Page 3186 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

JULIET

Now good sweet Nurse - O Lord why look’st thou sad?
Though news be sad, yet tell them 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 awhile. [25]
Fie, how my bones ache. What a jaunce have I!

JULIET

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]

JULIET

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.
Let me be satisfied: is’t good or bad?

NURSE

Well, you have made a simple choice. You know not how to choose a man.
Romeo? No, not he. Though his face be better than any man’s, yet his leg
excels all [40] men’s, and for a hand and a foot and a body, though they
be not to be talked on, yet they are past compare. He is not the flower of
courtesy, but I’ll warrant him as gentle as a lamb. Go thy ways, wench,
serve God. What, have you dined at home? [45]

JULIET

No, no. But all this did I know before.
What says he of our marriage? What of that?

NURSE