Romeo and Juliet quotes, explained

Act 1, PrologueThe Chorus

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

The very first lines, spoken to the audience before the story begins.

In plain words

Two families, both equally noble, in the beautiful city of Verona, where our play is set.

What it shows

The play opens with a sonnet, the form of a love poem, but it is about a feud. “Alike” matters: neither family is better than the other, so the hatred has no good reason. “Fair Verona” sounds peaceful, which makes the violence to come more shocking.

Themes Conflict and violence · Family and parents

Techniques Sonnet

Act 1, PrologueThe Chorus

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

The very first lines, spoken to the audience before the story begins.

In plain words

An old quarrel breaks out into new fighting, and citizens dirty their hands with each other’s blood.

What it shows

“Ancient” and “new” are set side by side: the feud is old, but each generation keeps it alive. The repeated “civil” is pointed, because there is nothing civilised about citizens killing each other, and “unclean” hints at the guilt everyone shares.

Themes Conflict and violence · Family and parents · Youth and age

Techniques Sonnet · Repetition · Antithesis

Act 1, PrologueThe Chorus

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;

The very first lines, spoken to the audience before the story begins.

In plain words

From these two enemy families are born two lovers whose stars are against them.

What it shows

“Star-cross’d” means the stars, or fate, are set against them, so the audience knows from the start that the love is doomed. “Take their life” is a pun: they are born, but they will also kill themselves. “Fatal” means both “fated” and “deadly”.

Themes Fate · Love · Death · Family and parents

Techniques Sonnet · Pun · Foreshadowing · Alliteration

Act 1, PrologueThe Chorus

The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,

The very first lines, spoken to the audience before the story begins.

In plain words

The frightening course of their love, which is marked out for death.

What it shows

Love and death are joined in one phrase, “death-mark’d love”, as they are all through the play. Telling the ending at the start means the audience watches for how it happens, not what happens, and every hopeful moment is shadowed by what we already know.

Themes Fate · Love · Death

Techniques Sonnet · Foreshadowing · Metaphor

Act 1, Scene 1Tybalt

What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word,
As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee:

A street fight; a young man has drawn his sword to try to part the fighters.

In plain words

What, you’ve got your sword out and you talk about peace? I hate that word as much as I hate hell, all the Montagues, and you.

What it shows

Tybalt’s first speech is pure hatred. The repeated “hate” and the list that puts “peace” beside “hell” show a man who lives for fighting. He refuses even the word peace, so the audience knows he will be dangerous.

Themes Conflict and violence · Family and parents · Honour and masculinity

Techniques Repetition · Listing

Act 1, Scene 1Lady Capulet

A crutch, a crutch! why call you for a sword?

An old man calls for his long sword to join the street fight.

In plain words

You need a crutch, not a sword! Why are you asking for a sword?

What it shows

The joke mocks an old man who wants to fight like a young one. It shows the heads of the families are as hot-headed as their servants, and that the feud is kept going by old men who should know better.

Themes Youth and age · Conflict and violence · Family and parents

Techniques Repetition · Rhetorical question

Act 1, Scene 1The Prince

If ever you disturb our streets again,
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.

The ruler of Verona has stopped the third street brawl and gives a warning to both families.

In plain words

If you ever fight in our streets again, you will pay for breaking the peace with your lives.

What it shows

This sets up the law that shapes the rest of the play: the next fight will bring a death sentence. When Romeo kills Tybalt in Act 3 the audience remembers this warning, and his banishment is a mercy.

Themes Conflict and violence · Death · Fate

Techniques Foreshadowing

Act 1, Scene 1Romeo

Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!

After the street fight, a young man sees the signs of it and talks to his cousin about being lovesick.

In plain words

This fight was about hate, but I’m troubled even more by love. Love that fights, hate that loves!

What it shows

Romeo joins the two big ideas of the play, love and hate, in a string of oxymorons. His language sounds clever and borrowed, like a poet showing off, which suggests his love for Rosaline is more about words than real feeling.

Themes Love · Conflict and violence

Techniques Oxymoron · Antithesis

Act 1, Scene 1Romeo

O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!

Talking to a cousin about a love that is not returned, just after a street fight.

