Quoting and Citing Shakespeare

Play Titles Italicize or underline play titles: Romeo and Juliet, or Macbeth

Quoting Shakespeare When you quote from a play (or poem), divide lines with slashes. Example:  At the end of the play, the Prince says: “For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo” (5.3.309-310).

References Your references at the end of your quotations should show Act, scene and line numbers, not page numbers. Example:  (1.1.12-23) or (I.i.12-23) -- In this reference, the quotation would come from Act I, scene i, lines 12-23. The period should always appear at the end of your sentence; that is, after the reference, unless it is a quotation that is 4 lines or longer.

If you are quoting four or more lines, you will need to indent your quotation (block quote). The lines should be arranged as they appear in the text (just like they look in the play – no slashes for line breaks). In this case, the punctuation comes at the end of the quotation. Example:  When Romeo learns that he is banished from Verona he mourns: There is no world without Verona walls, But purgatory, torture, hell itself. Hence banished is banish’d from the world, And world’s exile is death; then banished is death mis-term’d. (3.3.17-21)

WEAVE YOUR QUOTES INTO YOUR OWN WORDS!!! Include your quotations from the plays within your own sentences, and end your paragraphs with your own thoughts rather than a quotation.

In general… Punctuation goes AFTER brackets of citation except when there is a question or exclamation mark, or when citing four lines or more Use square brackets if you change a word or capitalization

Practice! In a few sentences, describe a character from Romeo and Juliet using a direct quote from the play. For example: Juliet is not ready to marry Paris. She describes marriage as “an honor [she dreams] not of” (1.3.66). This shows that she is still young and immature.