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Prince Escalus

Romeo and Juliet

A Plague and a Scourge

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Mercutio’s curse, “A plague o’ both your houses!” is fulfilled, although not literally. Despite the numerous ways scores of characters die in Shakespeare’s plays, no one in this play or any other Shakespeare play dies of the plague. But the plague is the proximate cause of Romeo’s and Juliet’s deaths.  When Friar Lawrence sends Friar John to deliver a letter to Romeo telling him of Juliet’s fake death,
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Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace

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Prince
Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
Profaners of this neighbor-stainèd steel—
Will they not hear?—What ho! You men, you beasts,
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins:

Three civil brawls bred of an airy word
By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets

On pain of torture,
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Source:
Act 1
Scene 1
Line 83

Source Type:

Spoken by:

Benvolio, who began this bloody fray?

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Prince
Benvolio, who began this bloody fray?
Benvolio
Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo’s hand did slay—
Romeo, that spoke him fair, bid him bethink
How nice the quarrel was, and urged withal
Your high displeasure.

Let Romeo hence in haste,
Else, when he is found, that hour is his last.

All this utterèd
With gentle breath,
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Source:
Act 3
Scene 1
Line 159

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Spoken by:
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What misadventure is so early up

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Prince
What misadventure is so early up
That calls our person from our morning rest?
  Enter Capulet and Lady Capulet.
Capulet
What should it be that is so shrieked abroad?
Lady Capulet
O, the people in the street cry “Romeo,”
Some “Juliet,” and some “Paris,” and all run
With open outcry toward our monument.
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Source:
Act 5
Scene 3
Line 195

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Spoken by:
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I will be brief, for my short date of breath Is not so long as is a tedious tale

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Friar Lawrence
I will be brief, for my short date of breath
Is not so long as is a tedious tale.
Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet,
And she, there dead, that Romeo’s faithful wife.

We still have known thee for a holy man.—

I married them, and their stol’n marriage day
Was Tybalt’s doomsday,
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Source:
Act 5
Scene 3
Line 238

Source Type:

Spoken by:
,

Where be these enemies?—Capulet, Montague,

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Where be these enemies?—Capulet, Montague,
See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love,Paradox
And I, for winking at your discords too,
Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished.

See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love

Capulet
O brother Montague,
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Source:
Act 5
Scene 3
Line 301

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Spoken by:
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Themes:
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Figures of Speech:

Connected Notes:
A Plague and a Scourge, Unhappy Fortune! The Plague in the Plays

A glooming peace this morning with it brings

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A glooming peace this morning with it brings,Metaphor & Hyperbaton
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head.Personification and Alliteration
Go hence to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon’d, and some punishèd:Alliteration & Ellipsis
For never was a story of more woeEllipsis
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
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