We have used the senses of sound, sight and imagination in texts so far. Using them together helps us unlock a bit of visual humor Shakespeare may be creating as Juliet’s speech ends. The audience will already be prepared to catch a visual, as they have been watching Romeo’s reactions.

The visual humor comes in the midst of the transition from Juliet speaking to Romeo. Notice that while her lines have all conformed to the regular iambic pentameter pattern, Romeo’s first line has only four iambs.

Juliet

Which the dark night has so discovered.

Romeo

Lady, by yonder moon I vow

It’s not a shared line, but a short one.

Which may indicate there is a silent iamb, or a pause.

Why would Romeo pause? And where? At the beginning of the line or at the end?

It doesn’t make sense for him to pause at the end, while he is in the midst of this thought

Romeo

Lady, by yonder moon I vow [pause]

That tips with silver all these fruit tree tops.

Is there a reason he might pause at the start?

Look at Juliet’s lines as she concludes her thought.

Juliet

But that thou overheard’st ere I was ware

My true love’s passion, therefore pardon me,

And not impute this yielding to light love

Which the dark night hath so discovered.

Listen to the consonants that get repeated:

that, thou

was, ware

passion, pardon, impute

light, love

Those are all consonants that require one to really move one’s mouth and lips.

Couple that, as we did to find the kissing in the Party scene, with the puckering vowels in

true, impute, to

And it may be that Romeo isn’t paying attention to what Juliet is saying, but to what she looks like as she speaks —-

Say her lines, and feel how much she is either smiling or puckering as she speaks.

That pause may be because Romeo is caught off guard. The rhythm of the line is not as we might normally pronounce it. If it were prose, it would be said like this:

/ - - / - / - /

Lady, by yonder moon I vow…

In verse, with a silent iamb at the start, it is said like this:

- / - / - / - / - /

[pause] Lady, by yonder moon I vow

This may indicate he’s been caught off-guard and maybe a bit off-balance as he realizes Juliet is done and he can finally say what he’s been waiting to say all this time. The more the actor registers being caught off-guard, the funnier that pause can be.