| Prologue to Act 1, pg.3″Two households, both alike in dignity,In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.From forth the fatal loins of these two foesA pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;Whose misadventures piteous overthrowsDoth with their death bury their parents’ strife.The fearful passage of their death-marked love,And the continuance of their parents’ rage,Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove,Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;The which if you with patient ears attend,What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.” | Speaker: ChorusSpoken to: the AudienceCircumstances: the Prologue before the play. Gives the audience background, dramatic irony, and the “How does it happen?” hookMeaning/Translation: In Verona, there are two families who have been fighting for forever. Two of their children become lovers destined to die, and their death ends the conflict. This is what our play will be about. |
| Act 1, Scene 1, pg.7, lines 68-69″What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?Turn thee, Benvolio; look upon thy death.” | Speaker: TybaltSpoken to: Benvolio (primarily), Gregory, Sampson, and Abram. (secondarily)Circumstances: Gregory, Sampson, and Abram were fighting. Benvolio stepped in telling them to stop fighting, though Tybalt enters and tells him to turn and face death. He then says he hates peace, as he hates Montagues, and they fight.Meaning/Translation: You’re fighting with these lowly cowards? Turn around, Benvolio, and prepare to die. |
| Act 1, Scene 1, pg.8, lines 84-106″Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, Profaners of this neighbor-stained steel-Will they not hear? What, ho! You men, you beasts,That quench the fire of your pernicious rageWith purple fountains issuing from your veins! On pain of torture, from those bloody handsThrow your distempered weapons to the groundAnd hear the sentence of your moved prince.Three civil brawls, bred of an airy wordBy thee, old Capulet, and Montague,Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streetsAnd made Verona’s ancient citizensCast by their grave beseeming ornamentsTo wield old partisans, in hands as old,Cankered with peace, to part your cankered hate.If ever you disturb our streets again, Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.For this time all the rest depart away.You, Capulet, shall go along with me;And, Montague, come you this afternoon,To know our farther pleasure in this case,To old Freetown, our common judgment place. Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.” | Speaker: the PrinceSpoken to: the Capulets and Montagues fighting in the town, including Lady Capulet and Montague, Capulet and Montague, Tybalt, Benvolio, Sampson, Abram, and Gregory, an officer, as well as three or four additional citizens.Circumstances: the Capulets and Montagues were fighting for the third time, and the Prince stepped in to stop them.Meaning/Translation: Will you never listen? With the punishment of torture, stop and listen. There have been three fights in Verona because of your grudge. If there is ever another fight, you will be punished with death. Capulet, come speak with me now, and Montague come later to talk. We’ll meet in Freetown. Everyone leave. |
| Act 1, Scene 1, pg.9, lines 134-145″Many a morning hath he there been seen,With tears augmenting the fresh morning’s dew,Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs;But all so soon as the all-cheering sunShould in the father East begin to drawThe shady curtains from Aurora’s bed,Away from light steals home my heavy sonAnd private in his chamber pens himself,Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out,And makes himself an artificial night.Black and portentous must this humor proveUnless good counsel may the cause remove.” | Speaker: MontagueSpoken to: Lady Montague and BenvolioCircumstances: After having the fight broken up by the Prince, Montague asks Benvolio about what happened. Lady Montague asks where Romeo is, and Benvolio says he saw him early in the morning in the grove of Sycamores, but he hid from him.Meaning/Translation: He’s often there (sycamore grove) crying, but comes home by daylight and locks himself in his room in darkness. |
| Act 1, Scene 1, pg.12, lines 211-219″Well, in that hit you miss. She’ll not be hitWith Cupid’s arrow. She hath Dian’s wit,And, in strong proof of chastity well armed,From Love’s weak childish bow she lives un-charmed.She will not stay the siege of loving terms,Nor bide th’ encounter of assailing eyes,Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold.O, she is rich beauty; only poorThat, when she dies, with beauty dies her store.””Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?” | Speaker: First Romeo, then BenvolioSpoken to: First Benvolio, then RomeoCircumstances: Benvolio asked what saddens Romeo, and he talks about loving a girl who is becoming a nun.Meaning/Translation: I can’t win her heart because she has sworn to being chaste.Then she has sworn to become a nun? |
| Act 1, Scene 2, pg.14, lines 7-11″But saying o’er what I have said before:My child is yet a stranger in the world,She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;Let two more summers wither in their prideEre we may think her ripe to be a bride.” | Speaker: CapuletSpoken to: County ParisCircumstances: Paris wants her father’s consent to marry JulietMeaning/Translation: Juliet is still thirteen and is too young. She should be fifteen before she marries. |
| Act 1, Scene 2, pg.17, lines 85-90″At this same ancient feast of Capulet’sSups the fair Rosaline whom thou so loves;With all the admired beauties of Verona.Go thither, and with unattainted eyeCompare her face with some that I shall show,And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.” | Speaker: BenvolioSpoken to: RomeoCircumstances: Capulet’s servant just asked Romeo and Benvolio to read the invitation list, and they know Rosaline will be at the party. The two are deciding to attend Capulet’s party.Meaning/Translation: Rosaline will be at this party. Go to it, and I’ll make her seem ugly compared to other women. |
