This is a partial quote from lines spoken by Romeo in Act I Scene V of Romeo and Juliet. Romeo, still enraptured by Juliet, has been listening half-heartedly to Mercutio's Queen Mab speech, which Mercutio himself dismisses as "vain fantasy." Romeo responds by describing a feeling of foreboding which has overcome him, a foreshadowing of the tragedy which is about to unfold. Romeo says, "Some consequences, yet hanging in the stars,/Shall bitterly begin his fearful date/With this night's revels; and expire the term/Of a despised life, clos'd in my breath/By some vile forfeit of untimely death:/But he, that hath the steerage of my course,/Direct my sail." The "he", I believe, is God, but despite the reference to faith, Romeo feels his life is tangled in the threads of a perilous fate which he is powerless to avoid.
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