Romeo and Juliet — Act 2, Scene 1in modern English, side by side
An open place adjoining Capulet’s Garden · Romeo, Benvolio, Mercutio
Straight after leaving the Capulet party, Romeo can't bear to walk away from Juliet, so he doubles back and vaults the orchard wall into her family's garden. His friends Benvolio and Mercutio show up looking for him, unaware he's fallen for a new girl, and Mercutio mocks his old lovesickness for Rosaline before giving up the search.
Confused by a different line? Paste any Shakespeare — any play, any edition — and get it in modern English.
Matching colours pair each sentence with its translation. Hover (or tap) any word to light up the words that match it on the other side — archaic words show their meaning.
Enter Romeo
Romeo
Can I go forward when my heart is here?
How can I keep walking away when my heart is staying right here?
Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out.
Turn around, my heavy body, and go find what you're really drawn to.
_He climbs the wall and leaps down within it._
Enter Benvolio and Mercutio
Benvolio
Romeo! My cousin Romeo! Romeo!
Romeo! Cousin Romeo! Romeo!
Mercutio
He is wise,
And on my life hath stol’n him home to bed.5
He's got sense — I'd bet my life he's already snuck home and gone to bed.
Benvolio
He ran this way, and leap’d this orchard wall:
He ran this way and jumped this garden wall.
Call, good Mercutio.
Call out for him, Mercutio.
Mercutio
Nay, I’ll conjure too.
No, I'll do him one better — I'll summon him like a spirit.
Romeo! Humours! Madman! Passion! Lover!
Romeo! Moods! Madman! Passion! Lover-boy!
Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh,10
Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied;
Show yourself, even just as a sigh in the air — give me one rhyming couplet and I'll be happy.
Cry but ‘Ah me!’ Pronounce but Love and dove;
Just cry "oh me!" — just say "love" and rhyme it with "dove."
Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word,
One nickname for her purblind son and heir,
Young Abraham Cupid, he that shot so trim15
When King Cophetua lov’d the beggar-maid.
Say one nice word to my old friend Venus, goddess of love, or come up with a good nickname for her half-blind son Cupid, the one who shot his arrow so perfectly when the legendary King Cophetua fell for a beggar girl.
He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not;
He's not listening, he's not stirring, he's not moving an inch.
The ape is dead, and I must conjure him.
The little trickster's playing dead, so I've got to properly summon him.
I conjure thee by Rosaline’s bright eyes,
By her high forehead and her scarlet lip,20
By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh,
And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,
That in thy likeness thou appear to us.
Romeo, I conjure you by Rosaline's bright eyes, by her high forehead and her red lips, by her pretty foot, her straight leg, her trembling thigh, and everything nearby to all of that — show yourself to us looking just like you always do.
Benvolio
An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him.
If he hears you talking like that, you're going to make him angry.
Mercutio
This cannot anger him.25
This won't make him angry.
’Twould anger him25
To raise a spirit in his mistress’ circle,
Of some strange nature, letting it there stand
Till she had laid it, and conjur’d it down;
That were some spite.
What WOULD make him angry is if I summoned some strange spirit into his girlfriend's, ahem, "circle," and just left it standing there until she had to deal with it and send it away herself — now that would be crossing a line.
My invocation
Is fair and honest, and, in his mistress’ name,30
I conjure only but to raise up him.
My little spell here is perfectly innocent — I'm only using his mistress's name to try to raise him up, nothing more.
Benvolio
Come, he hath hid himself among these trees
To be consorted with the humorous night.
Come on, he's hidden himself among these trees to keep company with the moody night.
Blind is his love, and best befits the dark.
His love for her is blind, and blindness suits the dark best.
Mercutio
If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.35
If love is blind, it can't hit its target.
Now will he sit under a medlar tree,
And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit
As maids call medlars when they laugh alone.
He's probably sitting under some fruit tree right now, wishing his girl were the kind of fruit that women joke about behind closed doors — something crude, shaped a certain way.
O Romeo, that she were, O that she were
An open-arse and thou a poperin pear!40
Oh Romeo, I wish she were exactly that, and you were the perfectly-matched fruit to go with her!
Romeo, good night. I’ll to my truckle-bed.
Romeo, good night — I'm off to my own bed.
This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep.
This grass out here is too cold for me to sleep on.
Come, shall we go?
Come on, shall we go?
Benvolio
Go then; for ’tis in vain
To seek him here that means not to be found.45
Let's go then — there's no point searching for someone here who clearly doesn't want to be found.
_Exeunt._
Confused by a different line? Paste any Shakespeare — any play, any edition — and get it in modern English.
Studying the language itself? Our Shakespearean English course teaches thou/thee, the verbs, and the meter — free through Unit 2. Or try the Shakespearean English translator.
Free side-by-side translation — polytranslator.com/shakespeare/romeo-and-juliet/act-2-scene-1