Scene 1

Romeo decides he can’t return home after leaving the feast, so he climbs over the wall into the grounds of the Capulet’s house. Mercutio and Benvolio try to look for him - Mercutio says he will ‘conjure’ Romeo by taunting him. Eventually they give up and go home.

Scene 2

Romeo notices Juliet in the window of the Capulet’s house and proceeds to remark about her beauty. He compares her eyes to stars and says “the brightness of her cheek would shame those stars, as daylight doth a lamp”. Juliet, thinking she is alone, openly declares her love for Romeo, as if calling out to him “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” She laments that they cannot be together due to their family’s feud. “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell just as sweet.” Romeo responds to her plea, prompting Juliet to ask how he got into the Capulet’s house. He tells her that “with love’s light wings did I o'erperch these walls.” They confess their love to each other, however Juliet worries that Romeo may think she is “too quickly won” but she reassures him that she’ll “prove more true than those that have more cunning to be strange.” She tells Romeo not to swear his love, fearing that things are going too quickly. The Nurse calls Juliet inside, and when she returns she tells Romeo that she will send a messenger to Romeo to arrange the time and place of marriage. They agree that Romeo will meet the messenger “at the hour of nine.” At last they part, with Juliet declaring “Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say ‘Good night’ till it be morrow”

Scene 3

Early in the morning, Friar Lawrence is collecting seeds while providing a commentary on the nature of life and death. Romeo visits him and Friar Lawrence deduces that Romeo has been awake all night. The Friar asks if he…