Student Edition - Perfection Learning

ut tell me, seriously, who you love. 200RomeoYou want a sick man, in seriousness, to make his will.That’s not good advice for someone who is so ill!In all seriousness, cousin, I do love a woman.BenvolioI assumed that when I learned you were in love.RomeoYou’re right on the mark! And the one I love is beautiful. 205BenvolioA bright clean target, cousin, is the easiest to hit.RomeoWell, you missed the target that time. She won’t be hitwith love’s arrow. She has the same views as Diana, the moongoddess.She’s well-protected in her armor of virginity.She’s safe from love’s weak, childish bow. 210She will not listen to my loving words,or let me look at her with love in my eyes,or allow herself to be seduced.Oh, she is rich in beauty; only poorin that when she dies, her treasure will die with her beauty. 215BenvolioThen has she sworn that she’ll live as a virgin for now?RomeoShe has, and in being stingy, she is horribly wasteful.For when beauty is starved by severe attitudes,it is cut off from all future generations.She’s too beautiful, too wise, too wisely beautiful 220to earn her way to heaven by making me suffer.She vows she will not love, and because of that vow,I’m dead, though I live to tell the fact now.BenvolioListen to me: forget her.RomeoOh, teach me how to forget to think! 225Act 1, Scene 1 41