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All Site ContentRomeo and JulietAct 3Scene 3
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"unseemly" and "ill-beseeming"
Language
Act 3,
Scene 3
Lines 107b-112

An explanation of the wordplay on “unseemly” and “ill-beseeming” in Act 3, Scene 3 of myShakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Friar Laurence

                                  Hold thy desperate hand.
Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art.
Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote
The unreasonable fury of a beast.                                  
Unseemly woman in a seeming man,
And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both.

Romeo's tears are unseemly, or unbecoming, for someone who seems to be a man. And his wild fury is ill-beseeming, or unfitting, for either a man or woman.