LADY CAPULET         He is a kinsman to the Montague,

                                    Affection makes him false, he speaks not true:

                                    Some twenty of them fought in this black strife,

                                    And all those twenty could but kill one life.

                                    I beg for justice, which thou, Prince, must give:

                                    Romeo slew Tybalt, Romeo must not live. (3.1.167-172)

It’s Lady Capulet who gets in first, though, continuing the rhyming couplets and spitting out her wildly inaccurate accusations. We were already on Benvolio’s side, and Romeo’s; Lady Capulet is not helping Tybalt’s cause here, even as we imagine her gesturing wildly to Benvolio, to the body, and to the Prince. She is, perhaps, on her knees beside Tybalt’s corpse. She can’t bring herself to name Benvolio (also, obviously, it would mess up the metre), but the couplet allows her to make the crucial association: Montague/ not true. (In the balcony scene, Juliet has said to Romeo, Sweet Montague, be true!) The Montague here is Romeo, of course, but also his father, who is right there in the scene, and by extension the whole clan. (Exhaustion, Baz, and perhaps anticipation of what’s coming up next week – the next scene is a big deal – are encouraging me to read it as The Montague, who is a big guy in construction and absolutely not to be messed around.) Strictly speaking, of course, Benvolio has been swayed by his affection, playing down Mercutio’s part in the fight. But he’s right about Romeo. And Lady Capulet undermines her own cause with the hysterical accusation (and I think that awkwardly gendered term is appropriate here) that there were twenty people involved in a brawl, with the implication that it would have taken so many to kill Tybalt because he was such an amazing swordsman. It also doesn’t help that she’s ordering the Prince around, with her musts. But, again, the couplet makes it stark: the Prince’s own justice, according to his previous statement, decrees that Romeo’s life is now forfeit. And, again, there is that reminder: Romeo has killed a man. Do we think of Juliet? perhaps it’s another reason why her mother is so prominent at this moment of crisis. The tension increases, as everyone waits for the Prince to decide.