How nice1 the quarrel was; and urg'd withal
Your high displeasure:-all this, uttered
With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd,
Could not take truce with the unruly spleen
Of Tybalt, deaf to peace, but that he tilts
With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast;
Who, all as hot, turns deadly point to point,
And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats
Cold death aside, and with the other sends

It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity

Retorts it home." Romeo he cries aloud,

His agile arm beats down their fatal points,

And 'twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm,
An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled ;
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.
This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.

3

La. Cap. He is a kinsman to the Montague;
Affection makes him false, he speaks not true :3
Some twenty of them fought in this black strife,
And all those twenty could but kill one life.
I beg for justice, which thou, prince, must give :
Romeo slew Tybalt, Romeo must not live.

Prin. Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio;
Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?
Mon. Not Romeo, prince, he was Mercutio's friend;
His fault concludes but what the law should end,
The life of Tybalt.

Prin.

And for that offence,

Immediately we do exile him hence :

I have an interest in your hate's proceeding,

My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a bleeding;
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,
Else, when he's found, that hour is his last.
Bear hence this body, and attend our will:
Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.-A Room in CAPULET'S House.
Enter JULIET.

Jul. Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
Towards Phoebus' mansion5; such a waggoner
As Phaeton would whip you to the west,
And bring in cloudy night immediately.".
Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,
That enemies' 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,

Thou sober-suited matron, all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match,
Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods:

8

Hood my unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle; till strange love, grown bold,
Think true love acted simple modesty.

Come night, come Romeo, come thou day in night ;
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night

And may not wear them. O! here comes my nurse.
Enter Nurse, with a Ladder of Cords.

And she brings news; and ev'ry 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 kill'd, he's dead!
Jul. Can heaven be so envious?
Nurse.
Romeo can,
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 roar'd in dismal hell.
Hath Romeo slain himself? say thou but I,10
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 make thee answer,
If he be slain, say-I; or if not-no:
Brief sounds determine or my weal or woe.

I.

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,
All in gore blood;-I swounded 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 slaughter'd? and is Tybalt dead?
My dear-lov'd11 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.

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,12 hid with a flowering face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant; fiend angelical!

Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb !
Despised substance of divinest show!

Fri. O then I see that madmen have no ears. Rom. How should they, when that wise men have no eyes?

Fri. Let me dispute with thee of thy estate.

I thought thy disposition better temper'd.
Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself,
And slay thy lady, too, that lives in thee,
By doing damned hate upon thyself ?^

Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love,

An hour but married, Tybalt murdered, Doting like me, and like me banished,

hair,

1

And fall upon the ground, as I do now,
Taking the measure of an unmade grave. [Falling.
Fri. Arise; one knocks: good Romeo, hide thyself.
[Knocking within.
Rom. Not I: unless the breath of heart-sick groans.
Mist-like, infold me from the search of eyes. [Knocking.
Fri. Hark, how they knock!-who's there?
Romeo, arise;

Thou wilt be taken.-Stay a while.-Stand up;

[Knocking. Run to my study.—By and by.—God's will What wilfulness is this!-I come, I come. [Knocking. Who knocks so hard? whence come you? what's your will?

Nurse. [Within.] Let me come in and you shall know my errand:

I come from lady Juliet.

Fri.

Welcome, then.

Enter Nurse.

Nurse. 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.

Nurse. O! he is even in my mistress' case; Just in her case.

Fri.

O woful sympathy!

Piteous predicament!

Even so lies she,

Nurse. 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? [ROMEO groans. Rom. Nurse! [Rising suddenly. Nurse. Ah sir! ah sir!-Death is the end of all. Rom. Spak'st thou of Juliet? how is it with her? Doth she not think me an old murderer, Now I have stain'd the childhood 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 cancell'd love?

3

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 Romeo cries, And then down falls again.

Rom.

As if that name, Shot from the deadly level of a gun, Did murder her; as that name's cursed hand Murder'd her kinsman.-O! tell me, friar, tell me, In what vile part of this anatomy Doth my name lodge? tell me, that I may sack The hateful mansion. [Drawing his Sword. Fri. Hold thy desperate hand! Art thou a man? thy form cries out, thou art; Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote The unreasonable fury of a beast: Unseemly woman, in a seeming man ; Or ill-beseeming beast, in seeming both!

Thou hast amaz'd me: by my holy order,

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 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 skill-less soldier's flask,
Is set afire 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 art thou happy too:
The law, that threaten'd death, becomes thy friend,"
And turns it to exile; there art thou happy:
A pack of blessings lights upon thy back;
Happiness courts thee in her best array:
But, like a mis-behav'd and sullen wench,
Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love.
Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.
Go, get thee to thy love, as was agreed,
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, 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,
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. Nurse. Here is a ring she bid me give you, sir. Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late. [Exit Nurse. Rom. How well my comfort is reviv'd by this! Fri. Go hence. Good night; and here stands all Either be gone before the watch be set, [your state :Or by the break of day disguis'd 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: 't is 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.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.-A Room in CAPULET'S House. Enter CAPULET, Lady CAPULET, and PARIS. Cap. Things have fallen out, sir, so unluckily, That we have had no time to move our daughter. Look you, she lov'd her kinsman Tybalt dearly, And so did I:-well, we were born to die.

