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"account" and "debt"
Metaphor
Act 1,
Scene 5
Lines 110-117

An explanation of the extended money metaphor in Act 1, Scene 5 of myShakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Nurse

Madam, your mother craves a word with you. 
[Juliet goes to her mother]             

Romeo

What is her mother?

Nurse

                                   Marry, bachelor,
Her mother is the lady of the house,
And a good lady, and a wise and virtuous;
I nursed her daughter that you talked withal.
I tell you, he that can lay hold of her
Shall have the chinks.

Romeo

                                       Is she a Capulet?
O dear account! My life is my foe's debt.

Romeo picks up on the nurse’s mention of money and constructs a financial metaphor. “Account” refers to the adding up of positives and negatives, and to be in someone’s debt means to be at their mercy. Romeo means something like, “What a reckoning of fate, my life is in my enemies’ hands!”