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(The soldiers arrive with the gun.)

LIEUTENANT. Set it up! (Calling while the gun is set up on forks:) Once and for all, stop that drumming! (Still crying, KATTRIN is drumming as hard as she can.) Fire!

(The soldiers fire. KATTRIN is hit. She gives the drum another feeble beat or two, then collapses.)

LIEUTENANT. So that ends the noise.

(But the last beats of the drum are lost in the din of cannon from the town. Mingled with the thunder of cannon, alarm-bells are heard in the distance.)

FIRST SOLDIER. She made it.

Explanation and Analysis:

Kattrin defiantly keeps beating her drum, even after the soldiers return to the farmhouse, order her to stop, and threaten to kill her. Their threat is completely serious, but so is she—clearly aware that it will cost her life, she continues be...

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Original

Romeo

(aside) She speaks.
O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art
As glorious to this night, being o’er my head,
As is a winged messenger of heaven
Unto the white, upturnèd, wondering eyes
Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him
When he bestrides the lazy-puffing clouds
And sails upon the bosom of the air.

Juliet

O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art though Romeo?
Deny they father and refuse they name.
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.

Modern

Romeo

(to himself) She speaks. Speak again, bright angel! For tonight you are as glorious, there up above me, as a winged messenger of heaven who makes mortals fall onto their backs to gaze up with awestruck eyes as he strides across the lazy clouds and sails through the air.

Juliet

O Romeo, Romeo! Why must you be Romeo? Deny your father and give up your name. Or, if you won’t change your name, just swear your love to me and I’ll give up being a Capulet.

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