Enter Friar ⌜Lawrence.⌝FRIAR LAWRENCE Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man. Affliction is enamored of thy parts, And thou art wedded to calamity.
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⌜Enter Romeo.⌝ROMEO Father, what news? What is the Prince’s doom?5 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 Prince’s doom.ROMEO 10 What less than doomsday is the Prince’s doom?FRIAR LAWRENCE A gentler judgment vanished from his lips: Not body’s death, but body’s banishment.ROMEO Ha, banishment? Be merciful, say “death,” For exile hath more terror in his look,15 Much more than death. Do not say “banishment.”FRIAR LAWRENCE Here from Verona art thou banishèd. Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.ROMEO There is no world without Verona walls But purgatory, torture, hell itself.20 Hence “banishèd” is “banished from the world,” And world’s exile is death. Then “banishèd” Is death mistermed. Calling death “banishèd,” Thou cutt’st my head off with a golden ax And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.FRIAR LAWRENCE 25 O deadly sin, O rude unthankfulness! Thy fault our law calls death, but the kind prince, Taking thy part, hath rushed aside the law And turned that black word “death” to “banishment.”30 This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not.
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ROMEO ’Tis 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,35 But Romeo may not. More validity, More honorable state, more courtship lives In carrion flies than Romeo. They may seize On the white wonder of dear Juliet’s hand And steal immortal blessing from her lips,40 Who even in pure and vestal modesty Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin; But Romeo may not; he is banishèd. Flies may do this, but I from this must fly. They are free men, but I am banishèd.45 And sayest thou yet that exile is not death? Hadst thou no poison mixed, no sharp-ground knife, No sudden mean of death, though ne’er so mean, But “banishèd” to kill me? “Banishèd”?50 O friar, the damnèd 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 professed, To mangle me with that word “banishèd”?FRIAR LAWRENCE 55 ⌜Thou⌝ fond mad man, hear me a little speak.ROMEO O, thou wilt speak again of banishment.FRIAR LAWRENCE I’ll give thee armor to keep off that word, Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy, To comfort thee, though thou art banishèd.ROMEO 60 Yet “banishèd”? Hang up philosophy. Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
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Displant a town, reverse a prince’s doom, It helps not, it prevails not. Talk no more.FRIAR LAWRENCE O, then I see that ⌜madmen⌝ have no ears.ROMEO 65 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 murderèd,70 Doting like me, and like me banishèd, Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair And fall upon the ground as I do now,⌜Romeo throws himself down.⌝ Taking the measure of an unmade grave.Knock ⌜within.⌝FRIAR LAWRENCE 75 Arise. One knocks. Good Romeo, hide thyself.ROMEO Not I, unless the breath of heartsick groans, Mistlike, enfold me from the search of eyes.Knock.FRIAR LAWRENCE Hark, how they knock!—Who’s there?—Romeo, arise.80 Thou wilt be taken.—Stay awhile.—Stand up.Knock. Run to my study.—By and by.—God’s will, What simpleness is this?—I come, I come.Knock. Who knocks so hard? Whence come you? What’s your will?
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NURSE, ⌜within⌝ 85 Let me come in, and you shall know my errand. I come from Lady Juliet.FRIAR LAWRENCE, ⌜admitting the Nurse⌝ Welcome, then.⌜Enter Nurse.⌝NURSE O holy friar, O, tell me, holy friar, Where’s my lady’s lord? Where’s Romeo?FRIAR LAWRENCE 90 There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk.NURSE O, he is even in my mistress’ case, Just in her case. O woeful sympathy! Piteous predicament! Even so lies she,95 Blubb’ring and weeping, weeping and blubb’ring.— Stand up, stand up. Stand an you be a man. For Juliet’s sake, for her sake, rise and stand. Why should you fall into so deep an O?ROMEO Nurse.NURSE 100 Ah sir, ah sir, death’s the end of all.ROMEO, ⌜rising up⌝ Spakest thou of Juliet? How is it with her? Doth not she think me an old murderer, Now I have stained the childhood of our joy With blood removed but little from her own?105 Where is she? And how doth she? And what says My concealed lady to our canceled 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,110 And then down falls again.
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ROMEO As if that name, Shot from the deadly level of a gun, Did murder her, as that name’s cursèd hand Murdered her kinsman.—O, tell me, friar, tell me,115 In what vile part of this anatomy Doth my name lodge? Tell me, that I may sack The hateful mansion.⌜He draws his dagger.⌝FRIAR LAWRENCE Hold thy desperate hand! Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art.120 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 amazed me. By my holy order,125 I thought thy disposition better tempered. Hast thou slain Tybalt? Wilt thou slay thyself, And slay thy lady that in thy life ⌜lives,⌝ By doing damnèd hate upon thyself? Why railest thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth,130 Since birth and heaven and earth all three do meet In thee at once, which thou at once wouldst lose? Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit, Which, like a usurer, abound’st in all And usest none in that true use indeed135 Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit. Thy noble shape is but a form of wax, Digressing from the valor of a man; Thy dear love sworn but hollow perjury, Killing that love which thou hast vowed to cherish;140 Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love, Misshapen in the conduct of them both, Like powder in a skilless soldier’s flask, Is set afire by thine own ignorance, And thou dismembered with thine own defense.145 What, rouse thee, man! Thy Juliet is alive, For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead:
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There art thou happy. Tybalt would kill thee, But thou slewest Tybalt: there art thou happy. The law that threatened death becomes thy friend150 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 ⌜misbehaved⌝ and sullen wench, Thou ⌜pouts upon⌝ thy fortune and thy love.155 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,160 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 went’st forth in lamentation.—165 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 stayed here all the night170 To hear good counsel. O, what learning is!— My lord, I’ll 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.⌜Nurse gives Romeo a ring.⌝ Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late.⌜She exits.⌝ROMEO 175 How well my comfort is revived by this!
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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 ⌜disguised⌝ from hence.180 Sojourn in Mantua. I’ll find out your man, And he shall signify from time to time Every good hap to you that chances here. Give me thy hand. ’Tis late. Farewell. Good night.ROMEO But that a joy past joy calls out on me,185 It were a grief so brief to part with thee. Farewell.They exit.
