PROLOGUE

Chorus: In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;

Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.

ACT I.i

If you all read together, who read which roles?

(Sampson and Gregory enter the town square.)

Sampson: A dog of the house of Montague moves me.

Gregory: The quarrel is between our masters & us, their men.

(Montague servants enter.)

Sampson: Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin. I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.

(Sampson bites his thumb at them.)

Abraham: Do you bite your thumb at me sir?

Sampson: No sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I do bite my thumb, sir.

Gregory: Do you quarrel, sir?

Abraham: Quarrel, sir? No, sir.

Sampson: I serve a better man than you.

Abraham: You lie.

(They fight. Benvolio and Tybalt enter.)

Benvolio: (entering) Part, fools, put up your swords!

Tybalt: Turn thee, Benvolio, and look upon thy death.

Benvolio: I do but keep the peace.

Tybalt: I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee!

(They fight, Prince enters and separates them)

Prince: Three civil brawls have disturb’d the quiet of our streets. If ever you disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace. Once more, on pain of death, all men depart!

(Exeunt all but Benvolio. Romeo enters)

Benvolio: Good morrow, cousin.

Romeo: What fray was here? Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love. Ah me, sad hours seem long.

Benvolio: What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours? In love?

Romeo: Out of love. Out of her favor where I am in love.

Benvolio: She has sworn she will live chaste?

Romeo: She hath. It is a huge waste of such beauty.

Benvolio: Be ruled by me; forget to think of her by giving liberty unto thine eyes; examine other beauties.

ACT I.ii – Sunday Afternoon in Capulet’s House & Verona Square

If you all read together, who read which roles?

(Exeunt. Paris and Capulet enter)

Paris: What say thee of my proposition?

Capulet: My child is yet a stranger in the world / Let two more summers wither in their pride / Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.

Paris: Younger than she are happy mothers made.

Capulet: Woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart / Come to the old accustomed feast I hold this night. (Gives guest list to his servant) Go find those persons out whose names are written here.

(Paris and Capulet exit. Servant goes outside and runs into Benvolio & Romeo.)

Servant: Sir, can you read?

Romeo: Stay fellow, I can read. (Reads guest list). Whose house?

Servant: My master is the great rich Capulet; and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray, come and crush a cup of wine! (Exits)

Benvolio: At this same ancient feast of Capulet’s / sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so lovest. Compare her face with some that I shall show, / And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.

ACT I.iii – Sunday Afternoon in Juliet’s Room

Lady Capulet: Nurse, where’s my daughter? Call her forth to me.

Nurse: What, ladybird! Where’s the girl? What, Juliet! [enter Juliet]

Juliet: Madam, I am here. What is your will?

Lady Capulet: Nurse, give leave awhile, we must talk in secret. (Nurse begins to leave). Nurse, come back again. Thou know’st my daughter’s of a pretty age. She’s not fourteen.

Nurse: How long is it now to *Lammas-tide?

Lady Capulet: A **fortnight and odd days.

Nurse: Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen. Susan and she were of an age. Susan is with God now. My husband – God be with his soul – took up Juliet and said “Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit; Wilt thou not, Jule?’ and, by my holidame, / the pretty wretch left crying and said ‘Ay’.

Lady Capulet: Enough of this; I pray thee, hold thy peace.

Nurse: Yes, madam. Yet I cannot choose but laugh!

Juliet: I pray thee, nurse.

Nurse: Peace, I have done. If I might live to see thee married once, I have my wish.

Lady Capulet: Tell me, daughter Juliet, how stands your disposition to be married?

Juliet: It is an honor I dream not of.

Lady Capulet: Well, think of marriage now. Younger than you ladies of esteem are made already mothers. The valiant Paris seeks you for his love. Could you love the gentleman?

Juliet: I'll look to like, but no more deep will I indart mine eye than your consent give strength to make it fly.

Lady Capulet: Juliet, Count Paris is waiting. (exits)

Nurse: Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days!

* Lammas-tide = the Harvest festival

**fortnight = two weeks

***disposition = feelings

ACT I.iv - Sunday Evening/Night in Verona's Townsquare.

Watch Mercutio give his Queen Mab speech.

ACT I.v – Sunday Night at Capulet’s Party

If you all read together, who read which roles?

(Romeo and his friends enter Capulet’s party in masks.)

Romeo: (seeing Juliet) What lady's that which doth enrich the hand of yonder knight? I ne'er saw true beauty till this night. (Crosses to Juliet)

Tybalt: This, by his voice, should be a Montague. To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.

