For, beat with tempest great, when they at length espye
Some little beame of Phoebus light, that perceth through the skie,
To cleare the shadowde earth by clearnes of his face,
They hope that dreadles they shall ronne the remnant of their
Yea they assure them selfe, and quite behynd theyr backe
They cast all doute, and thanke the Gods for scaping of the
wracke;
But straight the boysterous windes with greater fury blowe,
And over boord the broken mast the stormy blastes doe throwe;
The heauens large are clad with cloudes as darke as hell,
And twise as hye the striuing waues begin to roare and swell;
With greater daungers dred the men are vexed more,
In greater perill of their lyfe then they had been before.
The golden sonne was gonne to lodge him in the west,
The full moone eke in yonder South had sent most men to rest;
When restles Romeus and restles Juliet
In woonted sort, by woonted meane, in Juliets chamber met.
And from the windowes top downe had he leaped scarce,
When she with armes outstretched wide so hard did him embrace,
That wel nigh had the sprite (not forced by dedly force)
Flowne vnto death, before the time abandoning the corce,
Thus muet stood they both the eight part of an howre,
And both would speake, but neither had of speaking any powre;
But on his brest her hed doth ioylesse Juliet lay,
And on her slender necke his chyn doth ruthfull Romeus stay.
Theyr scalding sighes ascend, and by theyr cheekes downe fall
Theyr trickling teares, as christall cleare, but bitterer farre then
Then he, to end the greefe which both they liued in,
Dyd kysse his loue, and wisely thus hys tale he dyd begin :
"My Juliet, my loue, my onely hope and care,
To you I purpose not as now with length of woords declare
The diuersenes and eke the accidents so straunge
Of frayle vnconstant Fortune, that delyteth still in chaunge;
Who in a moment heaues her frendes vp to the height
Of her swift-turning slippery wheele, then fleetes her frendship
O wondrous chaunge! euen with the twinkling of an eye
Whom erst herselfe had rashly set in pleasant place so hye,
The same in great despyte downe hedlong doth she throwe,
And while she treades, and spurneth at the lofty state laid lowe,
More sorow doth she shape within an howers space,
Than pleasure in an hundred yeres; so geyson is her grace.
The proofe whereof, in me, (alas!) too plaine apperes,
Whom tenderly my carefull frendes haue fosterd with my feers,
prosperous high degree, mayntayned so by fate, That, (as your selfe dyd see,) my foes enuyde my noble state. One thing there was I did aboue the rest desire,
To which as to the soueraigne good by hope I would aspyre.
Thol by our mariage meane we might within a while
(To work our perfect happines) our parents reconsile :
That safely so we might, (not stopt by sturdy strife,)
Vnto the boundes that God hath set, gyde forth our pleasant lyfe.
But
now, (alacke!) too soone my blisse is ouer blowne,
And vpside downe my purpose and my enterprise are throwne.
And driuen from my frendes, of straungers must I craue
(O graunt it God!) from daungers dread that I may suretie haue.
For loe, henceforth I must wander in landes vnknowne,
(So hard I finde the prince's doome) exyled from mine owne.
Which thing I haue thought good to set before your eyes,
And to exhort you now to prove yourselfe a woman wise;
That paciently you beare my absent long abod,
For what above by fatall domes decreed is, that God—”
And more then this to say, it seemed, he was bent,
But Juliet in dedly greefe, with brackish tears besprent,
Brake of his tale begonne, and whilst his speche he stayde,
These selfe same wordes, or like to these, with dreery chere she
"Why Romeus, can it be, thou hast so hard a hart,
So farre remoued from ruth, so farre from thinking on my smart,
To leaue me thus alone, (thou cause of my distresse,)
Beseged with so great a campe of mortall wretchednesse ;
That euery hower now and moment in a day
A thousand times Death bragges, as he would reaue my
away?
Yet such is my mishap, O cruell destenye!
