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Benvolio, Lines 151-174
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Act 3,
Scene 1
Lines 151-174

Benvolio performs a speech from Act 3, Scene 1 of myShakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. 

myShakespeare | Romeo and Juliet 3.1 Performance: Benvolio, Lines 151-174

Benvolio

Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay —
Romeo that spoke him fair, bid him bethink
How nice the quarrel was, and urged withal
Your high displeasure. All this utterèd
With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bowed,
Could not take truce with the unruly spleen
Of Tybalt, deaf to peace, but that he tilts
With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast,
Who, all as hot, turns deadly point to point,                  
And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats
Cold death aside, and with the other sends
It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity,
Retorts it. Romeo, he cries aloud,
'Hold, friends. Friends, part!' and swifter than his tongue,
His agile arm beats down their fatal points,
And 'twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm
An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled.
But by and by comes back to Romeo,                          
Who had but newly entertained revenge,
And to 't they go like lightning; for, ere I
Could draw to part them, was stout Tybalt slain,
And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly.
This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.