Romeo and Juliet

Act 1, Scene IV, V

Rhett Hunt, Lindsay King, Justin Harmon

Romeo: what is the reason we will say for why we are here? Or should we not say anything
when we enter?
Benvolio: It’s out of fashion to give lengthy explanations like that. We’re not going to
introduce our dance by having someone dress up as Cupid, carrying a toy bow to frighten
the women, and we are not going to tell a memorized speech to say who we are. Let them
think what they will. We will dance a while, and then leave.
Romeo: give me the torch. I don’t want to dance! I’m sad so I'm going to do what I want, and
that is carrying the torch.
Mercutio: no. you have to dance Romeo!
Romeo: I can’t dance. You know how to but my soul is made of lead and I can’t dance.
Mercutio: you are a lover and lovers can dance higher than anyone else.
Romeo: Cupid’s arrow has pierced me too deeply, so I can’t fly like him. Because this wound
keeps me down, I can’t leap any higher than my dull sadness. I sink under the heavy weight
of love.
Mercutio: if you sink, you bring love down with you. It’s not good to bring something so
good down.
Romeo: Is love really good? I think it’s too rough, too rude, too rowdy, and it pricks like a
thorn.
Mercutio: If love plays rough with you, play rough with love. If you prick love when it pricks
you, you’ll win over love. Give me a mask to put my face in, a mask to put over my other
mask. What do I care if someone sees my flaws? Let this mask blush for me. (They put on
masks)
Romeo: I’ll take a torch. Let playful people with light hearts dance. There’s an old
saying that applies to me: you can’t lose if you don’t play the game. I’ll just hold a torch
and watch you guys. It looks like a lot of fun, but I’ll sit this one out.
Mercutio: Hey, you’re being a stick in the mud, as cautious as a policemen on night
patrol. If you’re a stick in the mud, we’ll pull you out of the mud—I mean out of love, if
you’ll excuse me for being so rude—where you’re stuck up to your ears. Come on,
we’re wasting precious daylight. Let’s go!
Romeo: No we’re not, it’s night.
Mercutio: I mean, we’re wasting the light of our torches by delaying, which is like
wasting the sunshine during the day. Use your common sense to figure out what I
mean, instead of trying to be clever or trusting your five senses.
Romeo: We mean well by going to this masquerade ball, but it’s not smart of us to go
Mercutio: Why, may I ask?
Romeo: I had a dream last night.
Mercutio: So did I.
Romeo: Well, what was your dream?
Mercutio: My dream told me that dreamers often lie.
Romeo: They lie in bed while they dream about the truth.
Mercutio: Oh, then I see you’ve been with Queen Mab.
Benvolio: Who’s Queen Mab?
Mercutio: She’s the fairies' midwife. She’s no bigger than the stone on a city
councilman’s ring. She rides around in a wagon drawn by tiny little atoms, and she
rides over men’s noses as they lie sleeping. The spokes of her wagon are made of
spiders' legs. The cover of her wagon is made of grasshoppers' wings. The harnesses
are made of the smallest spider webs. The collars are made out of moonbeams. Her
whip is a thread attached to a cricket’s bone. Her wagon driver is a tiny bug in a gray
coat; he’s not half the size of a little round worm that comes from the finger of a lazy
young girl. Her chariot is a hazelnut shell. It was made by a carpenter squirrel or an old
grub worm; they’ve made wagons for the fairies as long as anyone can remember. In
this royal wagon, she rides every night through the brains of lovers and makes them
dream about love. She rides over courtiers' knees, and they dream about curtsying. She
rides over lawyers' fingers, and right away, they dream about their fees. She rides over
ladies' lips, and they immediately dream of kisses. Queen Mab often puts blisters on
their lips because their breath smells like candy, which makes her mad. Sometimes she
rides over a courtier’s lips, and he dreams of making money off of someone. Sometimes
she tickles a priest’s nose with a tithe-pigs tail, and he dreams of a large donation.
