Whiter than new snow upon a raven's back.--
Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-browed night.
Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
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.---
0, I have bought the mansion of a love,
But not possessed it; and, though I am sold,
Not yet enjoyed. 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,

Enter Nurse, with cords. And she brings news; and every tongue, that speaks But Romeo's name, speaks heavenly eloquence.--Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there? the

cords That Romeo bade thee fetch? Nurse.

Ay, ay, the cords.

[Throws them down. Jul. Ah 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 killed, he's dead !

Jul. Can Heaven be so envious ?

Nurse.
Though Heaven cannot. O Romeo! Romeo !-
Who ever would have thought it ? Romeo!

Jul. What devil art thou, that dost torment me thus?
This torture should be roared in dismal hell.
Hath Romeo slain himself? say thou but I,
And that bare vowel I shall poison more

Romeo can,

1

In Shakspeare's time, the affirmative particle ay was usually written I; and here it is necessary to retain the old spelling.

Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice :
I am not I, if there be such an I;
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.
A piteous corse, a bloody, piteous corse
Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaubed in blood,
All in gore blood; I swoonded at the sight.
Jul. O, break, my heart !--poor bankrupt, break at

once !
To prison, eyes! ne'er look on liberty !
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 !

Jul. What storm is this, that blows so contrary?
Is Romeo slaughtered ? 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?

Nurse. Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished;
Romeo, that killed him, he is banished.
Jul. O God !---did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's

blood ?
Nurse. It did, it did; alas the day! it did.

Jul. O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face !
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical !
Dove-feathered raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
Despised substance of divinest show!
Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st,
A damned saint, an honorable villain !
O nature! what hadst thou to do in hell,
When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend

In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh ?
Was ever book, containing such vile matter,
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.--
Ah, where's my man? Give me some aqua vita.
These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old.
Shame come to Romeo!
Jul.

Blistered be thy tongue, For such a wish! he was not born to shame. Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit; For 'tis a throne where honor may be crowned Sole monarch of the universal earth. 0, what a beast was I to chide at him ! Nurse. Will you speak well of him that killed your

cousin ? Jul. 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 killed my husband. 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. All this is comfort. Wherefore weep I, then? Some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death, That murdered me; I would forget it fain; But, O! it presses to my memory, Like damned, guilty deeds to sinners' minds. Tybalt is dead, and Romeo--banished; That-banished, that one word-banished, Hath slajn ten thousand Tybalts.? Tybalt's death

و

1 To smooth is to flatter, to speak fair ; it is here metaphorically used for to mitigate or assuage the asperity of censure with which Romeo's name would be now mentioned.

2 i. e. is worse than the loss of ten thousand Tybalts.

Was woe enough, if it had ended there;
Or,—if sour woe delights in fellowship,
And needly will be ranked with other griefs,
Why followed not, when she said-Tybalt's dead,
Thy father, or thy mother, nay, or both,
Which modern' lamentation might have moved ?
But, with a rear-ward following Tybalt's death,
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.-
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.

Jul. Wash they his wounds with tears ? mine shall

be spent,

When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment.
Take those cords.--Poor ropes, you are beguiled,

up
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 ;
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.

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, 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.
1 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.

Fri. Hence 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 from the world,
And world's exile is death.--Then banishment
Is death mistermed; calling death banishment,
Thou cut'st my head off with a golden axe,
And smil'st upon ihe 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 rushed aside the law,
And turned that black word death to banishment.
This is dear 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 here in heaven, and may look on her, But Romeo may not.---More validity, More honorable state. inore courtship lives In carrion flies, than Romeo. They may seize On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand,

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.

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