0

ROMEO AND JULIET

(in 10 Minutes)

Abridged by
Mio Borromeo
Edited by
Dr. Joachim Emilio B. Antonio

SETTING: Verona

CHARACTERS: (8-12 actors)

ROMEO MONTAGUE- can double as Sampson and L. Capulet
BENVOLIO SAMPSON-can double as L. Capulet and Montague

JULIET CAPULET- can double as Abram

TYBALT- can double as Paris ABRAM- can double as Capulet
L. CAPULET- can double as Sampson and Montague

FRIAR LAWRENCE
PARIS- can double as Tybalt
MERCUTIO- can double as Prince Escalus
PRINCE ESCALUS- can double as Mercutio

CITIZENS/CHORUS- can be done by the whole cast

 1

THE PLAY:
(Enter CHORUS.)

CHORUS: Two households, both alike in dignity (in fair Verona, where we lay our
scene), from ancient grudge break to new mutiny.

(Enter SAMPSON and ABRAM.)

SAMPSON: I serve as good a man as you.

ABRAM: No better.

(Enter BENVOLIO.)

SAMPSON: Yes, sir, better.

ABRAM: You lie.

(SAMPSON and ABRAM fight.)

BENVOLIO: (draws his sword) Put up your swords. You know not what you do. I do
but keep the peace.

(Enter TYBALT, drawing his sword.)

TYBALT: What, drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word as I hate hell, all
Montagues, and thee. Have at thee, coward!

(They fight. Enter CITIZENS with clubs or partisans. They all fight.)

CITIZENS: Down with the Capulets! Down with the Montagues!

 2

(Enter PRINCE ESCALUS with his train.)

PRINCE: Rebellious subjectsThrow your mistempered weapons to the ground,

and hear the sentence of your moved prince. If you ever disturb our streets
again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.

(They all exit. FR. LAWRENCE enters alone with basket.)

FR. LWRENCE: I must upfill this osier cage of ours with baleful weeds and precious-juiced
flowers. For naught so vile that on the earth doth live but to the earth some
special good doth give; nor aught so good but, strained from that fair use,
revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse. Virtue itself turns vice, being
misapplied, and vice sometime by action dignified.

(ROMEO enters.)

FR. LWRENCE: Two such opposed kings encamp them still in man as well as herbsgrace
and rude will; and where the worser is predominant, full soon the canker
death eats up that plant.

ROMEO: Good morrow, Father.

FR. LWRENCE: Our Romeo hath not been in bed in bed tonight.

ROMEO: The sweeter rest was mine.

FR. LWRENCE: God pardon sin! Wast thou with Rosaline?

 3

ROMEO: I have forgot that name and that names woe. I have been feasting with
mine enemy, where on a sudden one hath wounded me thats by me
wounded. Both our remedies within thy help and holy physic lies.

FR. LWRENCE: Be plain, good son.

ROMEO: Then plainly know my hearts dear love is set on the fair daughter of rich
Capulet. So hers is set on mine, and all combined, save what thou must
combine by holy marriage.

FR. LWRENCE: What a change is here! Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear, so soon
forsaken?

ROMEO: Her I love now doth grace for grace and love for love allow. The other did
not so.

FR. LWRENCE: In one respect Ill thy assistant be, for this alliance may so happy prove to
turn your households rancor to pure love.

ROMEO: O, let us hence.

FR. LWRENCE: Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.

(Enter JULIET.)

FR. LWRENCE: Here comes the lady. Come, come with me, and we will make short work,
for you shall not stay alone till Holy Church incorporate two in one.

(They exit. BENVOLIO, MERCUTIO, and their men enter.)

BENVOLIO: The Capels are abroad, and if we meet we shall not scape a brawl.
 4

MERCUTIO: Thy head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of meat. And yet thou wilt
tutor me from quarreling?

(Enter TYBALT and his men.)

BENVOLIO: By my head, here come the Capulets.

MERCUTIO: By my heel, I care not.

TYBALT: Mercutio, thou consortest with Romeo.

MERCUTIO: Consort? What, dost thou make us minstrels? Heres my fiddlestick;

heres that shall make you dance.

BENVOLIO: Either withdraw unto some private place, or reason coldly of your
grievances, or else depart. Here all eyes gaze on us.

(Enter ROMEO.)

TYBALT: Here comes my man. Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford no better term
than this: thou art a villain.

ROMEO: Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee doth much excuse the
appertaining rage to such a greeting. Villain I am none.

TYBALT: Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries that thou hast done me. Therefore
turn and draw.
 5

ROMEO: I do protest I never injured thee but love thee better than thou canst devise
till thou shalt know the reason of my love. And so, good Capulet, which
name I tender as dearly as mine own, be satisfied.

MERCUTIO: O calm, dishonorable, vile submission! (He draws.) Tybalt, will you walk?

TYBALT: I am for you. (He draws.)

ROMEO: Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up.

(MERCUTIO and TYBALT fight. ROMEO attempts to beat down their rapiers. TYBALT stabs
MERCUTIO. TYBALT and his men exit.)

MERCUTIO: A plague o both your houses! Help me into some house, Benvolio.

(All but ROMEO exit.)

ROMEO: My reputation stained with Tybalts slanderTybalt, that an hour hath

been my cousin! O sweet Juliet, thy beauty hath made me effeminate and
in my temper softened valors steel.

(Enter BENVOLIO.)

BENVOLIO: O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio is dead.

(Enter TYBALT.)

ROMEO: Now, Tybalt, take the villain back again that late thou gavest me, for
Mercutios soul is but a little way above our heads, staying for thine to
keep him company. Either thou or I, or both, must go with him.
 6

(They fight. TYBALT falls.)

BENVOLIO: Romeo, away, begone! The Prince will doom thee death if thou art taken.

