READ STUDY GUIDE: Act II, prologue–scene i |
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Act II, Scene i:
An open place adjoining Capulet's Garden.
An open place adjoining Capulet's Garden.
| [Enter Romeo.] |
| Romeo.: |
| Can I go forward when my heart is here? |
| Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out. |
| [He climbs the wall and leaps down within it.] |
| [Enter Benvolio and Mercutio.] |
| Benvolio.: |
| Romeo! my cousin Romeo! |
| Mercutio.: |
| He is wise; |
| And, on my life, hath stol'n him home to bed. |
| Benvolio.: |
| He ran this way, and leap'd this orchard wall: |
| Call, good Mercutio. |
| Mercutio.: |
| Nay, I'll conjure too.— |
| Romeo! humours! madman! passion! lover! |
| Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh: |
| Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied; |
| Cry but 'Ah me!' pronounce but Love and dove; |
| Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word, |
| One nickname for her purblind son and heir, |
| Young auburn Cupid, he that shot so trim |
| When King Cophetua lov'd the beggar-maid!— |
| He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not; |
| The ape is dead, and I must conjure him.— |
| I conjure thee 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! |
| Benvolio.: |
| An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him. |
| Mercutio.: |
| This cannot anger him: 'twould anger him |
| To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle, |
| Of some strange nature, letting it there stand |
| Till she had laid it, and conjur'd it down; |
| That were some spite: my invocation |
| Is fair and honest, and, in his mistress' name, |
| I conjure only but to raise up him. |
| Benvolio.: |
| Come, he hath hid himself among these trees, |
| To be consorted with the humorous night: |
| Blind is his love, and best befits the dark. |
| Mercutio.: |
| If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark. |
| Now will he sit under a medlar tree, |
| And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit |
| As maids call medlars when they laugh alone.— |
| Romeo, good night.—I'll to my truckle-bed; |
| This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep: |
| Come, shall we go? |
| Benvolio.: |
| Go then; for 'tis in vain |
| To seek him here that means not to be found. |
| [Exeunt.] |
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