The transition to the third act also marks a transition from a theme of love to a theme of hate. Mercutio, Benvolio, and others are walking down a street in Verona. The day is an extremely hot one, and many people often get moody and irritable on such days. So, Benvolio warns Mercutio that they should go some place private to avoid meeting any of the Capulets. Benvolio also uses the expression “mad blood stirring” to indicate how people get angry without reason on such hot days (line 4).
The reader may note at this point how
Mercutio’s dialogue is written in prose, in contrast to Benvolio’s poetry. The usually clever and witty Mercutio is indeed affected by the scorching weather, and he is rather hot-tempered or testy. Mercutio has a mercurial nature, meaning that his character or personality may quickly change. Mercutio is no longer the jesting and fun-seeking humorist at this point in the play.
Ironically, Mercutio accuses Benvolio of being quick-tempered and irritable. Mercutio still is somewhat witty, and he uses the simile of a man in a tavern to describe Benvolio (lines 5-9). Before he begins drinking, the man puts his sword down and prays that he will have no need of it. Yet after he has had a drink or two, he draws his sword on the server (or waiter) even though there is no reason to do so. Drinking has caused the man to become irritable, angry, and irrational. Mercutio also accuses Benvolio of seeking quarrels with men for arbitrary and unjustified reasons: for example, he asserts that Benvolio fought with a tailor because he did not like the way the tailor was dressed (lines 2526). Benvolio, though, is much cooler than that and denies the accusation. Mercutio, in all likelihood, is actually describing himself; and, as events in the scene will soon clearly reveal, Mercutio is far hotter and angrier than Benvolio.
A few moments later Tybalt and other members of the Capulet household approach Mercutio and Benvolio. The hot Mercutio quickly attempts to goad or provoke Tybalt into a fight. Tybalt, who is still angry that Romeo attended the Capulet feast the previous night, wants to challenge Romeo to a fight, not Mercutio. However, Tybalt knows that Mercutio is Romeo’s friend:
Mercutio, thou consort’st with Romeo. (40)
The word consort, as Tybalt intends it, means to associate with or to accompany. But the witty but angry Mercutio accepts the word as a clever pun (as the word concert) meaning to play in a band. Mercutio is looking for a slight reason to become justified in fighting with Tybalt, and he thus accuses Capulet’s nephew of insulting him and Romeo by calling them lowly musicians or minstrels. Mercutio then reaches for his sword, which he calls a fiddlestick (another term for the bow of a violin, and thus in keeping with the puns on musicians).
Benvolio tries to intervene and make the mad Mercutio and the equally mad Tybalt see sense. But then Romeo enters, and Tybalt calls him a “villain” (56). The word villain is an insulting and derisive term meaning lowly, base, and scoundrel. In other circumstances, Romeo would be greatly bothered by this term that insults his honor. However, he has just married Juliet; and so he has become Tybalt’s cousin by marriage. The last thing Romeo wants is a fight with the Capulets.
Romeo thus overlooks the insult, but
Mercutio does not. If Romeo will not defend his own honor, then Mercutio is ready to use that as an excuse to fight. Mercutio thus draws his sword and insults Tybalt by calling him the “King of Cats” (72). Mercutio could be alluding to his earlier description of Tybalt (in Act II, Scene 3). Cats are agile and dexterous creatures, and Mercutio had earlier commented that Tybalt is an excellent swordsman. But cats are also finicky and fussy at times, perhaps not unlike the “antic men” that Mercutio so dislikes. One critic even notes how the word cats is like the Italian word cazzo (which is a sexually suggestive word and can be used for an insult). Mercutio could pronounce the word like the Italian one; but even if he does not, his anger and his intention to insult Tybalt is clearly evident. Mercutio then adds that he intends to kill one of Tybalt’s lives (from the proverbial idea that a cat has nine lives) and thoroughly thrash the other eight lives. Tybalt draws his sword in response, and the two begin to fight.
Romeo wishes the fight to stop, and he comes between the two men. The crafty Tybalt uses the opportunity to thrust his sword beneath Romeo’s arm and stab Mercutio. Mercutio is fatally wounded, and Tybalt then runs off.
Mercutio is dying, and he curses both the house of the Montagues and the house of the Capulets:
A plague o’ both your houses. (87 and 95)
Mercutio blames Romeo for coming between them and thus giving Tybalt the opportunity to strike him.
Thus, he blames both the Montagues and the Capulets for his death. Even as he lies dying, Mercutio cannot resist delivering one more pun: “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man” (93-94). The word grave means (1) serious and (2) dead – a man in his grave. Mercutio will be witty no longer (but serious forever more), for he will be dead.
Once again passion becomes too strong for reason to restrain. Once again passion wins in the conflict between reason and emotion. Romeo is overcome with sorrow because of the loss of his dear and close friend, and he seeks revenge. He soon fights with Tybalt, and he kills him in that conflict. Only then does reason return to Romeo, and he declares …
O, I am fortune’s fool. (131)
Fate (or destiny) has once again interfered in Romeo’s life and turned the young man into a foolish puppet or figure of ridicule. The stars are once again crossed in regards to Romeo’s life.
At Benvolio’s urging, Romeo then runs off. Shortly thereafter, the Prince of Verona and the elder members of the Capulet and Montague households arrive. The Prince is doubly angry over the death that has just occurred. Not only has the ancient feud again caused trouble and death in Verona, but this time the Prince’s own kinsman has died (Mercutio was the Prince’s cousin). Although Tybalt was responsible for killing Mercutio and although Romeo’s killing of Tybalt was an act that the forces of law would have done themselves, the Prince still must punish Romeo for the crime that he committed. And, so, the Prince banishes Romeo. The Prince declares that if Romeo is found in Verona again, then his life will be forfeit. Romeo thus must leave his home while Juliet remains there.
Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
Towards Phoebus’ lodging. Such a waggoner As Phaëton would whip you to the west, And bring in cloudy night immediately.
Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, That runaway’s eyes may wink and Romeo Leap to these arms untalk’d of and unseen.
Lovers can see to do their amorous rites
By their own beauties; or, if love be blind,
It best agrees with night. Come, civil night,
Thou sober-suited matron all in black, And learn me how to lose a winning match Played for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.
Hood my unmanned blood, bating in my cheeks, With thy black mantle; till strange love, grown bold, Think true love acted simple modesty.
Come night, come Romeo; come, thou day in night, For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night Whiter than new snow on a raven’s back.
Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-browed night,
Give me my Romeo, and when I shall die
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun.
O, I have bought the mansion of a love
But not possessed it, and, though I am sold,
Not yet enjoyed. So tedious is this day
As is the night before some festival
To an impatient child that hath new robes
And may not wear them. (1-31)
Juliet is at home and waiting for the coming of night. Now that she is married to Romeo, she wishes to consummate that marriage: she wants to spend her honeymoon night with her husband. Once again Juliet complains about the slowness of time. She is anxious and excited, as any young person would naturally be. Juliet directly addresses the sun, as the Roman god Phoebus Apollo, and urges him to hurry his winged chariot across the sky. She also makes an allusion to the story of Phaëton. In the myth, Phaëton, the son of Apollo, takes his father’s sun chariot into the sky; but Phaëton cannot control the powerful horses that pull the chariot, and he nearly crashes the sun into the earth. Before he can destroy the earth, Jupiter (the Roman god equivalent to the Greek god Zeus) blasts Phaëton with a lightning bolt. Juliet would like the sun to hurry with the speed that a younger chariot-driver, like Phaëton, would command. Such speed, though, is rash, wild, and reckless. Juliet also has the emotions of rashness, wildness, and recklessness that accompany her strong desire to be with Romeo.
Juliet also describes night with the metaphor of a black curtain that will hide her and her lover Romeo from the sight of any onlookers. Night is also personified as a somber or serious woman dressed in black (line 11). Night wears black, like a widow, because she has lost her partner, the Day. But a widow or matron is also a woman who has experience of honeymoons and sexuality. Thus, Juliet asks the widow Night to teach her “how to lose a winning match” (12).
Juliet is of course losing both her single status as well as her virginity, but she is winning a husband, who has a winning or charming personality. The “pair of stainless maidenhoods” suggests that both she and Romeo are both pure and good and innocent virgins.
In her poem or address to night, Juliet also employs a falconry metaphor (starting at line 14). Falcons would be trained for hunting purposes, and often hoods would be placed over their heads when the falcons were not in use. Juliet asks for the hood of night to cover her “unmanned blood.” There is a double meaning in this expression. (1) The word unmanned suggests being wild, like a falcon that is not controlled by a man. Juliet has wild or excited blood. But (2) the word unmanned also suggests virginity. Juliet’s blood has not yet been touched by a man. Juliet believes that during the night she will come to learn that “true love acted” (meaning the act of sex) is innocent and virtuous.
Juliet continues by expressing the idea that Romeo’s arrival will bring whiteness or goodness to the black of night; and she adds that Romeo is so bright and good that when he dies, the goddess Night can cut him into many fine pieces and spread him out in the night sky like dozens or hundreds of beautiful stars that will illuminate the night sky and outshine the sun. The idea suggests a metamorphosis or transformation similar to those found in The Metamorphoses by the Roman writer Ovid. Shakespeare, through Juliet, may specifically be referring to the story of Ganymede. Ganymede was a mortal youth admired by Zeus (or Jupiter). When Ganymede died, Zeus raised him to the heavens to serve as his cupbearer. In another version of the tale, Zeus placed Ganymede in the sky as the constellation Aquarius. A moon of Jupiter (the planet named for Zeus's Roman counterpart) was also named Ganymede by the astronomer Simon Marius (although this occurred in 1614, quite a few years after Romeo and Juliet was written). Juliet clearly wants to honor Romeo in the same manner that Zeus honored Ganymede. Yet, in Juliet’s tribute, Romeo outshines Ganymede, the sun, and all of the other stars in the heavens.
Then, Juliet, in her poem to the Night, uses a real estate metaphor. She has bought a mansion of love, but she has not possessed or enjoyed that mansion yet (because, although she is married, she has not yet slept with Romeo). To complicate the comparison, Juliet is also the sold house. She has “sold” or given away her hand in marriage, but Romeo has not yet enjoyed or possessed the house yet: Romeo has not yet slept with Juliet.
Juliet ends her poem by describing herself as an impatient child anxious and excited to try on the new clothes that have just recently been purchased. The day is “tedious” to her: she thinks the night will never arrive.
Juliet’s soliloquy follows the pattern of the serena. Traditionally, a serena is a song of a lover waiting impatiently for the evening (in order to consummate his love). The serena was a type or genre of late medieval lyric poetry (or troubadour poetry). The term is ironic since the lover is anything but serene or calm. Later (in Act III, Scene 5), Shakespeare will employ another example of lyric love poetry, the alba. Shakespeare thus weaves into his great play about love many forms of traditional love poetry (the sonnet, the serena, and the alba being the most prominent).