| 1. “If you ever disturb our streets again/ Your lives shall pay the forfeit.” | Speaker: Prince EscalusContext: Montagues & Capulets are fighting. Prince orders them to stop and if not, he will punish them with death. |
| 2. “No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir; but I bite my thumb, sir.” | Speaker: SampsonContext: Sampson is provoking his enemy |
| 3. “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes/ A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life” | Speaker: PrologueContext: Two enemies fall in love and die together |
| 4. “Take thou some new infection to thy eye/ And the rank poison of the old will die.” | Speaker: BenvolioContext: Benvolio tells Romeo to fall for another girl so that he’ll forget about Rosaline |
| 5. “Thou wast the prettiest babe that e’er I nursed.” | Speaker: NurseContext: The nurse is remembering when Juliet was a baby now that she’s about old enough to marry |
| 6. “Lady, such a man/ As all the world – why, he’s a man of wax.” | Speaker: NurseContext: Paris wants to marry Juliet & the nurse is emphasizing his attractiveness |
| 7. “This, by his voice, should be a Montague. Fetch me my rapier, boy.” | Speaker: TybaltContext: Tybalt is offended by the fact that a Montague showed up to the Capulet’s banquet. |
| 8. “My only love spring 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 loathed enemy.” | Speaker: JulietContext: Juliet is explaining how she fell in love with Romeo to the nurse |
| 9. “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 fair than she.” | Speaker: RomeoContext: Romeo is comparing Juliet to an eastern light and the sun to describe her beauty |
| 10. “He jests at scars that never felt a wound.” | Speaker: RomeoContext: Romeo is saying that Mercutio is making fun of Romeo because Mercutio has never experienced heartbreak |
| 11. “I’ll tell thee ere thou ask me it again. I have been feasting with mine enemy/ Where on a sudden one hath wounded me/ That’s by me wounded.” | Speaker: RomeoContext: Romeo explains how he was feasting with enemies & suddenly becomes wounded with love |
| 12. “Be plain, good son, and homely in the drift/ Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift.” | Speaker: Friar LaurenceContext: Friar Laurence is saying to be a good boy and be completely honest or else he can’t give an absolution |
| 13. “Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford/ No better than this: thou art a villain.” | Speaker: TybaltContext: Tybalt is telling Romeo that he is a peasant in the nicest way possible |
| 14. “No, ’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door; but ’tis enough, ’twill serve.” | Speaker: MercutioContext: He says his wound may not be big, but it’s enough to kill him |
| 15. “..for Mercutio’s soul/ Is but a little way above our heads/ Staying for thine to keep him company. Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him.” | Speaker: RomeoContext: Romeo is about to fight Tybalt and says one of them will die and join Mercutio in heaven |
| 16. “I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes/ God save the mark! —-here on his manly breast.” | Speaker: NurseContext: The nurse witnesses Tybalt’s wound, is shocked, and freaks out about it to Juliet without revealing who the wound belongs to |
| 17. “…but the kind prince/ Taking thy part, hath rush’d aside the law/ And turn’d that black word “death” to “banishment.” This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not.” | Speaker: Friar LaurenceContext: Friar Laurence is trying to stress that banishment is better than death |
| 18. “Hold thy desperate hand! Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art/ Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote/ The unreasonable fury of a beast.” | Speaker: Friar Laurence Context: Friar Laurence is comparing Romeo to a whiney woman and an animal for overreacting about Juliet |
| 19. “Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch! I tell what: get thee to church o’ Thursday/ Or never look me in the face.” | Speaker: CapuletContext: Capulet is telling Juliet that if she’s not willing to marry Paris, never look at him again |
| 20. “Put this in any liquid thing you will/ And drink it off; and, if you had the strength/ Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight.” | Speaker: PharmacistContext: The pharmacist is explaining to Romeo how badly the poison will affect him |
| 21. “Stop thy unhallowed toil, vile Montague! Can vengeance be pursued further than death? Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee. Obey, and go with me; for thou must die.” | Speaker: ParisContext: Paris catches Romeo at Juliet’s tomb, assumes he’ll disrespect it, and wants to arrest Romeo |
| 22. “Here, here I’ll remain/ with worms that are thy chamber-maids; O, here/ Will I set up my everlasting rest/ And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars/ From this world-wearied flesh.” | Speaker: RomeoContext: Romeo states he will stay with the others in the tomb as he’s dead |
| 23. “Oh happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.” | Speaker: JulietContext: Juliet stabs herself to die and reunite with Romeo |
| 24. “See what a scourge is laid upon your hate/ That Heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.” | Speaker: Prince Escalus Context: Prince says the feud between both families has cursed them and Heaven only killed Romeo and Juliet for love |
| 25. “For never was a story of more woe/ Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” | Speaker: Prince EscalusContext: Prince claims the death of Romeo and Juliet to be the saddest of them all |
Romeo and Juliet Quote Identification
November 28, 2019