Juliet Music and Libretto by Philip Seward (b. 1960)
Adapted from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
During the action of Romeo and Juliet, this scene could have taken place between the characters of the Nurse and Lady Capulet. At rise the Nurse closes the doors to Juliet’s bedroom as she sleeps. Lady Capulet arrives to find her daughter and the two begin to talk about the girl’s future. Lady Capulet insists the girl honor her duty to her family and marry Paris, the man Lord Capulet has arranged for his only daughter to marry. The Nurse, having spoken with Juliet, knows that she is in love with the family’s mortal enemy – a Montague boy by the name of Romeo. As the Nurse delays Lady Capulet, she begins to realize what may be happening and pushes open the doors to the girl’s bedroom only to find the room empty. Fate has had its way.
(The opera takes place one late afternoon in
Verona, 1594. At rise, a room in the house of
Capulet, an antechamber to the bedroom of
Juliet.
The NURSE enters from Juliet’s bedroom
singing softly to herself. She shuts the doors and
begins to tidy the room.)
NURSE
La, la, la sleep my little lamb, my ladybird.
La, la, la, God mark thee to his grace!
(Enter LADY CAPULET)
LADY CAPULET
Nurse, where is my daughter?
NURSE
Lady Capulet! Your daughter sleeps.
She is resting, disturbed as she was
By the arrangement for her to marry Paris.
LADY CAPULET
Enough! I pray thee, hold thy peace.
NURSE
M’lady, that she should marry
Is not the question,
But come Lammas-eve at night
She shall only be fourteen.
LADY CAPULET
At fourteen, on the threshold of marriage,
She shall honor her family’s wishes
To marry Paris; he who woos her gently.
Younger than she are happy mothers made.
NURSE
And too soon marr’d are those so early made.
LADY CAPULET
Mind your position, Nurse.
She is my daughter, a Capulet.
She will do her duty.
NURSE
Beg pardon, m’lady,
She has only begun to discover life.
Paris is a fine man, but is he not older than she?
LADY CAPULET
My husband has given his consent.
She will honor her family.
NURSE
Yes, this very afternoon
She spoke of love to me.
Nearly fourteen, she knows her heart.
The prettiest babe that e’er I nursed
Grown into a loving, young woman.
LADY CAPULET
I remember seeing a Montague
I, a young girl and he a most beautiful man.
Should I live a thousand years,
I never will forget: “Come away” quoth he;
I was a pretty fool; I said, “Yes.”
My father knew better, God rest his soul;
He made a match with a Capulet –
A boy only, not yet stubble on his chin.
Not long thereafter, the Montague was dead
Caught up in this age old feud and I –
I knew my place, my duty, my honor.
Like generations before me,
I honored my father who made the match.
I answered the call to marital duty.
Now I live in a Capulet home . . .
I am a Capulet.
I am a Capulet.
She is a Capulet.
She will do as a Capulet should do.
NURSE (Aside)
His name is Romeo, and a Montague;
The only son of her great enemy.
Her only love sprung from her only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love – a power unknown
To love a loathed enemy and call him your own.
LADY CAPULET
What say you, Nurse?
NURSE
The babe I held in my arms,
Through nightmare and calm,
Sickness and health,
Is grown into a young woman.
A woman knows her heart.
LADY CAPULET
A woman knows her duty . . .
NURSE
. . . She knows her heart.
No longer a child,
She will not marry a man of wax.
LADY CAPULET
What say you, Nurse?
Tonight you shall behold Paris at our feast;
Read o’er the volume of young Paris’ face,
And find the delight writ there with beauty’s pen.
NURSE
For Lord Paris,
But where is it writ for my lady Juliet?
Where do you see her happiness?
LADY CAPULET
Nonsense! A girl her age
Knows not her own feelings.
Like me before her,
She will be told by her father
The duty she owes to her house.
NURSE
A duty! An honor! What is that to marriage?
LADY CAPULET
Everything! That is marriage.
NURSE
And what of the heart? Does Paris love her?
(Aside)
And the Montague boy,
Willing to forsake his name for love.
By any other name would Romeo be
A suitor suited for Verona to see.
In moonlight, in daylight, she loves him!
Her heart, so young in years,
So full with wisdom and love.
LADY CAPULET
She’ll learn love . . .
NURSE
She’s in love . . .
LADY CAPULET
It’s Paris she shall wed
NURSE (aside)
Nay, Romeo instead.
BOTH
A maiden knows what she must do
And married love will soon ensue
LADY CAPULET
. . . And Paris . . .
NURSE
(Inadvertently to LADY CAPULET)
. . . And Romeo . . .
LADY CAPULET
What! What name did you utter?
NURSE
Oh . . . Oh . . . Oh . . .
Not a Montague . . .
LADY CAPULET
That boy – Romeo –
Does she know him?
NURSE
I cannot say, m’lady.
LADY CAPULET rushes to the bedroom
and opens the doors. She screams; Juliet is
nowhere to be seen.
LADY CAPULET
Ah! My daughter!
Where is my daughter?!
NURSE
I sent her to follow her heart.
End of the Opera