"O, I am fortune's fool!"
Romeo
Act III, Scene I
Romeo and Juliet
It's time for Let's Make a Scene!
Tuesday, April 1st, 2025
7:30 to 8:30 PM EST
This time we will be doing a round-robin reading of
Romeo and Juliet; The 30-Minute Shakespeare
Here is the Zoom link: for the event.
Here is the script in PDF format:
Here is the script in Word format:
The PDF and Docs are in blue.
You can print it out or send it to a tablet. I will paste the script in text below.
All participants receive a FREE emailed PDF of Romeo and Juliet: The 30-Minute Shakespeare
No experience necessary!
Here is a link to the Facebook event:
Play on, ridiculously!
Nick Newlin
(Note to last month's Let's Make a Scene players:
After our last meeting we picked a different date;
this new date is a rescheduling due to life happening!)
Here is the script text, pasted:
a Scene
Characters in the play
The following is a list of characters that appear in this cutting.
Romeo: Montague’s son
Juliet: Capulet’s daughter
Mercutio: Kinsman to the Prince and friend to Romeo
Tybalt: Lady Capulet’s nephew and Juliet’s cousin
The Nurse: Juliet’s nursemaid
Friar Laurence: A brother of the Franciscan order
Capulet: Juliet’s father, feuding with Montagues
Lady Capulet: Capulet’s wife, Juliet’s mother
Paris: A noble young kinsman to the Prince
Benvolio: Montague’s nephew, and friend to Romeo
Montague: Romeo’s father, feuding with Capulets
Lady Montague: Montague’s wife, Romeo’s mother
Balthasar: Romeo’s servant
Prince: Prince Escalus, Prince of Verona
Sampson: A servant of the Capulet household
Gregory: A servant of the Capulet household
Prologue Speaker
Citizens (includes brawling Montagues and Capulets)
Narrators
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
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,
And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
Which, but their children’s end nought 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.
Scene 1. (Act i, Scene i)
Sampson
I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague’s.
Gregory
The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.
Sampson
When I have fought with the men, I will be cruel
with the maids, and cut off their heads.
Gregory
The heads of the maids?
Sampson
Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads.
Gregory
Draw thy tool! here comes
two of the house of the Montagues.
Sampson
I will bite my thumb at them;
which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.
Abraham
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
I do bite my thumb, sir.
Abraham
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
Sampson
[Aside to Gregory]
Is the law of our side, if I say ay?
Gregory
No.
Sampson
No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir,
but I bite my thumb, sir.
Gregory
Abraham
Sampson
Do you quarrel, sir?
Quarrel sir! no, sir.
Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy
washing blow.
Part, fools!
Put up your swords; you know not what you do.
Tybalt
[to Benvolio]
What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?
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:
Have at thee, coward!
First Citizen
Clubs, bills, and partisans! strike! beat them down!
Down with the Capulets! down with the Montagues!
Capulet
What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!
Lady Capulet
Why call you for a sword?
Capulet
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 a foot to seek a foe.
Prince
Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
What, ho! you men, you beasts,
On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
Throw your mistemper’d weapons to the ground,
And hear the sentence of your moved prince.
Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
Have thrice disturb’d the quiet of our streets,
If ever you disturb our streets again,
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
On pain of death, all men depart.
Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?
Speak, nephew, were you by when it began?
Benvolio
The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepared,
He swung about his head and cut the winds,
While we were interchanging thrusts and blows,
Till the prince came, who parted either part.
Lady Montague
O, where is Romeo? saw you him to-day?
Right glad I am he was not at this fray.
Benvolio
Madam, an hour before the worshipp’d sun
Peer’d forth the golden window of the east,
underneath the grove of sycamore
So early walking did I see your son.
Montague
Many a morning hath he there been seen,
With tears augmenting the fresh morning dew.
Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs;
Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow.
We would as willingly give cure as know.
Benvolio
See, where he comes: so please you, step aside;
I’ll know his grievance, or be much denied.
Montague
Come, madam, let’s away.
Benvolio
Good-morrow, cousin.
Romeo
Is the day so young?
Benvolio
But new struck nine.
Romeo
Ay me! sad hours seem long.
Benvolio
What sadness lengthens Romeo’s hours?
Romeo
Not having that, which, having, makes them short.
Benvolio
In love?
Romeo
Out—
Benvolio
Of love?
Romeo
Out of her favour, where I am in love.
Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes;
What is it else? a madness most discreet,
In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.
I aim’d so near, when I supposed you loved.
Romeo
A right good mark-man! And she’s fair I love.
Benvolio
A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.
Romeo
O, she is rich in beauty, only poor,
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,
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
O, teach me how I should forget to think.
Benvolio
By giving liberty unto thine eyes;
Examine other beauties.
Romeo
He that is strucken blind cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost:
Farewell: thou canst not teach me to forget.
Benvolio
I’ll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt.
Scene 2. (Act ii, Scene ii)
Capulet’s orchard.
