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Romeo & Juliet
 


    
ACT III, Scene iii
Act III, Scence iii: Friar Laurence's cell. Enter FRIAR LAURENCE.
FRIAR LAURENCE
  Romeo, come out! Come out, you fearful man!
Pain is in love with you,
and you are married to trouble.
Enter ROMEO.
ROMEO
  What's the news, father? What is the prince's sentence?
What sorrow am I going to learn about now
that I don't already know?
FRIAR LAURENCE
  You are too familiar
with unhappy things, my dear man.
I bring you news of the prince's sentence.
ROMEO
  What except death can the prince's sentence be?
FRIAR LAURENCE
  He gave a more gentle sentence--
you'll not be executed--but banished.
ROMEO
  Banishment! Be merciful! Say, "death" instead.
Exile is worse than death,
much worse than death. Don't say "banishment!"
FRIAR LAURENCE
  You are banished from Verona.
Be patient. The world is broad and wide.
ROMEO
  There's no world outside of Verona!
There's only purgatory, torture, and hell itself!
To be banished from Verona is to be banished from the world,
and exile from the world is death! So to be banished
means death, in other words. By saying death is banishment,
you cut off my head with a golden axe,
and smile upon my murderer.
FRIAR LAURENCE
  You're speaking a deadly sin. You're rude and unthankful!
For your crime, the lawful punishment is death, but the kind prince
sided with you and put aside the law,
turning the black word "death" to "banishment."
He granted you mercy and you don't see it.
ROMEO
  It's torture, not mercy! Heaven is here
where Juliet lives. Every cat and dog
and little mouse and every unworthy thing here
lives in heaven if they can look at her.
But Romeo may not. There's more value,
more honor, and more courtship
in flies than in Romeo. Flies may sit
on Juliet's white wondrous hands
and steal heavenly blessings from her lips
which in pure and virginal modesty
always blush because they think it's a sinful kiss when they press together.
But Romeo may not kiss her lips because he's banished.
Files may touch her, but I must fly away from her.
Flies are free, but I am banished.
And you still say exile is not death?
Don't you have some poison , or a sharp knife?
or some quick means of dying--no matter how crude--
other than the world "banished" to kill me? Banished?
O friar, the damned use that word in hell;
they howl when it is spoken! How can you have the heart,
being a holy man, a confessor,
a sin-forgiver, and my friend,
to tear me apart with that word banished?
FRIAR LAURENCE
  You foolish madman, listen to me for just a moment.
ROMEO
  No. You'll talk again of banishment.
FRIAR LAURENCE
  I'll give you some armor to shield you from that word.
I'll give you the sweet milk of philosophy
to comfort you, though you are banished.
ROMEO
  You say "banished" again? Hang your philosophy--
Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
move Verona, or reverse the prince's sentence,
it won't help, it will be useless. Don't say anymore.
FRIAR LAURNENCE
  O, I see, then, that madmen have no ears.
ROMEO
  How can they, when wise men have no eyes?
FRIAR LAURENCE
  Let me discuss your situation with you--
ROMEO
  You can't talk about something you can't feel.
If you were as young as I am, Juliet your lover,
married only an hour, Tybalt killed,
as deeply in love as I am, and banished like me,
then you could speak. Then you would tear your hair out!
Then you would fall upon the ground, as I do now, and
measure your unmade grave.
There is a knock at the door.
FRIAR LAURENCE
  Get up, Romeo! Someone is knocking! Good Romeo, hide.
ROMEO
  No, I won't--not unless the breath from my heartsick groans
wraps me in a mist to hide me from searching eyes.
There is another knock.
FRIAR LAURENCE
  Listen, they're knocking again. Who's there? Romeo, get up!
You'll be arrested! (To the knocker) Just a minute! (To Romeo) Get up!
Knocking.
  Run to my study! (To the knocker) I'm coming!
(To Romeo) Why are you acting so foolishly?
(To the knocker) I'm coming, I'm coming!
Knocking.
  Who is knocking so hard? Where did you come from? What do you want?
NURSE enters.
NURSE
  Let me come in and I'll tell you what I want.
I come from Lady Juliet.
FRIAR LAURENCE
  Welcome, then.
NURSE
  O holy friar. Tell me, holy friar,
where's my lady's lord? Where's Romeo?
