Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Act 3 - Scene 3
Friar Laurence’s cell.
Friar Laurence : Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man:
[p]Affliction is
enamour'd of thy parts,
[p]And thou art wedded to calamity.
Romeo : Father, what news? what is the prince's doom?
[p]What sorrow craves
acquaintance at my hand,
[p]That I yet know not?
Friar Laurence : Too familiar
[p]Is my dear son with such sour company:
[p]I bring thee
tidings of the prince's doom.
Romeo : What less than dooms-day is the prince's doom?
Friar Laurence : A gentler judgment vanish'd from his lips,
[p]Not body's death, but
body's banishment.
Romeo : Ha, banishment! be merciful, say 'death;'
[p]For exile hath more
terror in his look,
[p]Much more than death: do not say 'banishment.'
Friar Laurence : Hence from Verona art thou banished:
[p]Be patient, for the world is
broad and wide.
Romeo : There is no world without Verona walls,
[p]But purgatory, torture,
hell itself.
[p]Hence-banished is banish'd from the world,
[p]And
world's exile is death: then banished,
[p]Is death mis-term'd: calling
death banishment,
[p]Thou cutt'st my head off with a golden
axe,
[p]And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.
Friar Laurence : O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!
[p]Thy fault our law calls death;
but the kind prince,
[p]Taking thy part, hath rush'd aside the
law,
[p]And turn'd that black word death to banishment:
[p]This is
dear mercy, and thou seest it not.
Romeo : 'Tis torture, and not mercy: heaven is here,
[p]Where Juliet lives;
and every cat and dog
[p]And little mouse, every unworthy
thing,
[p]Live here in heaven and may look on her;
[p]But Romeo may
not: more validity,
[p]More honourable state, more courtship
lives
[p]In carrion-flies than Romeo: they my seize
[p]On the white
wonder of dear Juliet's hand
[p]And steal immortal blessing from her
lips,
[p]Who even in pure and vestal modesty,
[p]Still blush, as
thinking their own kisses sin;
[p]But Romeo may not; he is
banished:
[p]Flies may do this, but I from this must fly:
[p]They are
free men, but I am banished.
[p]And say'st thou yet that exile is not
death?
[p]Hadst thou no poison mix'd, no sharp-ground knife,
[p]No
sudden mean of death, though ne'er so mean,
[p]But 'banished' to kill
me?--'banished'?
[p]O friar, the damned use that word in
hell;
[p]Howlings attend it: how hast thou the heart,
[p]Being a
divine, a ghostly confessor,
[p]A sin-absolver, and my friend
profess'd,
[p]To mangle me with that word 'banished'?
Friar Laurence : Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a word.
Romeo : O, thou wilt speak again of banishment.
Friar Laurence : I'll give thee armour to keep off that word:
[p]Adversity's sweet
milk, philosophy,
[p]To comfort thee, though thou art banished.
Romeo : Yet 'banished'? Hang up philosophy!
[p]Unless philosophy can make a
Juliet,
[p]Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom,
[p]It helps not,
it prevails not: talk no more.
Friar Laurence : O, then I see that madmen have no ears.
Romeo : How should they, when that wise men have no eyes?
Friar Laurence : Let me dispute with thee of thy estate.
Romeo : Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel:
[p]Wert thou as young
as I, Juliet thy love,
[p]An hour but married, Tybalt
murdered,
[p]Doting like me and like me banished,
[p]Then mightst thou
speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair,
[p]And fall upon the ground,
as I do now,
[p]Taking the measure of an unmade grave.
Friar Laurence : Arise; one knocks; good Romeo, hide thyself.
Romeo : Not I; unless the breath of heartsick groans,
[p]Mist-like, infold me
from the search of eyes.
Friar Laurence : Hark, how they knock! Who's there? Romeo, arise;
[p]Thou wilt be
taken. Stay awhile! Stand up;
[p][Knocking]
[p]Run to my study. By and
by! God's will,
[p]What simpleness is this! I come, I
come!
[p][Knocking]
[p]Who knocks so hard? whence come you? what's
your will?
Nurse : [Within] Let me come in, and you shall know
[p]my errand;
[p]I come
from Lady Juliet.
Friar Laurence : Welcome, then.
