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Romeo and Juliet

William Rolfe W. J. ShakespearePublic domain work
Public Books📖 39 chapters👁 0General

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Synopsis

Few tales have woven themselves so deeply into the fabric of our culture as the story of two star-crossed lovers from Verona. Shakespeare’s tragedy, written in the 1590s, is far more than a simple tale of teenage romance. It is a searing exploration of impulsive passion, the weight of family legacy, and the devastating consequences of a society riven by ancient hatreds. The play’s language, from the soaring poetry of the balcony scene to the bawdy wit of the Nurse and Mercutio, creates a world of dazzling contrasts, where love’s intensity burns against a backdrop of street brawls and mortal enmity. The play’s enduring power lies in its profound human truth. It captures the intoxicating, all-consuming nature of first love, while simultaneously exposing the fragility of a happiness built on secrecy and haste. The tragedy unfolds not from villainy, but from a series of well-intentioned decisions and fatal miscommunications, making the characters’ downfall feel both inevitable and heartbreakingly avoidable. This edition, prepared with scholarly care, offers readers a clear and annotated text, allowing the full richness of Shakespeare’s language and dramatic craft to be appreciated. To read Romeo and Juliet today is to engage with a timeless meditation on love, fate, and the choices that define us—a work whose echoes still resonate in every story of forbidden passion and tragic loss.

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Chapters

  1. Chapter 01

    Part 1

    • Part 1

      [Illustration] SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDY OF ROMEO AND JULIET EDITED, WITH NOTES BY WILLIAM J. ROLFE, LITT.D. FORMERLY HEAD MASTER OF THE HIGH SCHOOL CAMBRIDGE, MASS. ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK…

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  2. Chapter 02

    Part 2

    • Part 2

      Grant White remarks: "The tragedy follows the poem with a faithfulness which might be called slavish, were it not that any variation from the course of the old story was entirely unnecessary for the sake of dramatic i…

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  3. Chapter 03

    Part 3

    • Part 3

      "For this alliance may so happy prove To turn your households' rancour to pure love,"-- is now fulfilled. Both Capulet and Montague, as they join hands in amity over the dead bodies of their children, acknowledge the …

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  4. Chapter 04

    Part 4

    • Part 4

      Benvolio. See, where he comes! So please you, step aside; I'll know his grievance or be much denied. Montague. I would thou wert so happy by thy stay To hear true shrift.--Come, madam, let's away. [_Exeunt Montagu…

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  5. Chapter 05

    Part 5

    • Part 5

      Lady Capulet. Marry, that 'marry' is the very theme I came to talk of.--Tell me, daughter Juliet, How stands your disposition to be married? Juliet. It is an honour that I dream not of. Nurse. An honour! were no…

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  6. Chapter 06

    Part 6

    • Part 6

      Tybalt. It fits when such a villain is a guest; I'll not endure him. Capulet. He shall be endur'd; What, goodman boy! I say he shall. Go to; Am I the master here, or you? go to. 80 You'll not endure him!--God shal…

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  7. Chapter 07

    Part 7

    • Part 7

      Juliet. Thou know'st the mask of night is on my face, Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek For that which thou hast heard me speak to-night. Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain deny What I have spoke; but f…

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  8. Chapter 08

    Part 8

    • Part 8

      Mercutio. More than prince of cats, I can tell you. 20 O, he is the courageous captain of compliments! He fights as you sing prick-song, keeps time, distance, and proportion; rests me his minim rest, one, two, and t…

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  9. Chapter 09

    Part 9

    • Part 9

      Juliet. Where is my mother! why, she is within; Where should she be? How oddly thou repliest! 60 'Your love says, like an honest gentleman, Where is your mother?' Nurse. O God's lady dear! Are you so hot? marry, c…

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  10. Chapter 10

    Part 10

    • Part 10

      Benvolio. Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay; Romeo that spoke him fair, bade him bethink How nice the quarrel was, and urg'd withal Your high displeasure. All this, uttered With gentle breath, calm look…

