Benvolio: tybalt, the kinsman of old capulet, hath sent a letter to his father’s house. mercutio: a challenge, on my life. 10 benvolio: romeo will answer it. mercutio: any man that can write may answer a letter. benvolio: nay, he will answer the letter’s master, how he dares, being dared. mercutio: alas! poor romeo, he is already dead; stabbed with a white wench’s black eye; shot through the ear with a love-song; the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy’s butt-shaft; and is he a man to encounter tybalt? why does shakespeare include mercutio’s teasing words? to explain the history of the feuding families to criticize romeo’s neglect of his duties to condemn the established ritual of sword fighting to contrast the seriousness of tybalt’s challenge