part ii
.: "He has had wrongs; and if I were he I would bear no coles," etc. Dyce cites Cotgrave, _Fr. Dict._: "_Il a du feu en la teste_. Hee is very chollericke, furious, or couragious; he will carrie no coales." He might have added from Sherwood's English-French supplement to Cotgrave (ed. 1632): "That will carrie no coales, _Brave_."
3. _Colliers._ The preceding note explains how _colliers_ came to be a term of abuse. The _New Eng. Dict._ adds that it may have been due to "the evil repute of the collier for cheating." Steevens compares _T.N._ iii. 4. 130: "hang him, foul collier!"
4. _Choler._ For the play upon the word, cf. Jonson, _Every Man in his Humour_, iii. 2:--
"_Cash._ Why, how now, Cob? what moves thee to this cholar, ha?
_Cob._ Collar, master Thomas? I scorn your collar, I sir; I am none of your cart-horse, though I carry and draw water."
15. _Take the wall._ Claim the right of passing next the wall when meeting a person on the street; a right valued in old-fashioned streets with narrow sidewalks or none at all. To _give the wall_ was an act of courtesy; to _take the wall_ might be an insult.
17. _The weakest goes to the wall._ A familiar proverb.
28. _Here comes two_, etc. Halliwell-Phillipps remarks that the
## partisans of the Montagues wore a token in their hats to distinguish
them from the Capulets; hence throughout the play they are known at a distance. Cf. Gascoigne, _Devise of a Masque, written for Viscount Montacute_, 1575:--
"And for a further proofe, he shewed in hys hat Thys token which the _Mountacutes_ did beare alwaies, for that They covet to be knowne from _Capels_, where they pass, For ancient grutch whych long ago 'tweene these two houses was."
39. _I will bite my thumb at them._ An insult explained by Cotgrave, _Fr. Dict._ (ed. 1632): "_Nique, faire la nique_, to threaten or defie, by putting the thumbe naile into the mouth, and with a ierke (from th' upper teeth) make it to knocke."
44. _Of our side._ On our side (_on = of_, as often).
55. _Here comes one_, etc. "Gregory may mean Tybalt, who enters directly after Benvolio, but on a different part of the stage. The eyes of the servant may be directed the way he sees Tybalt coming, and in the mean time Benvolio enters on the opposite side" (Steevens).
60. _Swashing blow._ A dashing or smashing blow (Schmidt). Cf. Jonson, _Staple of News_, v. 1: "I do confess a swashing blow." Cf. also _swash_ = bully, bluster; as in _A.Y.L._ i. 3. 122: "I'll have a martial and a swashing outside."
63. _Art thou drawn?_ Cf. _Temp._ ii. 1. 308: "Why are you drawn?" _Heartless_ = cowardly, spiritless; as in _R. of L._ 471, 1392.
69. _Have at thee._ Cf. iv. 5. 119 below; also _C. of E._ iii. 1. 51, etc.
70. _Clubs._ The cry of _Clubs_! in a street affray is of English origin, as the _bite my thumb_ is of Italian. It was the rallying-cry of the London apprentices. Cf. _Hen. VIII._ v. 4. 53, _A.Y.L._ v. 2. 44, etc. _Bills_ were the pikes or halberds formerly carried by the English infantry and afterwards by watchmen. The _partisan_ was "a sharp two-edged sword placed on the summit of a staff for the defence of foot-soldiers against cavalry" (Fairholt). Cf. _Ham._ i. 1. 140: "Shall I strike at it with my partisan?"
71. _Enter_ CAPULET _in his gown_. Cf. _Ham._ (quarto) iii. 4. 61: "_Enter the ghost in his night gowne_;" that is, his dressing-gown. See also _Macb._ ii. 2. 70: "Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us And show us to be watchers;" and _Id._ v. 1. 5: "I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her," etc. It is early morning, and Capulet comes out before he is dressed.
72. _Long sword._ The weapon used in active warfare; a lighter and shorter one being worn for ornament (see _A.W._ ii. 1. 32: "no sword worn But one to dance with"). Cf. _M.W._ ii. 1. 236: "with my long sword I would have made you four tall fellows skip like rats."
73. _A crutch, a crutch!_ The lady's sneer at her aged husband. For her own age, see on i. 3. 51 below.
