You are here

All Site ContentRomeo and JulietAct 1Scene 5
Back to the Play
"holy palmers"
Allusion
Act 1,
Scene 5
Lines 94-106

An explanation of the “holy palmers” reference in Act 1, Scene 5 of myShakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Romeo

My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

Juliet

Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
[Juliet places the palm of her hand against Romeo’s]
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.

Romeo

Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?                  

Juliet

Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

Romeo

O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

Juliet

Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.

Romeo

Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
[He kisses her]
Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged.

Worshipers who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land brought back a leaf from a palm tree as a sign of their journey; thus they were known as palmers. Juliet plays on the word “palm” in evoking the image of a palmer touching the hand of a saint’s statue, “palm to palm” as it were; it would be like a kiss, but with hands.