Romeo and Juliet

Original scene in Romeo and Juliet

Act 1 Scene 4 - Act 1 Scene 5

• Romeo and his posse (i.e., Benvolio and Mercutio) are getting ready to sneak into the Capulets' party. Luckily, it's a costume party, so they can wear masks.
• [We should point out that Mercutio's name was on the invite list, because he's not a Montague, but he feels the need to wear a mask anyway. What's up with that?]
• Romeo and Mercutio trade insults and there's some naughty talk about love, in particular, what to do to when "love pricks [hurts] like a thorn." Mercutio's solution? "If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down." Translation: The solution to heartache is to go out and have sex.
• Romeo continues to boo-hoo about the unavailable Rosaline and then he announces that he had a dream the night before. Before he can go into the details, Mercutio interrupts and delivers a long, crazy speech about "Queen Mab," a tiny fairy who visits people in their dreams. (You can read more about it in "Symbols.")
• Romeo says Mercutio is talking nonsense and Mercutio, our resident skeptic, retorts that dreams are for idiots.
• Before entering the party, Romeo says he has a feeling that "fate" may have something bad in store for him.
• At the shindig, Capulet welcomes his guests to the party and invites everyone to get their groove on. He also threatens that if any young girl refuses to dance, he'll tell everyone she "hath corns" on her feet. (We're not kidding.)
• Now, for the moment we've all been waiting for. Romeo sees Juliet dancing and…falls in love at first sight. (Rosaline who?)
• Meanwhile, Tybalt, a.k.a. that dude who did all the fighting before, a.k.a. Juliet's easily-angered cousin, recognizes Romeo. Blood boils right about…now.
• Tybalt tells Lord Capulet that he's going to beat up Romeo for crashing their party.
• Lord Capulet orders him to relax and leave Romeo alone – Romeo seems to be a nice enough kid. Plus, Lord Capulet wisely reasons that parties tend to get ruined by open brawls.
• Tybalt, furious, swears he'll make Romeo pay for this supposed insult later. Cue the dramatic and ominous music.
• Romeo approaches Juliet and delivers one of the coolest pickup lines to ever come out of the 16th century: "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." Translation: Kissing you would be a religious experience. (You can read more about this in "Symbols.")
• Instead of getting annoyed and walking away, Juliet is a little impressed but, being the clever girl she is, Juliet also teases him about his cheesy pick-up line. A few lines of verbal banter later, Romeo kisses her. (Count it: he says a total of 67 words to her before the lip-lock.)
• Then they kiss again. Meanwhile, their dialogue has formed a perfect Shakespearean love sonnet, rhymes and all. Amazing!
• Juliet's nurse interrupts them and sends Juliet away. Romeo asks her the name of the girl he's been kissing.
• She's a Capulet, which is pretty upsetting to Romeo who thinks the feud will interfere with his new love.
• The party starts breaking up.
• Juliet, who is already completely in love, asks her nurse to find out the identity of the first guy she has ever kissed. The answer: "His name is Romeo, and a Montague, the only son of your great enemy."
• Juliet becomes incredibly upset: "My only love sprung from my only hate?"