Unit 4: The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Act 3

O calm, dishonorable, vile submission!

And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats
Cold death aside, and with the other sends
It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity
Retorts it.

Romeo he cries aloud,
“Hold, friends! friends, part!” and swifter than his tongue,
His agile arm beats down their fatal points,
And ’twixt them rushes

And she brings news; and every tongue that speaks
But Romeo’s name speaks heavenly eloquence.

Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy,
To comfort thee though thou art banished.

Thy tears are womanish, thy wild acts denote
The unreasonable fury of a beast.

I thought thy disposition better temper’d.

It is the lark that sings so out of tune,
Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.

Villain and he be many miles asunder.

O how my heart abhors
To hear him nam’d, and cannot come to him
To wreak the love I bore my cousin
Upon his body that hath slaughter’d him!