75. _In spite._ In scornful defiance. Cf. 3 _Hen. VI._ i. 3. 158, _Cymb._ iv. 1. 16, etc.
79. _Neighbour-stained._ Because used in civil strife.
84. _Mistemper'd._ Tempered to an ill end (Schmidt). Steevens explains it as = angry. The word occurs again in _K. John_, v. 1. 12: "This inundation of mistemper'd humour."
85. _Moved._ That is, "mov'd to wrath" (_T.A._ i. 1. 419). Cf. _L. L. L._ v. 2. 694, _J.C._ iv. 3. 58, etc.
89. _Ancient._ Not of necessity old in years, but long settled there and accustomed to peace and order (Delius).
90. _Grave beseeming_. Grave and becoming. Cf. _Ham._ iv. 7. 79:--
"for youth no less becomes The light and careless livery that it wears, Than settled age his sables and his weeds, Importing health and graveness."
92. _Canker'd with peace_, etc. _Canker'd_ (= corroded) is applied literally to the partisans long disused, and figuratively to their owners. Cf. _K. John_, ii. 1. 194: "A canker'd grandam's will."
99. _Freetown._ S. takes the name from Brooke's poem. It translates the _Villa Franca_ of the Italian story.
101. S. uses _set abroach_ only in a bad sense. Cf. 2 _Hen. IV._ iv. 2. 14: "Alack, what mischiefs might be set abroach;" and _Rich. III._ i. 3. 325: "The secret mischiefs that I set abroach."
109. _Nothing hurt withal._ Nowise harmed by it. _Who_ = which; as often.
110. _While we_, etc. This line, with the change of _we_ to _they_, is found in the 1st quarto in iii. 1, where Benvolio describes the brawl in which Mercutio and Tybalt are slain (Daniel).
113. _Saw you him to-day?_ This use of the past tense is not allowable now, but was common in Elizabethan English. Cf. _Cymb._ iv. 2. 66: "I saw him not these many years," etc.
115. _The worshipp'd sun._ Cf. iii. 2. 25 below: "And pay no worship to the garish sun." See also _Lear_, i. 1. 111: "the sacred radiance of the sun;" and _Cymb._ iv. 4. 41: "the holy sun." It is remarkable that no German commentator has tried to make S. a Parsee.
116. _Forth._ Cf. _M.N.D._ i. 1. 164: "Steal forth thy father's house," etc.
118. _Sycamore._ According to Beisly and Ellacombe, the _Acer pseudo-platanus_, which grows wild in Italy. It had been introduced into England before the time of S. He mentions it also in _L. L. L._ v. 2. 89 and _Oth._ iv. 3. 41.
119. _Rooteth._ Cf. _W.T._ i. 1. 25: "there rooted betwixt them such an affection," etc.
121. _Ware._ Aware; but not to be printed as a contraction of that word. Cf. ii. 2. 103 below.
123. _Affections._ Feelings, inclinations. Cf. _Ham._ iii. 1. 170: "Love! his affections do not that way tend," etc.
124. _Which then_, etc. "The plain meaning seems to be that Benvolio, like Romeo, was indisposed for society, and sought to be most where most people were not to be found, being one too many, even when by himself" (Collier). Some editors follow Pope in reading (from 1st quarto) "That most are busied when they're most alone."
127. _Who._ Him who; the antecedent omitted, as often when it is easily supplied.
131. _All so soon. All_ is often used in this "intensive" way.
134. _Heavy._ S. is fond of playing on _heavy_ and _light._ Cf. _R. of L._ 1574, _T.G. of V._ i. 2. 84, _M. of V._ v. 1. 130, etc.
142. _Importun'd._ Accented on the second syllable, as regularly in S.
148. _With._ By; as often of the agent or cause.
150. _Sun._ The early eds. all have "same." The emendation is due to Theobald and is almost universally adopted.
156. _To hear._ _As_ to hear; a common ellipsis.
157. _Is the day so young?_ Is it not yet noon? _Good morrow_ or _good day_ was considered proper only before noon, after which _good den_ was the usual salutation. Cf. i. 2. 57 below.
158. _New._ Often used by S. in this adverbial way = just, lately. Cf. v. 3. 197 below. For _Ay me!_ see on ii. 1. 10.
