Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
ROMEO & JULIET | Shakespeare’s Greatest Plays Summarized Into Groundbreaking Short Stories
Hi, I’m Cecilia Elise Wallin. And this is a video in my series Learn From the Classics of Literature.
In some of the videos in this series, we will learn from the incomparable Shakespeare. Twelve of Shakespeare’s greatest plays have been summarized into beautiful groundbreaking short stories by the British poet and novelist Edith Nesbit, and these short stories have been recorded by great LibriVox readers. One of these exquisite short stories is Romeo and Juliet, which we are going to listen to now.
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, adapted into a short story by Edith Nesbit:
“Once upon a time there lived in Verona two great
families named Montagu and Capulet. They were both
rich, and I suppose they were as sensible, in most things,
as other rich people. But in one thing they were extremely
silly. There was an old, old quarrel between the two families,
and instead of making it up like reasonable folks, they made a
sort of a pet of their quarrel, and would not let it die out. So that a
Montagu wouldn’t speak to a Capulet if he met one in the
street — nor a Capulet to a Montagu — or if they did speak, it was to
say rude and unpleasant things, which often ended in a fight. And
their relations and servants were just as foolish, so that street fights
and duels and uncomfortablenesses of that kind were always grow-
ing out of the Montagu- and-Capulet quarrel.
Now Lord Capulet, the head of that family, gave a party — a
grand supper and dance — and he was so hospitable that he said any-
one might come to it — except (of course) the Montagues. But there
was a young Montagu named Romeo, who very much wanted to be
there, because Rosaline, the lady he loved, had been asked. This lady
had never been at all kind to him, and he had no reason to love
her; but the fact was that he wanted to love somebody, and as he
hadn’t seen the right lady, he was obliged to love the wrong one.
So to the Capulets’ grand party he came, with his friends Mercutio
and Benvolio.
Old Capulet welcomed him and his two friends very kindly — and
young Romeo moved about among the crowd of courtly folk dressed
in their velvets and satins, the men with jewelled sword hilts and col-
lars, and the ladies with brilliant gems on breast and arms, and
stones of price set in their bright girdles. Romeo was in his best too,
and though he wore a black mask over his eyes and nose, every one
could see by his mouth and his hair, and the way he held his head,
that he was twelve times handsomer than any one else in the room.
Presently amid the dancers he saw a lady so beautiful and so lov-
able, that from that moment he never again gave one thought to
that Rosaline whom he had thought he loved. And he looked at this
other fair lady, as she moved in the dance in her white satin and
pearls, and all the world seemed vain and worthless to him compared
with her. And he was saying this — or something like it — to his
friend, when Tybalt, Lady Capulet’s nephew, hearing his voice,
knew him to be Romeo. Tybalt, being very angry, went at once to
his uncle, and told him how a Montagu had come uninvited to the
feast; but old Capulet was too fine a gentleman to be discourteous
to any man under his own roof, and he bade Tybalt be quiet. But
this young man only waited for a chance to quarrel with Romeo.
In the meantime Romeo made his way to the fair lady, and told
her in sweet words that he loved her, and kissed her. Just then her
mother sent for her, and then Romeo found out that the lady on
whom he had set his heart’s hopes was Juliet, the daughter of Lord
Capulet, his sworn foe. So he went away, sorrowing indeed, but lov-
ing her none the less.
Then Juliet said to her nurse.
“Who is that gentleman that would not dance ?”
“His name is Romeo, and a Montagu, the only son of your great
enemy,” answered the nurse.
Then Juliet went to her room, and looked out of her window over
the beautiful green-grey garden, where the moon was shining. And
Romeo was hidden in that garden among the trees — because he could
not bear to go right away without trying to see her again. So she —
not knowing him to be there — spoke her secret thought aloud, and
told the quiet garden how she loved Romeo.
And Romeo heard and was glad beyond measure ; hidden below,
he looked up and saw her fair face in the moonlight, framed in the
blossoming creepers that grew round her window, and as he looked
and listened, he felt as though he had been carried away in a dream,
and set down by some magician in that beautiful and enchanted
garden.
“Ah — why are you called Romeo?” said Juliet. “Since I love you,
what does it matter what you are called ?”
‘CaII me but love, and Til be new bc.ptised — henceforth I never
will be Romeo,” he cried, stepping into the full white moonlight from the shade of the cypresses and oleanders that had hidden him.
She was frightened at first, but when she saw it was Romeo him-
self, and no stranger, she too was glad, and, he standing in the gar-
den below and she leaning from the window, they spoke long to-
gether, each one trying to find the sweetest words in the world, to
make that pleasant talk that lovers use. And the tale of all they said,
and the sweet music their voices made together, is all set down in a
golden book, where you children may read it for yourselves some
day.
And the time passed so quickly, as it does for folk who love each
other and are together, that when the time came to part, it seemed as
though they had met but that moment — and indeed they hardly
knew how to part.
“I will send to you to-morrow,” said Juliet.
And so at last, with lingering and longing, they said good-bye.
Juliet went into her room, and a dark curtain hid her bright win-
dow. Romeo went away through the still and dewy garden like a man
in a dream.
The next morning very early Romeo went to Friar Laurence, a
priest, and, telling him all the story, begged him to marry him to
Juliet without delay. And this, after some talk, the priest consented
to do.
So when Juliet sent her old nurse to Romeo that day to know
what he purposed to do, the ol3 woman took back a message that all
was well, and all things ready for the marriage of Juliet and Romeo
on the next morning.
The young lovers were afraid to ask their parents’ consent to their
marriage, as young people should do, because of this foolish old
quarrel between the Capulets and the Montagues.
