Romeo & Juliet - Act 3 Scene 2
Capulet's house.
Enter JULIET
In an echo of 2.4, Juliet is once again eager for news and waiting for the Nurse. Juliet is excited with anticipation (and apprehension) for her impending wedding night.
Juliet proposes a bargain with night, offering Romeo after his death, to be turned into a constellation, as in several Greek myths. Once again, sex is linked with death, and the play’s conclusion is foreshadowed.
JULIET
Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
Towards Phoebus' lodging; such a wagoner
As Phaethon would whip you to the West,
And bring in cloudy night immediately.
Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,
That runaway's eyes may wink and Romeo
Leap to these arms, untalked of and unseen.
Lovers can see to do their amorous rites
By their own beauties; or, if love be blind,
It best agrees with night. Come, civil night,
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match,
Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.
Hood my unmanned blood, bating in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle; till strange love, grown bold,
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 a raven's back.
Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-brow'd night,
Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
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 sun.
O, I have bought the mansion of a love,
But not possessed it, and, though I am sold,
Not yet enjoyed. So tedious is this day
As is the night before some festival
To an impatient child that hath new robes
And may not wear them. O, here comes my Nurse,
And she brings news; and every tongue that speaks
But Romeo's name speaks heavenly eloquence.
The Nurse enters, bringing terrible news, of which Juliet is unaware; her assertion that “every tongue that speaks/ But Romeo’s name speaks heavenly eloquence” will prove ironically untrue.
Enter Nurse, with cords
Now, Nurse, what news? What hast thou there? The cords
That Romeo bid thee fetch?
Nurse
Ay, ay, the cords.
[Throws them down]
JULIET
Ay me! What news? Why dost thou wring thy hands?
The comic miscommunication of 2.4 is now turned to tragic misunderstanding, as Juliet struggles to understand the Nurse’s news, while the Nurse is consumed with her own grief.
Nurse
Ah, well-a-day! He's dead, he's dead, he's dead!
We are undone, lady, we are undone!
Alack the day! He's gone, he's kill'd, he's dead!
JULIET
Can heaven be so envious?
Nurse
Romeo can,
Though heaven cannot. O Romeo, Romeo!
Who ever would have thought it? Romeo!
JULIET
What devil art thou, that dost torment me thus?
This torture should be roared in dismal hell.
Hath Romeo slain himself? Say thou but 'Ay,'
And that bare vowel 'I' shall poison more
Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice.
I am not I, if there be such an ‘Ay’;
Or those eyes shut, that make thee answer 'Ay.'
If he be slain, say 'Ay'; or if not, ‘No.‘
Brief sounds determine of my weal or woe.
Nurse
I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes –
God save the mark! – here on his manly breast.
A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse;
Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaubed in blood,
All in gore-blood; I swounded at the sight.
JULIET
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 heavy bier!
As with Lady Capulet earlier, the relationship that the Nurse claims with Tybalt is surprising, as there’s no indication of it earlier on.
Nurse
O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had!
O courteous Tybalt! Honest gentleman!
That ever I should live to see thee dead!
JULIET
What storm is this that blows so contrary?
Is Romeo slaughtered, and is Tybalt dead?
My dear-loved cousin, and my dearer lord?
Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom!
For who is living, if those two are gone?
Nurse
Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banishèd;
Romeo that killed him, he is banishèd.
JULIET
O God! Did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?
Nurse
It did, it did; alas the day, it did!
JULIET
O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical!
Dove-feathered raven! Wolvish-ravening lamb!
Despisèd substance of divinest show!
Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st,
A damnèd saint, an honourable 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!
The Nurse and Juliet are briefly united in their hatred of men generally and Romeo in particular; Juliet finds herself torn between loyalty to her family and loyalty to her husband, and love for Romeo wins out.
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 vitae.
These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old.
Shame come to Romeo!
JULIET
Blistered be thy tongue
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 crowned
Sole monarch of the universal earth.
O, what a beast was I to chide at him!
Nurse
Will you speak well of him that killed your cousin?
Finally comprehending the situation, Juliet is crushed to learn of Romeo’s exile. This can be played as melodrama, but there’s a core of truth to it: without her love, life is not worth living.
JULIET
Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?
Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name,
When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it?
But, wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?
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 husband.
All this is comfort; wherefore weep I then?
Some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death,
That murdered 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 – banishèd;'
That 'banishèd,' that one word 'banishèd,'
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 ranked with other griefs,
Why followed not, when she said 'Tybalt's dead,'
Thy father, or thy mother, nay, or both,
Which modern lamentation might have moved?
But with a rear-ward following Tybalt's death,
'Romeo is banishèd,' to speak that word,
Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,
All slain, all dead. 'Romeo is banishèd!'
There is no end, no limit, measure, bound,
In that word's death; no words can that woe sound.
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.
JULIET
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-widowèd.
Come, cords, come, Nurse; I'll to my wedding-bed;
And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!
Juliet’s desire for death prompts the Nurse to forgive Romeo, and she agrees to bring him to Juliet’s chamber for the wedding night, though we never get to see the cords in use (though Romeo may employ them to climb down in 3.5).
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.
JULIET
O, find him! Give this ring to my true knight,
And bid him come to take his last farewell.
Exeunt