Capulet: Young Romeo, is it? Let him alone; take no note of him.

Tybalt: I’ll not endure him.

Capulet: He shall be endured! Am I the master here, or you? You’ll make a muting among my guests! Be quiet, or I’ll make you quiet.

Tybalt: I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall / Now seeming sweet convert to bitter gall.

(Tybalt exits)

Romeo: 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.

Juliet: Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, / Which mannerly devotion shows in this; / For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch, / And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.

Romeo: Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?

Juliet: Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

Romeo: O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do; / They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

Juliet: Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake.

Romeo: Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take.

[They kiss.]

(Nurse enters)

Nurse: Your mother craves a word with you. (Exit Juliet)

Romeo: What is her mother?

Nurse: Her mother is the lady of the house.

Romeo: Is she a Capulet?

(Exit Romeo, enter Juliet)

Juliet: Go, ask his name!

Nurse: (asks someone and returns) His name is Romeo, and a Montague. / The only son of your great enemy.

Juliet: My only love sprung from my only hate!

ACT II.ii – Very Late Sunday Night to Early Morning Monday, Juliet’s Balcony

If you all read together, who read which roles?

(Romeo wonders around the Capulet’s gardens and finds Juliet standing on her balcony.)

Romeo: What light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the son!

Juliet: Wherefore art thou Romeo? / Deny thy father and refuse thy name; / What's Montague? It is not hand, nor foot, / Nor any other part belonging to a man. / That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet / Romeo, doff thy name, / And for that name, which is no part of thee,/ Take all myself.

(Romeo comes out of hiding.)

Romeo: Henceforth I will never be Romeo.

Juliet: If that thy bent of love be honorable, thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow.

ACT II.iii - Early Monday Morning at Friar Lawrence's church garden.

If you all read together, who read which roles?

Romeo: My heart’s dear love is set / On the fair daughter of rich Capulet/

Friar Lawrence - What a change is here! / Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear, so soon forsaken? young men's love then lies / Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.

Romeo: I pray thee, chide not. Her I love now / and love for love, allow; The other did not so.

Friar Lawrence: In one respect I'll thy assistant be; / For this alliance may so happy prove, / To turn your households' rancour to pure love.

ACT II.iv - Monday morning in Verona's Town Square.

If you all read together, who read which roles?

Nurse: Tell me ye, if you would lead her in a fool's paradise.

Romeo: I protest unto thee. Bid her come to Friar Laurence's cell be shrived and married.

Nurse: God in Heaven bless.

ACT II.v - Monday early afternoon in Juliet's room.

Nurse: Have you got leave today?

Juliet: I have.

Nurse: Then go to Friar Laurence's cell. There waits a husband to make you a wife.

WATCH ACT II.v.

ACT II.vi - Monday early afternoon in Friar Lawrence's private chamber.

WATCH MOVIE VERSION OF ACT II.vi.

Zeffirelli's Romeo & Juliet (1968)

Question 7: Do you think Friar Lawrence and Nurse were wise to help Romeo and Juliet get married secretly?

ACT III.i – Monday late afternoon in Town Square

If you all read together, who read which roles?

**Remember, Tybalt is angry with Romeo because Romeo crashed his family’s party.**

Benvolio: I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire. / The day is hot, the Capulets abroad, / And, if we meet, we shall not scape a brawl.

Mercutio: Thou art as hot a jack in thy mood as any in Italy. / And yet thou wilt tutor me from quarreling!

Benvolio: By my head, here come the Capulets.

Mercutio: By my heel, I care not.

(Tybalt and Capulets enter.)

Tybalt: Gentlemen, good e’en. A word with one of you.

Mercutio: Make it a word and a blow.

Tybalt: Mercutio, thou consortest with Romeo.

Mercutio: Consort! What, dost thou make us musicians? [Points to his sword.] Here’s my fiddlestick; here’s that shall make you dance!

Benvolio: Either withdraw unto some private place, and reason calmly of your grievances, or else depart. Here all eyes gaze on us.

Mercutio: Let them gaze. I will not budge for no man’s pleasure.

Tybalt: (Romeo enters) Ah, peace be with you, sir, here comes my man. Romeo, thou art a villain.

Romeo: Tybalt, I see thou knowest me not.

Tybalt: Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries that thou hast done me. Therefore turn and draw.

Romeo: I do protest, I love thee better than thou canst imagine / Till thou shalt know the reason of my love. / And so, good Capulet - which name I tender as dearly as my own – be satisfied.

