Speeches (Lines) for Benvolio
in "Romeo and Juliet"
Total: 64

1

I,1,76

(stage directions). [Enter BENVOLIO]

Benvolio. Part, fools!
Put up your swords; you know not what you do.

2

I,1,82

Tybalt. What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?
Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death.

Benvolio. I do but keep the peace: put up thy sword,
Or manage it to part these men with me.

3

I,1,127

Montague. Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?
Speak, nephew, were you by when it began?

Benvolio. Here were the servants of your adversary,
And yours, close fighting ere I did approach:
I drew to part them: in the instant came
The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepared,
Which, as he breathed defiance to my ears,
He swung about his head and cut the winds,
Who nothing hurt withal hiss'd him in scorn:
While we were interchanging thrusts and blows,
Came more and more and fought on part and part,
Till the prince came, who parted either part.

4

I,1,139

Lady Montague. O, where is Romeo? saw you him to-day?
Right glad I am he was not at this fray.

Benvolio. Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun
Peer'd forth the golden window of the east,
A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad;
Where, underneath the grove of sycamore
That westward rooteth from the city's side,
So early walking did I see your son:
Towards him I made, but he was ware of me
And stole into the covert of the wood:
I, measuring his affections by my own,
That most are busied when they're most alone,
Pursued my humour not pursuing his,
And gladly shunn'd who gladly fled from me.

5

I,1,163

Montague. Many a morning hath he there been seen,
With tears augmenting the fresh morning dew.
Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs;
But all so soon as the all-cheering sun
Should in the furthest east begin to draw
The shady curtains from Aurora's bed,
Away from the light steals home my heavy son,
And private in his chamber pens himself,
Shuts up his windows, locks far daylight out
And makes himself an artificial night:
Black and portentous must this humour prove,
Unless good counsel may the cause remove.

Benvolio. My noble uncle, do you know the cause?

6

I,1,165

Montague. I neither know it nor can learn of him.

Benvolio. Have you importuned him by any means?

7

I,1,177

(stage directions). [Enter ROMEO]

Benvolio. See, where he comes: so please you, step aside;
I'll know his grievance, or be much denied.

8

I,1,182

(stage directions). [Exeunt MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE]

Benvolio. Good-morrow, cousin.

9

I,1,184

Romeo. Is the day so young?

Benvolio. But new struck nine.

10

I,1,187

Romeo. Ay me! sad hours seem long.
Was that my father that went hence so fast?

Benvolio. It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours?

11

I,1,189

Romeo. Not having that, which, having, makes them short.

Benvolio. In love?

12

I,1,191

Romeo. Out—

Benvolio. Of love?

13

I,1,193

Romeo. Out of her favour, where I am in love.

Benvolio. Alas, that love, so gentle in his view,
Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!

14

I,1,209

Romeo. Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,
Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!
Where shall we dine? O me! What fray was here?
Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O any thing, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire,
sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh?

Benvolio. No, coz, I rather weep.

15

I,1,211

Romeo. Good heart, at what?

Benvolio. At thy good heart's oppression.

16

I,1,223

Romeo. Why, such is love's transgression.
Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,
Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest
With more of thine: this love that thou hast shown
Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.
Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
Being vex'd a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:
What is it else? a madness most discreet,
A choking gall and a preserving sweet.
Farewell, my coz.

Benvolio. Soft! I will go along;
An if you leave me so, you do me wrong.

17

I,1,227

Romeo. Tut, I have lost myself; I am not here;
This is not Romeo, he's some other where.

Benvolio. Tell me in sadness, who is that you love.

18

I,1,229

Romeo. What, shall I groan and tell thee?

Benvolio. Groan! why, no.
But sadly tell me who.

19

I,1,234

Romeo. Bid a sick man in sadness make his will:
Ah, word ill urged to one that is so ill!
In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.

Benvolio. I aim'd so near, when I supposed you loved.

20

I,1,236

Romeo. A right good mark-man! And she's fair I love.

Benvolio. A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.

21

I,1,246

Romeo. Well, in that hit you miss: she'll not be hit
With Cupid's arrow; she hath Dian's wit;
And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd,
From love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd.
She will not stay the siege of loving terms,
Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes,
Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold:
O, she is rich in beauty, only poor,
That when she dies with beauty dies her store.

Benvolio. Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?

22

I,1,254

Romeo. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste,
For beauty starved with her severity
Cuts beauty off from all posterity.
She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair,
To merit bliss by making me despair:
She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow
Do I live dead that live to tell it now.

Benvolio. Be ruled by me, forget to think of her.

23

I,1,256

Romeo. O, teach me how I should forget to think.

Benvolio. By giving liberty unto thine eyes;
Examine other beauties.

24

I,1,268

Romeo. 'Tis the way
To call hers exquisite, in question more:
These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows
Being black put us in mind they hide the fair;
He that is strucken blind cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost:
Show me a mistress that is passing fair,
What doth her beauty serve, but as a note
Where I may read who pass'd that passing fair?
Farewell: thou canst not teach me to forget.

