| ACT III. | |
| Scene II. A Room in Capulet's House. | |
| [Enter Juliet.] |
| Juliet. | |
| Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, |
| Towards Phoebus' lodging; such a waggoner |
| As Phaeton would whip you to the west |
| And bring in cloudy night immediately.-- |
| Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night! |
| That rude eyes may wink, and Romeo |
| Leap to these arms, untalk'd 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, |
| Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods: |
| Hood my unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks, |
| With thy black mantle; till strange love, grown bold, |
| Think true love acted simple modesty. |
| Come, night;--come, Romeo;--come, thou day in night; |
| For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night |
| Whiter than new snow upon a raven's back.-- |
| Come, gentle night;--come, loving, black-brow'd night, |
| Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die, |
| Take him and cut him out in little stars, |
| And he will make the face of heaven so fine |
| That all the world will be in love with night, |
| And pay no worship to the garish sun.-- |
| O, I have bought the mansion of a love, |
| But not possess'd it; and, though I am sold, |
| Not yet enjoy'd: so tedious is this day |
| As is the night before some festival |
| To an impatient child that hath new robes, |
| And may not wear them. O, here comes my nurse, |
| And she brings news; and every tongue that speaks |
| But Romeo's name speaks heavenly eloquence.-- |
| [Enter Nurse, with cords.] |
| Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there? the cords | |
| That Romeo bid thee fetch? | |
| Nurse. | |
| Ay, ay, the cords. |
| [Throws them down.] |
| Juliet. | |
| 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 are undone, lady, we are undone!-- |
| Alack the day!--he's gone, he's kill'd, he's dead! |
| Juliet. | |
| Can heaven be so envious? |
| Nurse. | |
| Romeo can, |
| Though heaven cannot.--O Romeo, Romeo!-- |
| Who ever would have thought it?--Romeo! |
| Juliet. | |
| What devil art thou, that dost torment me thus? |
| This torture should be roar'd in dismal hell. |
| Hath Romeo slain himself? say thou but I, |
| And that bare vowel I shall poison more |
| Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice: |
| I am not I if there be such an I; |
| Or those eyes shut that make thee answer I. |
| If he be slain, say I; or if not, no: |
| Brief sounds determine of my weal or woe. |
| Nurse. | |
| I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes,-- |
| God save the mark!--here on his manly breast. |
| A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse; |
| Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaub'd in blood, |
| All in gore-blood;--I swounded at the sight. |
| Juliet. | |
| O, break, my heart!--poor bankrout, break at once! |
| To prison, eyes; ne'er look on liberty! |
| Vile earth, to earth resign; end motion here; |
| And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier! |
| Nurse. | |
| O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had! |
| O courteous Tybalt! honest gentleman! |
| That ever I should live to see thee dead! |
| Juliet. | |
| What storm is this that blows so contrary? |
| Is Romeo slaughter'd, and is Tybalt dead? |
| My dear-lov'd cousin, and my dearer lord?-- |
| Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom! |
| For who is living, if those two are gone? |
| Nurse. | |
| Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished; |
| Romeo that kill'd him, he is banished. |
| Juliet. | |
| O God!--did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood? |
| Nurse. | |
| It did, it did; alas the day, it did! |
| Juliet. | |
| O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face! |
| Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? |
| Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical! |
| Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb! |
| Despised substance of divinest show! |
| Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st, |
| A damned 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! |
| 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! |
| Juliet. | |
| 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? |
| Juliet. | |
| 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 murder'd me: I would forget it fain; |
| But O, it presses to my memory |
| Like damned guilty 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 follow'd 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 rear-ward 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. |
| Juliet. | |
| 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 Lawrence' cell. |
| Juliet. | |
| O, find him! give this ring to my true knight, |
| And bid him come to take his last farewell. |
| [Exeunt.] |