Narrator
Romeo and a group of Montague friends crash a
party at the Capulets. Romeo and Juliet, a Capulet,
see each other for the first time, and fall in love,
discovering afterward that they are from enemy
families. Later that night, Romeo climbs a wall and
enters Capulet’s garden. Love is blind.
Romeo
He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
[sees Juliet standing on bench]
But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou her maid art far more fair than she:
It is my lady, O, it is my love!
O, that she knew she were!
Juliet
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
Romeo [aside]
Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?
Juliet
’Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.
Romeo
I take thee at thy word:
Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized;
Henceforth I never will be Romeo.
Juliet
How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?
The orchard walls are high and hard to climb,
And the place death, considering who thou art,
If any of my kinsmen find thee here.
If they do see thee, they will murder thee.
Romeo
Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye
Than twenty of their swords:
Juliet
I would not for the world they saw thee here.
Romeo
My life were better ended by their hate,
Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.
Juliet
Thou know’st the mask of night is on my face,
Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek
For that which thou hast heard me speak to-night
O gentle Romeo,
If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully:
Or if thou think’st I am too quickly won,
I’ll frown and be perverse an say thee nay,
Romeo
Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear
That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops—
Juliet
O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.
Romeo
What shall I swear by?
Well, do not swear: although I joy in thee,
I have no joy of this contract to-night:
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;
This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
Romeo
O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?
Juliet
What satisfaction canst thou have to-night?
Romeo
The exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine.
Nurse
Lady! Lady Juliet!
Juliet
I hear some noise within; dear love, adieu!
Anon, good nurse!
Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed.
If that thy bent of love be honourable,
Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow,
And all my fortunes at thy foot I’ll lay
And follow thee my lord throughout the world.
Romeo
So thrive my soul—
.
Juliet
A thousand times good night!
Good night,
good night!
parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.
Romeo
Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast!
Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest.
Scene 3. (Act III, Scene V)
Capulet’s home.
Romeo and Juliet are secretly married by Friar
Lawrence, but their joy does not last long. As
Romeo tries to break up a fight, Juliet’s cousin Tybalt
kills Romeo’s friend Mercutio. In revenge, Romeo
kills Tybalt, and the Prince banishes Romeo from
Verona. Romeo and Juliet spend their wedding night
together, but must leave each other at dawn.
JULIET
Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;
ROMEO
It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
Juliet
Hie hence, be gone, away!
It is the lark that sings so out of tune,
More light and light it grows.
Romeo
More light and light; more dark and dark our woes!
Nurse
Madam!
Juliet
Nurse?
Nurse
Your lady mother is coming to your chamber:
The day is broke; be wary, look about.
Juliet
Then, window, let day in, and let life out.
Romeo
Farewell, farewell! one kiss, and I’ll descend.
[they kiss]
Juliet
O God, I have an ill-divining soul!
Methinks I see thee, now thou art below,
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb:
Either my eyesight fails, or thou look’st pale.
Romeo
And trust me, love, in my eye so do you:
Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu, adieu!
Juliet
O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle:
Be fickle, fortune;
For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long,
But send him back.
Lady Capulet
Ho, daughter! are you up?
Juliet
Who is’t that calls? is it my lady mother?
Lady Capulet
Why, how now, Juliet!
Juliet
Madam, I am not well.
Lady Capulet
Evermore weeping for your cousin’s death?
What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears?
But now I’ll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.
Early next Thursday morn,
The gallant, young and noble gentleman,
The County Paris, at Saint Peter’s Church,
Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.
Juliet
He shall not make me there a joyful bride.
I will not marry yet; and, when I do, I swear,
It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,
Rather than Paris.
Lady Capulet
Here comes your father; tell him so yourself,
Capulet
How now! a conduit, girl? what, still in tears?
How now, wife!
Have you deliver’d to her our decree?
Lady Capulet
Ay, sir; but she will none, she gives you thanks.
I would the fool were married to her grave!
Capulet
How! doth she not give us thanks?
Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom?
Proud can I never be of what I hate;
Capulet
What is this?
Fettle your fine joints ‘gainst Thursday next,
To go with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you baggage!
You tallow-face!
Juliet
Good father, I beseech you on my knees,
Hear me with patience but to speak a word.
Capulet
Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch!
I tell thee what: get thee to church o’ Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face:
Speak not, reply not, do not answer me;
My fingers itch.
God’s bread! it makes me mad:
Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play,
Alone, in company, still my care hath been
To have her match’d: and having now provided
A gentleman of noble parentage,
to have a wretched puling fool,
answer ‘I’ll not wed’;
Graze where you will you shall not house with me:
For, by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee.
Juliet
Is there no pity sitting in the clouds,
That sees into the bottom of my grief?
O, sweet my mother, cast me not away!
Lady Capulet
Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word:
Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.
Juliet
O nurse, What say’st thou? hast thou not a word of joy?
Some comfort, nurse.
Nurse
Faith, here it is.
Romeo is banish’d; I think it best you married with
the county.
