duke with Montague and Capulet come up, and Romeo is sentenced to banishment.
Early next day, after passing the night with Juliet, he leaves Verona for Mantua,
counselled by the friar, who intends to publish Romeo’s marriage at an opportune
moment. Capulet proposes to marry Juliet to Count Paris, and when she seeks excuses
to avoid this, peremptorily insists. Juliet consults the friar, who bids her consent to the
match, but on the night before the wedding drink a potion which will render her
apparently lifeless for 40 hours. He will warn Romeo, who will rescue her from the
vault on her awakening and carry her to Mantua. Juliet does his bidding. The friar’s
message to Romeo miscarries, and Romeo hears that Juliet is dead. Buying poison, he
comes to the vault to have a last sight of Juliet. He chances upon Count Paris outside
the vault; they fight and Paris is killed. Then Romeo, after a last kiss on Juliet’s lips,
drinks the poison and dies. Juliet awakes and finds Romeo dead by her side, and the
cup still in his hand. Guessing what has happened, she stabs herself and dies. The story
is unfolded by the friar and Count Paris’s page, and Montague and Capulet, faced by
the tragic results of their enmity, are reconcilied.
• Summarize in no more than 7 lines the plot of Romeo and Juliet.
• Such as the fable of Pyrame and Thisbes and the novel of Tristran and
Iseult, also the story of Romeo and his love for Juliet is a “tragedy of
misinterpreted words”. Explain in no more than 3 lines what the
misunderstanding of Romeo and Juliet consists in.
Romeo and Juliet V, III. Juliet awakes and finds Romeo dead by her side, and
the cup still in his hand …
FRIAR LAURENCE I hear some noise. Lady, come from the nest of death, contagion,
and unnatural sleep. A greater power than we can contradict hath
thwarded our intents. Come, come away. Thy husband in thy
bosom there lies dead, and Paris too. Come, I’ll dispose of thee
among a sisterhood of holy nuns. Stay not to question, for the
Watch is coming. Come, go, Juliet. I dare no longer stay.
JULIET Go, get thee hence, for I will not away. (Exit Friar Laurence).
What’s here? A cup clos’d in my true love’s hand? Poison, I see,
hath been his timeless end. O churl. Drunk all, and left no friendly
drop to help me after? I will kiss thy lips. Haply some poison yet
doth hang on them to make me die with a restorative. (She kisses