Romeo and Juliet - Act 2 (quotes) Flashcards
After the ball, Romeo climbs over the Capulet wall to find Juliet. Romeo sees Juliet at her balcony. He uses poetic language to compare her beauty.
“But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!”
Juliet begins to speak aloud, unaware that Romeo can hear her. She asks why he must be a Montague and she says that if he would refuse his Montague name, she would give herself to him; or if he would simply swear that he loved her, she would refuse her Caplulet name.
“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, musing to herself and unaware that Romeo is in her garden, asks why Romeo must be Romeo—a Montague, and therefore an enemy to her family.
“What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.”
Juliet is more practical than Romeo and feels concerned that things are happening to quickly.
“I have no joy of this contract tonight.
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;”
Friar Laurence agrees to marry the couple. He expresses the hope that the marriage of Romeo and Juliet might end the feud between the Montagues and Capulets
“For this alliance may so happy prove,
To turn your household’s rancour to pure love.”
Here Benvolio and Mercutio are talking about Romeo. Benvolio says that Tybalt has sent a letter to Romeo’s house, challenging him to a fight
“Tybalt, the kinsman of old Capulet,
Hath sent a letter to his father’s house”
This is Mercutio’s name for Tybalt. The name ‘Tybalt’ was a popular name for a cat
“Prince of Cats”
Mercutio notices that Romeo seems to be back to his old self. The friends believe that Romeo has been with Rosline and have no knowledge of his kiss with Juliet
“Now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo.”
Friar Laurence counsels Romeo to love moderately and not with too much intensity. Here the Friar suggests moderation in love to avoid tragedy. This foreshadows events that will occur later in the play
“These violent delights have violent ends,”
This is part one of Romeo’s plan to marry Juliet. He tells the nurse to get Juliet to make up an excuse to leave the house and go to confession that afternoon. Here she will make confession and be married
” Bid her devise
Some means to come to shift this afternoon,
And there she shall at Friar Laurence’s cell,
Be shrived and married.”
This is part two of Romeo’s plan. He tells the nurse to wait behind the abbey wall and within an hour, one of his servants will bring her a rope ladder. Romeo will use this ladder to get over the Capulet wall at night so he can be with his new wife
“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,
Which to the high topgallant of my joy
Must be my convoy in the secret night.”
