Start with the first act of Shakespeare's play and scan
the lines; you will easily spot the insults that Gregory and Sampson hurl at Abraham.
For instance, Sampson says that "a dog of the house of Montague moves me" (I,i,10), and
Gregory derides Sampson as a "weak slave." Gregory replies that he will be a "tyrant"
and will either cut off the head of the maid or take their "maidenhead." He continues,
saying that he will "frown as I pass by, and let them take it as they list." Sampson
asserts,
Nay
as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them;
Which is a
disgrace to them, if they bear it.
(38-40)
As Benvolio enters,
he shouts, "Part, fools!" But, Tybalt calls the Montague servants "heartless hinds,"
and challenges Benvolio, calling him a "coward." Then, when the old men, Lords Capulet
and Montague hear, they rush to engage in the fray with Montague calling out, "Thou
villain, Capulet..." (I,i,75)
Angered by the reignited
conflict, Prince Escalus insults the men,
readability="16">
Rebellious subjects, enemies to
peace,
Profaners of this neighbor-stained
steel,--
....you men, you
beasts
That quench the fire of your pernicious
rage
With purple fountains issuing from your
veins....(I,i,77-81)
Furthermore,
the Prince tells Montague and Capulet that they are partisans who possess "canker'd
hate."
In a later scene, Romeo arrests the rambling
Mercutio's monlogue with insulting words, "Thou speakest of nothing."
(I,iv,102)
In the next scene, Tybalt espies Romeo and
declares,
It
fits, when such a villain is a guest: I'll not endure him.
(I,v,64-65)
Capulet tells
Tybalt he is "a saucy boy," and he is a "princox."
In the
next act as Mercutio and Benvolio search for Romeo, who has snuck into the Capulet
orchard, Mercutio refers to Romeo's previous love, "that same pale, hard-hearted wench,
Rosaline (II,iv,4), and does not spare Tybalt his disparagement, either: "More than
Prince of Cats, I can tell you" (II,iv,19). When Benvolio notices that Romeo approaches,
Mercutio then calls to Romeo, "O flesh, flesh,/how art thou fishified!" (I,iv,38) and
Romeo continues the battle of wits with Mercutio telling him that he has "more of the
wild goose in one of thy wits than ...I...(I,iv,70), and Romeo eventually tells Mercutio
that he is "far and wide a broad goose."
Distracting them
from their banter is the nurse, whom Romeo sees as an object of sport and ridicule:
Here's goodly gear! (I,iv,92) with Mercutio joining in the raillery by exclaiming, "A
sail! a sail!" as she possesses so much material that her servant Peter much carry it.
He then refers to the nurse as "a bawd" and "a hare," punning on the word
whore.
Then, of course, there is the
fiery encounter between Mercutio and Tybalt in the first scene of Act III as Mercutio
again names Tybalt the "Prince of Cats," and initiates an argument with
him:
Thy head
is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of
meat, and yet
thy head hath been beaten as addle as an egg for
quarrelling...(III,i,24)
When Romeo appears, Tybalt tells him, "thou are a villain" (III, i,60),but Romeo refuses
to fight; Mercutio turns his cholera upon Romeo, "O calm, dishonorable, vile submission!
(III,i,72), drawing his sword and calling Tybalt "a rat-catcher." When he is wounded,
Mercutio expends his remaining anger on Romeo, who has come between him and
Tybalt:
...a
dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to sscratch a man to death! a braggart, a rogue, a villain,
that fights by the book of arithmetic!
(III,i,
More insults are
hurled in the final act when Paris enters the tomb of Juliet and discovers Romeo.
Believing that Romeo has come to defile the grave, Paris speaks harshly to
him,
Stop thy
unhallow'd toil, vile Montague!....
Condemned
villain....(V,iii,54-55),
From
beginning to end, Romeo and Juliet is replete with passages in which the "two
households" exchange insults.