Romeo & Juliet Study Guide
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Act II, Scene 1
Outside Capulet's orchard

Scene Summary

Romeo hides in the Capulet orchard after the feast. Benvolio and Mercutio search for him. Mercutio mocks Romeo's lovesickness with increasingly bawdy humor, still believing Romeo pines for Rosaline. Unable to find him, they give up and leave.

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✨ Character Voice Translations PREMIUM
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Original Text
ROMEO. Can I go forward when my heart is here? Turn back, dull earth, and find thy center out. [He climbs the wall and leaps down within it.] [Enter BENVOLIO with MERCUTIO.] BENVOLIO. Romeo! My cousin Romeo! Romeo! MERCUTIO. He is wise, And, on my life, hath stol'n him home to bed. BENVOLIO. He ran this way and leapt this orchard wall. Call, good Mercutio. MERCUTIO. Nay, I'll conjure too. Romeo! Humours! Madman! Passion! Lover! Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh, Speak but one rhyme and I am satisfied. Cry but "Ay me," pronounce but "love" and "dove." Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word, One nickname for her purblind son and heir, Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim When King Cophetua loved the beggar maid. — He heareth me not, he stirreth not, he moveth not. The ape is dead, and I must conjure him. — I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes, By her high forehead and her scarlet lip, By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh, And the demesnes that there adjacent lie, That in thy likeness thou appear to us. BENVOLIO. And if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him. MERCUTIO. This cannot anger him. 'Twould anger him To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle Of some strange nature, letting it there stand Till she had laid it and conjured it down. That were some spite. My invocation Is fair and honest: in his mistress' name, I conjure only but to raise up him. BENVOLIO. Come, he hath hid himself among these trees To be consorted with the humorous night. Blind is his love, and best befits the dark. MERCUTIO. If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark. 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. — O Romeo, that she were, O, that she were An open-arse, thou a pop'rin pear. Romeo, good night. I'll to my truckle bed; This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep. Come, shall we go? BENVOLIO. Go then, for 'tis in vain To seek him here that means not to be found. [Exeunt.]
Modern English

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This brief scene serves as a comic buffer between the feast and the famous balcony scene. Mercutio's bawdy conjuration — cataloguing Rosaline's body parts — is both hilarious and thematically important: it represents love reduced to physical desire, the exact opposite of what Romeo is about to experience with Juliet.The dramatic irony is rich: Mercutio conjures Romeo "by Rosaline's bright eyes," not knowing Romeo has already forgotten Rosaline entirely. The audience knows what Mercutio does not — Romeo's world has shifted.Mercutio's language is deliberately, aggressively sexual: "raise a spirit in his mistress' circle," "open-arse," "pop'rin pear." This earthy, physical view of love will contrast sharply with the elevated, spiritual language Romeo and Juliet share in the very next scene. Shakespeare juxtaposes the two perspectives to highlight what makes Romeo and Juliet's love different.Romeo's opening line — "Can I go forward when my heart is here?" — uses the Ptolemaic cosmology metaphor ("dull earth" seeking its "center"), equating Juliet with his gravitational center. This elevates love from Mercutio's physical comedy to something approaching cosmic significance....

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Mr. Shifflett's Note
Mr. Shifflett
Mr. Shifflett
English Teacher · Seoul International School
Hey! I built this study guide and sprinkled my own teaching notes throughout — look for the gold highlights ✎ as you read.

These are the same insights I share with my students in class. I hope they help you see what makes Shakespeare's writing so brilliant. Enjoy!
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