That still I liue, and wish for death, but yet can neuer dye.
So that iust cause I haue to thinke, (as seemeth me,)
That froward Fortune did of late with cruel Death agree,
To lengthen lothed life, to pleasure in my payne,
And tryumph in my harme, as in the greatest hoped gayne.
And thou, the instrument of Fortunes cruell will,
Without whose ayde she can no way her tyrans lust fulfill,
Art not a whit ashamde (as farre as I can see)
To cast me off, when thou hast culd the better part of me.
Whereby (alas!) to soone, I, seely wretch, do proue,
That all the auncient sacred lawes of friendship and of loue
Are quelde and quenched quite, since he on whom alway
My.cheefe hope and my steady trust was wonted still to stay,
For whom I am becomme vnto myself a foe,
Disdayneth me, his stedfast frend, and scornes my friendship so.
Nay Romeus, nay, thou mayst of two thinges choose the one, Either to see thy castaway, as soone as thou art gone, Hedlong to throw her selfe downe from the windowes haight, And so to breake her slender necke with all the bodies waight, Or suffer her to be companion of thy payne,
Where so thou goe (Fortune thee gyde),tyll thou retoorne agayne.
So wholy into thine transformed is my hart,
That euen as oft as I do thinke that thou and I shall part,
So oft, (methinkes,) my life withdrawes it selfe awaye,
Which I retayne to no end els but to the end I
In spite of all thy foes thy present partes enioye,
And in distres to beare with thee the half of thine annoye.
Wherfore, in humble sort, (Romeus,) I make request,
If euer tender pity yet were lodgde in gentle brest,
O, let it now haue place to rest within thy hart;
Receaue me as thy seruant, and the fellow of thy smart:
Thy absence is my death, thy sight shall geue me life.
But if perhaps thou stand in dred to leade me as a wyfe,
Art thou all counsellesse ? canst thou no shift deuise?
What letteth but in other weede I may my selfe disguyse?
What, shall I be the first? hath none done so ere this,
To scape the bondage of theyr frendes? thyselfe can answer,
Or dost thou stand in doute that I thy wyfe ne can
By seruice pleasure thee as much, as may thy hyred man ?
Or is my loyalte of both accompted lesse ?
Perhaps thou fearst lest I for gayne forsake thee in distresse.
What! hath my bewty now no powre at all on you,
Whose brightnes, force, and praise, somtime vp to the skyes you blew?
My teares, my friendship, and my pleasures donne of olde, Shall they be quite forgote in dede?"—when Romeus dyd behold
The wildnes of her looke, her cooler pale and ded,
The woorst of all that might betyde to her, he gan to dred;
And once agayne he dyd in armes his Juliet take,
And kist her with a louing kysse, and thus to her he spake:
Ah Juliet, (quoth he) the mistres of my hart,
For whom, (euen now,) thy seruant doth abyde in dedly smart,
Euen for the happy dayes which thou desyrest to see,
And for the feruent frendships sake that thou dost owe to me,
At once these fansies vayne out of thy mynd roote out,
Except, perhaps, vnto thy blame, thou fondly go about
To hasten forth my death, and to thine owne to ronne,
Which Natures law and wisdoms lore teach euery wight to
For, but thou chaunge thy mynde, (I do foretell the ende
Thou shalt vndoo thyselfe for ay, and me thy trusty frende.
For why?-thy absence knowne, thy father wilbe wroth,
And in his rage so narowly he will pursue vs both,
That we shall trye in vayne to scape away by flight,
And uainely seeke a loorking place to hyde vs from his sight.
