Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Enter Lady Capulet and Nurse. LADY CAPULET
Nurse, where’s my daughter? Call her forth to me. NURSE
Now, by my maidenhead at twelve year old,
I bade her come.—What, lamb! What, ladybird!
God forbid. Where’s this girl? What, Juliet! Enter Juliet. JULIET How now, who calls? 5 NURSE Your mother. JULIET
Madam, I am here. What is your will? LADY CAPULET
This is the matter.—Nurse, give leave awhile.
We must talk in secret.—Nurse, come back again.
I have remembered me, thou ’s hear our counsel. 10
Thou knowest my daughter’s of a pretty age. NURSE
Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour. LADY CAPULET She’s not fourteen. NURSE I’ll lay fourteen of my teeth (and yet, to my teen
be it spoken, I have but four) she’s not fourteen. 15
How long is it now to Lammastide? LADY CAPULET A fortnight and odd days. | Lady Capulet asks Juliet's nurse (who just gets called "Nurse" through the whole thing) to call in Juliet and leave them alone to chat. Then she changes her mind and tells the nurse she can stay. She has, after all, been Juliet's attendant since she was a baby...and she loves to tell people all about it. She claims she knows Juliet's birthday to the hour—that's how involved she's been. |
NURSE
Even or odd, of all days in the year,
Come Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen.
Susan and she (God rest all Christian souls!) 20
Were of an age. Well, Susan is with God;
She was too good for me. But, as I said,
On Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen.
That shall she. Marry, I remember it well.
’Tis since the earthquake now eleven years, 25
And she was weaned (I never shall forget it)
Of all the days of the year, upon that day.
For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
Sitting in the sun under the dovehouse wall.
My lord and you were then at Mantua. 30
Nay, I do bear a brain. But, as I said,
When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,
To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug.
“Shake,” quoth the dovehouse. ’Twas no need, I 35
trow,
To bid me trudge.
And since that time it is eleven years.
For then she could stand high-lone. Nay, by th’
rood, 40
She could have run and waddled all about,
For even the day before, she broke her brow,
And then my husband (God be with his soul,
He was a merry man) took up the child.
“Yea,” quoth he, “Dost thou fall upon thy face? 45
Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit,
Wilt thou not, Jule?” And, by my holidam,
The pretty wretch left crying and said “Ay.”
To see now how a jest shall come about!
I warrant, an I should live a thousand years, 50
I never should forget it. “Wilt thou not, Jule?”
quoth he.
And, pretty fool, it stinted and said “Ay.” | To further prove her dedication to Juliet, the Nurse delivers a long, semi-bawdy speech about Juliet's infancy and toddler years. In this speech she reveals the following information: the Nurse had a baby named Susan who was about Juliet's age, but sadly, she died. The Nurse is not only Juliet's nanny but she also her wet-nurse. When it was time to "wean" (stop breastfeeding) Juliet, the Nurse put "wormwood" on her nipple, which she refers to as her "dug." (Wormwood is a disgustingly bitter plant extract.) Also, Juliet once fell down and cut her forehead when she was little, which the Nurse's late husband thought was hilarious—so hilarious that he turned the accident into a dirty joke about how Juliet would eventually grow up and then fall down (on her back) and have sex with a guy. |
LADY CAPULET
Enough of this. I pray thee, hold thy peace. NURSE
Yes, madam, yet I cannot choose but laugh 55
To think it should leave crying and say “Ay.”
And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow
A bump as big as a young cock’rel’s stone,
A perilous knock, and it cried bitterly.
“Yea,” quoth my husband. “Fall’st upon thy face? 60
Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age,
Wilt thou not, Jule?” It stinted and said “Ay.” | Not surprisingly, Lady Capulet says, "Enough," and tells the Nurse to be quiet. Please. |
JULIET
And stint thou, too, I pray thee, nurse, say I. NURSE
Peace. I have done. God mark thee to his grace,
Thou wast the prettiest babe that e’er I nursed. 65
An I might live to see thee married once,
I have my wish. | Next, Juliet asks the Nurse to stop talking, and she does. After just four more lines of dialogue. |
LADY CAPULET
Marry, that “marry” is the very theme
I came to talk of.—Tell me, daughter Juliet,
How stands your disposition to be married? 70 JULIET
It is an honor that I dream not of. NURSE
An honor? Were not I thine only nurse,
I would say thou hadst sucked wisdom from thy
teat. LADY CAPULET
Well, think of marriage now. Younger than you 75
Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,
Are made already mothers. By my count
I was your mother much upon these years
That you are now a maid. Thus, then, in brief:
The valiant Paris seeks you for his love. 80 | Lady Capulet raises the subject of marriage, but Juliet says she's not interested. Then Lady Capulet repeats Paris's line—that plenty of girls younger than Juliet are already mothers. In fact, she says that she had Juliet by the time she was Juliet's age. She adds that Paris has been sniffing around for Juliet's hand in marriage. |
NURSE
A man, young lady—lady, such a man
As all the world—why, he’s a man of wax. LADY CAPULET
Verona’s summer hath not such a flower. NURSE
Nay, he’s a flower, in faith, a very flower. | The Nurse and Lady Capulet go a little gaga over Paris, saying he's so fine it's like someone sculpted him from wax. |
LADY CAPULET
What say you? Can you love the gentleman? 85
This night you shall behold him at our feast.
Read o’er the volume of young Paris’ face,
And find delight writ there with beauty’s pen.
Examine every married lineament
And see how one another lends content, 90
And what obscured in this fair volume lies
Find written in the margent of his eyes.
This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
To beautify him only lacks a cover.
The fish lives in the sea, and ’tis much pride 95
For fair without the fair within to hide.
That book in many’s eyes doth share the glory
That in gold clasps locks in the golden story.
So shall you share all that he doth possess
By having him, making yourself no less. 100 NURSE
No less? Nay, bigger. Women grow by men. LADY CAPULET
Speak briefly. Can you like of Paris’ love? | Lady Capulet gives Juliet the hard press about Paris. She urges her daughter to check him out at the party that night and see what she thinks. He'll be the oh-so-dreamy guy all the other girls are swooning over, and if Juliet becomes his wife, she'll be admired by everyone, too. |
JULIET
I’ll look to like, if looking liking move.
But no more deep will I endart mine eye
Than your consent gives strength to make it fly. 105 | Juliet says she'll check him out, but she's not going to force anything. She'll only like him if he's, well, likable. And she's not going to get more involved with him unless her parents' consent means she has to. |
Enter Servingman. SERVINGMAN Madam, the guests are come, supper
served up, you called, my young lady asked for, the
Nurse cursed in the pantry, and everything in
extremity. I must hence to wait. I beseech you,
follow straight. 110 LADY CAPULET
We follow thee. Servingman exits.
Juliet, the County stays. NURSE
Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days. They exit. | The servant enters to announce that guests are beginning to arrive for the big bash, and Lady Capulet, as if she hasn't already put enough pressure on her daughter, tells her to hurry along because the Count is waiting. The Nurse adds her two cents, basically encouraging Juliet to seal the deal tonight. So much for, "Hey, just check him out and see what you think." |