Rom.
Can I go forward when my heart is here?

Turn back, dull earth, and find thy ^note centre ^note out. [He climbs the wall, and leaps down within it. ^note Enter Benvolio with Mercutio.

Ben.
Romeo! my ^note cousin Romeo ^note!

Mer.
He is wise;
And, on my life, hath stol'n him home to bed. ^note

Ben.
He ran this way, and leap'd this orchard wall:
Call, good Mercutio.

Mer.
Nay, I'll conjure too. ^note
Romeo! ^note humours! madman! passion! lover! ^note
Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh ^note:
Speak but one rhyme ^note, and I am satisfied;
Cry but ‘ay me!’ ^note pronounce ^note but ‘love’ and ‘dove ^note;’
Speak to my gossip ^note Venus one fair word ^note,
One nick-name for ^note her purblind son and heir ^note,
Young Adam Cupid ^note, he that shot so trim ^note

When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid ^note!
He heareth not, he stirreth ^note not, he moveth ^note not;
The ape is dead, and ^note I must conjure him.
I conjure thee ^note by Rosaline's bright eyes,
By her high forehead and her scarlet lip,
By her fine foot, straight leg and quivering thigh,
And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,
That in thy likeness thou appear to us!

Ben.
An ^note if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him.

Mer.
This cannot anger him: 'twould anger him
To raise a spirit in his mistress' ^note circle
Of some strange nature, letting it there ^note stand
Till she had laid it and conjured it down;
That were some spite: my invocation
Is fair and honest ^note, and in ^note his mistress' name ^note
I conjure only but to raise up him.

Ben.
Come, he hath hid himself among these ^note trees,
To be consorted with the humorous night:
Blind is his love, and best befits the dark.

Mer.
If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.
Now will he sit under a medlar-tree,
And wish his mistress were that ^note kind of fruit
As ^note maids call medlars ^note when they laugh alone.
O, Romeo, that she were, O, ^note that she were
An open et cetera, thou ^note a poperin pear! ^note

Romeo, good night: I'll to my truckle-bed;
This field-bed is too ^note cold for me to sleep:
Come, shall we go?

Ben.
Go then, for 'tis in vain
To seek him here that means not to be found. ^note [Exeunt. ^{note note}

Previous section

Next section