Annotated list of all appearances and all mentions

of

Montague

[His name suggests "mount," and therefore someone above the rest.]


In the first scene, Montague tries to join the street brawl, saying, "Thou villain Capulet," but his wife holds him back, and he complains, "Hold me not, let me go" (1.1.79).

After Prince Escalus stops the riot, he blames both Capulet and Montague for the troubles, saying, "Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word, / By thee, old Capulet, and Montague, / Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets . . . " (1.1.89-91). He then takes Capulet with him for a talking-to, and tells Montague that his turn will come that afternoon. After everyone else has left, Montague and his wife talk with Benvolio. Montague shows fatherly concern for his son, Romeo, because Romeo has been wandering in the dark. [Scene Summary]


Capulet says to Paris, "But Montague is bound as well as I, / In penalty alike; and 'tis not hard, I think, / For men so old as we to keep the peace (1.2.1-3). It seems that he has just returned from his conference with Prince Escalus, and he's telling Paris about it. Capulet and Montague have been threatened with the same penalties if they disturb the peace, and Capulet is now trying to convince himself that it shouldn't be too hard for two old men to keep peace with each other. [Scene Summary]


After Romeo kills Tybalt, Lady Capulet demands justice: "I beg for justice, which thou, prince, must give; / Romeo slew Tybalt, Romeo must not live" (3.1.180-181). The Prince, not impressed with the argument, asks a rhetorical question: "Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio; / Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?" 3.1.182-183). Lady Capulet is demanding that Romeo's life pay for Tybalt's, but in the Prince's view Tybalt's death has already been paid for with Mercutio's. The Prince is not inclined to execute Romeo, but Romeo's father goes even further, saying "Not Romeo, prince, he was Mercutio's friend; / His fault concludes but what the law should end, / The life of Tybalt" (3.1.184-186). Montague believes that Romeo was actually justified because he only did what the law should have done -- make Tybalt pay his life for Mercutio's. [Scene Summary]


When Montague arrives at the vault in which Romeo and Juliet died, we see him as a man burdened with sorrows. Prince Escalus says to him, "Come, Montague; for thou art early up, / To see thy son and heir more early down" (5.3.208-209). This means that Montague is up early in the morning to see his son down (dead) early in his life. Before he sees the bodies, Montague says, "Alas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night; / Grief of my son's exile hath stopp'd her breath: / What further woe conspires against mine age?" (5.3.210-212). The Prince replies that if Montague looks, he will see the source of even more woe. Montague looks, and says to his dead son, "O thou untaught! what manners is in this? / To press before thy father to a grave?" (5.3.214-215). Montague feels that death would be a blessing, and that Romeo is untaught and unmannerly to take that blessing before his father does.

A little later, at the very end of the play, the Prince reproves the heads of the feuding families, saying, "Capulet! Montague! / See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate, / That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love" (5.3.291-293). Heeding him, Capulet offers his hand to Montague, saying, "O brother Montague, give me thy hand: / This is my daughter's jointure, for no more / Can I demand" (5.3.297-298). Normally, a rich man such as Capulet would give away with his daughter a jointure (money, goods, and an inheritance); now all he can offer is his hand in friendship, and it's all that he can ask of Montague in return. Montague takes Capulet's hand and promises he will have a golden statue of Juliet built so that as long as Verona is Verona, "There shall no figure at such rate [value] be set / As that of true and faithful Juliet" (5.3.301-302). Capulet answers, "As rich shall Romeo's by his lady's lie; / Poor sacrifices of our enmity!" (5.3.303-304). [Scene Summary]