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Word Nerd: "vanity"
Context and Language Videos
Act 1,
Scene 1
Lines 168b-178a

An explanation of the word "vanity" in Act 1, Scene 1 of myShakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. 

myShakespeare | Romeo and Juliet 1.1 Word Nerd: Vanity

Romeo

                                              O me! What fray was here?
Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.                           
Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.
Why, then, O brawling love, O loving hate,
O anything of nothing first created,
O heavy lightness, serious vanity,
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,
Still-waking sleep that is not what it is.
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh?
Video Transcript: 

SARAH: Vanity derives from the latin word vānus, or empty. Only in modern times has it taken on the meaning of having an excessive opinion of one’s appearance or other positive qualities.

RALPH: In Shakespeare’s day it had the broader meaning of any behavior which was foolish, absurd, or just ineffective; and that’s how he’s using it here.