6 This and the next four lines, are not in quarto, 1597.

'T is very late, she 'll not come down to-night: I promise you, but for your company,

I would have been a-bed an hour ago.

Par. These times of woe afford no time to woo.Madam, good night commend me to your daughter. La. Cap. I will, and know her mind early to-morrow ; To night she 's mew'd up in her heaviness.

Cap. Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender
Of my child's love: I think, she will be rul'd
In all respects by me; nay more, I doubt it not.
Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed;
Acquaint her here of my son Paris' love,

And bid her, mark you me, on Wednesday next-
But, soft! what day is this?

Par.

Monday, my lord.

Cap. Monday? ha! ha! Well, Wednesday is too O' Thursday let it be :-o' Thursday, tell her, [soon; She shall be married to this noble earl.Will you be ready? do you like this haste? We'll keep no great ado :-a friend, or two;For hark you, Tybalt being slain so late, It may be thought we held him carelessly, Being our kinsman, if we revel much. Therefore, we'll have some half a dozen friends, And there an end. But what say you to Thursday? Par. My lord, I would that Thursday were to-morrow. Cap. Well, get you gone: o' Thursday be it then. Go you to Juliet, ere you go to bed, Prepare her, wife, against this wedding-day.Farewell, my lord.-Light to my chamber, ho! Afore me! it is so very late, that we May call it early by and by.-Good night.

SCENE V.-JULIET'S Chamber.

Enter ROMEO and JULIET.

[Exeunt.

Jul. Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day: It was the nightingale, and not the lark, That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear; Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree. Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.

Rom. It was the lark, the herald of the morn, No nightingale look, love, what envious streaks Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east. Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops: I must be gone and live, or stay and die.

Jul. Yon light is not day-light; I know it, I: It is some meteor that the sun exhales, To be to thee this night a torch-bearer, And light thee on thy way to Mantua: Therefore, stay yet; thou need'st not to be gone. Rom. Let me be ta'en, let me be put to death; I am content, so thou wilt have it so. I'll say, yon grey is not the morning's eye, 'T is but the pale reflex of Cynthia's bow ;' Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat The vaulty heaven so high above our heads: I have more care to stay, than will to go :Come, death, and welcome: Juliet wills it so.— How is 't, my soul? let's talk, it is not day.

.1

Jul. It is, it is; hie hence, be gone, away! It is the lark that sings so out of tune, Straining harsh discords, and unpleasing sharps. Some say, the lark makes sweet division; This doth not so, for she divideth us:

Some say, the lark and loathed toad change eyes; O! now I would they had chang'd voices too,

Nurse. Your lady mother's coming to your chamber: The day is broke; be wary, look about. [Exit Nurse. Jul. Then, window, let day in, and let life out. Rom. Farewell, farewell! one kiss, and I'll descend. [Descending.

Jul. Art thou gone so? love, lord! ay, husband, I must hear from thee every hour in the day, [friend For in a minute there are many days: O! by this count I shall be much in years, Ere I again behold my Romeo.

Rom. Farewell! I will omit no opportunity That may convey my greetings, love, to thee.

Jul. O! think'st thou, we shall ever meet again? Rom. I doubt it not :3 and all these woes shall serve For sweet discourses in our time to come.

Jul. O God! I have an ill-divining soul:
Methinks, I see thee, now thou art so low,
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb :
Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale.
Rom. And trust me, love, in my eye so do you:
Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu! adieu!

[Exit ROMEO.

Jul. O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle :
If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him
That is renown'd for faith? Be fickle, fortune
For, then, I hope thou wilt not keep him long,
But send him back.

La. Cap. [Within.] Ho! daughter, are you up?
Jul. Who is 't that calls? is it my lady mother?
Is she not down so late, or up so early?
What unaccustom'd cause procures her hither ?
Enter Lady CAPULET.

La. Cap. Why, how now, Juliet ?
Jul.
Madam, I am not well.
La. Cap. Evermore weeping for your cousin's death?
What! wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears?
An if thou wouldst, thou couldst not make him live;
Therefore, have done. Some grief shows much of love;
But much of grief shows still some want of wit.

Jul. Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss. La. Cap. So shall you feel the loss, but not the friend Which you weep for.

Jul.

Feeling so the loss,

I cannot choose but ever weep the friend.
La. Cap. Well, girl, thou weep'st not so much for
his death,

As that the villain lives which slaughter'd him.
Jul. What villain, madam ?

La. Cap.

That same villain, Romeo. Jul. Villain and he are many miles asunder. God pardon him! I do, with all my heart And yet no man, like him, doth grieve my heart. La. Cap. That is, because the traitor murderer lives. Jul. Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands. Would none but I might venge my cousin's death!

La. Cap. We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not : Then, weep no more. I'll send to one in Mantua,—— Where that same banish'd runagate doth live,Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram"

3 No doubt, no doubt: in quarto, 1597. 4 This and the next two The scene was much altered subsequently

6 Not in