The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 7 of 9]Shakespeare, William
General
The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 7 of 9]
Shakespeare, William
English drama
_Fri. L._ Hold thy desperate hand:
Art thou a man? thy form cries out thou art:
Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote[974] 110
The unreasonable fury of a beast:
Unseemly woman in a seeming man![975]
Or ill-beseeming beast in seeming both![975][976]
Thou hast amazed me: by my holy order,
I thought thy disposition better temper'd. 115
Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself?
And slay thy lady that in thy life lives,[977]
By doing damned hate upon thyself?[978]
Why rail'st thou on thy birth, the heaven and earth?[978][979]
Since birth and heaven and earth, all three do meet[978][980] 120
In thee at once, which thou at once wouldst lose.[978][120][981]
Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit;[978]
Which, like a usurer, abound'st in all,[978][982]
And usest none in that true use indeed[978]
Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit:[978] 125
Thy noble shape is but a form of wax,[978]
Digressing from the valour of a man;[978][983]
Thy dear love sworn, but hollow perjury,[978]
Killing that love which thou hast vow'd to cherish;[978]
Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,[978] 130
Mis-shapen in the conduct of them both,[978]
Like powder in a skilless soldier's flask,[978][984]
Is set a-fire by thine own ignorance,[978][985]
And thou dismember'd with thine own defence.[978]
What, rouse thee, man! thy Juliet is alive, 135
For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead;
There art thou happy: Tybalt would kill thee,
But thou slew'st Tybalt; there art thou happy too:[986]
The law, that threaten'd death, becomes thy friend,[987]
And turns it to exile; there art thou happy:[988] 140
A pack of blessings lights upon thy back;[989]
Happiness courts thee in her best array;
But, like a misbehaved and sullen wench,[990]
Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love:[991]
Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable. 145
Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed,
Ascend her chamber, hence and comfort her:
But look thou stay not till the watch be set,
For then thou canst not pass to Mantua;
Where thou shalt live till we can find a time 150
To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends,
Beg pardon of the prince and call thee back[992]
With twenty hundred thousand times more joy
Than thou went'st forth in lamentation.
Go before, nurse: commend me to thy lady, 155
And bid her hasten all the house to bed,
Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto:
Romeo is coming.
_Nurse._ O Lord, I could have stay'd here all the night[993]
To hear good counsel: O, what learning is![994] 160
My lord, I'll tell my lady you will come.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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