Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Adaptations; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Stories, plots, etc. -- Juvenile literature
A crimson blush came over Juliet’s face, yet unseen by Romeo by
reason of the night, when she reflected upon the discovery which
she had made, yet not meaning to make it, of her love to Romeo.
She would fain have recalled her words, but that was impossible;
fain would she have stood upon form, and have kept her lover at a
distance, as the custom of discreet ladies is, to frown and be
perverse and give their suitors harsh denials at first; to stand
off, and affect a coyness or indifference where they most love,
that their lovers may not think them too lightly or too easily
won; for the difficulty of attainment increases the value of the
object. But there was no room in her case for denials, or
puttings off, or any of the customary arts of delay and
protracted courtship. Romeo had heard from her own tongue, when
she did not dream that he was near her, a confession of her love.
So with an honest frankness which the novelty of her situation
excused she confirmed the truth of what he had before heard, and,
addressing him by the name of FAIR MONTAGUE (love can sweeten a
sour name), she begged him not to impute her easy yielding to
levity or an unworthy mind, but that he must lay the fault of it
(if it were a fault) upon the accident of the night which had so
strangely discovered her thoughts. And she added, that though her
behavior to him might not be sufficiently prudent, measured by
the custom of her sex, yet that she would prove more true than
many whose prudence was dissembling, and their modesty artificial
cunning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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