Romeo and Juliet’s meeting
(After the dance)
(After the dance)
Romeo: [Takes Juliet’s hand] If I defile this holy shrine with my unworthy hand, then the gentler sin will be this: My lips, like two blushing pilgrims, stand ready to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
Juliet: Good pilgrim, you do your hand too much wrong. Your hand is showing pious devotion the statues of saints have hands that pilgrims touch with their own hands. Placing a palm on the saint’s palm is the holy pilgrim’s kiss.
Romeo: Don’t saints have lips, and don’t holy pilgrims have them too?
Juliet: Yes, Pilgrim lips that they use in prayer.
Romeo: Well then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do! They pray: “Grant me a kiss, or my faith may turn to despair.”
Juliet: Saints don’t move but they do grant prayers.
Romeo: Then don’t move, while I receive the benefit of my prayer. [Romeo kisses Juliet] So, the sin from my lips is washed away by your lips.
Juliet: Then my lips have the sin that they’ve taken from yours.
Romeo: Sin from my lips? How sweetly you tell me I have sinned against you! Give me my sin back again. [He kissed her again]
Juliet: You kiss in a very proper way!
