quotes(juliet)

JULIET [...] 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.' Sweet, good night. This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath, May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet. (2.2.123-129)

Juliet claims that she's frightened by the sudden power of her and Romeo's love, and she's worried that it will burn itself out. She decides to say goodnight to him to prolong their love until their next meeting. Hmmhmm. Sounds like someone's been reading The Rules.

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 yon pomegranate tree. Believe me, love, it was the nightingale. (3.5.1-5)

Juliet denies the passing of time (made evident by the sunrise and the sound of the morning birds twittering) because she knows that the passing of time means that Romeo's going to have to jet. Brain Snack: this kind of poem is called an "aubade," or "morning song."

What's here? A cup, closed in my true love's hand? Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end.— O churl, drunk all, and left no friendly drop To help me after! I will kiss thy lips. Haply some poison yet doth hang on them, To make die with a restorative. She kisses him Thy lips are warm! Enter Paris's Page and Watch. Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger, This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die. (5.3.166-175)

Juliet does not hesitate to follow Romeo into death. Poison, to her, is like a medicine, a "restorative" that could bring her back together with Romeo. The thing is, there's not enough poison on Romeo's lips so Juliet uses her husband's sword.

O Fortune, Fortune! All men call thee fickle. If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him That is renowned for faith? Be fickle, Fortune. For then I hope thou wilt not keep him long, But send him back. (3.5.60-64)

Juliet feels pretty helpless when she says goodbye to her new husband, Romeo, after the couple's one and only night together. Fortune (or Dame Fortuna, goddess of fortune and fate) is often portrayed as a "fickle" (unpredictable and unreliable) goddess because she could raise men up to great heights or cast them down at any moment with the spin of her wheel (a.k.a. the wheel of fortune). Juliet begs "fortune" to be kind to Romeo and reasons that since Romeo is so "faith[ful]" (as in not fickle or unreliable), then "fickle" fortune should want nothing to do with him. Sure—seems like sound logic to us.

JULIET (gesturing towards Romeo) What's he that follows here, that would not dance? NURSE I know not. JULIET Go ask his name. The Nurse goes. If he be marrièd. My grave is like to be my wedding bed. (1.5.146-149)

Juliet foreshadows her own death - her grave does become her wedding bed.

Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, Towards Phoebus' lodging. Such a wagoner As Phaëthon would whip you to the west And bring in cloudy night immediately. Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, That runaway's eyes may wink, and Romeo Leap to these arms, untalked of and unseen. Lovers can see to do their amorous rites 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 unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks, With thy black mantle till strange love grown bold, Think true love acted simple modesty. Come, night. Come, Romeo. Come, thou day in night. For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night Whiter than new snow on a raven's back. Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-browed night, Give me my Romeo, and when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And 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 day As is the night before some festival To an impatient child that hath new robes And may not wear them. (3.2.1-33)

Juliet is both excited and nervous about losing her virginity. She feels that her love for Romeo is so strong that it could overpower the sun.

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 be Ere one can say 'It lightens.' Sweet, good night. This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath, May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet. Good night, good night. As sweet repose and rest Come to thy heart as that within my breast. (2.2.123-131)

Juliet is certain that she loves Romeo but she's also a bit cautious because her love seems "too rash, too unadvised, too sudden." So, while Juliet is clearly a very passionate girl, she's also pretty smart and realizes that head-over-heels passion can be dangerous.

Lovers can see to do their amorous rites 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 grown bold, Think true love acted simple modesty. (3.2.8-16)

Talk about wedding-night jitters: this is Juliet getting all excited and nervous about having sex for the very first time, i.e. "losing" her "stainless maidenhoods." "Unmann'd blood"—get it?

JULIET 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 glide than the sun's beams, Driving back shadows over louring hills. Therefore do nimble-pinioned doves draw Love, And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings. Now is the sun upon the highmost hill Of this day's journey, and from nine till twelve Is 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. (2.5.1-17)

According to Juliet, the older generation (including the "lame" Nurse) is too slow to understand the swift passion of love. It's seems pretty clear that love belongs to the young in Romeo and Juliet.

JULIET Now is the sun upon the highmost hill Of this day's journey, and from nine till twelve Is 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. (2.5.9-17)

According to Juliet, the older generation (including the "lame" Nurse) is too slow to understand the swift passion of love. It's seems pretty clear that love belongs to the young in Romeo and Juliet—but, come on, isn't this what kids always think? Could Shakespeare really be so naïve?

