Romeo and Juliet: Act I, Scene iv

Romeo and Juliet.         Act 1, Scene 4.      Romeo

(This text is featured in our interview with Bonnie J. Monte and Isaac Hickox-Young)

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Romeo
101.  Peace, Peace, Mercutio, peace.
102.  Thou talk’st of nothing.

Mercutio
                                                  True, I talk of dreams,
103.  Which are the children of an idle brain,
104.  Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,
105.  Which is as thin of substance as the air
106.  And more inconstant than the wind, who woos
107.  Even now the frozen bosom of the north
108.  And, being angered, puffs away from thence,
109.  Turning his side to the dew-dropping south.

Benvolio
110. This wind you talk of blows us from ourselves.
111.  Supper is done, and we shall come too late.

Romeo
112.  I fear too early, for my mind misgives
113.  Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
114.  Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
115.  With this night’s revels, and expire the term
116.  Of a despisèd life closed in my breast
117.  By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
118.  But he that hath the steerage of my course,
119.  Direct my sail. On, lusty gentlemen.