Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Act 5 Scene 1 PDF

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Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare line by line analysis of Act 5 Scene 1. Summary of the entire chapter broken down into sectors to ensure greater understanding. An analysis of the summary is provided to ensure complete depth of understanding of the scene as a whole...

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Romeo and Juliet Act 5 Scene 1

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Romeo “If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep… News from Verona! How now, Balthasar!” -

Direct translation: Dreams often make things seem better than they are, but if I believe the dreams I’ve had, I’ll be getting good news shortly. I feel light-hearted, and I’ve been in an unusually good mood all day. I dreamed that I was dead--isn’t it strange how in dreams you can think when you’re dead? I dreamed I was dead, and then Juliet found me and kissed me, bringing me back to life. I became an emperor. Love is so wonderful that even dreams of love can bring so much joy. [Enter Romeo’s servant, Balthasar] What’s the news from Verona, Balthasar?

Romeo “My bosom’s lord sits lightly in his throne” -

Romeo’s “bosom’s lord” is a metaphor for the heart. This line has two interpretations:

A) Romeo’s heart sits lightly in his body; he's feeling light-hearted. B) Love, the heart’s ruler, sits lightly in Romeo's heart because of his joyful dreams.

Romeo ”Dost tho not bring me letters from the friar?... For nothing can be ill (wrong) if she be well.” -

Direct translation: You have letters for me from the friar, don’t you? How’s my lady, Juliet? How’s my father? How’s Juliet? I ask again because if she is well then nothing else matters.

Balthasar “Then she is well (in heaven), and nothing can be ill (wrong)… Since you did leave it for my office (duty) sir?” -

Direct translation: Well, she is well in the sense that no more misfortune can touch her. Her body lies in the Capulet family mausoleum, and her soul is with the angels above. I attended her burial, and then I immediately came to bring you the message. Oh, forgive me for bringing you this horrible news, but that was the duty you assigned me, sir.

Balthasar “Then she is well (in heaven), and nothing can be ill (wrong)”

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This line recalls the proverb, "he is well who is in heaven." Balthasar is breaking the news to Romeo softly, telling him that Juliet has died, without saying as much.

Balthasar “And presently took post (rode past) to tell it you.” -

The word “Post” derives from the Italian word “posta” which means a stopping place along a travel route

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In Shakespeare’s time it came to mean the stations, men, carriages, and horses used to carry messages. Only later did post come to mean messages itself . Thus, the post office was the location for handling them.

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When Balthasar said he took post he means that he came rapidly by horse with a message/news

Romeo “Is it even so? Then I defy you, stars!...And hire post-horses. I will hence (leave here) tonight” -

Direct translation: Is it really true, she’s dead? Then I defy you, Fate! You know where I’m staying. Get me some pen and paper and hire some fast horses. I’m leaving here tonight.

Balthasar “I do beseech you, sir, have patience…Some misadventure” -

Direct translation: I beg you sir, have patience. You look pale and a bit crazy, and I’m afraid you’re going to do something desperate.

Romeo “Tush, thou art deceived ... Hast thou no letters to me from the friar?” -

Direct translation: No, no, you’re wrong. Leave me alone, and do what I asked you. You don’t have any letters to me from the friar?

Romeo “No matter. Get thee gone… Culling of simples (selecting herbs). Meagre were his looks” -

Direct translation: Well never mind. Go and hire those horses, I’ll catch up to you very soon. [Exit Balthasar] Well, Juliet, I’ll sleep with you tonight, in the crypt. Let’s see how I can end my life. How quickly desperate men find ways to kill themselves! I remember an apothecary who lives around here. I saw him recently walking around with tattered clothes and wild eyebrows, gathering medicinal plants.

Romeo “Culling of simples (selecting herbs). Meagre were his looks… Here lives a caitiff (miserable) wretch (who) would sell it (to) him” -

Direct translation: He looked very humble, and poverty had made him mere skin and bones. There was a tortoise hanging in his shop, and a stuffed alligator, and odd fish skins. There was an insufficient supply of empty boxes on his shelves, and some clay drinking pots, leather, musty old seeds, and threads. Old roses packed for making perfume that had lost much of their scent were scattered thinly around for decoration. When I noted the extreme poverty in that shop, I thought to myself “If a man needed a deadly poison, no questions asked, the miserable wretch who lives here would sell it to him.”

Romeo “O, this same thought did but forerun my need, What ho! Apothecary!” -

Direct translation: This exact thought came before my need to act on it, and this very needy man will have to sell the poison to me. If I remember correctly, this is the house. It’s a holiday, so the beggar’s shop is closed. Hey, hello, apothecary!