In plain words

Love is a mass of opposites: heavy and light, serious and silly, heavy as lead and light as a feather.

What it shows

The pile of oxymorons shows how confused and miserable Romeo feels. It is also very much the fashion of love poetry at the time, so many readers see it as Romeo enjoying the role of the sad lover rather than truly loving.

Themes Love

Techniques Oxymoron · Listing

Act 1, Scene 2Lord Capulet

My child is yet a stranger in the world;
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years,

Paris asks for permission to marry Juliet.

In plain words

My daughter is still new to the world; she is not yet fourteen.

What it shows

Here Capulet seems a caring father who wants Juliet to wait. This early gentleness makes his fury in Act 3 Scene 5, when she refuses to marry Paris, all the more shocking. It also tells us how young Juliet is.

Themes Family and parents · Youth and age

Techniques Metaphor

Act 1, Scene 2Lord Capulet

But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,
My will to her consent is but a part;

Paris asks for permission to marry Juliet.

In plain words

But court her, Paris, and win her love. My wishes are only part of it; her agreement matters too.

What it shows

Capulet says Juliet’s consent matters, which was a generous view for a father of the time. Later he forgets this completely and forces the marriage on her, so the line shows how much the events of Act 3 change him.

Themes Family and parents · Love

Techniques Imperative · Rhyming couplet

Act 1, Scene 3The Nurse

Thou wast the prettiest babe that e’er I nursed:
An I might live to see thee married once,
I have my wish.

In the Capulet house, as a marriage is first talked about.

In plain words

You were the prettiest baby I ever looked after. If I live to see you married, I’ll have all I want.

What it shows

The Nurse loves Juliet like a mother, and has known her far longer and more closely than Lady Capulet has. Her wish to see Juliet married helps explain why she later carries messages for Romeo.

Themes Family and parents · Love · Youth and age

Editions differ: Some editions print “And” instead of “An”. Both mean “if” here.

Act 1, Scene 3Juliet

It is an honour that I dream not of.

In the Capulet house, the first time a match with Paris is raised.

In plain words

Marriage is an honour I haven’t even thought about.

What it shows

Juliet’s first answer about marriage is polite, obedient and cautious. It shows how innocent she is at the start, and how much she changes once she meets Romeo, when she is the one who proposes marriage.

Themes Family and parents · Youth and age · Love · Honour and masculinity

Act 1, Scene 3The Nurse

No less! nay, bigger; women grow by men.

A mother has just told her daughter that marrying well will make her “no less”.

In plain words

No less? No, bigger! Women get bigger because of men.

What it shows

The Nurse turns the talk of status into a bawdy joke about pregnancy. Her earthy humour is a contrast to Lady Capulet’s formal speech, and shows she sees marriage in a much more physical, practical way.

Themes Love · Family and parents

Techniques Pun

Act 1, Scene 3Juliet

I’ll look to like, if looking liking move:
But no more deep will I endart mine eye
Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.

In the Capulet house, as a match with Paris is suggested before the feast.

In plain words

I’ll look at him and see if I like him. But I won’t let my eyes go any further than you allow.

What it shows

Juliet promises to obey her mother, and her neat, careful words fit a dutiful daughter. Within hours she falls for the son of her family’s enemy, without anyone’s consent, which shows how quickly love overturns obedience.

Themes Family and parents · Love · Youth and age

Techniques Alliteration · Repetition · Rhyming couplet · Metaphor

Act 1, Scene 4Romeo

Is love a tender thing? it is too rough,
Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn.

On the way to a feast, a lovesick young man refuses to dance.

In plain words

Is love gentle? No, it’s too rough, too harsh, too violent, and it hurts like a thorn.

What it shows

Romeo sees love as painful and even violent, the language of fighting. It hints that in this play love will not be gentle, and that it is bound up with harm.

Themes Love

Techniques Simile · Rhetorical question · Repetition · Listing

Act 1, Scene 4Mercutio

True, I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,

On the way to a feast, after a long, wild speech about a fairy who brings dreams.

In plain words

Yes, I’m talking about dreams, which come from a lazy mind and are made of nothing but empty fancy.

What it shows

Mercutio dismisses dreams as meaningless, while Romeo fears that his dream is a warning. The play seems to side with Romeo: his fears come true. Mercutio’s mocking voice is clever, but it cannot see what is coming.

