No fear shakespeare romeo and juliet pdf download

THE PROLOGUE

Original Text

Enter CHORUS

CHORUS

Two households, both alike in dignity

(In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

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A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,

Whose misadventured piteous overthrows

Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.

The fearful passage of their death-marked love

And the continuance of their parents’ rage,

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Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove,

Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage—

The which, if you with patient ears attend,

What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

Exit

THE PROLOGUE

Modern Text

The CHORUS enters.

CHORUS

In the beautiful city of Verona, where our story takes place, a long-standing hatred between two families erupts into new violence, and citizens stain their hands with the blood of their fellow citizens. Two unlucky children of these enemy families become lovers and commit suicide. Their unfortunate deaths put an end to their parents’ feud. For the next two hours, we will watch the story of their doomed love and their parents’ anger, which nothing but the children’s deaths could stop. If you listen to us patiently, we’ll make up for everything we’ve left out in this prologue onstage.

The CHORUS exits.

ACT ONE

SCENE 1

Original Text

Enter SAMPSON and GREGORY of the house of Capulet, with swords and bucklers

SAMPSON

Gregory, on my word, we’ll not carry coals.

GREGORY

No, for then we should be colliers.

SAMPSON

I mean, an we be in choler, we’ll draw.

GREGORY

Ay, while you live, draw your neck out of collar.

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SAMPSON

I strike quickly, being moved.

GREGORY

But thou art not quickly moved to strike.

SAMPSON

A dog of the house of Montague moves me.

GREGORY

To move is to stir, and to be valiant is to stand. Therefore if

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thou art moved thou runn’st away.

SAMPSON

A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague’s.

GREGORY

That shows thee a weak slave, for the weakest goes to the wall.

SAMPSON

’Tis true, and therefore women, being the weaker vessels,

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are ever thrust to the wall. Therefore I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall.

GREGORY

The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.

SAMPSON

’Tis all one. I will show myself a tyrant. When I have fought

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with the men, I will be civil with the maids. I will cut off their heads.

GREGORY

The heads of the maids?

SAMPSON

Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads. Take it in what sense thou wilt.

GREGORY

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They must take it in sense that feel it.

SAMPSON

Me they shall feel while I am able to stand, and ’tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh.

GREGORY

’Tis well thou art not fish. If thou hadst, thou hadst been poor-john.

Enter ABRAM and another SERVINGMAN

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Draw thy tool! Here comes of the house of Montagues.

SAMPSON

My naked weapon is out. Quarrel! I will back thee.

GREGORY

How? Turn thy back and run?

SAMPSON

Fear me not.

GREGORY

No, marry. I fear thee.

SAMPSON

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Let us take the law of our sides. Let them begin.

GREGORY

I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as they list.

SAMPSON

Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them, which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it. (bites his thumb)

ABRAM

Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

SAMPSON

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I do bite my thumb, sir.

ABRAM

Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

SAMPSON

(aside to GREGORY) Is the law of our side if I say ?

GREGORY

(aside to SAMPSON) No.

SAMPSON

No, sir. I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my

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thumb, sir.

GREGORY

Do you quarrel, sir?

ABRAM

Quarrel, sir? No, sir.

SAMPSON

But if you do, sir, I am for you. I serve as good a man as you.

ABRAM

No better.

SAMPSON

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Well, sir.

Enter BENVOLIO

GREGORY

(aside to SAMPSON) Say Here comes one of my master’s kinsmen.

SAMPSON

(to ABRAM) Yes, better, sir.

ABRAM

You lie.

SAMPSON

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Draw, if you be men.—Gregory, remember thy washing blow.

They fight

BENVOLIO

(draws his sword) Part, fools!

Put up your swords. You know not what you do.

Enter TYBALT

TYBALT

What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?

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Turn thee, Benvolio. Look upon thy death.

BENVOLIO

I do but keep the peace. Put up thy sword,

Or manage it to part these men with me.

TYBALT

What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word,

As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.

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Have at thee, coward!

They fight

Enter three or four CITIZENS, with clubs or partisans

CITIZENS

Clubs, bills, and partisans! Strike! Beat them down!

Down with the Capulets! Down with the Montagues!

Enter old CAPULET in his gown, and his wife, LADY CAPULET

CAPULET

What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!

LADY CAPULET

A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword?

Enter old MONTAGUE and his wife, LADY MONTAGUE

CAPULET

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My sword, I say! Old Montague is come,

And flourishes his blade in spite of me.

MONTAGUE

Thou villain Capulet! Hold me not. Let me go.

LADY MONTAGUE

Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe.

