Act III, Scene 4 is the shortest scene in Act III, but its brevity is part of its devastating power. In just thirty-five lines, Capulet undoes everything — sealing Juliet's fate with casual, late-night authority. Shakespeare places this quiet domestic scene between two emotionally overwhelming scenes (Romeo's despair in III.3 and the lovers' farewell in III.5), making its understated menace all the more chilling. The scene is saturated with dramatic irony. Capulet assumes Juliet's tears are for Tybalt: "she loved her kinsman Tybalt dearly." The audience knows she weeps for Romeo's banishment — and that Romeo is, at this very moment, in her bedroom. Capulet's confident assertion that Juliet "will be ruled / In all respects by me" will be spectacularly wrong, but his certainty reveals how patriarchal authority operates in this world: a daughter's obedience is simply assumed, not earned. Capulet's decision to push the wedding forward — from an undefined future to Thursday, just three days away — introduces the theme of haste that will accelerate the tragedy. His reasoning is practical (Tybalt's death means a subdued ceremony), but the speed is reckless. Paris's eager reply, "My lord, I would that Thursday were to-morrow," compounds the urgency. Both men treat...
Act III, Scene 4
A room in Capulet's house
Scene Summary
Late Monday night, Capulet tells Paris that the family has been too consumed by Tybalt's death to discuss the marriage proposal. However, Capulet then makes a sudden decision: Juliet will marry Paris on Thursday. He tells Lady Capulet to inform Juliet of the arrangement. Paris eagerly agrees and wishes Thursday were sooner.
Translation Style
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✨ Character Voice Translations
PREMIUM
Original Text
CAPULET.
Things have fall'n out, sir, so unluckily,
That we have had no time to move our daughter:
Look you, she loved her kinsman Tybalt dearly,
And so did I:—Well, we were born to die.
'Tis very late, she'll not come down to-night:
I promise you, but for your company,
I would have been a-bed an hour ago.
PARIS.
These times of woe afford no time to woo.
Madam, good night: commend me to your daughter.
LADY CAPULET.
I will, and know her mind early to-morrow;
To-night she is mew'd up to her heaviness.
CAPULET.
Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender
Of my child's love: I think she will be ruled
In all respects by me; nay, more, I doubt it not.
Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed;
Acquaint her here of my son Paris' love;
And bid her, mark you me, on Wednesday next—
But, soft! what day is this?
PARIS.
Monday, my lord.
CAPULET.
Monday! ha, ha! Well, Wednesday is too soon,
O' Thursday let it be: o' Thursday, tell her,
She shall be married to this noble earl.
Will you be ready? do you like this haste?
We'll keep no great ado,—a friend or two;
For, hark you, Tybalt being slain so late,
It may be thought we held him carelessly,
Being our kinsman, if we revel much:
Therefore we'll have some half a dozen friends,
And there an end. But what say you to Thursday?
PARIS.
My lord, I would that Thursday were to-morrow.
CAPULET.
Well get you gone: o' Thursday be it, then.
Go you to Juliet ere you go to bed,
Prepare her, wife, against this wedding-day.
Farewell, my lord. Light to my chamber, ho!
Afore me! it is so very very late,
That we may call it early by and by.
Good night.
[Exeunt.]
Modern English
"These times of woe afford no time to woo." — Paris (a neatly balanced line linking grief and courtship)
"I think she will be ruled / In all respects by me; nay, more, I doubt it not." — Capulet (his confident assumption of Juliet's obedience, soon to be shattered)
"It is so very very late, / That we may call it early by and by." — Capulet (time collapsing, late becoming early — mirroring the play's accelerating pace)
Themes
Patriarchal Authority
Marriage
Fate
Haste
Grief
Dramatic Irony
Literary Devices
Dramatic Irony
Foreshadowing
Brevity as Technique
Irony
Characters
Capulet
Lady Capulet
Paris
Motifs
Time
Haste
Night
Days of the Week
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