Romeo and Juliet

By William Shakespeare QUOTATION: 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.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, act 2, sc. 1, l. 75-8 (1599).

Juliet continues, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/By any other word would smell as sweet.”

QUOTATION: Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, act 2, sc. 2, l. 184-5.

Bidding farewell from her window to Romeo in the garden below.

QUOTATION: 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 be
Ere one can say it lightens.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, act 2, sc. 2, l. 116-20.

To Romeo; she already has a premonition that their love may not last.

QUOTATION: Parting is such sweet sorrow
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, act 2, sc. 1, l. 229-30 (1599).

QUOTATION: Come weep with me, past hope, past cure, past help!
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, act 4, sc. 1, l. 45.

Unable to see a way out of being forced to marry Paris, she turns to Friar Lawrence.

QUOTATION: They are but beggars that can count their worth,
But my true love is grown to such excess
I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, act 2, sc. 6, l. 32-4.

QUOTATION: What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, act 2, sc. 2, l. 43-4.

On loving Romeo, a Montague, and an enemy.

QUOTATION: I would forget it fain,
But O, it presses to my memory
Like damnèd guilty deeds to sinners’ minds.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, act 3, sc. 2, l. 109-11.

She would forget that she heard Romeo was banished; “fain” means gladly.

QUOTATION: All my fortunes at thy foot I’ll lay,
And follow thee my lord throughout the world.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, act 2, sc. 2, l. 147-8.

Offering to marry Romeo.

QUOTATION: 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 yond pomegranate tree.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, act 3, sc. 5, l. 1-4.

To Romeo, who is anxious to get away at daybreak; “fearful” means anxious.

QUOTATION: O serpent heart, hid with a flow’ring face!
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, act 3, sc. 2, l. 73.

On learning that Romeo has killed Tybalt; varying the idea of the proverbial “snake in the grass.”

QUOTATION: Was ever book containing such vile matter
So fairly bound? O that deceit should dwell
In such a gorgeous palace!
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, act 3, sc. 2, l. 83-5.

Thinking Romeo has deceived her.

QUOTATION: My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep. The more I give to thee
The more I have, for both are infinite.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, act 2, sc. 2, l. 133-5.

Expressing her devotion to Romeo.

QUOTATION: But old folks—many feign as they were dead,
Unwieldy, slow, heavy, and pale as lead.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, act 2, sc. 5, l. 16-7.

Thinking of her old nurse; “feign as” means behave as if.

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