No Fear Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
Get this No Fear to go!
Act 1, Scene 1, Page 11
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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.
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ROMEO
You wouldn’t tell a sick man he
“seriously” has to make his
will—it would just make him worse. Seriously, cousin, I
love a woman.
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BENVOLIO
I aimed so near when I supposed you loved.
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BENVOLIO
I guessed that already when I guessed you were in love.
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ROMEO
A right good markman! And she’s fair I love.
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ROMEO
Then you were right on target. The woman I love is
beautiful.
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BENVOLIO
A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.
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BENVOLIO
A beautiful target is the one that gets hit the fastest.
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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
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
That when she dies, with beauty dies her store.
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ROMEO
Well, you’re not on target there. She refuses to be hit
by Cupid’s arrow. She’s as clever as Diana, and shielded by
the armor of chastity. She can’t be touched by the weak and
childish arrows of love. She won’t listen to words of love,
or let you look at her with loving eyes, or open her lap to receive
gifts of gold. She’s rich in beauty, but she’s
also poor, because when she dies her beauty will be destroyed with
her.
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BENVOLIO
Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?
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BENVOLIO
So she’s made a vow to be a virgin forever?
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ROMEO
She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste,
For beauty, starved with her severity,
Cuts beauty off from all posterity.
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.
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ROMEO
Yes she has, and by keeping celibate, she wastes her beauty. If
you starve yourself of sex you can’t ever have children,
and so your beauty is lost to future generations. She’s too
beautiful and too wise to deserve heaven’s blessing by
making me despair. She’s sworn off love, and that promise
has left me alive but dead, living only to talk about it now.
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BENVOLIO
Be ruled by me. Forget to think of her.
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BENVOLIO
Take my advice. Don’t think about her.
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ROMEO
O, teach me how I should forget to think!
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ROMEO
Teach me to forget to think!
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