“You shall, then, before you’re three days older, Fallen Grandeur,” says the duke. “The first good town we come to, we’ll hire a hall and do the sword-fight in Richard III, and the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. How does that strike you?”
– Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter 20. The Duke asking the King if he had ever trod the boards. This is an allusion to two William Shakespeare plays: the historical drama, Richard III, and the tragic love story, Romeo and Juliet.