Enter Juliet alone.JULIET Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, Towards Phoebus’ lodging. Such a wagoner As Phaëton would whip you to the west And bring in cloudy night immediately.5 Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, That runaways’ 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,
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10 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,15 With thy black mantle till strange love grow bold, Think true love acted simple modesty. Come, night. Come, Romeo. Come, thou day in night, For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night20 Whiter than new snow upon a raven’s back. Come, gentle night; come, loving black-browed night, Give me my Romeo, and when I shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars,25 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 possessed it, and, though I am sold,30 Not yet enjoyed. 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.Enter Nurse with cords. O, here comes my nurse,35 And she brings news, and every tongue that speaks But Romeo’s name speaks heavenly eloquence.— Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there? The cords That Romeo bid thee fetch?NURSE 40 Ay, ay, the cords.⌜Dropping the rope ladder.⌝JULIET Ay me, what news? Why dost thou wring thy hands?
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NURSE Ah weraday, he’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead! We are undone, lady, we are undone. Alack the day, he’s gone, he’s killed, he’s dead.JULIET 45 Can heaven be so envious?NURSE Romeo can, Though heaven cannot. O Romeo, Romeo, Whoever would have thought it? Romeo!JULIET What devil art thou that dost torment me thus?50 This torture should be roared in dismal hell. Hath Romeo slain himself? Say thou but “Ay,” 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,”55 Or those eyes ⌜shut⌝ that makes thee answer “Ay.” If he be slain, say “Ay,” or if not, “No.” Brief sounds determine my weal or woe.NURSE I saw the wound. I saw it with mine eyes (God save the mark!) here on his manly breast—60 A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse, Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaubed in blood, All in gore blood. I swoonèd at the sight.JULIET O break, my heart, poor bankrout, break at once! To prison, eyes; ne’er look on liberty.65 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 70 What storm is this that blows so contrary?
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Is Romeo slaughtered and is Tybalt dead? My dearest cousin, and my dearer lord? Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom, For who is living if those two are gone?NURSE 75 Tybalt is gone and Romeo banishèd. Romeo that killed him—he is banishèd.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 flow’ring face!80 Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical! Dove-feathered raven, wolvish-ravening lamb! Despisèd substance of divinest show! Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st,85 A ⌜damnèd⌝ saint, an honorable 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 matter90 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 perjured, All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.95 Ah, where’s my man? Give me some aqua vitae. These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old. Shame come to Romeo!JULIET Blistered be thy tongue100 For such a wish! He was not born to shame. Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit, For ’tis a throne where honor may be crowned
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Sole monarch of the universal Earth. O, what a beast was I to chide at him!NURSE 105 Will you speak well of him that killed 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?110 But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin? That villain cousin would have killed my husband. Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring; Your tributary drops belong to woe, Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy.115 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,120 That murdered me. I would forget it fain, But, O, it presses to my memory Like damnèd guilty deeds to sinners’ minds: “Tybalt is dead and Romeo banishèd.” That “banishèd,” that one word “banishèd,”125 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 ranked with other griefs, Why followed not, when she said “Tybalt’s dead,”130 “Thy father” or “thy mother,” nay, or both, Which modern lamentation might have moved? But with a rearward following Tybalt’s death, “Romeo is banishèd.” To speak that word Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,135 All slain, all dead. “Romeo is banishèd.” There is no end, no limit, measure, bound,
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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.140 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.⌜The Nurse picks up the rope ladder.⌝145 Poor ropes, you are beguiled, Both you and I, for Romeo is exiled. He made you for a highway to my bed, But I, a maid, die maiden-widowèd. Come, cords—come, nurse. I’ll to my wedding bed,150 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 you, your Romeo will be here at night. I’ll to him. He is hid at Lawrence’ cell.JULIET 155 O, find him!⌜Giving the Nurse a ring.⌝ Give this ring to my true knight And bid him come to take his last farewell.⌜They⌝ exit.