Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. (4)

Where, in which strife: though in civil blood, civil hands, civil means that which relates to the community of citizens, there is probably in the latter phrase a play upon the word in its sense of 'polite,' 'well-mannered.'

Back to Romeo and Juliet (1.1)

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Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Ed. K. Deighton. New York: MacMillan and Co., 1903. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2010. (date when you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/romeoglosswhere_1_1.html >.

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