Download ACT 1, SCENE 5

ACT 1, SCENE 5
The feast; Tybalt’s anger at Romeo’s
presence; the Pilgrim Sonnet.
INSIDE THE CAPULET house, as two servants clear the
dishes, they
complain about the lack of help from another servant,
called Potpan.
The second servant exits as another servant, Antony,
enters with Potpan.
Potpan is cheerful and suggests the other servants cheer
up as well.
Meanwhile, Capulet welcomes Romeo and his friends with
assurances
that the ladies will dance with them. He directs the musici
ans to play
and the guests to dance, then sits down to reminisce with
his cousin.
Romeo notices Juliet and is spellbound. He asks a nearby
servant who she is. The
servant, perhaps hired help, doesn’t know. Romeo waxes
poetic about Juliet’s
beauty. He compares her to the torches, to a rich jewel
and to a dove. Renouncing
ever having loved before, he resolves to go near her
and hold her hand. Tybalt
recognizes the voice of a Montague and calls for his rapier.
Capulet asks why Tybalt
is angr. He responds that a Montague, their enemy,
has come to mock them.
Capulet recognizes Romeo and demands Tybalt settle clown,
pointing out
that Romeo is behaving well and hasa good reputation
in Verona.
Tybalt says that he wont tolerate a
Montague in the house. As master of
the house. capulet chides his nephew.
saying he will cause a riot. When
Tybalt resists further, Capulet calls him
a “saucy boy” and says that acting this
way will get him into trouble. Capulet
alternates between scolding Tyhalt and
speaking cheerfully to his guests. In an
aside, Tybalt says that he will leave,
but vows to punish this intrusion later.
Romeo pushes the metaphor. asking
Juliet to grant his prayer for a kiss,
to which she agrees.
Juliet is called away to her mother
by the Nurse, Romeo asks the
Nurse the identity of Juliet’s mother
ancl learns she is Lady Capulet.
Romeo bemoans this, saying he
now owes his life to his enemy.
Benvolio suggests they leave, since
the festivities are nearly over, and
Romeo agrees. capulet urges them
to stay, but they gracefully decline.
In sharp contrast to this violence,
Romeo takes Juliet’s hand and speaks
the first lines of the famous Pilgrim
sonnet. considered 1w many the most
As the guests are leaving, Juliet asks
romantic passage in all of theater. In
the Nurse the identity of each,
alternating lines, Shakespeare puns ‘on covertly trying
to find out Romeo’s
the name “Romeo’ (meaning “Pilgrim”) name. Juliet
learns this from the
as the two lovers share the conceit that Nurse and discov
ers he is a
Juliet is a holy statue and Romeo a
Montague. She laments, leaving
reverent pilgrim.
together with the Nurse.
SONNET
The tightly controlled,
highly structured
poetic form of the
Elizabethan Sonnet did
constant battle against
its desperately
sentimental metaphors.
Shakespeare exploited
its volatile potentiality
as the perfect medium
to express the
thunderbolt of Romeo
and luliet’s first
encounter.
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