Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Roger Apfelbaum
Peer Reviewed

Romeo and Juliet (Quarto 2, 1599)

of Romeo and Iuliet.
Which you mistaking offer vp to ioy,
My husband liues that Tybalt would haue slaine,
1760And Tybalts dead that would haue slain my husband:
All this is comfort, wherefore weepe I then?
Some word there was, worser then Tybalts death
That murdred me, I would forget it faine,
But oh it presses to my memorie,
1765Like damned guiltie deeds to sinners mindes,
Tybalt is dead and Romeo banished:
That banished, that one word banished,
Hath slaine ten thousand Tybalts: Tybalts death
Was woe inough if it had ended there:
1770Or if sower woe delights in fellowship,
And needly will be ranckt with other griefes,
Why followed not when she said Tybalts dead,
Thy father or thy mother, nay or both,
Which moderne lamentation might haue moued,
1775But with a reareward following Tybalts death,
Romeo is banished: to speake that word,
Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Iuliet,
All slaine, all dead: Romeo is banished,
There is no end, no limit, measure bound,
1780In that words death, no words can that woe sound.
Where is my father and my mother Nurse?
Nur. Weeping and wayling ouer Tybalts course,
Will you go to them? I will bring you thither.
Iu. Wash they his wounds with teares? mine shall be (spent,
1785When theirs are drie, for Romeos banishment.
Take vp those cordes, poore ropes you are beguilde,
Both you and I for Romeo is exilde:
He made you for a highway to my bed,
But I a maide, die maiden widowed.
1790Come cordes, come Nurse, ile to my wedding bed,
And death not Romeo, take my maiden head.
Nur. Hie to your chamber, Ile finde Romeo
To comfort you, I wot well where he is:
G 3 Harke