Romeo & Juliet - Act 4 Scene 5

Juliet's chamber.

Enter Nurse

The Nurse is once again in her comic mode, full of energy, activity, and innuendo. Her entrance in this mode continues and increases the tension between the joyous occasion and the impending discovery.

Nurse
Mistress! What, mistress! Juliet! Fast, I warrant her, she.
Why, lamb! Why, lady! Fie, you slug-a-bed!
Why, love, I say! Madam! Sweet-heart! Why, bride!
What, not a word? You take your pennyworths now;
Sleep for a week; for the next night, I warrant,
The County Paris hath set up his rest,
That you shall rest but little. God forgive me.
Marry, and amen, how sound is she asleep!
I must needs wake her. Madam, madam, madam!
Ay, let the County take you in your bed;
He'll fright you up, i' faith. Will it not be?

Undraws the curtains

Is the Nurse's call for "aqua vitae" ("water of life," i.e. alcohol) a request for medicine, or a drink for herself?

What, dressed! And in your clothes! And down again!
I must needs wake you; Lady! Lady! Lady!
Alas, alas! Help, help! My lady's dead!
O, welladay, that ever I was born!
Some aqua vitae, ho! My lord! My lady!

Enter LADY CAPULET

LADY CAPULET
What noise is here?

Nurse
    O lamentable day!

This scene reverses the action of 3.5, as the now-seemingly-dead Juliet is reunited with the Nurse, then her mother, her father, and a would-be husband.

LADY CAPULET
What is the matter?

Nurse
      Look, look! O heavy day!

LADY CAPULET
O me, O me! My child, my only life,
Revive, look up, or I will die with thee!
Help, help! Call help.

Enter CAPULET

The scene gives us four entrances in a row which start out joyous and become tragically lamenting. This risks becoming absurd or laughable, but the individual reactions can also be powerfully moving.

CAPULET
For shame, bring Juliet forth; her lord is come.

Nurse
She's dead, deceased, she's dead; alack the day!

LADY CAPULET
Alack the day, she's dead, she's dead, she's dead!

CAPULET
Ha! Let me see her; out, alas! She's cold:
Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff;
Life and these lips have long been separated.
Death lies on her like an untimely frost
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.

Nurse
O lamentable day!

LADY CAPULET
  O woeful time!

CAPULET
Death, that hath ta'en her hence to make me wail,
Ties up my tongue, and will not let me speak.

Enter FRIAR LAURENCE and PARIS, [with Musicians]

Friar Laurence must have been expecting this development, though he may have had doubts (or perhaps hopes) regarding Juliet's determination to take the potion.

FRIAR LAURENCE
Come, is the bride ready to go to church?

CAPULET
Ready to go, but never to return.
O son! The night before thy wedding-day
Hath Death lain with thy wife. There she lies,
Flower as she was, deflowered by him.
Death is my son-in-law, Death is my heir;
My daughter he hath wedded. I will die,
And leave him all; life, living, all is Death's.

PARIS
Have I thought long to see this morning's face,
And doth it give me such a sight as this?

Paris, too, can seem overwrought and absurd in this moment, but it's also an opportunity for him to display his depth of feeling and genuine love for Juliet, though he seems barely to have met her.

LADY CAPULET
Accursed, unhappy, wretched, hateful day!
Most miserable hour that e'er time saw
In lasting labour of his pilgrimage!
But one, poor one, one poor and loving child,
But one thing to rejoice and solace in,
And cruel death hath catched it from my sight!

Nurse
O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day!
Most lamentable day, most woeful day,
That ever, ever, I did yet behold!
O day! O day! O day! O hateful day!
Never was seen so black a day as this.
O woeful day, O woeful day!

PARIS
Beguiled, divorcèd, wrongèd, spited, slain!
Most detestable death, by thee beguiled,
By cruel cruel thee quite overthrown!
O love! O life! Not life, but love in death!

CAPULET
Despised, distressèd, hated, martyred, killed!
Uncomfortable time, why camest thou now
To murder, murder our solemnity?
O child! O child! My soul, and not my child!
Dead art thou! Alack! My child is dead;
And with my child my joys are burièd.

