Juliet’s Epithalamion (Act 3 Scene 2)

In this extract, Juliet is excitedly waiting to spend her first night with Romeo.
SHAKESPEARE VERSION MODERN VERSION
Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, I wish the sun would hurry up and set
Toward Phoebus' lodging. Such a wagoner and night would come immediately.
As Phaeton would whip you to the west When the night comes and everyone
And bring in cloudy night immediately. goes to sleep, Romeo will leap into my
Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, arms, and no one will know. Beauty
That runaways' eyes may wink, and Romeo makes it possible for lovers to see how
Leap to these arms, untalked of and unseen. to make love in the dark. Or else love
Lovers can see to do their amorous rites is blind, and its best time is the night. I
By their own beauties, or, if love be blind, wish night would come, like a widow
It best agrees with night. Come, civil night, dressed in black, so I can learn how to
submit to my husband and lose my
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black,
virginity. Let the blood rushing to my
And learn me how to lose a winning match
cheeks be calmed. In the darkness, let
Played for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.
me, a shy virgin, learn the strange act
Hood my unmanned blood bating in my cheeks, of sex so that it seems innocent,
With thy black mantle, till strange love, grow bold, modest, and true. Come, night. Come,
Think true love acted simple modesty. Romeo. You’re like a day that comes
Come, night. Come, Romeo. Come, thou day in night, during the night. You’re whiter than
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night snow on the black wings of a raven.
Whiter than new snow upon a raven’s back. Come, gentle night. Come, loving, dark
Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-browed night, night. Give me my Romeo. And when I
Give me my Romeo. And when I shall die, die, turn him into stars and form a
Take him and cut him out in little stars, constellation in his image. His face will
And he will make the face of heaven so fine make the heavens so beautiful that the
That all the world will be in love with night world will fall in love with the night and
And pay no worship to the garish sun. forget about the garish sun. Oh, I have
Oh, I have bought the mansion of a love, bought love’s mansion, but I haven’t
But not possessed it, and though I am sold, moved in yet.I belong to Romeo now,
Not yet enjoyed. So tedious is this day but he hasn’t taken possession of me
As is the night before some festival yet. This day is so boring that I feel like
To an impatient child that hath new robes a child on the night before a holiday,
And may not wear them. waiting to put on my fancy new clothes.

TOUGH: TOUGHER: TOUGHEST:

1. Why does Juliet want the sun Make a table and list examples of How is Juliet feeling before her
to set? light and dark imagery. wedding night with Romeo?
2. What does beauty make
possible? Light Dark Answer using 3 quotations in your
3. What does Juliet want to learn? answer.
4. How does Juliet describe
Romeo?
5. What does she want to happen
when she dies?
Find and write down: What impact does the light and Add a paragraph to explain how
 2 metaphors dark imagery have? Juliet’s death is foreshadowed
 2 similes during the speech.
EXTENSION TASKS:
JULIET JULIET
O God, did Romeo’s hand shed Tybalt’s blood? Oh God, did Romeo’s hand shed Tybalt’s blood?

NURSE NURSE
It did, it did. Alas the day, it did. It did, it did. Curse the day this happened, but it
did.
JULIET JULIET
O serpent heart hid with a flowering face! Oh, he’s like a snake disguised as a flower. Did a
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? dragon ever hide in such a beautiful cave? He’s a
Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical! beautiful tyrant and a fiendish angel! He’s a
Dove-feathered raven, wolvish-ravening lamb! raven with the feathers of the dove. He’s a lamb
who hunts like a wolf! I hate him, yet he seemed
Despisèd substance of divinest show,
the most wonderful man. He’s turned out to be
Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st. the exact opposite of what he seemed. He’s a
A damnèd saint, an honorable villain! saint who should be damned. He’s a villain who
O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell seemed honorable. Oh nature, what were you
When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend doing in hell? Why did you put the soul of a
In moral paradise of such sweet flesh? criminal in the perfect body of a man? Was there
Was ever book containing such vile matter ever such an evil book with such a beautiful
So fairly bound? Oh, that deceit should dwell cover? Oh, I can’t believe the deepest evil lurked
In such a gorgeous palace! inside something so beautiful!

1. How does Juliet feel about Romeo when she first finds
out he has killed Tybalt?
(Use 3 quotes in your answer)

“Romeo is banishèd.” To speak that word, “Romeo has been banished.” To

Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet, say that is like saying that my
All slain, all dead. “Romeo is banishèd.” father, my mother, Tybalt, Romeo,
There is no end, no limit, measure, bound, and Juliet have all been killed,
In that word’s death. No words can that woe sound. they’re all dead. “Romeo has been
Where is my father and my mother, Nurse? banished.” That news brings
infinite death. No words can
express the pain. Where are my
father and my mother, Nurse?

2. Later in the scene, how does Juliet feel about Romeo?