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Romeo and Juliet
Act 3, scene 2

Synopsis:

Contents

Characters in the Play

Entire Play

The prologue of Romeo and Juliet calls the title characters “star-crossed lovers”—and the stars do seem to conspire against these young lovers….

Prologue

Act 1, scene 1

A street fight breaks out between the Montagues and the Capulets, which is broken up by the ruler of Verona,…

Act 1, scene 2

In conversation with Capulet, Count Paris declares his wish to marry Juliet. Capulet invites him to a party that night….

Act 1, scene 3

Lady Capulet informs Juliet of Paris’s marriage proposal and praises him extravagantly. Juliet says that she has not even dreamed…

Act 1, scene 4

Romeo and Benvolio approach the Capulets’ party with their friend Mercutio and others, wearing the disguises customarily donned by “maskers.”…

Act 1, scene 5

Capulet welcomes the disguised Romeo and his friends. Romeo, watching the dance, is caught by the beauty of Juliet. Overhearing…

Act 2, chorus

Again the Chorus’s speech is in the form of a sonnet.

Act 2, scene 1

Romeo finds himself so in love with Juliet that he cannot leave her. He scales a wall and enters Capulet’s…

Act 2, scene 2

From Capulet’s garden Romeo overhears Juliet express her love for him. When he answers her, they acknowledge their love and…

Act 2, scene 3

Determined to marry Juliet, Romeo hurries to Friar Lawrence. The Friar agrees to marry them, expressing the hope that the…

Act 2, scene 4

Mercutio and Benvolio meet the newly enthusiastic Romeo in the street. Romeo defeats Mercutio in a battle of wits. The…

Act 2, scene 5

Juliet waits impatiently for the Nurse to return. Her impatience grows when the Nurse, having returned, is slow to deliver…

Act 2, scene 6

Juliet meets Romeo at Friar Lawrence’s cell. After expressing their mutual love, they exit with the Friar to be married.

Act 3, scene 1

Mercutio and Benvolio encounter Tybalt on the street. As soon as Romeo arrives, Tybalt tries to provoke him to fight….

Act 3, scene 2

Juliet longs for Romeo to come to her. The Nurse arrives with the news that Romeo has killed Tybalt and…

Act 3, scene 3

Friar Lawrence tells Romeo that his punishment for killing Tybalt is banishment, not death. Romeo responds that death is preferable…

Act 3, scene 4

Paris again approaches Capulet about marrying Juliet. Capulet, saying that Juliet will do as she is told, promises Paris that…

Act 3, scene 5

Romeo and Juliet separate at the first light of day. Almost immediately her mother comes to announce that Juliet must…

Act 4, scene 1

Paris is talking with Friar Lawrence about the coming wedding when Juliet arrives. After Paris leaves, she threatens suicide if…

Act 4, scene 2

Capulet energetically directs preparations for the wedding. When Juliet returns from Friar Lawrence and pretends to have learned obedience, Capulet…

Act 4, scene 3

Juliet sends the Nurse away for the night. After facing her terror at the prospect of awaking in her family’s…

Act 4, scene 4

The Capulets and the Nurse stay up all night to get ready for the wedding. Capulet, hearing Paris approach with…

Act 4, scene 5

The Nurse finds Juliet in the deathlike trance caused by the Friar’s potion and announces Juliet’s death. Juliet’s parents and…

Act 5, scene 1

Romeo’s man, Balthasar, arrives in Mantua with news of Juliet’s death. Romeo sends him to hire horses for their immediate…

Act 5, scene 2

Friar John enters, bringing with him the letter that he was to have delivered to Romeo. He tells why he…

Act 5, scene 3

Paris visits Juliet’s tomb and, when Romeo arrives, challenges him. Romeo and Paris fight and Paris is killed. Romeo, in…
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⌜Scene 2⌝
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,
131
Romeo and Juliet
ACT 3. SC. 2

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 night
20 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?
133
Romeo and Juliet
ACT 3. SC. 2

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?
135
Romeo and Juliet
ACT 3. SC. 2

 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 matter
90 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 tongue
100 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
137
Romeo and Juliet
ACT 3. SC. 2

 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,
139
Romeo and Juliet
ACT 3. SC. 3

 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.


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