Enter TYBALT TYBALT          What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds? Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death. BENVOLIO      I do but keep the peace. Put up thy sword, Or manage it to part these men with me. TYBALT          What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, […]

BENVOLIO      Part, fools! Put up your swords, you know not what you do. [Beats down their swords.] (1.1.55-6SD) With Benvolio’s intervention, the increasingly rhythmic prose of the servingmen’s exchange – perhaps via the clash of swords – solidifies into blank verse, the first in the play. The pulse of the iamb, the beat of weapons: […]

GREGORY       Do you quarrel, sir? ABRAM           Quarrel, sir? No, sir. SAMPSON       But if you do, sir, I am for you. I serve as good a man as you. ABRAM           No better. SAMPSON       Well, sir.                                                 Enter BENVOLIO GREGORY       [Aside to Sampson] Say ‘better’, here comes one of my master’s kinsmen. SAMPSON       Yes, better, sir. ABRAM           […]

ABRAM           Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? SAMPSON       I do bite my thumb, sir. ABRAM           Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? SAMPSON       [Aside to Gregory] Is it the law of our side if I say ay? GREGORY       [Aside to Sampson] No. SAMPSON       No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at […]

SAMPSON       My naked weapon is out. Quarrel, I will back thee. GREGORY       How, turn thy back and run? SAMPSON       Fear me not. GREGORY       No, marry, I fear thee! SAMPSON       Let us take the law of our sides, let them begin. GREGORY       I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as they […]

GREGORY       The quarrel is between our masters, and us their men. SAMPSON       ’Tis all one, I will show myself a tyrant: when I have fought with the men, I will be civil with the maids; I will cut off their heads. GREGORY       The heads of the maids? SAMPSON       Ay, the heads of the maids, or […]

SAMPSON       I strike quickly, being moved. GREGORY       But thou are not quickly moved to strike. SAMPSON       A dog of the house of Montague moves me. GREGORY       To move is to stir, and to be valiant is to stand: therefore if thou art moved thou runn’st away. SAMPSON       A dog of that house shall move me […]

Enter SAMPSON and GREGORY, with swords and bucklers, of the house of Capulet SAMPSON       Gregory, on my word, we’ll not carry coals. GREGORY       No, for then we should be colliers. SAMPSON       I mean, an we be in choler, we’ll draw. GREGORY       Ay, while you live, draw your neck out of collar. (1.1.1-4)   Despite the […]

Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona (where we lay our scene), From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Doth with their death bury their […]

I’m in the early stages of preparing to write a new introduction for Romeo and Juliet in the New Cambridge Shakespeare series (Cambridge University Press). I’m planning to write about the play every day in 2018, a few lines at a time. I will also be posting links to other resources, especially reviews and other […]