| Act 1, Scene 3, pg.21, lines 97-99″I’ll look to like, if looking liking move;But no more deep will I endart mine eyeThan your consent gives strength to make it fly.” | Speaker: JulietSpoken to: Lady CapuletCircumstances: Lady Capulet and the Nurse are speaking to Juliet about marrying ParisMeaning/Translation: I’ll try to like him, if trying can let me. But I won’t like him any more than you allow. |
| Act 1, Scene 4, pg.23, lines 19-22″I am too sore enpierced with his shaftTo soar with his light feathers; and so boundI cannot bound a pitch above dull woe.Under love’s heavy burden do I sink.” | Speaker: RomeoSpoken to: MercutioCircumstances: Romeo, Mercurio, and Benvolio are going to Montague’s dance and talking about how they will make Romeo dance and have fun at the party.Meaning/Translation: I’m too hurt by his (Cupid’s) arrow, so I can’t go above my sadness. I’m down because of love. |
| Act 1, Scene 4, pg.24-26, lines 53-95″That dreamers often lie.” “In bed asleep, while they do dream things true.” “O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you.She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comesIn shape no bigger than an agate stoneOn the forefinger of an alderman,Drawn with a team of little atomiesOver men’s noses as they lie asleep;Her wagon spokes made of long spinners’ legs,The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers;Her traces, of the smallest spider web;Her collars, of the moonshine’s watery beams;Her whip, of cricket’s bone; the lash, of film;Her wagoner, a small gray-coated gnat,Not half so big as a round little wormPricked from the lazy finger of a maid;Her chariot is an empty hazelnut,Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,Time out o’ mind the fairies’ coachmakers.And in this state she gallops night by nightThrough lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love;On courtier’s knees, that dream on curtsies straight;O’er lawyers fingers, who straight dream on fees;O’er ladies lips, who straight on kisses dream,Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,Because their breath with sweetmeats tainted are.Sometime she gallops o’er a courtier’s nose, and then dream he of smelling out a suit;Tickling a parson’s nose as ‘a lies asleep,Then he dreams of another benefice.Some she driveth o’er a soldier’s neck,And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,Of healths five fathom deep; and then anonDrums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,And being thus frightened, swears a prayer or twoAnd sleeps again. This is that very MabThat plats the manes of horses in the nightAnd bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,Which once untangled much misfortune bodes.This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,That presses them and learns them first to bear,Making them women of good carriage.This is she-” “Peace, peace, Mercurio, peace!” | Speaker: Mercutio, Romeo, Mercutio, RomeoSpoken to: Romeo, Mercutio, Romeo, MercutioCircumstances: Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio are walking to Capulet’s party. Romeo said he had dreamt a dream, and Mercutio teased him saying he dreamed that dreams lie. He then goes a bit overboard in his explanation that a dream shouldn’t stop him from going to the party, and his speech is laced with innuendos.Meaning/Translation: I dreamt that dreams lie. While dreaming, they’re all truths.Queen Mab is responsible for dreams, a Fairy Queen, and is drawn by tiny creatures visiting people while they sleep…..Mercutio, calm down, you speak of nothing. |
| Act 1, Scene 4, pg.26, lines 97-103″True, I talk of dreams; Which are the children of an idle brain,Begot of nothing but vain fantasy;Which is as thin of substance as the air,And more inconstant than the wind, who woosEven now the frozen bosom of the NorthAnd, being angered, puffs away from thence,Turning his side to the dew-dropping South.” | Speaker: MercutioSpoken to: RomeoCircumstances: Walking to party, went on speech about Queen Mab. Romeo told him he speaks of nothing, to calm down, and Mercutio agrees, telling him his dream should not stop him from going to the party.Meaning/Translation: True, dreams are nothing, just from the imagination. They aren’t meaningful or consistent. |
| Act 1, Scene 4, pg.26, lines 106-113″I fear, too early; for my mind misgivesSome consequence yet hanging in the startsShall bitterly begin his fearful dateWith this night’s revels and expire the termOf a despised life, closed in my breast,By some veil forfeit of untimely death.But he that hath the steerage of my courseDirect my sail! On, lusty gentlemen!” | Speaker: RomeoSpoken to: Benvolio, then MercutioCircumstances: Walking to the party, Benvolio says they will be late to the party from Mercutio’s long speech.Meaning/Translation: I think something bad will happen at this event. But he who guides me, help! Let’s go. |
| Act 1, Scene 5, pg.29, lines 46-55″O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!It seems she hangs upon the cheek of nightAs a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear–Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!So shows a snowy dove trooping with crowsAs longer lady o’er her fellows shows.The measure done, I’ll watch her place of standAnd, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” | Speaker: RomeoSpoken to: Possibly to servingman, mostly to himself and audienceCircumstances: He just saw Romeo at the partyMeaning/Translation: She’s incredibly beautiful, the most beautiful woman at the dance by far. Did I love until this moment? I haven’t seen beauty until I saw her. |
| Act 1, Scene 5, pg.30, lines 95-98″If I profane with my unworthiest handThis holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready standTo smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.” | Speaker: RomeoSpoken to: JulietCircumstances: Romeo has met up with Juliet during her father’s party for the first time.Meaning/Translation: If I can hold your hand, I’ll kiss you after. |
