Romeo and Juliet (excerpts): Care keeps his watch in every old man’s eye

Romeo and Juliet (excerpts): Care keeps his watch in every old man’s eye

Original Text

Mr William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (London: Printed by Isaac Jaggard and Ed. Blount, 1623), sig. ffr (p. 677) / STC (2nd ed.) 22273

1Care keeps his watch in every old man’s eye,
2And where care lodges, sleep will never lie;
3But where unbruised youth with unstuff’d brain
4Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign.

Notes

1] Friar Lawrence contrasts the sleep of the elderly and the young in Act two. Back to Line
2] care: anxiety (here personified as an alert night-watchman). Back to Line
3] unbruised: unbattered by experience / unstuff'd: care-free Back to Line
4] couch: relax Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Christopher Matusiak
RPO Edition
2011
Form
Rhymed pentameter couplets