I have just returned from seeing your marvelous new tragedy Romeo and Juliet, and I wish to offer my sincere congratulations on another stupendous success! One particular passage from the play has stuck in my mind. In the first act, scene five, Romeo and Juliet exchange a dialogue about a kiss which is in the form of a sonnet. This reminded me of one of my own sonnets: Sonnet #81 of Astrophil and Stella. Your views on the subject of kissing are very interesting, and in many ways parallel my own. For instance, you compare kissing to a holy and prayer-like act, where as I compare it to a union of souls. There was one aspect of your sonnet that reminded me very much of my own. Your Juliet is very clever and quick-witted in speaking to the lovesick Romeo in the same way that my Stella is in her response to Astrophil.
In your poem, Romeo believes he is being very clever, but Juliet consistently turns his quick-witted statements around on him. Romeo tries to flatter Juliet by calling her hand a “holy shrine” which he hesitates to “profane with [his] unworthiest hand” (Shakespeare, I.v.95-6). Juliet later insisted that he does not give himself enough credit: “you do wrong your hand too much” (I.v.99).
In the end, Romeo gets his way and his kiss, even though he had to work very hard to obtain it. Since Juliet, as a saint, insisted that she could “not move” (I.v.107), Romeo tells her to “move not” (I.v.108), and he takes for himself what he had been praying to her for. In another sense, the words “move not” mean that he is telling her to hold still while he kisses her.