| Act 1, Scene 5, pg.32, lines 140-144″My only love, sprung from my only hate!Too early seen unknown, and known too late!Prodigious birth of love it is to meThat I must love a loathed enemy.” | Speaker: JulietSpoken to: the NurseCircumstances: Juliet asked the Nurse to see who Romeo is, and she just found out he is a Montague.Meaning/Translation: I love him but am supposed to hate him. It’s awful that I love who is supposed to be my enemy. |
| Prologue to Act 2, pg.33″Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie,And young affection gapes to be his heir;That fair for which love groaned for and would die,With tender Juliet matched, is now not fair.Now Romeo is beloved and loves again,Alike bewitched by the charm of looks;But to his foe supposed he must complain,And she steal love’s sweet bait from fearful hooks.Being held a foe, he may not have accessTo breathe such vows as lovers use to swear,And she as much in love, her means much lessTo meet her new loved anywhere;But passions lends them power, time means, to meet,Temp’ring extremities with extreme sweet.” | Speaker: ChorusSpoken to: AudienceCircumstances: After Romeo and Juliet found out they are Montague and Capulet, this addresses and begins Act 2.Meaning/Translation: Romeo’s old feelings for Rosaline are gone, and now replaced much more extensively by Juliet. Both are attracted to each other, but it is dangerous, and they may not be able to marry. They care enough to make it work, though, and their good times outweigh the bad. |
| Act 2, Scene 1, pg.36, line 1″Can I go forward when my heart is here? Turn back, dull earth, and find thy center out.” | Speaker: RomeoSpoken to: Himself/AudienceCircumstances: Passing by Capulet’s house and Juliet after the party.Meaning/Translation: Can I pass the house when Juliet is inside? Turn around and find her. |
| Act 2, Scene 1, pg.36 lines 2-25″But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,Who is already sick and pale with griefThat thou her maid art far more fair than she.Be not her maid, since she is envious.Her vestal livery is but sick and green,And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off.It is my lady! O, it is my love!O, that she knew she were!She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that?Her eye discourses; I will answer it.I am too bold; ’tis not to me she speaks. Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,Having some business, do entreat her eyesTo twinkle in their spheres till they return.What if her eyes were there, they in her head?The brightness of her cheek would shame those starsAs daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heavenWould through the airy region stream so brightThat birds would sing and think it were not night.See how she leans her cheek upon her hand!O , that I were a glove upon that hand,That I might touch that cheek!” | Speaker: RomeoSpoken to: Himself/AudienceCircumstances: Romeo stops and is outside Juliet’s window when she appears, though she doesn’t notice him.Meaning/Translation: Who is in the window? It is Juliet, like the sun, only more beautiful. It is my love who speaks to me with her eyes, but she does not notice me. I am too bold to speak, since she does not know I am here. Her eyes are like stars. She rests her cheek on her hand, and I wish I could touch her cheek. |
| Act 2, Scene 2, pg.37 lines 33-36″O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.” | Speaker: JulietSpoken to: HerselfCircumstances: Romeo is outside her window the day after the party and overhears Juliet.Meaning/Translation: Romeo! Why are you Romeo? Change your name and hide your identity, but if not, swear you love me and I’ll do it instead. |
| Act 2, Scene 2, pg.37, lines 38-49″‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy.Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,Nor arm, nor face. O, be some other nameBelonging to a man.What’s in a name? That which we call a roseBy any other word would smell as sweet.So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called,Retain that dear perfection which he owesWithout that title. Romeo, doff thy name;And for thy name, which is no part of thee, Take all myself.””I take thee at thy word. Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized;Henceforth I never will be Romeo.” | Speaker: Juliet, then RomeoSpoken to: Herself, then JulietCircumstances: Romeo is outside Juliet’s windowMeaning/Translation: Your name is the only thing I hate. What is a name? It’s not an object. If we called something by any other name, it would still be the same. If you were not a Montague, you would still be yourself. Leave your name because it doesn’t define you, and be with me.I understand you, and say you love me and I won’t be Romeo anymore. |
| Act 2, Scene 2, pg.38, lines 66-69″With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls;For stony limits cannot hold love out,And what love can do, that dares love attempt.Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me.” | Speaker: RomeoSpoken to: JulietCircumstances: Romeo is outside her window, and she wants to know how he got into the orchard and is afraid that if he is found, he will be killed.Meaning/Translation: It doesn’t matter, I got here with love. Your guards aren’t going to stop me. |
| Act 2, Scene 2, pg.39-40, lines 116-124″Well, do not swear. Although I joy in thee,I have no joy of this contract tonight.It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;Too like the lightning, which doth cease to beEre one can say it lightens. Sweet, good night!This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath,May prove a beauteous flow’r when new we meet.Good night, good night! As sweet repose and restCome to thy heart as that within my breast!” | Speaker: JulietSpoken to: RomeoCircumstances: Juliet asks Romeo if he loves her, and he begins to swear he does.Meaning/Translation: Don’t make promises. I love you, but not any promise tonight. It is too quick and could end badly. Good night! Our relationship is new, but will grow by the time we see each other again. Good night, and rest well. |