O, he’s a lovely gentleman!
Juliet
Well, thou hast comforted me marvelous much.
Go in: and tell my lady I am gone,
Having displeased my father, to Laurence’ cell,
To make confession and to be absolved.
Nurse
Marry, I will; and this is wisely done.
Juliet
I’ll to the friar, to know his remedy:
If all else fail, myself have power to die.
Scene 4. (act V, Scene iii)
A tomb.
Narrator
Friar Lawrence has given Juliet a potion that will
make her appear dead the morning of her planned
wedding to Paris. Juliet’s parents have laid her body
in Capulet’s tomb. Romeo thinks Juliet has died,
and he buys poison so he can join her in death. At
that same time, Paris visits Juliet’s tomb.
Paris
Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew,—
O woe! thy canopy is dust and stones;—
Which with sweet water nightly I will dew,
Or, wanting that, with tears distill’d by moans:
The boy gives warning something doth approach.
What cursed foot wanders this way to-night,
To cross my obsequies and true love’s rite?
What with a torch! muffle me, night, a while.
Romeo
Why I descend into this bed of death,
Is partly to behold my lady’s face;
therefore hence, be gone:
But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry
By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint.
Balthasar
I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you.
For all this same, I’ll hide me hereabout:
His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt.
This is that banish’d haughty Montague,
And here is come to do some villainous shame
To the dead bodies: I will apprehend him.
Stop thy unhallow’d toil, vile Montague!
Obey, and go with me; for thou must die.
Romeo
I must indeed; and therefore came I hither.
Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man;
Fly hence, and leave me:
Paris
I do defy thy conjurations,
And apprehend thee for a felon here.
Romeo
Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee, boy!
Paris
O, I am slain!
Romeo
Let me peruse this face.
Mercutio’s kinsman, noble County Paris!
Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr’d.
Ah, dear Juliet,
Why art thou yet so fair? O, here
Will I set up my everlasting rest,
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!
Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
Here’s to my love!
[drinks]
O true apothecary!
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.
[Dies]
Friar Laurence
Saint Francis be my speed! how oft to-night
Have my old feet stumbled at graves!
Who’s there?
Balthasar
Here’s one, a friend, and there’s my master,
One that you love.
Friar Laurence
Who is it?
Balthasar
Romeo.
Friar Laurence
Go with me to the vault.
Balthasar
I dare not, sir
Friar Laurence
Stay, then; I’ll go alone.
Fear comes upon me:
O, much I fear some ill unlucky thing.
Friar Laurence
Romeo!
Alack, alack, what blood is this?
Romeo! O, pale!
Who else? what, Paris too?
And steep’d in blood? Ah, what an unkind hour
Is guilty of this lamentable chance!
The lady stirs.
[Juliet
wakes.]
Juliet
O comfortable friar! where is my lord?
I do remember well where I should be,
And there I am. Where is my Romeo?
Friar Laurence
I hear some noise. Lady, come away.
Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead;
I dare no longer stay.
Juliet
Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.
What’s here? a cup, closed in my true love’s hand?
Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end:
O churl! drunk all, and left no friendly drop
To help me after? I will kiss thy lips;
Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,
To make die with a restorative.
Thy lips are warm.
Juliet
Yea, noise? then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger!
This is thy sheath;
[stabs herself]
there rust, and let me die.
[falls on romeo’s body, and dies]
Prince
What misadventure is so early up,
That calls our person from our morning’s rest?
The people in the street cry Romeo,
Some Juliet, and some Paris; and all run,
With open outcry toward our monument.
What fear is this which startles in our ears?
Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes.
Capulet
O heavens! O wife, look how our daughter bleeds!
This dagger hath mista’en—for, lo, his house
Is empty on the back of Montague,—
And it mis-sheathed in my daughter’s bosom!
Lady Capulet
O me! this sight of death is as a bell,
That warns my old age to a sepulchre.
Come, Montague; for thou art early up,
To see thy son and heir more early down.
Montague
Alas, my liege, my wife is dead tonight;
Grief of my son’s exile hath stopp’d her breath:
What further woe conspires against mine age?
Prince
Look, and thou shalt see.
Bring forth the parties of suspicion.
Friar Laurence
I am the greatest, able to do least,
And here I stand, both to impeach and purge
Myself condemned and myself excused.
Prince
Then say at once what thou dost know in this.
Friar Laurence
I will be brief,
Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet;
And she, there dead, that Romeo’s faithful wife:
I married them; If aught in this
Miscarried by my fault, let my old life
Be sacrificed, some hour before his time,
Unto the rigour of severest law.
Prince
We still have known thee for a holy man.
Capulet! Montague!
See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.
And I for winking at your discords too
Have lost a brace of kinsmen: all are punish’d.
capulet
O brother Montague, give me thy hand:
This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more
Can I demand.
prince
A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished:
All together:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
[All hold hands and take a bow! ]
]Thunderous applause!]
Return to seats amidst thunderous applause!