Nurse. Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished:
Jul. O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?
Nurse. It did, it did: alas the day! it did. 24

Jul. 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! 25
Despised substance of divinest show!

Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st; 26
A damned saint, 27 an honourable villain!

No faith, no honesty in men; all perjur'd,

All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.

Ah! where 's my man? give me some aqua vita:

These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old.
Shame come to Romeo!

Jul.

Blister'd be thy tongue, 30

For such a wish! he was not born to shame.

Upon his brow shame is asham'd to sit;

For 't is 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?
Jul. Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?

Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth 31 thy name,
When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it?

But, wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?

2+) Qs. und Fol. geben diesen Vers der Juliet, und den folgenden, eben so verkehrt, der Amme.

25) Qs. und Fol. haben vor dove-feather'd noch das Epitheton ravenous, das Theobald mit Recht strich.

30) So in Macbeth (A. 4, Sc. 3.) whose sole name blisters our tongue. 31) to smooth, eigentlich glätten, dann im übertragenen Sinne

liebkosen, freundlich thun

mit Etwas.

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 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!

banished, that one word - banished, Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts. 32 Tybalt's death Was woe enough, if it had ended there:

Or,

if sour woe delights in fellowship, 33 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 34 lamentation might have mov'd?
But, with a rear-ward 35 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. 36

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.

Jul. 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 beguil'd,

Both you and I, for Romeo is exil'd:

He made you for a highway 37 to my bed,

32 Die eine Nachricht, dass Romeo verbannt ist, wirkt schlimmer auf Juliet, als die Nachricht, dass zehntausend Tybalts erschlagen wären, wirken könnte.

33) Ein Leid kommt nicht gern allein, sondern sucht andre Leiden zu Gefährten. gewöhnlich, herkömmlich. So kommt in K. John (A. 3, Sc. 4.) a modern

H) modern = invocation vor.

35) Der Nachtrab oder der Schluss, der auf die Nachricht von Tybalt's Tode folgt, ist eben das Wort: Romeo ist verbannt! Und dieses Wort wirkt verderblicher, als der Tod Aller wirken würde. (Vgl. oben Anm. 32.)

But I, a maid, die maiden-widowed.

Come, cords; come, nurse; I'll to my wedding bed;
And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!

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.

Jul. O, find him! give this ring to my true knight, And bid him come to take his last farewell.

SCENE III.

Friar LAURENCE's Cell.

Enter Friar LAURENCE and ROMEO.

Fri. Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man: Affliction is enamour'd of thy parts, 1

And thou art wedded to calamity.

Rom. Father, what news? what is the prince's doom? What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand,

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? 2
Fri. A gentler judgment vanish'd from his lips,

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: do not say

-

banishment.

Fri. Here 3 from Verona art thou banished.

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 is death;

then, banished
banished, 4

Is death mis-term'd. Calling death

[Exeunt.

1) Das Leid wird als ein Weib personificirt, das sich in Romeo's Vorzüge (parts) verliebt hat und ihn freien will.

2) Wortspiel zwischen doom = Urtheil, und dooms-day

=

Tag des jüngsten Gerichtes, oder auch das jüngste Gericht selbst. Für Romeo ist der Urtheilspruch des Fürsten, ehe er ihn kennt, so schlimm, wie das Weltgericht.

3) So Qs. und Fol.

Die Hgg. lesen meist mit Q. A. Hence.

4) So Qs. und Fol., nach deren Lesart Romeo das eben vorher vom Mönche gebrauchte Wort banished urgirt. Die Wiederholung desselben Wortes am Schlusse mehrerer Zeilen hinter einander ist in Sh.'s Manier. Die meisten Hgg. lesen mit Q. A. banishment.

1

"

Thou cut'st my head off with a golden axe,
And smil'st upon the stroke that murders me.

Fri. O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!

Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind prince,
Taking thy part, hath rush'd aside the law,

And turn'd that black word death to banishment:
This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not.

