A Convenient Lie

Scene Two

(Enter Nurse with Lady Capulet.)

Lady Capulet: ‘Tis all your fault, woman!  You planted those foolish ideas in my lovely daughter’s head, and that’s why she’s dead now.  Worst of all, the handsome Tybalt was killed for the same reason.
Nurse: Leave me alone, you unfaithful fool!  You are so blind!  Your eyes look into the sun but never to the sky, the truth.  ‘Tis you that disrupted this family that I have been serving for generations.  You loved your nephew more than your husband, more than your daughter.  Shame on you, shame on you!
Lady Capulet: How…how dare you defile my name like so?  How dare you have the nerve to insult me when you are the reason my Tybalt is dead?  Dead, I cry!  I fear I can never stop mourning him…
Nurse: Never once did you care about your daughter.  Not once–
Lady Capulet: Silence, Nurse!  How you say such a thing is beyond my grasp!  She was an ungrateful spoiled brat.  I gave her money, I threw parties for her, I found her Paris, a rich, suitable husband for her.  But no, she threw it all away for that Montague.  And why, you ask?  Why would she do such a thing?  Because of you, you!
Nurse: You know nothing about love and concern, nothing about actually caring for someone!  She is her own person, she should be able to love whoever she chooses.
Lady Capulet: NO!  No, she shouldn’t!  That’s wrong!  I married my husband, and I did not, do not, love him, but I had to.  Juliet should have had to do the same thing.
Nurse: See, see, you do not care, you do not even know how old she was.  You are no mother, you are just Tybalt’s plaything.
(Lady Capulet slaps the Nurse.)
Lady Capulet: Again, again, you slander the name of my dearest love!  Fine, out with it I will!  I loved Tybalt, I loved him more than I love my husband.
Nurse: You ask me how dare I insult you?  How dare you, how dare you say that, how dare you hit me like so?
(Nurse pushes Lady Capulet, who falls heavily.  Nurse exits.  Enter two servants.)
Servant one: My lady, my lady are you all right?
Servant two: Are you hurt, how bad is it, my lady?
Lady Capulet: Stop milling about like useless twigs and be of some service!  Fetch me my husband, I need consolation and…consultation.
(Servant two exits.)
Servant: What, I pray, do you require consultation for?
Lady Capulet: Quiet!  An evil is rising abroad
Beware of every corner, beware of every person
Only I can stop it, only I can save you
There, behind you!
(Servant whirls around.  There is no one there.)
Trust me, and you will go far, my servant.
Doubt me, and you will be…disposed of.
Do you know who the evil is?
Servant: Who, my lady?
Lady Capulet: ‘Tis the Nurse and that Friar
Together they conspire
Together they work to sow evil
To cause a great upheaval
Go near them not, hear them not
Only bad things do they bring
(Lady Capulet leans in closer to the servant.)
Lady Capulet: But if you kill them, and this you will
There are rewards for your excellent skill
Be cautious, be careful, be wary
Your fellow servant, I fear, is with the enemy
Now go, he returns!
(Servant exits as servant two enters.  Servant stares at other servant strangely, as if he has been betrayed.)
Servant two: Your husband is on is way, madam.
Lady Capulet: Good, good, now listen closely.  There is a great evil here caused by our very own Nurse and the Montagues.  You fellow servant, the one that just left, I think that he is helping them.  Be careful, very careful.  Trust only me.  Now go, my husband is coming.
(Exit servant two.  Enter Capulet.)
Capulet: My lovely wife, what is troubling you?  The only words your servant could give were that you needed consolation.
Lady Capulet: Yes, my dear husband, yes, I do.  Worry plagues my soul.  I fear that the Nurse hath betrayed us.  Does thou not receive this image from her?
Capulet: Certainly, her manner has certainly not been forthcoming in the past few days.  Until now, I have naturally assumed that it was just her particular way of mourning over our poor…poor daughter.
(Capulet’s voice cracks when he mentions Juliet.)
Lady Capulet: Ah, pull yourself together, old man; with the loss of a daughter we lost a burden.  Nothing but trouble could she possibly cause.
Capulet: But she was my star, my pride and joy, and I wanted to bottle her up inside the glass vase of my love, but the water inside could only push her up and out.  All I wanted was her happiness, because it was that singular smile on her angelic face that bestowed joy upon me.
Lady Capulet: Surely, you jest!  This angelic face you speak of was tainted with the hint of malice and Lucifer’s work.
Capulet: I care not what you say; my heart will never recover from her loss.
Lady Capulet: But alas, let us not deviate from my point.  What actions must we take against the Nurse, for that is what it is, it is a must, not a would or could or should, it is a must, I say!
Capulet: Perhaps we could relieve her and all of her future generations to come from serving our family.
(Lady Capulet scoffs.)
Lady Capulet: Are you insane, old man
Not benign is our justice hand
We do not seek to be kind
Revenge is what we need, the question there is time
Shall she die by poison, or shall she die by knife
And then there is the Friar
Who shall die by fire
I want to see his skin
Burn into sin
Capulet: Calm must you seek, my wife!  Never does blind vengeance lead us to victory!  Nay, nay, we must discuss this reasonably, rationally, and discern what course we should take, for killing another Montague could only cause more problems.
Lady Capulet: Very well, very well, I shall think about this.  Thank you, old man, you have surely saved me from much humiliation.  You may go.
Capulet: I shall go when I please, and when I please is now.
(Exit Capulet.)
Lady Capulet: That’s another one I shall have to dispose of.  And then it’ll just be me, and I can raise my second child by myself.
(Exit Lady Capulet.)

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