JULIET                        O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?                         Deny thy father, and refuse thy name;                         Or if thou wilt not, but be sworn my love,                         And I’ll no longer be a Capulet. ROMEO           [Aside] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this? (2.2.33-37) Up there with Hamlet knowing Yorick really […]

ROMEO           See how she leans her cheek upon her hand!                         O that I were a glove upon that hand,                         That I might touch that cheek! JULIET                                                                                    Ay me! ROMEO                                                                                   She speaks.                         O speak again, bright angel, for thou art                         As glorious to this night, being o’er my head,                         As is […]

ROMEO           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 […]

ROMEO           He jests at scars that never felt a wound.                         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 grief                         That thou, her maid, art far more […]

BENVOLIO      Come, he hath hid himself among these trees                         To be consorted with the humorous night:                         Blind is his love, and best befits the dark. MERCUTIO     If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.                         Now will he sit under a medlar tree,                         And wish his mistress were that kind of […]

MERCUTIO     I conjure thee by Rosaline’s bright eyes,                         By her high forehead and her scarlet lip,                         By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh,                         And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,                         That in thy likeness thou appear to us. BENVOLIO      And if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him. MERCUTIO     […]

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 […]