One of the challenges in working with Shakespeare is that sometimes characters talk a lot. They talk in speeches and it can be hard to follow what they are saying.

This can really be a problem when you are reading the texts because all you get is “words, words, words” as Hamlet complained in Act 2, Scene 2 in the play which bears his name. In that scene he is pretending to be mad, but really, it’s easy to get frustrated/mad when you read all those words, words, words!

In these guides to the Balcony scene, we’ll show you how to make sense of long speeches by drawing on another sense, beyond those we worked with in the party scene:  your sense of imagination. We’ll guide you to discover how imagining listeners’ reaction to what is being said helps you understand all those words a character speaks.

We begin with Juliet’s speech to Romeo, which begins “Thou knowst the mask of night is on my face,”

We’re going to use a version of the speech where the punctuation closely aligns with the punctuation of the First Folio. The First Folio is the collection of Shakespeare’s plays put together by members of his theater company. Your version of the text may have different punctuation, but we have found the Folio text, which is close to what the original actors would have used, is the most helpful to our actors as they imagine themselves as the characters.

Juliet

Thou knowst the mask of night is on my face, 
 

Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek 
 

For that which thou hast heard me speak tonight. 
 

Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain, deny 
 

What I have spoke, but farewell complement, 
 

Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say aye 
 

And I will take thy word, yet if thou swearst, 
 

Thou mayst prove false: at lovers’ perjuries 
 

They say Jove laughs, oh gentle Romeo, 
 

If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully: 
 

Or if thou thinkst I am too quickly won, 
 

I’ll frown and be perverse and say thee nay, 
 

So thou wilt woo: but else not for the world. 
 

In truth fair Montague I am too fond: 
 

And therefore thou mayst think my behavior light, 
 

But trust me Gentleman, I’ll prove more true
 

Then those that have coying to be strange, 
 

I should have been more strange, I must confess, 
 

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.

That’s a lot of words!

And by the rules that seem to have governed acting with verse in Shakespeare’s company, it all would have been spoken quickly, without pause. From research John Barton and others have done, it appears actors would stop and take a full breath only when there is sentence-ending punctuation— a period, a question mark, an exclamation point — at the end of the line. They might take a catch breath other places — at a colon or a semi-colon — to help the audience hear that an idea is changing, but not a full breath.

Keeping the text moving helps actors capture the energy of characters’ thinking, the way thoughts come after each other, sometimes so quickly it is as if one was interrupting the one before. The actor needs to keep the verse moving to get that energy.

This is similar to the way shared lines between characters don’t have pauses between them: the verse’s rhythm drives the energy between the lines and hence, the characters, as explained in the fifth study guide for Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5 - A Sense of Rhythm Makes Sense of an Action.

Romeo

Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged!

Give me my sin again.                                          

Juliet

You kiss by th’ book. She kisses him.

Let’s begin.

To understand the energy in Juliet’s thinking, scan Juliet’s lines in this text to find when they first come to a full stop. That is the section with which we will work now.

Juliet

Thou knowst the mask of night is on my face, 
 

Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek 
 

For that which thou hast heard me speak tonight. 
 

Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain, deny 
 

What I have spoke, but farewell complement, 
 

Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say aye 
 

And I will take thy word, yet if thou swearst, 
 

Thou mayst prove false: at lovers’ perjuries 
 

They say Jove laughs, oh gentle Romeo, 
 

If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully: 
 

Or if thou thinkst I am too quickly won, 
 

I’ll frown and be perverse and say thee nay, 
 

So thou wilt woo: but else not for the world. 
 

In truth fair Montague I am too fond: 
 

And therefore thou mayst think my behavior light, 
 

But trust me Gentleman, I’ll prove more true
 

Then those that have coying to be strange, 
 

I should have been more strange, I must confess, 
 

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.

The first full stop is at the end of the third line.

Thou knowst the mask of night is on my face,

Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek

For that which thou hast heard me speak tonight.

That’s pretty straight forward, and, though a long sentence, one in which you can easily understand Juliet’s thought:

If it weren’t dark (the mask of night), Romeo would be able to see she’s blushing because she realizes he has overheard her talk about loving him.

Scan the next lines for the next full stop.

