If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
Was said by Romeo to Juliet in Act 1 Scene 5
If you disrespect this sacred place with your unworthy touch, the sin you commit is grievous and irreverent.
"If I profane with my unworthiest hand This sacred shrine, the gentle sin is this; My lips, two blushing pilgrims ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."
He just took a risk and said to her the "If I profane with my unworthiest hand" line and she replied to it in an equally loving way.
This phrase suggests a sense of self-awareness and humility, acknowledging one's own unworthiness or inadequacy. It can imply a reluctance or hesitation to taint or diminish something sacred or special with one's own shortcomings or imperfections.
Juliet says, "Pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much that mannerly devotion shows in this." Romeo has just touched her (probably on the hand) and then apologized by saying "If I profane with my unworthiest hand . . ." which apology leads to his saying that he will fix any offence he may have given by kissing her. Juliet says that he wrongs his hand too much--it is not unworthiest and it hasn't offended her. In fact it has shown "mannerly devotion". "Mannerly" means with good manners, polite. "Devotion" means love, faithfulness, commitment. According to Juliet, he has given a polite token of love.
Yes, she flirted right back. He says, "If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle sin is this: my lips, two blushing pilgrims ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a gentle kiss." and she responds with "Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much that mannerly devotion shows in this, for saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch and hand to hand is holy palmer's kiss." Now this is very complicate flirting based on a lot of puns and extended metaphors based on a pilgrim worshipping at a shrine. Basically Romeo is the pilgrim and Juliet is the shrine. One can imagine a much less poetical couple saying something like this: "Hey! Sorry if I hurt your hand by holding it like this, but if I did, I'll kiss it better" and the response, "Look, I'm alright with holding my hand, but lay off the lips, ok?"
Romeo and Juliet only speak together in Act One for a very short time in Act One Scene Five. Their whole conversation is eighteen lines long, and they manage to get two kisses into it. What is their conversation about? They are flirting. Romeo's first line when he first speaks to Juliet is a pick-up line: "If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle sin is this: my lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss." He's saying, "Gee I hope I didn't offend you by holding your hand--here, I'll kiss it better." although of course he says it poetically. He is using religious metaphors: her hand is a "shrine", his lips are "pilgrims". These religious metaphors permeate the conversation as they flirt with each other.
They certainly do! In Act 1 Scene 5, Romeo grabs her hand at the Capulet's party and, without introducing himself or anything, says "If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine the gentle sin is this: my lips, two blushing pilgrims ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss." And Juliet responds "Good pilgrim you do wrong your hand too much, that mannerly devotion shows in this. For saints have hands that holy palmers touch and hand to hand is holy palmers' kiss."
R: If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle sin is this: my lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. J: Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, that mannerly devotion shows in this. For saints have hands that pilgrims hands do touch, and hand to hand is holy palmer's kiss. R: Have not saints lips? And holy palmers too? J: Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer. R: O, then, dear saint let lips do what hands do: they pray, grant you, lest faith turn to despair. J: Saints do not move, though grant for prayer's sake. R: Then move not while my prayer's effect I take.
None. Most of the lines in Shakespeare's plays, whether in verse or prose, do not rhyme at all. When they do rhyme, they are usually in couplets ("Double, double, toil and trouble/ Fire burn and cauldron bubble") and occasionally quatrains ("If I profane with my unworthiest hand/ This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this/ My lips, two loving pilgrims ready stand/ To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.")
Romeo and Juliet get married in Act 2, Scene 6. The lines spoken during the marriage ceremony are: "If I profane with my unworthiest hand / This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: / My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand / To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.”.
Ummm.... did you not notice that most of the character's spoke in rhyme, or rhymed their response to those who spoke before them? Shakespear's characters spoke in rhyme throughout the majority of all of his plays. This was shakespear's way of writing. Take Romeo and Juliet, e.g. Romeo: "If I profane with my unworthiest handThis holy shrine, the gentle sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready standTo smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss." Juliet: "Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss." This style portrays throughout the rest of the play of Macbeth as well, and is not only pertinent to the Witches.
correction: romeo calls Juliet a holy shine Juliet's beauty is so great to romeo that he thinks her beauty is heavenly, so he calls a saint(holy shrine). A pilgrim is a person who goes on a journey to see a saint (holy shrine) .