Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
|
Enter Juliet alone. JULIET
Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
Towards Phoebus’ lodging. Such a wagoner
As Phaëton would whip you to the west
And bring in cloudy night immediately.
Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, 5
That runaways’ 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, 10
Thou sober-suited matron all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match
Played for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.
Hood my unmanned blood, bating in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle till strange love grow bold, 15
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 upon a raven’s back. 20
Come, gentle night; come, loving black-browed
night,
Give me my Romeo, and when I shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine 25
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 30
As is the night before some festival
To an impatient child that hath new robes
And may not wear them. Enter Nurse with cords. O, here comes my nurse,
And she brings news, and every tongue that speaks 35
But Romeo’s name speaks heavenly eloquence.—
Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there? The
cords
That Romeo bid thee fetch? | Juliet, who hasn't heard about the whole murder/ revenge killing thing, is watching the clock for nightfall, when Romeo is supposed to sneak into her room. She compares her marriage to Romeo to a real estate deal: she and Romeo have bought the house, but the haven't slept in it yet. (Wink, wink.) In other words, Juliet is pretty eager to get her honeymoon underway. |
NURSE Ay, ay, the cords. 40 Dropping the rope ladder. JULIET
Ay me, what news? Why dost thou wring thy hands? | When the Nurse enters, Juliet realizes right away that something has gone wrong. |
NURSE
Ah weraday, he’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead!
We are undone, lady, we are undone.
Alack the day, he’s gone, he’s killed, he’s dead. JULIET
Can heaven be so envious? 45 NURSE Romeo can,
Though heaven cannot. O Romeo, Romeo,
Whoever would have thought it? Romeo! JULIET
What devil art thou that dost torment me thus?
This torture should be roared in dismal hell. 50
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 “I,”
Or those eyes shut that makes thee answer “Ay.” 55
If he be slain, say “Ay,” or if not, “No.”
Brief sounds determine 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, 60
Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaubed in blood,
All in gore blood. I swoonèd at the sight. JULIET
O break, my heart, poor bankrout, break at once!
To prison, eyes; ne’er look on liberty.
Vile earth to earth resign; end motion here, 65
And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier. | At first, Juliet thinks Romeo has been killed—mainly because of the way the Nurse delivers the news. (We have to say, in this scene, the Nurse reminds us a little of this very literal doctor.) |
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? 70
Is Romeo slaughtered and is Tybalt dead?
My dearest 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. 75
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. | Then the Nurse starts crying out Tybalt's name and Juliet finally gets the story straightened out. Romeo isn't dead, but he killed her cousin and now he's been banished. |
JULIET
O serpent heart hid with a flow’ring face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? 80
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 honorable villain. 85
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 90
In such a gorgeous palace! | Juliet's first reaction is to curse Romeo and wonder how such evil could exist inside such a saintly and beautiful man. |
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. 95
These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me
old.
Shame come to Romeo! | The Nurse jumps right on board and starts piling the criticism on Romeo. This, as you can imagine, doesn't go over well with Juliet. |
JULIET Blistered be thy tongue
For such a wish! He was not born to shame. 100
Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit,
For ’tis a throne where honor may be crowned
Sole monarch of the universal Earth.
O, what a beast was I to chide at him! | Juliet turns on the Nurse and tells her she can't criticize her husband. In fact, she tells the Nurse her tongue should be blistered for speaking badly of him. |
NURSE
Will you speak well of him that killed your cousin? 105 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? 110
That villain cousin would have killed 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, 115
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, 120
But, O, it presses to my memory
Like damnèd 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 125
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, 130
Which modern lamentation might have moved?
But with a rearward following Tybalt’s death,
“Romeo is banishèd.” To speak that word
Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,
All slain, all dead. “Romeo is banishèd.” 135
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. 140 | Juliet regrets the things she said about Romeo and reasons that if he hadn't killed Tybalt, Tybalt would have killed him. Forced to choose between the cousin she has loved all her life and her new husband, she chooses Romeo. She goes on to say that having Romeo banished is like losing 10,000 cousins...and her mom. And her dad. And her and Romeo, too. In short: there's nothing worse than having Romeo banished. Everyone might as well be dead. |
JULIET
Wash they his wounds with tears? Mine shall be
spent,
When theirs are dry, for Romeo’s banishment.—
Take up those cords.
The Nurse picks up the rope ladder.
Poor ropes, you are beguiled, 145
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! 150 NURSE
Hie to your chamber. I’ll find Romeo
To comfort you. I wot well where he is.
Hark you, your Romeo will be here at night.
I’ll to him. He is hid at Lawrence’ cell. JULIET
O, find him! Giving the Nurse a ring. 155
Give this ring to my true knight
And bid him come to take his last farewell. They exit. | Juliet continues to flip out about Romeo's banishment. She's wailing about the fact that she'll die a virgin when the Nurse tells her Romeo isn't gone yet. He's hiding out at Friar Lawrence's. The Nurse promises to find him so he and Juliet can have their night of passion before he has to hit the road. |