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Who really said it

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

Written by William Shakespeare 1564–1616 · English playwright — the words are Juliet’s, in Romeo and Juliet
Verified in the 1597 quarto — but compressed, and the “name/word” variant is real. Free to reuse

Confirmed in the primary text: Juliet speaks it in Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2, and the first quarto of 1597 ↗ prints the words “By any other name would smell as sweet.” Two honest caveats travel with it: Shakespeare wrote it as two lines, not one, and the 1599 second quarto and the 1623 First Folio both read “word” where the popular version reads “name.”

Last verified 29 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Verified quote & credit

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” Juliet, in William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2. "Name" is the reading of the first quarto (London, 1597); the 1599 second quarto and the 1623 First Folio read "by any other word would smell as sweete." — Quotle.info

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In context

Evoking the world of William Shakespeare — English playwright, poet and actor. Theme: "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

Where the line actually comes from

Work
Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2
Speaker
Juliet, at an upstairs window in her father’s orchard
Written
Between 1591 and 1595
First printed
Quarto 1, London, 1597 (“name”) — then Quarto 2, 1599 (“word”)

Tis but thy name that is mine enemie. / Whats Mountague? It is nor hand nor foote, / Nor arme, nor face, nor any other part. / Whats in a name? That which we call a Rose, / By any other name would smell as sweet: / So Romeo would, were he not Romeo cald, Quarto 1, 1597 — original spelling

Juliet’s speech as printed in the 1597 first quarto (old-spelling text, Internet Shakespeare Editions ↗). The 1599 second quarto — the basis of nearly every modern edition — runs the middle of the passage differently (“ô be some other name / Belonging to a man”) and ends the line “By any other word would smell as sweete.”

First quarto facsimile, 1597
Browse the 1597 quarto facsimile (British Library copy C.34.k.55)
Juliet’s speech in the 1597 first quarto, Internet Shakespeare Editions

The paper trail, in order

Public domain

Romeo and Juliet was first printed in London in 1597 and again in 1599, so the play’s text — including this line in its original spelling — has long been in the public domain in the United States and is free to quote in full. Only the editorial apparatus of a particular modern edition (its spelling, punctuation, line numbering and notes) can carry a current copyright; Shakespeare’s words cannot.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Right author, tidied-up line

Nobody seriously doubts this one is Shakespeare’s — and that is unusual for a quotation this famous. What has drifted is everything around the attribution: the shape of the sentence, one of its key words, who says it, and where.

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” Compressed

Shakespeare wrote a question and its answer across two lines: “Whats in a name? That which we call a Rose, / By any other name would smell as sweet” (Quarto 1, 1597 ↗). The proverb drops “What’s in a name? That which we call” and flattens the argument into a slogan.

“name” — or “word” Textual variant

“Name” is the 1597 first-quarto reading. The 1599 second quarto ↗ and the 1623 First Folio ↗ read “word,” and Wikiquote ↗ notes the 1609 quarto does too — so the Folger’s modern text ↗, built on Q2, prints “word.”

Romeo Wrong character

It is Juliet’s line, spoken about Romeo’s surname while he stands unseen below and listens — see the Folger text of Act 2, Scene 2 ↗.

“the balcony scene” Later invention

Shakespeare put Juliet at a window in the orchard, not on a balcony. Per Mental Floss ↗, citing Merriam-Webster, the earliest known English use of the word — spelled balcone — is 1618, after the play was written and after Shakespeare died in 1616.

Genuine Shakespeare, lightly re-tailored in transit: two of Juliet’s lines in Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2, squeezed into one modern proverb, with the 1597 quarto’s “name” standing where the 1599 quarto and the First Folio say “word” (the 1597 text ↗).

Context

Why the line survives in two words

Juliet is at an upstairs window in her father’s orchard, alone as far as she knows, working out loud on a problem with no solution: the only thing wrong with Romeo is his surname. Her argument is that a name is a label stuck on the outside of a thing, detachable without loss — hand, foot, arm, face are all real, but “Montague” is not. The rose is her proof. The rest of the play is the counter-argument: the names turn out to be lethal.

There is a quiet irony in the afterlife of the line. The most quoted sentence in English about how little a name matters has itself come down to us under two different words. The 1597 quarto ↗ says “name.” The 1599 quarto ↗ says “word.” Popular memory picked “name,” and scholarly editions largely picked “word.”

The most famous line about how little a name matters survives in two different words.

The two early texts, and where the familiar version comes from

Romeo and Juliet was first printed as a quarto in 1597 (Q1) and again in 1599 (Q2). The Folger Shakespeare Library ↗ describes Q1 as markedly different from every later early printing — shorter, with a radically different wedding scene — and Q2 as apparently deriving from a different source, which is why Q2 underlies most modern editions, the Folger’s included. Wikipedia ↗ notes Q2 runs roughly 800 lines longer than Q1.

In Q1 the passage is also shorter: Juliet goes “Whats Mountague? It is nor hand nor foote, / Nor arme, nor face, nor any other part” straight into the rose. Q2 replaces that last half-line with “ô be some other name / Belonging to a man” — and then says “word.” Wikipedia’s article on the phrase makes the sharp point that no printing from Shakespeare’s lifetime gives the passage in the form modern readers know ↗, and credits the familiar amalgam of the two texts to the eighteenth-century editor Edmond Malone.

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Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

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Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Romeo and Juliet (Quarto 1, 1597), Act 2, Scene 2internetshakespeare.uvic.ca

Old-spelling text of the first quarto, edited by Roger Apfelbaum — the printing that reads “By any other name would smell as sweet.”
Romeo and Juliet (Quarto 2, 1599), Act 2, Scene 2internetshakespeare.uvic.ca

The 1599 text, which reads “By any other word would smell as sweete” and underlies most modern editions.
Romeo and Juliet (Folio 1, 1623), Act 2, Scene 2internetshakespeare.uvic.ca

The First Folio text of the scene, which also prints “word” rather than “name.”
Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2 (Folger edition)www.folger.edu

The Folger’s freely readable modern edited text, built on Q2 — useful for seeing a scholarly edition print “word.”
Wikiquote: Romeo and Julieten.wikiquote.org

Sourced quotations from the play, with the footnote recording that “name” is “word” in the Folio and the 1609 quarto.
Romeo and Juliet: parallel texts of the first two quartos, Q1 1597 – Q2 1599archive.org

P. A. Daniel’s 1874 parallel-text edition (New Shakspere Society), which prints the 1597 and 1599 versions side by side.

The author

About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

1564–1616 · English playwright, poet and actor

William Shakespeare (c. 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor, and a part-owner of the company that staged his plays. Romeo and Juliet is early work — written between 1591 and 1595, and in print by 1597 — which is precisely why it survives in two markedly different early texts, and why this line survives in two different words. The rose is not Shakespeare speaking in his own voice: it is Juliet, at a window, arguing that a surname is a detachable accident.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

William Shakespeare, An Excellent Conceited Tragedie of Romeo and Iuliet (London: John Danter, 1597), Act 2, Scene 2: “Whats in a name? That which we call a Rose, / By any other name would smell as sweet.” Old-spelling text: Internet Shakespeare Editions, Romeo and Juliet (Quarto 1, 1597), ed. Roger Apfelbaum. The 1599 second quarto, the 1609 quarto and the 1623 First Folio instead read “By any other word would smell as sweete.”

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘A rose by any other name would smell as sweet’?” Last verified 29 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/a-rose-by-any-other-name-would-smell-as-sweet/

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