Romeo and Juliet
Using your senses to make sense of Shakespeare
Act 1, Scene 5
2. Listening and Looking
Continuing our work making sense of Shakespeare by using our sense of sound, we are going to add another sense - sight - as we work with vowel sounds.
To begin, listen to these lines for a vowel sound repeated in Romeo’s last line and Juliet’s first.
Romeo
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
Juliet
Good Pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much
It’s “oo” — sometimes from the letter “o”, sometimes from the letters “ou”.
Romeo
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
Juliet
Good Pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much
If you are doing this with a partner, have them say the words “to, smooth, good, you, do, too” and watch what their lips do when they say those words. If you are doing this on your own, just watch yourself in a mirror.
Did you see how the lips pucker when you say those sounds? Now, go back over all the lines and listen for words with “p“ and “b” in them, which also make you pucker.
Romeo
If I prophane with my unworth’st 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.
Juliet
Good Pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch
And palm to palm is holy palmer's kiss.
Put all the “oo” sounds and puckers together and you can see how much Romeo and Juliet are making kissy faces at one another!
Romeo
If I prophane with my unworth’est 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.
Juliet
Good Pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch
And palm to palm is holy palmer's kiss.
Do you think Romeo and Juliet enjoy making kissy-faces at each another? It looks like it, when you see how often they smile as they speak.
We find those smiles by playing with some of the other vowel sounds being repeated. For instance, what do you look like when you say Romeo’s words “sin is this”? Those short “i” sounds make you smile.
What do you look like when you say Juliet’s words “Saints have hands”? Those long “a” sounds also make you smile.
Say all the lines, smiling when you say those vowel sounds.
Romeo
If I prophane with my unworth’st 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.
Juliet
Good Pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch
And palm to palm is holy palmer's kiss.
You may have found, as you were finding the smiles on the “I” and “a” sounds that there were other words that made you smile, ones that used long “ee” or long “I”.
Romeo
If I prophane with my unworth’st 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.
Juliet
Good Pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much
Which mannerly devotion shews in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch
And palm to palm is holy palmer's kiss.
Put the puckers and the smiles together, and you can see how much Romeo and Juliet are attracted to one another!
Romeo
If I prophane 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.
Juliet
Good Pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch
And palm to palm is holy palmer's kiss.
Our discoveries reinforce what we found in the last guide, when we just listened:
It’s a “whispered” conversation, so
They are close to one another.
They are being secretive.
They are attracted to one another.