Some important quotes from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Act II

Here are some quotes from the second act of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ that should be committed to memory.

From Scene 2

Romeo (soliloquy)
‘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.’

Juliet to herself
‘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 to herself
‘That which me call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title.’

Juliet to Romeo
‘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 to Juliet
‘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.’

Juliet to Romeo
‘If that thy bent of love be honourable,
Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow,
By one that I’ll procure to come to thee,
Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite,
And all my fortunes at thy foot I’ll lay
And follow thee my lord throughout the world.’

Romeo to Juliet
‘Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books;
But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.’

From Scene 3

Friar Laurence (soliloquy)
‘Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied,
And vice sometime’s by action dignified.
Within the infant rind of this weak flower
Poison hath residence, and medicine power.’

Romeo to Friar
‘With Rosaline, my ghostly father? No.
I have forgot that name and that name’s woe.’

Romeo to Friar
‘Then plainly know my heart’s dear love is set
On the fair daughter of rich Capulet.
As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine,
And all combined, save what thou must combine
By holy marriage.’

Friar to Romeo
‘Jesu Maria! What a deal of brine
Hath washed 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 in they sighs from heaven clears.
Thy old groans yet ring in mine ancient ears.’

Friar to Romeo
‘O she knew well
Thy love did read by rote and could not spell.
But come, young waverer, come, go with me,
In one respect I’ll thy assistant be.
For this alliance may so happy prove
To turn your household’s rancour to pure love.’

Romeo to Friar
‘O, let us hence! I stand on sudden haste.’

Friar to Romeo
‘Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.’

From Scene 4

Mercutio to Romeo
‘Why, is not this better now than groaning for love? Now art thou sociable. Now art thou Romeo. Now art thou what thou art, by art as well as by nature. For this drivelling love is like a great natural that runs lolling up and down to hide this bauble in a hole.’

Romeo to Nurse (about Mercutio)
‘A gentleman, Nurse, that loves to hear himself talk and will speak more in a minute than he will stand to in a month.’

Romeo to Nurse
‘Bid her devise
Some means to come to shrift this afternoon,
And there she shall at Friar Laurence’ cell
Be shrived and married.’

From Scene 5

Nurse to Juliet
‘Then hie you hence to Friar Laurence’ cell.
There stays a husband to make you a wife.’

From Scene 6

Friar to Romeo
‘So smile the heavens upon this holy act
That after-hours with sorrow chide us not!’

Romeo to Friar
‘Amen, amen! But come what sorrow can,
It cannot countervail the exchange of joy
That one short minute gives me in her sight.
Do thou but close our hands with holy words,
Then love-devouring death do what he dare –
It is enough I may but call her mine.’

Friar to Romeo
‘This 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.’

Romeo to Juliet
‘Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy
Be heaped like mine, and that thy skill be more
To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath
This neighbour air, and let rich music’s tongue
Unfold the imagined happiness that both
Receive in either by this dear encounter.’

Juliet to Romeo
‘Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,
Brags of his substance, not of ornament.
They are but beggars than can count their worth>
But my true love is grown to such excess
I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth.’

Friar to Romeo and Juliet
‘Come, come with me, and we shall make short work.
For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone
Till Holy Church incorporate two in one.’