Fri. L.
Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man: ^{note note}
Affliction ^note is enamour'd of thy parts,
And thou art wedded to calamity.

Enter Romeo. ^note

Rom.
Father, what news? what is the prince's doom? ^note
What sorrow craves acquaintance ^note at my hand,
That I yet know not?

Fri. L.
Too familiar
Is my dear son with ^note such sour company:
I bring thee tidings of the prince's doom.

Rom.
What less than dooms-day is the prince's doom? ^note

Fri. L.
A gentler ^note judgement vanish'd ^note 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 ^note: do not say ‘banishment.’

Fri. L.
Here ^note from Verona art thou banished:
Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.

Rom.
There is no world without Verona ^note walls,
But purgatory, torture, hell ^note itself.
Hence banished ^note is banish'd ^note from the world,
And world's exile ^note is death: then ^note ‘banished ^note’
Is death mis-term'd: ^note calling death ‘banished ^note,’
Thou cut'st my head off with a golden axe
And smilest ^note upon the stroke that murders me.

Fri. L.
O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!
Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind prince,
Taking thy part, hath rush'd ^note aside the law,

And turn'd that black word death to banishment:
This ^note is dear ^note mercy, and thou seest it not.

Rom.
'Tis torture, and not mercy: heaven is here,
Where Juliet lives; and every cat and dog
And little mouse, every unworthy thing,
Live ^note here in heaven and may look on her,
But Romeo may not: more validity,
More honourable 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 ^note from her lips;
Who ^note, even in pure and vestal modesty,
Still blush, as ^note thinking their own kisses sin;
But Romeo may not; he is banished:
This may flies do, but I from this must fly:
They are free men, but I am banished:
And say'st thou yet, that exile is not death? ^note
Hadst thou no poison mix'd, no sharp-ground ^note knife,
No sudden mean of death, though ne'er so mean,
But ‘banished’ ^note to kill me?—‘Banished’?
O friar, the damned use that word in hell;
Howling attends ^note it: how hast thou the heart,
Being a divine, a ghostly confessor,
A sin-absolver ^note, and my friend profess'd,
To mangle me with that word ‘banished’ ^note?

Fri. L.
Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a word ^note.

Rom.
O, thou wilt speak again of banishment.

Fri. L.
I'll give thee ^note armour to keep off that ^note word;
Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy,
To comfort thee, though thou art banished.

Rom.
Yet ‘banished’? Hang up philosophy!
Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom,
It helps not, it prevails not: talk no more. ^note

Fr. L.
O, then I see that madmen ^note have no ears.

Rom.
How should they, when that ^note wise men ^note have no eyes? ^note

Fr. L.
Let me dispute ^note with thee of thy estate.

Rom.
Thou canst not speak of that thou ^note dost not feel:
Wert thou as young ^note as I, Juliet thy ^note love,
An hour but married, Tybalt murdered ^note,
Doting like me, and like me banished,
Then mightst thou speak, then mightst ^note thou tear thy hair ^note,
And fall upon the ground, as I do now,
Taking the measure of an unmade grave. [Knocking within. ^note

Fri. L.
Arise; one knocks; good Romeo, hide thyself ^note.

Rom.
Not I ^note; unless the breath of heart-sick groans
Mist-like infold me from the search of eyes. [Knocking. ^note

Fri. L.
Hark, how they knock! Who's ^note there? Romeo, arise ^note; ^note

Thou wilt be taken.—Stay awhile!—Stand up; [Knocking. ^note
Run to my study.—By and by!—God's will,
What simpleness ^note is this!—I come, I come! [Knocking. ^note
Who knocks so hard? whence come you? what's your will? ^note

Nurse. [Within ^note]
Let me come in, and you shall know my errand ^{note note};
I come from Lady Juliet.

Fri. L.
Welcome, then. Enter Nurse. ^note

Nurse.
O holy friar, O, tell me, holy friar,
Where is ^note my lady's lord, where's Romeo?

Fri. L.
There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk ^note.

Nurse.
O, he is even in my mistress' ^note case ^note,
Just in her case!

Fr. L.
O woeful sympathy!
Piteous predicament ^note!

Nurse.
Even so lies ^note she,
Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering.
Stand up, stand up; stand, an you ^note be a man:
For Juliet's sake, for her sake, rise and stand; ^note
Why should you fall into so deep an O?

Rom.
Nurse ^note!

Nurse.
Ah sir! ah sir! Well, death's ^note the end of all.

Rom.
Spakest ^note thou of Juliet? how is it ^note with her?
Doth she not ^note think me an old murderer,
Now I have ^note stain'd the childhood ^note of our joy
With blood removed but little from her own?
Where is she? and how doth ^note she? and what says
My conceal'd ^note lady to our cancell'd ^note 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 ^note Romeo cries ^note,
And then down falls again.

Rom.
As if that name,
Shot from the deadly ^note level of a gun ^note,
Did murder her; as that name's cursed hand
Murder'd ^note her kinsman. O, ^note tell me, friar, tell me,
In what vile part of this anatomy ^note
Doth my name lodge? tell me, that I may sack
The hateful mansion. [Drawing his sword. ^note

Fri. L.
Hold thy desperate hand: ^note
Art thou a man? thy form cries out thou art:
Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote ^note
The unreasonable fury of a beast:
Unseemly woman in a seeming man!

Or ^note ill-beseeming beast in seeming both ^note! ^note
Thou hast amazed me: by my holy order,
I thought thy disposition better temper'd.
Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself?
And slay thy lady that in thy life lives, ^note
By doing damned hate upon thyself?
Why rail'st ^note thou on thy birth, the heaven and earth?
Since birth and heaven and earth, all three do meet
In thee at once ^note, which thou at once wouldst lose ^note.
Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit;
Which ^note, like a ^note usurer, abound'st in all,
And usest none in that true use indeed
Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit:
Thy noble shape is but a form of wax,
Digressing ^note from the valour of a man;
Thy dear love sworn, but hollow perjury,
Killing that love which thou hast vow'd to cherish;
Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,
Mis-shapen in the conduct of them both,
Like powder in a ^note skilless soldier's flask,
Is set a-fire ^note by thine own ignorance,
And thou dismember'd with thine own defence ^note.
What, rouse thee, man! thy Juliet is alive,
For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead;
There art thou happy: Tybalt would kill thee,
But thou slew'st Tybalt; there art thou happy too ^note:
The law, that threaten'd death, becomes ^note thy friend,
And turns ^note it to exile; there art thou happy:

A pack of blessings ^note lights ^note upon thy back;
Happiness courts thee in her best array;
But, like a misbehaved and ^note sullen wench,
Thou pout'st upon ^note thy fortune and thy love:
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;
Where thou shalt live till we can find a time
To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends,
Beg pardon of the prince ^note and call thee back
With twenty hundred thousand times more joy
Than thou went'st forth in lamentation.
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 stay'd here all the night ^note
To hear good counsel: O, what learning ^note is!
My lord, I'll tell my lady you will come.

Rom.
Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide.

Nurse.
Here, sir ^note, a ring she bid ^note me give you, sir:
Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late. [Exit. ^note

Rom.
How well my comfort is revived by this!

Fri.
Go hence ^note; good night; and here stands all your state:

Either be gone before the watch be set,
Or by the break of day disguised ^note from hence: ^note
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.

Rom.
But that a joy past joy calls out on me,
It were a grief, so brief to part with thee:
Farewell ^note. [Exeunt. ^note

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