Romeo and Juliet — Act 4, Scene 5in modern English, side by side
Juliet’s Chamber; Juliet on the bed · Nurse, Lady Capulet, Capulet, Friar Lawrence, Paris, Peter, First Musician, Second Musician, Third Musician
On the wedding morning, the Nurse comes to wake Juliet and finds her apparently dead — though the audience knows she has only drunk Friar Lawrence's sleeping potion. The wedding collapses into a funeral, and Friar Lawrence, the one person who knows the truth, steers the family toward laying her in the tomb, exactly as his plan requires.
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Enter Nurse
Nurse
Mistress! What, mistress! Juliet!
Mistress! Hey, mistress! Juliet!
Fast, I warrant her, she.
Fast asleep, I'll bet.
Why, lamb, why, lady, fie, you slug-abed!
Come on, lamb! Come on, my lady! Shame on you, you lazybones!
Why, love, I say! Madam! Sweetheart! Why, bride!
Come on, love, I say! Madam! Sweetheart! Come on, bride!
What, not a word?
What — not a word?
You take your pennyworths now.
Getting your money's worth of sleep now, are you?
Sleep for a week; for the next night, I warrant,5
The County Paris hath set up his rest
That you shall rest but little.
Then sleep for a whole week — because tomorrow night, I promise you, Count Paris has made up his mind that you won't be getting much rest.
God forgive me!
Marry and amen.
God forgive me — mercy on us, amen!
How sound is she asleep!
How soundly she's sleeping!
I needs must wake her.
I really do have to wake her.
Madam, madam, madam!
Madam, madam, madam!
Ay, let the County take you in your bed,10
He’ll fright you up, i’faith.
Fine — let the Count catch you still in your bed; he'll get you up in a hurry, believe me.
Will it not be?
Won't you wake up?
What, dress’d, and in your clothes, and down again?
What — dressed? In all your clothes? And lying back down again?
I must needs wake you.
I have to wake you.
Lady! Lady! Lady!
Lady! Lady! Lady!
Alas, alas!
— Oh, no. Oh, no!
Help, help!
Help, help!
My lady’s dead!
My lady's dead!
O, well-a-day that ever I was born.15
Oh, curse the day that I was ever born!
Some aqua vitae, ho!
Bring some brandy, quick!
My lord! My lady!
My lord! My lady!
Enter Lady Capulet
Lady Capulet
What noise is here?
What's all this noise?
Nurse
O lamentable day!
Oh, what a heartbreaking day!
Lady Capulet
What is the matter?
What's the matter?
Nurse
Look, look!20
Look, look!
O heavy day!20
Oh, terrible day!
Lady Capulet
O me, O me!
Oh no, oh no!
My child, my only life.
My child, my only life!
Revive, look up, or I will die with thee.
Wake up, look up, or I will die with you!
Help, help!
Help, help!
Call help.
Call for help!
Enter Capulet
Capulet
For shame, bring Juliet forth,
For shame — bring Juliet out here.
her lord is come.
Her husband has arrived.
Nurse
She’s dead, deceas’d, she’s dead; alack the day!25
She's dead, deceased. She's dead — curse this day!
Lady Capulet
Alack the day, she’s dead, she’s dead, she’s dead!
Curse this day! She's dead, she's dead, she's dead!
Capulet
Ha!
What!
Let me see her.
Let me see her.
Out alas! She’s cold,
Her blood is settled and her joints are stiff.
Oh, no — she's cold. Her blood has stopped moving and her joints are stiff.
Life and these lips have long been separated.
Life parted from these lips a long while ago.
Death lies on her like an untimely frost30
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.
Death lies on her like an out-of-season frost on the sweetest flower in the whole field.
Nurse
O lamentable day!
Oh, what a heartbreaking day!
Lady Capulet
O woful time!
Oh, what a time of grief!
Capulet
Death, that hath ta’en her hence to make me wail,
Ties up my tongue and will not let me speak.35
Death, which took her away from me to make me wail, now ties up my tongue and won't let me speak.
Enter Friar Lawrence and Paris with Musicians
Friar Lawrence
Come, is the bride ready to go to church?
Come — is the bride ready to go to church?
Capulet
Ready to go, but never to return.
Ready to go, but never to come back.
O son, the night before thy wedding day
Hath death lain with thy bride.
— Oh, my son, on the night before your wedding day, Death slept with your bride.
There she lies,
Flower as she was, deflowered by him.40
There she lies — a flower, just as she was, deflowered by him.
