Monologue

Romeo Monologue from Romeo and Juliet

From Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

male · dark · 1:43 min

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No matter. Get thee gone, And hire those horses. I’ll be with thee straight. (Exit Balthasar.) Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight. 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-shaped 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, And 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 forerun 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! Enter Apothecary.

About this piece

Romeo, in a moment of desperation, seeks a poison from an apothecary to reunite with Juliet in death, reflecting on the dire circumstances that have led him to this point.

20s · despair · death · love · desperation · fate

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