Our Romeo and Juliet Story

Scene five

The Nurse enters.

Nurse - Mistress! Hey, mistress! Ciara! I bet she's fast asleep. Hey, lamb! Hey, lady! Hey, you lazy bones! Hey, love, I say! Madam! Sweetheart! Hey, bride! What, you don't say a word? You take your beauty sleep now. Get yourself a week's worth of sleep. Tomorrow night, I bet, Count Paris won't let you get much rest. God forgive me. Alright, and amen. How sound asleep she is! I must wake her up. Madam, madam, madam! Yes, let the count take you in your bed. He'll wake you up, I bet. Won't he? (she opens the bed curtains) What? You're still dressed in all your clothes. But you're still asleep. I must wake you up. Lady! Lady! Lady! Oh no, oh no! Help, help! My lady's dead! Oh curse the day that I was born! Ho! Get me some brandy! My lord! My lady!

Lady Capulet enters.

Lady Capulet - What's all the noise in here?

Nurse - Oh, sad day!

Lady Capulet - What is the matter?

Nurse - Look, look! Oh, what a sad day!

Lady Capulet - Oh my, Oh my! My child, my reason for living, wake up, look up, or I'll die with you! Help, help! Call for help.

Lord Capulet enters.

Lord Capulet - For shame, bring Ciara out here. Her bridegroom is here.

Nurse - She's dead, deceased, she's dead. Curse the day!

Lady Capulet - Curse the day! She's dead, she's dead, she's dead!

Lord Capulet - No! Let me see her. Oh no! She's cold. Her blood has stopped, and her joints are stiff. She's been dead for some time. She's dead, like a beautiful flower, killed by an unseasonable frost.

Nurse - Oh, sad day!

Lady Capulet - Oh, this is a painful time!

Lord Capulet - Death, which has taken her away to make me cry, now ties up my tongue and won't let me speak.

Friar Lawrence and Paris enter with Musicians.

Friar Lawrence - Come, is the bride ready to go to church?

Lord Capulet - She's ready to go, but she'll never return. (to Paris) Oh son! On the night before your wedding day, death has taken your wife. There she lies. She was a flower, but death deflowered her. Death is my son-in-law. Death is my heir. My daughter married death. I will die and leave Death everything. Life, wealth, everything belongs to Death.

Paris - Have I waited so long to see this morning, only to see this?

Lady Capulet - Accursed, unhappy, wretched, hateful day! This is the most miserable hour of all time! I had only one child, one poor child, one poor and loving child, the one thing I had to rejoice and comfort myself, and cruel Death has stolen it from me!

Nurse - Oh pain! Oh painful, painful, painful day! The saddest day, most painful day that I ever, ever did behold! Oh day! Oh day! Oh day! Oh hateful day! There has never been so black a day as today. Oh painful day, Oh painful day!

Paris - She was tricked, divorced, wronged, spited, killed! Death, the most despicable thing, tricked her. Cruel, cruel Death killed her. Oh love! Oh life! There is no life, but my love is dead!

Lord Capulet - Despised, distressed, hated, martyred, killed! Why did this have to happen now? Why did Death have to ruin our wedding? Oh child! Oh child! My soul and not my child! You are dead! Oh no! My child is dead. My child will be buried, and so will my joys.

Friar Lawrence - Be quiet, for shame! The cure for confusion is not yelling and screaming. You had this child with the help of heaven. Now heaven has her. She is in a better place. You could not prevent her from dying someday, but heaven will give her eternal life. The most you hope for was for her to marry wealthy and rise up the social ladder-that was your idea of heaven. And now you cry, even though she has risen up above the clouds, as high as heaven itself? Oh, in this love, you love your child so badly, that you go mad, even though she is in heaven. It is best to marry well and die young, better than to be married for a long time. Dry up your tears, and put your rosemary on this beautiful corpse. And, in accordance with custom, carry her to the church in her best clothes. It's natural for us to shed tears for her, but the truth is, we should be happy for her.

Lord Capulet - All the things that we prepared for the wedding party will now be used for the funeral. Our happy music will now be sad. Our wedding banquet will become a sad burial feast. Our celebratory hymns will change to sad funeral marches. Our bridal flowers will cover a buried corpse. And everything will be used for the opposite purpose from what we intended.

Friar Lawrence - Sir, you go in. And, madam, go with him. And you go too, Sir Paris. Everyone prepare to take this beautiful corpse to her grave. The heavens hang threateningly over you for some past sin. Don't disturb the heavens any more by trying to go against heaven's will.

Lord Capulet, Lady Capulet, Paris and Friar Lawrence exit.

First Musician - Well, we can put away our pipes and go home.

Nurse - Honest good boys, ah, put' em away, put' em away. As you know, this is a sad case.

The Nurse exits.

First Musician - Yes, well, things could get better.

Peter enters.

Peter - Musicians, oh, mUSICIans, play "Heart's Ease," "Heart's Ease." Oh, I'll die if you don't play "Heart's Ease."

First Musician - Why "Heart's Ease"?

Peter - Oh, musicians, because my heart is singing "My Heart is Full of Woe." Oh, play me some happy sad song to comfort me.

First Musician - No, not a sad song. It's not the right time to play.

Peter - You won't, then?

First Musician - No.

Peter - Then I'll really give it to you.

First Musician - What will you give us?

Peter - No money, I swear. But I'll play a trick on you. I'll call you a minstrel.

First Musician - Then I'll call you a serving-creature.

Peter - Then I'll smack you on the head with the serving creature's knife. I won't mess around. I'll make you sing. Do you hear me?

First Musician - If you make us sing, you'll hear us.

Second Musician - Please, put down your knife and stop kidding around.

Peter - So you don't like my kidding around! I'll kid you to

death, and then I'll put down my knife. Answer me

like men. (sings) When sadness wounds your heart, And pain takes over your mind, Then music with her silver sound- (speaks) Why the line "silver sound"? What do they mean, "music with her silver sound"? What do you say, Simon Catling?

First Musician - Well, sir, because silver has a sweet sound.

Peter - That's a stupid answer! What do you say, Hugh Rebeck?

Second Musician - I say "silver sound," because musicians play to earn silver.

Peter - Another studpid answer! What do you say, James Sound post?

Third Musician - Well, I don't know what to say.

Peter - Oh, I beg your pardon. You're the singer. I'll answer for you. It is "music with her silver sound," because musicians have no gold to use to make sounds. (sings) Then music with her silver sound makes you feel just fine.

Peter exits.

First Musician - What an annoying man, this guy is!

Second Musician - Forget about him, Jack! Come, we'll go in there. We'll wait for the mourners and stay for dinner.

The Musicians exit.