Romeus and Juliet: Lines 517-544

  Now love and pity boil in Juliet's ruthful breast;
In window on her leaning arm her weary head doth rest;
Her bosom bathed in tears, to witness inward pain,

520

With dreary cheer to Romeus thus answered she again:
"Ah, my dear Romeus, keep in these words," quod she,
"For lo, the thought of such mischance already maketh me
For pity and for dread well-nigh to yield up breath;
In even balance peiséd are my life and eke my death.
For so my heart is knit, yea, made one self with yours,
That sure there is no grief so small, by which your mind endures,
But as you suffer pain, so I do bear in part,
Although it lessens not your grief, the half of all your smart.
But these things overpast, if of your health and mine

530

You have respect, or pity aught my teary, weeping eyne,
In few unfained words your hidden mind unfold,
That as I see your pleasant face, your heart I may behold.
For if you do intend my honour to defile,
In error shall you wander still, as you have done this while;
But if your thought be chaste, and have on virtue ground,
If wedlock be the end and mark which your desire hath found,
Obedience set aside, unto my parents due,
The quarrel eke that long ago between our households grew,
Both me and mine I will all whole to you betake,

540

And following you whereso you go, my father's house forsake.
But if by wanton love and by unlawful suit
You think in ripest years to pluck my maidenhood's dainty fruit,
You are beguiled; and now your Juliet you beseeks
To cease your suit, and suffer her to live among her likes."