ROMEO AND JULIET
Page: 29

kind of behaviour, as they say: for the gentlewoman is young;
and, therefore, if you should deal double with her, truly it were
an ill thing to be offered to any gentlewoman, and very weak
dealing.

Romeo.
Nurse, commend me to thy lady and mistress. I protest unto
thee,--

Nurse.
Good heart, and i' faith I will tell her as much: Lord,
Lord, she will be a joyful woman.

Romeo.
What wilt thou tell her, nurse? thou dost not mark me.

Nurse.
I will tell her, sir,--that you do protest: which, as I
take it, is a gentlemanlike offer.

Romeo.
Bid her devise some means to come to shrift
This afternoon;
And there she shall at Friar Lawrence' cell
Be shriv'd and married. Here is for thy pains.

Nurse.
No, truly, sir; not a penny.

Romeo.
Go to; I say you shall.

Nurse.
This afternoon, sir? well, she shall be there.

Romeo.
And stay, good nurse, behind the abbey-wall:
Within this hour my man shall be with thee,
And bring thee cords made like a tackled stair;
Which to the high top-gallant of my joy
Must be my convoy in the secret night.
Farewell; be trusty, and I'll quit thy pains:
Farewell; commend me to thy mistress.

Nurse.
Now God in heaven bless thee!--Hark you, sir.

Romeo.
What say'st thou, my dear nurse?

Nurse.
Is your man secret? Did you ne'er hear say,
Two may keep counsel, putting one away?

Romeo.
I warrant thee, my man's as true as steel.

Nurse.
Well, sir; my mistress is the sweetest lady.--Lord, Lord!
when 'twas a little prating thing,--O, there's a nobleman in
town, one Paris, that would fain lay knife aboard; but she, good
soul, had as lief see a toad, a very toad, as see him. I anger
her sometimes, and tell her that Paris is the properer man; but
I'll warrant you, when I say so, she looks as pale as any clout
in the versal world. Doth not rosemary and Romeo begin both with
a letter?

Romeo.
Ay, nurse; what of that? both with an R.

Nurse.
Ah, mocker! that's the dog's name. R is for the dog: no; I
know it begins with some other letter:--and she hath the
prettiest sententious of it, of you and rosemary, that it would