To cite Romeo and Juliet in MLA, APA, or Chicago style, treat it as a play by William Shakespeare and reference the act, scene, and line numbers instead of a page number whenever you quote the verse directly. This guide gives you the exact Works Cited, References, and Bibliography entries for all three citation styles, plus the rules for quoting dialogue and picking the right edition to cite.
Why Is Citing a Play Different From Citing a Novel?
Romeo and Juliet is written mostly in verse, so MLA, APA, and Chicago all ask you to cite it by act, scene, and line rather than by page. A citation like 1.5.94 means act 1, scene 5, line 94. This line-based system lets a reader find the quote in any printed edition of the play, since page numbers shift between publishers but the act and scene divisions do not. According to Excelsior OWL’s guide to citing plays, this convention applies any time you quote a verse drama, not just Shakespeare. If you are only paraphrasing a general plot point rather than quoting specific dialogue, a page number is acceptable instead. For the general citation rules that apply to any play, not just Romeo and Juliet, see our guide to how to cite a play.
Which Edition of Romeo and Juliet Should You Cite?
Always cite the exact edition you read, because act, scene, and line numbers can shift slightly between editions and editors. The examples on this page use the Folger Shakespeare Library edition, edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine, since it is the free digital text most students and teachers reference. Verify your own citation details, publisher, and publication year against your copy using the Folger Shakespeare Library’s own citation guidance. If you read the play on the Folger Digital Texts website instead of a printed copy, add the site’s URL and the date you accessed it after the publisher information. If your class uses a different edition, such as the Norton or Signet Classics text, swap in that editor’s name and publication information but keep the same citation structure. For general rules on citing a standalone printed edition of the play, see our guide to how to cite a book.
Tip: double-check the act, scene, and line numbers against your own copy before you submit. Even editions from the same publisher sometimes renumber a scene differently across printings.
MLA Citation for Romeo and Juliet
In MLA style, the in-text citation lists the author’s last name and the act, scene, and line numbers, separated by periods.
In-text citation: (Shakespeare 1.5.94)
Works Cited entry:
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine, Folger Shakespeare Library, 2004.
If you cite the play more than once with different editors or editions in the same paper, add a short title in the in-text citation to distinguish them, for example (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet 1.5.94).
APA Citation for Romeo and Juliet
APA style treats classic literary works like Romeo and Juliet as having two publication dates. The original text and the modern edition you actually read from. Per APA Style’s guidance on citing classical works, list both dates separated by a slash when the original date is known.
In-text citation: (Shakespeare, 1597/2004, 1.5.94)
Reference list entry:
Shakespeare, W. (2004). Romeo and Juliet (B. A. Mowat & P. Werstine, Eds.). Folger Shakespeare Library. (Original work published 1597)
Chicago Style Citation for Romeo and Juliet
Chicago style uses a Bibliography entry along with either a numbered footnote or an author-date in-text citation, depending on which system your instructor requires. The Purdue OWL’s Chicago Manual of Style guide covers the notes-bibliography format used here.
Footnote: William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine (Washington, DC: Folger Shakespeare Library, 2004), 1.5.94.
Bibliography entry:
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. Washington, DC: Folger Shakespeare Library, 2004.
MLA vs. APA vs. Chicago at a Glance
Each style uses a different name for the list of sources at the end of your paper. MLA calls it a Works Cited page, APA calls it a References list, and Chicago calls it a Bibliography. Your in-text citations follow the same act-scene-line pattern in MLA, APA, and Chicago, only the full entry format changes, so getting your text citations right in one style makes the others easy to adapt. They serve the same purpose, listing every source you cited, but follow different formatting rules. If you are unsure which style your assignment requires, check your syllabus or ask your instructor, since the three are not interchangeable. For the broader page formatting rules, margins, font, and spacing, each style expects, see our essay formatting guide.
| Style | In-text citation | Full entry location |
|---|---|---|
| MLA | (Shakespeare 1.5.94) | Works Cited page |
| APA | (Shakespeare, 1597/2004, 1.5.94) | Reference list |
| Chicago | Footnote or (Shakespeare 2004, 1.5.94) | Bibliography |
Quoting Dialogue From Romeo and Juliet Correctly
Quoting verse dialogue has its own formatting rules on top of the citation itself. For three lines of dialogue or fewer, keep the quote in your own paragraph and mark line breaks with a forward slash. For four lines or more, set the quote off as a block quote, indented and without quotation marks, preserving the original line breaks. Always capitalize a character’s name when it appears before their line, since the play script itself does.
