Page:Romeo and Juliet (1917) Yale.djvu/66

54

I am the drudge and toil in your delight,

But you shall bear the burden soon at night.

Go; I'll to dinner: hie you to the cell.

Jul. Hie to high fortune! Honest nurse, farewell.

Exeunt.

''Fri. L''. So smile the heaven upon this holy act,

That after hours with sorrow chide us not!

Rom. Amen, amen! but come what sorrow can,

It cannot countervail the exchange of joy

That one short minute gives me in her sight:

Do thou but close our hands with holy words,

Then love-devouring death do what he dares;

It is enough I may but call her mine.

''Fri. L''. These violent delights have violent ends,

And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,

Which, as they kiss, consume: the sweetest honey

Is loathsome in his own deliciousness

And in the taste confounds the appetite:

Therefore love moderately; long love doth so;

Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.

Here comes the lady: O! so light a foot

Will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint:

A lover may bestride the gossamer

That idles in the wanton summer air,

And yet not fall; so light is vanity.

Jul. Good even to my ghostly confessor.

 4 countervail: equal

13 confounds: destroys

18 gossamer: spider's thread

20 vanity: vain delight

