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All Site ContentRomeo and JulietAct 4Scene 1
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Word Nerd: "label"
Context and Language Videos
Act 4,
Scene 1
Lines 50-67

An explanation of the word "label" in Act 4, Scene 1 of myShakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. 

myShakespeare | Romeo and Juliet 4.1 Word Nerd: label

Juliet

Tell me not, friar, that thou hearest of this,                    
Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it.
If, in thy wisdom thou canst give no help,
Do thou but call my resolution wise,
And with this knife I'll help it presently.
God joined my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands;
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo's sealed,
Shall be the label to another deed,
Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
Turn to another,
[Juliet takes out a knife]
                             this shall slay them both.
Therefore, out of thy long-experienced time,                
Give me some present counsel; or behold,
'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that
Which the commission of thy years and art
Could to no issue of true honor bring.
Be not so long to speak; I long to die
If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy.
Video Transcript: 

SARAH: Label has the same origins as the modern word, lapel, which is the folded part below the collar of a jacket.

RALPH: Originally, the two words were used interchangeably for any strip of cloth or material.

SARAH: Today we ratify a contract or official document by putting our signature on it ...

RALPH: But in the middle ages, when literacy rates in Europe were low, one attached a strip of cloth, or a label, to the document and attached their personal seal onto some hot wax.