Count your blessings, says the Friar (3.3.116-125)

FRIAR              Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself,                         And slay thy lady that in thy life lives,                         By doing damnèd hate upon thyself?                         Why rail’st thou on thy birth? the heaven and earth?                         Since birth, and heaven, and earth, all three do meet                         In thee at once, which thou […]

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Are you a man or a beast? (3.3.108-115)

FRIAR                                      Hold thy desperate hand!                         Art thou a man? thy form cries out thou art;                         Thy tears are womanish, thy wild acts denote                         The unreasonable fury of a beast.                         Unseemly woman in a seeming man,                         And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both,                         Thou hast amazed me. By my holy order, […]

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Deadly names – what’s in a name… (3.3.99-108)

NURSE            O she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps,                         And now falls on her bed, and then starts up,                         And Tybalt calls, and then on Romeo cries,                         And then falls down again. ROMEO                                                           As if that name,                         Shot from the deadly level of a gun,                         Did murder her, as […]

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Loss of innocence, and cancelled love (3.3.91-98)

ROMEO           Nurse! [He rises.] NURSE            Ah, sir, ah, sir, death’s the end of all. ROMEO           Speak’st thou of Juliet? how is it with her?                         Doth not she think me an old murderer,                         Now I have stained the childhood of our joy                         With blood removed but little from her own?                         Where is […]

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The Nurse, with bracing bawdry (and chiasmus, just in case) (3.3.81-90)

Enter NURSE. NURSE            O holy Friar, O tell me, holy Friar,                         Where’s my lady’s lord? where’s Romeo? FRIAR              There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk. NURSE            O he is even in my mistress’ case,                         Just in her case. O woeful sympathy!                         Piteous predicament! even so lies she,                         Blubb’ring […]

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Knock knock, who’s there? (3.3.71-80)

Enter Nurse [within] and knock. FRIAR              Arise, one knocks. Good Romeo, hide thyself. ROMEO           Not I, unless the breath of heart-sick groans                         Mist-like infold me from the search of eyes. Knock. FRIAR              Hark how they knock! – Who’s there? – Romeo, arise,                         Thou wilt be taken. – Stay a while! – Stand up; Loud […]

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You just don’t understand! My life is over! (3.3.61-70)

FRIAR              O then I see that mad men have no ears. ROMEO           How should they when that wise men have no eyes? FRIAR              Let me dispute with thee of thy estate. ROMEO           Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel.                         Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love,                         An hour […]

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Screw philosophy (3.3.52-60)

FRIAR              Thou fond mad man, hear me a little speak. ROMEO           O thou wilt speak again of banishment. FRIAR              I’ll give thee armour to keep off that word:                         Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy,                         To comfort thee though thou art banishèd. ROMEO           Yet ‘banishèd’? Hang up philosophy!                         Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,                         […]

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Hell, damnation, howling, banishment (3.3.44-51)

ROMEO           Hadst thou no poison mixed, no sharp-ground knife,                         No sudden mean of death, though ne’er so mean,                         But ‘banishèd’ to kill me? Banishèd?                         O Friar, the damnèd use that word in hell;                         Howling attends it. How hast thou the heart,                         Being a divine, a ghostly confessor,                         A sin-absolver, […]

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Flies and kisses, in black and white (3.3.33-43)

ROMEO                                               More validity,                         More honourable state, more courtship 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 […]

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