Juliet Waits for the Nurse's Message

Scene summary

At nine o'clock, Juliet sent the Nurse to find Romeo, with half an hour to return, and now, near noon, three hours later, the Nurse has still not appeared. Juliet imagines that she may not have found Romeo and then that she is lame. She says that the messengers of love should be thoughts, faster than the rays of the sun, which is why Cupid has wings; old people, by contrast, pretend to be dead, heavy and pale as lead.

The Nurse arrives with Peter. Juliet asks that the Nurse send the servant away, and the Nurse has Peter wait at the gate; Juliet asks for news, even if it is sad. The Nurse says she is tired and aching and asks for a moment. Juliet answers that the Nurse spends more breath saying she has no breath than she would spend telling the news, and asks whether it is good or bad. The Nurse, instead of answering, criticizes Juliet's choice: Romeo is not the flower of courtesy, but he is as gentle as a lamb, and has a face, leg, hand and body beyond comparison. She complains of her head and back, asks whether Juliet has lunched, and begins to say what Romeo said, only to interrupt herself with the question of where Juliet's mother is. When Juliet grows irritated, the Nurse says that in the future Juliet herself should carry the messages. Only after Juliet asks again does she ask whether she has leave to go to confession that afternoon; Juliet says yes, and the Nurse sends her to Friar Laurence's cell, where a husband awaits to make her a wife. She says she will fetch the ladder herself by which Romeo will climb to the nest at night, and Juliet says goodbye to her and goes.