166. _In his view._ In appearance; opposed to _proof_ = experience. Cf. _Ham._ iii. 2. 179: "What my love is, proof hath made you know," etc.
168. _Alas, that love, whose view_, etc. Alas "that love, though blindfolded, should see how to reach the lover's heart" (Dowden). _View_ here = sight, or eyes.
172. _Here's much_, etc. Romeo means that the fray has much to do with the hate between the rival houses, yet affects him more, inasmuch as his Rosaline is of the Capulet family.
173-178. _O brawling love!_ etc. Cf. iii. 2. 73 fol. below.
187. _Rais'd._ The reading of the 1st quarto, adopted by the majority of editors. The other early eds. have "made."
188. _Purg'd._ That is, from smoke.
191. _A choking gall_, etc. That is, "love kills and keeps alive, is a bane and an antidote" (Dowden).
195. _Some other where._ Cf. _C. of E._ iv. 1. 30: "How if your husband start some other where?"
196. _Sadness._ Seriousness. Cf. _A.W._ iv. 3. 230: "In good sadness, I do not know," etc. So _sadly_ just below = seriously, as in _Much Ado_, ii. 3. 229.
203. _Mark-man._ The 3d and 4th folios have "marks-man." S. uses the word nowhere else.
206. _Dian's wit._ Her way of thinking, her sentiments. S. has many allusions to Diana's chastity, and also to her connection with the moon.
207. _Proof._ Used technically of armour. Cf. _Rich. II._ i. 3. 73: "Add proof unto mine armour with thy prayers;" _Ham._ ii. 2. 512: "Mars's armour forg'd for proof eterne," etc.
209. _The siege_, etc. Cf. _V. and A._ 423:--
"Remove your siege from my unyielding heart; To love's alarm it will not ope the gate."
See also _R. of L._ 221, _A.W._ iii. 7. 18, _Cymb._ iii. 4. 137, etc.
213. _That when she dies_, etc. "_She is rich in beauty_, and _only poor_ in being subject to the lot of humanity, that _her store_, or riches, _can be destroyed by death_, who shall, by the same blow, put an end to beauty" (Johnson); or, as Mason puts it, "she is poor because she leaves no part of her store behind her." _Her store_ may mean "beauty's store," as Dowden suggests. Cf. _V. and A._ 1019: "For he, being dead, with him is beauty slain."
215. _In that sparing makes huge waste._ Cf. _Sonn._ 1. 12: "And, tender churl, makes waste in niggarding."
216. _Starv'd._ The early eds. (except the 4th folio) have "sterv'd," the old form of the word, found in several other passages in the folio (_M. of V._ iv. 1. 138, _Cor._ iv. 2. 51, etc.) and rhyming with _deserve_ in _Cor._ ii. 3. 120. Cf. Spenser, _F.Q._ iv. 1. 4:--
"Untill such time as noble Britomart Released her, that else was like to sterve Through cruell knife that her deare heart did kerve." There it means to die (its original sense), as in _Hen. VII._ v. 3. 132.
226. _To call hers, exquisite._ "That is, to call hers, which is exquisite, the more into my remembrance and contemplation" (Heath); or "to make her unparalleled beauty more the subject of thought and conversation" (Malone). For _question_ = conversation, cf. _A.Y.L._ iii. 4. 39, v. 4. 167, etc. But why may not _question_ repeat the idea of _examine_? Benvolio says, "Examine other beauties;" Romeo replies, in substance, that the result of the examination will only be to prove her beauty superior to theirs and therefore the more extraordinary.
227. _These happy masks._ Steevens took this to refer to "the masks worn by female spectators of the play;" but it is probably = the masks worn nowadays. They are called _happy_ as "being privileged to touch the sweet countenances beneath" (Clarke).
229. _Strucken._ The early eds. have "strucken" or "strooken." S. also uses _struck_ (or _strook_) and _stricken_ as the participle.
231. _Passing._ Often used adverbially but only before adjectives and adverbs. Cf. _L. L. L._ iv. 3. 103, _Much Ado_, ii. 1. 84, etc.
235. _Pay that doctrine._ Give that instruction. Cf. _L. L. L._ iv. 3. 350: "From women's eyes this doctrine I derive;" _A. and C._ v. 2. 31:--
"I hourly learn A doctrine of obedience," etc.
