I’ll play the housewife for this once. What, ho!
They are all forth. Well, I will walk myself
To County Paris, to prepare him up
Against to-morrow.
– William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 2. On the night before Juliet’s wedding to Paris, Capulet tells his wife to go and help Juliet prepare for the wedding and he will "play the housewife and take care of everything else. In the patriarchal society of the time, Capulet by his own admission seldom assumes the feminine role.