JULIET Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband? Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it? But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin? That villain cousin would have killed my husband. Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring; Your tributary drops belong to woe, Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy. My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain, And Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my husband All this is comfort.

After (briefly) rejecting Romeo for killing her cousin, Juliet is caught between her loyalty to her family and her loyalty to her new husband. She eventually chooses Romeo and confesses that she's relieved her husband wasn't killed in the duel. (Well, duh. She can't have her wedding night with Tybalt, after all.)

O God! O nurse, how shall this be prevented? My husband is on Earth, my faith in heaven. How shall that faith return again to Earth Unless that husband send it me from heaven By leaving Earth? Comfort me; counsel me.— Alack, alack, that heaven should practice stratagems Upon so soft a subject as myself.— What say'st thou? Hast thou not a word of joy? Some comfort, nurse. NURSE Faith, here it is. Romeo is banished, and all the world to nothing That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you, Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth. Then, since the case so stands as now it doth, I think it best you married with the County. O, he's a lovely gentleman! Romeo's a dishclout to him. An eagle, madam, Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart, I think you are happy in this second match, For it excels your first, or, if it did not, Your first is dead, or 'twere as good he were As living here and you no use of him. (3.5.216-238)

After her parents threaten to turn her out on the streets for refusing to marry Paris, Juliet turns to her Nurse for guidance. The Nurse's advice to Juliet (who is already married to and in love with Romeo) is pretty callous - she recommends that Juliet forget about Romeo, who has been banished from Verona, and go ahead with a marriage to Paris. After all, the Nurse reasons, Romeo can't exactly come back to Verona to challenge the wedding. But, Juliet, as we know, has no intension of getting hitched to Paris.

JULIET O, happy dagger, This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die. (5.3.174-175)

Again with the sexual innuendo: Romeo's "dagger" is going to stay in Juliet's "sheath" forever. We're pretty sure you get this, even without knowing that, in Latin, "vagina" translates directly to "sheath." For these kids, there's almost no distinction between dying together and sleeping together.

O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, From off the battlements of yonder tower, Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk Where serpents are. Chain me with roaring bears; Or shut me nightly in a charnel house, O'ercovered quite with dead men's rattling bones, With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls. Or bid me go into a new-made grave And hide me with a dead man in his shroud (Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble), And I will do it without fear or doubt, To live an unstained wife to my sweet love. (4.1.78-90)

All the things that used to frighten Juliet are now unimportant compared to the horror of betraying Romeo and marrying another man.

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. (1.5.152-155)

Apparently, Juliet never even considers the obvious conclusion: don't date your family's archnemesis. That makes "love" sound a lot like "fate"—something you couldn't escape even if you wanted to.

Some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death, That murdered me. I would forget it fain. But, O, it presses to my memory Like damned guilty deeds to sinners' minds: 'Tybalt is dead, and Romeo banishèd.' That 'banishèd,' that one word 'banishèd,' Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt's death Was woe enough, if it had ended there; Or, if sour woe delights in fellowship And needly will be ranked with other griefs, Why followed not, when she said 'Tybalt's dead,' 'Thy father' or thy 'mother,' nay, or both, Which modern lamentations might have moved? But with a rearward following Tybalt's death, 'Romeo is banishèd,' to speak that word Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet, All slain, all dead. 'Romeo is banishèd.' There is no end, no limit, measure, bound, In that word's death. No words can that woe sound. (3.2.119-137)

For Juliet, being separated from Romeo is the same as being dead.

Is Romeo slaughtered, and is Tybalt dead? My dearest cousin, and my dearer lord? Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom, For who is living if those two are gone?

For Juliet, the loss of both Tybalt and Romeo seems like the Apocalypse; she expects to hear the trumpet sounding that marks the Day of Judgment.

JULIET Do not swear at all. Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self, Which is the god of my idolatry, And I'll believe thee. (2.2.118-121)

Is it just us or is Juliet beginning to sound like Romeo. Here, she uses the language of religion to describe her love for Romeo. Check out "Symbols" for more on this.

Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, That runaway's eyes may wink and Romeo Leap to these arms, untalked of and unseen. Lovers can see to do their amorous rites 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, Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods. Hood my unmanned blood, bating in my cheeks, With thy black mantle till strange love grown bold, Think true love acted simple modesty. (3.2.5-16)

Juliet is really looking forward to her honeymoon night with Romeo and she's not afraid to say so. Although she anticipates that night's darkness will hide her blushing "cheeks" (as well as the physical evidence - "blood" - of her virginity), she doesn't seem shy about spending the night with her husband.

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.

Juliet speaks these lines, perhaps the most famous in the play, in the balcony scene (2.1.74-78). Leaning out of her upstairs window, unaware that Romeo is below in the orchard, she asks why Romeo must be Romeo—why he must be a Montague, the son of her family's greatest enemy ("wherefore" means "why," not "where"; Juliet is not, as is often assumed, asking where Romeo is). Still unaware of Romeo's presence, she asks him to deny his family for her love. She adds, however, that if he will not, she will deny her family in order to be with him if he merely tells her that he loves her. A major theme in Romeo and Juliet is the tension between social and family identity (represented by one's name) and one's inner identity. Juliet believes that love stems from one's inner identity, and that the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets is a product of the outer identity, based only on names. She thinks of Romeo in individual terms, and thus her love for him overrides her family's hatred for the Montague name. She says that if Romeo were not called "Romeo" or "Montague," he would still be the person she loves. "What's in a name?" she asks. "That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet" (2.1.85-86).

JULIET Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed. If that thy bent of love be honorable, Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow, By one that I'll procure to come to thee, Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite, And all my fortunes at thy foot I'll lay And follow thee my lord throughout the world. (2.2.149-155)

Juliet sure does know what she wants. Here, she basically tells Romeo to put a ring on it, which was unheard of in Shakespeare's day. As soon as Juliet knows that she and Romeo love each other, she immediately asks him when they can be married. Love and marriage are inseparable for Juliet. We have to ask: would Romeo have brought it up if Juliet hadn't?

What's here? A cup, closed in my true love's hand? Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end.— O churl, drunk all, and left no friendly drop To help me after! I will kiss thy lips. Haply some poison yet doth hang on them, To make die with a restorative. (5.3.166-171)

Juliet thinks suicide will let her be with Romeo forever, which... well, whether or not this is true depends on how you feel about the afterlife

God joined my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands; And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo sealed, Shall be the label to another deed, Or my true heart with treacherous revolt Turn to another, this shall slay them both. (4.1.56-60)

Juliet tries to justify her suicide (which she thinks will reunite her with her dead husband) by pointing out that her marriage to Romeo is a holy bond sanctioned by God—and she conveniently overlooks the fact that suicide is a big Christian no-no.

JULIET What if it be a poison, which the Friar Subtly hath ministered to have me dead, Lest in this marriage he should be dishonored, Because 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 Romeo Come 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, And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes? Or, if I live, is it not very like, The horrible conceit of death and night, Together with the terror of the place— As in a vault, an ancient receptacle Where, for these many hundred years the bones Of all my buried ancestors are packed: Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth, Lies festering 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, what 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, Environèd with all these hideous fears, And madly play with my forefather's joints, And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud, And, in this rage, with some great kinsman's bone, As with a club, dash out my desperate brains? O, look! methinks I see my cousin's ghost Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body Upon a rapier's point! Stay, Tybalt, stay! Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here's drink. I drink to thee. (4.3.25-60)

Juliet understands the horrors of death - rotting bodies, terrible smells - but a world where she is forced to marry someone other than Romeo, in her mind, is worse than the world of death.

'Romeo is banishèd.' To speak that word, Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet, All slain, all dead. 'Romeo is banishèd!' There is no end, no limit, measure, bound, In that word's death. No words can that woe sound. Where is my father and my mother, nurse? (3.2.1

Juliet's anger at Romeo and horror over Tybalt's death (see previous passage) quickly turns to horror over Romeo's banishment. Juliet feels guilty about "mangl[ing]" Romeo's name (nope, she's not a serial killer—she's talking about speaking ill of him) and she's also not too pleased with the Nurse, who criticizes her new husband. What interests us most about this passage, however, is the way Juliet says that Romeo's exile from Verona is "ten thousand" times worse than her cousin's death. She also suggests that, if she had heard "some word" that Romeo had been killed, it would have "murder'd" her. Teenage melodrama? Or just an accurate representation of h

Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-browed night, Give me my Romeo, and, when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun. (3.2.21-27)

Juliet's vision of loving Romeo is so intense that she thinks it will break the boundaries of mortality and convince all the world to be in love with Romeo. (In some versions of the play, it is "and when he shall die," while in others, it is, "when shall die.")

