Act 3, Scene 5: the lovers part

The lovers struggle to say goodbye after their wedding night

Act 3, Scene 5 of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet begins with the young lovers trying to part after their secret wedding night. Romeo has been banished from Verona, so the lovers do not know when they will see each other again. 

At first, Juliet tries to make Romeo stay by claiming that it is not yet morning: “Is it not yet near day. / It was the nightingale, and not the lark, / That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear.” (3.5.1-3). Romeo first argues that it is the lark they can hear which means it is time for him to go before he is captured. However, he soon gives in: “I have more care to stay than will to go. / Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it so.” (3.5.23-24). This makes Juliet change her mind for fear that Romeo is caught and killed. 

Once Romeo has climbed down from Juliet’s balcony, the play includes an example of foreshadowing:

JULIET
O God! I have an ill-divining soul.
Methinks I see thee now, thou art so low,
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb...