Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet

ACT III SCENE II	Capulet's orchard.
	Enter JULIET
JULIET	Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
	Towards Phoebus' lodging: such a wagoner
	As Phaethon would whip you to the west,
	And bring in cloudy night immediately.	5
	Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,
	That runaway's 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,	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,
	Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods:
	Hood my unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks,	15
	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 on a raven's back.	20
	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	25
	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	30
	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	35
	That Romeo bid thee fetch?
Nurse	Ay, ay, the cords.
	Throws them down
JULIET	Ay 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!	40
	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!	45
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:	50
	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,--	55
	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 bankrupt, break at once!	60
	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!	65
	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-loved cousin, and my dearer lord?
	Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom!	70
	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!	75
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!	80
	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 moral paradise of such sweet flesh?	85
	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 perjured,	90
	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	95
	For such a wish! he was not born to shame:
	Upon his brow shame is ashamed 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!	100
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?	105
	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;	110
	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,	115
	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:	120
	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 lamentations might have moved?	125
	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,	130
	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,	135
	When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment.
	Take up those cords: 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-widowed.	140
	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:	145
	I'll to him; he is hid at Laurence' cell.
JULIET	O, find him! give this ring to my true knight,
	And bid him come to take his last farewell.
	Exeunt