A hall in Capulet's house — the meeting and the sonnet
A boy in a mask sees a girl across a room. They speak fourteen lines together — a sonnet, exactly — and kiss before they know each other's names.
Summary
A hall in Capulet's house, the ball in full motion. Servants are clearing supper plates; the musicians are tuning; Capulet welcomes the masked guests onto the dance floor with bluff hospitality. Romeo, who has lost his masked friends, sees Juliet across the room dancing with another guest. The line that ends his life as he has been living it is twelve syllables long: "did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! / for I ne'er saw true beauty till this night." Rosaline, an hour ago his entire emotional weather, is gone.
Tybalt recognizes Romeo by his voice and sends a servant for his rapier. Capulet stops him. Romeo carries himself "like a portly gentleman" and is reputed in Verona "a virtuous and well-governed youth"; the feast will not be disturbed under Capulet's roof. Tybalt is overruled and sent off seething. He vows revenge: "this intrusion shall, / now seeming sweet, convert to bitter gall." That vow is the seed of Scene 13.
Romeo crosses the floor and takes Juliet's hand. The conversation that follows is fourteen lines long, perfectly rhymed, built between them on a single conceit — that her hand is a holy shrine, that his lips are pilgrims, that the kiss is the pilgrim's prayer. The form is a Shakespearean sonnet; in performance the audience often does not realize the form has happened until the rhymes lock into place at the closing couplet. He kisses her. She says something witty about pilgrims, and he kisses her again. The Nurse interrupts: Juliet's mother wants her. Each, separately, asks the Nurse who the other was. Juliet's line, on learning his name, is among the most-quoted in the play: "my only love sprung from my only hate. / Too early seen unknown, and known too late."
- Scene 1The Chorus opens the play with a single sonnet — fourteen lines — that lays out the entire story in advance. Two households alike...
- Scene 2A public place in Verona, Sunday morning. Two Capulet servants pick a fight with two Montagues to be picking a fight. Benvolio...
- Scene 3A young nobleman named Count Paris asks Capulet for Juliet's hand. Capulet says she is too young at thirteen — let two more...
- Scene 4A room in Capulet's house. Lady Capulet calls her thirteen-year-old daughter in and asks how she feels about marriage. The Nurse...
- Scene 5Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio walk in masks through the Verona night toward the Capulet feast. Romeo, reluctant, confesses a...
- Scene 6The Capulet ball, the dance floor full. Romeo sees Juliet across the room and forgets Rosaline within a single line: "for I ne'er...
- Scene 7Outside the Capulet wall, late after the feast. Mercutio and Benvolio have lost Romeo on the way home and call for him through the...
- Scene 8The Capulet orchard. Romeo, hidden, sees Juliet on her balcony speaking aloud of his name and what it costs them. He answers; she...
- Scene 9Dawn at Friar Laurence's cell. The Friar enters with a basket of herbs and reads moral lessons in their double properties — within...
- Scene 10Late morning, a street in Verona. Mercutio and Benvolio discuss Tybalt's challenge and worry that Romeo, in his current state...
- Scene 11Noon at Capulet's garden. Juliet, alone, paces and counts the minutes — the Nurse left at nine; it is past twelve; love's heralds...
- Scene 12Romeo at the Friar's cell, waiting. The Friar warns him again: "these violent delights have violent ends, and in their triumph...
- Scene 13The pivot of the play. A hot afternoon in the public square. Tybalt arrives looking for Romeo and forces a duel; Romeo, freshly...
- Scene 14Juliet's chamber, the same afternoon. Alone, she calls on the night to come quickly: "gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds." It...
- Scene 15Romeo, on the floor of the Friar's cell, hears his sentence. Banishment is worse than death, he insists — and at the Nurse's news...
- Scene 16Late Monday night, a room in Capulet's house. Paris is at the door, paying his respects after Tybalt's death and on the point of...
- Scene 17The longest scene of Act 3. Romeo and Juliet stand at the window at dawn — "it was the nightingale, and not the lark" — and part....
- Scene 18Juliet at Friar Laurence's cell. Paris is there finalizing the wedding order; she answers his courtship with the precise minimum...
- Scene 19Tuesday afternoon, the Capulet house. The household is in motion preparing for Thursday's wedding. Juliet returns from the Friar...
- Scene 20Late Tuesday night, Juliet's chamber. The wedding is at dawn. Alone, with Romeo's dagger laid on the table in case the vial fails...
- Scene 21A short, brisk scene of preparation, set just before dawn on Wednesday. The household has been up all night finishing the wedding...
- Scene 22The Nurse climbs the stairs, pulls back the bed-curtain, and finds Juliet cold. The wedding music outside is still playing. Lady...
- Scene 23Mantua, Thursday morning. Romeo, who has had no word from the Friar yet, is unusually cheerful — he has dreamed Juliet found him...
- Scene 24Late Thursday afternoon, the Friar's cell. Friar John returns from his errand to Mantua with the letter still in his hand. He...
- Scene 25The end at the vault. Paris arrives first to mourn Juliet; Romeo arrives with a crowbar; Paris challenges him; Romeo kills him and...