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  11. Chapter 11

    Part 11

    • Part 11

      Romeo. 'Tis torture, and not mercy; heaven is here, Where Juliet lives, and every cat and dog 30 And little mouse, every unworthy thing, Live here in heaven and may look on her, But Romeo may not. More validity, Mor…

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  12. Chapter 12

    Part 12

    • Part 12

      Romeo. Farewell! I will omit no opportunity That may convey my greetings, love, to thee. Juliet. O, think'st thou we shall ever meet again? 50 Romeo. I doubt it not; and all these woes shall serve For sweet disc…

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  13. Chapter 13

    Part 13

    • Part 13

      Paris. Thou wrong'st it more than tears with that report. Juliet. That is no slander, sir, which is a truth; And what I spake, I spake it to my face. Paris. Thy face is mine, and thou hast slander'd it. _Juliet.…

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  14. Chapter 14

    Part 14

    • Part 14

      Capulet. Mass, and well said; a merry whoreson, ha! Thou shalt be logger-head.--Good faith, 'tis day; 21 The county will be here with music straight, For so he said he would. I hear him near.-- [Music within. Nurs…

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  15. Chapter 15

    Part 15

    • Part 15

      Romeo. There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls, 80 Doing more murthers in this loathsome world Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell. I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none. Farewell; buy foo…

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  16. Chapter 16

    Part 16

    • Part 16

      1 Watch. The ground is bloody; search about the churchyard. Go, some of you, whoe'er you find attach.-- [Exeunt some. Pitiful sight! here lies the county slain; And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead, Who here …

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  17. Chapter 17

    Part 17

    • Part 17

      (c) Words containing l or r, preceded by another consonant, are often pronounced as if a vowel came between the consonants; as in i. 4. 8: "After the prompter, at our entrance" [ent(e)rance]. See also T. of S.…

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  18. Chapter 18

    Part 18

    • Part 18

      "There is beyonde the Alps, a towne of auncient fame Whose bright renoune yet shineth cleare, Verona men it name: Bylt in an happy time, bylt on a fertile soyle: Maynteined by the heauenly fates, and by the townish to…

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  19. Chapter 19

    Part 19

    • Part 19

      That when she dies, etc. "She is rich in beauty, and only poor in being subject to the lot of humanity, that her store, or riches, can be destroyed by death, who shall, by the same blow, put an end to b…

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  20. Chapter 20

    Part 20

    • Part 20

      Cf. Coleridge: "The character of the Nurse is the nearest of anything in Shakspeare to a direct borrowing from mere observation; and the reason is, that as in infancy and childhood the individual in nature is a repres…

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  21. Chapter 21

    Part 21

    • Part 21

      Beetle-brows. Prominent or overhanging brows. Cf. the verb beetle in Ham. i. 4. 71. 36. Rushes. Before the introduction of carpets floors were strewn with rushes. Cf. 1 Hen. IV. iii. 1. 214: "on the want…

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  22. Chapter 22

    Part 22

    • Part 22

      Toes. Pope thought it necessary to change this to "feet." Malone remarks that the word "undoubtedly did not appear indelicate to the audience of Shakespeare's time, though perhaps it would not be endured at this…

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  23. Chapter 23

    Part 23

    • Part 23

      On the repetition of for, cf. A.W. i. 2. 29: "But on us both did haggish age steal on;" Cor. ii. 1. 18: "In what enormity is Marcius poor in?" etc. Fair = fair one; as in M.N.D. i. 1. 182, etc. 10. Use.…

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  24. Chapter 24

    Part 24

    • Part 24

      "And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school." 160. Tassel-gentle. The tassel-gentle or tercel-gentle is the male hawk. Dyce quotes Cotgra…

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  25. Chapter 25

    Part 25

    • Part 25

      Without his roe. "That is, he comes but half himself; he is only a sigh--O me! that is, me O! the half of his name" (Seymour). It may mean without his mistress, whom he has had to leave; roe meaning a female…