Friar Laurence here echoes the Prince in 1.1, a voice of authority putting an end to collective chaos. While the Friar's advice is reasonable, he's also very compromised here, as he lies to and misleads the assembled mourners, passing off his own plan as God's will.

Rosemary was associated with memory and loyalty, and traditionally given to guests at a wedding. It has also been linked with Romeo through the Nurse's words in 2.4.

FRIAR LAURENCE
Peace, ho, for shame! Confusion's cure lives not
In these confusions. Heaven and yourself
Had part in this fair maid; now heaven hath all,
And all the better is it for the maid.
Your part in her you could not keep from death,
But heaven keeps his part in eternal life.
The most you sought was her promotion,
For 'twas your heaven she should be advanced;
And weep ye now, seeing she is advanced
Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself?
O, in this love, you love your child so ill,
That you run mad, seeing that she is well.
She's not well married that lives married long,
But she's best married that dies married young.
Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary
On this fair corse; and, as the custom is,
In all her best array bear her to church;
For though fond nature bids us all lament,
Yet nature's tears are reason's merriment.

CAPULET
All things that we ordainèd festival,
Turn from their office to black funeral;
Our instruments to melancholy bells,
Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast,
Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change,
Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse,
And all things change them to the contrary.

FRIAR LAURENCE
Sir, go you in; and, madam, go with him;
And go, Sir Paris; every one prepare
To follow this fair corse unto her grave.
The heavens do lour upon you for some ill;
Move them no more by crossing their high will.

Exeunt CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, PARIS, and FRIAR LAURENCE

Once again, we have a rhymed couplet which seems like the logical end of the scene, and a scene that continues past it, contributing to the off-kilter feel of the moment.

First Musician
Faith, we may put up our pipes, and be gone.

Nurse
Honest goodfellows, ah, put up, put up;
For, well you know, this is a pitiful case.

Exit

First Musician
Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended.

Enter PETER

PETER
Musicians, O, musicians, 'Heart's ease, Heart's
ease:' O, an you will have me live, play 'Heart's ease.'

First Musician
Why 'Heart's ease?'

PETER
O, musicians, because my heart itself plays
'My heart is full of woe.' O, play me some merry
dump, to comfort me.

The First Musician's comment can apply to this entire episode, which seems inappropriate and disrespectful given the circumstances.

First Musician
Not a dump we; 'tis no time to play now.

PETER
You will not, then?

First Musician
No.

PETER
I will then give it you soundly.

First Musician
What will you give us?

PETER
No money, on my faith, but the gleek;
I will give you the minstrel.

First Musician
Then I will give you the serving-creature.

PETER
Then will I lay the serving-creature's dagger on
your pate. I will carry no crotchets: I'll re you,
I'll fa you; do you note me?

First Musician
An you re us and fa us, you note us.

Second Musician
Pray you, put up your dagger, and put out your wit.

Peter invents nicknames for the musicians based on terms for their instruments.

PETER
Then have at you with my wit! I will dry-beat you
with an iron wit, and put up my iron dagger. Answer
me like men:
'When griping grief the heart doth wound,
And doleful dumps the mind oppress,
Then music with her silver sound'–
Why 'silver sound'? Why 'music with her silver sound'?
What say you, Simon Catling?

First Musician
Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound.

PETER
Pretty! What say you, Hugh Rebeck?

Second Musician
I say 'silver sound,' because musicians sound for silver.

PETER
Pretty too! What say you, James Soundpost?

Third Musician
Faith, I know not what to say.

PETER
O, I cry you mercy; you are the singer. I will say for you:
It is 'music with her silver sound,' because musicians
have no gold for sounding:
‘Then music with her silver sound
With speedy help doth lend redress.'

Exit

First Musician
What a pestilent knave is this same!

This mini-scene with the Musicians allows the Act to end on a comic note, although it feels rather forced. This scene is frequently cut in performance.

Second Musician
Hang him, Jack! Come, we'll in here; tarry for
the mourners, and stay dinner.

Exeunt