Mercutio: (drawing sword) Tybalt, will you walk?

Tybalt: (drawing sword) I am for you.

Romeo: Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up! (Mercutio and Tybalt fight.) Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio!

(Tybalt goes under Romeo's arm and stabs Mercutio. Tybalt and friends leave.)

Mercutio: I am hurt. A plague on both your houses!

Benvolio: What, art thou hurt?

Mercutio: Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch. (to Romeo) Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.

Romeo: I thought all for the best.

Mercutio: A plague on both your houses! They have made worms’ meat of me.

(Exit Mercutio and Benvolio.)

Romeo: The prince’s relative and my very friend, hath got his mortal hurt in my behalf; my reputation stained with Tybalt’s slander – Tybalt, that for an hour hath been my kinsman! O sweet Juliet, thy beauty hath softened valor’s steel!

Benvolio: (reenters) Brave Meructio’s dead! Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.

Romeo: Alive in triumph and Mercutio slain! Fire-eyed fury be my conduct now. (Tybalt reenters) Mercutio’s soul is but a little way above our heads. Either thou or I, or both, must go with him.

(Tybalt and Romeo fight. Romeo kills Tybalt.)

Benvolio: Romeo, away, be gone!

Romeo: O, I am fortune’s fool!

(Romeo exits. Capulets, Montagues, citizens, and Prince enter.)

Prince: Where are the vile beginners of this fray?

Benvolio: There lies the man, slain by young Romeo, that slew your cousin, brave Mercutio.

Lady Capulet: O, my brother’s child! Benvolio is a kinsman to the Monatgue; affection makes him false, he speaks not true. I beg for justice which thou, prince, must give. Romeo slew Tybalt; Romeo must not live.

Prince: Immediately we do exile him hence. My cousin doth lie a-bleeding. I’ll punish you with so strong a fine that you shall all repent the loss of mine. Let Romeo hence in haste [to Mantua], else, when he’s found, that hour is his last.

ACT III.ii – Monday late afternoon in Juliet’s room

If you all read together, who read which roles?

Nurse: We are undone, lady, we are undone! Alack the day, he’s gone, he’s killed, he’s dead! O Tybalt, the best friend I had!

Juliet: O break, my heart, poor bankrupt, break at once! Is Romeo slaughtered, or is Tybalt dead?

Nurse: Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished.

Juliet: O God, did Romeo’s hand shed Tybalt’s blood?

Nurse: It did, it did, alas the day! It did.

Juliet: Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical! / Dove-feathered raven, wolvish-ravening lamb! / O! that deceit should dwell in such a gorgeous palace.

Nurse: There’s no trust, / No faith, no honesty in men. All perjured, / All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.

Shame come to Romeo!

Juliet: Blistered be thy tongue for such a wish! He was not born to shame. O, what a beast was I to chide at him!

Nurse: Will you speak well of him that killed your cousin?

Juliet: Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband? My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain, and Tybalt’s dead that would have slain my husband. O, find him! Give this ring to my true knight and bid him come to take his last farewell.

ACT III.iii – Monday evening in Friar Lawrence’s cell

QUESTION #10: How does Romeo feel about his punishment? What do you think about his reaction?

ACT III.iv – Monday night in Capulet’s house

Paris: These times of woe afford no time to woo. Commend me to your daughter.

Capulet: Paris, I think she will be ruled in all respects by me. Nay, I doubt it not. What day is this?

Paris: Monday, my lord.

Capulet: Well, Wednesday is too soon. A Thursday tell her, she shall be married. What say you to Thursday?

Paris: I would that Thursday were tomorrow.

ACT III.v – Tuesday morning in Juliet’s room

If you all read together, who read which roles?

*Pay attention to Juliet’s use of verbal irony, or saying one thing but meaning something else.*

Juliet: Wilt thou be gone?

Romeo: I must be gone and live, or stay and die. Farewell, farewell, one kiss, and I’ll descend.

(Romeo leaves for Mantua.)

Lady Capulet: Ho, daughter! Are you up?

Juliet: Madam, I am not well.

Lady Capulet: That is, because the traitor murderer lives.

Juliet: Ay, madam, beyond the reach of these my hands.

Lady Capulet: we will have vengeance for it, fear thou not. I’ll send to one in Mantua, who shall give him such a strange potion that he shall soon keep Tybalt company; and then I hope thou wilt be satisfied.

[Think about what Lady Capulet just said she’s going to do to Romeo.]

Juliet: Indeed, I never shall be satisfied with Romeo till I behold him – dead.

