Romeo is banished, -to speak that word,
Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,
All slain, all dead :-Romeo is banished,
There is no end, no limit, measure, bound,
In that word's death ; no words can that woe sound.
Where is my father, and my mother, nurse ?

Nurse. Weeping and wailing over Tybalt's corse:
Will you go to them? I will bring you thither.
Jul. Wash they his wounds with tears? mine shall

be spent,
When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment.
Take up those cords :-Poor ropes, you are beguild,
Both you and I; for Romeo is exild:
He made you for a highway to my bed;
But I, a maid, die maiden-widowed.
Come, cords ; come, nurse ; I'll to my wedding bed;
And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!

Nurse. Hie to your chamber: I'll find Romeo
To comfort you :-I wot' well where he is.
Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at night;
I'll to him; he is hid at Laurence' cell.

Jul. O find him! give this ring to my true knight,
And bid him come to take his last farewell. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Friar Laurence's Cell.

Enter Friar LAURENCE and Romeo.
Fri. Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearfu

man;
Afliction is enamour'd of thy parts,

I Know.

And thou art wedded to calamity.
Rom. Father, what news ? what is the prince's

doom?
What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand,
That I yet know not?
Fri.

Too familiar,
Is my dear son with such sour company:
I bring thee tidings of the prince's doom.
Rom. What less than dooms-day is the prince's

doom? Fri. A gentler judgment vanish'd from his lips, Not body's death, but body's banishment.

Rom. Ha! banishment? be merciful, say_death: For exile hath more terror in his look, Much more than death: do not say-banishment.

Fri. Hence from Verona art thou banished :
Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.

Rom. There is no world without Verona walls,
But purgatory, torture, hell itself.
Hence-banished is banish'd from the world,
And world's exíle is death :-then banishment
Is death mis-term'd: calling death-banishment,
Thou cutst my head off with a golden axe,
And smil'st

upon

the stroke that murders me. Fri. O deadly sin ! O rude unthankfulness ! Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind prince, Taking thy part, hath rush'd aside the law, And turn'd that black word death to banishment: This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not.

Rom. 'Tis torture, and not mercy: heaven is here, Where Juliet lives; and every cat, and dog, And little mouse, every unworthy thing,

Live here in heaven, and may look on her,
But Romeo may not.—More validity, 2
More honourable state, more courtship lives
In carrion Alies, than Romeo : they may seize
On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand,
And steal immortal blessing from her lips;
Who, even in pure and vestal modesty,
Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin;
But Romeo may not; 'he is banished :
Flies may do this, when I from this must fly;
They are free men, but I am banished.
And say'st thou yet, that exile is not death?
Hadst thou no poison mix’d, no sharp-ground knife,
No sudden mean of death, though ne'er so mean,
But-banished—to kill me ; banished ?
O friar, the damned use that word in hell ;
Howlings attend it: How hast thou the heart,
Being a divine, a ghostly confessor,
A sin-absolver, and my friend profess'd,
To mangle me with that word—banishment?
Fri. Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a

word.
Rom. O, thou wilt speak again of banishment.

Fri. I'll give thee armour to keep off that word;
Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy,
To comfort thee, though thou art banished.

Rom. Yet banished ?-Hang up philosophy!
Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom;
It helps not, it prevails not, talk no more.

2 Worth, value.

VOL. X

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. Rom. Thou canst not speak of what thou dost not

feel : Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love, An hour but married, Tybalt murdered, Doting like me, and like me banished, Then might'st thou speak, then might'st thou tear thy

hair, And fall upon the ground, as I do now, Taking the measure of an unmade grave. 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 woeful sympathy!
Piteous predicament !
Nurse.

Even so lies she,
Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering:-
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?

Rom. Nurse !
Nurse. Ah sir ! ah sir !—Well, death's the end of

up, stand

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 remoy'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.
Rom.

As if that name,
Shot from the deadly level of a gun,