Juliet longs for Romeo to come to her. The Nurse arrives with the news that Romeo has killed Tybalt and has been banished. Juliet at first feels grief for the loss of her cousin Tybalt and verbally attacks Romeo, but then renounces these feelings and devotes herself to grief for Romeo’s banishment. The Nurse promises to bring Romeo to Juliet that night.
Enter Juliet alone.
JULIET
1676 Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
1677 Towards Phoebus’ lodging. Such a wagoner
1678 As Phaëton would whip you to the west
1679 And bring in cloudy night immediately.
1680 5 Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,
1681 That runaways’ eyes may wink, and Romeo
1682 Leap to these arms, untalked of and unseen.
1683 Lovers can see to do their amorous rites
1684 By their own beauties, or, if love be blind,
1685 10 It best agrees with night. Come, civil night,
1686 Thou sober-suited matron all in black,
1687 And learn me how to lose a winning match
1688 Played for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.
1689 Hood my unmanned blood, bating in my cheeks,
1690 15 With thy black mantle till strange love grow bold,
1691 Think true love acted simple modesty.
1692 Come, night. Come, Romeo. Come, thou day in
1693 night,
1694 For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
1695 20 Whiter than new snow upon a raven’s back.
1696 Come, gentle night; come, loving black-browed
1697 night,
1698 Give me my Romeo, and when I shall die,
1699 Take him and cut him out in little stars,
1700 25 And he will make the face of heaven so fine
1701 That all the world will be in love with night
1702 And pay no worship to the garish sun.
1703 O, I have bought the mansion of a love
1704 But not possessed it, and, though I am sold,
1705 30 Not yet enjoyed. So tedious is this day
1706 As is the night before some festival
1707 To an impatient child that hath new robes
1708 And may not wear them.
Enter Nurse with cords.
1709 O, here comes my nurse,
1710 35 And she brings news, and every tongue that speaks
1711 But Romeo’s name speaks heavenly eloquence.—
1712 Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there? The
1713 cords
1714 That Romeo bid thee fetch?
NURSE 1715 40 Ay, ay, the cords.
⌜ Dropping the rope ladder. ⌝
JULIET
1716 Ay me, what news? Why dost thou wring thy hands?
NURSE
1717 Ah weraday, he’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead!
1718 We are undone, lady, we are undone.
1719 Alack the day, he’s gone, he’s killed, he’s dead.
JULIET
1720 45 Can heaven be so envious?
NURSE 1721 Romeo can,
1722 Though heaven cannot. O Romeo, Romeo,
1723 Whoever would have thought it? Romeo!
JULIET
1724 What devil art thou that dost torment me thus?
1725 50 This torture should be roared in dismal hell.
1726 Hath Romeo slain himself? Say thou but “Ay,”
1727 And that bare vowel “I” shall poison more
1728 Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice.
1729 I am not I if there be such an “I,”
1730 55 Or those eyes ⌜ shut ⌝ that makes thee answer “Ay.”
1731 If he be slain, say “Ay,” or if not, “No.”
1732 Brief sounds determine my weal or woe.
NURSE
1733 I saw the wound. I saw it with mine eyes
1734 (God save the mark!) here on his manly breast—
1735 60 A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse,
1736 Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaubed in blood,
1737 All in gore blood. I swoonèd at the sight.
JULIET
1738 O break, my heart, poor bankrout, break at once!
1739 To prison, eyes; ne’er look on liberty.
1740 65 Vile earth to earth resign; end motion here,
1741 And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier.
NURSE
1742 O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had!
1743 O courteous Tybalt, honest gentleman,
1744 That ever I should live to see thee dead!
JULIET
1745 70 What storm is this that blows so contrary?
1746 Is Romeo slaughtered and is Tybalt dead?
1747 My dearest cousin, and my dearer lord?
1748 Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom,
1749 For who is living if those two are gone?
NURSE
1750 75 Tybalt is gone and Romeo banishèd.
1751 Romeo that killed him—he is banishèd.
JULIET
1752 O God, did Romeo’s hand shed Tybalt’s blood?
⌜ NURSE ⌝
1753 It did, it did, alas the day, it did.
⌜ JULIET ⌝
1754 O serpent heart hid with a flow’ring face!
1755 80 Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
1756 Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical!
1757 Dove-feathered raven, wolvish-ravening lamb!
1758 Despisèd substance of divinest show!
1759 Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st,
1760 85 A ⌜ damnèd ⌝ saint, an honorable villain.
1761 O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell
1762 When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
1763 In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?
1764 Was ever book containing such vile matter
1765 90 So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell
1766 In such a gorgeous palace!
NURSE 1767 There’s no trust,
1768 No faith, no honesty in men. All perjured,
1769 All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.
1770 95 Ah, where’s my man? Give me some aqua vitae.
1771 These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me
1772 old.
1773 Shame come to Romeo!
JULIET 1774 Blistered be thy tongue
1775 100 For such a wish! He was not born to shame.
1776 Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit,
1777 For ’tis a throne where honor may be crowned
1778 Sole monarch of the universal Earth.
1779 O, what a beast was I to chide at him!
NURSE
1780 105 Will you speak well of him that killed your cousin?
JULIET
1781 Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?
1782 Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy
1783 name
1784 When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it?
1785 110 But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?
1786 That villain cousin would have killed my husband.
1787 Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring;
1788 Your tributary drops belong to woe,
1789 Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy.
1790 115 My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain,
1791 And Tybalt’s dead, that would have slain my
1792 husband.
1793 All this is comfort. Wherefore weep I then?
1794 Some word there was, worser than Tybalt’s death,
1795 120 That murdered me. I would forget it fain,
1796 But, O, it presses to my memory
1797 Like damnèd guilty deeds to sinners’ minds:
1798 “Tybalt is dead and Romeo banishèd.”
1799 That “banishèd,” that one word “banishèd,”
1800 125 Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt’s death
1801 Was woe enough if it had ended there;
1802 Or, if sour woe delights in fellowship
1803 And needly will be ranked with other griefs,
1804 Why followed not, when she said “Tybalt’s dead,”
1805 130 “Thy father” or “thy mother,” nay, or both,
1806 Which modern lamentation might have moved?
1807 But with a rearward following Tybalt’s death,
1808 “Romeo is banishèd.” To speak that word
1809 Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,
1810 135 All slain, all dead. “Romeo is banishèd.”
1811 There is no end, no limit, measure, bound,
1812 In that word’s death. No words can that woe sound.
1813 Where is my father and my mother, nurse?
NURSE
1814 Weeping and wailing over Tybalt’s corse.
1815 140 Will you go to them? I will bring you thither.
JULIET
1816 Wash they his wounds with tears? Mine shall be
1817 spent,
1818 When theirs are dry, for Romeo’s banishment.—
1819 Take up those cords.
⌜ The Nurse picks up the rope ladder. ⌝
1820 145 Poor ropes, you are beguiled,
1821 Both you and I, for Romeo is exiled.
1822 He made you for a highway to my bed,
1823 But I, a maid, die maiden-widowèd.
1824 Come, cords—come, nurse. I’ll to my wedding bed,
1825 150 And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!
NURSE
1826 Hie to your chamber. I’ll find Romeo
1827 To comfort you. I wot well where he is.
1828 Hark you, your Romeo will be here at night.
1829 I’ll to him. He is hid at Lawrence’ cell.
JULIET
1830 155 O, find him! ⌜ Giving the Nurse a ring. ⌝
1831 Give this ring to my true knight
1832 And bid him come to take his last farewell.
⌜ They ⌝ exit.