The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Act 1: Scene 4 and Scene 5

Elements of Literature pp. 785-804Created by Mrs. Ariana Tivis and Mrs. Emmett for

English 9

Objectives

• Read Shakespeare’s poetry

• Evaluate the plot’s structure and development, and the way in which conflicts are resolved.

Puns

• What is a pun?

• Scene 1 of Act 1 begins with Sampson and Gregory making puns.

Universal Themes and Topics

• Although the action of this play takes place in Italy in the 14th century, we can recognize similarities between the culture of that time and that of our own. Which conflicts in Act 1 could you imagine taking place today? What details would have to change if any?

Do you bite your thumb at me?!

• "Biting one's thumb"• In the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet, Capulet's

servant Sampson precipitates a brawl by biting his thumb at Montague's servant Abram. In the scene it appears that biting one's thumb in Verona is a non-verbal equivalent of fighting words, probably similar to the middle finger gesture. Sampson explains the meaning of the gesture to his companion Gregory, indicating that the gesture would have been unfamiliar even to the original audience of the play. The play does not describe the gesture in detail, but in performances of the play it is often enacted by placing the thumb upright (as in a "thumbs up" sign) just behind the upper incisors, then flicking the thumb outward in the direction of person the gesture is meant to insult. This is a traditional Sicilian insult meaning 'to heck with you'.

Act 1: Scene 4

• Parts/Characters:

Mercutio:

Benvolio:

Romeo:

• Scene 4. • A street.         Enter ROMEO, MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, with five or

six other                  MASKERS; TORCHBEARERS.

•         Romeo.•              What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse?°

            Or shall we on without apology?•         Benvolio.•             The date is out of such prolixity.°

            We’ll have no Cupid hoodwinked° with a scarf,     5      Bearing a Tartar’s painted bow of lath,             Scaring the ladies like a crowkeeper;°            Nor no without-book prologue,° faintly spoke             After the prompter, for our entrance;             But, let them measure° us by what they will,    10      We’ll measure them a measure° and be gone.

•         Romeo.•             Give me a torch. I am not for this ambling. 

            Being but heavy, I will bear the light.

• Mercutio. •              Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.•          Romeo.•             Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes

15        With nimble soles; I have a soul of lead             So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.

•          Mercutio. •             You are a lover. Borrow Cupid’s wings 

            And soar with them above a common bound.•          Romeo. •             I am too sore enpiercèd with his shaft

20        To soar with his light feathers; and so bound             I cannot bound a pitch° above dull woe.             Under love’s heavy burden do I sink.

•          Mercutio. •             And, to sink in it, should you burden love—

            Too great oppression for a tender thing.

•          Romeo. • 25        Is love a tender thing? It is too rough,•             Too rude, too boist’rous, and it pricks like thorn.

• Mercutio. •              If love be rough with you, be rough with love; 

             Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.              Give me a case to put my visage in.

• 30         A visor° for a visor! What care I              What curious eye doth quote deformities?°             Here are the beetle brows shall blush° for me.        

• Benvolio. •              Come,knock and enter; and no sooner in 

             But every man betake him to his legs.°          • Romeo. • 35         A torch for me! Let wantons light of heart 

             Tickle the senseless rushes° with their heels;              For I am proverbed with a grandsire phrase,°             I’ll be a candleholder and look on;              The game was ne’er so fair, and I am done.°         Mercutio.40        Tut! Dun’s the mouse, the constable’s own word!            If thou art Dun,° we’ll draw thee from the mire             Of this sir-reverence love,° wherein thou stickest             Upon to the ears. Come, we burn daylight, ho! 

• Romeo. •              Nay, that’s not so.    •     Mercutio.               I mean, sir, in delay

45        We waste our lights° in vain, like lights by day.             Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits             Five times in that° ere once in our five wits.

•         Romeo.•             And we mean well in going to this masque,

            But ’tis no wit° to go.•         Mercutio.                     Why, may one ask?•         Romeo.•             I dreamt a dream tonight.• 50    Mercutio.                     And so did I.•         Romeo.•             Well, what was yours?•         Mercutio.                     That dreamers often lie.•         Romeo.•             In bed asleep, while they do dream things true.

• Mercutio. •             O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you.•             She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes

55        In shape no bigger than an agate stone             On the forefinger of an alderman,             Drawn with a team of little atomies°            Over men’s noses as they lie asleep;             Her wagon spokes made of long spinners’° legs, 60        The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers;             Her traces,° of the smallest spider web;             Her collars, of the moonshine’s wat’ry beams;             Her whip, of cricket’s bone; the lash, of film;°            Her wagoner, a small gray–coated gnat, 65        Not half so big as a round little worm             Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid;°            Her chariot is an empty hazelnut,             Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,             Time out o’ mind the fairies’ coachmakers.

