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

SCENE III.—The Same. Friar Laurence's cell.^{[C 1]}

Enter Friar Laurence.^{[C 2][E 1]}

Fri.	Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful[E 2] man: Affliction is enamour'd of thy parts,[E 3] And thou art wedded to calamity.

Enter Romeo.^{[C 3]}

Rom.	Father, what news? what is the prince's doom? What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand,5 That I yet know not?

Fri.	That I yet know not? 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[E 4] from his lips,10 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:[C 4] do not say "banishment."

Fri.	Hence[C 5] from Verona art thou banished:15 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 exile[C 6][E 5] is death; then "banished"20 Is death mis-term'd: calling death "banished,"[C 7] Thou cutt'st my head off with a golden axe, And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.

Fri.	O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness! Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind prince,25 Taking thy part, hath rush'd[E 6] aside the law, And turn'd that black word death to banishment: This is dear[C 8] mercy, and thou seest it not.

Rom.

'Tis torture, and not mercy: heaven is here, Where Juliet lives; and every cat and dog30 And little mouse, every unworthy thing, Live here in heaven and may look on her, But Romeo may not: more validity,[E 7] More honourable state, more courtship[E 8] lives In carrion flies than Romeo: they may seize35 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:40 This may flies do, when I from this must fly: They are free men, but I am banished: And say'st thou yet that exile is not death?[C 9][E 9] Hadst thou no poison mix'd, no sharp-ground knife, No sudden mean of death,[E 10] though ne'er so mean,45 But "banished" to kill me? "Banished"? O friar, the damned use that word in hell; Howling[E 11] attends[C 10] it: how hast thou the heart, Being a divine, a ghostly confessor, A sin-absolver, and my friend profess'd,50 To mangle me with that word "banished"?[C 11]

Fri.	Thou[C 12] fond[E 12] mad man, hear me a little speak.[C 13][E 13]

Rom.	O, thou wilt speak again of banishment.

Fri.	I'll give thee armour to keep off that[C 14] word; Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy,55 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.60

Fri.	O, then I see that madmen have no ears.

Rom.	How should they, when that[C 15] wise men have no eyes?

Fri.	Let me dispute[C 16] with thee of thy estate.[E 14]

Rom.

Thou canst not speak of that[C 17] thou dost not feel: Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy[C 18] love,65 An hour but married, Tybalt murdered, Doting like me, and like me banished, Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair, And fall upon the ground, as I do now, Taking the measure of an unmade grave.[E 15]70

[Knocking within.^{[C 19]}

Fri.	Arise; one knocks; good Romeo, hide thyself.

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 awhile!—Stand up;75 [Knocking.[C 20][E 16] Run to my study.—By and by! God's will, What simpleness[C 21] is this! I come, I come! [Knocking. Who knocks so hard? whence come you? what's your will?

Nurse.

[Within.][C 22] Let me come in, and you shall know my errand; I come from Lady Juliet.

Fri.	Welcome then.80

Enter Nurse.^{[C 23]}

Nurse.

O holy friar, O, tell me, holy friar, Where is[C 24] 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!85 Piteous predicament![E 17]

Nurse.

Even so lies she, Blubbering[E 18] and weeping, weeping and blubbering. Stand up, stand up; stand, an[C 25] you be a man: For Juliet's sake, for her sake, rise and stand; Why should you fall into so deep an O?[C 26][E 19]90

Rom.

Nurse!

Nurse.

Ah sir! ah sir! Well, death's[C 27] the end of all.

Rom.	Spakest[C 28] thou of Juliet? how is it with her? Doth she not[C 29] think me an old murderer, Now I have stain'd the childhood of our joy95 With blood removed but little from her own? Where is she? and how doth she? and what says My conceal'd[E 20] lady to our cancell'd[C 30] love?

Nurse.

O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps; And now falls on her bed; and then starts up,100 And Tybalt calls; and then on Romeo cries,[C 31] And then down falls again.