Death is my son-in-law, death is my heir;
My daughter he hath wedded.
Death is my son-in-law now; Death is my heir. My daughter has married him.
I will die
And leave him all; life, living, all is death’s.
I will die and leave him everything: life, property — everything belongs to Death.
Paris
Have I thought long to see this morning’s face,
And doth it give me such a sight as this?45
Have I longed so much to see this morning's face, only for it to show me a sight like this?
Lady Capulet
Accurs’d, unhappy, wretched, hateful day.
Cursed, unhappy, wretched, hateful day!
Most miserable hour that e’er time saw
In lasting labour of his pilgrimage.
The most miserable hour that time ever witnessed in the whole long labor of its 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.
Just one — one poor, one loving child, just one thing to rejoice in and take comfort from — and cruel death has snatched her out of my sight.
Nurse
O woe!
Oh, misery!
O woeful, woeful, woeful day.
Oh sorrowful, sorrowful, sorrowful day!
Most lamentable day, most woeful day
That ever, ever, I did yet behold!
The most heartbreaking day, the most sorrowful day that I ever, ever saw in my life!
O day, O day, O day, O hateful day.55
Oh day, oh day, oh day — oh hateful day!
Never was seen so black a day as this.
There was never so black a day as this one.
O woeful day, O woeful day.
Oh sorrowful day, oh sorrowful day!
Paris
Beguil’d, divorced, wronged, spited, slain.
Cheated, divorced, wronged, spited, murdered!
Most detestable death, by thee beguil’d,
By cruel, cruel thee quite overthrown.60
Detestable Death, you have cheated me — cruel, cruel Death, you have completely destroyed me!
O love! O life! Not life, but love in death!
O my love! O my life! Not my life anymore — my love, in death!
Capulet
Despis’d, distressed, hated, martyr’d, kill’d.
Despised, tormented, hated, martyred, killed!
Uncomfortable time, why cam’st thou now
To murder, murder our solemnity?
Merciless hour, why did you have to come now, to murder — murder! — our celebration?
O child! O child!65
O child, O child!
My soul, and not my child,65
Dead art thou.
My soul, and not just my child! You are dead
Alack, my child is dead,
And with my child my joys are buried.
— oh no, my child is dead, and with my child all my joys lie buried.
Friar Lawrence
Peace, ho, for shame.
Quiet, all of you — for shame!
Confusion’s cure lives not
In these confusions.
The cure for this disaster does not lie in these hysterics.
Heaven and yourself
Had part in this fair maid, now heaven hath all,70
And all the better is it for the maid.
Heaven and you shared this lovely girl between you; now heaven has all of her, and the girl is the better for it.
Your part in her you could not keep from death,
But heaven keeps his part in eternal life.
You couldn't keep your part of her from death, but heaven keeps its part alive eternally.
The most you sought was her promotion,
For ’twas your heaven she should be advanc’d,75
The most you ever wanted for her was to see her raised up in the world — her advancement was your idea of heaven.
And weep ye now, seeing she is advanc’d
Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself?
So are you weeping now, when she has been raised 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.
Oh, with this kind of love you love your child so badly that you go mad at seeing she is well off.
She’s not well married that lives married long,80
But she’s best married that dies married young.
The woman who stays married a long time is not the one who's married well; the best-married woman is the one who dies married young.
Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary
On this fair corse, and, as the custom is,
And in her best array bear her to church;
Dry your tears, and pin your rosemary on this beautiful body, and, as custom requires, carry her to church in her finest clothes.
For though fond nature bids us all lament,85
Yet nature’s tears are reason’s merriment.
Tender human nature makes us all grieve, but nature's tears are something reason smiles at.
Capulet
All things that we ordained festival
Turn from their office to black funeral:
Everything we prepared for a festival now changes its purpose and serves a 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.
our instruments become melancholy bells; our wedding banquet becomes a sad burial feast; our solemn hymns change into gloomy dirges; our bridal flowers now decorate a buried corpse; and everything is turned into its opposite.
Friar Lawrence
Sir, go you in, and, madam, go with him,
And go, Sir Paris,95
Sir, go inside — and madam, go with him. You too, Sir Paris.
everyone prepare95
To follow this fair corse unto her grave.
Everyone, prepare to follow this fair body to her grave.
The heavens do lower upon you for some ill;
Move them no more by crossing their high will.
The heavens are frowning down on you for some sin; don't provoke them further by crossing their supreme will.
_Exeunt Capulet, Lady Capulet, Paris and Friar._
First Musician
Faith, we may put up our pipes and be gone.
