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Romeo and Juliet: Act 3, Scene 3

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           Enters FRIAR [LAURENCE].

      FRIAR LAURENCE
  1   Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man:
  2   Affliction is enamour'd of thy parts,
  3   And thou art wedded to calamity.

           [Enter] ROMEO.

      ROMEO
  4   Father, what news? what is the prince's doom?
  5   What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand,
  6   That I yet know not?

      FRIAR LAURENCE
  6                                  Too familiar
  7   Is my dear son with such sour company:
  8   I bring thee tidings of the prince's doom.

      ROMEO
  9   What less than doomsday is the prince's doom?

      FRIAR LAURENCE
 10   A gentler judgment vanish'd from his lips,
 11   Not body's death, but body's banishment.

      ROMEO
 12   Ha, banishment! be merciful, say "death";
 13   For exile hath more terror in his look,
 14   Much more than death: do not say "banishment."

      FRIAR LAURENCE
 15   Hence from Verona art thou banished:
 16   Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.

      ROMEO
 17   There is no world without Verona walls,
 18   But purgatory, torture, hell itself.
 19   Hence "banished" is banish'd from the world,
 20   And world's exile is death: then "banished"
 21   Is death mis-term'd: calling death "banished,"
 22   Thou cutt'st my head off with a golden axe,
 23   And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.

      FRIAR LAURENCE
 24   O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!
 25   Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind prince,
 26   Taking thy part, hath rush'd aside the law,
 27   And turn'd that black word "death" to "banishment."
 28   This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not.

      ROMEO
 29   'Tis torture, and not mercy: heaven is here,
 30   Where Juliet lives; and every cat and dog
 31   And little mouse, every unworthy thing,
 32   Live here in heaven and may look on her;
 33   But Romeo may not. More validity,
 34   More honourable state, more courtship lives
 35   In carrion-flies than Romeo: they may seize
 36   On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand
 37   And steal immortal blessing from her lips,
 38   Who even in pure and vestal modesty,
 39   Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin;
 40   But Romeo may not; he is banished:
 41   Flies may do this, but I from this must fly:
 42   They are free men, but I am banished.
 43   And say'st thou yet that exile is not death?
 44   Hadst thou no poison mix'd, no sharp-ground knife,
 45   No sudden mean of death, though ne'er so mean,
 46   But "banished" to kill me? "Banished"?
 47   O friar, the damned use that word in hell;
 48   Howlings attend it: how hast thou the heart,
 49   Being a divine, a ghostly confessor,
 50   A sin-absolver, and my friend profess'd,
 51   To mangle me with that word "banished"?

      FRIAR LAURENCE
 52   Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a word.

      ROMEO
 53   O, thou wilt speak again of banishment.

      FRIAR LAURENCE
 54   I'll give thee armour to keep off that word:
 55   Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy,
 56   To comfort thee, though thou art banished.

      ROMEO
 57   Yet "banished"? Hang up philosophy!
 58   Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
 59   Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom,
 60   It helps not, it prevails not. Talk no more.

      FRIAR LAURENCE
 61   O, then I see that madmen have no ears.

      ROMEO
 62   How should they, when that wise men have no eyes?

      FRIAR LAURENCE
 63   Let me dispute with thee of thy estate.

      ROMEO
 64   Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel:
 65   Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love,
 66   An hour but married, Tybalt murdered,
 67   Doting like me and like me banished,
 68   Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair,
 69   And fall upon the ground, as I do now,
 70   Taking the measure of an unmade grave.

           Enter Nurse [within] and knock.

      FRIAR LAURENCE
 71   Arise; one knocks; good Romeo, hide thyself.

      ROMEO
 72   Not I; unless the breath of heartsick groans,
 73   Mist-like, infold me from the search of eyes.

           Knock.

      FRIAR LAURENCE
 74   Hark, how they knock!—Who's there?—Romeo, arise;
 75   Thou wilt be taken.—Stay awhile!—Stand up;

           Knock.

 76   Run to my study.—By and by!—God's will,
 77   What simpleness is this!—I come, I come!

           Knock.

 78   Who knocks so hard? whence come you? what's your will?

      Nurse  [Within.]
 79   Let me come in, and you shall know my errand;
 80   I come from Lady Juliet.

      FRIAR LAURENCE
 80                                     Welcome, then.

           Enter NURSE.

