Lord Capulet Quotes

CAPULET: What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!
LADY CAPULET: A crutch, a crutch! why call you for a sword?
CAPULET: My sword, I say! Old Montague is come,
And flourishes his blade in spite of me.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 1. The elderly patriarch of the Capulets shows himself to be confrontational and ready for a fight when he calls for his long sword. Lady Capulet suggests that her husband is too old for fighting, being more in need of a crutch. Capulet retorts that "Old Montague" (Lord Montague) is flourishing his blade at him. There is a certain amount of sexual innuendo in the references "long sword" and "flourishes his blade."

And too soon marr’d are those so early made.
The earth hath swallow’d all my hopes but she,
She is the hopeful lady of my earth.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 2. Juliet occupies a special place in Capulet’s heart and initially he refuses to marry her to Paris because she is too young. She is his last remaining hope of future generations of descendants, since his other children have died. His affection for Juliet is clear in this passage. Earth is personified because it has the human ability to swallow – it has "swallow’d" all Capulet’s children except Juliet.

But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,
My will to her consent is but a part;
An she agree, within her scope of choice
Lies my consent and fair according voice.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 2. Capulet agrees that Paris may woo his daughter Juliet. But he stresses that even if he consents to the marriage, she has the final say and may exercise her own free will. However, he later changes his mind and tries to force Juliet into a marriage with Paris. The word "heart" in this passage is a metaphor for love.

Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone;
He bears him like a portly gentleman;
And, to say truth, Verona brags of him
To be a virtuous and well-govern’d youth:
I would not for the wealth of all the town
Here in my house do him disparagement.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5. When Tybalt threatens to attack the "villain" Romeo, old Capulet surprisingly leaps to the defense of his Montague enemy. He urges Tybalt to leave Romeo alone and speaks of the well-mannered Romeo having a good reputation throughout Verona. Lord Capulet clearly does not want any trouble or fighting at his ball. This is situational irony, since Capulet would be expected to at least eject the uninvited Romeo Montague.

TYBALT: I’ll not endure him.
CAPULET: He shall be endured:
What, goodman boy! I say, he shall: go to;
Am I the master here, or you? go to.
You’ll not endure him! God shall mend my soul!
You’ll make a mutiny among my guests!

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5. The impulsive and aggressive Tybalt draws his sword to confront Romeo, engaged that he has gatecrashed the Capulet ball. But old Capulet reprimands him and instructs him to let Romeo go. Capulet doesn’t want Tybalt to cause a disturbance among his guests at the ball. This is an example of situational irony, since Capulet has every reason to kick out a hated Montague like Romeo from his party.

Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender
Of my child’s love: I think she will be ruled
In all respects by me; nay, more, I doubt it not.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 4. Lord Capulet, addressing his chosen son-in-law Paris, speaks about daughter Juliet as if she were a hired servant. Obviously used to people doing what he says, he is convinced that she will do what he bids and marry Paris. There is dramatic irony here, since the audience knows that Juliet is already married to Romeo and cannot marry Paris.

In one little body
Thou counterfeit’st a bark, a sea, a wind;
For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is,
Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, thy sighs;
Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them,
Without a sudden calm, will overset
Thy tempest-tossed body.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. When Capulet finds his daughter Juliet weeping he mistakingly thinks that she is mourning Tybalt’s death and appears to be sympathetic. Using an extended and elaborate metaphor, he compares her body to a ship on a storm-tossed sea, her eyes to a sea flowing with tears, and her sighs to the raging winds. What Juliet’s father doesn’t realize is that she is weeping over Romeo being banished from Verona after she secretly married him.

Thank me no thankings, nor, proud me no prouds,
But fettle your fine joints ‘gainst Thursday next,
To go with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you baggage!
You tallow-face!

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. An impatient Capulet shows his disgust and anger at his daughter Juliet for her refusal to marry Paris. Hurling insults, he uses an unpleasant metaphor comparing his teenage daughter to a rotting carcass. He threatens to drag her to church to get married.

Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch!
I tell thee what: get thee to church o’ Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face:
Speak not, reply not, do not answer me;
My fingers itch.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. Capulet directs vicious insults at Juliet after she refuses to marry Paris, a match that he has arranged for her. He believes that her refusal displays a lack of appreciation and gratitude towards him. Verbally abusive, he threatens to disown her if she disobeys him. He becomes so angry that he wants to hit her – "My fingers itch."

God’s bread! it makes me mad:
Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play,
Alone, in company, still my care hath been
To have her match’d: and having now provided
A gentleman of noble parentage,
Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly train’d,
Stuff’d, as they say, with honourable parts,
Proportion’d as one’s thought would wish a man.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. Capulet makes out that he is doing a favor to his ungrateful daughter Juliet by organizing a wedding match with the well-connected, prosperous and handsome Paris. He is angry that Juliet does not appreciate all that he has done to find such a good husband for her.

LORD CAPULET: Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks…
SECOND SERVANT: Marry, sir, ’tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers: therefore he that cannot lick his fingers goes not with me.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 2. Old Capulet orders his servant to hire twenty cooks for the wedding feast. The servant jokes that they must pass his finger licking test to separate the real cooks from the pretend ones. A good cook, he says, is one who tastes and likes his own food by licking his fingers.

Now, afore God! this reverend holy friar,
Our whole city is much bound to him.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 2. A delighted Lord Capulet says that the city owes Friar Laurence a debt, because he wrongly thinks that he is on board with Juliet’s marriage to Paris. But Capulet is not aware that that the Friar has already married Romeo and Juliet without her parents’ blessing. Laurence has also come up with a plan enable Juliet get out of a forced marriage to Paris. Dramatic irony and the theme of appearance vs reality are found in this passage.

Go waken Juliet, go and trim her up;
I’ll go and chat with Paris: hie, make haste,
Make haste; the bridegroom he is come already:
Make haste, I say.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 4. Old Capulet has the last word in the scene as he orders the Nurse to waken Juliet and get her ready for her wedding with Paris. Capulet is very much the organizing force in his daughter’s wedding arrangements in this scene. This passage and the scene are an example of dramatic irony used to create suspense, because the audience knows that the Nurse will be unable to waken Juliet.

Ha! let me see her: out, alas! she’s cold:
Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff;
Life and these lips have long been separated:
Death lies on her like an untimely frost
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 5. Capulet is in disbelief that Juliet is dead. He uses a simile to compare her death to that of a beautiful flower killed by an early frost. Capulet’s language about his daughter has changed considerably since Act 3, Scene 5, when he angrily labeled her a "disobedient wrench!" Now to Capulet Juliet is metaphorically the most beautiful flower in the field. The passage is an example of dramatic irony since the audience knows that Juliet is not dead, but sleeping.

Death, that hath ta’en her hence to make me wail,
Ties up my tongue, and will not let me speak.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 5. The personification of death here emphasizes the extent of Lord Capulet’s grief at the apparent death of his daughter. His comment about being speechless with grief is ironic, since before this he was insulting and verbally abusing his daughter. We also have situational irony in this passage and scene, as the Capulet family was meant to be celebrating Juliet’s wedding, not mourning her death. Juliet is in reality not dead but sleeping.
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