MERCUTIO                             Nay, I’ll conjure too.                         Romeo! humours! madman! passion! lover!                         Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh,                         Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied;                         Cry but ‘Ay me!’, pronounce but ‘love’ and ‘dove’,                         Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word,                         One nickname for her purblind […]

ROMEO           Can I go forward when my heart is here?                         Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out.                                                                                     [Romeo withdraws] Enter BENVOLIO with MERCUTIO. BENVOLIO      Romeo! my cousin Romeo! Romeo! MERCUTIO                                                                 He is wise,                         And on my life hath stol’n him home to bed. BENVOLIO      He ran this way and leapt […]

CHORUS         Now old desire doth in his death-bed 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 bewitchèd by the charm of looks;                         […]

NURSE            His name is Romeo, and a Montague, The only son of your great enemy. JULIET                        My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late! Prodigious birth of love it is to me, That I must love a loathèd enemy. NURSE            What’s tis? what’s tis? JULIET                                                            A rhyme […]

JULIET                        Come hither, Nurse. What is yond gentleman? NURSE            The son and heir of old Tiberio. JULIET                        What’s he that now is going out of door? NURSE            Marry, that I think be young Petruchio. JULIET                        What’s he that follows here, that would not dance? NURSE            I know not. JULIET                        Go ask his name.—If he be […]

BENVOLIO      Away, be gone, the sport is at the best. ROMEO           Ay, so I fear, the more is my unrest. CAPULET        Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone,                         We have a trifling foolish banquet towards.                                                 [They whisper in his ear.]                         Is’t e’en so? Why then I thank you all.                         I […]

NURSE            Madam, your mother craves a word with you. ROMEO           What is her mother? NURSE                                                Marry, bachelor,                         Her mother is the lady of the house,                         And a good lady, and a wise and virtuous.                         I nursed her daughter that you talked withal;                         I tell you, he that can lay hold of […]

ROMEO           Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged. JULIET                        Then have my lips the sin that they have took. ROMEO           Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged!                         Give me my sin again. JULIET                                                            You kiss by th’book. (1.5.106-109) Uncharacteristically, I haven’t included the stage directions here. The edition from which […]

ROMEO           If I profane with my unworthiest hand                         This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this,                         My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand                         To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. JULIET                        Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,                         Which mannerly devotion shows in this,                         For saints […]

CAPULET        What, goodman boy, I say he shall, go to!                         Am I the master here, or you? go to!                         You’ll not endure him? God shall mend my soul,                         You’ll make a mutiny among my guests!                         You will set cock-a-hoop! you’ll be the man! TYBALT          Why, uncle, ’tis a shame. CAPULET                                                        Go […]