Romeus and Juliet: Lines 51-88



  Now whilst these kindreds do remain in this estate,
And each with outward friendly show doth hide his inward hate:
One Romeus, who was of race a Montague,
Upon whose tender chin, as yet, no manlike beard there grew,
Whose beauty and whose shape so far the rest did stain,
That from the chief of Verone youth he greatest fame did gain,
Hath found a maid so fair (he found so foul his hap),
Whose beauty, shape, and comely grace, did so his heart entrap
That from his own affairs, his thought she did remove;
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Only he sought to honour her, to serve her and to love.
To her he writeth oft, oft messengers are sent,
At length, in hope of better speed, himself the lover went,
Present to plead for grace, which absent was not found:
And to discover to her eye his new receivéd wound.
But she that from her youth was fostered evermore
With virtue's food, and taught in school of wisdom's skilful lore
By answer did cut off th'affections of his love,
That he no more occasion had so vain a suit to move.
So stern she was of cheer, for all the pain he took,
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That, in reward of toil, she would not give a friendly look.
And yet how much she did with constant mind retire;
So much the more his fervent mind was pricked forth by desire.
But when he many months, hopeless of his recure,
Had servéd her, who forced not what pains he did endure
At length he thought to leave Verona, and to prove
If change of place might change away his ill-bestowéd love;
And speaking to himself, thus 'gan he make his moan:
"What booteth me to love and serve a fell, unthankful one,
Sith that my humble suit and labour sowed in vain,
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Can reap none other fruit at all but scorn and proud disdain?
What way she seeks to go, the same I seek to run,
But she the path wherein I tread, with speedy flight doth shun.
I cannot live, except that near to her I be;
She is aye best content when she is farthest off from me.
Wherefore henceforth I will far from her take my flight;
Perhaps mine eye once banished by absence from her sight,
This fire of mine, that by her pleasant eyne is fed,
Shall little and little wear away, and quite at last be dead."