Quote Notes and Close Reading Questions: Romeo and Juliet

Act I, Scene I

Scene I

14‘Tis true, and therefore women being the weaker vessels are ever thrust to

the wall; therefore I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust

his maids to the wall.

18The quarrel is between our masters, and us their men.

39Nay, as they dare. I will bit my thumb at them, which is disgrace to them

If they bear it.

70What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!

220Be ruled by me, forget to think of her.

Questions

  1. Which six adjectives used by the chorus in the Prologue reveal the tragic nature of the part Romeo is to play?
  2. From Benvolio’s description in Act I Scene I of Romeo’s behavior, and his father’s confirmation of it, list four of the characteristics of a young man in love.
  3. Which of the first twelve lines spoken by Romeo sum up the theme of the play as a whole?

Act I, Scene II

Scene II

07But saying o’er what I have said before. My child is yet a stranger in the

World, She hath not seen the change of fourteen years. Let two more summers wither in their pride Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.

55Not mad, but bound more than a madman is: Shut up in prison, kept

Without food, Whipped and tormented—and good e’en, good fellow.

63Ye say honestly; rest you merry.

Act I, Scene III

Scene III

06How now, who calls?

64Marry, that marry is the very theme I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter

Juliet, How stands your dispositions to be married?

77A man, young lady! Lady, such a man as all the world—why, he’s a man

of wax.

Questions

  1. What words of Juliet’s
  1. Stress her youthful sense of obedience?
  2. Hint at the mature strength she will show later?
  1. How do the Nurse’s reminiscences in the scene help to focus on the Juliet of the immediate present and the Juliet of the future?
  2. The nurse’s first words show her to be coarse, loving, and caring. Explain and demonstrate how so much can be conveyed so economically.
  3. Use evidence to show how the nurse’s comic qualities in this scene include glibness, insensitivity, a tendency to repetition, and interest in fine detail, and a simple though bawdy sense of humor.

Act I, Scene IV

Scene IV

25Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, too rude, too boisterous, and it

pricks like a thorn.

104This wind you talk of blows us from ourselves: Supper is done and

We shall come too late.

Questions

  1. Romeo says that he “dreamt a dream,”, but gives us no details of it.
  1. What clue does he give us toward the end of the scene as to its ominous nature?
  2. Where else in the play does Romeo tell us that he has been dreaming?
  1. Mercutio’s bright spirits contrast with Romeo’s melancholy
  1. What is Mercutio’s recommended cure for love?
  2. What is his attitude to dreams?
  3. How does Queen Mab speech demonstrate vividly, memorably and imaginatively his contention that “dreamers often lie”?
  1. What examples are there in this scene of Mercutio’s
  1. delight in wordplay
  2. flair for bawdy repartee
  3. self-mockery
  4. concern for a friend?

4. Is Romeo right in saying of Mercutio “thou talkest of nothing”?

Act I, Scene V

Scene V

15Welcome, gentleman, ladies that have their toes unplagued with corns

Will have a bout with you.

43O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright.

107You kiss by the book.

113I tell you, he that can lay hold of her shall have the chinks.

144Anon, anon! Come lets away. The strangers are all gone.

Questions

  1. Romeo sees Juliet for the first time, and admires her from a distance. Which of his words in Act I, Scene II are thereby contradicted?
  2. Which words of Capulet in this scene add to our understanding of Romeo’s character?
  3. Juliet shares with Romeo a dialog in sonnet form. Identify it, and show how their love affair makes physical progress through Juliet’s adept responses to Romeo’s purposeful advances? Which one of her remarks after Romeo leaves is ominously prophetic?

Act II, Scene I

Scene I

15He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not; The ape is dead and I
must conjure him.

Questions

1. The chorus opens act II with a sonnet in which a distinction is made between Romeo’s relationship with Rosaline and his love affair with Juliet. What is the big difference?

Act II, Scene II

Scene II

1He jests at scars that never felt a wound.

33Oh Romeo, Romeo, wherefore out thou Romeo? Deny thy father

And refuse thy name. And I will no longer be a Capulet.

56My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words of thy tongue’s uttering

Yet I know the sound.

108O swear not by the moon, th’ inconstant moon, that monthly changes in

Her circled orb, lest that thy love prove likewise variable.

187Hence will I to my ghastly sire’s close cell, his help to crave and my dear

Hap to tell.

Questions

  1. Shakespeare begins to use rhyme sparingly. Romeo and Juliet’s love scene is mostly in blank verse. How does this emphasize the difference between old Romeo and the new one who has fallen in love with Juliet?
  2. How does Juliet answer the theoretical charge of “yielding to light love” and thereby establishing her sincerity? In the same scene, which of her words show that, in spite of losing her heart, she has not entirely lost her head?
  3. Mercutio’s wit takes a literary turn. What style of poetry is he mocking here?
  1. Is Romeo indeed guilty of its worst excesses during his Rosaline period?
  2. Is Romeo’s rebuke at the opening of Act II, Sc. II justified?
  1. The nurse is subject to mockery and ribaldry in this act.
  1. What is the target of Romeo’s wit?
  2. How does Mercutio tease her?
  3. Which of her weaknesses does Benvolio Satirize?
  4. What is amusing about her expressions of indignation when talking to Romeo privately?
  5. How do we know she is illiterate?
  6. What story does she nearly tell Romeo that we have heard before?
  7. What does her manner with Peter tell us of her character?

