Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene 2

Romeo and Juliet
Act III, Scene 2

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Capulet's orchard.
Enter JULIET
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, untalk'd 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:

Juliet is back at her house, and this girl cannot wait until sundown. It is almost as if she thinks something rather exciting might happen...

Phaethon is a character from Greek mythology. So is Phoebus. Phoebus drove a sun chariot across the sky. She wants the sun to hurry up and go down.

In a rather interesting speech, she impatiently awaits the loss of her virginity: “And learn me how to lose a winning match, played for a pair of stainless maidenheads” (lines 12-13). A “winning match”? This is not exactly tennis, folks.

Hood my unmann'd 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,
Scholars will sniff and put their noses in the air as they tell you how "beautiful" this poetry is. Don't believe them. It is dirty poetry, plain and simple. It is vulgar, and crude, and disgusting. That is why it is so much fun.

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.
She hums "Twinkle, twinkle, little Romeo..."

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 robes
And may not wear them.
She says she has "bought" the mansion of a love, but that she has not yet "possessed it." It is as if Romeo is on the "layaway" plan.

O, here comes my nurse,
And she brings news; and every tongue that speaks
But Romeo's name speaks heavenly eloquence.
Juliet sees the Nurse approaching.

Enter Nurse, with cords
JULIET
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 Nurse enters, and she apparently was downtown, to hear the Prince’s big pronouncement. The Nurse is crying, though, and cannot seem to get the words out.

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!

When the Nurse begins to wail, “He’s dead! He’s dead! He’s dead!” (line 39), Juliet believes that the Nurse is speaking of Romeo. (Well...what would you think?)

JULIET
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 'aye,'
And that bare vowel 'I' shall poison more
Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice:
I am not I, if there be such an I;
Or those eyes shut, that make thee answer 'aye.'
If he be slain, say 'aye'; or if not, 'no.'
Brief sounds determine of my weal or woe.
The word "aye" means "yes." However, it is pronounced the same as "I," as in "aye-aye, sir." Juliet is making puns. At a time like this. Either she is incredibly clever, or she is incredibly daffy. Which do you think is true?

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 bedaub'd in blood,
All in gore-blood; I swounded at the sight.
The Nurse describes seeing a body, “all bedaubed in blood” (line 58). She refers to the corpse as a "piteous corse," which reflects on her emotions, and also her spelling.
The word "swounded" means "swoooned," which also means that she fainted.

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!

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 slaughter'd, 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?

Juliet becomes quite suicidal, and threatens to end her life at that instant.
A bit more vocabulary help: The word "bier" refers to the platform or slab that you put a corpse on.

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

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

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

Finally, the rather inept Nurse reveals the truth in a form that Juliet can make some sense out of: “Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished” (line 72).

JULIET
O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!
Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
Despised substance of divinest show!
Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st,
A damned saint, an honourable villain!
O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell,
When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
In moral 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,
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.

Juliet suddenly begins to speak of "opposites." As I recall, Romeo did this much earlier in the play, back In Act I, Scene 1. Hmmm... I think I smell one of those "literary themes" that scholars just love to talk about. (Yawn.)

Shame come to Romeo!

Then, a curious thing happens. The Nurse is upset over Romeo’s actions, and she remarks, “Shame come to Romeo.” (Line 94).

JULIET
Blister'd 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 crown'd
Sole monarch of the universal earth.
O, what a beast was I to chide at him!

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

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:

Juliet’s response is to scold her trusted friend, the Nurse. The Nurse is supposed to be Juliet's "confidante." "Blistered be thy tongue for such a wish!" she says. Now, that, my friends, is poetry.

All this is comfort; wherefore weep I then?
Some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death,
That murder'd 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--banished;'
That 'banished,' that one word 'banished,'
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 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 lamentations might have moved?
But with a rear-ward 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,
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-widowed.
Come, cords, come, nurse; I'll to my wedding-bed;
And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!

Juliet explains to the Nurse that she is not really concerned with Tybalt’s death. Instead, she is bothered by the fact that Romeo has been banished. She claims that this is worse than death.

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
When she again mentions suicide, the Nurse decides to cheer her up, by seeing to it that Romeo comes to pay a visit tonight. She will leave at once for Friar Lawrence’s cell, where Romeo is hiding out.

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	You can listen to some music as you read. Click on the icon above. (You can also shut if off, if you find it annoying.)

