Romeo and Juliet Youth and Age Quotes

CAPULET: What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!
LADY CAPULET: A crutch, a crutch! why call you for a sword?
CAPULET: My sword, I say! Old Montague is come,
And flourishes his blade in spite of me.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 1. The elderly patriarch of the Capulets shows himself to be confrontational and ready for a fight when he calls for his long sword. Lady Capulet suggests that her husband is too old for fighting, being more in need of a crutch. Capulet retorts that "Old Montague" (Lord Montague) is flourishing his blade at him. There is a certain amount of sexual innuendo in the references "long sword" and "flourishes his blade."
My maidenhead at twelve year old - Juliet's Nurse

LADY CAPULET: Nurse, where’s my daughter? Call her forth to me.
NURSE: Now by my maidenhead at twelve year old,
I bade her come.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 3. The Nurse is Juliet’s caretaker since she was a baby and a secondary mother figure for her. From the moment she speaks her first line here, we can see right away that she is a bawdy and humorous character. When Lady Capulet asks her where Juliet is, she typically answers with a dirty joke, swearing by her virginity at twelve.

Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen.
Susan and she – God rest all Christian souls! –
Were of an age.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 3. The Nurse looks forward to Juliet’s 14th birthday like she were her own daughter. She grieves for her own daughter Susan who was born on the same day as Juliet, but died young. The Nurse, having cared for Juliet from the time she was a baby, is presented as a surrogate mother to Juliet. The Nurse’s reference to her dead daughter is foreshadowing of Juliet’s premature death.

"Yea," quoth my husband, "dost thou fall upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit;
Wilt thou not, Jule?" quoth he;
And, pretty fool, it stinted and said "Ay."

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 3. The Nurse tells of a joke her husband made about Juliet at the age of three when she fell forward on her face and hurt her brow. He picked her up as if to console her, telling her that she would "fall backward" when she was older, to which the child replied "yes." There is a bawdy meaning to what the Nurse’s husband said to Juliet – a woman would "fall backward" to have sex. The Nurse finds it hilariously funny that little Juliet, who wouldn’t know this was a double entendre, innocently said, "Ay." The Nurse recounts the story twice to Lady Capulet and Juliet. The story of Juliet’s fall as a child is foreshadowing of her sexual awakening when she meets Romeo, and the pain that will also bring.

Well, think of marriage now; younger than you,
Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,
Are made already mothers: by my count,
I was your mother much upon these years
That you are now a maid. Thus then in brief:
The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 3. Lady Capulet, who wants Juliet to marry Paris, tells her that there are mothers younger than Juliet in Verona. She reminds her daughter that she was already her mother at Juliet’s age of almost 14 years.
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