Benvolio. I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt.

25

I,2,319

(stage directions). [Enter BENVOLIO and ROMEO]

Benvolio. Tut, man, one fire burns out another's burning,
One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish;
Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning;
One desperate grief cures with another's languish:
Take thou some new infection to thy eye,
And the rank poison of the old will die.

26

I,2,326

Romeo. Your plaintain-leaf is excellent for that.

Benvolio. For what, I pray thee?

27

I,2,328

Romeo. For your broken shin.

Benvolio. Why, Romeo, art thou mad?

28

I,2,359

(stage directions). [Exit]

Benvolio. At this same ancient feast of Capulet's
Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so lovest,
With all the admired beauties of Verona:
Go thither; and, with unattainted eye,
Compare her face with some that I shall show,
And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.

29

I,2,371

Romeo. When the devout religion of mine eye
Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires;
And these, who often drown'd could never die,
Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars!
One fairer than my love! the all-seeing sun
Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun.

Benvolio. Tut, you saw her fair, none else being by,
Herself poised with herself in either eye:
But in that crystal scales let there be weigh'd
Your lady's love against some other maid
That I will show you shining at this feast,
And she shall scant show well that now shows best.

30

I,4,499

Romeo. What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse?
Or shall we on without a apology?

Benvolio. The date is out of such prolixity:
We'll have no Cupid hoodwink'd with a scarf,
Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath,
Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper;
Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke
After the prompter, for our entrance:
But let them measure us by what they will;
We'll measure them a measure, and be gone.

31

I,4,529

Mercutio. If love be rough with you, be rough with love;
Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.
Give me a case to put my visage in:
A visor for a visor! what care I
What curious eye doth quote deformities?
Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me.

Benvolio. Come, knock and enter; and no sooner in,
But every man betake him to his legs.

32

I,4,606

Mercutio. True, I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,
Which is as thin of substance as the air
And more inconstant than the wind, who wooes
Even now the frozen bosom of the north,
And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence,
Turning his face to the dew-dropping south.

Benvolio. This wind, you talk of, blows us from ourselves;
Supper is done, and we shall come too late.

33

I,4,616

Romeo. I fear, too early: for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night's revels and expire the term
Of a despised life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
But He, that hath the steerage of my course,
Direct my sail! On, lusty gentlemen.

Benvolio. Strike, drum.

34

I,5,748

Romeo. Is she a Capulet?
O dear account! my life is my foe's debt.

Benvolio. Away, begone; the sport is at the best.

35

II,1,800

(stage directions). [Enter BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO]

Benvolio. Romeo! my cousin Romeo!

36

II,1,803

Mercutio. He is wise;
And, on my lie, hath stol'n him home to bed.

Benvolio. He ran this way, and leap'd this orchard wall:
Call, good Mercutio.

37

II,1,821

Mercutio. Nay, I'll conjure too.
Romeo! humours! madman! passion! lover!
Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh:
Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied;
Cry but 'Ay me!' pronounce but 'love' and 'dove;'
Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word,
One nick-name for her purblind son and heir,
Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim,
When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid!
He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not;
The ape is dead, and I must conjure him.
I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes,
By her high forehead and her scarlet lip,
By her fine foot, straight leg and quivering thigh
And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,
That in thy likeness thou appear to us!

Benvolio. And if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him.

38

II,1,829

Mercutio. This cannot anger him: 'twould anger him
To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle
Of some strange nature, letting it there stand
Till she had laid it and conjured it down;
That were some spite: my invocation
Is fair and honest, and in his mistress' name
I conjure only but to raise up him.

Benvolio. Come, he hath hid himself among these trees,
To be consorted with the humorous night:
Blind is his love and best befits the dark.

39

II,1,841

Mercutio. If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.
Now will he sit under a medlar tree,
And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit
As maids call medlars, when they laugh alone.
Romeo, that she were, O, that she were
An open et caetera, thou a poperin pear!
Romeo, good night: I'll to my truckle-bed;
This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep:
Come, shall we go?

Benvolio. Go, then; for 'tis in vain
To seek him here that means not to be found.

40

II,4,1161

Mercutio. Where the devil should this Romeo be?
Came he not home to-night?

Benvolio. Not to his father's; I spoke with his man.

41

II,4,1164

Mercutio. Ah, that same pale hard-hearted wench, that Rosaline.
Torments him so, that he will sure run mad.

Benvolio. Tybalt, the kinsman of old Capulet,
Hath sent a letter to his father's house.

42

II,4,1167

Mercutio. A challenge, on my life.

Benvolio. Romeo will answer it.

43

II,4,1169

Mercutio. Any man that can write may answer a letter.

Benvolio. Nay, he will answer the letter's master, how he
dares, being dared.

44

II,4,1176

Mercutio. Alas poor Romeo! he is already dead; stabbed with a
white wench's black eye; shot through the ear with a
love-song; the very pin of his heart cleft with the
blind bow-boy's butt-shaft: and is he a man to
encounter Tybalt?

Benvolio. Why, what is Tybalt?

