[Enter Nurse.]
NURSE.
O holy friar, O, tell me, holy friar,
Where is my lady's lord, where's Romeo?
FRIAR.
There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk.
NURSE.
O, he is even in my mistress' case, —
Just in her case!
FRIAR.
O woeful sympathy!
Piteous predicament!
NURSE.
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?
ROMEO.
Nurse!
NURSE.
Ah sir! ah sir! — Well, death's the end of all.
ROMEO.
Spakest thou of Juliet? how is it with her?
Doth not she 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?
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.
ROMEO.
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.]
FRIAR.
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,
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?
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 wouldst lose.
Fie, fie, thou sham'st thy shape, thy love, thy wit;
Which, like a usurer, 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 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 skilless soldier's flask,
Is set a-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 slewest 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 misbehav'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 decreed,
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.
ROMEO.
Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide.
NURSE.
Here, sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir:
Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late.
[Exit.]
ROMEO.
How well my comfort is reviv'd by this!
FRIAR.
Go hence; good night! and here stands all your state:
Either be gone before the watch be set,
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; 'tis late; farewell; good night.
ROMEO.
But that a joy past joy calls out on me,
It were a grief so brief to part with thee:
Farewell.
[Exeunt.]
Glossary
parts attractive qualities.
doom judgment.
world's exile Romeo feels exiled from the world.
validity value or worth.
state rank.
fond foolish.
Displant a town transplant a town; that is, do the near-impossible.
Taking the measure of an unmade grave Romeo is lying on the ground in despair.
simpleness foolishness.
conceal'd lady Juliet, Romeo's secret wife.
cancell'd love Romeo thinks that his killing Tybalt will render his marriage to Juliet null and void.
sack to plunder or loot.
rail'st complain.
usurer . . . usest . . . use indeed alliterative puns on "usury" and "use": Romeo is not putting his talents to their proper use.
form of wax not a real man, no more durable than a wax figure.
pouts upon treats with contempt.
blaze proclaim in public.
sojourn to live somewhere temporarily.
