Romeo and Juliet
Act III, Scene 4
A room in Capulet’s house.
Madam, good night, commend me to your daughter.
Alfred Edward Chalon, circa 1800
- Enter old Capulet, his Wife, and Paris.
Capulet
1 - 7- Things have fall’n out, sir, so unluckily
- That we have had no time to move our daughter.
- Look you, she lov’d her kinsman Tybalt dearly,
- And so did I. Well, we were born to die.
- ’Tis very late, she’ll not come down tonight.
- I promise you, but for your company,
- I would have been a-bed an hour ago.
Paris
8 - 9- These times of woe afford no times to woo.
- Madam, good night, commend me to your daughter.
Lady Capulet
10 - 11- I will, and know her mind early tomorrow;
- Tonight she’s mewed up to her heaviness.
- Paris offers to go in, and Capulet calls him again.
Capulet
12 - 18- Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender
- Of my child’s love. I think she will be rul’d
- In all respects by me; nay more, I doubt it not.
- Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed,
- Acquaint her here of my son Paris’ love,
- And bid her—mark you me?—on We’n’sday next—
- But soft, what day is this?
Paris
19- Monday, my lord.
Capulet
20 - 29- Monday! Ha, ha! Well, We’n’sday is too soon,
- A’ Thursday let it be—a’ Thursday, tell her,
- She shall be married to this noble earl.
- Will you be ready? Do you like this haste?
- We’ll keep no great ado—a friend or two,
- For hark you, Tybalt being slain so late,
- It may be thought we held him carelessly,
- Being our kinsman, if we revel much:
- Therefore we’ll have some half a dozen friends,
- And there an end. But what say you to Thursday?
Paris
30- My lord, I would that Thursday were tomorrow.
Capulet
31 - 36- Well, get you gone, a’ Thursday be it then.—
- Go you to Juliet ere you go to bed,
- Prepare her, wife, against this wedding-day.
- Farewell, my lord. Light to my chamber ho!
- Afore me, it is so very late that we
- May call it early by and by. Good night.
- Exeunt.
Costume design for Lady Capulet
Percy Anderson, circa 1900