Honestly, we might as well pack up our pipes and go.
Nurse
Honest good fellows, ah, put up, put up,100
For well you know this is a pitiful case.
Ah, good honest fellows, pack up, pack up — you can see for yourselves what a pitiful case this is.
First Musician
Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended.
Yes, by my word — and the case could certainly use some mending.
_Exit Nurse._
Enter Peter
Peter
Musicians, O, musicians, ‘Heart’s ease,’ ‘Heart’s ease’, O, and you
will have me live, play ‘Heart’s ease.’
Musicians, oh, musicians! "Heart's Ease," "Heart's Ease" — oh, if you want me to go on living, play "Heart's Ease."
First Musician
Why ‘Heart’s ease’?105
Why "Heart's Ease"?
Peter
O musicians, because my heart itself plays ‘My heart is full’.
O musicians, because my own heart is playing "My Heart Is Full of Woe."
O play
me some merry dump to comfort me.
Oh, play me some merry sad-song to comfort me.
First Musician
Not a dump we,
No sad songs from us.
’tis no time to play now.
This is no time to be playing.
Peter
You will not then?
You won't, then?
First Musician
No.110
No.
Peter
I will then give it you soundly.
Then I'll give it to you soundly.
First Musician
What will you give us?
What will you give us?
Peter
No money, on my faith, but the gleek!
Not money, I promise you — a taunt.
I will give you the minstrel.
I'll call you street minstrels.
First Musician
Then will I give you the serving-creature.
Then I'll call you a serving-creature.
Peter
Then will I lay the serving-creature’s dagger on your pate.115
Then I'll lay the serving-creature's dagger across your skull.
I will115
carry no crotchets.
I won't put up with any of your quarter-notes
I’ll re you, I’ll fa you.
— I'll "re" you, I'll "fa" you.
Do you note me?
Do you note what I'm saying?
First Musician
And you re us and fa us, you note us.
If you "re" us and "fa" us, you're the one turning us into notes.
Second Musician
Pray you put up your dagger, and put out your wit.
Please, put away your dagger and bring out your wit instead.
Peter
Then have at you with my wit.
Then have at you with my wit!
I will dry-beat you with an iron wit, and
put up my iron dagger.120
I'll thrash you black and blue with an iron wit, and put away my iron dagger.
Answer me like men.120
Answer me like men.
‘When griping griefs the heart doth wound,
And doleful dumps the mind oppress,
Then music with her silver sound’—
Peter
Why ‘silver sound’?
Why "silver sound"?
Why ‘music with her silver sound’?
Why "music with her silver sound"?
What say you,
Simon Catling?
What do you say, Simon Catling?
First Musician
Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound.
Well, sir — because silver has a sweet sound.
Peter
Prates.
Nicely prattled!
What say you, Hugh Rebeck?
What do you say, Hugh Rebeck?
Second Musician
I say ‘silver sound’ because musicians sound for silver.125
I say "silver sound" because musicians play their sounds for silver.
Peter
Prates too!
Prattled again!
What say you, James Soundpost?
What do you say, James Soundpost?
Third Musician
Faith, I know not what to say.
Honestly, I don't know what to say.
Peter
O, I cry you mercy, you are the singer.
Oh, I beg your pardon — you're the singer.
I will say for you.
I'll answer for you, then.
It is
‘music with her silver sound’ because musicians have no gold for
sounding.130
It's "music with her silver sound" because musicians never get gold for their playing.
‘Then music with her silver sound
With speedy help doth lend redress.’
_Exit._
First Musician
What a pestilent knave is this same!
What a pestilent rascal that fellow is!
Second Musician
Hang him, Jack.
Hang him, the joker.
Come, we’ll in here, tarry for the mourners, and stay
dinner.
Come on — we'll go in here, wait for the mourners, and stay for dinner.
_Exeunt._
Famous lines in this scene
“Death lies on her like an untimely frost” line 30
Capulet's simile on finding Juliet "dead": an out-of-season frost has killed the sweetest flower in the field. It compresses the play's central pattern — young life cut down before its season — into one natural image, continuing the flower imagery attached to Juliet, while the audience knows his grief is premature.
“Death is my son-in-law, death is my heir” line 41
Capulet personifies Death as a rival bridegroom who has slept with his daughter, married her, and now inherits everything. The image of Death as Juliet's lover runs through the whole play and returns in the tomb scene — and it is bitter dramatic irony, since a marriage to death is precisely what Juliet has staged.
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