Now this sonnet form of poetry became a craze in Europe. And by Shakespeare's time in the late 1500s, it was a mania. Now this was the way that the gentry and royalty would one another. You would be judged by your ability to praise a woman for her beauty and loveliness and goodness. And no one was better at this than William Shakespeare. By the early 17th century, he had established very firmly the religion of love. And one should consider the religion of love in relation to the religion of Christianity, as these kind of grew together to some of it, or they came together. But that's going to be a discussion for another video. At the, at the center of Romeo and Juliet is a love language, unlike anything spoken on stage, then or since. Again, Romeo, a lethario, a playboy is smitten by Juliet. How do we know it is more than his previous lust for Rosalyn, the language of their interaction? Okay, now we're going to get into a sonnet reading. Now I'm going to read the sonnet, and I'm going to explain it to you. The sonnet is the first of a couple sonnets in Romeo and Juliet. But I want you to consider and remember something that I've told you before about the sonnet craze. This was the way you wooed somebody. This is the idea of love. I mean, the equivalent today, I guess would be sharing music about love with someone you're interested in. You send them a song that you love or maybe you even sing them badly a song you love. This is the kind of idea going on. As you're trying to woo this person with the way they did it back then, if you were a gentry of this time, is you would woo. I think another equivalent, I just want to, this is a side note, another equivalent today is the way that young, especially if you look at educated people, and not just young people, but people in the 30s talk about their psychological needs and desires and their early parts of the relationship. That's the same thing as the sonnet and it's very, we may look at this as like, this is just normal behavior to like, oh yeah, here in my love languages, here's the things that I like, and talking about your psychology essentially in the early stages of this relationship, right? When you're starting to date, and that's part of the behavior of dating these days. It's a little bit odd if you think about it, if you really step aside, you start to think about it, you're talking about your psychology to someone you just met. Okay. Well, that's what they did back then though, is they didn't have psychology. This is a pre-froid era. So what did they have? They had sonnets, they had poetry, they had language. I like the language part. I don't mind the psychology either, but I think, you know, it gives you something to think about. I'm not going to tell you my way of wooing women, but you could probably consider a guess that it has something to do with language. So let's talk about this love language between love language, between Romeo and Juliet. The thing that makes this interesting is that sonnets are generally read on a page, right? Or you might write it in a letter and send it to a lady or something. Now, in here, we have the sonnet coming to life, because you have to, when you're reading Shakespeare, and you're looking at this, here's a tip of reading Shakespeare, you need to picture the scene, which is why you should go to a play, watch a movie so you could see these out. When you see something that strikes, you go to YouTube and you can see every single one of these lines has been done before. And you need to kind of set up this whole scenario and understand it because this it understand what's going on to the best of your ability. And this is a lifetime practice. But when you do this, you get a sense of the coming to life of these words that Shakespeare's trying to do on a stage. So remember, you have sonnets, we're just kind of flat on a page, and they're still the craze that you give it to a woman, maybe with a flower and she reads, it's like, oh, it's beautiful. But now he's Shakespeare is going to put it into the mouths of Romeo and Juliet. So the this sonnet is the first time Romeo and Juliet speak to one another. So, unlike other characters who might speak in normal prose, normal for Shakespeare, Shakespearean language, or they might speak in a kind of versified language, where there's a rhythm to the way that they speak. Here, we're getting a formal sonnet as their first formal meeting between the tip. And we'll talk about what the sonnets about. So I'm going to read this the sonnet. And I'll tell you who's saying what as we go, and then we'll talk about the, we'll kind of quickly analyze what's going on. And this will, I'm trying to, even though this is a video about motivating you, I also want to give you a little bit of tips and understanding. So before we read this on it, it's helpful to know that they're at a masquerade ball. This is at the Capulet's house. Romeo and his friend Mercusio have kind of barged in with their mask. They're not supposed to be there. They're Montague's. They're the enemy. And then Romeo sees this beautiful woman. And he says, you know, she doth make the torches burn brighter. And then she eventually, Juliet eventually sees him. And then they meet. And then they say this sonnet to each other. This and how you portray this on stage, we'll talk about in a second is very important. But let's look at these lines. So this is so Romeo starts and he says, if I profane with my unworthy hand, this holy shrine, the gentle sin sin is this, my lips to blushing pilgrims did already stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. Okay, again, if you don't understand what's going on, I'll tell you in a minute. Juliet says, good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this for saints have hands that pilgrims's hands do touch. And palm to palm is Holy Palmer's kiss. Romeo response have not Saint Saint lips and holy Palmer's to Juliet, I pilgrim lips that they must use in prayer. Romeo, oh, then dear saint, let lips do what hands do. What do hands do? They pray, grant thou grant you, lest faith turn to despair, let, lest faith turn to despair Juliet, saints do not move, though grant for prayer's sake Romeo, then move not while my prayers affect I take, they kiss. Okay, the sonnet has a setup in the first couple lines where it's kind of asking the question. And in this case, Romeo is saying, if I profane, if I do wrong, if I am outside of the bounds of a religion with my unworthy hand, my hand is dirty, it's not worthy of the holiness of Christianity. If you think about Christian terms, the Holy shrine, so think about a shrine where you can't go near the shrine. There's like roped off