Romeo says this line to Juliet during their first encounter and their first kiss. He compares their lips to blushing pilgrims ready to kiss in a metaphorical and poetic manner.
Romeo
"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."
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
A lot of people would argue that they don't get "marred" at all--that they are as morally pure as they were at the beginning. Or did you mean "married"? The wedding of Romeo and Juliet is not depicted in the play and so no act, scene or line can be given for it. There is a reason for this. Marriage was and is a sacrament of the Church, and it was illegal to portray an actual sacrament of the Church. It was considered to be blasphemous.
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.
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.
"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." It is the first quatrain of a sonnet that he and Juliet compose together, extemporaneously, at their first meeting.
William Shakespeare wrote the line "Is love a tender thing?" in his play "Romeo and Juliet." The line is spoken by Juliet in Act 2, Scene 2 as she contemplates the nature of love.
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.
A "sick man" (I,1), a "candle-holder" (I, 4), "dull earth" (II, 1), a sailor ("I would adventure for such merchandise", II, 2), "carrion flies" (more of a contrast than a comparison, III, 3), a "hateful mansion" (III, 3), a "desperate pilot" (V, 3). Now you are going to say that he compares himself to a pilgrim in I, 5, but what he actually says is "my lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss." Thus he compares his lips, not himself, to pilgrims. Juliet, on the other hand, does compare him to a pilgrim when she says "Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much . . ."
"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." Some pickup line, eh?
Sleek, Satiny, Luxurious, Soft, Tender, Smooth, Delicate, Cottony