Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet - Character Profile and Lines

Benvolio is a Montague, and a cousin of Romeo. He is one of the most visible characters in the play, appearing in almost every scene. Benvolio spends the vast majority of his time attempting to keep the peace and diffusing potential arguments. He is intelligent, levelheaded, and tries to see both sides of every issue.

Benvolio is not always successful in his attempts to keep the peace. For example, he is not able to stop Mercutio and Tybalt from fighting, which leads to Romeo’s banishment. However, Benvolio does play an important role in the story of Romeo and Juliet and his efforts are often crucial in preventing greater conflict.

Lines by Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet

#	Act, Scene, Line	Speech text
1	I,1,76	Part, fools! Put up your swords; you know not what you do.
2	I,1,82	I do but keep the peace: put up thy sword, Or manage it to part these men with me.
3	I,1,127	Here were the servants of your adversary, And yours, close fighting ere I did approach: I drew to part them: in the instant came The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepared, Which, as he breathed defiance to my ears, He swung about his head and cut the winds, Who nothing hurt withal hiss’d him in scorn: While we were interchanging thrusts and blows, Came more and more and fought on part and part, Till the prince came, who parted either part.
4	I,1,139	Madam, an hour before the worshipp’d sun Peer’d forth the golden window of the east, A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad; Where, underneath the grove of sycamore That westward rooteth from the city’s side, So early walking did I see your son: Towards him I made, but he was ware of me And stole into the covert of the wood: I, measuring his affections by my own, That most are busied when they’re most alone, Pursued my humour not pursuing his, And gladly shunn’d who gladly fled from me.
5	I,1,163	My noble uncle, do you know the cause?
6	I,1,165	Have you importuned him by any means?
7	I,1,177	See, where he comes: so please you, step aside; I’ll know his grievance, or be much denied.
8	I,1,182	Good-morrow, cousin.
9	I,1,184	But new struck nine.
10	I,1,187	It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo’s hours?
11	I,1,189	In love?
12	I,1,191	Of love?
13	I,1,193	Alas, that love, so gentle in his view, Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!
14	I,1,209	No, coz, I rather weep.
15	I,1,211	At thy good heart’s oppression.
16	I,1,223	Soft! I will go along; An if you leave me so, you do me wrong.
17	I,1,227	Tell me in sadness, who is that you love.
18	I,1,229	Groan! why, no. But sadly tell me who.
19	I,1,234	I aim’d so near, when I supposed you loved.
20	I,1,236	A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.
21	I,1,246	Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?
22	I,1,254	Be ruled by me, forget to think of her.
23	I,1,256	By giving liberty unto thine eyes; Examine other beauties.
24	I,1,268	I’ll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt.
25	I,2,319	Tut, man, one fire burns out another’s burning, One pain is lessen’d by another’s anguish; Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning; One desperate grief cures with another’s languish: Take thou some new infection to thy eye, And the rank poison of the old will die.
26	I,2,326	For what, I pray thee?
27	I,2,328	Why, Romeo, art thou mad?
28	I,2,359	At this same ancient feast of Capulet’s Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so lovest, With all the admired beauties of Verona: Go thither; and, with unattainted eye, Compare her face with some that I shall show, And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.
29	I,2,371	Tut, you saw her fair, none else being by, Herself poised with herself in either eye: But in that crystal scales let there be weigh’d Your lady’s love against some other maid That I will show you shining at this feast, And she shall scant show well that now shows best.
30	I,4,499	The date is out of such prolixity: We’ll have no Cupid hoodwink’d with a scarf, Bearing a Tartar’s painted bow of lath, Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper; Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke After the prompter, for our entrance: But let them measure us by what they will; We’ll measure them a measure, and be gone.
31	I,4,529	Come, knock and enter; and no sooner in, But every man betake him to his legs.
32	I,4,606	This wind, you talk of, blows us from ourselves; Supper is done, and we shall come too late.
33	I,4,616	Strike, drum.
34	I,5,748	Away, begone; the sport is at the best.
35	II,1,800	Romeo! my cousin Romeo!
36	II,1,803	He ran this way, and leap’d this orchard wall: Call, good Mercutio.
37	II,1,821	And if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him.
38	II,1,829	Come, he hath hid himself among these trees, To be consorted with the humorous night: Blind is his love and best befits the dark.
39	II,1,841	Go, then; for ’tis in vain To seek him here that means not to be found.
40	II,4,1161	Not to his father’s; I spoke with his man.
41	II,4,1164	Tybalt, the kinsman of old Capulet, Hath sent a letter to his father’s house.
42	II,4,1167	Romeo will answer it.
43	II,4,1169	Nay, he will answer the letter’s master, how he dares, being dared.
44	II,4,1176	Why, what is Tybalt?
45	II,4,1186	The what?
46	II,4,1197	Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo.
47	II,4,1248	Stop there, stop there.
48	II,4,1250	Thou wouldst else have made thy tale large.
49	II,4,1257	Two, two; a shirt and a smock.
50	II,4,1282	She will indite him to some supper.
51	III,1,1499	I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire: The day is hot, the Capulets abroad, And, if we meet, we shall not scape a brawl; For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.
52	III,1,1508	Am I like such a fellow?
53	III,1,1512	And what to?
54	III,1,1529	An I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any man should buy the fee-simple of my life for an hour and a quarter.
55	III,1,1532	By my head, here come the Capulets.
56	III,1,1547	We talk here in the public haunt of men: Either withdraw unto some private place, And reason coldly of your grievances, Or else depart; here all eyes gaze on us.
57	III,1,1596	What, art thou hurt?
58	III,1,1624	O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio’s dead! That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds, Which too untimely here did scorn the earth.
59	III,1,1629	Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.
60	III,1,1643	Romeo, away, be gone! The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain. Stand not amazed: the prince will doom thee death, If thou art taken: hence, be gone, away!
61	III,1,1648	Why dost thou stay?
62	III,1,1653	There lies that Tybalt.
63	III,1,1659	O noble prince, I can discover all The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl: There lies the man, slain by young Romeo, That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio.
64	III,1,1669	Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo’s hand did slay; Romeo that spoke him fair, bade him bethink How nice the quarrel was, and urged withal Your high displeasure: all this uttered With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow’d, Could not take truce with the unruly spleen Of Tybalt deaf to peace, but that he tilts With piercing steel at bold Mercutio’s breast, Who all as hot, turns deadly point to point, And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats Cold death aside, and with the other sends It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity, Retorts it: Romeo he cries aloud, ‘Hold, friends! friends, part!’ and, swifter than his tongue, His agile arm beats down their fatal points, And ‘twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled; But by and by comes back to Romeo, Who had but newly entertain’d revenge, And to ‘t they go like lightning, for, ere I Could draw to part them, was stout Tybalt slain. And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly. This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.

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Link will appear as Hanson, Marilee. "Benvolio" https://englishhistory.net/shakespeare/character/benvolio/, March 2, 2022