Was woe enough, if it had ended there; In that word's death; no words can that woe sound.- Nurse. Weeping and wailing over Tybalt's corse. When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment. He made you for a highway to my bed ; Come, cords; come, nurse; I'll to my wedding bed; Jul. O, find him! give this ring to my true knight, And bid him come to take his last farewell. [Exeunt. SCENE III. Friar Laurence's Cell. Enter FRIAR LAURENCE and ROMEO. Fri. Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man; Affliction is enamored of thy parts, 1 Modern is trite, common. Rom. Father, what news? What is the prince's doom? What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand, Fri. Is my Too familiar dear son with such sour company. I bring thee tidings of the prince's doom. Rom. What less than doomsday is the prince's doom? Fri. A gentler judgment vanished from his lips, Not body's death, but body's banishment. Rom. Ha! banishment? be merciful, say-death; For exile hath more terror in his look, Much more than death: do not say-banishment. Be patient, for the world is broad and wide. Hence-banished is banish'd from the world, Fri. O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness! Rom. 'Tis torture, and not mercy. Heaven is here, 2 1 The quarto, 1597, reads "This is mere mercy," i. e. absolute mercy. 2 Validity is again employed to signify worth, value, as in the first scene of King Lear. By courtship, is meant that freedom with which a lover is indulged. And steal immortal blessing from her lips; And say'st thou yet, that exile is not death? O friar, the damned use that word in hell; A sin-absolver, and my friend professed, To mangle me with that word-banishment? Fri. Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a word. Rom. O, thou wilt speak again of banishment. To comfort thee, though thou art banished. Fri. O, then I see that madmen have no ears. Rom. How should they, when that wise men have no eyes? Fri. Let me dispute with thee of thy estate.1 Rom. Thou canst not speak of what thou dost not feel. Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love, An hour but married, Tybalt murdered, Then mightst thou speak, then might'st thou tear thy hair, 1 The same phrase, and with the same meaning, occurs in The Winter's Tale: Know man from man! dispute his own estate?” i. e. his own affairs, or the present state he is in? And fall upon the ground, as I do now, Fri. Arise; one knocks; good Romeo, hide thyself. [Knocking within. Rom. Not I; unless the breath of heart-sick groans, Mist-like, infold me from the search of eyes. [Knocking. Fri. Hark, how they knock!-Who's there?— Romeo, arise? Thou wilt be taken.-Stay awhile: stand up; [Knocking. Run to my study.-By and by ;-God's will! [Knocking. Who knocks so hard? whence come you? what's will? your Nurse. [Within.] Let me come in, and you shall know my errand; I come from lady Juliet. Fri. Welcome, then. Enter Nurse. Nurse. O holy friar, O, tell me, holy friar, Where is my lady's lord, where's Romeo? Fri. There, on the ground, with his own tears made drunk. Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering.- For Juliet's sake, for her sake, rise and stand; Rom. Nurse! Nurse. Ah sir! ah sir!-Well, death's the end of all. Rom. Spak'st thou of Juliet? How is it with her? Doth she not think me an old murderer, Now I have stained the childhood of our joy Where is she? and how doth she? and what says Nurse. O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps; And now falls on her bed, and then starts up, Rom. As if that name, Did murder her; as that name's cursed hand Doth my name lodge? tell me, that I may sack The hateful mansion. Fri. [Drawing his sword. Hold thy desperate hand. Art thou a man? Thy form cries out, thou art; Why rail'st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth? And usest none in that true use indeed 1 "My lady, whose being so, together with our marriage which made her so, is concealed from the world." 2 The lines from Why rail'st thou on thy birth, &c., to thy own defence, are not in the first copy; they are formed on a passage in the poem. |