Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Romeo and Juliet
    Romeo and Juliet
    Romeo and Juliet
    Ebook139 pages1 hour

    Romeo and Juliet

    By William Shakespeare

    3.5/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" is considered to be one of the greatest tragic love stories of all time. Romeo who is a member of the house of Montague falls in love with Juliet who is a member of the house of Capulet. The Montagues and the Capulets have been engaged in a feud for many years and as such the love between Romeo and Juliet is forbidden. Written near the end of the 16th century, "Romeo and Juliet," which is one of Shakespeare's earliest dramas, is the story of love that can never be realized and the tragedy that ensues.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDigireads.com Publishing
    Release dateJan 1, 2010
    ISBN9781596250192
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.

    Read more from William Shakespeare

    Related to Romeo and Juliet

    Related ebooks

    Performing Arts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Helena Bonham Carter

      Nov 22, 2019

      Helena Bonham Carter
      1 min read

    • Article

      Celebration and Enlightenment

      Dec 1, 2019

      Celebration and Enlightenment
      9 min read

    • Article

      Vision Man

      May 17, 2021

      Vision Man
      4 min read

    • Article

      Stranger Things

      Apr 20, 2022

      Stranger Things
      8 min read

    • Article

      FROM THE WD EDITORS: Our favourite Beginnings and Endings

      Jul 31, 2019

      The best beginnings toss readers into the whirlwind that is going to be your story right as the action begins, giving them no choice but to read further. The best endings stick with readers for years after they’ve closed the book. WD editors got toge

      1 min read

    • Article

      Hell Or Holy Water

      Apr 30, 2021

      Hell Or Holy Water
      3 min read

    • Article

      Dionysian Ecstasy

      Mar 1, 2020

      Dionysian Ecstasy
      15 min read

    • Article

      7 Lessons From Warhol

      Feb 21, 2020

      7 Lessons From Warhol
      4 min read

    • Article

      How Pop Music’s Teenage Dream Ended

      Sep 1, 2020

      A decade ago, Katy Perry’s sound was ubiquitous. Today, it’s niche. How did a genre defined by popularity become unpopular?

      9 min read

    • Article

      Saoirse Ronan

      Jun 4, 2016

      Saoirse Ronan
      5 min read

    • Article

      Gen Zen

      Mar 1, 2020

      Gen Zen
      7 min read

    • Article

      You Only Need Two Bricks

      Sep 23, 2022

      We sat in front of a blazing fire in the hearth of the tiny hunting cabin. The chimney drew well as long as the door was kept slightly open, like Lem Putt advised, to get the draft just right. We were sipping a most wonderfully aged 56-year-old Caber

      5 min read

    • Article

      Seven Poems

      May 1, 2022

      Seven Poems
      2 min read

    • Article

      Roger’s PROFANISAURUS

      Aug 5, 2021

      profanisaurus@viz.co.uk aroma diffuser 1. n. A scientific device that breaks “essential oils” down into smaller molecules, dispersing them into the air for a pleasant or calming effect on the gullible. 2. n. The arsehole. Barbie’s minge sim. Somethin

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Joy Of Kendrick

      Feb 24, 2022

      The Joy Of Kendrick
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Refusal To Mourn The Deaths, By Gunfire, Of Three Men In Brooklyn

      Jan 1, 2019

      And at times, didn’t the whole countrytry to break his skin?—Tim Seibles You strike your one good match to watch its bloomand jook, a swan song just before a nightwind comes to snuff it. That’s the kind of dayit’s been. Your Black & Mild, now, useles

      7 min read

    • Article

      Rafe Versus Waist

      Apr 11, 2024

      Rafe Versus Waist
      5 min read

    • Article

      Roger’s PROFANISAURUS

      Nov 17, 2022

      Roger’s PROFANISAURUS
      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Romeo and Juliet

    3.5/5

    7,623 ratings90 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare. Folger Shakespeare Library. 1992. As I said above, this was a book club selection. Cannot remember when I last read this play, but I loved reading it this time. How can I forget how much I love Shakespeare?!! After I read the play, I found a BBC Radio production with Kenneth Branagh playing Romeo and Judie Dench playing Nurse! I really enjoyed reading along as I listened and got more out of the play the second reading. I sort of wanted to listen to it again, but instead decided to watch Zeffierlli’s movie and am so glad I did. A great way to enjoy Shakespeare!
    • 5/5
      O teach me how I should forget to think

