The Game of Love
Juliet waits impatiently for night to fall so Romeo can climb to her balcony unseen and consummate their marriage. Sighing to herself, she wishes the darkness would spread faster. She divulges her nervousness in a soliloquy and invites night to teach her how to tame her racing emotions. Come, civil night,
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match,
Played for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.
Hood my unmanned blood, bating in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle till strange love grow bold,
Think true love acted simple modesty. (3.2.10-16)

Juliet personifies night as “civil” and a “sober-suited matron, all in black,” which portrays night as a dignified, established woman in contrast with Juliet’s shy inexperience. As a widow, night in her black robes appears modest and humble but instructs Juliet in the …show more content…
She makes a request to night: “Hood my unmanned blood, bating in my cheeks, with thy black mantle.” “Unmanned” means both untamed and unmarried. Although Juliet is married to Romeo, she has not yet “been enjoyed” or tamed by Romeo. Her virginal blood rises to her cheeks at the thought of making love, “bating” or fluttering like a bird’s wings. Her blood colors her cheeks in shyness, yet it flutters like a bird eager to take flight, reinforcing Juliet’s anxiousness to set her virginity free like a bird. The alliteration of “blood” and “bating” connects the two terms in the reader’s mind. She pleads with night to “hood” her embarrassed flush with “[her] black mantle.” The term “hood” in falconry means to cover a bird’s head with a cape to train and tame it. Juliet wishes the night to tame her embarrassment and her unbound virginal blood by surrendering to Romeo. The dark cape of night shall hide her flushed cheeks until they think “true love acted simple modesty,” or until she finds making love to be as simple as the matron