| Act 2, Scene 2, pg.41, lines 155-157″A thousand times the worse, to want thy light!Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books;But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.” | Speaker: RomeoSpoken to: Himself/AudienceCircumstances: Juliet just said goodnight after their meeting outside the window.Meaning/Translation: It’s a thousand times worse to miss your presence. |
| Act 2, Scene 2, pg.42, lines 182-189″I would I were thy bird.””Sweet, so would I.Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing. Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrowThat I shall say good night till it be morrow.””Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast!Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest!Hence will I to my ghostly friar’s close cell,His help to crave and my dear hap to tell.” | Speaker: Romeo, then Juliet, then RomeoSpoken to: Juliet, then Romeo, then Juliet againCircumstances: Balcony scene, saying goodnightMeaning/Translation: I would stay if I could.I want you to stay, but you have to leave. Good night! I’ll miss you, but I will see you tomorrow.Sleep well, and I’ll go visit Friar Lawrence for help. |
| Act 2, Scene 3, pg.43-44, lines 1-30″The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,Check’ring the eastern clouds with streaks of light;And flecked darkness like a drunkard reelsFrom forth day’s path and Titan’s burning wheels.Now, ere the sun advance his burning eyeThe day to cheer and night’s dank dew to dry,I must uphill this osier cage of oursWith baleful weeds and precious-juiced flowers.The earth that’s nature’s mother is her tomb.What is her burying grave, that is her womb;And from her womb children of divers kindWe sucking on her natural bosom find,Many for many virtues excellent,None but for some, and yet all different.O, mickle is the powerful grace that liesIn plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities;For naught so vile that on the earth doth liveBut to the earth some special good doth give;Nor aught so good but, strained from that fair use,Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse.Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied,And vice sometime by action dignified.Within the infant rind of this weak flowerPoison hath residence and medicine power;For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part;Being tasted, stays all senses with the heart. Two such opposed kings encamp them stillIn man as well as herbs–grace and rude will;And where the worser is predominant,Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.” | Speaker: Friar LawrenceSpoken to: Himself/AudienceCircumstances: Prior to Romeo visiting Friar Lawrence, he Meaning/Translation: Morning is taking over night, and darkness leave like a stumbling drunk. The sun is rising, and before it dries up the dew, I have to fill this basket with poisonous herbs and medicinal flowers. The earth is nature’s mother and death. From earth comes many things with many virtues, each with their own differences. Everything has quality, and nothing is so bad that it doesn’t have a unique quality. And anything misused or abused will turn bad. Virtue turns into vice if misused, but vice can turn to virtue by good actions.Inside the rind of this flower is poison and medicine, but if smelt you feel good. If you taste it, you die. This is inside plants and men as well, good and bad, and are opposites. |
| Act 2, Scene 3, pg.47, lines 12-15″Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead: stabbed with a white wench’s black eye; run throughthe ear with a love song; the very pin of his heartcleft with the blind bow-boy’s butt-shaft; and is hea man to encounter Tybalt?” | Speaker: MercutioSpoken to: BenvolioCircumstances: Mercutio and Benvolio are discussing the letter sent by Tybalt, and Benvolio believes Romeo should answer it.Meaning/Translation: Romeo is “dead” from Rosaline, and Cupid’s arrow is to blame. Is he fit to confront Tybalt? |
| Act 2, Scene 4, pg.53, lines 168-177″Now, afore God, I am so vexed that every partabout me quivers. Scurvy knave! Pray you, sir, aword; and, as I told you, my young lady bid meinquire you out. What she bid me say, I will keep to myself; but first let me tell ye, if ye should leadher in a fool’s paradise, as they say, it were a verygross kind of behavior, as they say; for the gentle-woman is young; and therefore, if you should dealdouble with her, truly it were an ill thing to beoffered to any gentlewoman, and very weak dealing.” | Speaker: NurseSpoken to: RomeoCircumstances: The Nurse is looking for Romeo to speak to him about Juliet.Meaning/Translation: Can I speak to you? I can’t say what she told me to, but if you are only trying to seduce her, that is wrong. She is young and kind, and if you are being dishonest it is an awful thing to do. |
| Act 2, Scene 5, pg.55, lines 1-17″The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse;In half an hour she promised to return.Perchance she cannot meet him. That’s not so.O, she is lame! Love’s heralds should be thoughts,Which ten times faster glides than the sun’s beamsDriving back shadows over low’ring hills.Therefore do nimble-pinioned doves draw Love,And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.Now is the sun upon the highest hillOf this day’s journey, and from nine till twelveIs three long hours; yet she is not come.Had she affections and warm youthful blood,She would be as swift in motion as a ball;My words would bandy her to my sweet love,And his to me.But old folks, many feign as they were dead—Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.” | Speaker: JulietSpoken to: Herself/AudienceCircumstances: Juliet is waiting for the nurse to return from speaking with Romeo.Meaning/Translation: I sent my Nurse at nine, and she said she would only be a half an hour. What if she couldn’t find him? No, she is old. Messages of love should be swift. She has been gone three hours. If she were younger, she would be quick, and be quick to return a message. But she is old and slow, as many old people are. |
