What is the meaning of the following line from the Prologue?

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

Regular citizens-not soldiers-were being killed.

Many soldiers were killing local citizens in town.

Some people had decided to be nice to their enemies.

Not one person knew how to behave politely in public.

Question

Brendan Brewer

English

23 June, 11:08

What is the meaning of the following line from the Prologue?

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

Regular citizens-not soldiers-were being killed.

Many soldiers were killing local citizens in town.

Some people had decided to be nice to their enemies.

Not one person knew how to behave politely in public.

+1

Answers (1)

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Helen · Answer 1

It means that the citizens of Verona keep killing each other in a civil war and are therefore uncivil. Being civil can mean behaving politely yet as everyone is killing each other they are not behaving politely and are being uncivil. It is a word play and Shakespeare was famous for his use of word plays.