Open Source Shakespeare

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet

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Act III, Scene 2

Capulet’s orchard.

       

[Enter JULIET]

  • Juliet. Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
    Towards Phoebus' lodging: such a wagoner 1720
    As Phaethon would whip you to the west,
    And bring in cloudy night immediately.
    Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,
    That runaway's eyes may wink and Romeo
    Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen. 1725
    Lovers can see to do their amorous rites
    By their own beauties; or, if love be blind,
    It best agrees with night. Come, civil night,
    Thou sober-suited matron, all in black,
    And learn me how to lose a winning match, 1730
    Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods:
    Hood my unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks,
    With thy black mantle; till strange love, grown bold,
    Think true love acted simple modesty.
    Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night; 1735
    For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
    Whiter than new snow on a raven's back.
    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, 1740
    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 possess'd it, and, though I am sold, 1745
    Not yet enjoy'd: 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. O, here comes my nurse,
    And she brings news; and every tongue that speaks 1750
    But Romeo's name speaks heavenly eloquence.
    [Enter Nurse, with cords]
    Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there? the cords
    That Romeo bid thee fetch?
  • Nurse. Ay, ay, the cords. 1755

[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!
    Alack the day! he's gone, he's kill'd, he's dead! 1760
  • Juliet. Can heaven be so envious?
  • Nurse. Romeo can,
    Though heaven cannot: O Romeo, Romeo!
    Who ever would have thought it? Romeo!
  • Juliet. What devil art thou, that dost torment me thus? 1765
    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:
    I am not I, if there be such an I; 1770
    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,—
    God save the mark!—here on his manly breast: 1775
    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!
    To prison, eyes, ne'er look on liberty! 1780
    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! 1785
  • 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!
    For who is living, if those two are gone? 1790
  • 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!
  • Juliet. O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face! 1795
    Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
    Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!
    Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
    Despised substance of divinest show!
    Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st, 1800
    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?
    Was ever book containing such vile matter 1805
    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. 1810
    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
    For such a wish! he was not born to shame: 1815
    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!
  • Nurse. Will you speak well of him that kill'd your cousin? 1820
  • 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?
    That villain cousin would have kill'd my husband: 1825
    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;
    And Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my husband: 1830
    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,
    Like damned guilty deeds to sinners' minds: 1835
    '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:
    Or, if sour woe delights in fellowship 1840
    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?
    But with a rear-ward following Tybalt's death, 1845
    '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,
    In that word's death; no words can that woe sound. 1850
    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,
    When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment. 1855
    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.
    Come, cords, come, nurse; I'll to my wedding-bed; 1860
    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:
    I'll to him; he is hid at Laurence' cell. 1865
  • Juliet. O, find him! give this ring to my true knight,
    And bid him come to take his last farewell.

[Exeunt]