Nurse : O holy friar, O, tell me, holy friar,
[p]Where is my lady's lord,
where's Romeo?
Friar Laurence : There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk.
Nurse : O, he is even in my mistress' case,
[p]Just in her case! O woful
sympathy!
[p]Piteous predicament! Even so lies she,
[p]Blubbering and
weeping, weeping and blubbering.
[p]Stand up, stand up; stand, and you
be a man:
[p]For Juliet's sake, for her sake, rise and stand;
[p]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?
[p]Doth she not think me
an old murderer,
[p]Now I have stain'd the childhood of our
joy
[p]With blood removed but little from her own?
[p]Where is she?
and how doth she? and what says
[p]My conceal'd lady to our cancell'd
love?
Nurse : O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps;
[p]And now falls on her
bed; and then starts up,
[p]And Tybalt calls; and then on Romeo
cries,
[p]And then down falls again.
Romeo : As if that name,
[p]Shot from the deadly level of a gun,
[p]Did murder
her; as that name's cursed hand
[p]Murder'd her kinsman. O, tell me,
friar, tell me,
[p]In what vile part of this anatomy
[p]Doth my name
lodge? tell me, that I may sack
[p]The hateful mansion.
Friar Laurence : Hold thy desperate hand:
[p]Art thou a man? thy form cries out thou
art:
[p]Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote
[p]The
unreasonable fury of a beast:
[p]Unseemly woman in a seeming
man!
[p]Or ill-beseeming beast in seeming both!
[p]Thou hast amazed
me: by my holy order,
[p]I thought thy disposition better
temper'd.
[p]Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself?
[p]And
stay thy lady too that lives in thee,
[p]By doing damned hate upon
thyself?
[p]Why rail'st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and
earth?
[p]Since birth, and heaven, and earth, all three do meet
[p]In
thee at once; which thou at once wouldst lose.
[p]Fie, fie, thou
shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit;
[p]Which, like a usurer,
abound'st in all,
[p]And usest none in that true use indeed
[p]Which
should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit:
[p]Thy noble shape is but
a form of wax,
[p]Digressing from the valour of a man;
[p]Thy dear
love sworn but hollow perjury,
[p]Killing that love which thou hast
vow'd to cherish;
[p]Thy wit, that ornament to shape and
love,
[p]Misshapen in the conduct of them both,
[p]Like powder in a
skitless soldier's flask,
[p]Is set afire by thine own
ignorance,
[p]And thou dismember'd with thine own defence.
[p]What,
rouse thee, man! thy Juliet is alive,
[p]For whose dear sake thou wast
but lately dead;
[p]There art thou happy: Tybalt would kill
thee,
[p]But thou slew'st Tybalt; there are thou happy too:
[p]The law
that threaten'd death becomes thy friend
[p]And turns it to exile;
there art thou happy:
[p]A pack of blessings lights up upon thy
back;
[p]Happiness courts thee in her best array;
[p]But, like a
misbehaved and sullen wench,
[p]Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy
love:
[p]Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.
[p]Go, get thee
to thy love, as was decreed,
[p]Ascend her chamber, hence and comfort
her:
[p]But look thou stay not till the watch be set,
[p]For then thou
canst not pass to Mantua;
[p]Where thou shalt live, till we can find a
time
[p]To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends,
[p]Beg pardon
of the prince, and call thee back
[p]With twenty hundred thousand
times more joy
[p]Than thou went'st forth in lamentation.
[p]Go
before, nurse: commend me to thy lady;
[p]And bid her hasten all the
house to bed,
[p]Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto:
[p]Romeo is
coming.
Nurse : O Lord, I could have stay'd here all the night
[p]To hear good
counsel: O, what learning is!
[p]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:
[p]Hie you, make haste,
for it grows very late.
Romeo : How well my comfort is revived by this!
Friar Laurence : Go hence; good night; and here stands all your state:
[p]Either be
gone before the watch be set,
[p]Or by the break of day disguised from
hence:
[p]Sojourn in Mantua; I'll find out your man,
[p]And he shall
signify from time to time
[p]Every good hap to you that chances
here:
[p]Give me thy hand; 'tis late: farewell; good night.
Romeo : But that a joy past joy calls out on me,
[p]It were a grief, so brief
to part with thee: Farewell.
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Next: Act 3 - Scene 4