Act II, Scene III

Scene III

67Holy Saint Francis! What a change is here! Is Rosaline, that thou didst

Love so dear, so soon forsaken? Young men’s love, then, lies not truly

In their hearts, but in their eyes.

85Not in a grave to lay one in, another out to have.

95O, let us hence; I stand on sudden haste.

Questions

1. Friar Lawrence distinguishes between the two forms of love experienced by Romeo and says that Rosaline wisely recognized the difference between them. Find the words that confirm this.

Act II, Scene IV

Scene IV

11Nay, he will answer the letter’s master, how he dares, being dared.

26A pox of such antic, lisping, affecting fantasticoes.

42Good morrow to you both. What counterfeit did I give you?

83Thou desirest me to stop in my tale against the hair.

94Good peter, to hide her face; for her fan’s the fairer face

129I pray you, sir, what saucy fellow merchant was this that was so full of his

Of his ropery?

Questions

  1. What new aspect of Romeo’s character is demonstrated in Act III, Sc IV
  2. Mercutio further develops his attack on affectation
  1. How does he mock Tybalt’s affected fencing style?
  2. How does he mock affectations of speech?
  3. How does he mock affectations of dress?

3. Mercutio has no respect for age or sex. Reference the dialogue that illustrates this attitude.

Act II, Scene V

Scene V

27I am aweary! Give me leave a while. Fie, how my bones ache! What a

Jaunce have I had!

70Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks. They’ll be in scarlet

Straight at any news.

Questions

  1. How does Romeo’s treatment of the nurse in Act II, Sc IV in differing from that of Mercutio, bear out the kind remarks of Capulet about him in Act I Sc V?
  2. Juliet says old people are “unwieldy, slow, heavy, pale as lead.” Examine her handling of the nurse and comment on her qualities of self-control.
  3. The nurse makes the most of her advantage over Juliet by procrastinating
  1. What is the nurse’s first teasing trick?
  2. What is the first ailment she complains of?
  3. What is the second?
  4. The third?
  5. The fourth?

Act II, Scene VI

Scene VI

01So smile heavens upon this holy act that after hours with sorrow chide us

Not

Questions

  1. The first lines Romeo speaks in Act II scene 6 are profoundly related to the tragedy of his love for Juliet
  1. Explain why
  2. Comment on Friar Lawrence’s predictions in reply.

Act III, Scene I

Scene I

42Consort? What, dost thou make us minstrels? And thou make minstrels

Of us, look to hear nothing but discords, here my fiddlestick, here’s that

Shall make you dance. Zounds consort!

86I am hurt. A plague o’ both your houses, I am sped. Is he gone, and hath

Nothing?

114This day’s black fate on more days doth depend. This but begins the woe

Others must end.

178Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio. Who now the price of his dear blood

Doth owe?

Questions

  1. Two opposing aspects of Romeo’s character are shown in Act III, Sc I. What are they? Which speech of Benvolio’s describes both?
  2. Mercutio’s opening target Benvolio, do you think he intends his accusations to be taken seriously, or are they an outrageous jest?
  3. The encounter with Tybalt is first acted out, then reported on by Benvolio. In what way is Benvolio’s account biased in Mercutio’s favor?
  4. In what way does Mercutio die as he lived?
  5. Mercutio’s dying words put the blame for his death on the feuding Capulets and Montagues. Does this bear the kind of critical examination Mercutio practiced on others?

Act III, Scene II

Scene II

90Blistered be thy tongue for such a wish. He was not born to shame. Upon

Brow shame is ashamed to sit , for ‘tis a throne where honour may be crowned sole monarch of the universal earth.

130Wash they his wounds with tears? Mine shall be spent when theirs dry up,

For Romeo’s banishment.

Questions

  1. Juliet’s soliloquy at the beginning of this act was often omitted as being too indelicate for actresses to perform. Today, it is regarded as a central speech.
  1. How does it make an important progression in Juliet’s relationship with Romeo?
  2. How does Juliet convey strength and determination in her use of words?
  1. The rest of the act shows Juliet under strain.
  1. Show how the news brought by the nurse produces in her an agonizing division of loyalties.
  2. Which of her words point to the tragic ending that is to come?

Act III, Scene III

11A gentler judgement vanished from his lips not body’s death but body’s

Banishment.

53Thou fond mad man, hear me a little speak.