      I was prepared to be underwhelmed by a jaded near fifty return to this plethora of love-anchored verse. It was quite the opposite, as I found myself steeled with philosophy "adversity's sweet milk" and my appreciation proved ever enhanced by the Bard's appraisal of the human condition. How adroit to have situated such between two warring tribes, under a merciful deity, an all-too-human church and the wayward agency of hormonal teens. Many complain of this being a classic Greek drama adapted to a contemporary milieu. There is also a disproportionate focus on the frantic pacing in the five acts. I can appreciate both concerns but I think such is beyond the point. The chorus frames matters in terms of destiny, a rumination on Aristotelian tragedy yet the drama unfolds with caprice being the coin of the realm. Well, as much agency as smitten couples can manage. Pacing is a recent phenomenon, 50 episodes for McNulty to walk away from the force, a few less for Little Nell to die.

      Shakespeare offers insights on loyalty and human frailty as well as the Edenic cursing of naming in some relative ontology. Would Heidegger smell as sweet? My mind's eye blurs the poise of Juliet with that of Ophelia; though no misdeeds await the Capulet, unless being disinherited by Plath's Daddy is the road's toll to a watery sleep. The black shoe and the attendant violent delights.
    • 2/5
      I'm not a big Shakespeare fan, so I won't rate any of his works very high
    • 5/5
      "Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things.Some shall be pardoned, and some punishèd.For never was a story of more woeThan this of Juliet and her Romeo."So ends the play Romeo and Juliet which is probably the most popular play by William Shakespeare. You will have a hard time finding someone who has never heard of its plot. It is a timeless tragedy of two star-crossed lovers finding eternal love in death. While it is one thing to read the script on paper, it is a truly amazing experience to see it performed on stage. The play explores themes that will never be out of date: friendship, love, family rivalry, desperation, and mourning, to name but a few. It is well worth having a closer look at Romeo's relation to love and whether he is really in love with Rosaline or Juliet or just in love with the feeling of being in love. Then there is Romeo's unlikely friendship to Mercutio, two very different characters. Generally, there are many aspects to explore and with every new reading I discover yet another one. You might want to watch the 2014 Broadway performance with Orlando Bloom as Romeo. At least I enjoyed it very much. 5 stars. A true masterpiece.
    • 4/5
      Sigh. Well, another time through, and I still don't care for Romeo and Juliet. I've been a silly teenager, and I have silly teenagers, I have parents who have been wrong-headed, and I am a parent who is sometimes wrong-headed (some say “frequently”), and I still find the characters here utterly unsympathetic and annoying. In large part, I think, the idea of “love at first sight” just irritates me so much that all the stupidities that follow are just icing on the cake, and that's coming from someone who married her husband after two weeks' acquaintance, so I believe I can claim some experience in the area of efficient assessment of compatibility.. While I fully sympathize with those who find extended dating wearisome, Romeo and Juliet spend so little time in conversation – one joint sonnet does not a relationship make – that their “love” never appears to move beyond hormone crazed obsession. The most tragic aspect of the story is that the nurse and the friar, foolishly indulgent, assist these ridiculous kids in their melodramatic stunts.As with the other plays I've read so far in this “year of Shakespeare,” I read Garber's chapter on “Romeo & Juliet,” from her wonderful Shakespeare After All, before reading the play. Her analysis did improve my reading, but, sadly, recognition of artistic merit does not always translate into real appreciation. When Juliet wails that she'd rather her parents and everyone else she knows were dead than that the boy she's met just the day before was banished, and, across town, Romeo is lying on the floor of the friar's cell, howling and kicking his heels because there was a consequence for killing Tybalt (who'd have thought?), the play seems to me to shift, not as Garber suggests, from comedy to tragedy, but, rather, into the realm of farce. Overwrought teenagers yowling like a pair of sex crazed alley cats because their romantic evening plans have been overturned hardly qualify as tragedy, and the nurse's eager plan to accommodate them with one night of passion (her enthusiasm for the deflowering of the thirteen year old girl she's raised is just creepy) doesn't help. The “tragedy” is that, instead of sensible friends, these youngsters, deranged with sudden infatuation and lust, have dimwitted adults to encourage and pander to them in their harebrained schemes.The poetry is lovely, the literary and dramatic effects are masterful, but I just don't care for the story. The final couplet, “For never was a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo,” leaves me not with any feelings of sorrow for these violent, petulant brats, but simply disgust.For this reading I used the Updated Folger Shakespeare Library edition, which is nicely formatted with notes opposite each page of text, and read along with the audio recording by L.A. Theatre Works (2012) starring Calista Flockhart, Matthew Wolf, etc. While I rate this play at three stars for my enjoyment of the story, the dramatic performance by Flockhart and Co. is really superb! Definitely a five star production. So maybe I should rate the play at four stars? (I notice that I previously rated it at four.) Still, my “inner teen” stamps her foot and pouts, and I stick with my emotion-guided three star rating.*Okay. I forgot LT allows half stars. Three and a half, then.
