The Capulets' Ball

Scene summary

In the preparations for the ball, servants urge one another to clear the trestles, move the furniture and let the guests in. Capulet greets the masked guests with jokes: he promises a dance to whoever has no corns on their feet, recalls the times he wore a mask and whispered compliments to ladies, orders more light brought and the fire put out, and argues with a cousin over how many years it has been since they last masked, thirty or twenty-five. Romeo, seeing Juliet holding hands with a knight, asks a servant who the girl is and, getting no answer, says she teaches the torches to burn, that she looks like a jewel in the ear of the night and a white dove among crows, and that he had never seen true beauty before that night.

Tybalt recognizes a Montague by his voice and wants to kill him right there, since he thinks he came to mock the party. Capulet sees that it is Romeo and restrains his nephew: he says Romeo behaves like a gentleman and that Verona holds him virtuous, that he does not wish, in his house, to affront the young man, and that it is his will that Tybalt leave him in peace. When Tybalt insists, Capulet rebukes him before the guests and calls him an impudent boy. Tybalt leaves promising that the intrusion, now tolerated, will turn to gall.

Romeo then speaks with Juliet: he offers her his hand and lips like pilgrims before a saint, and she answers that saints have hands that pilgrims touch and that saints move their lips only in prayer. Romeo asks her not to move while he takes the effect of his prayer, and kisses her; she says he kisses "by the book." The Nurse interrupts them: her mother calls Juliet. Romeo asks the Nurse who the mother is and learns that she is the lady of the house; he realizes that Juliet is a Capulet and that his life is in the hands of the enemy. Benvolio calls him to leave, and Capulet bids farewell to the guests and goes to sleep. Juliet asks the Nurse the names of three men who are leaving: the son of Tiberio, a certain Petruchio and, finally, the one who would not dance. The Nurse says it is Romeo, a Montague and the only son of the great enemy of the house. Juliet says that her only love was born of her only hate, that she saw him too early without knowing him and knew him too late, and when the Nurse is surprised, she answers that it is a verse she has just learned.