Take up those cords. The Nurse picks up the rope ladder. Poor ropes, you are beguiled, Both you and I, for Romeo is exiled. He made you for a highway to my bed, But I, a maid, die maiden-widowèd. Come, cords—come, nurse. I'll to my wedding bed, And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead! (3.2.144-150)

Right after Juliet hears that Romeo is exiled, she assumes that she's never going to get to have sex—which, apparently, is a fate worse than death. The literal meaning here is that "death"—i.e., the rotting of her body—will break her hymen. Nice image, right?

How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore? The orchard walls are high and hard to climb, And the place death, considering who thou art, If any of my kinsmen find thee here. ROMEO With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls; For stony limits cannot hold love out, And what love can do that dares love attempt. Therefore thy kinsmen are no let to me. JULIET If they do see thee, they will murder thee. ROMEO Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye Than twenty of their swords: look thou but sweet, And I am proof against their enmity. JULIET I would not for the world they saw thee here. ROMEO I have night's cloak to hide me from their eyes. And, but thou love me, let them find me here. My life were better ended by their hate Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love. JULIET By whose direction found'st thou out this place? ROMEO By love, who first did prompt me to inquire. He lent me counsel and I lent him eyes. I am no pilot; yet, wert thou as far As that vast shore wash'd with the farthest sea, I would adventure for such merchandise. (2.2.67-89)

Romeo is eager to prove to Juliet that he loves her, while Juliet - despite the confession that Romeo overhears - is hesitant to reveal that she likes him right away.

ULIET I have forgot why I did call thee back. ROMEO Let me stand here till thou remember it. JULIET I shall forget, to have thee still stand there, Rememb'ring how I love thy company. ROMEO And I'll still stay, to have thee still forget, Forgetting any other home but this. (2.2.184-189)

Translation: "You hang up." "No, you hang up." "No, you hang up." "Okay, I'm going." "Are you still there?" (Do kids these days even have these conversations anymore? Or is it all texting and gChat? Someone clue us in; we're old.)

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. (2.2.140-142)

Uh, Hallmark? We know that Juliet is sincere when she says her love is "as deep" as the ocean, but, for those of us living in the 21st century, the expression has become a cliché.

JULIET How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore? The orchard walls are high and hard to climb, And the place death, considering who thou art, If any of my kinsmen find thee here. (2.2.67-70)

When Juliet learns that Romeo has climbed the orchard walls to see her, she worries that her "kinsmen" will break Romeo's legs for sneaking onto the property. Now, we know that this is probably true of Tybalt, Juliet's testosterone-driven cousin who has already threatened to beat up Romeo for showing up at the Capulet ball. But we have to wonder if Juliet's dad would be as angry as Juliet seems to think. (Except that we're pretty sure he wouldn't want a boy sneaking into his daughter's bedroom no matter what.) Earlier, when Tybalt wanted to fight Romeo (1.5), Lord Capulet stopped him and pointed out that Romeo is a pretty good kid. In fact, "Verona brags of him / To be a virtuous and well-governed youth" (1.5.67-68).

They are but beggars that can count their worth, But my true love is grown to such excess I cannot sum up some of half my wealth.

When Juliet rushes into Friar Laurence's cell (room) to get hitched to Romeo, she says that her love is so great that she "cannot sum up" (express or count) even "half" of her love for Romeo. What's with the money metaphor? Well, It seems like Juliet's use of an economic metaphor (her love=wealth) is Shakespeare's way of drawing our attention to the fact that Romeo and Juliet are NOT marrying for money. While many of the play's characters (the Nurse, the Capulets, Paris) see marriage as a means of securing wealth and status, Romeo and Juliet marry because they're madly in love.

JULIET O, think'st thou we shall ever meet again? ROMEO I doubt it not; and all these woes shall serve For sweet discourses in our time to come. JULIET O God, I have an ill-divining soul! Methinks I see thee, now thou art below, As one dead in the bottom of a tomb. Either my eyesight fails or thou look'st pale. (3.5.51-57)

When Juliet says she has "an ill-diving soul," she means that she has a premonition of Romeo's death. This, of course, foreshadows how she will see Romeo for the last time: with her in her tomb (5.3). (Tip: try thinking positive thoughts, Jules!)