    • 4/5
      Classic story of love and loss. ;) It's Shakespeare, and it's beautiful.
    • 4/5
      Found this very easy to use and understand. I think my family is tired of me quoting the play then explaining it according to the book. As a theater major I found this book fascinating.
    • 5/5
      This review is for the Frankly Annotated First Folio Edition, with annotations by Demitra Papadinis.The layout of the book is fantastic, making it easy to keep your place in the play when checking on the notes. The notes themselves are fantastic, going in depth and not leaving out the dirty jokes. A thoroughly enjoyable and educational edition!
    • 2/5
      Easily one of my least favorite of The Bard's works. Reading this in high school very nearly put me off Shakespeare for good. One of the first books I ever remember reading that made me want to smack both main characters upside the head and ask them "What the heck are you thinking?!"
    • 4/5
      For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.Reading a Shakespeare-play and seeing one is two entirely different things. Having been to the Globe in London and experienced the magic of an evening with Shakespeare it seems a dry thing to "just" read the play. Still, reading it offers time to stop and contemplate and enjoy and savour all the famous quotes and lines of poetry.In this romantic tragedy there's plenty of over-the-top emotions, frantic pace, overwhelming love-songs and declarations of eternal bliss or eternal sorrow - it's just a thing you accept coming to Shakespeare. This is his world and it's just for us to drink it in.And although it's exaggerated the theme is eternal and universal - love - mixed with infatuation and madness - it's a force too powerful to be kept down - and it's explosive in the midst of a feud between two families. This emotional tour de force between Romeo and Juliet is something to be appraised and lamented at the same time. I'm not sure what Shakespeare does most. But both things are there. The admiration of such head-over-the-heels love and the warning against it's power to overwhelm and blinding the persons involved. Good Night, Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow
    • 2/5
      overly compressed, beautifully-written play in which two teenagers fall in love, marry, fuck, and die, all in the span of three days. concessions should be made to late 16th century literary convention, but still...
    • 5/5
      This is a great romantic tragedy, which I had to read for my Intro. to Drama class. This is one of those works of Shakespeare that has been done in a multitude of forms and variations, so it is quite likely that everyone has a rough idea of the story. Still, you really cannot replace the original. There is a lot of unbelievable story to it, which can overdo it to the point of being distracting, but overall the language and story are so supremely memorable that it automatically qualifies as a must-read. As to the edition itself, I found it to be greatly helpful in understanding the action in the play. It has a layout which places each page of the play opposite a page of notes, definitions, explanations, and other things needed to understand that page more thoroughly. While I didn't always need it, I was certainly glad to have it whenever I ran into a turn of language that was unfamiliar, and I definitely appreciated the scene-by-scene summaries. Really, if you want to or need to read Shakespeare, an edition such as this is really the way to go, especially until you get more accustomed to it.
    • 5/5
      I believed this play to be seriously overrated-- and then I read it. LOL. A beautiful piece of literature that truly encaptures what it is to be a "star-crossed lover."
    • 5/5
      I read this fall semester of my freshman year of high school, and have loved it ever since--it remains one of my most favorite books/plays.
    • 3/5
      I would've given a star for the crazy plot. But then again, that's what makes this unforgettable. The story's crazy. Also, Shakespeare's as smooth as usual, especially in the language of love. I can see why this has become a classic.
    • 4/5
      When two star-crossed lovers meet, it's love at first sight. Despite being from rival families, Romeo and Juliet forsake their own families and risk everything to be together, which ends in tragedy.
    • 5/5
      Romeo and Juliet has to be the greatest love story of all time. The comic and dramatic words of Shakespeare are simply breath taking. I loved the irony and always knowing what was going to happen at the end, but hoping, somehow some way their fate would not be true. This book gave me chills on almost every page. I think that the characters are very interesting and you can picture each one as you read. Reading the book as a script was also enjoyable because I was able to hear each character's voice in my head. This was a phenomenal book, and I would recommend it to anyone up for the challenging word plays, because it is well worth it.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorite Shakespeare plays. Very hard for me to step back and give an objective review of this one, which has managed to hold my attention for many years. This last rereading proved to be no exception. I find that I've subconsciously memorized some of the dialogue over the years and still look forward to the appearance of certain lines and certain action. I need to continue to revisit this play.
    • 5/5