Themes Dreams · Fate

Techniques Metaphor

Act 1, Scene 4Romeo

my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night’s revels

On the way to the Capulet feast, just before going in.

In plain words

I have a feeling that something written in the stars will start tonight at this party and end badly.

What it shows

Romeo senses that fate, “hanging in the stars”, is waiting for him at the feast, where he will meet Juliet. It echoes the “star-cross’d lovers” of the Prologue and goes on to fear an “untimely death”, so the audience knows his fear is right.

Themes Fate · Death

Techniques Foreshadowing · Metaphor · Personification

Act 1, Scene 5Romeo

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

At the Capulet feast, seeing someone across the room for the first time.

In plain words

She is so bright that she shows the torches how to shine!

What it shows

The first of many images of Juliet as light. The hyperbole shows instant, overwhelming attraction, and the light that she brings into the dark is an image the lovers use for each other until the very end.

Themes Love · Light and darkness

Techniques Hyperbole · Personification

Act 1, Scene 5Romeo

Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.

At the Capulet feast, having just seen someone across the room.

In plain words

Have I ever really loved before? No, my eyes deny it, because I never saw true beauty until tonight.

What it shows

Rosaline is forgotten in a moment. This shows how fast Romeo’s feelings change, which Friar Laurence will later criticise. It also suggests that his love begins with how Juliet looks.

Themes Love · Light and darkness

Techniques Rhetorical question · Rhyming couplet · Imperative

Act 1, Scene 5Tybalt

Now, by the stock and honour of my kin,
To strike him dead, I hold it not a sin.

At the Capulet feast, recognising an enemy by his voice.

In plain words

By my family’s name and honour, I don’t think it would be a sin to kill him.

What it shows

To Tybalt, family honour matters more than right and wrong, even killing. The neat rhyming couplet sounds like a firm decision, and his anger here leads straight to the fight in Act 3.

Themes Conflict and violence · Honour and masculinity · Family and parents

Techniques Rhyming couplet

Act 1, Scene 5Romeo

If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

At the feast, speaking for the first time to the person just noticed across the room.

In plain words

If my hand has spoiled your holy hand by touching it, my lips, like two shy pilgrims, are ready to make up for it with a kiss.

What it shows

The lovers’ first words to each other form a shared sonnet, a love poem, so they are in tune from the start. Romeo treats Juliet as a saint and himself as a pilgrim, religious language that makes their love seem pure and holy.

Themes Love · Religion

Techniques Sonnet · Metaphor

Editions differ: The early printed texts differ: some say “the gentle fine” (a gentle penalty), others “the gentle sin”.

Act 1, Scene 5Juliet

Go ask his name: if he be married.
My grave is like to be my wedding bed.

As the feast ends, asking who a young guest is.

In plain words

Go and find out his name. If he is married, I will die unmarried.

What it shows

She means she will never marry anyone else, but the words come horribly true: she dies in the tomb, which becomes her wedding bed. Love and death are linked again.

Themes Love · Death · Fate

Techniques Foreshadowing · Metaphor · Imperative

Act 1, Scene 5Juliet

My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!

After the feast, learning that the young man is from the enemy family.

In plain words

The only man I love comes from the only family I hate! I saw him before I knew who he was, and found out too late.

What it shows

Love and hate are set side by side in perfectly balanced lines. “Too early” and “too late” show that time is already against the lovers, a pattern that ends with Romeo arriving at the tomb minutes too soon.

Themes Love · Conflict and violence · Fate · Family and parents · Time and haste

Techniques Antithesis · Rhyming couplet · Repetition

Act 4, Scene 1Juliet

O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
From off the battlements of yonder tower;

A church cell, begging for a way out of a forced marriage.

In plain words

Tell me to jump off the top of that tower rather than marry Paris.

What it shows

Juliet begins a list of terrible things she would do rather than marry Paris, ending with lying in a grave with a dead man. It shows her courage and how far she will go for love, and the list of tombs and bones prepares for the ending.

Themes Love · Death · Family and parents

Techniques Imperative · Hyperbole

Act 4, Scene 1Friar Laurence

Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
And this distilled liquor drink thou off;

Offering Juliet a desperate plan to escape a second marriage.