• And in this state she gallops night by night             Through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love;             On courtiers’ knees, that dream on curtsies straight;             O’er lawyers’ fingers, who straight dream on fees;             O’er ladies’ lips, who straight on kisses dream, 75        Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,             Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are.             Sometime she gallops o’er a courtier’s nose,             And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;°            And sometime comes she with a tithe pig’s° tail 80        Tickling a parson’s nose as ’a lies asleep,             Then dreams he of another benefice.°            Sometime she driveth o’er a soldier’s neck,             And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,             Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, 85        Of healths° five fathom deep; and then anon             Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,             And being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two             And sleeps again. This is that very Mab             That plaits the manes of horses in the night 90        And bakes the elflocks° in foul sluttish hairs,             Which once untangled much misfortune bodes.

• This is the hag,° when maids lie on their backs,             That presses them and learns them first to bear,             Making them women of good carriage.°            This is she—

• Romeo.            Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!            Thou talk’st of nothing.

•         Mercutio.                          True, I talk of dreams;             Which are the children of an idle brain,             Begot of nothing but vain fantasy;             Which is as thin of substance as the air, 100      And more inconstant than the wind, who woos             Even now the frozen bosom of the North             And, being angered, puffs away from thence,             Turning his side to the dewdropping South.

•         Benvolio. •             This wind you talk of blows us from ourselves.

105      Supper is done, and we shall come too late.

•  Romeo. •             I fear, too early; for my mind misgives•             Some consequence yet hanging in the stars

            Shall bitterly begin his fearful date             With this night’s revels and expire the term 110      Of a despisèd life, closed in my breast,             By some vile forfeit of untimely death.             But he that hath the steerage of my course             Direct my sail! On, lusty gentlemen!

•         Benvolio. Strike, drum.•         [They march about the stage and retire to one

side.]

Act 1: Scene 4

• A street• Romeo, Mercutio, Benvolio

enter with five or six others. They are going to go to the Capulets’ party. They know they can’t reveal who they are and intend to wear masks. The guys try to talk Romeo into lightening up a little, to dance, and have fun. Romeo is too depressed about his love life and says no.

Foreshadowing

• Romeo reveals that he had a bad dream about coming to this party.

• Mercutio teases him a gives his famous monologue about Queen Mab.

• Read lines 53-94 (pages 807 to 808)

• Queen Mab is sort of a tiny little fairy that rides around in a carriage made of half a hazelnut bringing dreams to people.

• Notice that for each example that Mercutio gives of Queen Mab’s visit, each person ends up dreaming of whatever it is they desire.

• Romeo asks Mercutio to stop talking nonsense.

• What do you think Mercutio means when he says?:

Dreams are “the children of an idle brain,Begot of nothing but vain fantasy;Which is as thin of substance as the air,And more inconstant than the wind, who woosEven not the frozen bosom of the NorthAnd, being angered, puffs away from thence,Turning his side to the dewdropping South.”

Foreshadowing

• Romeo insists that something bad is going to happen and that he will somehow be involved.

Act 1: Scene 5

• The scene opens with servants busily getting ready for the party.

• Capulet enters to welcome his guest and to begin the party. He teases them saying that all of the women that don’t have corns on their feet will be dancing and the ones that are pretending to be shy actually have corns on their feet. He calls out different orders to servants and musicians then sits down with a relative to talk about the old days.

• Across the room Romeo sees Juliet and wants to know who she is and gives the famous speech, “O She doth teach the torches to burn bright!”

• He is in love!!!!

• Romeo had been crying and moping around because he was so in love with Rosaline, but has now suddenly and instantly fallen in love with Juliet.

• What does this indicate to you about Romeo’s personality?

• At this point, Tybalt enters. What did he say?

• Capulet listens as Tybalt complains that a Montague, Romeo, has snuck into the party. Tybalt wants to kill him, but Capulet insistently orders that he be left alone. He even comments that he has heard that Romeo is a good and well-behaved young man.

• Even in the 17th century, people used lines to get dates and inspire love. What does Romeo basically say to Juliet?

• Romeo and Juliet meet.

• Why does Romeo refer to Juliet as a shrine?

• Romeo and Juliet touch palms first, then Romeo makes his move!!! He suggests that “lips should do what hands do”. What was he suggesting that they should do?

The End of Act 1• Romeo discovers that Juliet is

a Capulet and knows that it is going to be a problem.

• Juliet makes the nurse find out who Romeo is. She finds out that he is her worst enemy, a Montague. She also gives some foreshadowing in line 135. What does she say?

Works Cited• “R&J1820.” Commonswikimedia.org. 10 Dec. 2007. 1 July 2009.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:R%26J1820.png

• Calderon, Philip. “Juliet.” 1888. Commonswikimedia.org. 3 Nov. 2008. 1 July 2009. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Juliet_-_Philip_H._Calderon.jpg

• “A receipt [i.e. recipe] for courtship.“ Commonswikimedia.org. 21 June 2009. 1 July 2009. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1805-courtship-caricature.jpg

• Dicksee, Frank Sir. “Romeo and Juliet.” Commonswikimedia.org. 11 Nov. 2008. 1 July 2009. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DickseeRomeoandJuliet.jpg

• Catalano, Courtney. “Friendship-Love.” Commonswikimedia.org. 15 April 2009. 1 July 2009. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Friendship_love.JPG