Page (2 of 3) Quotes:
1 2 3
How we cite the quotes:
Citations follow this format: (Act.Scene.Line). Line numbers correspond to the 2008 Norton edition of the play.
| Quote #4 JULIET
[…] Although I joy in thee,
I have no joy of this contract to-night:
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
Ere one can say 'It lightens.' Sweet, good night!
This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
(2.2.13) |
Juliet is frightened by the sudden power of her and Romeo's love, and she is worried that it will burn itself out. She decides to say goodnight to him to prolong their love until their next meeting.
| Quote #5 FRIAR LAURENCE
Holy Saint Francis, 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.
Jesu Maria, what a deal of brine
Hath wash'd thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline!
How much salt water thrown away in waste,
To season love, that of it doth not taste!
The sun not yet thy sighs from heaven clears,
Thy old groans ring yet in my ancient ears;
Lo, here upon thy cheek the stain doth sit
Of an old tear that is not wash'd off yet:
If e'er thou wast thyself and these woes thine,
Thou and these woes were all for Rosaline:
And art thou changed? pronounce this sentence then,
Women may fall, when there's no strength in men.
(2.3.6) |
The Friar deems Romeo's love to be meaningless because it is so changeable – mere days ago, Romeo was supposedly in love with Rosaline but now he wants to marry Juliet.
| Quote #6 FRIAR LAURENCE
These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss consume: the sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness
And in the taste confounds the appetite:
Therefore love moderately; long love doth so;
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.
(2.6.1) |
The Friar, who is worried about the long-term consequences of Romeo and Juliet's marriage, warns Romeo that his and Juliet's intense passion may end suddenly and violently, like the flash of gunpowder.
Most Shakespeare critics read Friar Laurence's words as a passage that sums up the nature of Romeo and Juliet's love affair. Caroline Spurgeon writes the following: "There can be no question, I think, that Shakespeare saw the story, in its swift and tragic beauty, as an almost blinding flash of light, suddenly ignited, and swiftly quenched" (Shakespeare's Imagery and What It Tells Us).
