Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!

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

Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st,
A damned saint, an honorable villain!
O Nature! what hadst thou to do in hell,
When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?
Was ever book, containing such vile matter,
So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell
In such a gorgeous palace!

Nurse.

There's no trust,

No faith, no honesty in men; all perjured,

All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.—
Ah, where's my man? give me some aqua vitæ :
These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me

old.

Shame come to Romeo!

Blister'd be thy tongue

Ju.
For such a wish! he was not born to shame :

Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit;

For 'tis a throne where honor may be crown'd
Sole monarch of the universal earth.

O, what a beast was I to chide at him!

Nurse. Will you speak well of him that kill'd
your cousin?

Ju. Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband? Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smoothe thy

name,

When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it?—
But, wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?

SHAK.

XIII.

Q

That villain cousin would have kill'd my husband. Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring; Your tributary drops belong to woe,

Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy.

My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain;

And Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my hus

band:

All this is comfort; wherefore weep I then?

Some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death,
That murder'd me: I would forget it fain;
But, O! it presses to my memory,

Like damned guilty deeds to sinners' minds:
'Tybalt is dead, and Romeo banished: '

That- banished,' that one word—' banished,' Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt's death Was woe enough, if it had ended there;

Or, if sour woe delights in fellowship,

And needly will be rank'd with other griefs;

Why follow'd not, when she said—' Tybalt 's dead,'
Thy father, or thy mother, nay, or both,

Which modern 1 lamentation might have moved?
But, with a rearward following Tybalt's death,
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.

1 Common.

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.

Ju. 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 beguiled,
Both you and I; for Romeo is exiled:

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.

Ju. 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.

F. Lau. Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou

fearful man:

Affliction is enamor'd of thy parts,
And thou art wedded to calamity.

Ro. Father, what news? what is the prince's

doom?

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

Is my dear son with such sour company.

I bring thee tidings of the prince's doom.

Ro. What less than doomsday is the prince's doom?

F. Lau. A gentler judgment vanish'd from his

lips;

Not body's death, but body's banishment.

Ro. Ha! banishment? be merciful; say Death; For exile hath more terror in his look,

Much more than death: do not say, Banishment.

F. Lau. Hence from Verona art thou banished. Be patient; for the world is broad and wide.

Ro. There is no world without Verona walls,
But purgatory, torture, hell itself.

Hence-banished is banish'd from the world,
And world's exile is death:-then banished
Is death misterm'd: calling death banishment,
Thou cut'st my head off with a golden axe,
And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.

F. Lau. 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.

Ro. '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,1
More honorable state, more courtship lives
In carrion flies, than Romeo: they may seise
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?

F. Lau. Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a word.

Ro. O, thou wilt speak again of banishment.

F. Lau. I'll give thee armour to keep off that

word;

Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy,

1 Worth, value.