Enter PRINCE ESCALUS, with his train

PRINCE

Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,

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Profaners of this neighbor-stainèd steel!—

Will they not hear?—What, ho! You men, you beasts,

That quench the fire of your pernicious rage

With purple fountains issuing from your veins,

On pain of torture, from those bloody hands

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Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground,

And hear the sentence of your movèd prince.

Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,

By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,

Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets

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And made Verona’s ancient citizens

Cast by their grave-beseeming ornaments,

To wield old partisans in hands as old,

Cankered with peace, to part your cankered hate.

If ever you disturb our streets again,

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Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.

For this time, all the rest depart away.

You, Capulet, shall go along with me,

And, Montague, come you this afternoon

To know our farther pleasure in this case,

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To old Free-town, our common judgment-place.

Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.

Exeunt all but MONTAGUE, LADY MONTAGUE, and BENVOLIO

MONTAGUE

Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?

Speak, nephew. Were you by when it began?

BENVOLIO

Here were the servants of your adversary,

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And yours, close fighting ere I did approach.

I drew to part them. In the instant came

The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepared,

Which, as he breathed defiance to my ears,

He swung about his head and cut the winds,

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Who, nothing hurt withal, hissed him in scorn.

While we were interchanging thrusts and blows,

Came more and more and fought on part and part,

Till the Prince came, who parted either part.

LADY MONTAGUE

Oh, where is Romeo? Saw you him today?

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Right glad I am he was not at this fray.

BENVOLIO

Madam, an hour before the worshipped sun

Peered forth the golden window of the east,

A troubled mind drove me to walk abroad,

Where, underneath the grove of sycamore

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That westward rooteth from this city side,

So early walking did I see your son.

Towards him I made, but he was ’ware of me

And stole into the covert of the wood.

I, measuring his affections by my own,

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Which then most sought where most might not be found,

Being one too many by my weary self,

Pursued my humor not pursuing his,

And gladly shunned who gladly fled from me.

MONTAGUE

Many a morning hath he there been seen,

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With tears augmenting the fresh morning’s dew,

Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs.

But all so soon as the all-cheering sun

Should in the farthest east begin to draw

The shady curtains from Aurora’s bed,

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Away from light steals home my heavy son,

And private in his chamber pens himself,

Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out,

And makes himself an artificial night.

Black and portentous must this humor prove

135

Unless good counsel may the cause remove.

BENVOLIO

My noble uncle, do you know the cause?

MONTAGUE

I neither know it nor can learn of him.

BENVOLIO

Have you importuned him by any means?

MONTAGUE

Both by myself and many other friends.

140

But he, his own affections’ counselor,

Is to himself—I will not say how true,

But to himself so secret and so close,

So far from sounding and discovery,

As is the bud bit with an envious worm,

145

Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,

Or dedicate his beauty to the same.

Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow.

We would as willingly give cure as know.

Enter ROMEO

BENVOLIO

See, where he comes. So please you, step aside.

150

I’ll know his grievance or be much denied.

MONTAGUE

I would thou wert so happy by thy stay

To hear true shrift.—Come, madam, let’s away.

Exeunt MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE

BENVOLIO

Good morrow, cousin.

ROMEO

Is the day so young?

BENVOLIO

But new struck nine.

ROMEO

Ay me! Sad hours seem long.

155

Was that my father that went hence so fast?

BENVOLIO

It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo’s hours?

ROMEO

Not having that which, having, makes them short.

BENVOLIO

In love?

ROMEO

Out.

BENVOLIO

160

Of love?

ROMEO

Out of her favor, where I am in love.

BENVOLIO

Alas, that love, so gentle in his view,

Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!

ROMEO

Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,

165

Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!

Where shall we dine?—O me! What fray was here?

Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.

Here’s much to do with hate but more with love.

Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate,

170

O anything of nothing first created!

O heavy lightness, serious vanity,

Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,

Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!

175

This love feel I, that feel no love in this.

Dost thou not laugh?

BENVOLIO

No, coz, I rather weep.

ROMEO

Good heart, at what?

BENVOLIO

At thy good heart’s oppression.

ROMEO

Why, such is love’s transgression.

180

Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,

Which thou wilt propagate, to have it pressed

With more of thine. This love that thou hast shown

Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.

Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;

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Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes;

Being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears.

What is it else? A madness most discreet,

A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.

Farewell, my coz.

BENVOLIO

Soft! I will go along.

190

And if you leave me so, you do me wrong.

ROMEO

Tut, I have lost myself. I am not here.

This is not Romeo. He’s some other where.

BENVOLIO

Tell me in sadness, who is that you love.

ROMEO

What, shall I groan and tell thee?

BENVOLIO

195

Groan! Why, no. But sadly, tell me who.

ROMEO

A sick man in sadness makes his will,

A word ill urged to one that is so ill.

In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.

BENVOLIO

I aimed so near when I supposed you loved.

ROMEO

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A right good markman! And she’s fair I love.

