Romeo and Juliet Lord Capulet Quotes

Lord Capulet

Quote 7

LORD CAPULET
Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin Capulet,
For you and I are past our dancing days.
How long is 't now since last yourself and I
Were in a mask?

SECOND CAPULET
By 'r lady, thirty years.

CAPULET
What, man, 'tis not so much, 'tis not so much.
(1.5.35-40)

Lord Capulet cannot believe it's been thirty years since his high school graduation. It's like, ne day you're the captain of the football team, and the next day you're middle-aged with a couple of disobedient kids and a lot of hot-headed young men trying to get your family killed.

Lord Capulet

Quote 8

CAPULET
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 matched. And having now provided
A gentleman of noble parentage,
Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly ligned,
Stuffed, as they say, with honorable parts,
Proportioned as one's thought would wish a man—
And then to have a wretched puling fool,
A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender,
To answer 'I'll not wed. I cannot love,
I am too young. I pray you, pardon me.'
But, an you will not wed, I'll pardon you!
Graze where you will you shall not house with me
(3.5.187-200)

When Juliet refuses to marry Paris, Lord Capulet flips his lid. He suggests that young Juliet is a whiny ingrate, threatens to throw her out of the house, and then mocks her for pleading that she is "too young" to wed Paris. The funny thing is, when Paris first approached Capulet with a proposal to marry Juliet back in Act 1, Capulet seemed to agree that she was as little young (1.2). We should also point out that, by this point, Juliet is already married to Romeo (secretly) so, she doesn't really think she's too young to be a wife—she just uses it as an excuse not to get hitched to Paris.

Lord Capulet > Juliet

Quote 9

CAPULET
An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend;
And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets,
For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee,
Nor what is mine shall never do thee good:
Trust to't, bethink you; I'll not be forsworn.
(3.5.192-196)

Think your parents are strict? In Shakespeare's day, children (especially girls) had very little control over their lives. Daughters were expected to be silent, chaste, and obedient, which is why Capulet treats Juliet like a piece of property that he can just throw out onto "the streets" when she doesn't follow his orders.