(ROMEO exits. The PRINCE enters with citizens.)

BENVOLIO: There lies the man, slain by young Romeo, that slew thy kinsman, brave
Mercutio.

PRINCE: Romeo slew him; he slew Mercutio. And for that offense immediately we
do exile him hence. I have an interest in your hearts proceeding: my
blood for your rude brawls doth lie a-bleeding. But Ill amerce you with so
strong a fine that you shall all repent the loss of mine.

(All exit, the Capulet men bearing away TYBALTs body. JULIET and LADY CAPULET enter.)

JULIET: Madam, I am not well.

L. CAP: Evermore weeping for your cousins death? Thou weepst not so much for
his death as that the villain lives which slaughtered him.

JULIET: (aside) Villain and he be many miles asunder.God pardon him. I do

with all my heart. And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart.

L. CAP: But now Ill tell thee joyful tidings, girl. The County Paris shall make thee
a joyful bride.

JULIET: He shall not make me a joyful bride!

(CAPULET enters.)
 7

CAPULET: Hang thee, disobedient wench! I tell thee what: Get thee to church o
Thursday, or never after look me in the face.

(CAPULET and L. CAPULET exit.)

JULIET: Ill to the Friar to know his remedy.

(FR. LAWRENCE enters.)

FR. LWRENCE: O Juliet, I already know thy grief.

JULIET: If in thy wisdom thou canst give no help, do but call my resolution wise,
and with this knife, Ill help it presently.

(JULIET shows him the knife.)

FR. LWRENCE: If, rather than to marry County Paris, thou hast the strength of will to slay
thyself, then is it likely thou will undertake a thing like death to chide
away this shame; and if thou darest, Ill give thee remedy.

JULIET: And I will do it without fear or doubt.

FR. LWRENCE: Hold, then. Go home; be merry; give consent to marry Paris. Tomorrow
night look that thou lie alone. (Holds out a vial.) Take thou this vial, being
then in bed, and this distilling liquor drink thou off. Each part shall appear
like death, and in this borrowed likeness of shrunk death thou shalt
continue two and forty hours and then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault where all the kindred of the
Capulets lie. In the meantime, against thou shalt awake, shall Romeo by
my letters know our drift, and hither shall he come, and he and I will
watch thy waking, and that very night shall Romeo bear thee hence.
 8

JULIET: Give me, give me! O, tell me not of fear!

(FR. LAWRENCE hands over the vial. Both exit. PARIS enters and dies. ROMEO enters.)

ROMEO: Let me peruse this face. Mercutios kinsman, noble County Paris! What
said my man when my betossed soul did not attend him as we rode? I
think he told me Paris should have married Juliet.

(ROMEO opens the tomb.)

ROMEO: A grave? O, no. A lantern, for here lies Juliet. Lips, seal with a righteous
kiss a dateless bargain to engrossing death.

(He kisses JULIET. He drinks the poison.)

ROMEO: O true apothecary, thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.

(ROMEO dies. FR. LAWRENCE enters with lantern, crow, and spade.)

FR. LWRENCE: What blood is this which stains the stony entrance of this sepulcher?
Romeo! The lady stirs.

JULIET: Where is my Romeo?

FR. LWRENCE: Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead, and Paris, too. Stay not to
question, for the watch is coming.

JULIET: Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.

(FR. LAWRENCE exits.)

 9

JULIET: Yea, noise? Then Ill be brief. O, happy dagger, this is thy sheath. There
rust, and let me die.

(She takes Romeos dagger, stabs herself, and dies. Enter FR. LAWRENCE. Enter the PRINCE
with attendants and CAPULET.)

PRINCE: What fear is this which startles in our ears?

CAPULET: O heavens!

(Enter MONTAGUE.)

MONTAGUE: (seeing Romeo dead) What manners is in this, to press before thy father to
a grave?

PRINCE: Seal up the mouth of outrage for awhile, till we can clear these
ambiguities. Bring forth the parties of suspicion.

FR. LWRENCE: Here I stand, both to impeach and purge myself condemned and myself
excused. Romeo was husband to that Juliet. I married them, and their
stoln marriage day was Tybalts doomsday, whose untimely death
banished the new-made bridegroom from this city, for whom, and not for
Tybalt, Juliet pined. You, to remove that siege of grief from her, betrothed
and would have married her perforce to County Paris. Then comes she to
me, and with wild looks bid me devise some mean to rid her from this
second marriage. Then I gave her a sleeping potion, which so took effect
as I intended. Meantime I writ to Romeo that he should hither come as this
dire night to help to take her from her borrowed grave. But he which bore
my letter was stayed by accident, and yesternight returned my letter. Came
I to take her from her kindreds vault, meaning to keep her closely at my
 10

cell till I conveniently could send to Romeo. But when I came, here
untimely lay the noble Paris and true Romeo dead. She wakes, and I
entreated her come forth. She would not go with me but, as it seems, did
violence on herself. If aught in this miscarried by my fault, let my old life
be sacrificed some hour before his time unto the rigor of severest law.

PRINCE: We still have known thee for a holy man. Capulet, Montague, see what a
scourge is laid upon your hate. All are punished.

CAPULET: O brother Montague, give me thy hand. This is my daughters jointure.

MONTAGUE: But I can give thee more, for I will ray her statue in pure gold.

CAPULET: As rich shall Romeos by his ladys lie, poor sacrifices of our enmity.

PRINCE: A glooming peace this morning with it brings. Go hence to have more talk
of these sad things. Some shall be pardoned, and some punished. For
never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

(All exit.)

If you'd like to stage this play, publish it, discuss it in class, or use it in any other way apart from individual reading,
please secure written permission from 10-Minute Shakespeare before doing so. Please email us at
info@10minsh.com.