Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
Despised substance of
divinest show!
Just opposite to what thou
justly seem'st-
A
damned saint, an
honourablevillain!
O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell
When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
In
mortalparadise of such sweet flesh?
Was ever book containing such vile matter
So fairly bound? O, that
deceit should dwell
In such a
gorgeous palace!
Nurse. There's no trust,
No faith, no
honesty in men; all perjur'd,
All forsworn, all
naught, all dissemblers.
Ah, where's my man? Give me some aqua vitae.
These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old.
Shame come to Romeo!
Jul. Blister'd be thy tongue
For such a wish! He was not born to shame.
Upon his brow shame is asham'd to sit;
For 'tis a
throne where honour may be crown'd
Sole
monarch of the
universal earth.
O, what a beast was I to chide at him!
Nurse. Will you speak well of him that kill'd your cousin?
Jul. Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?
Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name
When I, thy three-hours wife, have
mangled it?
But
wherefore,
villain, didst thou kill my cousin?
That
villain cousin would have kill'd my husband.
Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring!
Your
tributary drops belong to woe,
Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy.
My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain;
And Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my husband.
All this is comfort;
wherefore weep I then?
Some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death,
That murd'red me. I would forget it fain;
But O, it presses to my memory
Like
damnedguilty deeds to sinners' minds!
'Tybalt is dead, and Romeo- banished.'
That 'banished,' that one word 'banished,'
Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt's death
Was woe enough, if it had ended there;
Or, if sour woe delights in fellowship
And needly will be rank'd with other griefs,
Why followed not, when she said 'Tybalt's dead,'
Thy father, or thy mother, nay, or both,
Which modern
lamentation might have mov'd?
But with a rearward following Tybalt's death,
'Romeo is banished'- to speak that word
Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,
All slain, all dead. 'Romeo is banished'-
There is no end, no limit,
measure, bound,
In that word's death; no words can that woe sound.
Where is my father and my mother, nurse?
Nurse. Weeping and wailing over Tybalt's corse.
Will you go to them? I will bring you thither.
Jul. Wash they his wounds with tears? Mine shall be spent,
When
theirs are dry, for Romeo's
banishment.
Take up those cords. Poor ropes, you are beguil'd,
Both you and I, for Romeo is exil'd.
He made you for a
highway to my bed;
But I, a maid, die maiden-widowed.
Come, cords; come, nurse. I'll to my
wedding bed;
And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!
Nurse. Hie to your
chamber. I'll find Romeo
To comfort you. I wot well where he is.
Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at night.
I'll to him; he is hid at Laurence' cell.
Jul. O, find him! give this ring to my true knight
And bid him come to take his last farewell.
Exeunt.
Scene III.
Friar Laurence's cell.
Enter Friar [Laurence].
Friar. Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou
fearful man.
Affliction is enanmour'd of thy parts,
And thou art
wedded to calamity.
Enter Romeo.
Rom. Father, what news? What is the Prince's doom
What sorrow craves
acquaintance at my hand
That I yet know not?
Friar. Too familiar
Is my dear son with such sour company.
I bring thee
tidings of the Prince's doom.
Rom. What less than doomsday is the Prince's doom?
Friar. A gentler judgment vanish'd from his lips-
Not body's death, but body's
banishment.
Rom. Ha,
banishment? Be
merciful, say 'death';
For exile hath more
terror in his look,
Much more than death. Do not say '
banishment.'
Friar. Hence from Verona art thou banished.
Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.
Rom. There is no world without Verona walls,
But purgatory,
torture, hell itself.
Hence banished is banish'd from the world,
And world's exile is death. Then '
banishment'
Is death misterm'd. Calling death '
banishment,'
Thou cut'st my head off with a golden axe
And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.
Friar. O
deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!
Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind Prince,
Taking thy part, hath rush'd aside the law,
And turn'd that black word death to
banishment.
This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not.
