SCENE V. Capulet's orchard. Romeo and Juliet  Shakespeare homepage  |  Romeo and Juliet  | Act 2, Scene 5 

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 Enter JULIET  JULIET  The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse; 

 In half an hour she promised to return. 

 Perchance she cannot meet him: that's not so. 

 O, she is lame! love's heralds should be thoughts, 

 Which ten times faster glide than the sun's beams, 

 Driving back shadows over louring hills: 

 Therefore do nimble-pinion'd doves draw love, 

 And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings. 

 Now is the sun upon the highmost hill 

 Of this day's journey, and from nine till twelve 

 Is three long hours, yet she is not come. 

 Had she affections and warm youthful blood, 

 She would be as swift in motion as a ball; 

 My words would bandy her to my sweet love, 

 And his to me: 

 But old folks, many feign as they were dead; 

 Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead. 

 O God, she comes! 



 Enter Nurse and PETER  O honey nurse, what news? 

 Hast thou met with him? Send thy man away. 

 Nurse  Peter, stay at the gate. 



 Exit PETER  JULIET  Now, good sweet nurse,--O Lord, why look'st thou sad? 

 Though news be sad, yet tell them merrily; 

 If good, thou shamest the music of sweet news 

 By playing it to me with so sour a face. 

 Nurse  I am a-weary, give me leave awhile: 

 Fie, how my bones ache! what a jaunt have I had! 

 JULIET  I would thou hadst my bones, and I thy news: 

 Nay, come, I pray thee, speak; good, good nurse, speak. 

 Nurse  Jesu, what haste? can you not stay awhile? 

 Do you not see that I am out of breath? 

 JULIET  How art thou out of breath, when thou hast breath 

 To say to me that thou art out of breath? 

 The excuse that thou dost make in this delay 

 Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse. 

 Is thy news good, or bad? answer to that; 

 Say either, and I'll stay the circumstance: 

 Let me be satisfied, is't good or bad? 

 Nurse  Well, you have made a simple choice; you know not 

 how to choose a man: Romeo! no, not he; though his 

 face be better than any man's, yet his leg excels 

 all men's; and for a hand, and a foot, and a body, 

 though they be not to be talked on, yet they are 

 past compare: he is not the flower of courtesy, 

 but, I'll warrant him, as gentle as a lamb. Go thy 

 ways, wench; serve God. What, have you dined at home? 

 JULIET  No, no: but all this did I know before. 

 What says he of our marriage? what of that? 

 Nurse  Lord, how my head aches! what a head have I! 

 It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces. 

 My back o' t' other side,--O, my back, my back! 

 Beshrew your heart for sending me about, 

 To catch my death with jaunting up and down! 

 JULIET  I' faith, I am sorry that thou art not well. 

 Sweet, sweet, sweet nurse, tell me, what says my love? 

 Nurse  Your love says, like an honest gentleman, and a 

 courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, and, I 

 warrant, a virtuous,--Where is your mother? 

 JULIET  Where is my mother! why, she is within; 

 Where should she be? How oddly thou repliest! 

 'Your love says, like an honest gentleman, 

 Where is your mother?' 

 Nurse  O God's lady dear! 

 Are you so hot? marry, come up, I trow; 

 Is this the poultice for my aching bones? 

 Henceforward do your messages yourself. 

 JULIET  Here's such a coil! come, what says Romeo? 

 Nurse  Have you got leave to go to shrift to-day? 

 JULIET  I have. 

 Nurse  Then hie you hence to Friar Laurence' cell; 

 There stays a husband to make you a wife: 

 Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks, 

 They'll be in scarlet straight at any news. 

 Hie you to church; I must another way, 

 To fetch a ladder, by the which your love 

 Must climb a bird's nest soon when it is dark: 

 I am the drudge and toil in your delight, 

 But you shall bear the burden soon at night. 

 Go; I'll to dinner: hie you to the cell. 

 JULIET  Hie to high fortune! Honest nurse, farewell. 



 Exeunt  Shakespeare homepage  |  Romeo and Juliet  | Act 2, Scene 5 

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