Shakespeare in Plain English
Romeo & Juliet · Tragedy · c. 1595

Romeo and Juliet in Plain English

Two teenagers from feuding families fall in love in about ninety seconds. It escalates. Every scene below has the original text and a clear modern translation, side by side, line by line.

Act 1 5 scenes

Scene 1 Verona. A public place. Two Capulet servants swagger through some crude trash talk, then pick a fight with two Montagues over a rude gesture. Within minut… Scene 2 A street. Count Paris asks Capulet for Juliet's hand; Capulet says she's not yet fourteen and to wait — but invites him to a party that nigh… Scene 3 A room in Capulet's house. Lady Capulet tries to raise the subject of marriage while the Nurse derails the conversation with a long, indiscreet story about J… Scene 4 A street outside the Capulet house. Romeo and friends head to the party in masks. Romeo is still moping, so Mercutio launches the Queen Mab speech — a dazzling, funny… Scene 5 A hall in Capulet's house. The feast. The famous meeting. Romeo sees Juliet across the room and forgets Rosaline instantly. Tybalt recognises Romeo's voice and wants bl…

Act 2 7 scenes

Prologue The Chorus. A fourteen-line sonnet catching us up: Romeo's crush on Rosaline is dead, he and Juliet love each other now — but because they're … Scene 1 A lane by the wall of Capulet's orchard. Romeo ditches his friends and jumps the Capulets' wall. Mercutio, not knowing anything has changed, yells increasingly crude jokes… Scene 2 Capulet's orchard. The balcony. The most famous love scene in the language. Romeo watches Juliet at her window; she — thinking she's alone — wishes aloud that he … Scene 3 Friar Laurence's cell. Dawn. Friar Laurence, gathering herbs, muses that the same plant can heal or kill depending on how it's used — the whole play in one spe… Scene 4 A street. Later that morning. Mercutio and Benvolio trade jokes about Tybalt's fencing-school swagger. Romeo arrives transformed — trading puns as fast as Mercu… Scene 5 Capulet's orchard. Noon. Comedy of pure frustration. Juliet has been waiting three hours for news; the Nurse finally arrives and — exhausted, aching, and e… Scene 6 Friar Laurence's cell. Short and quietly ominous. Romeo says he'd accept any sorrow in exchange for one minute with Juliet; the Friar warns him that viol…

Act 3 5 scenes

Scene 1 A public place. A hot afternoon. The scene that turns a romance into a tragedy. Tybalt confronts Romeo, who — secretly now his cousin by marriage — refuses to figh… Scene 2 Capulet's orchard. Juliet waits for her wedding night, unaware. The Nurse arrives wailing so incoherently that Juliet thinks Romeo is dead. When the … Scene 3 Friar Laurence's cell. Romeo collapses at the word 'banished' — he'd rather be executed. The Friar's philosophy bounces off him entirely ('Hang up philos… Scene 4 A room in Capulet's house. Late at night. Twenty-five lines that doom everyone. Capulet, trying to cheer the household after Tybalt's death, promises Juliet to Paris and se… Scene 5 Capulet's orchard. Dawn, then morning. The dawn parting — is that the lark or the nightingale? — and Juliet's terrible vision of Romeo dead in a tomb. Then the trap clos…

Act 4 5 scenes

Scene 1 Friar Laurence's cell. Juliet arrives to find Paris there, and fences with him in careful half-truths. Alone with the Friar, she pulls a knife and says s… Scene 2 Hall in Capulet's house. Juliet comes home and performs perfect obedience, kneeling to apologise. Her delighted father promptly moves the wedding forward a… Scene 3 Juliet's chamber. Night. Alone, Juliet talks herself through every way the plan could kill her: the potion might be real poison, she might suffocate in the… Scene 4 Hall in Capulet's house. Before dawn. Deliberate, awful comedy: the household bustles about with dates and quinces and firewood, Capulet fusses happily all night, and t… Scene 5 Juliet's chamber. Morning. The Nurse finds her. The family's grief pours out in stacked, almost formalised laments — and the Friar, who knows exactly what's …

Act 5 3 scenes

Scene 1 Mantua. A street. Romeo wakes from a dream that Juliet found him dead and kissed him back to life — the most cruelly hopeful moment in the play. The… Scene 2 Friar Laurence's cell. Twenty-nine lines that explain the whole catastrophe. Friar John never reached Mantua — he was quarantined in a plague house and t… Scene 3 A churchyard, and the Capulet tomb. Night. Paris comes to mourn and dies defending her grave. Romeo breaks into the tomb, notices that Juliet still looks alive — and doesn't…