Gentlemen, for shame, forbear this outrage! Tybalt, Mercutio, the prince expressly hath Forbid this bandying in Verona streets. Hold, Tybalt! good Mercutio! [_Exeunt Tybalt and his partisans._ _Mercutio._ I am hurt. A plague o' both your houses! I am sped. Is he gone, and hath nothing? _Benvolio._ What, art thou hurt? Mercutio. Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch; marry, 'tis enough.-- Where is my page?--Go, villain, fetch a surgeon. [_Exit Page._ _Romeo._ Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much. _Mercutio._ No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door, but 'tis enough, 'twill serve; ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this world.--A plague o' both your houses!--Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death! a braggart, a rogue, a villain, that fights by the book of arithmetic!--Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm. _Romeo._ I thought all for the best. _Mercutio._ Help me into some house, Benvolio, Or I shall faint.--A plague o' both your houses! They have made worms' meat of me. I have it, And soundly too;--your houses! [_Exeunt Mercutio and Benvolio_ _Romeo._ This gentleman, the prince's near ally, My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt In my behalf; my reputation stain'd With Tybalt's slander,--Tybalt, that an hour Hath been my cousin!--O sweet Juliet, Thy beauty hath made me effeminate, And in my temper soften'd valour's steel! _Re-enter_ BENVOLIO _Benvolio._ O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio's dead! That gallant spirit hath aspir'd the clouds, Which too untimely here did scorn the earth. _Romeo._ This day's black fate on more days doth depend;