Lady Capulet: Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn County Paris shall make thee a joyful bride.

Juliet: He shall not make me a joyful bride! I will not marry yet; and, when I do, I swear it shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, rather than Paris.

Lady Capulet: Here comes your father, tell him so yourself.

(Enter Nurse and Capulet)

Capulet: Wife, have you delivered to her our decree?

Lady Capulet: Ay, sir; but she will have none of it, she gives you thanks. I wish the fool were married to her grave!

Capulet: Doth she not count her blest, unworthy as she is, that we have persuaded so worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom?

Juliet: Thankful that you have. Proud can I never be of what I hate.

Capulet: Dress up your fine joints ‘gainst Thursday next, to go with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church, or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither. Out, you baggage, you useless coward!

Lady Capulet: What, are you mad?

Juliet: Father, I beseech you, hear me with patience but to speak a word.

Capulet: Disobedient wretch! Get thee to church a Thursday, or never after look me in the face. We scarce though us blessed that God had lent us but this only child, but we have a curse in having her.

Nurse: God in heaven bless her! You are to blame, my lord, to scold her so.

Capulet: Peace, you mumbling fool!

Lady Capulet: You are too hot.

Capulet: If you'll be my daughter, you'll marry Paris. If not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets, and I'll never acknowledge thee! (Exits)

Juliet: O sweet mother, cast me not away! Delay this marriage for a month, a week.

Lady Capulet: Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word. Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee. (Exits)

Juliet: O nurse, how shall this be prevented? Hast thou not a word of joy?

Nurse: Faith, here it is. Romeo is banished and odds are that he dares ne’er come back to lay claim to you. I think it best you married with the County Paris. O, he’s a lovely gentleman! I think you are happy in this second match, for it excels your first.

Juliet: Speakest thou from thy heart?

Nurse: And from my soul too.

Juliet: Amen! Well, thou hast comforted me marvelous much. Tell my lady I am gone, having displeased my father, to Lawrence’s cell to make confession and to be absolved. [Nurse exits] O most wicked fiend! Is it more sin to wish I break my marriage vows or to insult my lord Romeo which she hath praised many thousand times? I’ll to the friar, to know his remedy. If all else fail, myself have power to die.

WATCH MOVIE VERSION OF Act III.v

Zeffirelli's Romeo & Juliet (1968)

Question #11: Remember, as a rich parent of a daughter, your sole goal is to see her married to someone who can provide for her. Love is not something to consider. The Capulets have arranged for Juliet to marry the most sought after bachelor in Verona, but suddenly, their obedient daughter is being rebellious and they don’t know why. What do you think about their choices in parenting Juliet in scenes 4 and 5 of Act 3?

ACT IV.i - Tuesday afternoon in Friar Lawrence's cell

*Pay attention to Juliet’s use of verbal irony, or saying one thing but meaning something else.*

Paris: “Come to you to make confession to this father?”

Juliet: “To answer that, I should confess to you.”

Paris: “Do not deny to him that you love me.”

Juliet: “I will confess to you that I love him.”

…

Paris: “Thy face is mine, and thou hast sland’red it.”

Juliet: “It may be so, for it is not mine own.”

WATCH MOVIE VERSION OF Act IV.i.

Zeffirelli's Romeo & Juliet (1968)

ACT IV.ii - Tuesday evening in Capulet’s house

Capulet: How now my headstrong! Where have you been?

Juliet: To church where I have learned to repent the sin of disobedient opposition. Henceforward I am ever ruled by you.

Capulet: We’ll go to church tomorrow!

ACT IV.iii - Tuesday night in Juliet’s room

Watch:

Question #13: Juliet questions whether Friar’s plan will work, and even wonders if the potion is meant to kill her and cover up the fact he married them secretly. If you were Juliet, would you completely trust the potion Friar gave to you, or would you have doubts as well?

ACT IV.iv & v – Wednesday Morning in Juliet’s room

Watch:

ACT V.i – Thursday Afternoon in Mantua (where Romeo has been in exile)

If you all read together, who read which roles?

Romeo: I dreamt my lady came and found me dead and breathed such life with kisses in my lips that I was revived. (enters Balthasar). News from Verona! How fares my Juliet?

Balthasar: I saw her laid low in her kindred's vault. (exits)

Romeo: I defy you stars! Get me ink and paper, and hire posthorses. I will hence tonight. Hast thou no letters to me from the Friar?

Balthasar: No, my good lord.