In plain words

Take this little bottle, and when you’re in bed, drink the liquid.

What it shows

The Friar’s plan is clever but extremely risky, and it depends on perfect timing. His skill with plants, seen in Act 2, now gives Juliet a potion that will make her seem dead.

Themes Death · Fate · Time and haste

Techniques Imperative

Act 4, Scene 2Juliet

Henceforward I am ever ruled by you.

Back home after a visit to a church cell, kneeling to Capulet.

In plain words

From now on I’ll always do what you tell me.

What it shows

Juliet pretends to obey, as the Friar told her. Her father is delighted, but the audience knows she is lying, which shows how far she has had to grow up, and learn to deceive, in a few days.

Themes Family and parents

Techniques Dramatic irony

Act 4, Scene 2Lord Capulet

I’ll have this knot knit up to-morrow morning.

After Juliet comes home, apologises and promises to obey.

In plain words

I’ll have this marriage tied up tomorrow morning.

What it shows

Capulet moves the wedding a day earlier, from Thursday to Wednesday. This one rash decision wrecks the Friar’s timing, which shows how adults’ haste, as well as the young lovers’, drives the tragedy.

Themes Time and haste · Family and parents

Techniques Alliteration · Metaphor

Act 4, Scene 3Juliet

My dismal scene I needs must act alone.

Alone in a bedroom the night before a wedding, after almost calling someone back for comfort.

In plain words

I have to act out this dreadful scene on my own.

What it shows

Juliet uses the language of the theatre: she must play her part alone. Everyone who should help her has failed her, and she is braver than any of the adults.

Themes Death · Fate

Techniques Soliloquy · Metaphor

Act 4, Scene 3Juliet

Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee.

Alone in a bedroom, the night before a wedding, after imagining terrible things in the vault.

In plain words

Romeo, I’m coming! I drink this to you.

What it shows

Juliet drinks the potion as a toast to Romeo, as if it were a wedding drink. Her love overcomes her fear, and the words point forward to the moment when she really does follow him into death.

Themes Love · Death

Techniques Soliloquy

Editions differ: The early printed texts differ here. The Gutenberg edition follows the version that repeats “Romeo”.

Act 4, Scene 5Lord Capulet

Death lies on her like an untimely frost
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.

On the morning of the wedding, finding Juliet cold and still in bed.

In plain words

Death lies on her like a frost that has come too early on the loveliest flower in the field.

What it shows

Juliet is a flower killed before her time, an image of youth cut short. The audience knows she is not really dead, which makes the grief strange to watch, and it rehearses the real grief to come.

Themes Death · Family and parents · Time and haste

Techniques Simile · Personification · Dramatic irony

Act 4, Scene 5Lord Capulet

Death is my son-in-law, Death is my heir;

On the morning of the wedding, speaking to Paris beside Juliet’s bed.

In plain words

Death has married my daughter, and Death will inherit everything I have.

What it shows

Death is personified as Juliet’s husband, the idea Juliet herself had in Act 3. Capulet’s plans for an heir through her marriage are gone, and his grief shows the family’s future has died with her.

Themes Death · Family and parents

Techniques Personification · Repetition · Metaphor

Act 4, Scene 5The Nurse

O woe! O woful, woful, woful day!

On the morning of a wedding, after finding a bride apparently dead.

In plain words

Oh, sorrow! Oh, what a sad, sad, sad day!

What it shows

The Nurse’s endless repetition is almost comic, and the audience knows Juliet is only sleeping. But her grief is sincere: she has lost the child she raised.

Themes Death

Techniques Repetition

Act 4, Scene 5Friar Laurence

She’s not well married that lives married long;
But she’s best married that dies married young.

In the grieving house, calming a bride’s family on the morning of the wedding.

In plain words

A woman who lives a long married life is not the most blessed one. The best married is the one who dies young.

What it shows

The Friar comforts the family with religious ideas while he knows Juliet is alive, so his words are deceptive. They are also a terrible hint of the truth: Juliet will die young and married.

Themes Death · Youth and age · Religion

Techniques Antithesis · Rhyming couplet · Repetition · Dramatic irony