      11/04/11Romeo & Juliet is a dramatic play and a beautiful story written by William Shakespeare. It is a tragic love story between two households that held a grudge against each other and is set in Verona, Italy, Elizabethan times. When Romeo saw Juliet, he fell in love with her instantly. Even though Juliet was a Capulet, Romeo took his chances and confessed his love for her. Like all love stories, she felt the same way about him, but this love was forbidden by both households. Juliet's cousin Tybalt, finds out the forbidden love between Romeo and Juliet. He kills Romeo's best friend Mercutio, and Romeo kills Tybalt out of rage. Because of such violence, Romeo is forced out of Verona's boundaries. Juliet is forced into a marriage with Paris, the Prince's friend. Knowing that, Juliet takes a sleeping potion that lasts for a few hours. Everyone grieved, thinking she was dead. Sadly, the message did not get to Romeo. Having Romeo thinking Juliet's dead, he takes a trip to the Apothecary, purchasing a tube of poison. He enters Juliet's room, and just as she wakes up, he drinks the poison and dies. Seeing Romeo dead, Juliet takes Romeo's dagger and stabs herself and dies. The death of the son and daughter of two families ended their grudge and from then on, the Montagues and Capulets were friends, not enemies.The Character that interested me the most was Romeo, as his personality and features changed throughout the story, and that is what makes me like him the most. At first, when he is introduced into the story, he is gloomy and lovesick about a girl named Rosalyn, but as time flashes, he sees Juliet and falls for her. This is when he changed and made a big effect on me as he suddenly forgot about Rosalyn and cared about nothing but Juliet. He started becoming more hasty in his actions as he slays Tybalt, and gets forced out of Verona. Another incident that made a big impression on me was when he found out that Juliet was dead, he did not check for himself, and instead he hastily purchased a vile of poison and drank it seeing Juliet lying unconscious. Although he was hasty and impatient, he was truly brave and his courage made him my favourite character throughout the story.The main theme of this story taught us about love and how it can affect a person's life, how it can change a person's characteristics. It also gives us a message not to be too hasty in our actions as we may regret it later on in life. It tells us not to give in on life because of one thing, as more good things will come. Letting one bad thing past is always better than stopping all the good things that are to come, this is the most important theme. It is conveyed through the language throughout the whole story. It is easily understandable if the reader is paying attention to every scene. Shakespeare's purpose of this text was to share some experiences he had in life, so that everyone that read his stories could understand him more and live life to the fullest.
    • 3/5
      Like most, I imagine, I was forced to read this in high school (freshman year, specifically). I was no fan of Shakespeare at the time, though I've since come around somewhat. While I've not read it since, I've no real desire to. They're just a couple of horny teenagers thinking they're experiencing true love and all that. For that reason, this work does not entertain me as one might want. However, I do appreciate what it's lent to our culture, and specifically to derivative works. Without this book, we would not have West Side Story, which I do happen to be fond of.
    • 4/5
      4.25 StarsA fanciful retelling of Romeo and Juliet in Manga format. Emotive artwork and much of the dialogue is in true Shakespeare form. A nice addition to the Manga Classics series. Keep up the good work! For classics and adaptation fans.Net Galley Feedback
    • 4/5
      Romeo and Juliet is very famous story all over the world. I have known this title too, but not known this story well. Needless to say, this story is a story of the tragedy. An old tradition and manners of Italy tore their love. I think that you should read this book once.
    • 3/5
      It's okay. And I love the Queen Mab speech. And look, Shakespeare's SHAKESPEARE. Man knows how to write. And I get that it's not a love story and that Shakespeare knows this. Just. Everyone in this story needs to calm down like forty notches. It's histrionic. And I love Catcher in the Rye, so when I say something's histrionic, I mean it.
    • 4/5
      I like the nurse. I still don't think these dumb kids loved" each other."
    • 3/5
      There's only so much you can take reading old English before your mind starts to wander.
    • 5/5
      Setting: The play is set in Verona; its main theme is true love.Plot: Romeo and Juliet, members of feuding families meet and fall in love. They get married but Romeo is banished and the play ends with their deaths.Characters: Romeo (protagonist)- moony, passionate; Juliet (protagonist) loving, shrewd; Firar Lawrence- fatherly, helpful; Tybalt (antagonist) hates peace; Mercutio- playful, fun loving; Benvolio- peacemaker; Montague- Romeo's father; Capulet- Juliet's fatherSymbols: love, pilot of life allusionsCharacteristics: play, Romeo and Juliet's sonnet, famous quotes such as "a thousand times good night"My Response: I think this story is too well known to make a lasting impression on me.
    • 4/5
      William Shakespeare's epic tale of comedy, tragedy, and love is a staple for romantic literature. When two adolescents from feuding families fall in love, their destinys' suddenly become intertwined, with neither able to live without the other.
    • 5/5
      The classic play. Some of the finest dialogue in the English language. This is a student edition with additional materials and illustrations.
    • 3/5
      You know, it's a play written in the sixteen hundreds. Not a bad read as far as these things go, but only the sort of thing you read in school or when you're going to put on the play
    • 4/5
      Underage, star-crossed lovers, gangs and drugs. What more can you ask for? I read Romeo and Juliet as an 11-year-old and fell in love with the aforementioned themes.