Common myth: “Wherefore art thou Romeo?” does not mean “where are you, Romeo?” In Shakespeare’s English, “wherefore” means “why,” so Juliet is asking why he is named Romeo, a Montague, not where he is standing.
Correct: Juliet asks, “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? / Deny thy father and refuse thy name” (Shakespeare 2.2.33-34).
Incorrect: Juliet asks, “o romeo, romeo, wherefore art thou romeo, deny thy father and refuse thy name” (Shakespeare, page 33).
The incorrect version loses the capitalization Shakespeare’s text uses, runs the two verse lines together without a slash, and cites a page number instead of the act, scene, and line. For more on integrating quotes smoothly into your own sentences, see our guide to how to introduce quotations. That guide also covers the grammar of blending a quoted line into your own sentence without a run-on.
Citing Romeo and Juliet From an Anthology or Class Textbook
If you read the play inside a literature anthology or a class textbook rather than a standalone edition, cite the anthology’s editor and publication information instead of the Folger editors used above. The author and title of the play stay the same, but the publisher, year, and page or line range point to the anthology, not to a standalone Folger or Norton copy of the play. This is the same logic used for citing an excerpt of a longer verse work, so the rules on our how to cite poems page apply here as well. Ask your instructor which citation your class expects if the syllabus does not specify an edition. For example, if you read the play in a literature anthology, an MLA Works Cited entry would look like this: Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. In The Norton Anthology of Drama, edited by J. Ellen Gainor, Stanton B. Garner Jr., and Martin Puchner, W. W. Norton, 2009, pp. 451-540.
If you would rather not build every entry by hand, essayreply’s own MLA citation generator can format the Works Cited entry for you. Even with a generator, it is worth knowing the rules above so you can catch a mistake in the output. This is especially useful if you are new to MLA style and want a second check on your book title and Works Cited details before you submit.
Before You Submit, Double-Check That You
- Used act, scene, and line numbers (like 1.5.94) for every direct quote, not page numbers
- Matched your Works Cited, Reference list, or Bibliography entry to the exact edition you read from
- Kept the same style, MLA, APA, or Chicago, consistent across every citation in the paper
- Capitalized character names and used a forward slash for verse line breaks under four lines
- Included the publication year of the edition, and kept the same citation style, MLA, APA, or Chicago, from your first entry to your last
Once you know how to cite Romeo and Juliet in one style, the same act-scene-line pattern covers citations for William Shakespeare’s other plays too, so you can reuse these rules across your reading list. Bookmark this page. Once these citations are second nature, formatting the title and Works Cited entry for any other play takes just a couple of minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which citation style should I use for my assignment?
Check your course syllabus or ask your instructor. English and humanities classes most often use MLA, social science classes often use APA, and history or some literature classes use Chicago. When in doubt, MLA is the most common default for citing a play in a high school or undergraduate English class. See our full citation guide for rules on other source types.
Do I use page numbers or line numbers to cite Romeo and Juliet?
Use act, scene, and line numbers, such as 1.5.94, whenever you quote the verse dialogue directly. Only use a page number if you are citing the edition’s editorial introduction, footnotes, or other prose material that Mowat and Werstine added to the Folger text.
How do I cite a single line versus a range of lines?
A single line uses one set of numbers, like 1.5.94. A range of lines uses a hyphen between the starting and ending line, like 2.2.33-34, as shown in the quoting example above.
What if I watched a performance instead of reading the play?
A live performance or filmed production is cited differently from the printed text. You would credit the director, the theater company or production studio, and the performance date instead of an editor and publisher. Ask your instructor for their preferred format if your assignment specifically involves a performance. A basic MLA-style example: Romeo and Juliet. Directed by Baz Luhrmann, performance by Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, 20th Century Fox, 1996.
Which edition should I list if my teacher did not specify one?
Cite whichever edition you actually read from and quoted. The Folger Shakespeare Library edition used in the examples above is a common, freely available default, but any properly credited edition is acceptable as long as your citation matches the copy you used.
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Terry is a Chicago-based writer and editor who creates practical, student-friendly guides on essay writing, research, and citation styles (APA, MLA, and Chicago). He’s spent 15+ years editing educational content and building clear examples that help readers apply rules without guessing. When he’s not revising drafts, he’s usually turning messy notes into clean outlines and hunting down the one detail everyone skips.