hurt under your arm. Rom. I thought all for the best. Mer. Help me into some house, Benvolio, Or I shall faint.-A plague o' both your houses! They have made worms'-meat of me: I have it, and soundly too.-Your houses! [Exeunt MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO. Rom. This gentleman, the Prince's near ally, My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt In my behalf: my reputation stained With Tybalt's slander; Tybalt, that an hour Hath been my cousin :-O sweet Juliet, Thy beauty hath made me effeminate, And in my temper softened valour's steel. Re-enter BENVOLIO. Ben. O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio's dead: That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds, Which too untimely here did scorn the earth! Rom. This day's black fate on more days doth depend: This but begins the woe; others must end. Re-enter TYBALT. Ben. Here comes the furious Tybalt back again. Rom. Alive! in triumph! and Mercutio slain! Away to heaven, respective lenity, And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now!— O Prince, O cousin,-husband,-the blood is spilled Of my dear kinsman !-Prince, as thou art true, Prin. Benvolio, who began this bloody fray? Ben. Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay; Romeo that spoke him fair, bade him bethink Could not take truce with the unruly spleen His agile arm beats down their fatal points, Lady C. He is a kinsman to the Montague; Prin. Romeo slew him; he slew Mercutio: Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe? Mon. Not Romeo, Prince, he was Mercutio's friend : His fault concludes but what the law should end, The life of Tybalt. I will be deaf to pleading and excuses; SCENE II.-A Room in CAPULET'S House. Enter JULIET. Jul. Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, Towards Phoebus' lodging: such a wagoner As Phaeton would whip you to the west, And bring in cloudy night immediately.Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, That runaway's eyes may wink, and Romeo Leap to these arms, untalked of and unseen ! Lovers can see to do their amorous rites By their own beauties: or, if love be blind, It best agrees with night.-Come, civil night, Thou sober-suited matron, all in black, And learn me how to lose a winning match, Played for a pair of stainless maidenhoods: Hood my unmanned blood, bating in my cheeks, With thy black mantle; till strange love, grown bold, Think true love acted, simple modesty. For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night Give me my Romeo: and, when he shall die, Enter Nurse, with cords. And she brings news; and every tongue that speaks That Romeo bade thee fetch? Nurse. [Throws them down. Jul. Ah me, what news? why dost thou wring thy hands? Nurse. Ah, well-a-day! he 's dead, he's dead, he's dead! We Jul. Can heaven be so envious? Though heaven cannot.-O Romeo, Romeo! This torture should be roared in dismal hell. I am not I, if there be such an "Ay;" Nurse. I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes, God save the mark!-here on his manly breast. To prison, eyes; ne'er look on liberty! had! O courteous Tybalt! honest gentleman! Jul. What storm is this, that blows so contrary! Nurse. Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banishéd; Romeo, that killed him, he is banished. Jul. O God!-did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood? Nurse. It did, it did; alas the day! it did. Jul. O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face! Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical! Dove-feathered raven! wolvish-ravening lamb! Despiséd substance of divinest show! Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st; A damnéd saint, an honourable villain!-O, nature! what hadst thou to do in hell, When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh? Was ever book containing such vile matter So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell In such a gorgeous palace! When I, thy three-hours' wife, have mangled it? Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring; All this is comfort: wherefore weep I, then? Like damnéd guilty deeds to sinners' minds: Where is my father and my mother, nurse? 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 beguiled, Both you and I; for Romeo is exíled: And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead! And bid him come to take his last farewell. Fri. Here 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 banished from the world, And world's exíle is death. Then banishment Is death mistermed: calling death banishment, Thou cutt'st my head off with a golden axe, And smil'st upon the stroke that murders me. Fri. O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness! Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind Prince, Taking thy part, hath rushed aside the law, And turned that black word "death" to "banish ment:" 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 immortal blessing 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: Flies may do this, when I from this must fly: They are free men, but I am banished. And sayst thou yet that exile is not death? Hadst thou no poison mixed, no sharp-ground knife, No sudden mean of death, though ne'er so mean, But "banished," to kill me? "Banished!" O friar, the damnéd use that word in hell; Howlings attend it. How hast thou the heart, Being a divine, a ghostly cónfessor, A sin-absolver, and a friend professed, To mangle me with that word "banished?" Fri. Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a word. Rom. O, thou wilt speak again of banishment. Fri. I'll give thee armour to keep off that word: Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy, To comfort thee, though thou art banishéd. Rom. Yet "banishéd?”—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. Fri. O, then I see that madmen have no ears. Rom. How should they, when that wise men have no eyes? Fri. Let me dispute with thee of thy estate. Rom. Thou canst not speak of what thou dost not feel: Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love, 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. Fri. Arise; one knocks; good Romeo, hide thyself. [Knocking within. Rom. Not I; unless the breath of heart-sick groans, Mist-like, infold me from the search of eyes. [Knocking. Fri. Hark, how they knock!-Who's there?— Romeo, arise; Thou wilt be taken ::-Stay awhile :—stand up; [Knocking. Shot from the deadly level of a gun, Did murder her; as that name's cursed hand Murdered 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 hateful mansion. [Drawing his sword. Hold thy desperate hand! Fri. 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-beseeming beast, in seeming both! Thou hast amazed me: by my holy order, I thought thy disposition better tempered. Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself? And slay thy lady that in thy life lives, By doing damnéd hate upon thyself? Why rail'st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth? Since birth, and heaven, and earth, all three do meet In thee at once; which thou at once wouldst lose. Fie, fie! thou sham'st thy shape, thy love, thy wit; Which, like an usurer, abound'st in all, cherish : Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love, And thou dismembered with thine own defence.— And turns it to exíle; there art thou happy: Nurse. O, Lord, I could have stayed here all the night, To hear good counsel. O, what learning is!- Rom. Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide. Nurse. Here, sir, a ring she bade me give you, sir: Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late. [Exit Nurse. Rom. How well my comfort is revived by this! Fri. Go hence: good night; and here stands all your state Enter CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, and PARIS. Cap. Things have fallen out, sir, so unluckily, That we have had no time to move our daughter. Look you, she loved her kinsman Tybalt dearly, And so did I:-well we were born to die.'Tis very late; she 'll not come down to-night. I promise you, but for your company, I would have been a-bed an hour ago. Par. These times of woe afford no time to woo. Madam, good night: commend me to your daughter. Lady C. I will, and know her mind early to-morrow; To-night she's mewed up to her heaviness. Par. Monday, my lord. Cap. Monday? ha! ha! Well, Wednesday is O' Thursday let it be :-o' Thursday tell her, to-morrow. Cap. Well, get you gone: o' Thursday be it, then. Go you to Juliet ere you go to bed, Prepare her, wife, against this wedding-day.Farewell, my lord.-Light to my chamber, ho! Afore me, it is so very late that we May call it early by and by.-Good night. [Exeunt. |