Rom.	As if that name, Shot from the deadly[C 32] level[E 21] of a gun, Did murder her, as that name's cursed hand Murder'd her kinsman. O, tell me, friar, tell me,105 In what vile part of this anatomy[E 22] Doth my name lodge? tell me, that I may sack The hateful mansion.[Drawing his sword.[C 33]

Fri.

Hold thy desperate hand: Art thou a man?[E 23] thy form cries out thou art: Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote[C 34]110 The unreasonable fury of a beast: Unseemly woman in a seeming man! And[C 35] ill-beseeming beast in seeming both! Thou hast amazed me: by my holy order, I thought thy disposition better temper'd.115 Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself? And slay thy lady that in thy life lives,[C 36] By doing damned hate upon thyself? Why rail'st thou on thy birth,[E 24] the heaven and earth? Since birth and heaven and earth, all three do meet120 In thee at once, which thou at once wouldst lose. Fie, fie! thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit; Which, like a usurer, abound'st in all, And usest none in that true use indeed Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit:[E 25]125 Thy noble shape is but a form of wax, Digressing[E 26] from the valour of a man; Thy dear love sworn, but hollow perjury, Killing that love which thou hast vow'd to cherish; Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,130 Misshapen in the conduct of them both, Like powder[E 27] in a skilless soldier's flask, Is set a-fire by thine own ignorance, And thou[E 28] dismember'd with thine own defence. What, rouse thee, man! thy Juliet is alive,135For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead; There art thou happy: Tybalt would kill thee, But thou slew'st Tybalt; there art thou happy too:[C 37] The law that threaten'd death becomes[C 38] thy friend, And turns[C 39] it to exile; there art thou happy:140 A pack of blessings[C 40] light[C 41] upon thy back; Happiness courts thee in her[C 42] best array; But, like a misbehaved[C 43] and sullen wench, Thou pout'st upon[C 44][E 29] thy fortune and thy love: Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.145 Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed, Ascend her chamber, hence and comfort her; But look thou stay not till the watch be set, For then thou canst not pass to Mantua; Where thou shalt live till we can find a time150 To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends, Beg pardon of the[C 45] prince, and call thee back With twenty hundred thousand times more joy Than thou went'st forth in lamentation.— Go before, nurse: commend me to thy lady,155 And bid her hasten all the house to bed, Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto: Romeo is coming.

Nurse.

O Lord, I could have stay'd here all the[C 46] night To hear good counsel: O, what learning is!160 My lord, I'll tell my lady you will come.

Rom.	Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide.[C 47]

Nurse.

Here, sir,[E 30] a ring she bid me give you, sir:[C 48] Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late.[Exit.

Rom.	How well my comfort is revived by this!165

Fri.

Go hence. Good night; and here stands[E 31] all your state: Either be gone before the watch be set, Or by the break of day disguised[C 49] from hence: Sojourn in Mantua: I'll find out your man, And he shall signify from time to time170 Every good hap to you that chances here: Give me thy hand; 'tis late: farewell; good night.

Rom.	But that a joy past joy calls out on me, It were a grief, so brief to part with thee: Farewell. [Exeunt. 175

