Star-crossed Lovers (✓)

Chapter Nine

Juliet leapt to her feet. Her eyes flashed as she shook her finger at the Nurse, 'I hope your tongue is blistered for saying that!' she cried, 'There's no shame on Romeo! Oh what a beast I was to criticize him!'
'Are you going to speak well of the man who killed your cousin?'

'Do you want me to speak badly of the man who is my husband?' said Juliet. 'Oh, my poor husband. Who will support you when I, your wife of three hours, abandons you?' She shook her head sadly. 'But why, scoundrel, did you kill my cousin?'

Peter brought a flask of brandy and the Nurse grabbed it and waved him away.

Juliet had sat down on the grass again. 'If he hadn't killed Tybalt that scoundrel Tybalt would have killed him,' she said. 'Why am I crying? My husband is alive. Tybalt wanted to kill him but Tybalt's dead now – the villain who wanted to kill my husband. It's all good news. So why am I crying? There is something you said, Nurse, that's worse than Tybalt 's death. I wish I could forget it but it's haunting me. 'Tybalt is dead, and Romeo banished, you said, Nurse. That 'banished', that one word 'banished' is like the death of ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt 's death would have been bad enough if it had ended there. But Romeo's world's been destroyed. The word 'banished' is the worst sounding word in our language. Where are my parents, Nurse?'

'They're crying over Tybalt 's body. Do you want to go to them? I'll take you.'

'Are they washing his wounds with tears? I've got more tears for Romeo's banishment than they'll ever have for Tybalt 's death. Take the rope ladder away. Romeo's already gone.' She stood up. 'I'm going to bed. And I'll die there with death as my lover instead of Romeo.'

The Nurse put her arm around Juliet. 'That's right. Go to your room. I'll try and find Romeo. I think I know where he is. Listen, Love! Romeo will be here tonight. I'll make sure of that. I'll go to him: he's hiding at Friar Lawrence's chapel.'

'Oh find him,' said Juliet. 'Give him this ring and tell him to come to me.'

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'Romeo!' Come out of there. Come out.' Friar Lawrence had just returned from Verona, dismayed at the events there that afternoon, He stood in front of the stone altar before which he had married the young couple. Romeo had crawled underneath it and he lay now, pressing himself into the darkest corner.

'You poor fellow,' said Friar Lawrence. 'So overwhelmed by unhappiness.'

Romeo edged out slowly, His face was pale. He did not get up. 'Father, have you any news? What is the Prince's sentence? What's going to happen to me?'

'It's not so bad,' said the Friar, 'I've brought you news of the sentence.'

'What could be 'not so bad' about a death sentence?'

'A less harsh sentence: not death but banishment.'

'Banishment?' Romeo rose to his knees and clutched the Friar's robes. 'Oh be merciful, Father. Say 'death'. Exile is far more terrifying to me than death. Don't say 'banishment'.'

'You've been banished from Verona. That's all. Be grateful. Verona's not everything: the world's a big place.'
'There's nothing beyond the walls of Verona,' said Romeo. 'Only torture – hell itself. So banished means banished from the world, and that means death. 'Banished' is only another word for death.'

'Oh sinner,' said Friar Lawrence. 'You ungrateful boy.' You don't know how lucky you are. The law calls for your death but the kind Prince has taken your side and ignored the law: he's converted your sentence to banishment. He's being merciful and you can't see it.'