## SCENE II.--4. _Reckoning._ Estimation, reputation.
9. _Fourteen years._ In Brooke's poem her father says, "Scarce saw she yet full xvi. yeres;" and in Paynter's novel "as yet shee is not attayned to the age of xviii. yeares."
13. _Made._ The 1st quarto has "maried," which is followed by some editors. The antithesis of _make_ and _mar_ is a very common one in S. Cf. ii. 4. 110 below: "that God hath made for himself to mar." See also _L. L. L._ iv. 3. 191, _M.N.D._ i. 2. 39, _A.Y.L._ i. 1. 34, _T. of S._ iv. 3. 97, _Macb._ ii. 3. 36, _Oth._ v. 1. 4, etc. On the other hand, examples of the opposition of _married_ and _marred_ are not uncommon in Elizabethan writers. Cf. _A.W._ ii. 3. 315: "A young man married is a man that's marr'd."
14. _All my hopes but she._ Capulet seems to imply here that he has lost some children; but cf. iii. 5. 163 below.
15. _My earth._ My world or my life; rather than my lands, my landed property, as some explain it. It was apparently suggested by the _earth_ of the preceding line.
17. _My will_, etc. My will is subordinate to her consent. The old man talks very differently in iii. 5 below.
25. _Dark heaven._ The darkness of night. Cf. i. 5. 47 below.
26. _Young men._ Malone compares _Sonn._ 98. 2:--
"When proud-pied April dress'd in all his trim Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing."
29. _Female._ The quartos (except the 1st) and 1st folio have the curious misprint "fennell."
30. _Inherit._ Possess; as in _Temp._ iv. 1. 154, _Rich. II._ ii. 1. 83, _Cymb._ iii. 2. 63, etc.
32. _Which on more view_, etc. A perplexing line for which many emendations have been suggested. With the reading in the text the meaning seems to be: _which one_ (referring to _her of most merit_), after your further inspection of the many, my daughter (who is one of the number) may prove to be,--one in number, though one is no number. The quibble at the end alludes to the old proverb that "one is no number." Cf. _Sonn._ 136. 8: "Among a number one is reckon'd none." Dowden points thus: "Which on more view of, many--mine being one--May," etc., and explains thus: "On more view of whom (that is, the lady of most merit), many (other ladies)--and my daughter among them--may stand in a count of heads, but in estimation (_reckoning_, with a play on the word) none can hold a place." The general sense of the passage is clear, whatever reading or analysis we adopt. Capulet says in substance: Come to my house to-night, and decide whom you like best of the beauties gathered there; if Juliet be the one, well and good. He has already told Paris that she shall be his if he can gain her love, but discreetly suggests that he look more carefully at the "fresh female buds" of Verona before plucking one to wear on his heart.
36. _Written there._ Cf. Brooke's poem:--
"No Lady fayre or fowle was in Verona towne: No knight or gentleman of high or lowe renowne: But Capilet himselfe hath byd vnto his feast: Or by his name in paper sent, appoynted as a geast."
46. _One fire_, etc. Alluding to the old proverb that "fire drives out fire." Cf. _J.C._ iii. 1. 171: "As fire drives out fire, so pity pity;" _Cor._ iv. 7. 54: "One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail," etc.
48. _Holp._ Used by S. oftener than _helped_, for both the past tense and the participle.
49. _Cures with._ Is cured by. S. does not elsewhere use _cure_ intransitively. _Languish_ occurs again as a noun in _A. and C._ v. 2. 42: "That rids our dogs of languish." On the passage cf. Brooke:--
"Ere long the townishe dames together will resort: Some one of bewty, favour, shape, and of so lovely porte: With so fast fixed eye, perhaps thou mayst beholde: That thou shalt quite forget thy loue, and passions past of olde.
* * * * *
The proverbe saith vnminded oft are they that are vnseene. And as out of a planke a nayle a nayle doth drive: So novell love out of the minde the auncient loue doth rive."
52. _Your plantain-leaf._ The common plantain (_Plantago major_), which still holds a place in the domestic _materia medica_. For its use in healing bruises, cf. _L. L. L._ iii. 1. 74:--
"_Moth._ A wonder, master! here's a costard broken in a shin.
* * * * *
_Costard._ O sir, plantain, a plain plantain! ... no salve, sir, but a plantain!"