Sometimes she rides over a soldier’s neck, and he dreams of cutting the throats of
foreign enemies, of breaking down walls, of ambushes, of Spanish swords, and of
enormous cups of liquor. And then, drums beat in his ear and he wakes up. He’s
frightened, so he says a couple of prayers and goes back to sleep. She is the same Mab
who tangles the hair in horses' manes at night and makes the tangles hard in the dirty
hairs, which bring bad luck if they’re untangled. Mab is the old hag who gives false sex
dreams to virgins and teaches them how to hold a lover and bear a child. She’s the one
—
Romeo: Stop, Mercutio, you are crazy!
Mercutio: True. I’m talking about dreams, which are the products of a brain that’s
doing nothing. Dreams are nothing but silly imagination, as thin as air, and less
predictable than the wind, which sometimes blows on the frozen north and then gets
angry and blows south.
Benvolio: the wind you are talking about is distracting us! Dinner is over and we are
going to be late for the dance!
Romeo: I’m worried we’ll get there too early. I have a feeling this party tonight will be the start of
something bad, something that will end with my own death. But whoever’s in charge of where my
life’s going can steer me wherever they want. Onward, boys!
Scene V: A hall in the Capulet’s house. Enter serving men with napkins.

First Serving man: Where is Potpan? He is not helping us wait tables! He should be carrying
plates and scraping plates!
Second Serving man: When just one or two people do all the work, they get covered with
tons of nasty stuff. It’s ridiculous!
First Serving man: Remove those folding chairs! Remove the sides! Make sure nobody
steals the silverware! Save me some food, and if you are really my BFF, then tell the
doorman right over there to let Susie Grinder and Nelson in tor our party.
Second Serving man: Ya buddy! Get ready!
First Serving man: (to third servant) Where have you been?! We have looked everywhere
for you, and called your name a million times! We even looked for you in the dining room!
Third Servant: I can’t be in two places at once! Be happy man and be fast. The one servant
who works the longest gets all the dough!
The Exit Jerking and carrying wooden plates
Enter Party Goers
Capulet: Welcome, gentlemen. The ladies who don’t have corns on their toes will dance
with you. Ha, my ladies, which of you will refuse to dance now? Whichever of you acts shy,
I’ll swear she has corns. Does that hit close to home? Welcome, men. There was a time
when I could wear a mask over my eyes and charm a lady by whispering a story in her ear.
That time is gone. Come on, musicians, play music. (Music plays and they dance, ROMEO
stands apart) Make room in the hall. Make room in the hall. Shake a leg, girls. (To
SERVINGMEN) More light you imbeciles! Flip over the tables and get them out of the way.
And put the fire out—it’s getting too hot in here. (to his COUSIN) Ah, my man, this
unexpected fun is nice. No, sit down; sit down, my good Capulet cousin. You and I are too
old to dance. (CAPULET and his COUSIN sit down) How long is it now since you and I last
wore masks at a party like this?
Second Capulet: Its been forever! Thirty years at least!
Capulet: Not THAT long! The wedding of Lucentio! Around the time of Pentecost! Only
about twenty-five years!
Second Capulet: Way longer! Lucentio’s son is now thirty!
Capulet: What?! His son was only a minor a couple years ago! Barely born and now your
saying he is thirty!
Romeo: (Talking to Servant) Who is that hot chick flirting with that weird lookin dude over
there?
Servant: No idea.
Romeo: Oh, she shows the torches how to burn bright! She stands out against the darkness.
Her beauty is too good for this world; she’s too beautiful to die and be buried. She
outshines the other women. When this dance is over, I’ll see where she stands, and then I’ll
touch her hand with my rough and ugly one. Did my heart ever love anyone before this
moment? My eyes were liars, then, because I never saw true beauty before tonight.
Tybalt: (Overhearing Romeo talking to the servant) I can tell by his voice that this man is a
Montague. (to his PAGE) Get me my gun, boy. What, does this loser dare to come here with
his face covered by a mask to sneer at and scorn our celebration? Now, by our family, I do
not consider it a crime to kill him.
Capulet: What is the matter lil’ nugget?
Tybalt: Uncle, this man is a Montague our enemy. He’s a loser who’s come here out of hate
to laugh and poke fun at us and our party.
