Original: O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!
Modern: Oh, you have the evil heart of a snake hidden behind a beautiful face!

Original: Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
Modern: Has a monster ever lived in such a beautiful place?

Original: Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!
Modern: You’re a gorgeous villain! A devil who looks like an angel!

Original: Dove-feather’d raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
Modern: You’re a deadly raven disguised as a gentle dove! A vicious wolf pretending to be an innocent lamb!

Original: Despised substance of divinest show!
Modern: You’re something horrible dressed up to look like something divine!

Original: Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st,
Modern: You’re the complete opposite of what you appear to be,

Original: A damned saint, an honourable villain!
Modern: A cursed holy person, a respectable criminal!

Original: O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell,
Modern: Oh nature, what business did you have in hell,

Original: When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
Modern: When you placed the soul of a devil

Original: In moral paradise of such sweet flesh?
Modern: Inside the moral paradise of such beautiful skin?

Original: Was ever book containing such vile matter
Modern: Has there ever been a book with such disgusting content

Original: So fairly bound? O that deceit should dwell
Modern: Wrapped in such a beautiful cover? Oh, that lies should live

Original: In such a gorgeous palace!
Modern: In such a stunning body!

In Act III, Scene ii of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet eagerly awaits her wedding night with Romeo, delivering a passionate soliloquy that begins “Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds.” She calls upon night to come quickly so that Romeo can come to her in darkness, expressing her anticipation for their consummation and her desire to learn the art of love from her new husband. Juliet speaks of how night will bring Romeo to her arms and how she will give him her virginity, transforming her from a timid maiden into a woman through their physical union.

The Nurse arrives in great distress, carrying Romeo’s rope ladder and lamenting a death, though her unclear speech initially leads Juliet to believe that Romeo has been killed. Through the Nurse’s confused and emotional delivery of the news, Juliet eventually learns that Romeo has killed Tybalt and has been banished from Verona as punishment. Juliet’s emotions shift rapidly from relief that Romeo is alive to anguish over Tybalt’s death, then to conflicted feelings about her husband’s actions. Despite momentarily condemning Romeo, she ultimately defends him against the Nurse’s criticism and despairs over his banishment, which she considers worse than death since it separates them. The scene ends with Juliet sending the Nurse to find Romeo so she can say farewell before he flees Verona.

“Romeo and Juliet” tells the story of two young lovers from feuding families in Verona. Romeo Montague attends a Capulet feast in disguise, where he meets and instantly falls in love with Juliet Capulet. They meet secretly that night on her balcony and decide to marry the next day. Friar Lawrence agrees to perform the ceremony, hoping their union might end the family feud.

After the secret wedding, Romeo encounters Juliet’s cousin Tybalt, who challenges him to a duel. When Romeo refuses to fight, his friend Mercutio accepts the challenge and is killed by Tybalt. In revenge, Romeo kills Tybalt and is banished from Verona by Prince Escalus. Meanwhile, Juliet’s parents, unaware of her secret marriage, arrange for her to wed Count Paris.

Desperate to avoid this second marriage, Juliet seeks help from Friar Lawrence, who gives her a potion that will make her appear dead. The plan is for Romeo to return and take her away when she awakens in the Capulet tomb. However, Romeo never receives the friar’s message explaining the scheme. Believing Juliet truly dead, he purchases poison and drinks it beside her tomb.

Juliet awakens to find Romeo’s lifeless body and, in despair, kills herself with his dagger. The tragic deaths of their children finally reconcile the Montague and Capulet families, who vow to end their ancient hatred. Prince Escalus concludes that all are punished by this sorrowful outcome of the families’ bitter feud.