt[C 11][E 8] have I had![C 12]

Jul.	I would thou hadst my bones, and I thy news. Nay, come, I pray thee, speak ; good, good nurse, speak.

Nurse.

Jesu, what haste? can you not stay awhile? Do you not see that I am out of breath?30

Jul.

How art thou out of breath, when thou hast breath To say to me that thou art out of breath? The excuse that thou dost make in this delay Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse. Is thy news good, or bad? answer to that;35 Say either, and I'll stay the circumstance;[E 9] Let me be satisfied, is't good or bad?

Nurse.

Well,[C 13] you have made a simple[E 10] choice; you know not how to choose a man. Romeo! no, not he; though his face be better than any40 man's, yet his leg[C 14] excels all men's; and for a hand, and a foot, and a body,[C 15] though they be not to be talked on, yet they are past com- pare. He is not the flower of courtesy, but, I'll warrant him, as gentle as a[C 16] lamb. Go45 thy ways, wench; serve God. What, have you dined at home?

Jul.	No, no: but all this[C 17] did I know before. What says he of our marriage? what of that?

Nurse.

Lord, how my head aches! what a head have I!50 It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces. My back o' t' other side,[E 11]—O,[C 18] my back, my back! Beshrew your heart for sending me about, To catch my death with jaunting[C 19] up and down.

Jul.	I' faith, I am sorry that thou art not well.[C 20]55 Sweet, sweet, sweet nurse, tell me, what says my love?

Nurse.

Your love says, like an honest gentleman, and a courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, and, I warrant, a virtuous,—Where is your mother?[C 21][E 12]60

Jul.	Where is my mother! why, she is within;[C 22] Where should she be? How oddly thou repliest! "Your love says, like an honest gentleman, Where is your mother?"[C 23]

Nurse.

⁠O, God's lady dear! Are you so hot? marry, come up, I trow;65 Is this the poultice for my aching bones? Henceforward do your messages yourself.

Jul.	Here's such a coil![E 13] come, what says Romeo?

Nurse.

Have you got leave to go to shrift to-day?

Jul.

I have.70

Nurse.

Then hie you hence to Friar Laurence' cell; There stays a husband to make you a wife: Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks, They'll be in scarlet straight at any news.[E 14] Hie you to church; I must another way,75 To fetch a ladder, by the which your love Must climb a bird's nest soon when it is dark; I am the drudge, and toil in your delight; But you shall bear the burden soon at night. Go; I'll to dinner; hie you to the cell.80

Jul.	Hie to high fortune! Honest nurse, farewell.[E 15]⁠[Exeunt.

Critical notes

1. Capulet's Orchard] Globe, Capulet's house Rowe, Capulet's garden Capell.
2. 4. heralds] Q 1, Q; Herauld F.
3. 5. glide] F 4; glides Q, F.
4. 6. louring] Q, F (lowring); lowering Furness.
5. 7. nimble-pinioned] hyphen Pope.
6. 11. Is three] Qq 3–5, Is there Q, I three F, Ay three Rowe.
7. 13. She'd] F 2; She would Q, F.
8. 16. feign] fain Q, faine F.
9. 20. Exit Peter] Theobald; omitted Q, F.
10. 25. give me leave] Q, F; let me rest Q 1.
11. 26. jaunt] Q 1, Q 4, F; iaunce Q;
12. ⁠had] F, omitted Q.
13. 38–47.] verse Capell.
14. 41. leg] Q, legs F.
15. 42. a body] Q, F; a baudie Q 1; body Qq 4, 5; a bawdy Ff 2–4.
16. 45. gentle as a] Q, gentle a F.
17. 48. this] Q, this this, F.
18. 52. O] F, a Q.
19. 54. jaunting] Q 4, F; iaunsing Q.
20. 55. not well] Q, so well F, so ill F 2.
21. 57–60, Your … mother?] prose Cambridge editors (S. Walker conject.); three lines ending gentleman … handsome … mother? Q, F.
22. 61, 62.] as arranged by Rowe.
23. 64. your mother] Q, F; my mother Ff 2–4.

Explanatory notes

1. 4. love's heralds] So in Chester's Love's Martyr, 1601 (ed. Grosart, p. 151):
   ⁠"My inward Muse can sing of nought but Love,
   ⁠Thoughts are his heralds."

   After line 4 Q 1 adds two lines, resembling Act V. i. 64, 65:
   ⁠"And runne more swift, than hastie powder fierd,
   ⁠Doth hurrie from the fearfull Cannons mouth."

2. 6. back] Collier (MS.) reads black.
3. 7. Love] love Q, F, but Venus is meant, as described in Venus and Adonis, 1190, and Tempest, iv. i. 94.
4. 9. highmost] topmost, as in Sonnets, vii. 9.
5. 14. bandy] Nares: Originally a term at tennis; from bander, Fr.
6. 16. many feign] Johnson reads marry, feign; Grant White, marry, fare; Keightley, marry, seem; Dyce conjectured move yfaith, i.e. move i' faith. In Q "And his to me" forms part of the line continued to "dead," and is preceded by the italic letter M. Cambridge editors think lines 16, 17 probably an interpolation. Collier (MS.) reads: "As his to me: but old folks seem as dead," and substitutes dull for pale.
7. 22. them] Rolfe: "Shakespeare makes news both singular and plural"; for the latter, compare Much Ado, I. ii. 4–6.
8. 26. jaunt] The variant jaunce appears in Q again in line 54. Compare Richard II. V. v. 94. Q 1 reads: "Lord how my bones ake. Oh where's my men? Give me some aqua vitæ."
9. 36. circumstance] I'll wait for details; compare v. iii. 180.
10. 38. simple] silly, as often in Shakespeare.
11. 52. o' t' other side] The Nurse has clapped her hand to her forehead, and now places it on her back. Collier and others read, "My back! o' t' other side,—"
12. 57–60] Capell, printing as verse, ends the second at warrant; Steevens at handsome, and.
13. 68. coil] turmoil, fuss, as often in Shakespeare. In place of this line Q 1 has:
    ⁠"Nay stay sweet Nurse, I doo intreate thee now,
    ⁠What sayes my Love, my Lord, my Romeo?"
14. 74. They'll … news] Hanmer reads: "They'll be in scarlet straitway at my news"; S. Walker conjectures: "They … straight at my next news"; Keightley reads: "They will be straight in scarlet at my news." Perhaps the words mean only It is their way to redden at any surprise.
15. 80, 81.] Instead of these lines Q 1 has:—
    ⁠"Doth this newes please you now?
    Iul. How doth her latter words revive my hart,
    ⁠Thankes gentle Nurse, dispatch thy busines,
    ⁠And Ile not faile to meete my Romeo."