      Nurse
 81   O holy friar, O, tell me, holy friar,
 82   Where is my lady's lord, where's Romeo?

      FRIAR LAURENCE
 83   There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk.

      Nurse
 84   O, he is even in my mistress' case,
 85   Just in her case! O woful sympathy!
 86   Piteous predicament! Even so lies she,
 87   Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering.
 88   Stand up, stand up; stand, an you be a man:
 89   For Juliet's sake, for her sake, rise and stand;
 90   Why should you fall into so deep an O?

      ROMEO
 91   Nurse!

      Nurse
 92   Ah sir! ah sir! Death's the end of all.

      ROMEO
 93   Spakest thou of Juliet? how is it with her?
 94   Doth she not think me an old murderer,
 95   Now I have stain'd the childhood of our joy
 96   With blood removed but little from her own?
 97   Where is she? and how doth she? and what says
 98   My conceal'd lady to our cancell'd love?

      Nurse
 99   O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps;
100   And now falls on her bed; and then starts up,
101   And Tybalt calls; and then on Romeo cries,
102   And then down falls again.

      ROMEO
102                                        As if that name,
103   Shot from the deadly level of a gun,
104   Did murder her; as that name's cursed hand
105   Murder'd her kinsman. O, tell me, friar, tell me,
106   In what vile part of this anatomy
107   Doth my name lodge? tell me, that I may sack
108   The hateful mansion.

      FRIAR LAURENCE
108                                   Hold thy desperate hand:
109   Art thou a man? thy form cries out thou art:
110   Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote
111   The unreasonable fury of a beast:
112   Unseemly woman in a seeming man!
113   Or ill-beseeming beast in seeming both,
114   Thou hast amazed me! By my holy order,
115   I thought thy disposition better temper'd.
116   Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself?
117   And slay thy lady that in thy life lives,
118   By doing damned hate upon thyself?
119   Why rail'st thou on thy birth, the heaven and earth?
120   Since birth, and heaven, and earth, all three do meet
121   In thee at once; which thou at once wouldst lose.
122   Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit;
123   Which, like a usurer, abound'st in all,
124   And usest none in that true use indeed
125   Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit.
126   Thy noble shape is but a form of wax,
127   Digressing from the valour of a man;
128   Thy dear love sworn but hollow perjury,
129   Killing that love which thou hast vow'd to cherish;
130   Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,
131   Misshapen in the conduct of them both,
132   Like powder in a skilless soldier's flask,
133   Is set afire by thine own ignorance,
134   And thou dismember'd with thine own defence.
135   What, rouse thee, man! thy Juliet is alive,
136   For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead;
137   There art thou happy: Tybalt would kill thee,
138   But thou slew'st Tybalt; there are thou happy too:
139   The law that threaten'd death becomes thy friend
140   And turns it to exile; there art thou happy:
141   A pack of blessings lights up upon thy back;
142   Happiness courts thee in her best array;
143   But, like a mishaved and sullen wench,
144   Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love.
145   Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.
146   Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed,
147   Ascend her chamber, hence and comfort her.
148   But look thou stay not till the watch be set,
149   For then thou canst not pass to Mantua;
150   Where thou shalt live, till we can find a time
151   To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends,
152   Beg pardon of the prince, and call thee back
153   With twenty hundred thousand times more joy
154   Than thou went'st forth in lamentation.
155   Go before, nurse: commend me to thy lady;
156   And bid her hasten all the house to bed,
157   Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto:
158   Romeo is coming.

      Nurse
159   O Lord, I could have stay'd here all the night
160   To hear good counsel: O, what learning is!
161   My lord, I'll tell my lady you will come.

      ROMEO
162   Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide.

      Nurse
163   Here, sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir:
164   Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late.

           [Exit Nurse.]

      ROMEO
165   How well my comfort is revived by this!

      FRIAR LAURENCE
166   Go hence; good night; and here stands all your state:
167   Either be gone before the watch be set,
168   Or by the break of day disguised from hence.
169   Sojourn in Mantua; I'll find out your man,
170   And he shall signify from time to time
171   Every good hap to you that chances here:
172   Give me thy hand; 'tis late: farewell; good night.

      ROMEO
173   But that a joy past joy calls out on me,
174   It were a grief, so brief to part with thee.
175   Farewell.

           Exeunt.