    Book preview

    Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare

    ROMEO AND JULIET

    By WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

    A Digireads.com Book

    Digireads.com Publishing

    Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-2254-7

    Ebook ISBN 13: 978-1-59625-019-2

    This edition copyright © 2012

    Please visit www.digireads.com

    CONTENTS

    DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

    THE PROLOGUE.

    ACT I.

    SCENE I. Verona. A public place.

    SCENE II. A Street.

    SCENE III. Capulet's House.

    SCENE IV. A Street.

    SCENE V. Capulet's House.

    ACT II.

    PROLOGUE.

    SCENE I. A lane by the wall of Capulet's orchard.

    SCENE II. Capulet's orchard.

    SCENE III. Friar Lawrence's Cell.

    SCENE IV. A Street.

    SCENE V. Capulet's orchard.

    SCENE VI. Friar Lawrence's Cell.

    ACT III.

    SCENE I. A public Place.

    SCENE II. Capulet's orchard.

    SCENE III. Friar Lawrence's cell.

    SCENE IV. Capulet's House.

    SCENE V. Capulet's orchard.

    ACT IV.

    SCENE I. Friar Lawrence's Cell.

    SCENE II. Capulet's House.

    SCENE III. Juliet's Chamber.

    SCENE IV. Capulet's House.

    SCENE V. Juliet's Chamber.

    ACT V.

    SCENE I. Mantua. A Street.

    SCENE II. Friar Lawrence's Cell.

    SCENE III. Verona. A churchyard; in it the tomb of the Capulets.

    DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

    CHORUS

    ESCALUS, Prince of Verona

    PARIS, a young nobleman, kinsman to the Prince

    MONTAGUE, CAPULET, Heads of two houses at variance with each other

    An Old Man of the Capulet family

    ROMEO, son to Montague

    MERCUTIO, kinsman to the Prince, and friend to Romeo

    BENVOLIO, nephew to Montague, and friend to Romeo

    TYBALT, nephew to Lady Capulet

    FRIAR LAWRENCE, FRIAR JOHN, Franciscans

    BALTHASAR, servant to Romeo

    SAMPSON, servant to Capulet

    GREGORY, servant to Capulet

    PETER, servant to Juliet's Nurse

    ABRAHAM, servant to Montague

    An Apothecary

    Three Musicians

    An Officer

    LADY MONTAGUE, wife to Montague

    LADY CAPULET, wife to Capulet

    JULIET, daughter to Capulet

    Nurse to Juliet

    Citizens of Verona; Gentlemen and Gentlewomen of both houses; Maskers, Torchbearers, Pages, Guards, Watchmen, Servants, and Attendants

    THE SCENE: VERONA AND MANTUA.

    THE PROLOGUE.

    [Enter CHORUS.]

    CHORUS. Two households, both alike in dignity,

    In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

    From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

    Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

    From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

    A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;

    Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows

    Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.

    The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,

    And the continuance of their parents' rage,

    Which but their children's end naught could remove,

    Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;

    The which, if you with patient ears attend,

    What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

    ACT I.

    SCENE I. Verona. A public place.

    [Enter SAMPSON and GREGORY, of the house of Capulet, with swords and bucklers on.]

    SAMPSON. Gregory, o' my word, we'll not carry coals.

    GREGORY. No, for then we should be colliers.

    SAMPSON. I mean, an we be in choler we'll draw.

