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But by and by comes back to Romeo,
Who had but newly entertain’d revenge,
And to’t they go like lightning: for, ere I
Could draw to part them, was stout Tybalt slain,
And as he fell did Romeo turn and fly.
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This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.
LADY CAPULET He is a kinsman to the Montague.
Affection makes him false. He speaks not true.
Some twenty of them fought in this black strife
And all those twenty could but kill one life.
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I beg for justice, which thou, Prince, must give.
Romeo slew Tybalt. Romeo must not live.
PRINCE Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio.
Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?
MONTAGUE
Not Romeo, Prince, he was Mercutio’s friend;
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His fault concludes but what the law should end,
The life of Tybalt.
PRINCE And for that offence
Immediately we do exile him hence.
I have an interest in your hearts’ proceeding;
My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a-bleeding.
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But I’ll amerce you with so strong a fine
That you shall all repent the loss of mine.
I will be deaf to pleading and excuses;
Nor tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses.
Therefore use none. Let Romeo hence in haste,
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Else, when he is found, that hour is his last.
Bear hence this body, and attend our will.
Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.
Exeunt.
3.2 Enter JULIET alone.
JULIET Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
Towards Phoebus’ lodging. Such a waggoner
As Phaeton would whip you to the west
And bring in cloudy night immediately.
Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,
5
That runaway’s eyes may wink, and Romeo
Leap to these arms untalk’d-of and unseen.
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,
10
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match
Play’d for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.
Hood my unmann’d blood, bating in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle, till strange love grow bold,
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Think true love acted simple modesty.
Come night, come Romeo, come thou day in night,
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
Whiter than new snow upon a raven’s back.
Come gentle night, come loving black-brow’d night,
20
Give me my Romeo; and when I 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.
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O, I have bought the mansion of a love
But not possess’d it, and though I am sold,
Not yet enjoy’d. So tedious is this day
As is the night before some festival
To an impatient child that hath new robes
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And may not wear them. O, here comes my Nurse.
Enter Nurse with cords, wringing her hands.
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 bid thee fetch?
NURSE Ay, ay, the cords.
35
JULIET
Ay me, what news? Why dost thou wring thy hands?
NURSE Ah weraday, 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.
JULIET Can heaven be so envious?
NURSE Romeo can,
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Though heaven cannot. O Romeo, Romeo,
Who ever would have thought it? Romeo!
JULIET What devil art thou that dost torment me thus?
This torture should be roar’d in dismal hell.
Hath Romeo slain himself? Say thou but ‘Ay’
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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’,
Or those eyes shut that makes thee answer ‘Ay’.
If he be slain say ‘Ay’, or if not, ‘No’.
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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 bedaub’d in blood,
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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.
Vile earth to earth resign, end motion here,
And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier.
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NURSE O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had.
O courteous Tybalt, honest gentleman.
That ever I should live to see thee dead.
JULIET What storm is this that blows so contrary?
Is Romeo slaughter’d and is Tybalt dead?
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My dearest 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 kill’d him, he is banished.
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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.
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical,
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Dove-feather’d raven, wolvish-ravening lamb!
Despised substance of divinest show!
Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st!
A damned saint, an honourable villain!
O nature what hadst thou to do in hell
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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,
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No faith, no honesty in men. All perjur’d,
All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.
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
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For such a wish. He was not born to shame.
Upon his brow shame is asham’d 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.
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NURSE
Will you speak well of him that kill’d your cousin?
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?
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That villain cousin would have kill’d 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,
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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 murder’d me. I would forget it fain,
But O, it presses to my memory
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Like damned guilty deeds to sinners’ minds.
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.
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Or if sour woe delights in fellowship
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 lamentation might have mov’d?
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But with a rearward 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,
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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.
JULIET
Wash they his wounds with tears? Mine shall be spent
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When theirs are dry, for Romeo’s banishment.
Take up those cords. Poor ropes, you are beguil’d,
Both you and I, for Romeo is exil’d.
He made you for a highway to my bed,
But I, a maid, die maiden-widowed.
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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.
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I’ll to him. He is hid at Laurence’ cell.
JULIET O find him, give this ring to my true knight
And bid him come to take his last farewell. Exeunt.
3.3 Enter FRIAR LAURENCE.
FRIAR LAURENCE
Romeo, come forth, come forth, thou fearful man.
Affliction is enamour’d of thy parts
And thou art wedded to calamity.
Enter ROMEO.
ROMEO Father, what news? What is the Prince’s doom?
What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand
5
That I yet know not?
FRIAR LAURENCE Too familiar
Is my dear son with such sour company.
I bring thee tidings of the Prince’s doom.
ROMEO
What less than doomsday is the Prince’s doom?
FRIAR LAURENCE
A gentler judgement vanish’d from his lips:
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Not body’s death but body’s banishment.
ROMEO Ha! Banishment! Be merciful, say ‘death’.
For exile hath more terror in his look,
Much more than death. Do not say ‘banishment’.
FRIAR LAURENCE
Hence from Verona art thou banished.
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Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.
ROMEO 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 ‘banished’
20
Is death, misterm’d. Calling death ‘banished’
Thou cut’st my head off with a golden axe
And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.
FRIAR LAURENCE O deadly sin, O rude unthankfulness.
Thy fault our law calls death, but the kind Prince,
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Taking thy part, hath rush’d aside the law
And turn’d that black word ‘death’ to banishment.
This is dear mercy and thou seest it not.
ROMEO ’Tis torture and not mercy. Heaven is here
Where Juliet lives, and every cat and dog
30
And little mouse, every unworthy thing,
Live here in heaven and may look on her,
But Romeo may not. More validity,
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 449