In no other Elizabethan play are love and death so closely intertwined. In his opening sonnet the Chorus of Romeo and Juliet tells us that the young couple's love has the mark of death on it (9). No sooner have the lovers met than they start thinking about death. That Romeo, as an aspiring Petrarchist, should have premonitions of ‘untimely death’ cutting short a ‘despised life’ (i.iv.110–11) is only to be expected: it goes with the role. As Mercutio puts it, ‘Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead: stabb'd with a white wench's black eye’ (ii.iv.13–14). But Juliet too is preoccupied with death. At first she wonders how she will cope if it should turn out that Romeo isn't free: ‘If he be married, / My grave is like to be my wedding bed’, she tells her Nurse (i.v.132–3). When she learns that Romeo is a Montague it seems as if the old Petrarchan conceit about the dear enemy has come horribly true:

Surprised to hear Juliet talking in Petrarchan couplets, the Nurse asks her what's going on. Juliet admits that it's something she's picked up from Romeo: ‘A rhyme,’ she says, ‘I learnt even now / Of one I danc'd withal’ (140–1).