Capulet: That’s Romeo!
Tybalt: Yes that is the scum Romeo!
Capulet: Calm down, Nugget. Leave him alone. He carries himself like a dignified gentleman,
and, to tell you the truth, he has a reputation throughout Verona as a virtuous and well-
behaved young man. I wouldn’t insult him in my own house for all the wealth in this town.
Calm down. Just ignore him. That’s what I want, and if you respect me, you will look nice
and stop frowning because that’s not the way you should behave at a feast.
Tybalt: I’m not a downer is that loser is here! I won’t stand it!
Capulet: You will stand it! He is here isn’t he!? Then he will stay! You ruin this party and I
will ruin your face!
Tybalt: How can you allow this uncle?!
Capulet: Stop, Stop! Stupid kid! Get out of here (to the dancers) YA! Keep it up! (to Tybalt)
Shut your face!
Tybalt: A mix of patience and rage is making my body tremble. I’ll leave here now, but
Romeo’s prank, which seems so sweet to him now, will turn bitter to him later. He will
regret showing his face here.
Tybalt Exits
Romeo: (taking JULIET’s hand) your hand is like a holy place that my hand is unworthy to
visit. If I offend you by the touch of my hand, my two lips are waiting here like blushing
pilgrims, ready for whatever you’ve got.
Juliet: Boy, you don’t give your hand enough credit. Holding hands shows devotion,
because, when pilgrims pray, they touch the hands of saints. Holding hands is just a hand
kiss.
Romeo: Don’t saints and pilgrims have lips too?
Juliet: Yes, but they have lips that they’re supposed to pray with.
Romeo: Well then, let lips do what hands do. I want you to kiss me. Please make my wish
come true so my faith isn’t questioned.
Juliet: Saints don’t move, even when they make wishes come true.
Romeo: Then don’t move while I make my own wish come true by kissing you.
He kisses her.
Now my sin has been taken from my lips by yours.
Juliet: Then do my lips now have the sin they took from yours?
Romeo: Sin from my lips? You seem like you want me to kiss you! Give me my sin back if I
gave it to you!!
He kisses her again.
Juliet: You kiss like you’ve studied how.
Nurse: Juliet, your mother wants to talk to you.
Juliet moves away
Romeo: Who is her mom?
Nurse: Indeed, young man, her mother is the lady of the house. She is a good, wise, and
virtuous lady. I nursed her daughter, whom you were just talking to. Let me tell you, the
man who marries her will become very wealthy.
Romeo: (to himself) Is she a Capulet? Oh, this is a heavy price to pay! My life is in the
hands of my enemy.
Benvolio: (to ROMEO) Come on, let’s go. Right when things are the most fun is the best
time to leave.
Romeo: Yes, but I’m afraid I’m in more trouble than ever.
Capulet: No guys, don’t get ready to go now. We have a little dessert coming up. (they
whisper in his ear) Is that really true? Well, then, I thank you both. I thank you, honest
gentlemen. Good night. Bring more torches over here! Come on, let’s all get to bed. (to his
COUSIN) Ah, my man, I swear, it’s getting late. I’m going to get some rest.
Juliet: Come over here, nurse. Who is that gentleman?
Nurse: He is the son and heir of old Tiberio.
Juliet: Who’s the one who’s going out the door right now?
Nurse: Well, that one, I think, is young Petruchio.
Juliet: Who’s the one following over there, the one who wouldn’t dance?
Nurse: I don’t know his name.
Juliet: Go ask. (the nurse leaves) If he’s married, I think I’ll die rather than marry anyone
else.
Nurse: (coming back) His name is Romeo. He’s a Montague. He’s the only son of your
worst enemy.
Juliet: (to herself) The only man I love is the son of the only man I hate! I saw him too
early without knowing who he was, and I found out who he was too late! Love is a
monster for making me fall in love with my worst enemy.
Nurse: What’s this? What’s this?
Juliet: Just a rhyme I learned from somebody I danced with at the party.
Somebody calls, “Juliet!” from offstage.
Nurse: Right away. Come, let’s go. The strangers are all gone.