Sampson and Gregory are Capulet servingmen who open the action: after the Prologue, and before we meet a lover, they copy their masters' feud from below, in prose. Their exchange with the Montague servant Abram was AQA's June 2017 extract, on "aggressive male behaviour" (Act 1, Scene 1).
- "My naked weapon is out. Quarrel, I will back thee." (Act 1, Scene 1). "Naked" means unsheathed and exposed, and AQA's 2017 mark scheme reads the line as sexual imagery tying fighting to masculinity. Yet Sampson only offers to "back" Gregory, who hears the other sense: "Turn thy back and run?"
- "Draw if you be men." (Act 1, Scene 1). The "if" makes manhood something to prove, and the only proof on offer is a drawn sword.
The comedy is in their caution. Sampson wants "the law of our sides" (the Montagues must strike first) and stops mid-insult to check: "Is the law of our side if I say 'Ay'?" (an aside in the Folger and AQA's 2017 extract, though in neither early quarto). Told no, he hedges until Gregory spots "one of my master's kinsmen"; then he calls his master "better", and swords follow. The mark scheme calls the repeated "sir" "mock civility". Use them for masculinity as a performance, the mark scheme's men "looking to fight and defend their masculinity", and for structure: Brooke has no opening brawl, so Shakespeare chose to open with male violence, climbing from servants' prose to the Prince's verse.