“A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.”
~Ingrid Bergman
“My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.” ~ Juliet to Romeo
“O! she doth teach the torches to burn bright.
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.”
~Romeo speaking of Juliet
“One fairer than my love? The all-seeing sun
Ne’er saw her match since first the world begun.”
~ Romeo
“I know not how to tell thee who I am. My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself,
because it’s an enemy to thee.” ~ Romeo
“If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.”
—Romeo in his first words to Juliet while taking her hand
“But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”
~ Romeo when he sees Juliet on the balcony
“O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard.
Being in night, all this is but a dream,
Too flattering-sweet to be substantial.” ~ ROMEO
“See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!”
—Romeo watching Juliet at her window
“With love’s light wings did I o’er-perch these walls; For stony limits cannot hold love out, And what love can do that dares love attempt.”
~Romeo, when Juliet asks how he managed to get over the high wall to Capulet’s garden
“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
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other word would smell as sweet.” ~Juliet
“This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath, May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.” – Juliet
“He jests at scars that never felt a wound.”
~Romeo, after his friend Mercutio scoffs at him for being in love
“Is love a tender thing? It is too rough,
Too rude, too boist’rous; and it pricks like thorn.” ~ Romeo
“Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” ~ Romeo
“Good Night, Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.” ~ Juliet
“Give me my Romeo, and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun.”
~ Juliet as she waits for Romeo to come to her on their wedding night
“Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear.” ~ Juliet, trying to delay Romeo’s departure after their secret wedding night.
“Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain-tops.”
~Romeo
*That first wedding morning was the last time they saw each other alive. Sadly, this is a tragedy and you know where we’re going. Sigh.
“Eyes, look your last!
Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death!”
—Romeo, thinking Juliet is dead, bids his farewell to her with a kiss.
*Poor Romeo–in hiding since he murdered Juliet’s cousin who killed his best friend–didn’t get that vital letter apprising him of her pretend death to escape a forced marriage at her parent’s hands and be with him. And when Juliet wakes up in the creepy family crypt, the cowardly friar ran off and left her to discover Romeo slumped beside her poisoned, which leads to her tragic end at the point of his dagger.
As you can see, I’m a huge Romeo and Juliet fan, and never will there be a more perfect Juliet than Olivia Hussey. Such a profoundly beautiful and tragic romance. All the what if’s and if only’s prompted me to revise the ending to that timeless classic in my mind many times.
The 1968 production of Romeo and Juliet is partly responsible for my having written three light paranormal romances with a reincarnation theme in which the hero and heroine get another chance: Somewhere My Love, Somewhere My Lass, and Somewhere the Bells Ring. The impact of that film on me was profound. I was only slightly younger than Juliet’s tender age and badly wanted her and Romeo to be together, to have a second chance. Maybe they did. Only Shakespeare can say. Either way, wherever they are and the many couples like them, I hope they’re together in the next world.
As the play concludes, these immortal lines are uttered:
“A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”
—Prince Escalus
“I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love.”
~Henry Ward Beecher
“True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen.”
~La Rochefoucauld
“Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?” ~ Christopher Marlowe
One Writer's Way 