Romeo: Get thee gone. (Balthasar exits.) Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight. What, ho, apothecary! (Apothecary enters) Come hither, man. Let me have a dram of poison.

Apothecary: Such drugs I have, but Mantua’s law is death to any he that sells them. My poverty, but not my will, consents.

Romeo: Come poison, go with me to Juliet’s grave, for there must I use thee. (exits.)

Question #14: Is the apothecary a bad guy for giving Romeo the poison?

ACT V.ii – Thursday Evening in Friar’s church

If you all read together, who read which roles?

Friar Lawrence: Welcome from Mantua. What says Romeo?

Friar John: The searchers of the town, suspecting that we both were in a house where the infectious plague did reign, would not let us go forth.

Friar Lawrence: Who bore my letter then to Romeo?

Friar John: I could not send it – here it is again.

Friar Lawrence: Unhappy fortune! The letter was of dear import and the neglecting it may do much danger. Now must I to the monument alone. Within 3 hours will Juliet awake. But I will write again to Mantua, and keep her at my cell till Romeo come.

Question #15: Who do you blame for this: Friar Lawrence, Friar John, or fate? Why?

ACT V.iii – Thursday night in the Capulet’s Vault (where they keep dead bodies)

If you all read together, who read which roles?

Both Romeo and Paris are at the vault to mourn Juliet.

Romeo: Take this letter. See thou deliver it to my lord and father. Do not interrupt me in my course. Hence, be gone. (Romeo goes into the vault)

Balthasar: His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt. (Hides by entrance of vault)

Paris: That is the banished Montague that hath murdered my love's cousin! It is this grief that killed my fair Juliet. (confronts Romeo) Condemned villain, I do arrest thee. Obey and go with me, for thou must die.

Romeo: I must indeed, and therefore came I here. Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee! (They fight. Romeo stabs Paris)

Paris: O, I am slain! Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet. (dies)

Romeo: This is Mercutio’s cousin, noble County Paris! I think he told me Paris should have married Juliet. (Lays Paris beside Juliet)(to Juliet) O my love, death has no power over your beauty. Crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks. Here’s to my love! (He drinks the poison). Apothecary, thy drugs are quick.

Thus, with a kiss, I die. (Kisses Juliet and dies)

Friar Lawrence: (enters) What blood is this? The lady stirs.

Juliet: (wakes up) Where is my Romeo?

Friar Lawrence: I hear some noise. A greater power than we can contradict hath thwarted our plans. Com away. Thy husband lies dead, and Paris too. I’ll hide you among a sisterhood of holy nuns. The watch is coming. Come, Juliet. I dare no longer stay.

Juliet: Go, I will not away. (Friar Lawrence runs away.) Poison hath been his timeless end! O, selfish one, drunk it all, and left no friendly drop for me? I will kiss thy lips. (kisses Romeo). Thy lips are warm! (Hears watchmen outside.) I’ll be brief. O, happy dagger. (stabs herself and dies)

(Prince, Watchmen, Capulets, and Lord Montague arrive.)

Prince: What fear is this which startles in our ears? Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes.

Montague: My wife is dead tonight. Grief of my son’s exile hath stopped her breath. What further woe conspires against my age?

Friar Lawrence: I married them, and their secret marriage-day was Tybalt’s doomsday. She came to me, and with wild looks bid me devise some mean to rid her from this second marriage. I gave her a sleeping potion which wrought on her the form of death. When I came, here untimely lay the noble Paris and true Romeo dead. She would not go with me, but did violence on herself. Her nurse is aware of their marriage too.

Prince: (gets letter from Balthasar) This letter doth make good the friar’s words.

Capulet: O brother Montague, give me thy hand.

Montague: I can give thee more. I will make Juilet a statue in pure gold.

Capulet: As rich shall Romeo’s by his lady’s lie.

Prince: Some shall be pardoned, and some punished. For never was there a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

Question #16: Other than Romeo or Juliet, which character do you blame for their part in Romeo and Juliet’s death?

Question #17: If you’re the Prince, which characters would you punish and what punishment would you give them?

Question #18: Watch at least two different endings. Which ending do you prefer and why?

West Side Story (1961) – Instead of Romeo & Juliet, it’s Tony & Maria.

Zeffirelli's Romeo & Juliet (1968)

Baz Luhrmann's Romeo & Juliet (1996)

Question #19: Romeo & Juliet is a common text for all 9th graders to read. Do you think it should be? Why or why not?

Question #20: Watch the Modern-Day Romeo and Juliet. What do you think about their love story, and is love worth dying for?