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  26. Chapter 26

    Part 26

    • Part 26

      Them. S. makes news both singular and plural. For the latter, cf. Much Ado, i. 2. 4. 25. Give me leave. Let me alone, let me rest. See on i. 3. 7 above. 26. Ache. Spelt "ake" in the folio both here and i…

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  27. Chapter 27

    Part 27

    • Part 27

      My very friend. Cf. T.G. of V. iii. 2. 41: "his very friend;" M. of V. iii. 2. 226: "my very friends and countrymen," etc. 116. Cousin. Some editors adopt the "kinsman" of 1st quarto; but cousin was oft…

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  28. Chapter 28

    Part 28

    • Part 28

      "To hear and absolutely to determine Of what conditions we shall stand upon." See also T.G. of V. ii. 4. 181, Rich. III. iii. 4. 2, etc. 53. God save the mark! An exclamation of uncertain origin, commonly = savi…

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  29. Chapter 29

    Part 29

    • Part 29

      Afore me. "By my life, by my soul" (Schmidt). Cf. Per. ii. 1. 84: "Now, afore me, a handsome fellow!" So before me, as in T.N. ii. 3. 194, Oth. iv. 1. 149, etc. 35. By and by. Presently. See on ii. 2. …

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  30. Chapter 30

    Part 30

    • Part 30

      129-136. Evermore ... body. This long-drawn "conceit" is evidently from the first draught of the play. 134. Who. See on i. 1. 109 above. 138. She will none. Cf. M.N.D. iii. 2. 169: "Lysander, keep thy Hermia; …

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  31. Chapter 31

    Part 31

    • Part 31

      "Receiue this vyoll small and keepe it as thine eye; And on the mariage day, before the sunne doe cleare the skye, Fill it with water full vp to the very brim, Then drinke it of, and thou shalt feele throughout eche v…

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  32. Chapter 32

    Part 32

    • Part 32

      Distraught. Distracted. S. uses the word again in Rich. III. iii. 5. 4: "distraught and mad with terror." Elsewhere he has distracted (as in Temp. v. i. 12, Macb. ii. 3. 110, etc.) or distract (as in _…

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  33. Chapter 33

    Part 33

    • Part 33

      Pestilent. Often used in an opprobrious sense; as in Lear, i. 4. 127: "A pestilent gall to me!" Oth. ii. 1. 252: "A pestilent complete knave," etc. 142. Jack. See on iii. 1. 12 above; and for stay = wai…

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  34. Chapter 34

    Part 34

    • Part 34

      Lantern. Used in the architectural sense of "a turret full of windows" (Steevens). Cf. Parker, Glossary of Architecture: "In Gothic architecture the term is sometimes applied to louvres on the roofs of halls…

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  35. Chapter 35

    Part 35

    • Part 35

      Little is known of the life of Arthur Broke, or Brooke, except that he wrote Romeus and Juliet (1562) and the next year published a book entitled _Agreement of Sundry Places of Scripture, seeming in shew to jarre, s…

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  36. Chapter 36

    Part 36

    • Part 36

      In Juliet's case, I believe that the youthfulness was an essential element in Shakespeare's conception of the character. With the parents and the Nurse he has given her, she could only have been, at the opening of the…

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  37. Chapter 37

    Part 37

    • Part 37

      It lives only until it is displaced by a healthier, more vigorous love, capable of outgrowing the precarious period of infancy.[8] This is not the only instance of the kind in Shakespeare. Orsino's experience in _Twel…

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  38. Chapter 38

    Part 38

    • Part 38

      button, 208 butt-shaft, 207 by and by (= presently), 224, 236, 273 candles (night's), 237 canker (= worm), 205 cankered, 168 Capel's, 262, 270 captain of compliments, 207 carries it away, 221 carry coals, to, 166 carr…

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  39. Chapter 39

    Part 39

    • Part 39

      With the Author's Preface and Introductions, Criticisms by John Stuart Mill, Henry Morley, "Christopher North," and others, historical and explanatory Notes, and copious Illustrations. MILTON'S MINOR POEMS All of Milt…

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About this work

Author
William Rolfe W. J. Shakespeare
Language
English
Chapters
39