Critical notes

1. Friar Laurence's cell] Capell.
2. Enter Friar Laurence] Capell; Enter Frier Q 1; Enter Frier and Romeo Q, F.
3. 4. Enter Romeo] Q 1, Dyce; after line 1 Capell.
4. 14. Much … death] Q, F; Than death it selfe Q 1.
5. 15. Hence] Q 1; Here Q, F.
6. 20. world's exile] Q, F; world exilde Q 1; world-exil'd Pope.
7. 21. "banished"] Q, F; banishment Q 1.
8. 28. dear] Q, F; meere Q 1.
9. 40–43. But … death?] see note below.
10. 48. Howling attends] Q 1, Q; Howlings attends F.
11. 51. "banished"] Q, F; banishment Q 1.
12. 52. Thou] Q 1, Qq 4, 5; Then Q, F;
13. hear me a little speak] Q, heare me speake F, heare me but speake a word Q 1.
14. 54. keep off that] Q, F; beare off this Q 1.
15. 62. that] Q, omitted F.
16. 63. dispute] Q 1, Q; dispaire F.
17. 64. that] Q, F; what Q 1.
18. 65. as I, Juliet thy] Q 1, Q; as Iuliet my F.
19. 70. Knocking …] Enter Nurse, and knocke Q (so F with "knockes").
20. 75. Knocking] Slud knock Qq 2, 3; Knocke againe Qq 4, 5; Knocke F.
21. 77. simpleness] Q, F; wilfulness, Q 1.
22. 79. [Within]] Rowe.
23. 80. Enter Nurse] Rowe; after line 78 Q, F.
24. 82. Where is] Q 1; Wheres Q, F.
25. 88. an] Rowe; and Q, F.
26. 90. O?] Q, O. F.
27. 92. Well, death's] Q I; deaths Q, F.
28. 93. Spakest] Q, Speak'st, F.
29. 94. she not] Q 1; not she Q, F.
30. 98. our cancell'd] Q 1, Q; our conceal'd F.
31. 101. calls … cries] Q, F; cries … calls Q 1.
32. 103. deadly] Q, dead, F.
33. 108. Drawing …] Theobald; He offers to stab himself, and Nurse snatches the dagger away Q 1.
34. 110. denote] Q 1, Qq 4, 5, F; deuote Q; doe note F 2.
35. 113. And] Q F; Or Q 1.
36. 117. lady … lives] F 4; lady, . . lies, Q, F; Lady too, that lives in thee? Q 1.
37. 138. slew'st … too] Q 1, F 2; Q, F omit too.
38. 139. becomes] Q, became F.
39. 140. turns] Q, turn'd F.
40. 141. of blessings] Q, of blessing Q 3, or blessing F;
41. light] Q, F; lights, Q 1, Q 4.
42. 142. her] Q, F; his Q 1.
43. 143. misbehaved] Q 1, Qq 4, 5; mishaved Q; mishaped F.
44. 144. pout'st upon] Q 5, powts upon Q 4, puts up Q, puttest up F, frownst upon Q 1.
45. 152. the] Q, thy F.
46. 159. the] Q, omitted F.
47. 162.] Nurse offers to goe in, and turnes againe Q 1.
48. 163. Here … sir] Q, F; Heere is a Ring sir, that she bad me give you Q 1.
49. 168. disguised] F, disguise Q.

Explanatory notes

1. Enter …] Friar Laurence has come from without; Romeo is hidden within; hence the directions of Q 1 seem right.
2. 1. fearful] full of fear, as often in Shakespeare.
3. 2. parts] gifts, endowments, as in III. v. 182.
4. 10. vanish'd] No such use of vanish is found elsewhere in Shakespeare, for breath vanishing from the lips like smoke (in Lucrece, line 1041) is not a parallel. Massinger, however, in The Renegado, V. iii., has: "Upon those lips from which those sweet words vanish'd," which Keightley supposes was written on the authority of the present passage. Heath conjectured issued. I suspect that banishment in the next line misled the printer; but possibly (and it is strange that this has not been suggested) Shakespeare wrote:

   "A gentler judgment—'banish'd'—from his lips."

