Room in Capulet’s House.

Enter Lady Capulet and Nurse.rnrnLADY CAPULET.rnNurse, where’s my daughter? Call her forth to me.rnrnNURSE.rnNow, by my maidenhead, at twelve year old,rnI bade her come. What, lamb! What ladybird!rnGod forbid! Where’s this girl? What, Juliet!rnrn Enter Juliet.rnrnJULIET.rnHow now, who calls?rnrnNURSE.rnYour mother.rnrnJULIET.rnMadam, I am here. What is your will?rnrnLADY CAPULET.rnThis is the matter. Nurse, give leave awhile,rnWe must talk in secret. Nurse, come back again,rnI have remember’d me, thou’s hear our counsel.rnThou knowest my daughter’s of a pretty age.rnrnNURSE.rnFaith, I can tell her age unto an hour.rnrnLADY CAPULET.rnShe’s not fourteen.rnrnNURSE.rnI’ll lay fourteen of my teeth,rnAnd yet, to my teen be it spoken, I have but four,rnShe is not fourteen. How long is it nowrnTo Lammas-tide?rnrnLADY CAPULET.rnA fortnight and odd days.rnrnNURSE.rnEven or odd, of all days in the year,rnCome Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen.rnSusan and she,—God rest all Christian souls!—rnWere of an age. Well, Susan is with God;rnShe was too good for me. But as I said,rnOn Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen;rnThat shall she, marry; I remember it well.’Tis since the earthquake now eleven years;rnAnd she was wean’d,—I never shall forget it—,rnOf all the days of the year, upon that day:rnFor I had then laid wormwood to my dug,rnSitting in the sun under the dovehouse wall;rnMy lord and you were then at Mantua:rnNay, I do bear a brain. But as I said,rnWhen it did taste the wormwood on the nipplernOf my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,rnTo see it tetchy, and fall out with the dug!rnShake, quoth the dovehouse: ’twas no need, I trow,rnTo bid me trudge.rnAnd since that time it is eleven years;rnFor then she could stand alone; nay, by th’roodrnShe could have run and waddled all about;rnFor even the day before she broke her brow,rnAnd then my husband,—God be with his soul!rnA was a merry man,—took up the child:‘Yea,’ quoth he, ‘dost thou fall upon thy face?rnThou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit;rnWilt thou not, Jule?’ and, by my holidame,rnThe pretty wretch left crying, and said ‘Ay’.rnTo see now how a jest shall come about.rnI warrant, and I should live a thousand years,rnI never should forget it. ‘Wilt thou not, Jule?’ quoth he;rnAnd, pretty fool, it stinted, and said ‘Ay.’rnrnLADY CAPULET.rnEnough of this; I pray thee hold thy peace.rnrnNURSE.rnYes, madam, yet I cannot choose but laugh,rnTo think it should leave crying, and say ‘Ay’;rnAnd yet I warrant it had upon it browrnA bump as big as a young cockerel’s stone;rnA perilous knock, and it cried bitterly.‘Yea,’ quoth my husband, ‘fall’st upon thy face?rnThou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age;rnWilt thou not, Jule?’ it stinted, and said ‘Ay’.rnrnJULIET.rnAnd stint thou too, I pray thee, Nurse, say I.rnrnNURSE.rnPeace, I have done. God mark thee to his gracernThou wast the prettiest babe that e’er I nurs’d:rnAnd I might live to see thee married once, I have my wish.rnrnLADY CAPULET.rnMarry, that marry is the very themernI came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet,rnHow stands your disposition to be married?rnrnJULIET.rnIt is an honour that I dream not of.rnrnNURSE.rnAn honour! Were not I thine only nurse,rnI would say thou hadst suck’d wisdom from thy teat.rnrnLADY CAPULET.rnWell, think of marriage now: younger than you,rnHere in Verona, ladies of esteem,rnAre made already mothers. By my countrnI was your mother much upon these yearsrnThat you are now a maid. Thus, then, in brief;rnThe valiant Paris seeks you for his love.rnrnNURSE.rnA man, young lady! Lady, such a manrnAs all the world—why he’s a man of wax.rnrnLADY CAPULET.rnVerona’s summer hath not such a flower.rnrnNURSE.rnNay, he’s a flower, in faith a very flower.rnrnLADY CAPULET.rnWhat say you, can you love the gentleman?rnThis night you shall behold him at our feast;rnRead o’er the volume of young Paris’ face,rnAnd find delight writ there with beauty’s pen.rnExamine every married lineament,rnAnd see how one another lends content;rnAnd what obscur’d in this fair volume lies,rnFind written in the margent of his eyes.rnThis precious book of love, this unbound lover,rnTo beautify him, only lacks a cover:rnThe fish lives in the sea; and ’tis much pridernFor fair without the fair within to hide.rnThat book in many’s eyes doth share the glory,rnThat in gold clasps locks in the golden story;rnSo shall you share all that he doth possess,rnBy having him, making yourself no less.rnrnNURSE.rnNo less, nay bigger. Women grow by men.rnrnLADY CAPULET.rnSpeak briefly, can you like of Paris’ love?rnrnJULIET.rnI’ll look to like, if looking liking move:rnBut no more deep will I endart mine eyernThan your consent gives strength to make it fly.rnrn Enter a Servant.rnrnSERVANT.rnMadam, the guests are come, supper served up, you called, my young ladyrnasked for, the Nurse cursed in the pantry, and everything in extremity.rnI must hence to wait, I beseech you follow straight.rnrnLADY CAPULET.rnWe follow thee.rnrn [_Exit Servant._]rnrnJuliet, the County stays.rnrnNURSE.rnGo, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.rnrn [_Exeunt._]