Friar Lawrenceโs cell.
Enterย Friar Lawrence.
FRIAR LAWRENCE.
Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man.
Affliction is enanmourโd of thy parts
And thou art wedded to calamity.
Enterย Romeo.
ROMEO.
Father, what news? What is the Princeโs doom?
What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand,
That I yet know not?
FRIAR LAWRENCE.
Too familiar
Is my dear son with such sour company.
I bring thee tidings of the Princeโs doom.
ROMEO.
What less than doomsday is the Princeโs doom?
FRIAR LAWRENCE.
A gentler judgment vanishโd from his lips,
Not bodyโs death, but bodyโs banishment.
ROMEO.
Ha, banishment? Be merciful, say death;
For exile hath more terror in his look,
Much more than death. Do not say banishment.
FRIAR LAWRENCE.
Hence from Verona art thou banished.
Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.
ROMEO.
There is no world without Verona walls,
But purgatory, torture, hell itself.
Hence banished is banishโd from the world,
And worldโs exile is death. Then banished
Is death mistermโd. Calling death banished,
Thou cuttโst my head off with a golden axe,
And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.
FRIAR LAWRENCE.
O deadly sin, O rude unthankfulness!
Thy fault our law calls death, but the kind Prince,
Taking thy part, hath brushโd aside the law,
And turnโd that black word death to banishment.
This is dear mercy, and thou seeโst it not.
ROMEO.
โTis 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 Julietโs 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.
This may flies do, when I from this must fly.
They are free men but I am banished.
And sayโst thou yet that exile is not death?
Hadst thou no poison mixโd, no sharp-ground knife,
No sudden mean of death, though neโer 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 professโd,
To mangle me with that word banished?
FRIAR LAWRENCE.
Thou fond mad man, hear me speak a little,
ROMEO.
O, thou wilt speak again of banishment.
FRIAR LAWRENCE.
Iโll give thee armour to keep off that word,
Adversityโs sweet milk, philosophy,
To comfort thee, though thou art banished.
ROMEO.
Yet banished? Hang up philosophy.
Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
Displant a town, reverse a Princeโs doom,
It helps not, it prevails not, talk no more.
FRIAR LAWRENCE.
O, then I see that mad men have no ears.
ROMEO.
How should they, when that wise men have no eyes?
FRIAR LAWRENCE.
Let me dispute with thee of thy estate.
ROMEO.
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.
[Knocking within.]
FRIAR LAWRENCE.
Arise; one knocks. Good Romeo, hide thyself.
ROMEO.
Not I, unless the breath of heartsick groans
Mist-like infold me from the search of eyes.
[Knocking.]
FRIAR LAWRENCE.
Hark, how they knock!โWhoโs there?โRomeo, arise,
Thou wilt be taken.โStay awhile.โStand up.
[Knocking.]
Run to my study.โBy-and-by.โGodโs will,
What simpleness is this.โI come, I come.
[Knocking.]
Who knocks so hard? Whence come you, whatโs your will?
NURSE.
[Within.] Let me come in, and you shall know my errand.
I come from Lady Juliet.
FRIAR LAWRENCE.
Welcome then.
Enterย Nurse.
NURSE.
O holy Friar, O, tell me, holy Friar,
Where is my ladyโs lord, whereโs Romeo?
FRIAR LAWRENCE.
There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk.
NURSE.
O, he is even in my mistressโ case.
Just in her case! O woeful sympathy!
Piteous predicament. Even so lies she,
Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering.
Stand up, stand up; stand, and you be a man.
For Julietโs sake, for her sake, rise and stand.
Why should you fall into so deep an O?
ROMEO.
Nurse.
NURSE.
Ah sir, ah sir, deathโs the end of all.
ROMEO.
Spakest thou of Juliet? How is it with her?
Doth not she think me an old murderer,
Now I have stainโd the childhood of our joy
With blood removโd but little from her own?
Where is she? And how doth she? And what says
My concealโd lady to our cancellโd 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.
ROMEO.
As if that name,
Shot from the deadly level of a gun,
Did murder her, as that nameโs cursed hand
Murderโd 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.]
FRIAR LAWRENCE.
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,
And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both!
Thou hast amazโd me. By my holy order,
I thought thy disposition better temperโd.
Hast thou slain Tybalt? Wilt thou slay thyself?
And slay thy lady, that in thy life lives,
By doing damned hate upon thyself?
Why railโst 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 shamโst thy shape, thy love, thy wit,
Which, like a usurer, aboundโst in all,
And usest none in that true use indeed
Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit.
Thy noble shape is but a form of wax,
Digressing from the valour of a man;
Thy dear love sworn but hollow perjury,
Killing that love which thou hast vowโd to cherish;
Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,
Misshapen in the conduct of them both,
Like powder in a skilless soldierโs flask,
Is set afire by thine own ignorance,
And thou dismemberโd with thine own defence.
What, rouse thee, man. Thy Juliet is alive,
For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead.
There art thou happy. Tybalt would kill thee,
But thou slewโst Tybalt; there art thou happy.
The law that threatenโd death becomes thy friend,
And turns it to exile; there art thou happy.
A pack of blessings light upon thy back;
Happiness courts thee in her best array;
But like a misshaped and sullen wench,
Thou puttโst up thy Fortune and thy love.
Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.
Go, get thee to thy love as was decreed,
Ascend her chamber, hence and comfort her.
But look thou stay not till the watch be set,
For then thou canst not pass to Mantua;
Where thou shalt live till we can find a time
To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends,
Beg pardon of the Prince, and call thee back
With twenty hundred thousand times more joy
Than thou wentโst forth in lamentation.
Go before, Nurse. Commend me to thy lady,
And bid her hasten all the house to bed,
Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto.
Romeo is coming.
NURSE.
O Lord, I could have stayโd here all the night
To hear good counsel. O, what learning is!
My lord, Iโll tell my lady you will come.
ROMEO.
Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide.
NURSE.
Here sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir.
Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late.
[Exit.]
ROMEO.
How well my comfort is revivโd by this.
FRIAR LAWRENCE.
Go hence, good night, and here stands all your state:
Either be gone before the watch be set,
Or by the break of day disguisโd from hence.
Sojourn in Mantua. Iโll find out your man,
And he shall signify from time to time
Every good hap to you that chances here.
Give me thy hand; โtis late; farewell; good night.
ROMEO.
But that a joy past joy calls out on me,
It were a grief so brief to part with thee.
Farewell.
[Exeunt.]