Romeo and Juliet ???!?!?!?

Question

Her vestal livery is but sick and green

And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.

It is my lady, O, it is my love!

O, that she knew she were!

She speaks yet she says nothing: what of that?

Her eye discourses; I will answer it.

I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks:

Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,

Having some business, do entreat her eyes

To twinkle in their spheres till they return.

What if her eyes were there, they in her head?

The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,

WHAT THE h**l DOES IT MEAN ?!?!?!?!?!

Answer 1

well you can go to a website and look it up in i basicly english version so yea hope you find out

Answer 2

go to www.sparknotes.com it translates the quotes into modern english for you

Answer 3

Go look Romeo and Juliet on Sparknotes - it has a translation into modern English on there.

Although, I think that's the scene Romeo's like

being a stalker and spying on Juliet.

Answer 4

-   /  -   /  - - -  -   /    -   /

Her vestal livery is but sick and green

Metrically, this 11-syllable line would probably scan better if written as "liv'ry." In both quarto editions and the First Folio, however, the word is spelled as if the three syllables are to be pronounced. Unless you want to stress "is" unnaturally, the most logical scansion seems to be iamb/iamb/pyrrhic/anapest/iamb. "Vestal livery" here refers to Juliet's virginity by referring to the garments of the Vestal virgins; Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth, had temples staffed by women who were bound by 30-year vows of chastity. Romeo's mention of sick and green in this line owes to the Renaissance belief that women who protractedly maintained their virginity were subject to green-sickness, so named because of a form of anemia that could affect young women (known medically as chlorosis, in which the skin actually takes on a greenish cast due to a significant hemoglobin deficiency). Although the condition had virtually nothing to do with virginity, the "cure" was, of course, the healthy lovemaking a woman could expect within the bonds of matrimony. Obviously, medical theory of the day was dominated by men.

-   /    -   /     -  /    -   /    -  /

And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.

Romeo concludes his musings upon Juliet's chastity with a line that echoes his earlier call for Juliet to "kill the envious moon." However, here Shakespeare creates a parallelism that makes the metaphor more graphic. On the more literal level, Romeo is saying that Juliet needs to cast off her "vestal livery," which we can take as a fairly blunt wish that Juliet should doff her frock. On the figurative level, "vestal livery" represents Juliet's virginity; Romeo has designs on her doffing that as well—all in the name of preventive health, of course, as mentioned above. All this goes to prove that you can get away with saying nearly anything as long as it sounds poetic enough.

-  /  -  / -   /  -  /  -  /

It is my lady, O, it is my love!

This line, as syrupy as it may seem, signifies an important turn in the soliloquy. Keep in mind that Romeo, until this point, has merely been addressing a light in a window. This is the point in the speech at which Juliet actually enters the scene. Romeo is both surprised and besotted when young Juliet appears. Rhetorically, Shakespeare is using parallel repetition and alliteration to reinforce Romeo's emotion.

/  -    -   /    -   /

O, that she knew she were!

This is a strange line on many levels. In all early editions (except the First Quarto, in which the line and "It is my lady..." are omitted entirely), "It is my lady..." and this line are written together. It makes a certain amount of sense to split the line, as most editors have done, from the obvious pentameter of its predecessor, but that leaves it as a six-syllable, dangling bit of verse. As noted in the Macbeth analysis, Shakespeare doesn't generally break the pentameter in mid-speech like this, so that leaves us wondering if something happened in the transcription. An interesting hypothesis is that perhaps Shakespeare originally had Juliet complete the line as if to herself, which might have prompted Romeo to speak his next line.

-    /     -   -   /    /  -     /    -  /

She speaks yet she says nothing: what of that?

Obviously something is prompting Romeo to make the comment. Whether Juliet is talking to herself or perhaps responding silently to the Nurse inside the room is a minor choice at the discretion of the director. What is germane to the scene is that Romeo supposes (or talks himself into believing for the moment) Juliet might have caught sight of him and could be attempting a conversation.

-   /   -  /   -    / -    /  -   /

Her eye discourses; I will answer it.

You can almost feel Romeo taking a couple of steps toward the balcony at the end of this line. Although he can't hear her, he's certain that she's seen him. Discourses is a fancy way of saying "speaks" (from the Middle English discours, meaning "process of reasoning" via the Medieval Latin discursus, which means "a running about"). Romeo intends to make his presence known to Juliet.

/ -  /   /      -   /   -  /  -   /

I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks:

And just as quickly, Romeo realizes that Juliet is neither aware of nor speaking to him. The trochee/spondee pattern before the caesura is rhythmically heavy, which reinforces Romeo putting on the brakes, so to speak. Instead of revealing himself, Romeo will wax romantic in an extended metaphor that gets back to the initial light imagery.

/   -  -   /   -   /     -  /   -   /  -

Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,

This line features a couple of Shakespeare favorites: the trochaic inversion at the beginning of the line and the feminine ending. Romeo will compare Juliet's eyes to the stars, a familiar trope that has been passed off ever since as original by teen boys the world over.

/  -   -    /   -     /  -  /    -   /

Having some business, do entreat her eyes

This line scans as straight iambic pentameter with a trochaic inversion in the first foot. Entreat here denotes "to beseech or plead." It derives from Middle English via Anglo-French en treter ("to treat"); treter derives from the Latin verb tractare, which means "to drag about, handle, or deal with."

-  /   -   -  -     /       -    /    - /

To twinkle in their spheres till they return.

The second foot could also easily scan as an iamb; it's fairly subjective. Spheres refers in this instance to "the orbits in which stars move." Romeo poetically says over the course of three lines that the two most beautiful stars above should ask Juliet's eyes to fill in for them if they need to be elsewhere.

/    -  -   /    -    /      /    -  -   /

What if her eyes were there, they in her head?

Shakespeare varies the rhythm of this line with two trochees, one as the initial foot and one following the caesura. Both, as discussed in other readings, are common variants that Shakespeare used. The syntax and pronoun ambiguity can make this line seem a little more complicated than it is. All Romeo is asking, essentially, is what if her eyes traded places with those "two fairest stars" mentioned above? The comparison continues.

-   /     -    /  -   /     -     /     -     /

The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,

...and if Juliet's eyes traded places with the stars, Romeo reasons, then her cheek would outshine them. You may have noticed by now that light imagery is a recurring theme in this speech. It's no accident; Shakespeare strikes that metaphoric note throughout Romeo and Juliet like a hammer striking a nail.

-  /  -     /    - /     -   /    -  /  -

As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven

This line is straight iambic pentameter with the extra unstressed syllable of a feminine ending. The comparative analogy of daylight and a lamp—especially given the candlepower of lamps in Shakespeare's day—remains a powerful and accessible image to the contemporary audience. Meanwhile, lest we forget poor Juliet's eyes....

Answer 5

go here  http://www.bardweb.net/content/readings/...

Answer 6

well, i have not actually read romeo and juliet but i think that it is trying to say domething along these lines:

liveliness in not in all people.

juliet is my love

she is incredily beautiful

she does not have to speak to fulfil the silence

her eyes are beautiful

something along those lines.

Answer 7

I'm pretty sure thats the scene where Romeo is in her garden at night, watching Juliet in the balcony, right? He's saying something to the effect of "Oh my god, Juliet! How I love and wish you would speak to me, why, the stars themselves are not even worthy of your gaze." I'm probably off on that, but maybe I helped. Good luck on the English test. ^^