ROMEO and JULIET
Act 2, Scene 4

Setting: street of Verona; midmorning after last night’s party.
Mercutio and Benvolio are walking down the street talking and joking about Tybalt thinking he’s all that about his fencing skills. While this scene is going on, Romeo is at the Friar's discussing his upcoming wedding to Juliet. No one but Romeo, Juliet and the Friar know about their relationship.

Break into groups; translate into contemporary language, find and identify figurative language.

Scene 4:
First group:
Lines 1 – 35

Second group:
Lines 36 – 95

Third group:
Lines 96 – 135


Fourth group:
Lines 136 – 160

Fifth group:
Lines 161 – 200

Important plot point: Tybalt (which is a common name for house cats) has challenged Romeo to a duel. Why?

Mercutio makes a lot of jokes about Romeo’s love sickness over Rosalind.
Wench: a wanton flirtatious girl;
Pin of his heart: center of his heart
Who is the blind bow-boy?
Romeo has been shot by the blind bow-boy’s arrow all the way to the butt shaft (the end of the arrow where the feathers are).

Mercutio, who is more of a street fighter, says that Tybalt is a fancy-shmancy school trained fencer – overly precious in his training. He fights like other people sing songs – strictly according to meter and to rhythm. That’s obviously not the way to fight.

Minim rests: shortest pause in music.
One, two, three – and the third thrust in your chest. Tybalt is a killer of buttons on a man’s shirt.
Mercutio, who is more of a street fighter, has little respect for Tybalt as a fighter.