| Term | Definition |
| 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 | Romeo says to Juliet
Metaphor,
wound - cupid's arrow
fair sun - Juliet
envious moon - Rosaline (dian: goddess of the moon and chastity)
Arise to moon - Allusion |
| O, that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek! | Romeo to Juliet |
| O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name, | Juliet to Romeo
why is your name "Romeo"
refuse to acknowledge your parentage |
| ’Tis but thy name that is my enemy.
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face. O, be some other name
Belonging to a man...And, for thy name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself. | Juliet to Romeo |
| With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls,
For stony limits cannot hold love out,
And what love can do, that dares love attempt.
Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me. | from cupid
Romeo to Juliet |
| Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye
Than twenty of their swords. Look thou but sweet,
And I am proof against their enmity. | Romeo to Juliet
foreshadow and irony |
| Thou mayst prove false. At lovers’ perjuries,
They say, Jove laughs. O gentle Romeo,
If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully....In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond,
And therefore thou mayst think my behaviour light. | Juliet to Romeo |
| 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. | Juliet to romeo
simile |
| O blessèd, blessèd night! I am afeard,
Being in night, all this is but a dream,
Too flattering sweet to be substantial. | Romeo to Juliet |
| ’Tis almost morning. I would have thee gone,
And yet no farther than a wanton’s bird,
That lets it hop a little from his hand,
Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,...
So loving-jealous of his liberty. | Juliet to Romeo
Romeo says he will be thy bird |
| Hence will I to my ghostly friar’s close cell,
His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell. | Romeo to Juliet
Convince priest to marry them |
| The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,
Check'ring the eastern clouds with streaks of light,
And fleckled darkness like a drunkard reels | Friar - soliloquy |
| Within the infant rind of this weak flower
Poison hath residence and medicine power:
For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each
part;
Being tasted, stays all senses with the heart....Full soon the canker death eats up that plant. | Friar
Smells good but if he eats it, he will die |
| I have been feasting with mine enemy,
Where on a sudden one hath wounded me | Romeo to Friar
-Allusion |
| Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here!
Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear,
So soon forsaken? Young men’s love then lies | Friar to Romeo
-Tragic Flaw |
| Thy love did read by rote, that could not spell.
But come, young waverer, come, go with me.
In one respect I’ll thy assistant be,
For this alliance may so happy prove
To turn your households’ rancor to pure love. | Friar to Romeo
waverer: someone who isn't constant |
| Tybalt, the kinsman to old Capulet,
Hath sent a letter to his father’s house. | Benvolio to Mercutio |
| Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead,
stabbed with a white wench’s black eye, run
through the ear with a love-song, the very pin of his
heart cleft with the blind bow-boy’s butt shaft. And
is he a man to encounter Tybalt? | Mercutio to Benvolio
-Allusion
-butt-shaft: cupid's arrow |
| More than prince of cats. O, he’s the courageous | Mercutio to Benvolio
Prince of Cats is Tybalt |
| You gave us the counterfeit fairly last night. | Mercutio to Romeo
- ditched him |
| But first let me tell you, if you
should lead her in a fool’s paradise..
the gentlewoman is young; and therefore, if you
should deal double with her, truly it were an ill
thing to be offered to any gentlewoman, and very
weak dealing. | Nurse to Romeo |
| Bid her devise
Some means to come to shrift this afternoon,
And there she shall at Friar Lawrence’ cell
Be shrived and married. Here is for thy pains. | Romeo to Nurse
shrift: confession
shriv'd: given absolution after confession |
| And stay, good nurse, behind the abbey wall.
Within this hour my man shall be with thee
And bring thee cords made like a tackled stair, | Romeo to Nurse |
| 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 glides than the sun’s beams, | Capulet's house
Juliet
-soliloquy |
| These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey....
Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so.
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow. | Friar to Romeo |
| Come, come with me, and we will make short work,
For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone
Till Holy Church incorporate two in one. | Friar to Romeo and Juliet
-Marrying them |