FRIAR LAURENCE
  He's lying there on the ground, drunk with his own tears.
NURSE
  He's just like my mistress--
just like her! What a sorrowful echo of Juliet's grief!
It's a pitiful predicament. She lies just like him,
blubbering and crying, crying and blubbering.
Stand up, stand up! Stand if you're a man!
For Juliet's sake, for her sake, rise and stand.
Why should you fall into such a fit of grief?
ROMEO (rises)
  Nurse!
NURSE
  Alas, sir. Well, death ends everything.
ROMEO
  Did you speak of Juliet? How is she?
Does she think I am a hardened murderer
now that I have stained the beginning of our joyful marriage
with the blood of her cousin.
Where is she? How is she? What does my
secretly-married wife say about our cancelled marriage?
NURSE
  She says nothing, sir. She just cries and cries
and falls on her bed. Then she gets up
and calls Tybalt, and then she cries for Romeo,
and then she falls on her bed again.
ROMEO
  It's like my name
is a shot from a deadly gun
that murdered her, as my cursed hand
murdered her cousin. O, tell me, friar, tell me,
in what horrible part of my body
does my name lie? Tell me so I can destroy
that hateful part.
ROMEO tries to stab himself, but the NURSE snatches the dagger out of his hand.
FRIAR LAURENCE
  Stop your desperate hand!
Are you a man? Your body says you are,
but your tears are womanish and your wild actions are like
the irrational actions of an animal.
You're like an undignified woman in the body of a man--
an odd animal in seeming to be both man and woman.
You amaze me! By my holy order,
I thought you had a more even-tempered disposition.
Have you killed Tybalt? Will you kill yourself?
And will you also kill the lady, whose life is your life, by killing yourself?
Why are you ranting about your birth, the heavens, and earth?
Birth, heaven, and earth--all three--are joined
in you at the same time. Now you want to desert all of that at once.
For shame! You shame your body, your love, and your intelligence.
You're like a moneylender who has countless riches
and yet uses none of that wealth properly
to honor your body, love, and intelligence.
Your handsome body is just a wax model
without manly virtues.
The love you have sworn is just a lie
and kills the love which you have vowed to cherish.
Your intelligence, that complement to your body and love,
poorly directs both of those.
Your intelligence is like gunpowder in a novice soldier's powder horn--
lit by your own ignorance
and blowing you apart with your own weapon.
Wake up man! Your Juliet is alive!
It was for her sake that you wanted to be dead just now.
In that are you fortunate. Tybalt wanted to kill you,
but you killed him. In that are you fortunate.
The law that threatened you death became your friend
and gave you exile. In that are you fortunate.
A pack of blessings have fallen on your back.
Happiness comes to you in her best clothes
but, like a badly behaved and sullen maid,
you frown at your good fortune and your love.
Listen to me, people like you die miserably.
Go, get to your love as your marriage decrees that you should do.
Climb to her room and comfort her.
But be sure you don't stay until the night guards come on duty,
for then you can't escape to Mantua--
where you will live until we can find a time
to announce your marriage, reconcile your friends,
ask the prince's pardon, and bring you back home
with two million times more joy
than when you left in sorrow.
Go, nurse. Give my regards to your lady,
and tell her to hurry everyone in the house to bed.
Their heavy grief will make them want to go to bed, anyway.
Tell her Romeo is coming.
NURSE
  O Lord, I could have stayed here all night
to hear such good advice. O, learning is wonderful!
My lord, I'll tell my lady you'll come.
ROMEO
  Do so, and bid my sweet lady to prepare to scold me.
The NURSE starts to leave but turns back.
NURSE
  Here's a ring she asked me to give you, sir.
Hurry! Make haste, for it's getting very late.
ROMEO
  I am greatly comforted by this ring.
The NURSE exits.
FRIAR LAURENCE (to Nurse)
  Go, good night. (To Romeo) Here's your situation:
you must leave before the guards are posted at the gates,
or leave in a disguise at the break of day.
Stay in Mantua. I'll find your servant,
and he'll tell you from time to time
every good thing that occurs here.
Give me your hand. It's late. Farewell; good night.
ROMEO
  If a joy to surpass all joys did not call me,
it would be sad to leave you so quickly.
Farewell!
They exit.