Act IV - Scene V

Juliet’ Chamber

Enter Nurse.

NURSE:
Mistress! what, mistress! Juliet! Fast, I warrant
her, she.
Why, lamb! why, lady! Fie, you slug-abed!
Why, love, I say! madam! sweetheart! Why, bride!
What, not a word? You take your pennyworths now!(5)
Sleep for a week; for the next night, I warrant,
The County Paris hath set up his rest
That you shall rest but little. God forgive me!
Marry, and amen. How sound is she asleep!
I needs must wake her. Madam, madam, madam!(10)
Ay, let the County take you in your bed!
He'll fright you up, i’ faith. Will it not be?

Draws aside the curtains.

What, dress'd, and in your clothes, and down again?
I must needs wake you. Lady! lady! lady!
Alas, alas! Help, help! My lady's dead!(15)
O well-a-day that ever I was born!
Some aqua-vitae, ho! My lord! my lady!

Enter Lady Capulet.

LADY CAP:
What noise is here?
NURSE:
O lamentable day!
LADY CAP:
What is the matter?(20)
NURSE:
Look, look! O heavy day!
LADY CAP:
O me, O me! My child, my only life!
Revive, look up, or I will die with thee!
Help, help! Call help.

Enter Capulet.

CAP:
For shame, bring Juliet forth; her lord is come.(25)
NURSE:
She's dead, deceas'd; she's dead! Alack the day!
LADY CAP:
Alack the day, she's dead, she's dead, she's dead!
CAP:
Ha! let me see her. Out alas! she's cold,
Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff;
Life and these lips have long been separated.(30)
Death lies on her like an untimely frost
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.
NURSE:
O lamentable day!
LADY CAP:
O woful time!
CAP:
Death, that hath ta'en her hence to make me wail, Ties up my tongue and will not let me speak.(35)

Enter Friar Laurence and the County (Paris), with Musicians.

FRIAR:
Come, is the bride ready to go to church?
CAP:
Ready to go, but never to return.
O son, the night before thy wedding day
Hath Death lain with thy wife. See, there she lies,
Flower as she was, deflowered by him.(40)
Death is my son-in-law, Death is my heir;
My daughter he hath wedded. I will die
And leave him all. Life, living, all is Death's.
PAR:
Have I thought long to see this morning's face,
And doth it give me such a sight as this?(45)
LADY CAPULET:
Accurs'd, unhappy, wretched, hateful day!
Most miserable hour that e'er time saw
In lasting labour of his pilgrimage!
But one, poor one, one poor and loving child,
But one thing to rejoice and solace in,(50)
And cruel Death hath catch'd it from my sight!
NURSE:
O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day!
Most lamentable day, most woeful day
That ever ever I did yet behold!
O day! O day! O day! O hateful day!(55)
Never was seen so black a day as this.
O woeful day! O woeful day!
PAR:
Beguil'd, divorced, wronged, spited, slain!
Most detestable Death, by thee beguil'd,
By cruel cruel thee quite overthrown!(60)
O love! O life! not life, but love in death!
CAP:
Despis'd, distressed, hated, martyr'd, kill'd!
Uncomfortable time, why cam'st thou now
To murder, murder our solemnity?
O child! O child! my soul, and not my child!(65)
Dead art thou, dead! alack, my child is dead,
And with my child my joys are buried!
FRIAR:
Peace, ho, for shame! Confusion's cure lives not
In these confusions. Heaven and yourself
Had part in this fair maid! now heaven hath all,(70)
And all the better is it for the maid.
Your part in her you could not keep from death,
But heaven keeps his part in eternal life.
The most you sought was her promotion,
For 'twas your heaven she should be advanc'd;(75)
And weep ye now, seeing she is advanc'd
Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself?
O, in this love, you love your child so ill
That you run mad, seeing that she is well.
She's not well married that lives married long,(80)
But she's best married that dies married young.
Dry up your tears and stick your rosemary
On this fair corse, and, as the custom is,
In all her best array bear her to church;
For though fond nature bids us all lament,(85)
Yet nature's tears are reason's merriment.
CAP:
All things that we ordained festival
Turn from their office to black funeral—
Our instruments to melancholy bells,
Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast;(90)
Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change;
Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse;
And all things change them to the contrary.
FRIAR:
Sir, go you in; and, madam, go with him;
And go, Sir Paris. Every one prepare(95)
To follow this fair corse unto her grave.
The heavens do low'r upon you for some ill;
Move them no more by crossing their high will.