Rom. "T is torture, and not mercy; heaven is here,
Where Juliet lives; and every cat, and dog,
And little mouse, every unworthy thing,

Live here in heaven, and may look on her;
But Romeo may not. More validity, 5
More honourable state, more courtship 6 lives
In carrion flies, than Romeo: they may seize
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.

Flies may do this, but I from this must fly:
They are free men, but I am banished.

And say'st thou yet, that exile is not death?

Hadst thou no poison mix'd, no sharp-ground knife,
No sudden mean of death, though ne'er so mean,
But banished 8

to kill me; banished?

O friar! the damned use that word in hell;
Howling attends it: How hast thou the heart,
Being a divine, 9 a ghostly confessor,

A sin-absolver, and my friend profess'd,
To mangle me with that word

5) validity

=

banished?

Werth, Geltung. In diesem Sinne, wie in dem von "Tüchtigkeit", gebraucht Sh. das Wort oft.

6) courtship

Liebesdienst, Gelegenheit zum Liebesdienst. Indem die Fliegen Juliet's Hand berühren und ihre Lippen küssen dürfen, haben sie eine Gelegenheit zärtlich zu sein, welche Romeo entbehrt.

In Betreff dieser vier letzten Zeilen herrscht in den alten Ausgaben eine grosse Verwirrung. Q. A. hat nur die beiden ersten; die Qs. haben dafür in lästiger Wiederholung und in verkehrter Reihenfolge die Stelle so: This may flies do, when I from this must fly: | And say'st thou yet that exile is not death? || But Romeo may not; he is banished, || Flies may do this, but I from this must fly: || They are free men, but I am banished. Die Fol. lässt von diesen fünf Zeilen die beiden letzten aus. Das Wortspiel zwischen fly Fliege, und to fly fliehen, ist Sh.'sch.

=

8) Auch hier hat Q. A. banishment, ohne dass jedoch an dieser Stelle die Hgg. die Variante in den Text aufnehmen. Ebenso hat Q. A. am Ende dieser Rede banishment Vgl. oben Anm. 4.

Fri. Thou fond mad man, hear me a little speak. 10
Rom. O! thou wilt speak again of banishment.
Fri. I'll give thee armour to keep off that word;
Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy,

11

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.

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

Rom. How should they, when that wise men have no eyes?

Fri. Let me dispute with thee of thy estate. 12

Rom. Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel.

Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love, 13
An hour but married, Tybalt murdered,

Doting like me, and like me banished,

Then might'st thou speak, then might'st thou tear thy hair,
And fall upon the ground, as I do now;

Taking the measure of an unmade grave.

14

Fri. Arise; one knocks: good Romeo, hide thyself. [Knocking within. Rom. Not I; unless the breath of heart-sick groans, Mist-like, infold me from the search of eyes.

15

[Knocking.

God's will!

[Knocking.

What simpleness is this! I come, I come.

Who knocks so hard? whence come you? what 's your will?

Nurse. [Within.] Let me come in, and you shall know my errand:

Nurse. O holy friar, O, tell me, holy friar,

Where is my lady's lord? where 's Romeo?

10) So die Qs., nur dass sie Then für Thou lesen, wie auch die Fol. thut, welche a little aus Versehen auslässt.

Die Herausgeber ziehen meist die Lesart der Q. A. vor:

Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a word.

11) Die Philosophie wird hier betrachtet als ein Labsal, das man im Missgeschick zu seiner Erquickung zu sich nimmt.

12) Lass mich mit dir über deine Lage hin- und herreden, lass mich dir deine Lage klar machen. 13) In der Fol. lautet dieser Vers: Wert thou as young as Juliet my love. 14) heart-sick groans ist poetisch kühn Seufzer des kranken Herzens.

A. 1, Sc. 1, Anm. 42.

Vgl. dazu

15) By and by ist an die draussen anpochende Amme gerichtet, das folgende God's will an den am Boden dahin gestreckten Romeo, der in seiner Thorheit nicht aufstehen und nicht in das Studierzimmer des Mönches eilen will. Für simpleness, die Lesart der Qs. und Fol., behalten die Hgg. aus Q. A. wilfulness bei.