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No Fear Translations of Shakespeare’s plays (along with audio!) and other classic works
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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.
Be not her maid since she is envious.
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off!
It is my lady. Oh, it is my love.
Oh, that she knew she were!
She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that?
Her eye discourses. I will answer it.—
I am too bold. 'Tis not to me she speaks.
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars
As daylight doth a lamp. Her eye in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
See how she leans her cheek upon her hand.
Oh, that I were a glove upon that hand
That I might touch that cheek!
In what is probably the best-known scene in the play (Act 2, Scene 2), the “balcony scene,” Romeo and Juliet profess their love to each other as Romeo stands below Juliet’s balcony. These lines are the start of the balcony scene, in which Romeo uses extremely poetic, symbolic, and beautiful language to describe Juliet. Important details about this speech are described in Famous Quotes Explained (the third quote). The significance of the astrological imagery that Romeo uses in the speech is further discussed in Quotes by Character: Romeo (the third quote).
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. . . .
'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, 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.
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called
The famous balcony scene continues with these lines spoken by Juliet, who is unaware that Romeo is in the garden below. In the speech, she bemoans that she fallen in love with someone from the family that is her family’s enemy, but then quickly asserts love is more important than families and names. This speech is described in greater detail in Famous Quotes Explained (the fourth quote). It is also discussed in two quotes in Quotes by Character: Juliet. (The opening line is discussed in the second quote, while other aspects are covered in the third quote.)
JULIET: How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?
The orchard walls are high and hard to climb,
And the place death, considering who thou art,
If any of my kinsmen find thee here.
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.
After Juliet becomes aware of Romeo’s presence in Act 2, Scene 2, they have this exchange. First, Juliet asks him how he got over the high orchard walls and then says that if he were discovered there by any of her relatives, they would kill him. Juliet’s comments tell us something about what kind of place Verona is, as is discussed in Quotes by Setting: Verona (the third quote).
Romeo’s fanciful response to Juliet’s serious question—that his love for Juliet has given him wings—makes for an important contrast between the personalities of the two lovers. This is further discussed in Quotes by Theme: The Forcefulness of Love (the third quote) as well as in Quotes by Character: Romeo (the fifth quote).
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee
The more I have, for both are infinite
Later in the scene, Juliet describes her love for Romeo with these lines. Read more about this quote and what it suggests about the differences and the similarities between the two title characters in Quotes by Theme: The Forcefulness of Love (the fourth quote) and in Quotes by Character: Juliet (the fourth quote).
Hist, Romeo, hist! O for a falconer’s voice
To lure this tassel-gentle back again.
Towards the end of Act 2, Scene 2, Juliet uses these words to describe Romeo as a falcon and herself as a falconer. This metaphor harkens back to Romeo’s comment earlier in the scene about having “wings” and it also tells us something about Juliet’s view of the power dynamic between the couple, as is discussed further in Quotes by Character: Juliet (the fifth quote).
