The house in preparation

Scene summary

In the Capulet hall, Lady Capulet hands the keys to the Nurse to fetch more spices, and the Nurse says the kitchen is asking for dates and quinces. Capulet arrives, announces that the second cock has crowed, that the curfew has sounded, and that it is three in the morning, and orders the roasts to be seen to without sparing expense. The Nurse calls him a householder playing cook and tells him to go to bed, because he will fall ill the next morning from so much staying up. Capulet replies that he has stayed up for lesser causes without falling ill, and his wife says he was a skirt-chaser in his day and that now she is the one who watches over him. The servants enter with spits, firewood, and baskets; Capulet orders drier wood fetched and calls for Peter to show where it is. When he hears the music of Paris's arrival, he orders the Nurse to wake Juliet and dress her: the bridegroom has come.