45

II,4,1186

Mercutio. More than prince of cats, I can tell you. O, he is
the courageous captain of compliments. He fights as
you sing prick-song, keeps time, distance, and
proportion; rests me his minim rest, one, two, and
the third in your bosom: the very butcher of a silk
button, a duellist, a duellist; a gentleman of the
very first house, of the first and second cause:
ah, the immortal passado! the punto reverso! the
hai!

Benvolio. The what?

46

II,4,1197

(stage directions). [Enter ROMEO]

Benvolio. Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo.

47

II,4,1248

Mercutio. Why, is not this better now than groaning for love?
now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo; now art
thou what thou art, by art as well as by nature:
for this drivelling love is like a great natural,
that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole.

Benvolio. Stop there, stop there.

48

II,4,1250

Mercutio. Thou desirest me to stop in my tale against the hair.

Benvolio. Thou wouldst else have made thy tale large.

49

II,4,1257

Mercutio. A sail, a sail!

Benvolio. Two, two; a shirt and a smock.

50

II,4,1282

Nurse. if you be he, sir, I desire some confidence with
you.

Benvolio. She will indite him to some supper.

51

III,1,1499

(stage directions). [Enter MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, Page, and Servants]

Benvolio. I pray thee, good Mercutio, let's retire:
The day is hot, the Capulets abroad,
And, if we meet, we shall not scape a brawl;
For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.

52

III,1,1508

Mercutio. Thou art like one of those fellows that when he
enters the confines of a tavern claps me his sword
upon the table and says 'God send me no need of
thee!' and by the operation of the second cup draws
it on the drawer, when indeed there is no need.

Benvolio. Am I like such a fellow?

53

III,1,1512

Mercutio. Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood as
any in Italy, and as soon moved to be moody, and as
soon moody to be moved.

Benvolio. And what to?

54

III,1,1529

Mercutio. Nay, an there were two such, we should have none
shortly, for one would kill the other. Thou! why,
thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more,
or a hair less, in his beard, than thou hast: thou
wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no
other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes: what
eye but such an eye would spy out such a quarrel?
Thy head is as fun of quarrels as an egg is full of
meat, and yet thy head hath been beaten as addle as
an egg for quarrelling: thou hast quarrelled with a
man for coughing in the street, because he hath
wakened thy dog that hath lain asleep in the sun:
didst thou not fall out with a tailor for wearing
his new doublet before Easter? with another, for
tying his new shoes with old riband? and yet thou
wilt tutor me from quarrelling!

Benvolio. An I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any man
should buy the fee-simple of my life for an hour and a quarter.

55

III,1,1532

Mercutio. The fee-simple! O simple!

Benvolio. By my head, here come the Capulets.

56

III,1,1547

Mercutio. Consort! what, dost thou make us minstrels? an
thou make minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but
discords: here's my fiddlestick; here's that shall
make you dance. 'Zounds, consort!

Benvolio. We talk here in the public haunt of men:
Either withdraw unto some private place,
And reason coldly of your grievances,
Or else depart; here all eyes gaze on us.

57

III,1,1596

Mercutio. I am hurt.
A plague o' both your houses! I am sped.
Is he gone, and hath nothing?

Benvolio. What, art thou hurt?

58

III,1,1624

(stage directions). [Re-enter BENVOLIO]

Benvolio. O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio's dead!
That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds,
Which too untimely here did scorn the earth.

59

III,1,1629

Romeo. This day's black fate on more days doth depend;
This but begins the woe, others must end.

Benvolio. Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.

60

III,1,1643

(stage directions). [They fight; TYBALT falls]

Benvolio. Romeo, away, be gone!
The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain.
Stand not amazed: the prince will doom thee death,
If thou art taken: hence, be gone, away!

61

III,1,1648

Romeo. O, I am fortune's fool!

Benvolio. Why dost thou stay?

62

III,1,1653

First Citizen. Which way ran he that kill'd Mercutio?
Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he?

Benvolio. There lies that Tybalt.

63

III,1,1659

Prince Escalus. Where are the vile beginners of this fray?

Benvolio. O noble prince, I can discover all
The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl:
There lies the man, slain by young Romeo,
That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio.

64

III,1,1669

Prince Escalus. Benvolio, who began this bloody fray?

Benvolio. Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay;
Romeo that spoke him fair, bade him bethink
How nice the quarrel was, and urged withal
Your high displeasure: all this uttered
With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd,
Could not take truce with the unruly spleen
Of Tybalt deaf to peace, but that he tilts
With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast,
Who all as hot, turns deadly point to point,
And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats
Cold death aside, and with the other sends
It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity,
Retorts it: Romeo he cries aloud,
'Hold, friends! friends, part!' and, swifter than
his tongue,
His agile arm beats down their fatal points,
And 'twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm
An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled;
But by and by comes back to Romeo,
Who had but newly entertain'd revenge,
And to 't they go like lightning, for, ere I
Could draw to part them, was stout Tybalt slain.
And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly.
This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.