Quote 25
ROMEO
What less than dooms-day is the prince's doom?
FRIAR LAURENCE
A gentler judgment vanish'd from his lips,
Not body's death, but body's banishment.
ROMEO
Ha, banishment! be merciful, say 'death;'
For exile hath more terror in his look,
Much more than death: do not say 'banishment.'
FRIAR LAURENCE
Hence from Verona art thou banished:
Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.
ROMEO
There is no world without Verona walls,
But purgatory, torture, hell itself.
Hence-banished is banish'd from the world,
And world's exile is death: then banished,
Is death mis-term'd: calling death banishment,
Thou cutt'st my head off with a golden axe,
And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.
(3.3.9-23)
For Romeo, being separated from Juliet is like death, because Juliet is his entire world. Check out "Quotes" for "Exile" for more on this.
ROMEO
Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight.
(5.1.37)
Even when he's thisclose to killing himself, Romeo manages to be clever: he's going to "lie" with Juliet in death, just like he lay with her in the marriage bed.
ROMEO
I would I were thy bird.JULIET
Sweet, so would I.
Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.
(2.2.196-198)
Have you ever looked at a cute animal or toddler and said, "I want to eat you up?" Yeah. Wanting to love on something so hard that you destroy it may not be as weird as it sounds.