| Act 2, Scene 5, pg.56, lines 31-37″How art though out of breath when thou has breathTo say to me that thou art out of breath?The excuse that thou doest make in this delayIs longer than the tale thou dost excuse.Is thy news good or bad? Answer to that.Say either, and I’ll stay the circumstance.Let me be satisfied, is’t good or bad?” | Speaker: JulietSpoken to: NurseCircumstances: Nurse has returned from speaking with Romeo and claims she is tired, and asks for Juliet to allow her to catch her breath before speaking.Meaning/Translation: How are you out of breath when you’re talking? Telling me you’re tired is longer than telling me about Romeo. Is it good or bad news? Tell me that, and I’ll wait to hear the rest. Good or bad? |
| Act 2, Scene 6, pg.58, lines 9-15″These violent delights have violent endsAnd in their triumph die, like fire and powder,Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honeyIs loathsome in his own deliciousnessAnd in the taste confounds the appetite.Therefore love moderately: long love doth so;Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.” | Speaker: Friar LawrenceSpoken to: RomeoCircumstances: Romeo is waiting for Juliet to arrive for Friar Lawrence to marry them.Meaning/Translation: Quickly started relationships can end badly. You get caught up in your love, and don’t realize your decision. Don’t give away your love quickly, as it can end just as badly as not giving it soon enough. |
| Act 3, Scene 1, pg.62, lines 69-73″I do protest I never injured thee,But love thee better than thou canst deviseTill thou shalt know the reason of my love,And so, good Capulet, which name I tenderAs dearly as mine own, be satisfied.” | Speaker: RomeoSpoken to: TybaltCircumstances: Mercutio, Benvolio, and Tybalt were in a disagreement on the street, and Romeo is trying to diffuse it. Tybalt accuses Romeo of being a villain, to which he replies that he has done nothing to earn that title. Tybalt tells him to turn and draw his sword.Meaning/Translation: I haven’t hurt you, but instead love you more than you would think. Until you can know why, be calm. |
| Act 3, Scene 1, pg.64, lines 107-110″Help me into some house, Benvolio,Or I shall faint. A plague a both your houses!They have made worms’ meat of me. I have it,And soundly too. Your houses!” | Speaker: MercutioSpoken to: BenvolioCircumstances: Tybalt has just stabbed Mercutio when Romeo tried to stop him.Meaning/Translation: Bring me into a building, Benvolio, before I pass out. Curse both of your families! I’m going to die. Curse you! |
| Act 3, Scene 2, pg.67, lines 1-31″Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,Towards Phoebus’ lodging! Such a wagonerAs Phaeton would whip you to the westAnd bring in cloudy night immediately.Spread thy close curtain, love performing night,That runaways’ eyes may wink, and RomeoLeap to these arms untalked of and unseen.Lovers can see to do their amorous rites,And by their own beauties; or, if love be blind, It best agrees with night. Come, civil night,Thou sober-suited matron all in black,And learn me how to lose a winning match,Played for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.Hood my unmanned blood, bating in my cheeks,With thy black mantle till strange love grow bold,Think true love acted simple modesty.Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night;For thou wilt lie upon the wings of nightWhiter than new snow upon a raven’s back.Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-browed night;Give me my Romeo; and when I shall die,Take him and cut him out in little stars,And he will make the face of heaven so fineThat all the world will be in love with nightAnd pay no worship to the garish sun.O, I have bought the mansion of a love,But not possessed it; and though I am sold,Not yet enjoyed. So tedious is this dayAs is the night before some festivalTo an impatient child that hath new robesAnd may not wear them. O, here comes my nurse.” | Speaker: JulietSpoken to: Herself/AudienceCircumstances: Juliet is waiting for Romeo.Meaning/Translation: I wish it was night so Romeo would come. Here comes my nurse. |
| Act 3, Scene 2, pg.70-71, lines 73-89″O serpent heart, hid with a flow’ring face!Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical! Dove-feathered raven! Wolfish-ravening lamb!Despised substance of divinest show!Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st—A damned saint, an honorable villain!O nature, what hadst thou to do in hellWhen thou didst bower the spirit of a fiendIn mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?Was ever book containing such vile matterSo fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwellIn such a gorgeous palace!””There’s no trust,No faith, no honesty in men; all perjured, All forsword, all naught, all dissemblers.Ah, where’s my man? Give me some aqua vitae.These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old.Shame come to Romeo!” | Speaker: Juliet, NurseSpoken to: Nurse, JulietCircumstances: Nurse has told Juliet that Romeo has killed Tybalt and is banished for it.Meaning/Translation: That dishonest traitor! I didn’t think he would do such a thing. I can’t believe Romeo did that.No man is completely good, and all will lie. Give me a drink. Romeo should be punished. |
| Act 3, Scene 3, pg.73-74, lines 29-51″‘Tis torture, and not mercy. Heaven is here,Where Juliet lives; and every cat and dogAnd little mouse, every unworthy thing,And here in heaven and may look on her;But Romeo may not. More validity.More honorable state, more courtship livesIn carrion flies than Romeo. They may seize On the white wonder of dear Juliet’s handAnd steal immortal blessing fro her lips,Who, even in pure and vestal modesty,Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin;But Romeo may not, he is banished. Flies may do this but I from this must fly;They are freemen, but I am banished.And sayest thou yet that exile is not death.Hadst thou no poison mixture, no sharp-ground knife,No sudden mean of death, though ne’er so mean,But “banished” to kill me– “banished”?O friar, the damned use that word in hell;Howling attends it! How hast thou the heart,Being a diving, a ghostly confessor,A sin-absolver, and my friend professed,To mangle me with that word “banished”?” | Speaker: RomeoSpoken to: Friar LawrenceCircumstances: Friar Lawrence tells Romeo the news from the Prince, but has told Romeo that he is lucky to have been banished.Meaning/Translation: It’s not lucky. Heaven on earth is where Juliet is. I cannot see her. I cannot touch her, or kiss her, because I am banished. You say that exile isn’t death, but I’d rather be dead than banished. How can you tell me that I am exiled, and not to be executed? |
