William Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet

ACT III. 3. Scene III. Friar Lawrence's cell.

[Enter Friar Lawrence.]

Friar.
Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man.
Affliction is enanmour'd of thy parts,
And thou art wedded to calamity.

[Enter Romeo.]

Romeo.
Father, what news? what is the prince's doom
What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand,
That I yet know not?

Friar.
Too familiar
Is my dear son with such sour company:
I bring thee tidings of the prince's doom.

Romeo.
What less than doomsday is the prince's doom?

Friar.
A gentler judgment vanish'd from his lips,--
Not body's death, but body's banishment.

Romeo.
Ha, banishment? be merciful, say death;
For exile hath more terror in his look,
Much more than death; do not say banishment.

Friar.
Hence from Verona art thou banished:
Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.

Romeo.
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
Is death mis-term'd: calling death banishment,
Thou cutt'st my head off with a golden axe,
And smil'st upon the stroke that murders me.

Friar.
O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!
Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind prince,
Taking thy part, hath brush'd aside the law,
And turn'd that black word death to banishment:
This is dear mercy, and thou see'st it not.