Shakespeare for Scholars:	Shakespeare for Everyone Else:
Capulet's orchard. Enter JULIET 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, untalk'd 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:	Juliet is back at her house, and this girl cannot wait until sundown. It is almost as if she thinks something rather exciting might happen... Phaethon is a character from Greek mythology. So is Phoebus. Phoebus drove a sun chariot across the sky. She wants the sun to hurry up and go down. In a rather interesting speech, she impatiently awaits the loss of her virginity: “And learn me how to lose a winning match, played for a pair of stainless maidenheads” (lines 12-13). A “winning match”? This is not exactly tennis, folks.
Hood my unmann'd 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,	Scholars will sniff and put their noses in the air as they tell you how "beautiful" this poetry is. Don't believe them. It is dirty poetry, plain and simple. It is vulgar, and crude, and disgusting. That is why it is so much fun.
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.	She hums "Twinkle, twinkle, little Romeo..."
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 robes And may not wear them.	She says she has "bought" the mansion of a love, but that she has not yet "possessed it." It is as if Romeo is on the "layaway" plan.
O, here comes my nurse, And she brings news; and every tongue that speaks But Romeo's name speaks heavenly eloquence.	Juliet sees the Nurse approaching.
Enter Nurse, with cords JULIET 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 Nurse enters, and she apparently was downtown, to hear the Prince’s big pronouncement. The Nurse is crying, though, and cannot seem to get the words out.
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!	When the Nurse begins to wail, “He’s dead! He’s dead! He’s dead!” (line 39), Juliet believes that the Nurse is speaking of Romeo. (Well...what would you think?)
JULIET 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 'aye,' And that bare vowel 'I' shall poison more Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice: I am not I, if there be such an I; Or those eyes shut, that make thee answer 'aye.' If he be slain, say 'aye'; or if not, 'no.' Brief sounds determine of my weal or woe.	The word "aye" means "yes." However, it is pronounced the same as "I," as in "aye-aye, sir." Juliet is making puns. At a time like this. Either she is incredibly clever, or she is incredibly daffy. Which do you think is true?
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 bedaub'd in blood, All in gore-blood; I swounded at the sight.	The Nurse describes seeing a body, “all bedaubed in blood” (line 58). She refers to the corpse as a "piteous corse," which reflects on her emotions, and also her spelling. The word "swounded" means "swoooned," which also means that she fainted.
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! 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 slaughter'd, 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?	Juliet becomes quite suicidal, and threatens to end her life at that instant. A bit more vocabulary help: The word "bier" refers to the platform or slab that you put a corpse on.
NURSE Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished; Romeo that kill'd him, he is banished. JULIET O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood? NURSE It did, it did; alas the day, it did!	Finally, the rather inept Nurse reveals the truth in a form that Juliet can make some sense out of: “Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished” (line 72).
JULIET O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face! Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical! Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb! Despised substance of divinest show! Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st, A damned saint, an honourable villain! O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell, When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend In moral 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, 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.	Juliet suddenly begins to speak of "opposites." As I recall, Romeo did this much earlier in the play, back In Act I, Scene 1. Hmmm... I think I smell one of those "literary themes" that scholars just love to talk about. (Yawn.)
Shame come to Romeo!	Then, a curious thing happens. The Nurse is upset over Romeo’s actions, and she remarks, “Shame come to Romeo.” (Line 94).
JULIET Blister'd 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 crown'd Sole monarch of the universal earth. O, what a beast was I to chide at him! NURSE Will you speak well of him that kill'd your cousin? 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:	Juliet’s response is to scold her trusted friend, the Nurse. The Nurse is supposed to be Juliet's "confidante." "Blistered be thy tongue for such a wish!" she says. Now, that, my friends, is poetry.
All this is comfort; wherefore weep I then? Some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death, That murder'd 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--banished;' That 'banished,' that one word 'banished,' 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 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 lamentations might have moved? But with a rear-ward 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, 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-widowed. Come, cords, come, nurse; I'll to my wedding-bed; And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!	Juliet explains to the Nurse that she is not really concerned with Tybalt’s death. Instead, she is bothered by the fact that Romeo has been banished. She claims that this is worse than death.
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	When she again mentions suicide, the Nurse decides to cheer her up, by seeing to it that Romeo comes to pay a visit tonight. She will leave at once for Friar Lawrence’s cell, where Romeo is hiding out.