Romeo and Juliet - Juliet (Act II, Scene 1)

by Elizabeth Blake
(Melrose, MA USA)

Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face
Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek
For that wich thou hast heard me speak tonight.
Fain would I dwell on form; fain, fain deny
What I have spoke. But farewell, compliment.
Doest thou love me? I know thou will say "Ay",
And I will take thy word. Yet if thou swear'st
Thou mayst prove false. At lover's perjuries,
They say, Jove laughs. O Gentle Romeo,
If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully.
Or, it thou thinkest I am too quickly won,
I'll frown and be perverse and say thee nay
So thou wilt woo, but else not for the world.
In truth, Fair Montague, I am too fond,
And therefore thou mayst think my 'haviour light.
But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true
Than those that have more cunning to be strange.
I should have been more strange, I confess,
But that thou overheard'st, ere I was ware,
My true-love passion. Therefore pardon me,
And not impute this yielding to light love,
Which the dark night hath so discovered.