You are here

"the longer liver take all"
Proverb
Act 2,
Scene 1
Lines 14-

A discussion of a proverb about being lucky enough not to die young at the time of Shakespeare in myShakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5.

Life expectancy was bleak in the 16th century, especially in a filthy, overcrowded city without sanitation like London. Several times during Shakespeare’s life the city was ravaged by outbreaks of the plague. During one particularly bad summer one out of every ten people got sick and died within a few months.  The rich as well as the poor were likely to be struck down by disease, or in the case of women, by complications of childbirth. The servant’s line reciting this line is saying that “It doesn’t matter if your job isn’t the best; whether you have a good life is merely a matter of being lucky enough to not die young.”