5. 20. exile] The accent is variable; see line 13 and line 43.
6. 26. rush'd] Capell conjectured push'd, Collier (MS.) has brush'd. Schmidt explains rush'd aside as eluded, comparing Measure for Measure, I. iv. 63: "have run by the hideous law."
7. 33. validity] worth, value, as in All's Well, V. iii. 192, and Lear, I. i. 83: "this ample third of our fair kingdom, No less in space, validity, and pleasure."
8. 34. courtship] Schmidt compares As You Like It, III. ii. 364: "an inland man, one that knew courtship well, for there he fell in love," as another example of the word with the two meanings of civility, courtliness and courting, wooing, blent into one.
9. 40–43. But … death?] Q 1 has:
   "And steale immortall kisses from her lips;
   But Romeo may not, he is banished,
   Flies may doo this, but I from this must flye.
   Oh Father hadst thou no strong poyson mixt."
   Q places after line 39 of text lines 41, 43, 40, and then adds the line "Flies may," etc., of Q I, which is followed by 42 of the text. F gives only line 41 of the text, followed by 43, 40. Errors were made in printing a revision based on Q 1. See the note in Daniel's edition in explanation and defence of the arrangement in the text. For the various arrangements of editors, see Furness.
10. 45. mean of death] Shakespeare uses both the singular mean and the plural means.
11. 48. Howling] To howl is used by Shakespeare several times with special reference to the outcries of the damned, as in 2 Henry IV. II. iv. 374, and Hamlet, V. i. 265.
12. 52. fond] foolish.
13. 52. hear … speak] G. White justly remarks that, although most editors follow Q 1, "hear me but speak a word," the change seems plainly to have been made to avoid the unpleasant recurrence of word.
14. 63. dispute … estate] discuss with you concerning your present state of affairs.
15. 70. measure … grave] So As You Like It, II. vi. 2: "Here lie I down, and measure out my grave."
16. 75. Knocking] The puzzling stage-direction of Q "Slud knock" may, I think, be thus explained: The original word in line 76 was not study; stud was written above, but the word could not be completed, being interrupted by knock; study was written in the margin, and stud was not erased; which the printer misrepresented as Slud.
17. 85, 86. Fri. O … predicament] In all the early editions these words are given to the Nurse. Farmer conjectured that they are the Friar's; Steevens and most modern editors have adopted the suggestion. Unless the Nurse, in the presence of the learned Friar, produces her longest words, predicament can hardly be hers. It means here, condition; it is used for category, condition, by Portia, Merchant of Venice, IV. i. 357, and by Hotspur, 1 Henry IV. I. iii. 168. The word sympathy, meaning correspondence or similarity of suffering, as in Titus Andronicus, III. i. 148, seems also to be out of the compass of the Nurse's vocabulary. Delius and Daniel, however, assign the words, with Q, F, to the Nurse.
18. 87. Blubbering] The suggestion of ridicule was not necessarily connected with this word, as used by Elizabethan writers; it occurs only here in the text of Shakespeare.
19. 90. an O] Hanmer, followed by Johnson, reads "deep an— Rom. Oh Nurse." O seems here to mean an exclamation of sorrow. Collier (MS.) adds a stage-direction "Romeo groans."
20. 98. conceal'd] My lady, though that she is so is concealed from the world.
21. 103. level] range, line of aim, as in Sonnets, cxvii. 11: "Bring me within the level of your frown, But shoot not at me in your waken'd hate."
22. 106. anatomy] a body or a "subject" for dissection; compare Twelfth Night, III. ii. 67.
23. 109. Art thou a man?] Shakespeare closely follows Brooke's poem, both here and in lines 119–121. See p. 192.
24. 119. birth] Romeo has not railed on his birth; but in Brooke's poem Romeus does so.
25. 125. wit] understanding, or judgment.
26. 127. Digressing] deviating. New Eng. Dict. cites Golding, Calvin on Psalms, lxxi. 16: "As the other translation agreeth very well, I would not digresse from it."
27. 132. powder] Steevens: "The ancient English soldiers using match-locks … were obliged to carry a lighted match, hanging at their belts, very near to the wooden flask in which they kept their powder."
28. 134. And thou] And thou blown into fragments by what should have been thy means of defence.
29. 144. pout'st upon] Steevens: "The reading in the text is confirmed by the following passage in Coriolanus, V. i. 52: 'then We pout upon the morning.'"
30. 163. Here, sir] Daniel conjectures Here, sir's.
31. 166. here stands] Johnson: "The whole of your fortune depends on this."