‘Therefore use none. Let Romeo hence in haste,
Else, when he’s found, that hour is his last.
Bear hence his body, and attend our will.
Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.’
In Act 1 Scene 5, when Romeo is speaking to Juliet, we learn from the words he uses that he is both an educated and a very romantic young man.
‘If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this,
My lips two blushing pilgrims ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.’
Within these few lines Romeo flatters Juliet and shows his eloquence with the comparison to blushing pilgrims and the contrast painted between the rough touch and the tender kiss. As Romeo is also an important character, he speaks in an embellished way and the text is set out on the page accordingly. The poetic words are set out like a poem.
In contrast to the noble characters’ elegant way of speaking, the servants of these families were not very well educated thus their speech is more ordinary and straightforward. In Act 3 Scene 3 nurse says ‘O Lord I could have stayed here all night to hear good counsel. O what learning is! My lord, I’ll tell my lady you will come.’
Though it may still sound unusual to us, it is simpler than the noble characters’ speech. The servants’ speeches in general tend to be shorter and more conversational and not laid out on the page like poetry. In Act 1 Scene 5 Gregory says ‘When good manners shall lie all in one or two men’s hands, and they unwashed too, ‘tis a foul thing.’ From this you can see that the way the servingmens’ speech is laid out, it is simpler and less structured.
I know that Shakespeare is a very important playwright as much of his language is still in common use today. If you mention ‘Romeo and Juliet’ to most people, the following quote will undoubtedly spring to mind.
‘O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’ This is from Act 2 Scene 2 as are these, often misquoted, lines.
‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.’
There are many other phrases used everyday that most people don’t even realise are from Shakespeare’s plays. For example phrases such as: ‘it’s Greek to me’, ‘vanished into thin air’, ‘green-eyed jealousy’, ‘tongue-tied’, ‘foregone conclusion’, ‘dead as a doornail’, and even ‘what the dickens!’ which I always though was connected to Charles Dickens, and many more, were all first used by Shakespeare.
One of the joys of reading Shakespeare is the diverse language and plays on words that he uses and ‘Romeo and Juliet is no exception to this. Although to the modern reader it can take some effort to understand all of the jokes, they are often worth the work. An example of this is in the opening scene where Sampson and Gregory are conversing with one and other.
‘Sampson: Gregory, on my word we shall 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.’
The opening remark about coals is taken up in the word ‘colliers’ and then the two characters banter back and forth with the similar sounding words ‘choler’ and ‘collar’.
Likewise in Act 1, Scene 1, quite soon after they say
‘Sampson: ‘Tis all one. I will show myself a tyrant. When I have fought with the men, I will be cruel with the maids – I will cut off their heads.
Gregory : The heads of the maids?
Sampson: Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads – take it in what sense thou wilt.’
In this exchange Sampson is being lewd as maidenhead means virginity and it is a play on words from ‘heads of the maids’.
Later In Act 1, Scene 3 when the nurse says
‘Thou wast the prettiest babe e’er I nursed. And I might live to see thee married once, I have my wish.’ Lady Capulet replies
‘Marry, that ‘marry’ is the very theme I came to talk of.’
Here ‘Marry’ is being used as an exclamation of surprise, and was a clever link by Lady Capulet into the subject of marriage which she wished to discuss. It is interesting to note that although Shakespeare marks the differences in speech patterns between the wealthy and the servants, he puts puns into the mouths of all his characters. It is also noteworthy that he includes so much humour and word play into what is actually one of his greatest tragedies. This undoubtedly helped to keep his audiences attention and would also have provided comic relief from the tragedy that was unfolding.
In addition to the many puns throughout Shakespeare’s work he also uses his gifts with language in other ways. Oxymorons, in which two opposing ideas are combined, are frequently used. As for example in Act 2, Scene 2 when Juliet says ‘Parting is such sweet sorrow’. By this she means that she is sorrowful when they part, but if they didn’t part then they wouldn’t have the joy of seeing each other again. In Act 2 Scene 3 Father Lawrence’s opening speech deals with the power of plants and their possible use for good or evil. The speech ends with the lines
‘Virtue itself turns vice being misapplied,
And vice sometime’s by action dignified.’
He is using the contrast between virtue and vice to make the point that sometimes a bad thing can be done for a good purpose, in this case the use of a dangerous plant to make the appearance of death. Shakespeare also makes full use of metaphors, a figure of speech in which he describes something as if it was something else, for example in Act 2 Scene 1 when Romeo is gazing up at Juliet and says
‘But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.’
Later when Capulet is furious with Juliet because she refuses to marry Paris, he disowns her saying
‘Graze where you will, you shall not house with me.’
He is showing his disgust with her by speaking to her as if she were an animal. Finally Shakespeare makes frequent use of similes throughout the play particularly in the more poetic speeches of the main characters. Again when Romeo is gazing at Juliet in Act 2 Scene 2, he says
‘As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright’.
In the same scene Juliet later replies
‘My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee.’
Their matching speech patterns show how well suited they were to each other.
To conclude ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was set in a time of arranged marriages, a concept which would still have been common in Shakespeare’s time among the rich, and against a background of violence which sets the scene for the unfolding tragedy. The cast of characters includes both rich and poor and Shakespeare makes clear the divisions by his clever use of words. Thus we see in the play the contrast between the bawdy badinage of the servants and some of the most poetic and romantic language to be found in any of Shakespeare’s plays. Shakespeare’s love of language is apparent throughout the play in the frequent use of puns, oxymorons, metaphors and similes. Even today nearly all of us know some lines from ‘Romeo and Juliet’, even if we don’t realise it and the names Romeo and Juliet are synonymous with star crossed or starry eyes lovers.