Work Text:
CAPULET
O brother Montague, give me thy hand.
This is my daughter's jointure, for no more
Can I demand.
MONTAGUE
But I can give thee more,
For I will raise her statue in pure gold,
That whiles Verona by that name is known,
There shall no figure at such rate be set
As that of true and faithful Juliet.
CAPULET
As rich shall Romeo by his lady's lie,
Poor sacrifices of our enmity!
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 pardoned, and some punishèd:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
[Exeunt Page, Captain, Balthasar, Watch, Friar Lawrence, Prince, Lady Capulet.]
CAPULET
Montague, I thank thee-
MONTAGUE
Not so rash!
Do not misprision what I here have said
And falsely think I did forget the gash
That thou hast made and many years hath bled.
CAPULET
Didst thou forswear, then, as thou thus didst gage
That thou in Juliet's honour wouldst impart
The greatest golden statue of this age?
Didst thou speak thusly just to thaw my heart
And break it once again?
MONTAGUE
My gage was true.
I'll honour her, thy daughter Juliet.
But she's the only one for whom 'tis due.
Of honour thou know'st nothing, Capulet.
The love of Juliet endured our strife.
She did not care that it would cost her life.
She chose her man, thereby forsaking thee.
And that's true love, unlike thy love for me.
CAPULET
How darest thou besmirch my honour so?
Ne’er hath the bow of Cupid missed its mark,
Save yond one day, so many years ago,
When Discord’s spell did make his vision dark,
And he, with some fair maiden as his aim,
Struck me instead, as mine eyes met with thine.
And though thou wast no wench, ‘twas all the same:
Our fate was set, our paths did interwine.
Though many years we have now been apart,
The arrow's wound still festers in my heart.
So go, misprise me if thou wishest to.
But oh, my love for thee was always true.
MONTAGUE
I wish I could believe thee and forget
The years of strife betwixt the two of us,
But thy sly words have not convinced me yet.
So tell me, lord, if thou didst love me thus,
Then wherefore didst thou differ from thy daughter?
For certes, if a wench can find the bravery
To wed her foe and spite what thou hast taught her,
Thou couldst have found another path than knavery.
Aye, wherefore didst thou not to Mantua flee?
Or stay here and renounce thy family tree?
Thy love may have been true, but not enough
To choose me o'er thy kin: is yond true love?
CAPULET
Then tell me, Montague, if thy desire
Was to renounce thy kin, escaping hence,
I ask you, marry, meaning no offense,
Would we have had the backing of a friar?
'Tis not uncommon for a man and wife
To wed in secret, leave behind their life,
And travel far away, by foot or carriage,
Protected in the eyes of God through marriage.
In some new nation or dependency,
They could create a new descendancy.
Who would have cared for us as decades passed
And, in their passing, robbed us of our strength?
One must have spawn to live a life of length.
There is no other option that would last.
I chose a bride, but that by no means meant
I did not love thee more than I could voice.
But though I loved thee, I do not repent;
I married, as I had no other choice.
MONTAGUE
Thou art a fool if thou believest fate,
Yond slender thread which knavish dames do spin,
Hath such a power over thee, so great
That thou hast no control o'er thy own skin.
The fault is in ourselves, not in the stars.
For even with Juliet and Romeo,
There are more ways than one yon tale could go.
Not always must it end with death and scars.
Thou couldst have listened to thy child when she
Attempted to explain her misery.
Thou wouldst have known that Juliet was wed;
Thou couldst have called the wedding off, instead,
Because thine ears were deaf to Juliet's voice,
She is now dead; ‘tis all ordained by choice.
Th'orig'nal cause of this whole tragedy
Is thy submission to thy family.
There is no fate, nay, there is only will;
Thy will hath torn things that cannot be mended.
Our fathers' feud thou couldst have eas'ly ended
But thou didst not, and hence I wish thee ill.
CAPULET
I never wished thee ill-
MONTAGUE
What sayest thou?
CAPULET
I never wished thee ill; not then, not now.
'Tis true, I chose to wed, I'm now unsure
If cowardice or reason was the lure
That led me there, but this I've known for aye:
I never wished to be thine enemy.
I married so that, when my father died,
I would be lord, for then I would have tried
To end the feud, so none would die or kill,
And we could reunite, that was my will.
But, angered by my choice to find a wife,
Thou chosest to continue family strife.
MONTAGUE
Thou wouldst have wanted peace?
CAPULET
Indeed I would,
And still do now.
MONTAGUE
Then I misunderstood.
Or rather, sentiment did blind my eye,
For I mistook thy choice for enmity.
Thy rash decision, which I could not see
As anything but pure betray'l of me,
Replaced my blood and phlegm with yellow bile.
And thus, I was choleric all this while.
And by the time my humours were restored,
'Twas far too late to end this endless war.
Now Romeo's dead, and so's my wife.
My stubborness hath cost their life.
CAPULET
Oh fair Juliet, oh brave Mercutio,
Oh boist’rous Tybalt, noble Romeo.
Because of us, they are from life bereft.
Though we do not deserve it, we are left.
If I had only listened to my daughter,
There would have been no need for senseless slaughter.
Oh, she was but a child in adolescence,
Yet I demanded too much acquiescence.
MONTAGUE
Didst thou not have an inkling or suspicion
That Juliet had reason not to listen?
CAPULET
Yes, I was not a fool, I did suspect
That it was love that caused her to object.
But how could I have known that she was wed?
And wed to Romeo, a Montague!
MONTAGUE
Yet even without knowing this was true,
Thou couldst have set her free, she’d not be dead.
But thou didst not, thy pride was far too strong
To let her choose her lover over kin.
For that would mean that thy choice had been wrong.
Admitting that would thus lay bare thy sin.
CAPULET
By Jove! Why dost thou now accuse me so?
Is’t not enough that my own daughter died?
Must thou bring forth now yet another woe
By claiming that the fault was my own pride?
And yet, thou art not wrong, I am to blame.
No father should endure this heavy shame!
O Juliet, my lovely, lifeless lass!
My foolish pride did cause this crime to pass!
MONTAGUE
We cannot change the past, what's done is done;
Thy daughter's dead, and I have lost my son.
But those events that lie before us still,
They can be changed, for fate is trumped by will.
CAPULET
This everlasting feud betwixt our kin,
Which seemed to have no end and no begin,
Shall have an end, for we must end it now.
Come, take my hand, together we shall vow
MONTAGUE
To lay down poison, arrow, spear, and sword,
Ensure our kin uphold this new accord.
And never shall our families forget.
This peace 'twixt Montague and Capulet.
CAPULET
And what of us?
MONTAGUE
Our enmity hath passed.
But so have many years of woe and strife.
This pointless feud hath ended, at long last!
But we cannot return to our old life.
CAPULET
My daughter died because I could not see
That life without true love is unfulfilled.
That failure on my part did get her killed.
And though much time hath passed, I still love thee.
It cannot be the same as yesteryear,
But if we are no more held back by fear,
Would these our children not desire for us
To reunite once more, in love and trust?
MONTAGUE
I do not know if lovers can be foes,
Then reunite despite the many woes
That they have caused each other in their strife,
A quarrel that hath lasted half a life.
But everything I cared about is gone,
The worst has happened, what more can go wrong?
I'll honour what our children died to prove.
I'll try once more to give to thee my love.
EPILOGUE
And so, an age of peace begins to bloom
As quarrels 'twixt the rival houses cease.
The star-crossed children share a single tomb
To symbolize an everlasting peace.
Lord Capulet and Montague do mourn
The deaths that from their rivalry were born,
But a renewèd love comes forth that day;
And thus, the ending of this tale is gay.