The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (Dowden)/Act 3/Scene 2

SCENE II.—The Same. Capulets Orchard.^{[C 1]}

Enter Juliet.

Jul.

Gallop apace,[E 1] you fiery-footed steeds, Towards[C 2] Phœbus' lodging:[C 3] such a waggoner As Phaethon would whip you to the west, And bring in cloudy night immediately. Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,5 That runaway's[C 4][E 2] eyes may wink, and Romeo Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen.[C 5] Lovers can see to do their amorous rites[C 6] By[C 7] their own beauties; or, if love be blind, It best agrees with night. Come, civil[E 3] night,10 Thou sober-suited[C 8] matron, all in black, And learn[E 4] me how to lose a winning match, Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods: Hood my unmann'd blood, bating[E 5] in my cheeks, With thy black mantle, till strange[E 6] love grown[C 9] bold15 Think true love acted simple modesty. Come, night, come, Romeo, come, thou day in night; For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night Whiter than new snow on[C 10] a raven's back. Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-brow'd night,20 Give me my Romeo; and, when he[C 11] shall die,[E 7] Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night, And pay no worship to the garish[E 8] sun.25 O, I have bought the mansion of a love, But not possess'd it, and though I am sold, Not yet enjoy'd; so tedious is this day As is the night before some festival To an impatient child that hath new robes30 And may not wear them.—O, here comes my nurse, Enter Nurse,[C 12] with cords. And she brings news, and every tongue that speaks But Romeo's name speaks heavenly eloquence.— Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there?[C 13] the cords That Romeo bid thee fetch?

Nurse.

Ay, ay, the cords.35

[Throws them down.^{[C 14]}

Jul.	Ay me! what news? why dost thou wring thy hands?

Nurse.

Ah,[C 15] well-a-day! he's dead, he's dead, he's dead.[C 16] We are undone, lady, we are undone. Alack the day! he's gone, he's kill'd, he's dead!

Jul.	Can heaven be so envious?[E 9]

Nurse.

Romeo can,40 Though heaven cannot. O, Romeo, Romeo! Who ever would have thought it? Romeo!

Jul.

What devil art thou that dost torment me thus? This torture should be roar'd in dismal hell. Hath Romeo slain himself? say thou but "I,"[E 10]45 And that bare vowel "I" shall poison more Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice:[E 11] I am not I, if there be such an "I,"[C 17][E 12] Or those eyes[E 13] shut[C 18] that make[C 19] thee answer "I." If he be slain say "I"; or if not, no:50 Brief sounds[C 20] determine of[C 21][E 14] my weal or woe.

Nurse.

I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes, God save the mark![E 15] here on his manly breast: A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse; Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaub'd in blood,55 All in gore blood;[E 16] I swounded[E 17] at the sight.

Jul.	[E 18]O, break, my heart! poor bankrupt, break at once! To prison, eyes, ne'er look on liberty! Vile earth, to earth resign, end motion here, And thou and Romeo press one[C 22] heavy bier!60

Nurse.

O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had! O courteous Tybalt! honest gentleman! That ever I should live to see thee dead!

Jul.	What storm is this that blows so contrary? Is Romeo slaughter'd, and is Tybalt dead?65 My dearest[C 23][E 19] cousin, and my dearer lord? Then, dreadful trumpet,[C 24] sound the general doom! For who is living if those two are gone?[C 25]

Nurse.

Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished; Romeo, that kill'd him, he is banished.70

Jul.	O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

Nurse.[C 26]

It did, it did; alas the day, it did!

Jul.

[C 27]O serpent[E 20] heart, hid with a flowering face! Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful[E 21] tyrant! fiend angelical!75 Dove-feather'd raven![C 28] wolvish-ravening lamb! Despised substance of divinest show! Just opposite to what thou justly[E 22] seem'st; A damned[C 29] saint, an honourable villain! O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell80 When thou didst bower[C 30] 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,85 No faith, no honesty in men; all perjured, All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.[E 23] Ah, where's my man? give me some aqua vitæ: These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old. Shame come to Romeo!