Rom. 'Tis
torture, and not mercy. Heaven is here,
Where Juliet lives; and every cat and dog
And little mouse, every
unworthy thing,
Live here in heaven and may look on her;
But Romeo may not. More validity,
More
honourable state, more
courtship lives
In carrion flies than Romeo. They may seize
On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand
And steal im
mortalblessing from her lips,
Who, even in pure and vestal modesty,
Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin;
But Romeo may not- he is banished.
This may flies do, when I from this must fly;
They are free men, but I am banished.
And sayest thou yet that exile is not death?
Hadst thou no
poison mix'd, no sharp-ground knife,
No sudden mean of death, though ne'er so mean,
But 'banished' to kill me- 'banished'?
O friar, the
damned use that word in hell;
Howling attends it! How hast thou the heart,
Being a
divine, a
ghostly confessor,
A sin-absolver, and my friend profess'd,
To
mangle me with that word 'banished'?
Friar. Thou fond mad man, hear me a little speak.
Rom. O, thou wilt speak again of
banishment.
Friar. I'll give thee
armour to keep off that word;
Adversity's sweet milk,
philosophy,
To comfort thee, though thou art banished.
Rom. Yet 'banished'? Hang up
philosophy!
Unless
philosophy can make a Juliet,
Displant a town,
reverse a prince's doom,
It helps not, it prevails not. Talk no more.
Friar. O, then I see that madmen have no ears.
Rom. How should they, when that wise men have no eyes?
Friar. Let me
dispute with thee of thy estate.
Rom. Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel.
Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love,
An hour but married, Tybalt murdered,
Doting like me, and like me banished,
Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair,
And fall upon the ground, as I do now,
Taking the
measure of an unmade grave.
Knock [within].
Friar. Arise; one knocks. Good Romeo, hide thyself.
Rom. Not I; unless the
breath of heartsick groans,
Mist-like infold me from the search of eyes. Knock.
Friar. Hark, how they knock! Who's there? Romeo, arise;
Thou wilt be taken.- Stay awhile!- Stand up; Knock.
Run to my study.- By-and-by!- God's will,
What simpleness is this.- I come, I come! Knock.
Who knocks so hard? Whence come you? What's your will
Nurse. [within] Let me come in, and you shall know my errand.
I come from Lady Juliet.
Friar. Welcome then.
Enter Nurse.
Nurse. O holy friar, O, tell me, holy friar
Where is my lady's lord, where's Romeo?
Friar. There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk.
Nurse. O, he is even in my mistress' case,
Just in her case!
Friar. O woeful sympathy!
Piteous predicament!
Nurse. Even so lies she,
Blubb'ring and
weeping,
weeping and blubbering.
Stand up, stand up! Stand, an you be a man.
For Juliet's sake, for her sake, rise and stand!
Why should you fall into so deep an O?
Rom. (rises) Nurse-
Nurse. Ah sir! ah sir! Well, death's the end of all.
Rom. Spakest thou of Juliet? How is it with her?
Doth not she think me an old murtherer,
Now I have stain'd the
childhood of our joy
With blood remov'd but little from her own?
Where is she? and how doth she! and what says
My conceal'd lady to our cancell'd love?
Nurse. O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps;
And now falls on her bed, and then starts up,
And Tybalt calls; and then on Romeo cries,
And then down falls again.
Rom. As if that name,
Shot from the
deadly level of a gun,
Did murther her; as that name's cursed hand
Murder'd her kinsman. O, tell me, friar, tell me,
In what vile part of this anatomy
Doth my name lodge? Tell me, that I may sack
The
hatefulmansion. [Draws his dagger.]
Friar. Hold thy
desperate hand.
Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art;
Thy tears are womanish, thy wild acts denote
The
unreasonable fury of a beast.
Unseemly woman in a
seeming man!
Or ill-be
seeming beast in
seeming both!
Thou hast amaz'd me. By my holy order,
I thought thy
disposition better temper'd.
Hast thou slain Tybalt? Wilt thou slay thyself?
And slay thy lady that in thy life lives,
By doing
damned hate upon thyself?