And Friar Laurence was willing to help the young lovers secretly,
because he thought that when they were once married their parents
might soon be told, and that the match might put a happy end to the
old quarrel.
So the next morning early, Romeo and Juliet were married at
Friar Laurence’s cell, and parted with tears and kisses. And Romeo
promised to come into Ae garden that evening, and the nurse got
ready a rope-ladder to let down from the window, so that Romeo
could climb up and talk to his dear wife quietly and alone.
But that very day a dreadful thing happened.
Tybalt, the young man who had been so vexed at Romeo’s going
to the Capulet’s feast, met him and his two friends, Mercutio and
Benvolio, in the street, called Romeo a villain, and asked him to
fight. Romeo had no wish to fight with Juliet’s cousin, but Mercutio
drew a sword, and he and Tybalt fought. And Mercutio was killed.
When Romeo saw that his friend was dead he forgot everything,
except anger at the man who had killed him, and he and Tybalt
fought, till Tybalt fell dead. So, on the very day of his wedding,
Romeo killed his dear Juliet’s cousin, and was sentenced to be ban-
ished. Poor Juliet and her young husband met that night indeed ; he
climbed the rope-ladder among the flowers, and found her window,
but their meeting was a sad one, and they parted with bitter tears
and hearts heavy, because they could not know when they should
meet again.
Now Juliet’s father, who, of course, had no idea that she was mar-
ried, wished her to wed a gentleman named Paris, and was so angry
when she refused, that she hurried away to ask Friar Laurence what
she should do. He advised her to pretend to consent, and then he
said :
“I will give you a draught that will make you seem to be dead
for two days, and then when they take you to church it will be to
bury you, and not to marry you. They will put you in a vault think-
ing you are dead, and before you wake up Romeo and I will be
there to take care of you. Will you do this, or) are you afraid?”
‘T will do it ; talk not to me of fear !” said Juliet. And she went
home and told her father she would marry Paris. If she had spoken
out and told her father the truth . . . well, then this would have
been a different story.
Lord Capulet was very much pleased to get his own way, and set
about inviting his friends and gettinp- the wedding feast ready. Every
one stayed up all night, for there was a great deal to do, and very
little time to do it in. Lord Capulet was anxious to get Juliet married,
because he saw she was very unhappy. Of course she was really
fretting about her husband Romeo, but her father thought she was
grieving for the death of her cousin Tybalt,’nd he thought marriage
would give her something else to think about.
Early in the morning the nurse came to call Juliet, and to dress her for the wedding ; but she would not wake, and at last the nurse cried
out suddenly —
“Alas ! alas ! help ! help ! my lady’s dead. Oh, well-a-day that ever
I was born !”
Lady Capulet came running in, and then Lord Capulet, and Lord
Paris, the bridegroom. There lay Juliet cold and white and lifeless,
and all their weeping could not wake her. So it was a burying that
day instead of a marrying. Meantime Friar Laurence had sent a mes-
senger to Mantua with a letter to Romeo telling him of all these
things ; and all would have been well, only the messenger was de-
layed, and could not go.
But ill news travels fast. Romeo’s servant, who knew the secret
of the marriage but not of Juliet’s pretended death, heard of her fu-
neral, and hurried to Mantua to tell Romeo how his young wife was
dead and lying in the grave.
“Is it so!” cried Romeo, heart-broken. “Then I will lie by Juliet’s
side to-night.”
And he bought himself a poison, and went straight back to Ver-
ona. He hastened to the tomb where Juliet was lying. It was not a
grave, but a vault. He broke open the door, and was just going down
the stone steps that led to the vault where all the dead Capulets lay,
when he heard a voice behind him calling on him to stop.
It was the Count Paris, who was to have married Juliet that very
day.
“How dare you come here and disturb the dead bodies of the
Capulets, you vile Montagu !” cried Paris.
Poor, Romeo, half mad with sorrow, yet tried to answer gently.
“You were told,” said Paris, “that if you returned to Verona
you must die.”
“I must indeed,” said Romeo. “I came here for nothing else.
Good, gentle youth — leave me — Oh, go — before I do you any harm
-I love you better than myself — go — leave me here — “
Then Paris said, “I defy you — and I arrest you as a felon.”
Then Romeo, in his anger and despair, drew his sword. — They
fought, and Paris was killed.
As Romeo’s sword pierced him, Paris cried,
“Oh, I am slain ! If thou be merciful, open the tomb, lay me with
Juliet!”
And Romeo said, “In faith I will.”
And he carried the dead man into the tomb and laid him by the
dear Juliet’s side. Then he kneeled by Juliet and spoke to her, and
held her in his arms, and kissed her cold lips, believing that she
was dead, while all the while she was coming nearer and nearer to
the time of her awakening. Then he drank the poison, and died be-
side his sweetheart and wife.
Now came Friar Laurence when it was too late, and saw all that
had happened — and then poor Juliet woke out of her sleep to find
her husband and her friend both dead beside her.
The noise of the fight had brought other folks to the place too.
and Friar Laurence hearing them ran away, and Juliet was left
alone. She saw the cup that had held the poison, and knew how all
had happened, and since no poison was left for her, she drew her
Romeo’s dagger and thrust it through her heart — and so, falling
with her head on her Romeo’s breast, she died. And here ends the
story of these faithful and most unhappy lovers.
And when the old folks knew from Friar Laurence of all that
had befallen, they sorrowed exceedingly, and now, seeing all the
mischief their wicked quarrel had wrought, they repented them
of it, and over the bodies of their dead children they clasped hand?,
at last, in friendship and forgiveness.” (
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, adapted into a short story by Edith Nesbit
