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All Site ContentRomeo and JulietAct 5Scene 3
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"jointure"
Allusion
Act 5,
Scene 3
Lines 291-298a

An explanation of the word “jointure” in Act 5, Scene 3 of myShakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Prince

Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague!
See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love;
And I, for winking at your discords too,
Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished.

Capulet

O brother Montague, give me thy hand.
This is my daughter's jointure, for no more
Can I demand.

The jointure was an amount of money that Montague would have set aside to provide for Juliet in case Romeo died. But a handshake is all Capulet can demand since Juliet has also passed away.

(The Reconciliation of the Montagues and Capulets over the Dead Bodies of Romeo and Juliet, Frederic Lord leighton, 1853-55)