Four Quotes from Romeo & Juliet By William Shakespeare

"A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect."

Sir Walter Scott, 1771-1832. (Scottish Novelist, Poet, Historian and Biographer)

Taking the above advise, I have taken to reading serious English Poetry. And guess where I started, the ultimate love story and quintessence of English Poetry of all times: Romeo & Juliet. I fervently believe in the saying that the best way to learn is by sharing. And in the spirit of sharing, and the hope that in so doing my mind will retain, I bring you these four quotes from the famous play. I attempt a beginers explanation which may, to an expert's eye, be mere parroting of study guide's stuff. But I do not pretend to write for the experts here!

1. Romeo: 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. . . .
   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.

   (Act II. Scene (i). Lines 44–64).

   (Explanation: Romeo speaks these lines in the so-called balcony scene in the love play, while hiding in the Capulet's garden after the feast. He(Romeo) sees Juliet leaning out the window Juliet's surpassing beauty makes Romeo imagine that she is the sun, transforming the darkness into daylight. Romeo personifies the moon, calling it "sick and pale with grief" at the fact that Juliet, the sun, is far brighter and more beautiful. Romeo then compares Juliet to the stars, claiming that she eclipses the stars as daylight overpowers a lamp—her eyes alone shine so bright that they will convince the birds to sing at night as if it were day.)

2. Juliet: 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.

   (Act II Scene (i) Lines 74–78)

   (Explanation: Juliet speaks these lines, perhaps the most famous in the play, in the balcony scene . Leaning out of her upstairs window, unaware that Romeo is below in the orchard, she asks why Romeo must be Romeo—why he must be a Montaque the son of her family's greatest enemy ("wherefore" means "why," not "where"; Juliet is not, as is often assumed, asking where Romeo is). Still unaware of Romeo's presence, she asks him to deny his family for her love. She adds, however, that if he will not, she will deny her family in order to be with him if he merely tells her that he loves her.)

3. Mercutio: O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you. . . .
   She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
   In shape no bigger than an agate stone
   On the forefinger of an alderman,
   Drawn with a team of little atomi
   Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep.

   (Act I. Scene (iv) Lines 53–59)

   (Explanation: This is Mercutio's famous Queen Mab speech. Mercutio is trying to convince Romeo to set aside his lovesick melancholy over Rosaline and come along to the Capulet feast. When Romeo says that he is depressed because of a dream, Mercutio launches on a lengthy, playful description of Queen Mab, the fairy who supposedly brings dreams to sleeping humans. The main point of the passage is that the dreams Queen Mab brings are directly related to the person who dreams them—lovers dream of love, soldiers of war, etc. But in the process of making this rather prosaic point Mercutio falls into a sort of wild bitterness in which he seems to see dreams as destructive and delusional.)

4. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
   A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
   Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
   Doth with their death bury their parents' strife. . . .
   O, I am fortune's fool! . . .
   Then I defy you, stars.

   (Explanation: This trio of quotes advances the theme of fate as it plays out through the story: the first is spoken by the Chorus (Prologue.5–8), the second by Romeo after he kills Tybalt (III.i.131), and the third by Romeo upon learning of Juliet's death (V.i.24). The Chorus' remark that Romeo and Juliet are "star-crossed" and fated to "take their li[ves]" informs the audience that the lovers are destined to die tragically. Romeo's remark "O, I am fortune's fool!" illustrates the fact that Romeo sees himself as subject to the whims of fate. When he cries out "Then I defy you, stars," after learning of Juliet's death, he declares himself openly opposed to the destiny that so grieves him. Sadly, in "defying" fate he actually brings it about. Romeo's suicide prompts Juliet to kill herself, thereby ironically fulfilling the lovers' tragic destiny.)