New Podcast: Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene v

Podcast Episode 8: Act I, Scene v of “Romeo and Juliet.”

I’ve published a dramatic reading with a wonderful actress, Sara Hricik, of Act I, Scene v of “Romeo and Juliet.” This is the scene where Romeo meets Juliet for the first time at the Capulet’s ball. Notice how in this scene, they actually form a perfect 14 line sonnet:

Romeo. [To JULIET] If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:720
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
Juliet. Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,725
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
Romeo. Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
Juliet. Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
Romeo. O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.730
Juliet. Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.
Romeo. Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.
Juliet. Then have my lips the sin that they have took.
Romeo. Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!735
Give me my sin again.
Juliet. You kiss by the book.
If you liked this reading, and want to know more about this sceen and "Romeo and Juliet" as a whole, please sign up for my Romeo and Juliet classes. I have an intro class that covers the plot and character, and a more immersive class, where you learn how Shakespeare's company rehearsed and inhabited these characters!

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