Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

by Stephen Greenblatt

In the great balcony scene, though they have only just met, Romeo and Juliet exchange “love’s faithful vow” with one another. “If that thy bent of love be honourable, / Thy purpose marriage,” Juliet tells Romeo at the close of the most passionate love scene Shakespeare ever wrote, “send me word tomorrow.” When she knows “Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite,” she declares, “All my fortunes at thy foot I’ll lay, / And follow thee, my lord, throughout the world” (2.1.169, 185–86, 188–90). Hence the urgency of Romeo’s visit to the friar early the next morning, and hence the wild eagerness of Juliet for the