Comic Relief Examples

provides an
interlude in a tragic world. In  there are two comic figures, the Nurse and
. In fact, Mercutio is more than comic, and is such an interesting character that Shakespeare
removes him in Act III because he threatens to overpower 's character in personality and
importance.

• The Nurse

With her
bawdy humor and ridiculous appearance, the Nurse is a figure who appeals to the groundlings at
the Globe Theatre and continues their interest through the more profound passages. In Act I, she
is silly, prattling aboutas a baby untilscolds her, "Enough of this."

Then, in Act II when the Nurse goes to meet Romeo as Juliet's envoy, she is the target
of almost slapstick humor as Mercutio notices her abundant attire, shouting, "A sail, a
sail!" After she returns in , she toys with Juliet who is so eager to learn what has
transpired, complaining of her aches and rambling again instead of telling Juliet what Romeo has
said. When she finally informs Juliet that Romeo wants to marry her at 's cell, the bawdy Nurse
teases her about their marriage night and what will happen as "climbing a bird's nest"
is vernacular for copulation:

Hie you to church; I must
another way,
To fetch a ladder, by the which your love
Must climb a bird's
nest soon when it is dark.
I am the drudge, and toil in your delight;
But you
shall bear the burden soon at night. (2.5.74-78)

• Mercutio

A masterful comic, Mercutio teases Romeo
continually and makes use ofand bawdy jokes. His view of love is a counterpoint to Romeo's
courtly love and unrealistically romantic ideals. In Act I, for instance, when Romeo bemoans his
unrequited love from Rosaline, Mercutio makes the ribald observation that Romeo should go out
and find a woman that will "requite" his passion with physical passion:

If love be rough with you, be rough with love;
Prick love
for pricking, and you beat love down. (1.4.4)

Even as he
dies in Act III, Mercutio goes out in comic fashion, making a pun upon the gravity of his wound
and using the language of the lower characters, rather than speaking in verse:

No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a
church
door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve. Ask for me to-morrow,
and you
shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I
warrant, for this world. A plague o both
your houses!
Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to 
 (3.1.97-103)--