disdainful words provoked Tybalt to the prosecution of his first
quarrel with him; and Tybalt and Mercutio fought, till Mercutio fell,
receiving his death's wound while Romeo and Benvolio were vainly
endeavouring to part the combatants. Mercutio being dead, Romeo kept
his temper no longer, but returned the scornful appellation of villain
which Tybalt had given him; and they fought till Tybalt was slain by
Romeo. This deadly broil falling out in the midst of Verona at noonday,
the news of it quickly brought a crowd of citizens to the spot, and
among them the old lords Capulet and Montague, with their wives; and
soon after arrived the prince himself, who being related to Mercutio,
whom Tybalt had slain, and having had the peace of his government often
disturbed by these brawls of Montagues and Capulets, came determined to
put the law in strictest force against those who should be found to be
offenders. Benvolio, who had been eyewitness to the fray, was commanded
by the prince to relate the origin of it, which he did, keeping as near
the truth as he could without injury to Romeo, softening and excusing
the part which his friends took in it. Lady Capulet, whose extreme
grief for the loss of her kinsman Tybalt made her keep no bounds in her
revenge, exhorted the prince to do strict justice upon his murderer,
and to pay no attention to Benvolio's representation, who, being
Romeo's friend and a Montague, spoke partially. Thus she pleaded
against her new son-in-law, but she knew not yet that he was her
son-in-law and Juliet's husband. On the other hand was to be seen Lady
Montague pleading for her child's life, and arguing with some justice
that Romeo had done nothing worthy of punishment in taking the life of
Tybalt, which was already forfeited to the law by his having slain
Mercutio. The prince, unmoved by the passionate exclamations of these
women, on a careful examination of the facts, pronounced his sentence,
and by that sentence Romeo was banished from Verona.

Heavy news to young Juliet, who had been but a few hours a bride, and
now by this decree seemed everlastingly divorced! When the tidings
reached her, she at first gave way to rage against Romeo, who had slain
her dear cousin: she called him a beautiful tyrant, a fiend angelical,
a ravenous dove, a lamb with a wolf's nature, a serpent-heart hid with
a flowering face, and other like contradictory names, which denoted the
struggles in her mind between her love and her