Page:Romeo and Juliet (1917) Yale.djvu/115

Romeo and Juliet, V. i

Bal. No, my good lord.

Rom. No matter; get thee gone,

And hire those horses: I'll be with thee straight.

Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night.

Let's see for means: O mischief! thou art swift

To enter in the thoughts of desperate men.

I do remember an apothecary,

And hereabouts he dwells, which late I noted

In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows,

Culling of simples; meagre were his looks,

Sharp misery had worn him to the bones:

And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,

An alligator stuff'd, and other skins

Of ill-shap'd fishes; and about his shelves

A beggarly account of empty boxes,

Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds,

Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses,

Were thinly scatter'd, to make up a show.

Noting this penury, to myself I said:

An if a man did need a poison now,

Whose sale is present death in Mantua,

Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.

O! this same thought did but fore-run my need,

And this same needy man must sell it me.

As I remember, this should be the house:

Being holiday, the beggar's shop is shut.

What, ho! apothecary!

Ap. Who calls so loud?

Rom. Come hither, man. I see that thou art poor;

 39 weeds: garments

overwhelming: overhanging

40 simples: medicinal herbs

45 beggarly account, etc.; cf. n.

47 cakes of roses: solid perfume from rose-petals

52 caitiff: miserable