BENVOLIO

A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.

ROMEO

Well, in that hit you miss. She’ll not be hit

With Cupid’s arrow. She hath Dian’s wit.

And, in strong proof of chastity well armed

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From love’s weak childish bow, she lives uncharmed.

She will not stay the siege of loving terms,

Nor bide th’ encounter of assailing eyes,

Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold.

Oh, she is rich in beauty, only poor

210

That when she dies, with beauty dies her store.

BENVOLIO

Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?

ROMEO

She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste,

For beauty, starved with her severity,

Cuts beauty off from all posterity.

215

She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair,

To merit bliss by making me despair.

She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow

Do I live dead that live to tell it now.

BENVOLIO

Be ruled by me. Forget to think of her.

ROMEO

220

O, teach me how I should forget to think!

BENVOLIO

By giving liberty unto thine eyes.

Examine other beauties.

ROMEO

’Tis the way

To call hers exquisite, in question more.

These happy masks that kiss fair ladies’ brows,

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Being black, puts us in mind they hide the fair.

He that is strucken blind cannot forget

The precious treasure of his eyesight lost.

Show me a mistress that is passing fair;

What doth her beauty serve but as a note

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Where I may read who passed that passing fair?

Farewell. Thou canst not teach me to forget.

BENVOLIO

I’ll pay that doctrine or else die in debt.

Exeunt

ACT ONE

SCENE 1

Modern Text

SAMPSON and GREGORY, servants of the Capulet family, enter carrying swords and small shields.

SAMPSON

Gregory, I swear, we can’t let them humiliate us. We won’t take their garbage.

GREGORY

(teasing SAMPSON) No, because then we’d be garbagemen.

SAMPSON

What I mean is, if they make us angry we’ll pull out our swords.

GREGORY

Maybe you should focus on pulling yourself out of trouble, Sampson.

SAMPSON

I hit hard when I’m angry.

GREGORY

But it’s hard to make you angry.

SAMPSON

One of those dogs from the Montague house can make me angry.

GREGORY

Angry enough to run away. You won’t stand and fight.

SAMPSON

A dog from that house will make me angry enough to take a stand. If I pass one of them on the street, I’ll take the side closer to the wall and let him walk in the gutter.

GREGORY

That means you’re the weak one, because weaklings get pushed up against the wall.

SAMPSON

You’re right. That’s why girls get pushed up against walls—they’re weak. So what I’ll do is push the Montague men into the street and the Montague women up against the wall.

GREGORY

The fight is between our masters, and we men who work for them.

SAMPSON

It’s all the same. I’ll be a harsh master to them. After I fight the men, I’ll be nice to the women—I’ll cut off their heads.

GREGORY

Cut off their heads? You mean their maidenheads?

SAMPSON

Cut off their heads, take their maidenheads—whatever. Take my remark in whichever sense you like.

GREGORY

The women you rape are the ones who’ll have to it.

SAMPSON

They’ll feel me as long as I can keep an erection. Everybody knows I’m a nice piece of flesh.

GREGORY

It’s a good thing you’re not a piece of fish. You’re dried and shriveled like salted fish.

ABRAM and another servant of the Montagues enter.

Pull out your tool now. These guys are from the house of Montague.

SAMPSON

I have my naked sword out. Fight, I’ll back you up.

GREGORY

How will you back me up—by turning your back and running away?

SAMPSON

Don’t worry about me.

GREGORY

No, really. I am worried about you!

SAMPSON

Let’s not break the law by starting a fight. Let them start something.

GREGORY

I’ll frown at them as they pass by, and they can react however they want.

SAMPSON

You mean however they dare. I’ll bite my thumb at them. That’s an insult, and if they let me get away with it they’ll be dishonored. (SAMPSON bites hist-humb)

ABRAM

Hey, are you biting your thumb at us?

SAMPSON

I’m biting my thumb.

ABRAM

Are you biting your thumb at us?

SAMPSON

(aside to GREGORY) Is the law on our side if I say yes?

GREGORY

(aside to SAMPSON) No.

SAMPSON

(to ABRAM) No, sir, I’m not biting my thumb at you, but I am biting my thumb.

GREGORY

Are you trying to start a fight?

ABRAM

Start a fight? No, sir.

SAMPSON

If you want to fight, I’m your man. My employer is as good as yours.

ABRAM

But he’s not better than mine.

SAMPSON

Well then.

BENVOLIO enters.

GREGORY

(speaking so that only SAMPSON can hear) Say Here comes one of my employer’s relatives.

SAMPSON

(to ABRAM) Yes, sir.

ABRAM

You lie.

SAMPSON

Pull out your swords, if you’re men. Gregory, remember how to slash.

They fight.

BENVOLIO