Act Two
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Mini-Skit Directions
The mini-skit is exactly what the name suggests. Small groups of actors
perform the scenes in a “tag-team” fashion: one group begins, performing a few
lines, and when their lines are done, the next group jumps up and keeps it going.
There are eight sections (groups) and parts for 23 people. If there are more
people than parts, scenes will be performed twice. Each group may take NO
MORE THAN five minutes. To get them all in, your group must be ready to go.
Any group that is 100% ready to go or can not finish due to giggling, not knowing
their lines, etc., will be asked to step aside.
Here are the group divisions:
Group A 2.4.1-35
Mercutio / Benvolio
Group B 2.4.36-81
Mercutio / Benvolio / Romeo
Group C 2.4.82-129
Mercutio / Benvolio / Romeo / Nurse / Peter
Group D 2.4.130-174
Romeo / Nurse / Peter
Group E 2.4.175-195
Romeo / Nurse
Group F 2.5.1-37
Juliet / Nurse / Peter
Group G 2.5.38-78
Juliet / Nurse
Group H 2.6.1-37
Friar / Romeo / Juliet
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Act II
Language Worksheet
Personification is a figure of speech often used in poetry and poetic
drama. It represents a quality, idea, or nonhuman entity as having human traits.
Following are the first nine lines of the monologue of Friar Lawrence from the
beginning of scene iii. Circle each of the examples of personification to be found
in the speech. Then on the lines below the monologue, list the human
characteristics that are applied to each.
Friar: The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,
Check’ring the eastern clouds with streaks of light;
And fleckéd darkness like a drunkard reels
From forth day’s path and Titan’s burning wheels.
Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye
The day to cheer the night’s dank dew to dry,
I must upfill this osier cage of ours
With baleful weeds and precious-juicéd flowers.
The earth that’s nature’s mother is her tomb.
What is being
personified?
What human characteristics are being applied?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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Definitions of Love
Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy,
It does not boast,
It is not proud.
It is not rude,
It is not self-seeking,
It is not easily angered,
It keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil,
But rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts,
Always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.
It is better to have loved one too many
than one too few.
 Sir John Harrington
(1561-1612)
What a recreation it is to be in love! It
sets the heart aching so delicately,
there's no taking a wink of sleep for
the pleasure of the pain.
 I Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV)
 George Colman the Younger
(1762-1836)
I’ll tell you what real love is.
It is blind devotion, unquestioning selfhumiliation, utter submission, trust and
belief against yourself and against the
whole world, giving up your whole
heart and soul to the one who hurts
you.
Many people, when they fall in love,
look for a little haven of refuge from
the world, where they can be sure of
being admired when they are not
admirable, and praised when they are
not praiseworthy.
 Bertrand Russell
(1872-1970)
 Miss Havisham
I feel foolish and happy as soon as I
let myself think of you. I whirl around
in a delicious dream in which in one
instant I live a thousand years.
The course of true love never did run
smooth.
 William Shakespeare
 Honoré de Balzac
The emotion of love, in spite of the
romantics, is not self-sustaining; it
endures only when the lovers love
many things together, and not merely
each other.
The way to love anything is to realize
that it might be lost.
 Gilbert K. Chesterton
 Walter Lippman, 1929
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Love keeps the cold out better than a
cloak.
Were it not for love, life would be a
ship not worth launching.
 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
1843
 Edwin Arlington Robinson,
1927
True Love is but a humble, low-born
thing, and hath its food served up in
earthen ware; It is a thing to walk
with, hand in hand, through the
everydayness of this workday world.
Love’s such a precious and fragile
thing that when it comes we have to
hold on tightly. And when it comes,
we’re very lucky because for some it
never comes at all. If you have love,
you’re wealthy in a way that can never
be measured. Cherish it.
 James Russell Lowell, 1840
Love is an expression and assertion of
self-esteem, a response to one’s own
values in the person of another. One
gains a profoundly personal, selfish
joy from the mere existence of the
person one loves. It is one’s own
personal, selfish happiness that one
seeks, earns, and derives from love.
 Nancy Reagan, 1980
 Ayn Rand, 1964
Use this space to write your own thoughts or quote on love, or find a quote from the play
or some other source that expresses your feelings about love.
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Aspects of Love
1. List five words that describe the person you love right now. If you are not in
love at this time, describe what you look for in a boyfriend / girlfriend. How does
this person look? Make you feel inside? What attracted you to this person?
a.
b.
c.
d
e.
2. What is the best way you can think of to compliment or pay tribute to
someone you love?
3. What is the best thing about being in love?
4. What is the worst thing about being in love?
5. Have you ever loved someone who didn’t love you back? If yes, what were
some of the emotions you felt?
6. Have you ever written a song or a poem about someone you loved? If so,
what did it say?
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Shakespeare’s Language Tricks
The list below contains some of the language tricks that Shakespeare used when
writing Romeo and Juliet, and it provides an example of each trick from Friar
Lawrence’s opening speech, 2.3.1-22.
personification
“The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night”
metaphor
“check’ring the eastern clouds with streaks of light”
simile
“And fleckled darkness like a drunkard reels”
classical allusions
reversed word
“From forth day’s path and Titan’s fiery wheels”
“upfill”
reversed thought
“The earth that’s nature’s mother is her tomb;
what is her burying grave, that is her womb.”
reversed sentence
“And from her womb children of divers kind
construction we sucking on her natural bosom find.”
Experiment with Shakespeare’s language tricks. Write an original example of
each of the devices listed below.
1. Personification -
2. metaphor -
3. simile -
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Romeo’s Busy Day
Act II
In Act Two, Romeo races around feverishly trying to make a plan to marry Juliet
against her father’s wishes. As soon as you have finished Act Two, fill in the
chart, describing briefly what happens there.
Scene 1: The Capulet’s Orchard Wall
Romeo overhears his friends talking about him. They are saying
Scene 2: Juliet Balcony
Scene 3: The Monastery
Romeo tells Friar Lawrence that he loves Juliet. The Friar’s response is to
Scene 4: The Street in Verona
Benvolio and Mercutio tease happy Romeo. The Nurse tries to find out
Romeo tells the Nurse
Scene 6: The Monastery
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