Juliet

Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain, deny

  What I have spoke, but farewell complement,

  Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say I,

  And I will take thy word, yet if thou swearst,

  Thou mayst prove false: at lovers’ perjuries

  They say Jove laughs, oh gentle Romeo,

  If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully:

  Or if thou thinkst I am too quickly won,

  I’ll frown and be perverse, and say thee nay,

  So thou wilt woo: but else not for the world.

This time, there are a lot more lines and thoughts and it is much harder to follow what she is saying.

Here is where we will begin to draw on your sense of imagination.

Juliet is talking… but imagine the stage as she talks.  Is there someone else there?

Of course: Romeo.  While Juliet is talking, Romeo is listening.

Juliet isn’t just talking, she is talking to someone. Imagining how Romeo is reacting to what he is hearing will help us understand what Juliet is saying: we get what she says as he gets what she says.

Let’s begin by scanning and to see where an idea (or sentence) ends, even if it’s not at the end of a line.

Juliet

  Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain, deny

  What I have spoke, but farewell complement,

  Dost thou love me?

Who is the “thou” who Juliet asks “dost thou love me?

Romeo, the person listening. Imagine Romeo’s answer to that question.

Juliet

Dost thou Love me?

Romeo  

[answer?] 

Romeo would answer yes, yes?

Or perhaps, being an Elizabethan, he might say “aye”.

Which is exactly what Juliet anticipates!

Listen to her next line:

Juliet 

I know thou wilt say aye

And I will thee take thy word, yet if thou swearst, 
 

Thou mayst prove false:

We’ve come to the end of another thought, indicated by the colon (though not the end of a line, so not the end of Juliet’s thinking).

What is Juliet afraid of? That Romeo may prove false.

Will Romeo be false? How would he answer that question?

Romeo

[No!]

But, as Juliet understands, lovers often lie,

Juliet 

at lovers’ perjuries 
 

They say Jove laughs, oh gentle Romeo, 
 

If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully:

Juliet asks Romeo, if he loves her, to say so “faithfully” or truly, which he would do.

Romeo

[I love you.]

But then, Juliet thinks, maybe Romeo thinks she has been too quick to say she loves him. After all, they have only had one dance, two kisses and sixteen lines of conversation so far! But she has already said she loves him in the first speech she had in this scene, which she knows he overheard (“for that which thou hath heard me speak tonight”).

Juliet

Or if thou thinkst I am too quickly won, 
 

I’ll frown and be perverse, and say thee nay, 
 

So thou wilt woo:

In the rules of courtly love, the lover “woos” the beloved by praising her. We heard Romeo praising Juliet in his first speech in this scene (which we heard but Juliet didn’t). Here are some of the praises he gave in that speech

Romeo

She is fairer than the moon.

Her eyes twinkle like the fairest stars in all heaven.

Her cheeks are brighter than those stars, in the way daylight is brighter than a lamp.

If her eyes were stars, they are so bright that if they shone in the night sky, birds would think it was daytime and start singing!

Romeo might say something like that, or maybe something else. What praise or compliment do you imagine you would give Juliet to woo her?

Juliet

So thou wilt woo:

Romeo

[a compliment]

We had to imagine Romeo’s answers to Juliet’s questions and comments because Shakespeare didn’t give him any lines. But just because he doesn’t have lines, doesn’t mean he isn’t reacting to what he is hearing; it’s just that his reaction is non-verbal.

Watching Romeo react without words as he listens will help the audience understand what Juliet is saying.

Figure out some non-verbal ways to “say” the answers you figured out above. Use gestures to act them out.

Juliet 

Dost thou love me?

Romeo 

[How would you answer “yes” without saying it? Maybe nod?] 

Juliet 

I know thou wilt say aye
 

And I will take thy word, yet if thou swearst 
 

Thou mayst prove false:

Romeo

[Act out “No, I won’t be false.]

Juliet 

at lovers’ perjuries 
 

They say Jove laughs, oh gentle Romeo, 
 

If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully:

Romeo   

[Act out “I love you.”] 


Juliet

Or if thou thinkst I am too quickly won, 
 

I’ll frown and be perverse, and say thee nay, 
 

So thou wilt woo:

Romeo 

[Act out your compliment]

Juliet 

but else not for the world. 

Romeo

[You got her!]

Romeo and Juliet can both enjoy the moment. . . until she starts her next set of thoughts, which we’ll play with in the next guide.

As we move on, remember: the more you imagine other characters’ reactions as they listen to what a character says, the more you will understand what is happening in a scene.