A plague o' both your houses! is a

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

from

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's tragedy ''

Romeo and Juliet ''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...

''. The phrase is used to express irritation and irony regarding a dispute or conflict between two parties. It is considered one of the most famous expressions attributed to Shakespeare.

Context

The phrase is spoken in Act 3, Scene 1 of the tragedy.

Tybalt Tybalt () is a fictional character and the principal antagonist in William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet''. He is the son of Lady Capulet's brother, Juliet's short-tempered first cousin, and Romeo's rival. Tybalt shares the same name ...

, a kinsman of the Capulets and cousin to

Juliet Juliet Capulet () is the female protagonist in William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy ''Romeo and Juliet''. A 13-year-old girl, Juliet is the only daughter of the patriarch of the House of Capulet. She falls in love with the male protagonist Ro ...

, is dueling with

Mercutio Mercutio ( , ) is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's 1597 tragedy, ''Romeo and Juliet''. He is a close friend to Romeo and a blood relative to Prince Escalus and Count Paris. As such, Mercutio is one of the named characters in the ...

, a friend of

Romeo Romeo Montague () is the male protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Romeo and Juliet''. The son of Characters in Romeo and Juliet#Lord Montague, Lord Montague and his wife, Characters in Romeo and Juliet#Lady Montague, Lady Montague, he ...

from the Montague family. Romeo and

Benvolio Benvolio Montague () is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Romeo and Juliet''. He is Lord Montague's nephew and Romeo's cousin. Benvolio serves as an unsuccessful peacemaker in the play, attempting to prevent violence betwe ...

attempt to break up the fight. Mercutio, distracted, does not see his opponent and is fatally wounded by Tybalt under Romeo's arm. Feeling his death approaching, Mercutio declares: Mercutio, dying, repeats the phrase "A plague o' both your houses!" three times. This triple curse, directed at the Montague and Capulet houses, almost literally comes true. Due to an unfortunate coincidencea plague

quarantine A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals, and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have bee ...

imposed by the city guardsFriar John is unable to deliver a letter informing the exiled Romeo that Juliet is not dead but asleep. As a result, both Romeo and Juliet perish.

Variants of the original phrase

In the first printed edition of ''Romeo and Juliet'' (the so-called "First

Quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

" or "

Bad Quarto A bad quarto, in Shakespearean scholarship, is a quarto-sized printed edition of one of Shakespeare's plays that is considered to be unauthorised, and is theorised to have been pirated from a theatrical performance without permission by someone ...

", published in

1597 Events January–March * January 4 – Japan's Chancellor of the Realm, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, sends 26 European Christians, arrested on December 8, 1596, on a forced march from Kyoto to Nagasaki. * January 24 – Battle of Turnhout: M ...

Romeo and Julie
BL C.34.k.55
1st quarto 1597.), Mercutio called down

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms depend on the stage it presents: primary, secondary, latent syphilis, latent or tertiary. The prim ...

(''pox'') instead of plague (''plague'').Nichole DeWall
"A Plague 'o Both Your Houses": Shakespeare and Early Modern Plague Writing.
— Northeastern University. ProQuest, 2008. — 204 p. — P. 70 — ISBN 0-549-52233-6 There are also well-founded doubts that in early editions, syphilis was indeed mentioned. Shakespeare may have used the word ''pox'' to mean not syphilis but

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

. In Shakespeare's time, neither syphilis nor smallpox were necessarily fatal diseases, so Shakespeare might have replaced the initially milder curse with a more radical one.

In culture

* In 1994, Russian playwright Grigory Gorin wrote the play ''A Plague on Both Your Houses!'', which continues the plot of Shakespeare's ''Romeo and Juliet''. * ''A Plague on Both Your Houses'' is a 1996 detective novel by British author

Susanna Gregory Susanna Gregory is the pseudonym of Elizabeth Cruwys, a Cambridge academic who was previously a coroner's officer. She writes detective fiction, and is noted for her series of mediaeval mysteries featuring Matthew Bartholomew, a teacher of medi ...

. *

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie ( ; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern wor ...

uses the line “A plague on both your houses” as an epigraph in his novel '' Shalimar the Clown''.

References

Literature

* * * * {{Romeo and Juliet Shakespearean phrases Romeo and Juliet Catchphrases Fiction about curses Plague (disease)