Steevens quotes _Albumazar_: "Bring a fresh plantain leaf, I've broke my shin." _A broken shin_, like a _broken head_ (_M.W._ i. 125, _T.N._ v. 1. 178, etc.) is one that is bruised, so that the blood runs, not one that is fractured. The plantain was supposed to have other virtues. Halliwell-Phillipps quotes Withals, _Little Dictionarie for Children_, 1586: "The tode being smitten of the spyder in fighte, and made to swell with hir poyson, recovereth himselfe with plantaine."
55. _Not mad, but bound_, etc. An allusion to the old-time treatment of the insane. Cf. _C. of E._ iv. 4. 97: "They must be bound and laid in some dark room;" and _A.Y.L._ iii. 2. 420: "Love is merely a madness, and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do."
57. _Good-den._ Printed "godden" and "gooden" in the early eds., and a corruption of _good e'en_, or _good evening_. _God gi' good-den_ in the next line is printed "Godgigoden" in the quartos and first three folios, "God gi' Good-e'en" in the 4th folio. This salutation was used as soon as noon was past. See on i. 1. 157 above, and cf. ii. 4. 105 fol. below.
64. _Rest you merry!_ For the full form, _God rest you merry_! (= God keep you merry), cf. _A.Y.L._ v. 1. 65, etc. It was a common form of salutation at meeting, and oftener at parting. Here the servant is about to leave, thinking that Romeo is merely jesting with him. Cf. 79 below.
66-69. _Signior Martino_, etc. Probably meant to be prose, but some editors make bad verse of it.
69. _Mercutio._ Mercutio here figures among the invited guests, although we find him always associating with the young men of the Montague family. He is the prince's "kinsman," and apparently on terms of acquaintance with both the rival houses, though more intimate with the Montagues than with the Capulets.
71. _Rosaline._ This shows that Rosaline is a Capulet.
74. _Up._ Dowden plausibly prints "Up--," assuming that "Romeo eagerly interrupts the servant, who would have said 'Up to our house.'"
82. _Crush a cup_, etc. A common expression in the old plays. We still say "crack a bottle."
87. _Unattainted._ Unprejudiced, impartial; used by S. only here.
91. _Fires._ The early eds. have "fire," which White retains as an admissible rhyme in Shakespeare's day.
92. _Who often drown'd_, etc. Alluding to the old notion that if a witch were thrown into the water she would not sink. King James, in his _Dæmonology_, says: "It appeares that God hath appointed for a supernatural signe of the monstrous impietie of witches, that the water shall refuse to receive them in her bosom that have shaken off them the sacred water of baptism, and wilfully refused the benefit thereof."
98. _That crystal scales._ The reading of the early eds., changed by some to "those," etc.; but _scales_ may be used for the entire machine. Dyce says it was often so used by writers of the time.
99. _Lady's love._ Some substitute "lady-love," which S. does not use elsewhere. Clarke suggests that _your lady's love_ may mean "the little love Rosaline bears you," weighed against that of some possible _maid_.
101. _Scant._ Not elsewhere used adverbially by S. _Scantly_ occurs only in _A. and C._ iii. 4. 6.
## SCENE III.--1. On the character of the Nurse Mrs. Jameson says:--
"She is drawn with the most wonderful power and discrimination. In the prosaic homeliness of the outline, and the magical illusion of the colouring, she reminds us of some of the marvellous Dutch paintings, from which, with all their coarseness, we start back as from a reality. Her low humour, her shallow garrulity, mixed with the dotage and petulance of age--her subserviency, her secrecy, and her total want of elevated principle, or even common honesty--are brought before us like a living and palpable truth....
"Among these harsh and inferior spirits is Juliet placed; her haughty parents, and her plebeian nurse, not only throw into beautiful relief her own native softness and elegance, but are at once the cause and the excuse of her subsequent conduct. She trembles before her stern mother and her violent father, but, like a petted child, alternately cajoles and commands her nurse. It is her old foster-mother who is the confidante of her love. It is the woman who cherished her infancy who aids and abets her in her clandestine marriage. Do we not perceive how immediately our impression of Juliet's character would have been lowered, if Shakespeare had placed her in connection with any commonplace dramatic waiting-woman?--even with Portia's adroit Nerissa, or Desdemona's Emilia? By giving her the Nurse for her confidante, the sweetness and dignity of Juliet's character are preserved inviolate to the fancy, even in the midst of all the romance and wilfulness of passion."
