Romeo and Juliet Act 2 Scene 6
Friar Laurence's cell.
The Original
Plain Modern English
Enter Friar Laurence and Romeo.
Friar Laurence
So smile the heavens upon this holy act,
That after hours with sorrow chide us not!
Friar Laurence
May heaven smile on this holy ceremony,
so that later hours don't punish us with sorrow.
Romeo
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 dare;
It is enough I may but call her mine.
Romeo
Amen, amen! But whatever sorrow comes,
it can't outweigh the joy I get
from one short minute of seeing her.
Just join our hands with holy words,
and then let love-devouring death do its worst.
It's enough that I can call her mine.
Friar Laurence
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.
Friar Laurence
These violent pleasures have violent endings.
They die at their peak, like fire and gunpowder,
which destroy each other the instant they touch. The sweetest honey
becomes sickening precisely because it's so delicious,
and kills the appetite in the tasting.
So love moderately. Lasting love does.
Arriving too fast is as bad as arriving too late.
Enter Juliet.
Friar Laurence
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.
Friar Laurence
Here comes the lady. Oh, a step that light
will never wear out these everlasting stones.
A lover could ride the cobweb
that drifts in the lazy summer air
and never fall — light-headed love weighs so little.
Juliet
Good even to my ghostly confessor.
Juliet
Good evening to my spiritual confessor.
Friar Laurence
Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both.
Friar Laurence
Romeo will thank you for both of us, daughter.
Juliet
As much to him, else is his thanks too much.
Juliet
Then I greet him the same, or his thanks are too much.
Romeo
Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy
Be heap'd like mine and that thy skill be more
To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath
This neighbour air, and let rich music's tongue
Unfold the imagined happiness that both
Receive in either by this dear encounter.
Romeo
Juliet, if your joy is heaped as high
as mine, and you're better than I am
at describing it, then sweeten the air
around us with your voice, and let its rich music
spell out the happiness we're both
receiving from each other in this precious meeting.
Juliet
Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,
Brags of his substance, not of ornament:
They are but beggars that can count their worth;
But my true love is grown to such excess
I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth.
Juliet
Real feeling, richer in substance than in words,
boasts of what it is, not how it's decorated.
Only beggars can count up what they're worth.
My true love has grown so enormous
that I can't add up even half of my riches.
Friar Laurence
Come, come with me, and we will make short work;
For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone
Till holy church incorporate two in one.
Friar Laurence
Come, come with me — we'll make this quick.
Because, with respect, you two aren't being left alone
until the holy church has made you one.
Exeunt. — End of Act Two.