Then we, found out and caught, quite voyde of strong defence,
Shall cruelly be punished for thy departure hence;
I as a rauishor, thou as a careles childe,
I as a man that doth defile, thou as a mayde defilde;
Thinking to leade in ease a long contented life,
Shall short our dayes by shamefull death:-but (if, my louing wife,)
Thou banish from thy mynde two foes that counsell hath,
(That wont to hinder sound aduise) rash hastines and wrath;
If thou be bend to obay the lore of reasons skill,
And wisely by her princely powre suppresse rebelling will,
If thou our safetie seeke, more then thine own delight,
Since surety standes in parting, and thy pleasures growe of
sight,
Forbeare the cause of ioy, and suffer for a while,
So shall I safely liue abrode, and safe torne from exile:
So shall no slaunders blot thy spotles life destayne,
So shall thy kinsmen be vnstyrd, and I éxempt from payne.
And thinke thou not, that aye the cause of care shall last;
These stormy broyles shall over-blow, much like a winters blast.
For Fortune chaungeth more then fickel fantasie;
In nothing Fortune constant is saue in vnconstancie.
Her hasty ronning wheele is of a restles coorse,
That turnes the clymers hedlong downe, from better to the
And those that are beneth she heaueth vp agayne:
So we shall rise to pleasures mount, out of the pit of payne.
Ere fowre monthes ouerpasse, such order will I take,
And by my letters and my frendes such meanes I mynd to make,
That of my wandring race ended shalbe the toyle,
And I cald home with honor great vnto my natiue soyle.
But if I be condemd to wander still in thrall,
I will returne to you, (mine owne,) befall what may befall.
And then by strength of frendes, and with a mighty hand,
From Verone will I cary thee into a forein lande;
Not in mans weede disguisd, or as one scarcely knowne,
But as my wife and only feere, in garment of thyne owne.
Wherfore represse at once the passions of thy hart,
And where there is no cause of greefe, cause hope to heale thy
For of this one thing thou mayst well assured bee,
That nothing els but onely death shall sunder me from thee." The reasons that he made did seeme of so great waight,
And had with her such force, that she to him gan aunswere straight:
"Deere Syr, nought els wish I but to obay your will;
But sure where so you go, your hart with me shall tary still,
As signe and certaine pledge, tyll here I shall you see,
Of all the powre that ouer you yourselfe did graunt to me;
And in his stead take myne, the gage of my good will.-
One promesse craue I at your hand, that graunt me to fulfill;
Fayle not to let me haue, at fryer Lawrence hand,
The tydinges of your health, and how your doutfull case shall stand.
And all the wery while that you shall spend abrode,
Cause me from time to time to knowe the place of your abode." His eyes did gushe out teares, a sigh brake from his brest, When he did graunt and with an othe did vowe to kepe the hest.
Thus these two louers passe away the wery night,
In payne and plaint, not, (as they wont,) in pleasure and delight.
But now, (somewhat too soone,) in farthest East arose
Fayre Lucifer, the golden starre that Lady Venus chose;
Whose course appoynted is with spedy race to ronne,
A messenger of dawning daye, and of the rysing sonne.
Then fresh Aurora with her pale and siluer glade
Did cleare the skies, and from the earth had chased ougly shade.
When thou ne lookest wide, ne closely dost thou winke,
When Phoebus from our hemysphere in westerne waue doth sinke,
What cooller then the heauens do shew vnto thine eyes,
The same, (or like,) saw Romeus in farthest Esterne skyes.
As yet he sawe no day, ne could he call it night,
With equall force decreasing darke fought with increasing light.
Then Romeus in armes his lady gan to folde,
With frendly kisse, and ruthfully she gan her knight beholde. With solemne othe they both theyr sorrowfull leave do take; They sweare no stormy troubles shall theyr steady friendship shake.
Then carefull Romeus agayne to cell retoornes,
And in her chamber secretly our ioyles Juliet moornes.
Now hugy cloudes of care, of sorow, and of dread,
The clearnes of their gladsome harts hath wholy ouerspread.
When golden-crested Phoebus bosteth him in skye,
And vnder earth, to scape reuenge, his dedly foe doth flye,
Then hath these louers day an ende, their night begonne,
For eche of them to other is as to the world the sunne.
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