Page 3226 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

Hold then. Go home, be merry, give consent
To marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow; [90]
Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone.
Let not the Nurse lie with thee in thy chamber.
Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
And this distilling liquor drink thou off:
When presently through all thy veins shall run [95]
A cold and drowsy humour, for no pulse
Shall keep his native progress, but surcease:
No warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest,
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To wanny ashes, thy eyes’ windows fall [100]
Like death when he shuts up the day of life.
Each part depriv’d of supple government
Shall stiff and stark and cold appear, like death,
And in this borrow’d likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt continue two and forty hours [105]
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
Now when the bridegroom in the morning comes
To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou, dead.
Then as the manner of our country is,
In thy best robes, uncover’d on the bier [110]
Thou shall be borne to that same ancient vault
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
In the meantime, against thou shalt awake,
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift
And hither shall he come, and he and I [115]
Will watch thy waking, and that very night
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua,
And this shall free thee from this present shame,
If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear
Abate thy valour in the acting it. [120]

JULIET

Give me, give me! O tell not me of fear.

FRIAR LAURENCE

Hold. Get you gone. Be strong and prosperous
In this resolve. I’ll send a friar with speed
To Mantua with my letters to thy lord.