Fri.
Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man; Enter Romeo.
Affliction is enamour'd of thy parts,
And thou art wedded to calamity.

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

Fri.
Too familiar

Is my dear son with such sour company:
I bring thee tidings of the prince's doom.

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

Fri.
A gentler judgment vanish'd 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 ^note than death: do not say—banishment.

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

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

Fri.
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 is dear mercy ^note, and thou see'st 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, even in pure and vestal modesty,

Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin: ^note
Flies may14Q1406 do this, but I from this must fly; ^note
They are free men, but I am banished.
Hadst thou no poison mixt, no sharp ^note-ground ^note knife,
No sudden mean of death, though ne'er so mean,
But—banished—to kill me? banished?
O friar, the damned use that word in hell;
Howlings ^note attend ^note it: How hast ^note thou the heart,
Being a divine, a ghostly confessor,
A sin-absolver ^note, and my friend profest,
To mangle me with that word—banishment?

Fri.
Thou fond ^note mad man, hear me a little ^note speak.

Rom.
O, thou wilt speak again of banishment.

Fri.
I'll give thee armour to keep off ^note that 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.

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

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

Fri.
Let me dispute ^note with thee of thy estate.

Rom.
Thou canst not speak of what ^note thou dost not feel:
Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love ^note,
An hour but marry'd, Tybalt murdered,
Doating like me, and like me banished,
Then might'st thou speak, then might'st thou tear thy hair,
And fall upon the ground, as I do † now,
Taking the measure of an unmade grave. [Knock within.

Fri.
Arise, one knocks; good Romeo, hide thyself.

Rom.
Not I; unless the breath of heart-sick groans,
Mist-like, enfold me from the search of eyes. [Knock again.

Fri.
Hark, how they knock!—Who's there?—Romeo, arise;
Thou wilt be taken:—Stay a while:—stand up; [Knock again.
Run to my study:—By and by:—God's will!
What simpleness ^note is this?—I come, I come. [Knock again.
Who knocks so hard? whence come you? what's your will?

Nur. [within.]
Let me come in, and you shall know my errand;
I come from lady Juliet.

Fri.
Welcome then. [opens. Enter Nurse.

Nur.
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.

Nur.
O, he is even in my mistress' case ^note,
Just in her case,—O woeful sympathy!
Piteous predicament!—even so lies she,
Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering:—
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?

Rom.
Nurse?

Nur.
Ah, sir! ah, sir! death ^note is the end of all.

Rom.
Spak'st ^note thou of Juliet? how is it with her?
Doth she not think me an old murtherer,
Now I have stain'd the childhood ^note of our joy
With blood remov'd but little from her own?
Where is she? and how doth she? and what says

My conceal'd lady to our cancel'd love? ^note

Nur.
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,
And then down falls again.

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

Fri.
Hold thy desperate hand [wresting the Dagger from him.
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!
And ill-beseeming beast, in seeming both!
Thou hast amaz'd 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 thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth?
Since birth, and heaven, and earth, all three do meet
In thee at once; which thou at once would'st lose.
Fie, fie! thou sham'st thy shape, thy love, thy wit;
Which, like an usurer ^note, 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 the skill- ^noteless soldier's flask,
Is set on fire by thine own ignorance,
And thou dismember'd with thine own defence.
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 too ^note art thou happy:
The law, that threaten'd death, becomes ^note thy friend,
And turns ^note it to exíle; there art thou happy:
A pack of blessings ^note light ^note upon thy back;
Happiness courts thee in her best ^note array;
But, like a mis-'hav'd ^note and a sullen ^note wench,
Thou pout'st upon thy ^note 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 the 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.

Nur.
O lord, I could have stay'd here all the ^note night,
To hear good counsel: o, what learning is!—
My lord, I'll tell my lady you will come.

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

Nur.
Here, &dagger2; sir, a ring she bid ^note me give you, sir:
Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late.

Rom.
How well my comfort is reviv'd by this.

Fri.
Go hence, good night:—[Exit Nurse.] and here stands all your state,—
Either be gone before the watch be set,
Or by the break of day disguis'd ^note from hence:
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, farewel, good night.

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

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