Benvolio

English Lit: AQA GCSE Romeo & Juliet, topic 6.2.6

Key Quotes - Benvolio

Here are key quotes from Benvolio in the play:

'Part fools! Put up your swords; you know not what you do'.
Benvolio enters the first scene and immediately shows that he is a peaceful character. He tells the servants to stop fighting and calls them 'fools'.
He tells them 'you know not what you do'. He is one of the few characters in the story who thinks before he acts.
He knows that the Prince is not happy with the families (as they have already had two huge fights on the streets of Verona).
He worries that the servants’ fighting will have bad consequences for the rest of the Montagues and Capulets.

'deaf to peace… comes back to Romeo'.
Benvolio informs the Prince that Tybalt became obsessed with vengeance on Romeo, so much so that he became 'deaf' to all reasoning and killed Mercutio. After that, he fled but then came back for Romeo.
This tale allows the Prince to determine that Romeo is not the only one at fault; Tybalt started the fighting and would not stop.
This means that the Prince decides to banish Romeo to Mantua, instead of putting him to death (after threatening this in Act 1 as a consequence to any further fighting in the streets).

What does the following statement from Benvolio show about him?
'Part fools! Put up your swords; you know not what you do'
Who does Benvolio describe as 'fools'?