Romeo and Juliet (OCR GCSE English Literature): Exam Questions

MERCUTIO

I am hurt.

A plague o’ both houses! I am sped.

Is he gone and hath nothing?

BENVOLIO

What, art thou hurt?

MERCUTIO

Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch. Marry, ’tis enough.

Where is my page? — Go, villain, fetch a surgeon.

Page exits.

ROMEO

Courage, man, the hurt cannot be much.

MERCUTIO

No, ’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as

a church door, but ’tis enough. ’Twill serve. Ask for

me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I

am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o’

both your houses! Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a

cat, to scratch a man to death! A braggart, a rogue, a

villain that fights by the book of arithmetic! Why the

devil came you between us? I was hurt under your

arm.

ROMEO

I thought all for the best.

MERCUTIO

Help me into some house, Benvolio,

Or I shall faint. A plague o’ both your houses!

They have made worms’ meat of me.

I have it, and soundly, too. Your houses!

ROMEO

Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace.

Thou talk’st of nothing.

MERCUTIO

True, I talk of dreams,

Which are the children of an idle brain,

Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,

Which is as thin of substance as the air

And more inconstant than the wind, who woos

Even now the frozen bosom of the north

And, being angered, puffs away from thence,

Turning his side to the dew-dropping south.

BENVOLIO

This wind you talk of blows us from ourselves.

Supper is done, and we shall come too late.

ROMEO

I fear too early, for my mind misgives

Some consequence yet hanging in the stars

Shall bitterly begin his fearful date

With this night’s revels, and expire the term

Of a despisèd life closed in my breast

By some vile forfeit of untimely death.

But he that hath the steerage of my course

Direct my sail. On, lusty gentlemen.

BENVOLIO

Strike, drum.

They march about the stage

and then withdraw to the side

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Thou and these woes were all for Rosaline.

And art thou changed? Pronounce this sentence

then:

Women may fall when there’s no strength in men.

ROMEO

Thou chid’st me oft for loving Rosaline.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

For doting, not for loving, pupil mine.

ROMEO

And bad’st me bury love.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Not in a grave

To lay one in, another out to have.

ROMEO

I pray thee, chide me not. Her I love now

Doth grace for grace and love for love allow.

The other did not so.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

O, she knew well

Thy love did read by rote, that could not spell.

But come, young waverer, come, go with me.

In one respect I’ll thy assistant be,

For this alliance may so happy prove

To turn your households’ rancor to pure love.

ROMEO

O, let us hence. I stand on sudden haste.

FRIAR LAWRENCE

Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.

PARIS

But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?

CAPULET

But saying o’er what I have said before:

My child is yet a stranger in the world,

She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;

Let two more summers wither in their pride,

Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.

PARIS

Younger than she are happy mothers made.

CAPULET

And too soon marred are those so early made.

The earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she;

She’s the hopeful lady of my earth.

But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,

My will to her consent is but a part;

And she agreed, within her scope of choice

Lies my consent and fair according voice.

ROMEO 

But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? 

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. 

Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, 

Who is already sick and pale with grief 

That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she. 

Be not her maid, since she is envious; 

Her vestal livery is but sick and green, 

And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.

[JULIET appears aloft as at a window.] 

It is my lady, O it is my love:

O that she knew she were! 

She speaks, yet she says nothing; what of that? 

Her eye discourses, I will answer it. 

I am too bold, ’tis not to me she speaks: 

Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, 

Having some business, do entreat her eyes 

To twinkle in their spheres till they return. 

What if her eyes were there, they in her head? 

The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars, 

As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven 

Would through the airy region stream so bright 

That birds would sing and think it were not night. 

See how she leans her cheek upon her hand! 

O that I were a glove upon that hand, 

That I might touch that cheek!

PRINCE 

Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, 

Profaners of this neighbour-stainèd steel – 

Will they not hear? – What ho, you men, you beasts! 

That quench the fire of your pernicious rage 

With purple fountains issuing from your veins: 

On pain of torture, from those bloody hands 

Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground, 

And hear the sentence of your movèd prince. 

Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word, 

By thee, old Capulet, and Montague, 

Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets, 

And made Verona’s ancient citizens 

Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments 

To wield old partisans, in hands as old, 

Cankered with peace, to part your cankered hate; 

If ever you disturb our streets again, 

Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace. 

For this time all the rest depart away: 

You, Capulet, shall go along with me, 

And, Montague, come you this afternoon, 

To know our farther pleasure in this case, 

To old Free-town, our common judgement-place. 

Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.