Prince Escalus
Romeo and Juliet
Notes on Prince Escalus
A Plague and a Scourge
Read the NoteMercutio’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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Quotes spoken by the character Prince Escalus
Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace
Read the QuoteRebellious 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:
On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground,
And hear the sentence of your movèd prince.
Three civil brawls bred of an airy word
By thee,
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Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague!
Read the QuoteWhere 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 punish’d.
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A glooming peace this morning with it brings
Read the SonnetA 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 punishéd:Alliteration & Ellipsis
For never was a story of more woeEllipsis
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.