87O, he is even in my mistress’ case. Just in her case. O woeful sympathy,

Piteous predicament. Even so lies she, blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering.

Questions

  1. Friar Lawrence breaks the news to Romeo of his banishment. Consider Romeo’s reactions in terms of his words, deeds and response to Lawrence’s “good counsel”

Act III, Scene IV

Scene IV

10I will, and know her mind early tomorrow. Tonight she’s mewed up to her

Heaviness.

11Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender of my child’s love.

Act III, Scene V

Scene V

16Let me be ta’en, let me be put to death. I am content, so thou wilt have it

So. I’ll say yon grey is not the morning’s eye…

54O God, I have an ill divining soul! Methinks I see there, no thou art so low

88We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not. Then weep no more. I’ll

Send to one in Mantua, where that same banished runagate doth live,

Shall give him such an unaccustomed dram that shall soon keep Tybalt

Company; and then I hope thou wilt be satisfied.

160Hang thee young baggage, disobedient wretch! I tell thee what—get

Thee to church a Thursday or never after look me in the face. Speak not, reply not, do not answer me.

236Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend, is it more sin to wish me thus

Forsworn, or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue which she hath

Praised him with above compare so many thousand times?

Questions

  1. Compare Romeo’s behavior in Act III, Sc III with that of Act V, Sc. I when his servant reports the death of Juliet. How has his character developed?
  2. Juliet is seen as both wife and daughter.
  1. As wife, how are her innocence and womanliness conveyed in the context of dawn’s approach?
  2. Which of her parting words to Romeo foreshadow what is to come?
  3. As daughter, how does she cleverly play the role expected of her by her mother?
  4. Which words show that Juliet has a fiery spirit.

3. Juliet is not equal to her father’s anger but by the end of the scene she is wiser and more determined. What part does the nurse play in this development?

Act IV Scene I

Scene I

30The tears have got small victory by that, for it was bad enough before

Their spite.

68Hold, daughter. I do spy a kind of hope which craves as desperate an

An execution as that is desperate which we would prevent. If, rather than

To marry countyParis, thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself, then its it likely thou will undertake a thing like death to chide away this shame…

79 O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, from off the battlements of

Any tower, or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk where serpents are.

94Take thou this vial, being then in bed, and this distilling liquor

Drink thou off; when presently through all thy veins shall run a

Cold and drowsy humour, for no pulse shall keep his native progress

Questions

1. How does Juliet’s handling of the encounter with Paris at Friar Lawrence’s cell show that she is developing and maturing in her ability to handle situations? How does her discussion with Friar Lawrence confirm that she has courage and resolution?

Act IV, Scene II

Scene II

24Send for the county, go tell him of this. I’ll have this knot knit up

Tomorrow morning.

Questions

1. Show how Juliet manipulates her father and nurse to gain her objectives.

Act IV, Scene III

Scene III

31How 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?

55O 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, I come! This do I drink to thee.

Questions

  1. In this act Romeo refers to himself as a “desperate man”
  1. What does he do and say that bears this out?
  2. Why do you think Paris speaks in rhyming verse in that scene, whereas Romeo speaks in blank verse?
  1. Juliet almost returns to the safety of childhood when she calls for the nurse to return, but she quickly realizes that she must act alone. Show how Juliet’s speech before drinking the potion is evidence of her awareness of the ordeal before her.

Act IV, Scene IV

Scene IV

36Ready to go but never to return. O son, the night before thy wedding

Day hath death lain with thy wife. There she lies, flower as she was, deflowered by him. Death is my son-in-law, death is my heir. My daughter he hath wedded. I will die, and leave him all: life, living, all is death’s.

87All things that we ordained festival turn from their office to black funeral:

Our instruments to melancholy bells, our wedding cheer to sad burial feast, our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change, our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse, and all things change them to the contrary.

Act V, Scene I

Scene I

17Then she is well and nothing can be ill. Her body sleeps in Chapel’s

Monument, and her immortal part with angels lives. I saw her laid low in her kindred’s vault and presently took post to tell it to you.

34Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight. Let’s see for means. O

mischief thou art swift to enter in the thoughts of desperate men. I do

remember an apothecary—

57Come hither man. I see that thou art poor. Hold, there is forty

Ducats. Let me have a dram of poison, such soon-spreading gear as will disperse itself through all the veins, that the life-weary taker may fall dead…

Act V, Scene II

Scene II

10Where the infectious pestilence did reign, sealed up the doors and

Would not let us forth, so that my speed to Mantua there was stayed.

Act V, Scene III

Scene III

35 By heaven I will tear thee joint by joint, and strew this hungry

Churchyard with thy limbs. The time and my intents are savage-wild, more fierce and more inexorable far than empty tigers or the roaring sea.

58Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man. Fly hence and leave me.

Think up these gone. Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth, put not anther sin upon my head by urging me to fury.

119Here’s to my love! O true apothecary, thy drugs are quick. Thus with a

Kiss I die.