"Romeo and Juliet" Vocabulary from Act 3

Jonathan B. (United States of America)
Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" is the classic story of love in the midst of hate, and whether that love is strong enough and wise enough to survive what surrounds it (etext found here). Learn these word lists for each act of the tragedy: Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, Act 4, and Act 5.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. apt
    being of striking appropriateness and relevance
    An I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any man should buy the fee-simple of my life for an hour and a quarter.
  2. consort
    keep company
    Mercutio, thou consort'st with Romeo.
  3. villain
    someone who does evil deliberately
    Romeo, the hate I bear thee can afford No better term than this,--thou art a villain
  4. excuse
    overlook or make allowances for
    Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee Doth much excuse the appertaining rage To such a greeting
  5. vile
    morally reprehensible
    Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee Doth much excuse the appertaining rage To such a greeting
  6. haste
    a condition of urgency making it necessary to hurry
    Will you pluck your sword out of his pitcher by the ears? make haste, lest mine be about your ears ere it be out.
  7. plague
    any large-scale calamity
    A plague o' both your houses!
  8. scratch
    cut, scrape, or wear away the surface of
    Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch; marry, 'tis enough.
    Note Mercutio is playing with words here -- it's more than just a scratch!
  9. scorn
    reject with contempt
    That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds, Which too untimely here did scorn the earth.
  10. fatal
    bringing death
    O noble prince, I can discover all The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl
  11. stout
    having rugged physical strength
    ...Underneath whose arm An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled
  12. exile
    the act of expelling a person from their native land
    And for that offence Immediately we do exile him hence,
  13. garish
    tastelessly showy
    All the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun.
  14. banish
    expel, as if by official decree
    Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished.
  15. fiend
    a cruel wicked and inhuman person
    Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical! Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
    Note the wordplay here -- calling someone both a "fiend" and "angelical" is an oxymoron
  16. fellowship
    an association of people who share beliefs or activities
    If sour woe delights in fellowship And needly will be rank'd with other griefs, Why follow'd not, when she said 'Tybalt's dead,' Thy father, or thy mother, nay, or both, Which modern lamentations might have moved?
  17. dote
    shower with love; show excessive affection for
    Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love, An hour but married, Tybalt murdered, Doting like me and like me banished, Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair, And fall upon the ground, as I do now, Taking the measure of an unmade grave.
  18. wit
    mental ability
    Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit
  19. lamentation
    the passionate activity of expressing grief
    Beg pardon of the prince, and call thee back With twenty hundred thousand times more joy Than thou went'st forth in lamentation.
  20. fickle
    liable to sudden unpredictable change
    O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle.
Created on Sat Mar 31 21:28:36 EDT 2018

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