Some of these gestures are really ancient and enshrined in literature. Dante, in Inferno, has a character defying God by holding up his hands both showing il fico, which is making a loose fist with the thumb between the index and middle fingers, top of the thumb sticking out. This is an obviously obscene gesture. In the opening scene of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare has the following dialogue between the servants of the Capulets and those of the Montagues: "Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?" "I do bite my thumb, sir." This refers to the gesture of making a fist, thumb raised and extended and flicking the thumb under the upper teeth at someone, and is a gesture of contempt.