Jul.	Blister'd be thy tongue90 For such a wish! he was not born to shame: Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit; For 'tis a throne where honour may be crown'd Sole monarch of the universal earth. O, what a beast was I to chide at him![C 31]95

Nurse.

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

Jul.

Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband? Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth[E 24] thy name, When I, thy three-hours' wife, have mangled it? But, wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?100 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;105 And Tybalt's[C 32] dead, that would have slain my husband: All this is comfort; wherefore weep I then? Some word[C 33] there was, worser than Tybalt's death, That murder'd me: I would forget it fain; But, O, it presses to my memory,110 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:115 Or, if sour woe delights in fellowship And needly[E 25] 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[E 26] lamentation might have moved?120 But with[C 34] a rearward[E 27] 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,125 In that word's death; no words can that woe sound.[E 28] 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:[C 35][E 29] mine shall be spent,130 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.[C 36]135 Come, cords;[C 37] 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:140 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.

Critical notes

1. Capulet's Orchard] Globe ed., Capulet's garden Capell, An apartment in Capulet's house Rowe, Juliet's apartment G. White.
2. 2. Towards] Q, F; To Q 1;
3. lodging] Q, F; mansion Q 1.
4. 6. runaway's] runnawayes Qq 2, 3; run-awayes Qq 4, 5, F; run-awaies Ff 2, 3; run-aways F 4.
5. 7. unseen.] Rowe; unseene, Q, F; unseene: Q 5.
6. 8. rites] F 4; rights Q, F.
7. 9. By] Qq 4, 5, Ff 2–4; And by Q, F.
8. 11. sober-suited] hyphen F4.
9. 15. grown] Rowe; grow Q, F.
10. 19. new snow on] F 2; new snow upon Q, F; snow upon Qq 4, 5.
11. 21. he] Qq 4, 5; I Q, F.
12. 31. Enter Nurse] Q, F; after line 33 Dyce, Cambridge.
13. 34. there?] F, there, Q.
14. 35. Throws … ] Capell substantially.
15. 37. Ah] Pope; A Q, F;
16. he's dead] thrice (as here) Q, twice F.
17. 48. an "I,"] Q 5 (I); an I. Q, F.
18. 49. shut] Capell; shot Q, F;
19. make] Steevens (Johnson conject.); makes Q, F.
20. 51. Brief sounds] Q 5; Briefe, sounds, Q, F;
21. of] F, Q 5; omitted Q; or Collier (MS.).
22. 60. one] Q 4; on Q, F.
23. 66. dearest] Q, F; dear-loved Q 1.
24. 67. dreadful trumpet,] Q, F; let the trumpet Q 1.
25. 69. gone] Q, F; dead Q 1.
26. 72. Nurse] Q 1, Q 5; omitted Q, F.
27. 73, 74. Jul. O … Did] F 2, Q 5; Nur. O … face! Jul. Did, Q, F.
28. 76. Dove-feather'd raven] Theobald; Ravenous dovefeatherd Raven Q, F; Ravenous dove, feathred Raven Qq 4, 5, F 2.
29. 79. damned] Qq 4, 5, F 2; dimme Q; dimne F.
30. 81. bower] Q, F; power Q 4; poure Q 5.
31. 95. at him] Q, him F.
32. 106. Tybalt's] Q, Tybalt F.
33. 108. word] Q, words F.
34. 121. with] Q, which F.
35. 130. tears:] Qq 3, 4, F; teares? Q.
36. 135. maiden-widowed] hyphen Rowe.
37. 136. cords] Q, cord F.

Explanatory notes

1. 1. Gallop apace] Malone: "Shakespeare probably remembered Marlowe's Edward II. iv. iii.:

   'Gallop apace, bright Phœbus, through the sky,
   And dusky night, in rusty iron car,
   Between you both shorten the time.'

   So in Barnabe Riche's Farewell, 1583: 'The day to his seeming passed away so slowely that he had thought the stately steedes had bin tired that drawe the chariot of the Sunne, and wished that Phaeton had beene there with a whippe.'"