| Act 3, Scene 3, pg.76-78, lines 108-158″ Hold thy desperate hand.Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art.Thy tears are womanish. Thy wild acts denoteThe unreasonable fury of a beast.Unseemly woman in a seeming man,And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both!Thou hast amazed me. By my holy order,I thought thy disposition better tempered.Hast thou slain Tybalt? Wilt thou slay thyself,And slay thy lady that in thy life livesBy doing damnèd hate upon thyself?Why rail’st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth?Since birth and heaven and earth, all three do meetIn thee at once, which thou at once wouldst lose?Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit,Which, like a usurer, abound’st in allAnd usest none in that true use indeedWhich should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit.Thy noble shape is but a form of wax,Digressing from the valor of a man;Thy dear love sworn but hollow perjury,Killing that love which thou hast vowed to cherish;Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,Misshapen in the conduct of them both,Like powder in a skill-less soldier’s flask,Is set afire by thine own ignorance;And thou dismembered with thine own defence.What, rouse thee, man! Thy Juliet is alive,For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead—There art thou happy. Tybalt would kill thee,But thou slew’st Tybalt—there art thou happy.The law that threatened death becomes thy friendAnd turns it to exile—there art thou happy.A pack of blessings light upon thy back,Happiness courts thee in her best array,But, like a misbehaved and sullen wench,Thou pout’st upon thy fortune and thy love.Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed.Ascend her chamber, hence, and comfort her.But look thou stay not till the watch be set,For then thou canst not pass to Mantua,Where thou shalt live, till we can find a timeTo blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends,Beg pardon of the Prince, and call thee backWith twenty hundred thousand times more joyThan thou went’st forth in lamentation.—Go before, Nurse. Commend me to thy lady,And bid her hasten all the house to bed,Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto.Romeo is coming.” | Speaker: Friar LawrenceSpoken to: Nurse and RomeoCircumstances: Romeo is hiding with Friar Lawrence after being banished, and Nurse comes in.Meaning/Translation: Don’t be desperate. Are you a man or a woman? Man up. Have you killed Tybalt? Will you kill yourself, and Juliet after? Why do you complain about the world? You’re an empty shell, like a careless soldier who blows himself up. Juliet is alive, and she is why you almost died earlier. Tybalt tried to kill you, but instead you killed him. Be happy. Go talk to Juliet and comfort her, then escape to Mantua. We’ll ask the Prince to excuse you. Nurse, go tell Juliet that Romeo is coming. |
| Act 3, Scene 5, pg.80-81, lines 1-16″Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day.It was the nightingale, and not the lark,That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear.Nightly she sings on bond pomegranate tree.Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.””It was the lark, the herald of the morn;No nightingale. Look, love, what envious streaks Do lace the severing clouds in yonder East.Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day Stands tiptoe on the misty mountaintops.I must be gone and live, or stay and die.”Yond light is not daylight; I know it, I.It is some meteor that the sun exhalesTo be to thee this night a torchbearerAnd light thee on thy way to Mantua.Therefore stay yet; thou need’st not to be gone.” | Speaker: Juliet, Romeo, JulietSpoken to: Romeo, Juliet, RomeoCircumstances: Romeo and Juliet spent the night together, but Romeo has to leave to Mantua.Meaning/Translation: Are you leaving? It’s not day yet. I heard a nightingale, so it must be night.That was a lark, which sings in the morning, not a nightingale. The sun is rising in the East. Night is gone, and I must be gone, too, or I will die.That light isn’t daylight. It’s a meteor for you, this night, to lead you to Mantua. So, stay. You don’t need to leave. |
| Act 3, Scene 5, pg.82, lines 54-57″O God, I have an ill-divining soul!Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low,As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.Either my eyesight fails, or thou lookest pale.” | Speaker: JulietSpoken to: RomeoCircumstances: Romeo is leaving to Mantua after their night together, and she asks if they will meet again.Meaning/Translation: I’m pessimistic. I think I see you as dead. You look pale. |
| Act 3, Scene 5, pg.89, lines 236-240″Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn,Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongueWhich she hath praised him with above compareSo many thousand times? Go, counselor!” | Speaker: JulietSpoken to: NurseCircumstances: Nurse is trying to convince Juliet that she should just marry Paris.Meaning/Translation: Damned woman! Is it worse to wish me to be unhappy, or to talk bad about Romeo when you have spoken so kindly about him before? Leave! |