Exeunt. Capulet, Lady Capulet, Paris, and Friar.

1. MUS:
Faith, we may put up our pipes and be gone.
NURSE:
Honest good fellows, ah, put up, put up!(100)
For well you know this is a pitiful case.

Exit Nurse.

1. MUS:
Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended.

Enter Peter.

PET:
Musicians, O, musicians, ‘Heart's ease, Heart's ease’!
O, an you will have me live, play ‘Heart's ease.’
1. MUS:
Why ‘Heart's ease’?(105)
PET:
O, musicians, because my heart itself plays ‘My heart is full
of woe.’ O, play me some merry dump to comfort me.
1. MUS:
Not a dump we! 'Tis no time to play now.
PET:
You will not then?
1. MUS:
No.(110)
PET:
I will then give it you soundly.
1. MUS:
What will you give us?
PET:
No money, on my faith, but the gleek. I will give
you the minstrel.
1. MUS:
Then will I give you the serving-creature.(115)
PET:
Then will I lay the serving-creature's dagger on your
pate. I will carry no crotchets. I'll re you, I'll fa you. Do
you note me?
1. MUS:
An you re us and fa us, you note us.
2. MUS:
Pray you put up your dagger, and put out your(120)
wit.
PET:
Then have at you with my wit! I will dry-beat you
with an iron wit, and put up my iron dagger. Answer
me like men.
‘When griping grief the heart doth wound,(125)
And doleful dumps the mind oppress,
Then music with her silver sound’—
Why ‘silver sound’? Why ‘music with her silver sound’?
What say you, Simon Catling?
1. MUS:
Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound.(130)
PET:
Pretty! What say you, Hugh Rebeck?
2. MUS:
I say ‘silver sound’ because musicians sound for
silver.
PET:
Pretty too! What say you, James Soundpost?
3. MUS:
Faith, I know not what to say.(135)
PET:
O, I cry you mercy! you are the singer. I will say for
you. It is ‘music with her silver sound’ because musi-
cians have no gold for sounding.
‘Then music with her silver sound
With speedy help doth lend redress.’(140)

Exit.

1. MUS:
What a pestilent knave is this same!
2. MUS:
Hang him, Jack! Come, we'll in here, tarry for the
mourners, and stay dinner.

Exeunt.

Act V - Scene I
Act IV - Scene IV

Footnotes

  1. This exchange between the Musicians and Peter acts as a comedic interlude in the heaviness of the main plot. Scenes like this point to how Shakespeare was able to keep both his low and high audiences engaged in the play.

    — Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff

  2. In music, solfege is a scale of musical notes that is used to teach pitch and sight singing. "re" and "fa" are both notes in solfege.

    — Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff

  3. The Friar narrates Juliet's death as a positive thing because she will travel to heaven. Like Capulet and Paris, who told Juliet not to be sad when Tybalt died, the Friar tells Juliet's parents not to be sad that she is dead. However, unlike the Capulets, the Friar rationalizes his position on Juliet's death using religion.

    — Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff

  4. "Promotion" in this context refers to Juliet's social status. The Capulets were trying to "promote" Juliet from unwed maiden to married woman.

    — Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff

  5. Notice that Capulet repeats "our" here when referring to Juliet's wedding. This signifies two things. First, the wedding belonged to Capulet more than his daughter. Second, because he has lost something personal, Capulet now recognizes the grief that he dismissed when Tybalt died as legitimate.

    — Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff

  6. Here, Capulet personifies Death to suggest that Juliet was a victim. None of the characters seem to believe that she killed herself. In personifying Death, they are able to construe Juliet's death as a random act of chance.

    — Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff

  7. This means a small quantity of something, such as sleep. The Nurse is teasing Juliet for over sleeping. She has not yet realized that Juliet is "dead."

    — Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff