Unpacking `Romeo and Juliet Sonnets (3)

Olivia Hussey as Juliet and Leonard Whiting as Romeo, in Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 production

Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie,
And young affection gapes to be his heir;
That fair for which love groan'd for and would die,
With tender Juliet match'd, is now not fair.
Now Romeo is beloved and loves again,
Alike bewitched by the charm of looks,
But to his foe supposed he must complain,
And she steal love's sweet bait from fearful hooks:
Being held a foe, he may not have access
To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear;
And she as much in love, her means much less
To meet her new-beloved any where:
But passion lends them power, time means, to meet
Tempering extremities with extreme sweet.

Act II, Prologue

1. If you're ever in a literary cocktail party, ask your new friends whom Romeo was pining after, at the start of the play.  Some may not even know that he was in love with anyone else but Juliet.  Actually it was Rosaline, who in an abstracted way Shakespeare refers to as "old desire."
2. How quickly romantic love twists and turns is the import of this opening quatrain.  Unlike the play's opening, this prologue refers to "death-bed" and "die" as inevitable shifts (fickleness) in love.  The language is clever and song-like, for instance, "That fair" and "is now not fair." 
3. Shakespeare introduces the tension, that is, the so-called fly in the ointment, in the second quatrain.  "Alike bewitched" echoes "alike in dignity" from the first prologue, and in so doing reminds us that there is a veritable civil war between their families.
4. It is the inherent conflict of their love affair that "charm of looks" is paired with "fearful hooks" in the rhyme scheme of this second quatrain.  The pair "loves again" and "must complain" is similar, though a bit more demure.
5. Shakespeare builds up that conflict further in the third quatrain, and in powerful poetry tells us that Romeo and Juliet face a rather tough dilemma.  "He may not have access" and "her means much less" speak to a practical roadblock, but "breathe such vows" means it's literally a matter of necessity.  
6. The final, resolving couplet is yet another example of Shakespeare tour de force skills as both poet and playwright.  Love will win the day, and not just love, but extreme love, for the two of them.  "Tempering extremities" may refer their arms and legs, sensuously speaking, but more likely it means the entrenched polarity between the Capulets and Montagues.

So it takes Shakespeare all of Act I, and the beginning of Act II, to lay out those "two hours' traffic of our stage." The beatific romance unfolds, and marches steadily to a tragic denouement.