| Act 4, Scene 1, pg.93-94, lines 89-120″Hold, then. Go home, be merry, give consentTo marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow.Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone;Let not the nurse lie with thee in thy chamber.Take you this vial, being then in bed,And this distilling liquid drink thou off;When presently through all thy veins shall run A cold and drowsy humor; for no pulseShall keep his native progress, but surcease;No warmth, no breath, shall testify though livest;The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fadeTo wanny ashes, thy eyes’ windows fallLike death when he shuts up the day of life;Each part, deprived of supple government,Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death;And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk deathThou shalt continue two-and-forty hours,And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comesTo rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead.Then, as the manner of our country is;In thy best robes uncovered on the bierThou shalt be borne to that same ancient vaultWhere all the kindred of the Capulets lie.In the meantime, against thou shalt awake,Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift;And hither shall he come; and he and IWill watch thy waking, and that very night Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.And this shall free thee from this present shame,If no inconstant toy nor womanish fearAbate thy valor in the acting it.” | Speaker: Friar LawrenceSpoken to: JulietCircumstances: Friar Lawrence is giving her a plan to get out of marrying Paris to be with Romeo.Meaning/Translation: Pretend to agree to marry Paris. Take this medicine which will make you seem dead. You’ll be put in the Capulet tomb, where Romeo and I will find you when you wake up. Romeo will then take you to Mantua. |
| Act 4, Scene 3, pg.97-98, lines 14-58″Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again.I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veinsThat almost freezes up the heat of life.I’ll call them back again to comfort me.Nurse!– What should she do here?My dismal scene I needs must act alone.Come, vial.What if this mixture do not work at all? Shall I be married then tomorrow morning?No, no! This shall forbid it. Lie thou there.What if it be a poison which the friarSubtly hath minist’red to have me dead,Lest in this marriage he should be dishonoredBecause he married me before to Romeo?I fear it is’ and yet methinks it should not,For he hath still been tried a holy man.How if, when I am laid into the tomb,I wake before the time that RomeoCome to redeem me? There’s a fearful point!Shall I not then be stifled in the vault,To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,Ad there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?Or, if I live, is it not very likeThe horrible conceit of death and night,Together with the terror of the place—As in a vault, an ancient receptacleWhere for many hundred years the bonesOf all my buried ancestors are packed;Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,Lies fest’ring in his shroud; where, as they say,At some hours in the night spirits resort—Alack, alack, is it not like that I,So early waking— why with loathsome smells,And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth,That living mortals, hearing them, run mad—O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,Environed with all these hideous fears,And madly play with my forefathers’ joints,And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud,And, in this rage, with some great kinsman’s boneAs wit ha club dash out my desp’rate brains?O, look! Methinks I see my cousin’s ghostSeeking out Romeo, that did spit his bodyUpon a rapier’s point. Stay, Tybalt, stay!Romeo, Romeo, Romeo, I drink to thee.” | Speaker: JulietSpoken to: Herself/AudienceCircumstances: Friar Lawrence has given her the liquid that will fake her death and let her be with Romeo. Lady Capulet and the Nurse have just left, and she is left to herself in her room.Meaning/Translation: Goodbye! I don’t know when I’ll see you again. I am scared. Nurse! What would she do? I need to be alone. What if the liquid doesn’t work? Will I be married tomorrow? No, I’ll rather kill myself with a knife. What if the friar poisoned me? I don’t think so. What if I woke up before Romeo got there? That would be scary. I think I see Tybalt’s ghost. I drink to see you, Romeo. |
| Act 4, Scene 5, pg.101, lines 25-29″Ha! Let me see her. Out alas! She’s cold,Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff;Life and these lips have long been separated.Death lies on her like an untimely frost.Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.””O lamentable day!” | Speaker: Capulet, then NurseSpoken to: Lady Capulet, Nurse, and then CapuletCircumstances: Juliet has taken the poison and appears dead in the morning. Meaning/Translation: Let me see her. Oh no! She’s cold and stiff. She has been dead awhile. She’s so young, and so sweet.Awful day! |
| Act 4, Scene 5, pg.102-103, lines 65-83″Peace, ho, for shame! Confusion’s cure lives notIn these confusions. Heaven and yourselfHad part in this fair maid— now heaven hath all,And all the better is it for the maid.Your part in her you could not keep from death,But heaven keeps his part in eternal life.The most you sought was her promotion,For ’twas your heaven she should be advanced;And week ye now, seeing she is advancedAbove the clouds, as high as heaven itself?O, in this love, you love your child so illThat you run mad, seeing that she is well.She’s not well married that lives married long,But she’s best married that dies married young.Dry up your tears and stick your rosemaryOn this fair corse, and, as the custom is,And in her best array bear her to church;For though fond nature bids us all lament,Yet nature’s tears are reason’s merriment.” | Speaker: Friar LawrenceSpoken to: CapuletCircumstances: Capulet, Lady Capulet, Nurse, Paris, and Friar have just discovered Juliet to be “dead.”Meaning/Translation: For shame! Grief’s cure isn’t in sorrow. Heaven is a part of her, and that is where she is. You can’t keep her from death, but you hope she goes to heaven. And now you cry, seeing that she is there? You love her so much that you’ve gone crazy, because she is okay. Grieve her and mourn the loss, and bring her to church for a funeral. This is a thing of happiness. She is in a better place. |
