2006-12-03 05:17:33 · 4 answers · asked by Blue Panda 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
Mercutio uses the title "Prince of Cats" for two reasons. One is complimentary, telling Tybalt that there is a respect for his agility and swiftness with the sword. The second is an insult. Cats are considered sly and finicky beasts. Mercutio is calling Tybalt out as a hot-tempered fighter.
Now, while it is an insult, Mercutio is merely playing a game. Mercutio feels a loyalty to the Montagues by being Romeo's best friend, but Mercutio holds no personal grudge against Tybalt.
2006-12-03 05:40:17 · answer #1 · answered by oberoncalling 2 · 4⤊ 1⤋
We are brought up today to regard Shakespeare plays as being the height of culture but remember to make a living he had to by get people to pay money to watch his plays, so he had to appeal to as wide as audience as possible. Consequently, Shakespeare s plays were the Fast and Furious franchise of their day. People would have been enthralled by sword fights the way modern audiences love car chases.
Just like action movies, Shakespeare included plenty of low-brow one-liners to appeal to his audience.
Shakespeare gave his character the name Tybalt to make a dick joke.
Tybalt was the name of the Prince of Cats in the Reynard the Fox stories. Think of them as a medieval of Uncle Remus Bre r Rabbit. So Shakespeare s audience would have known the Reynard the Fox stories and would have been familiar with Tybalt.
But if you look at the full quote of Mercutio s reference to Tybalt -
More than Prince of Cats. O, he’s the courageous captain of compliments: he fights as you sing pricksong, keeps time, distance and proportion.
The delivery of the line Prince of Cats. O would have been made as a homophone for cazzo, an Italian slang term for penis, of which the audience would have been aware, ensuring a loud laugh.
Hence, when Mercutio refers to Tybalt as the Prince of Cats, he is saying that he is a dick.
2016-04-12 18:27:43 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mercutio refers to Tybalt as the "Good King of Cats" or the "Prince of Cats" because his demeanor and actions are much like a cats': lithe, agile, predatory and territorial. Tybalt is hot-tempered and quarrelsome, as we see by how quick he is to engage in battle.
But the "Prince of Cats" title also stems from an earlier time, an earlier tale. There is a fable called "Reynard the Fox", in which one of the characters is a cat named Tibert/Tibalt/Tybalt that is called the "Prince of Cats". This character was also quite quarrelsome, as the Tybalt of Romeo and Juliet was.
2006-12-03 05:50:24 · answer #3 · answered by xx_villainess_xx 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Mercutio calls him the "Prince of Cats" meanign that with hsi sword Tybalt is fast and cunning like a cat.
2006-12-03 05:20:00 · answer #4 · answered by locomonohijo 4 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Prince Of Cats
2016-10-06 07:59:32 · answer #5 · answered by blea 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
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yes they can. i grew up in a house full of both spirtis and cats. the cats were afraid of the spirits there.
2016-04-01 00:31:46 · answer #6 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