borders, you're not supposed to get a shrine especially sacred, you're not supposed to go there. But then he's saying, if I profane, if I do this conditional, the Holy shrine, the gentle sin, this is my sin is this, and he's going to tell you what his sin is, what is his sin? It's my lips, my two blushing pilgrims. Again, so this is all set, this love is all set in a holy Christian religious context of shrine and his lips wanting to touch kiss the shrine. My two blushing pilgrims did already stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. So I'm going to smooth away my sin, my roughness, the things that are wrong with me with a smooth kiss. Okay, now Juliet is going to respond. And this is her response is important, of course. But this is all part of one sonnet that goes together. She says to him, good, good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much. Don't call your hand so rough and evil and bad, which mannerly which mannerly devotion shows in this for saints. So now she's a saint. He's the pilgrim, right? Saint pilgrim, saint, woman is think he's the pilgrim. She's the devoted thing, right? In this scenario. For saints have hands that pilgrims hands do touch. So pilgrims can touch with their hands. And palm to palm in a very holy sacred little light touch is holy Palmer's kiss. So, you know, again, talking about this, I have to say, I mean, this is so good. Look at what your mouth does palm to palm pilgrim. Like there's so many peas in this. That's a kiss, baby. All right. This is how great this language is the deeper you dig into this stuff is it all meshes in there's a there's a sound and meaning that unite together. And it comes that we just don't see today anymore. And then Romeo responds, have not saint lips and holy Palmer's too. So he's saying like, if you're a saint and you're this, you know, shrine, you have lips and holy Palmer's right? They go together. And she says, I pilgrim lips that they must use in prayer. Right? She's like, all right, I'm gonna calm down. And then Romeo says, Oh, then dear saint, let lips do what hands do. Wow, that's a line, man. I mean, come on. And they say they pray. Well, again, we have this connecting thing. So we have the touching of these two people, Saint Pilgrim, Saint Pilgrim, Saint Pilgrim have to touch with their hands. Grant you, lest faith turn to despair. And she says, Oh, saints do not move, though, Grant for prayer is sick. And Romeo then says, then move not while my prayers affect. I take and they kiss. Now, there's a lot that could be said about the characterization of these two people. So Romeo has met his match. Juliet has met her match. They are equal. They are, this is all symbolized in this moment. And it all makes sense. And they connect. And this is the high ideal of love with the barest minimum of physicalization. This idealized love sits at the core of Romeo and Juliet, which remember is a tragedy. All around, they're perfect, beautiful lover, people, societies, families, governments, interests, all set out to kill this love and these lovers. When lovers speak after finding one another, in real life, when you find someone that you truly love, your language changes, just admit it to yourself. Today, we don't speak in heightened sonnets, such as this, of course, which is really too bad in my view. But we do speak in a different voice, a lover's voice, our words change, we say things to our lover that we would never say to the outside world, and would likely be quite embarrassed if people heard us say these things, that we say to our lover, you know, in the sheets or something pillow talk. How often have you heard the trope of a woman saying of some burly mean, rugged, gruff, tough man warrior? Oh, he's a sweetie, really. No, he's not a sweetie, really. He's a sweetie to you, lady. So one of the important questions in the play is can this love persist? Can this perfect love persist amidst the societal expectations and hindrances? So back to our reason for reading and experiencing Romeo and Juliet. It is the ultimate portrayal of love in literature and art. And I will say that your reaction to Romeo's love is as just as one example, as well as Juliet's love, as well as the nurse's view and all these things says a lot about you. Now, I don't mean to be mean to people, but it does say something about you. What you think about this, do you think Romeo is silly and just trying to sleep with another woman? Or has he truly been transformed by love? Can love it for sight really happen? As we said, do you believe that or not? Or can it persist after the union? Does it die? This is another real notion in real life that we struggle with as humans. We struggle with the idea that, you know, I have this when I was young, I had this romantic love as passionate, but then we, you know, we finally got together, we were sleeping together, we even dated for a while, we lived together, and all that died and just became this practical merging of banking accounts. Well, I'm going to put it out there that maybe there's a reason why among married couples adultery so high because we want passion. And if you can't figure out how to persist in the passion, maybe marriage isn't the right thing for you, or you don't understand marriage and love and what you or your partner wants, which is why you should read Romeo and Juliet. Now, Shakespeare has answers to these key things that either lovers die or love itself that must die. And the Prince says at the end of the play, go hands to talk of these sad things. This is, again, an important thing is Shakespeare speaking to you and trying to get you to go and talk about these things to think about these sad things. There's a reason for this. The main reason, again, I want to repeat this, the you should read Romeo and Juliet is to see and hear and understand the best depiction of the religion of love, which has enraptured the Western mind for over 400 years. And I wish to leave you with one reason, one other reason to read Romeo and Juliet, or actually a couple little side reasons. It will give you a lifetime of entertainment. It will elevate your life. It is the core of a good education. It will provide meaning to your life and to your love life. And it will give you something to contemplate. In other words, it is sublime, elevated, heightened intellectual spiritual value to you as a human. Your life will be elevated. Without this, you're in the muck. With this, you're in the heavens. It's your choice. Shakespeare's plays are meant to be seen and heard, not read. The reason to read them is to assist in your hearing of them. So you should, so let me repeat, you should read this play. Listen to my courses.