Page:Romeo and Juliet (1917) Yale.djvu/143

Romeo and Juliet What doe I knowe (quoth she) if that this powder shall

Sooner or later then it should or els not woorke at all?

And then my craft descride as open as the day,

The peoples tale and laughing stocke shall I remayne for aye.

And what know I (quoth she) if serpentes odious,

And other beastes and wormes that are of nature venemous,

That wonted are to lurke in dark caues vnder grounde,

And commonly, as I haue heard, in dead mens tombes are found,

Shall harme me, yea or nay, where I shall lye as ded?

Or how shall I that alway haue in so freshe ayre been bred,

Endure the lothsome stinke of such an heaped store

Of carkases, not yet consumde, and bones that long before

Intombed were, where I my sleping place shall haue,

Where all my auncesters doe rest, my kindreds common graue?

Shall not the fryer and my Romeus, when they come,

Fynd me (if I awake before) ystifled in the tombe?

And whilst she in these thoughtes doth dwell somwhat to long,

The force of her ymagining anon dyd waxe so strong,

That she surmysde she saw, out of the hollow vaulte,

(A griesly thing to looke vpon) the carkas of Tybalt;

Right in the selfe same sort that she few dayes before

Had seene him in his blood embrewde, to death eke wounded sore.

And then when she agayne within her selfe had wayde

That quicke she should be buried there, and by his side be layde,

All comfortles, for she shall liuing feere haue none,

But many a rotten carkas, and full many a naked bone;

Her dainty tender partes gan sheuer all for dred,

Her golden heares did stand vpright vpon her chillish hed.

Then pressed with the feare that she there liued in,

A sweat as colde as mountaine yse pearst through her tender skin,

That with the moysture hath wet euery part of hers:

And more besides, she vainely thinkes, whilst vainely thus she feares,

A thousand bodies dead haue compast her about,

Ano. they will dismember her she greatly standes in dout.

But when she felt her strength began to weare away,

By little and little, and in her hart her feare increased ay,

Dreading that weakenes might, or foolish cowardise,

Hinder the execution of the purposde enterprise,