SCENE I. A lane by the wall of Capulet's orchard. Romeo and Juliet  Shakespeare homepage  |  Romeo and Juliet  | Act 2, Scene 1 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE I. A lane by the wall of Capulet's orchard. 

 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 lie, 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 'Ay me!' pronounce but 'love' and 'dove;' 

 Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word, 

 One nick-name for her purblind son and heir, 

 Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim, 

 When King Cophetua loved 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  And 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 conjured it down; 

 That were some spite: my invocation 

 Is fair and honest, and in his mistres s' 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, that she were, O, that she were 

 An open et caetera, thou a poperin pear! 

 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  Shakespeare homepage  |  Romeo and Juliet  | Act 2, Scene 1 

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