    GREGORY. Ay, while you live, draw your neck out o' the collar.

    SAMPSON. I strike quickly, being moved.

    GREGORY. But thou art not quickly moved to strike.

    SAMPSON. A dog of the house of Montague moves me.

    GREGORY. To move is to stir; and to be valiant is to stand: therefore, if thou art moved, thou run'st away.

    SAMPSON. A dog of that house shall move me to stand:

    I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's.

    GREGORY. That shows thee a weak slave; for the weakest goes to the wall.

    SAMPSON. True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall: therefore I will push Montague's men from the wall and thrust his maids to the wall.

    GREGORY. The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.

    SAMPSON. 'Tis all one, I will show myself a tyrant: when I have fought with the men I will be cruel with the maids, I will cut off their heads.

    GREGORY. The heads of the maids?

    SAMPSON. Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads; take it in what sense thou wilt.

    GREGORY. They must take it in sense that feel it.

    SAMPSON. Me they shall feel while I am able to stand: and 'tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh.

    GREGORY. 'Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou hadst been poor-John.—Draw thy tool; Here comes two of the house of Montagues.

    [Enter ABRAHAM and BALTHASAR.]

    SAMPSON. My naked weapon is out: quarrel! I will back thee.

    GREGORY. How! turn thy back and run?

    SAMPSON. Fear me not.

    GREGORY. No, marry; I fear thee!

    SAMPSON. Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin.

    GREGORY. I will frown as I pass by; and let them take it as they list.

    SAMPSON. Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; which is disgrace to them if they bear it.

    ABRAHAM. Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

    SAMPSON. I do bite my thumb, sir.

    ABRAHAM. Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

    SAMPSON. [Aside to Gregory] Is the law of our side if I say ay?

    GREGORY. [Aside to Sampson] No.

    SAMPSON. No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir; but I bite my thumb, sir.

    GREGORY. Do you quarrel, sir?

    ABRAHAM. Quarrel, sir! no, sir.

    SAMPSON. But if you do, sir, am for you: I serve as good a man as you.

    ABRAHAM. No better.

    SAMPSON. Well, sir.

    [Enter BENVOLIO.]

    GREGORY. Say better; here comes one of my master's kinsmen.

    SAMPSON. Yes, better, sir.

    ABRAHAM. You lie.

    SAMPSON. Draw, if you be men.—Gregory, remember thy swashing blow. [They fight.]

    BENVOLIO. Part, fools! Put up your swords; you know not what you do. [Beats down their swords.]

    [Enter TYBALT.]

    TYBALT. What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?

    Turn thee Benvolio, look upon thy death.

    BENVOLIO. I do but keep the peace: put up thy sword,

    Or manage it to part these men with me.

    TYBALT. What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word

    As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee:

    Have at thee, coward! [They fight.]

    [Enter an Officer, and three or four Citizens with clubs or partisans.]

    OFFICER. Clubs, bills, and partisans! strike! beat them down!

    CITIZENS. Down with the Capulets! Down with the Montagues!

    [Enter Old CAPULET in his gown, and his Wife.]

    CAPULET. What noise is this?—Give me my long sword, ho!

    LADY CAPULET. A crutch, a crutch!—Why call you for a sword?

    CAPULET. My sword, I say!—Old Montague is come,

    And flourishes his blade in spite of me.

    [Enter Old MONTAGUE and his Wife.]

    MONTAGUE. Thou villain Capulet!— Hold me not, let me go.

    LADY MONTAGUE. Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe.

    [Enter PRINCE ESCALUS, with his Train.]

    PRINCE. Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,

    Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel,—

    Will they not hear?—What, ho! you men, you beasts,

    That quench the fire of your pernicious rage

    With purple fountains issuing from your veins,—

    On pain of torture, from those bloody hands

    Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground

    And hear the sentence of your moved prince.—

    Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,

    By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,

    Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets;

    And made Verona's ancient citizens

    Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments,

    To wield old partisans, in hands as old,

    Cank'red with peace, to part your cank'red hate:

    If ever you disturb our streets again,

    Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.

    For this time, all the rest depart away.

    You, Capulet, shall go along with me;

    And, Montague, come you this afternoon,

    To know our farther pleasure in this case,

    To old Free-town, our common judgment-place.

    Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.

    [Exeunt all but Montague, his Wife, and Benvolio.]

    MONTAGUE. Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?

    Speak, nephew, were you by when it began?

    BENVOLIO. Here were the servants of your

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1