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SC II
ROMEO AND JULIET
57

They say, Jove laughs.[C 1][E 1] O gentle Romeo,
If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully;
Or if thou think'st[C 2] I am too quickly won, 95
I'll frown and be perverse and say thee nay,
So thou wilt woo; but else, not for the world.
In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond;
And therefore thou mayst think my haviour[C 3] light:
But trust me, gentleman[E 2], I'll prove more true 100
Than those that have more cunning[C 4] to be strange.[E 3]
I should have been more strange, I must confess,
But that thou overheard'st, ere I was ware,
My true love's[C 5] passion: therefore pardon me,
And not impute this yielding to light love, 105
Which[E 4] the dark night hath so discovered.

Rom. Lady, by yonder blessed[C 6] moon I swear[C 7][E 5],
That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops—[C 8]
Jul. O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon[E 6],
That monthly changes in her circled[C 9] orb, 110
  1. ↑ 93. laughs] Q, laught F.
  2. ↑ 95. thou think'st] Q, F; thou think Q 1.
  3. ↑ 99. haviour] Q 1, F 2; behaviour Q, F.
  4. ↑ 101. more cunning] Q 1; coying Q, F; more coying Qq 4, 5.
  5. ↑ 104. true love's] true loves Q 1, F; truelove Q.
  6. ↑ 107. blessed] Q 1, Q; omitted F;
  7. ↑ swear] Q 1; vow Q, F.
  8. ↑ 108. tops] Rowe; tops. Q, F.
  9. ↑ 110. circled] F, circle Q.
  1. ↑ 93. Jove laughs] Douce: This Shakespeare found in Ovid's Art of Love—perhaps in Marlowe's translation, B. i.: "For Jove himself sits in the azure skies, And laughs below at lovers' perjuries." Greene has it also in his Metamorphosis.
  2. ↑ 100. gentleman] Rushton, Shakespeare's Euphuism, p. 56, illustrates from Lyly this mode of address, and cites parallels for parts of this speech.
  3. ↑ 101. strange] reserved, as in III. ii. 15.
  4. ↑ 106. Which] refers to yielding; discovered, revealed.
  5. ↑ 107. swear] Walker: "F omits blessed and has vow for swear. Can this have originated in the Profanation Act?"
  6. ↑ 109. moon] Of many parallels which might be quoted that cited by Hunter from Wilson's Rhetorique (Amplification) may suffice: "as … in speaking of inconstancy to shew the moon which keepeth no certain course."
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