Romeo and Juliet: key quotation sheet (PDF)
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From the Romeo and Juliet study guide.
How to use this sheet
These are the 10 quotations from the Romeo and Juliet study guide, set out for revision. Part one gives each quotation with a plain-English reading and space for your own notes. Part two prints them again with a word missing from each line, so that you can test yourself.
- Read the quotation aloud twice. Sound helps memory more than staring does.
- In the note space, name one method (a device, a word choice, a feature of the verse) and the effect it has.
- Add one link: to a theme, to another moment in the text, or to a point of context.
- A day later, cover part one and complete part two from memory.
Part one: the quotations
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
Chorus · Prologue
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;
Plain English: From these two enemy families come two lovers whom the stars oppose.
Method and effect:
Links to:
Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate,
Romeo · Act 1, Scene 1
O anything of nothing first create!
Plain English: Love is a fight and hatred is a passion; everything is made out of nothing.
Method and effect:
Links to:
My only love sprung from my only hate!
Juliet · Act 1, Scene 5
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Plain English: The one man I love is the son of the one family I hate; I saw him before I knew who he was.
Method and effect:
Links to:
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
Romeo · Act 2, Scene 2
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.
Plain English: Quiet: what is that light at the window? It is the dawn, and Juliet is the sun.
Method and effect:
Links to:
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
Juliet · Act 2, Scene 2
By any other word would smell as sweet.
Plain English: A name is only a label; a rose would smell the same whatever we called it.
Method and effect:
Links to:
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
Juliet · Act 2, Scene 2
My love as deep. The more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
Plain English: My generosity and my love are as limitless as the sea; giving them only increases them.
Method and effect:
Links to:
These violent delights have violent ends
Friar Lawrence · Act 2, Scene 6
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume.
Plain English: Intense pleasures end as intensely as they begin, like fire meeting gunpowder.
Method and effect:
Links to:
A plague o’ both your houses!
Mercutio · Act 3, Scene 1
Plain English: A curse on both your families.
Method and effect:
Links to:
Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch!
Capulet · Act 3, Scene 5
I tell thee what: get thee to church o’ Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face.
Plain English: Marry Paris on Thursday, you worthless girl, or I disown you.
Method and effect:
Links to:
Then I deny you, stars!
Romeo · Act 5, Scene 1
Plain English: Then I reject you, fate.
Method and effect:
Links to:
Part two: test yourself
Fill each gap from memory, then check against part one. Mark the ones you missed and come back to them tomorrow.
From the fatal loins of these two foes
Chorus · Prologue
A pair of star- lovers take their life;
Why then, O love, O loving hate,
Romeo · Act 1, Scene 1
O of nothing first create!
My only love from my only hate!
Juliet · Act 1, Scene 5
Too early seen , and known too late!
But soft, what light yonder window breaks?
Romeo · Act 2, Scene 2
It is the East, and is the sun.
in a name? That which we call a rose
Juliet · Act 2, Scene 2
By any word would smell as sweet.
My bounty is as as the sea,
Juliet · Act 2, Scene 2
My love as deep. The more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are .
These violent have violent ends
Friar Lawrence · Act 2, Scene 6
And in their die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, .
A o’ both your houses!
Mercutio · Act 3, Scene 1
Hang thee, young baggage, wretch!
Capulet · Act 3, Scene 5
I tell thee what: get thee to church o’ ,
Or after look me in the face.
Then I deny you, !
Romeo · Act 5, Scene 1
Next steps
Turn three of these quotations into full paragraphs with the essay planner, and check your method against the close reading toolkit. For a small daily dose of the language, Daily Bard shows one passage each morning with a plain-English reading on the back of the leaf.
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