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All Site ContentRomeo and JulietAct 2Scene 1
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"truckle-bed"
Irony
Act 2,
Scene 1
Lines 40-43

An explanation of “truckle-bed” in Act 2, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Mercutio

Romeo, good night. I'll to my truckle-bed;
This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep. 
Come, shall we go?

Benvolio

                                 Go, then; for 'tis in vain
To seek him here that means not to be found.               
[Exit]

It's late, and Mercutio jokes that it's too cold to stay there and sleep in a "field-bed," a folding army cot. So he will go home to his truckle-bed (trundle bed), a small bed that slides underneath a regular bed, used by servants and young children, and certainly not by a nobleman like Mercutio.