Excerpt from Romeo and Juliet ACT 1, SCENE 4 [A street, that night. ROMEO , MERCUTIO , BENVOLIO & Others with torches and drum] ROMEO What shall this speech be spoke for our excuse ? Or shall we on without apology? BENVOLIO The date is out of such prolixity . We'll have no Cupid hoodwinked with a scarf , Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath , Scaring the ladies like a crowkeeper , [Nor no withoutbook prologue , faintly spoke 1.4.1 apology for intruding go on into the party 1.4.3 such speeches are out of date blindfolded carrying, wood scarecrow memorized speech 1 After the prompter, for our entrance.] But let them measure us by what they will . We'll measure them a measure and be gone. ROMEO Give me a torch, I am not for this ambling . Being but heavy , I will bear the light. MERCUTIO judge how they want dance a dance 1.4.11 dancing heavyhearted, carry 1.4.13 Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance. ROMEO 1.4.14 Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes With nimble soles. I have a soul of lead So stakes me to the ground I cannot move. MERCUTIO You are a lover . Borrow Cupid's wings And soar with them above a common bound . ROMEO I am too sore enpiercèd with his shaft that 1.4.17 in love leap/limit 1.4.19 wounded, arrow To soar with his light feathers, and so bound I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe . Under love's heavy burden do I sink. leap to any height, my sorrow Excerpt from Romeo and Juliet MERCUTIO And to sink in it, should you burden love , 1.4.23 you'd burden love by sinking in it Too great oppression for a tender thing. ROMEO 1.4.25 Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, Too rude, too boisterous , and it pricks like thorn. MERCUTIO quarrelsome 1.4.27 If love be rough with you, be rough with love! Prick love for pricking , and you beat love down . Give me a case to put my visage in: A visor for a visor . What care I What curious eye doth cote deformities? Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me. BENVOLIO Come, knock and enter, and no sooner in , But every man betake him to his legs . ROMEO A torch for me. Let wantons light of heart Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels, For I am proverbed with a grandsire phrase : I'll be a candle holder and look on. 1 The game was ne'er so fair , and I am done . MERCUTIO Tut, dun's the mouse , the constable's own word . If thou art Dun , we'll draw thee from the mire Of— save your reverence —love, wherein thou stick'st Up to the ears. Come, we burn daylight, ho! ROMEO pricking you, (bawdy) mask, face an ugly mask for my ugly face eyes stare at my here's the beetle face that'll 1.4.33 as soon as we're inside start dancing 1.4.35 playful people carpet I will follow a proverb (proverb) party, bright (proverb) 1.4.40 a mouse is greybrown (proverb) so keep quiet as a mouse a horse named Dun, pull, mud pardon me, are stuck waste 1.4.45 Nay, that's not so. MERCUTIO I mean, sir, in delay 1 1 We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day . 1.4.46 2 torches, lights : lamps lit in day Excerpt from Romeo and Juliet Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits _ + Five times in that ere once in our five wits . the obvious, there's much wisdom in it ROMEO 1.4.50 And we mean well in going to this mask , masquerade party But 'tis no wit to go. not wise MERCUTIO Why, may one ask? 1.4.52 ROMEO 1.4.53 I dreamt a dream tonight . last night MERCUTIO And so did I. 1.4.54 ROMEO 1.4.55 Well, what was yours? (pun) 1.4.56 MERCUTIO That dreamers often lie ! ROMEO 1.4.57 In bed asleep, while they do dream things true! MERCUTIO 1.4.58 O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you! [ BENVOLIO 1 Queen Mab? What's she?] MERCUTIO 1.4.59 She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes In shape no bigger than an agatestone gemstone On the forefinger of an alderman , officer Drawn with a team of little atomies pulled by, tiny creatures 2 Over men's noses as they lie asleep. 1 athwart Her wagonspokes made of long spinners '2 legs, + spiders' 1.4.64 The cover of the wings of grasshoppers, 1 2 The traces of the smallest spider web, 1 The collars of the moonshine's watery beams , Her whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film , canopy 5 her , harnesses, spider's 2 2 her , harness collars, moonbeams gossamer Her wagoner a small greycoated gnat, driver Not half so big as a round little worm 1.4.70 2 Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid . Her chariot is an empty hazelnut, 1 man 1.4.72 Excerpt from Romeo and Juliet Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub , cabinetmaker, worm Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers. for time long forgotten And in this state she gallops night by night 1.4.75 Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love; 1 1 O'er courtiers' knees, who dream on curtsies straight ; O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees; O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream , Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues 1 Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are . 2 2 on , that , right away right away 1.4.78 right away dream of kisses often, gives them blisters (herpes) 2 breath , smell of sweet foods (bawdy) Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose, And then dreams he of smelling out a suit ; And sometime comes she with a tithepig 's tail + Tickling a parson 's nose as he lies asleep, Then he dreams of another benefice . high paying job pig donated to the church clergyman 1.4.85 getting more church money Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck, And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, Of breaches , ambuscadoes , Spanish blades, crossing enemy lines, ambushes Of healths fivefathom deep , and then anon long drinking bouts, soon Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes, is startled 1.4.91 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 , braids mats the hair of old hags brings misfortune (superstition) 1.4.97 teaches, bear children (bawdy) Making them women of good carriage. This is she— ROMEO Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace! 1.4.101 Thou talk'st of nothing. MERCUTIO True, I talk of dreams, 1.4.103 Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy, born, foolish Excerpt from Romeo and Juliet Which is as thin of substance as the air And more inconstant than the wind, who woos changeable Even now the frozen bosom of the north, And, being angered, puffs away from thence , 1 Turning his face to the dewdropping south . BENVOLIO This wind you talk of blows us from ourselves ! blows away from there 2 side , rainy south 1.4.111 plans Supper is done, and we shall come too late! ROMEO I fear too early, for my mind misgives Some consequence yet hanging in the stars Shall bitterly begin his fearful date With this night's revels , and expire the term Of a despised life closed in my breast By some vile forfeit of untimely death . 1.4.113 fears still 1.4.115 party, end the life my hated life evil, early death But He that hath the steerage of my course 1 Direct my sail !— On , lusty gentlemen! BENVOLIO Strike, drum ! [All exit] 2 suit , let's go, merry 1.4.120 1.4.121 play, drummer
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