o: 'I am no pilot, yet wert thou as far
apart from me, as that vast shore which is washed with the farthest
sea, I should venture for such merchandise.' A crimson blush came over
Juliet's face, yet unseen by Romeo by reason of the night, when she
reflected upon the discovery which she had made, yet not meaning to
make it, of her love to Romeo. She would fain have recalled her words,
but that was impossible: fain would she have stood upon form, and have
kept her lover at a distance, as the custom of discreet ladies is, to
frown and be perverse, and give their suitors harsh denials at first;
to stand off, and affect a coyness or indifference, where they most
love, that their lovers may not think them too lightly or too easily
won; for the difficulty of attainment increases the value of the
object. But there was no room in her case for denials, or puttings off,
or any of the customary arts of delay and protracted courtship. Romeo
had heard from her own tongue, when she did not dream that he was near
her, a confession of her love. So with an honest frankness, which the
novelty of her situation excused, she confirmed the truth of what he
had before heard, and addressing him by the name of fair Montague (love
can sweeten a sour name), she begged him not to impute her easy
yielding to levity or an unworthy mind, but that he must lay the fault
of it (if it were a fault) upon the accident of the night which had so
strangely discovered her thoughts. And she added, that though her
behaviour to him might not be sufficiently prudent, measured by the
custom of her sex, yet that she would prove more true than many whose
prudence was dissembling, and their modesty artificial cunning.

Romeo was beginning to call the heavens to witness, that nothing was
farther from his thoughts than to impute a shadow of dishonour to such
an honoured lady, when she stopped him, begging him not to swear; for
although she joyed in him, yet she had no joy of that night's contract:
it was too rash, too unadvised, too sudden. But he being urgent with
her to exchange a vow of love with him that night, she said that she
already had given him hers before he requested it; meaning, when he
overheard her confession; but she would retract what she then bestowed,
for the pleasure of giving it again, for her bounty was as infinite as
the sea, and her love as deep. From this loving conference she was
called away by her nurse, who slept with her, and thought it time fo