| Act 5, Scene 1, pg.108, line 75″My poverty but not my will consents.” | Speaker: the ApothecarySpoken to: RomeoCircumstances: Romeo wants poison so he can die by Juliet.Meaning/Translation: I am only giving you this because I need the money. |
| Act 5, Scene 2, pg.109, lines 5-12″Going to find a barefoot brother out,One of our order, to associate meHere in this city visiting the sick,And finding him, the searchers of the town,Suspecting that we both were in a houseWhere the infectious pestilence did reign,Sealed up the doors, and would not let us forth,So that my speed to Mantua there was stayed.” | Speaker: Friar JohnSpoken to: Friar LawrenceCircumstances: Friar John couldn’t get Friar Lawrence’s letter to Romeo.Meaning/Translation: When I tried to go to Mantua with another man to find Romeo, officers thought that we were infected and wouldn’t let us pass. |
| Act 5, Scene 3, pg.111, lines 12-17″Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew(O woe! thy canopy is dust and stones)Which with sweet water nightly I will dew;Or, wanting that, with tears distilled by moans. The obsequies that I for thee will keepnightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep.” | Speaker: ParisSpoken to: Himself/AudienceCircumstances: Paris is going to Juliet’s tomb to lay flowers and sweet water.Meaning/Translation: I’ll put sweet water on your tomb and weep. |
| Act 5, Scene 3, pg.113-114, lines 74-120″In faith, I will. Let me peruse this face. Mercutio’s kinsman, noble County Paris!What said my man when my be tossed soulDid not attend him as we rode? I thinkHe told me Paris should have married Juliet.Said he not so, or did I dream it so?Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet,To think it was so? O, give me thy hand,One writ with me in sour misfortune’s book!I’ll bury thee in a triumphant grave.A grave? O, no, a lantern, slaught’red youth,For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makesThis vault a feasting presence full of light.Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interred.How oft when men are at the point of deathHave they been merry! Which their keepers callA lightning before death. O, how may ICall this a lightning? O my love, my wife!Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath,Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.Thou art not conquered. Beauty’s ensign yetIs crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,And death’s pale flag is not advanced there.Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?O, what more favor can I do to theeThan with that hand that cut thy youth in twainTo sunder his that was thine enemy?Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet,Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe That unsubstantial Death is amorous,And that the learn abhorred monster keepsThee here in dark to be his paramour?For fear of that I still will stay with theeAnd never from the pallet of dim nightDepart again. Here, here will I remainWith worms that are thy chambermaids. O, hereWill I set up my everlasting restAnd shake the yoke of inauspicious starsFrom this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!Arms, take your last embrace! And, lips, O youThe doors of breath, seal with a righteous kissA dateless bargain to engrossing death!Come, bitter conduct; come, unsavory guide!Thou desperate pilot, now at once run onThe dashing rocks thy seasick weary bark!Here’s to my love! [Drinks] O true apothecary!Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.” | Speaker: RomeoSpoken to: Himself/AudienceCircumstances: Romeo has gone to Juliet’s tomb and just killed Paris.Meaning/Translation: I will (lay you in a tomb.) Mercutio said Paris was to marry Juliet. Or am I imagining that? I’ll bury you. Men are sometimes merry right before they die. It is called a lightning before death. How can I call this a lightning? My wife is dead, but is just as beautiful. Is that Tybalt, dead? What more favor can I do than to kill myself? Forgive me. Juliet, why are you so beautiful? Here, I will stay, dead. I will kiss her, then die. The apothecary was honest. The drugs are quick. I die with a last kiss. |
| Act 5, Scene 3, pg.118, lines 223-227″I am the greatest, able to do least,Yet most suspected as the time and placeDoth make against me, of this direful murder;And here I stand, both to impeach and purgeMyself condemned and myself excused.” | Speaker: Friar LawrenceSpoken to: PrinceCircumstances: The Capulets and Montagues have seen Romeo and Juliet together, dead.Meaning/Translation: I can’t do much, but I came at just the wrong time and place. This makes me suspicious, but here I am to stand witness and plead innocence. |
| Act 5, Scene 3, pg.120, lines 291-295″Where be these enemies? Capulet, Montague,See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.And I, for winking at your discords, too, Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished.” | Speaker: PrinceSpoken to: Montague and CapuletCircumstances: They have discovered the Friar’s innocence, and that Romeo and Juliet both committed suicide to be together.Meaning/Translation: Whose to blame? Capulet, Montague, see what your grudge has done. Both your children are dead from their forbidden love. And I, for ignoring your conflict, have lost Mercutio and Paris. Everyone here is already punished enough. |
| Act 5, Scene 3, pg.121, lines 305-310″A glooming peace this morning with it brings.The sun for sorrow will not show his head. Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;Some shall be pardoned, and some punished;For never was a story of more woeThan this of Juliet and her Romeo.” | Speaker: PrinceSpoken to: Capulet and MontagueCircumstances: They have just made peace. Very end of story.Meaning/Translation: This is a saddening peace. The sun is gone. Leave, to talk together of this incident. Some will be punished, and some will not. There was never a sadder story than Romeo and Juliet’s. |
Matthews Romeo and Juliet Quotes
August 5, 2019