Romeo and Juliet have spent their wedding night together.
Unfortunately the events of the previous afternoon (Tybalt’s death and Romeo’s banishment) have affected the joy of the moment. It is now nearly dawn and the time to part has come.
Juliet: Will you be gone? It is not yet near day.
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of your ear;
Nightly she sings on that pomegranate tree;
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.
Romeo: It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
No nightingale. Look, love, what envious lines
Do border the dissolving clouds in the far east.
Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
Juliet: That light is not daylight, I know it, I;
It is some meteor that the sun exhales
To be for you this night a torch-bearer,
And light you on your way to Mantua.
Therefore stay yet, you need not to be gone