2. 6. runaway's] See Appendix III. p. 197.
3. 10. civil] grave, sober, as in Dekker, Seven Sinnes of London, i. (ed. Arber, 13), "in lookes, grave; in attire, civill."
4. 12. learn] teach; as often in Shakespeare.
5. 14. Hood my unmanned blood, bating] Falconry terms; unmann'd, not sufficiently trained to be familiar with the keeper; bating, fluttering; the bird was hooded on fist or perch to check the bating (French, se battre). There is probably a pun here on the word unmann'd. See Henry V. III. vii. 121, 122, and Taming of the Shrew, IV. i. 206–209.
6. 15. strange] reserved, as in II. ii. 101.
7. 21. when he shall die] Delius prefers the I of Q, F, perhaps rightly. Juliet, he says, demands life-long possession of her lover; after her death, Night shall be her heiress: "of the possibility of Romeo's death she cannot, in her present happiness, conceive."
8. 25 garish] excessively bright, glaring. Johnson: "Milton had this speech in his thoughts when he wrote … in Il Penseroso: 'Till civil-suited morn appear,' and 'Hide me from day's garish eye.'"
9. 40. envious] malicious.
10. 45. "I"] ay; commonly printed I in Shakespeare's time. A modern editor is compelled here to retain the old form, or to obscure the play on I=ay, I, the vowel, and eye.
11. 47. cockatrice] The power of the fabled cockatrice (often identified with basilisk) to slay with the eye is spoken of in Richard III. IV. i. 56, and Twelfth Night, III. iv. 215. For etymology and sense-history of the word, see a long article in New Eng. Dict. See Topsell, History of Serpents (ed. 1658), pp. 677–681, and Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica.
12. 48. "I"] Many editors print I, without inverted commas.
13. 49. those eyes] Romeo's eyes.
14. 51. determine of] decide, as in Richard III. III. iv. 2.
15. 53. mark] The origin of the ejaculation is uncertain. It has been suggested that it was originally a bowman's exclamation: "May the mark escape rival shooters!"
16. 56. gore blood] clotted blood. Halliwell quotes Vicars, Virgil, 1632: "vented much black gore-blood."
17. 56. swounded] The forms swoon, swound, sound are all common in Elizabethan books.
18. 57–60. O break … bier] In place of these lines Q 1 has:

    "Ah, Romeo, Romeo, what disaster hap
    Hath severd thee from thy true Juliet?
    Ah why should Heaven so much conspire with Woe,
    Or Fate envie our happie Marriage,
    So soone to sunder us by timelesse Death?"

19. 66. dearest] More force is given by this reading to the dearer which follows than if dear-loved Q 1 were read.
20. 73. O serpent] So Macbeth, I. v. 66: "look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under 't."
21. 75. Beautiful] Daniel proposes Bountiful, to strengthen the antithesis.
22. 78. Just … justly] Exact … exactly, as often in Shakespeare.
23. 87. All … dissemblers] With the emphasis three times on all, and forsworn pronounced as a trisyllable, the line reads well enough. Daniel (after Fleay) reads:
    "all naught,
    All perjured, all dissemblers, all forsworn."
    Q, F make two lines from There's to dissemblers, the first ending men. The above is Capell's arrangement.
24. 98. smooth] With the literal meaning opposed to mangle, and the metaphorical meaning speak well of, flatter, as in Titus Andronicus, V. ii. 140: "smooth, and speak him fair." The idea is from Brooke's poem.
25. 117. needly] needs; used only here by Shakespeare.
26. 120. modern] ordinary, common, as in All's Well, II. iii. 2, and As You Like It, II. vi. 156, and often elsewhere.
27. 121. rearward] Collier proposed rear-word. But compare Sonnets, xc. 6:

    "Ah, do not, when my heart hath scaped this sorrow,
    Come in the rearward of a conquer'd woe."

    And "the rearward of reproaches," Much Ado, IV. i. 128.

28. 126. sound] make audible; but to sound as with a plummet is possible.
29. 130. tears:] Several editors prefer the tears? of Q.