Romeo “Hold, there is forty ducats. Let me have … Doth hurry from the fatal cannon’s womb” -

Direct translation: Let me have an ounce of poison, the kind that will work speedily to bring an end to the life of a world-weary man. Give me a poison that will stop a man’s breathing as suddenly as if he’d been shot by a cannon.

Romeo “As violently as hasty powder fired doth hurry from the fatal cannon’s womb” -

In this simile, the poison Romeo will take will cause the breath to leave the body as quickly as the air rushes out of a canon when the gunpowder is lit.

Apothecary “Such mortal (deadly) drugs I have … is death to any he that utters (sells) them” -

Direct translation: I have those types of fatal drugs, but it is a capital crime in Mantua to sell them.

Romeo “And fearest to die?... Then be not poor but break it and take this.”

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Direct translation: I can tell that you’re starving from your gaunt cheeks, and your eyes tell me that you are desperate and in need. The tattered rags on your back clearly indicate that you’re extremely poor. The world has not been a friend to you, nor have its laws. You haven’t been able to become richer by following the law, so break it, take the money, and don’t be poor.

Romeo “There (here) is thy gold, worse poison … To Juliet’s grave, for there must I use thee.” -

Direct translation: There’s your payment. Gold is a worse poison to the souls of men and causes more murders than any of these poisons you aren’t allowed to sell. Really, I’m the one who has sold a poison here, not you. Farewell. Buy food, and nourish your body. Come on, powder, you’ll be like an antidote to me, not a poison. Come with me to Juliet’s grave--that’s where I’ll need to use you.

Romeo “Come cordial and not poison, go with me to Juliet’s grave, for there must I use thee.” -

In Shakespeare’s day, a cordial referred to any medicine which stimulates the heart.

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For Romeo, taking the apothecary’s poison to be with the deceased Juliet will further stimulate his love for her.

Summary and Notes ✓ Romeo is alone in Mantua. ✓ He wakes from sleep, proclaiming that his dreams have portended “some joyful news.” ✓ He dreamed that Juliet found him dead, but with a kiss, breathed life back into him, revived him, and made him an emperor. ✓ Romeo sees his servant Balthasar approach—knowing the man brings news from Verona, Romeo greets him excitedly, asking him how Juliet is doing. “Nothing can be ill,” he says, “if she be well.”

Notes -

Romeo has been dreaming of Juliet, imagining her abilities to restore his loneliness and put an end to his social exile.

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Romeo ignored his last dream, which foreshadowed death, but chooses to rejoice in this happy one, which predicts a return from—or life after—death itself.

✓ Balthasar tells Romeo that he has terrible news that he must nonetheless deliver, as is his duty: Juliet is dead and buried in the Capulet crypt. ✓ Romeo calls out, “I defy you, stars,” and then urges Balthasar to prepare some horses so that he can leave Mantua and return to Verona. ✓ Balthasar begs Romeo not to do something “wild” and dangerous, but Romeo orders Balthasar to do what he says. ✓ He asks if there are any letters from Friar Laurence, but Balthasar says there are none, then hurries away.

Notes -

Upon hearing of Juliet’s death, Romeo screams out that he wants to “defy” the “stars.”

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He knows, perhaps, that he and Juliet are pawns of fate’s greater design.

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Yet, in this moment, with nothing left to lose, he begs those very stars to reverse their judgements and plans.

✓ Alone, Romeo declares that one way or another, he will lie with Juliet later that night. ✓ He states that he has heard of an apothecary in Mantua who carries poisons in his shop. ✓ He hurries to the man’s shop and calls for him to open the door. ✓ The apothecary answers Romeo’s knock, but when Romeo offers the man coins in exchange for poison, the apothecary states that Mantua’s law threatens those who sell such things with death.

Notes -

Romeo’s desire to lie dead with Juliet in her grave rather than go through life without her shows just how desperately and dramatically devoted to love he is.

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His expression of grief is self-destructive and violent, just as many of his expressions of his love for Juliet have been frighteningly intense and tinged with violent thoughts and speech.

✓ Romeo says he can see the desperation in the pale, thin apothecary’s eyes, and begs him to take the money—he bribes the man by giving him much more than the poison is worth. ✓ The apothecary takes the deal and offers up the poison, warning Romeo that it’s strong enough to kill 20 men. ✓ Romeo hands over the coins, stating that money is the truly dangerous poison. ✓ The apothecary hurriedly retreats into his shop, and Romeo heads for Verona—and for Juliet’s grave—where, he proclaims, he will use the contents of the vial upon himself.

Notes -

Romeo is just as desperate as the apothecary and realizes that he can bribe the man with coins.

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Romeo wants to die quickly—he doesn’t want to face a life without Juliet, or, for that matter, the consequences of all the futile and destructive actions he’s taken to try to be with her....