The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars, As daylight doth a lamp; her eye in heaven See how she leans her cheek upon her hand! Juliet speaks, and finally out of her fevered, lovelit mind says: "O, Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, Romeo replies: "I take thee at thy word; Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized, She says: "How cam'st thou hither? The orchard walls are too high and hard to climb; And the place death, considering who thou art." Romeo quickly responds: "With love's light wings did I o'erperch these walls; For stony limits cannot hold love out; And what love can do, that dares love attempt, Therefore thy kinsmen are no hindrance to me! I am no pilot, yet wert thou as far As that vast shore washed with the further sea I would adventure for such merchandise!" Then Juliet, with her fine Italian cunning makes the following declaration of her love; and considering that she is only fourteen years of age, yet in the hands of a house nurse, older and wiser girls could not give a better gush of affectionate eloquence: "Thou know'st the mask of night is on my face, Which the dark night hath so discovered, The lovers part, promising eternal love and marriage "to-morrow" at the cell of good Friar Laurence, the confessor of the fair Juliet. The friar, priest, preacher and bishop have ever been great matrimonial matchmakers, and when "Love's young dream" is foiled or withered by parental tyranny, these velvet-handed philosophers find a way to tie the hymeneal knot, even in personal and legal defiance of cruel, social dictation. Friar Laurence, in contemplation of tying loveknots soliloquizes in the following lofty lines: "The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night, Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light; And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels Now ere the sun advance his burning eye, None, but for some, and yet all different; O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies use, Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse. Romeo implores the holy Friar: "Do thou but close our hands with holy words, Then love devouring death do what he dare, It is enough I may but call her mine!" Juliet addressing Romeo in the Friar's cell exclaims: "Imagination more rich in matter than in words, The good old Friar then says: "Come, come with me and we will make short work; For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone Till holy church incorporate two in one!" Mercutio and Tybalt fight, in faction of the Capulet and Montague houses. Mercutio is killed, and then Romeo kills Tybalt and is banished from the State by Prince Escalus. Juliet awaits Romeo in her room the night after marriage, and with passionate, impatient longing exclaims: "Give me my Romeo; and when he shall die Although the verdict of banishment was pronounced against Romeo to go to Mantua instanter, he found means through the old nurse and good Friar Laurence to visit his new-made bride the night before his forced departure; and in spite of locks, bars, law, parents and princes, plucked the ripe fruit from the tree of virginity. Romeo must be gone before the first crowing |