Cf. Coleridge: "The character of the Nurse is the nearest of anything in Shakspeare to a direct borrowing from mere observation; and the reason is, that as in infancy and childhood the individual in nature is a representative of a class--just as in describing one larch-tree, you generalize a grove of them--so it is nearly as much so in old age. The generalization is done to the poet's hand. Here you have the garrulity of age strengthened by the feelings of a long-trusted servant, whose sympathy with the mother's affections gives her privileges and rank in the household; and observe the mode of connection by accidents of time and place, and the childlike fondness of repetition in a second childhood, and also that happy, humble ducking under, yet constant resurgence against, the check of her superiors!"
2. _Maidenhead._ Etymologically the same word as _maidenhood_. So _lustihead_ = lustihood, _livelihead_ = livelihood (as in Spenser, _F.Q._ ii. 2. 2: "for porcion of thy livelyhed"), etc. Cf. _Godhead_, etc.
4. _God forbid!_ Staunton suggests that the Nurse uses _lady-bird_ as a term of endearment; but, recollecting its application to a woman of loose life, checks herself--_God forbid_ her darling should prove such a one! Dyce explains it: "God forbid that any accident should keep her away!" This seems to me more probable.
7. _Give leave awhile._ Leave us alone; a courteous form of dismissal. Cf. _T.G. of V._ iii. 1. 1: "Sir Thurio, give us leave, I pray, awhile;" _M.W._ ii. 2. 165: "Give us leave, drawer," etc.
9. _I have remember'd me._ For the reflexive use, cf. _1 Hen. IV._ ii. 4. 468: "and now I remember me, his name is Falstaff," etc.
_Thou's._ Cf. _Lear_, iv. 6. 246. The early eds. have "thou 'se"; most modern ones substitute "thou shalt."
12. _Lay._ Wager. Cf. _L. L. L._ i. 1. 310, _T. and C._ iii. 1. 95, etc.
13. _Teen._ Sorrow; used here for the play on _fourteen_. Cf. _V. and A._ 808: "My face is full of shame, my heart of teen;" _Temp._ i. 2. 64: "the teen I have turn'd you to;" _L. L. L._ iv. 3. 164: "Of sighs and groans, of sorrow and of teen," etc.
15. _Lammas-tide._ The 1st of August. _Tide_ = time, as in _even-tide_, _springtide_, etc. Cf. _K. John_, iii. 1. 86:--
"What hath this day deserv'd? what hath it done, That it in golden letters should be set Among the high tides in the calendar?"
See also the play upon the word in _T. of A._ i. 2. 57: "Flow this way! A brave fellow! he keeps his tides well."
23. _The earthquake._ Tyrwhitt suggested that this may refer to the earthquake felt in England on the 6th of April, 1580. Malone notes that if the earthquake happened on the day when Juliet was _weaned_ (presumably when she was a year old), she could not well be more than _twelve_ years old now; but the Nurse makes her almost _fourteen_--as her father (i. 2. 9) and her mother (i. 3. 12) also do.
26. _Wormwood._ Halliwell-Phillipps cites Cawdray, _Treasurie or Storehouse of Similies_, 1600: "if the mother put worme-wood or mustard upon the breast, the child sucking it, and feeling the bitternesse, he quite forsaketh it, without sucking any more," etc.
27. _Sitting in the sun_, etc. Cf. Dame Quickly's circumstantial reminiscences, _2 Hen. IV._ ii. 1. 93 fol.: "Thou didst swear to me," etc.
29. _Bear a brain._ Have a brain, that is, a good memory.
31. _Pretty fool._ On _fool_ as a term of endearment or pity, cf. _A.Y.L._ ii. 1. 22, _Lear_, v. 2. 308, etc.
32. _Tetchy._ Touchy, fretful. Cf. _Rich. III._ iv. 4. 168: "Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy."
33. _Shake, quoth the dove-house._ The dove-house shook. It refers of course to the effects of the earthquake. Daniel (in Dowden's ed.) quotes Peele, _Old Wives' Tale_: "Bounce, quoth the guns;" and Heywood, _Fair Maid of the West_: "Rouse, quoth the ship."
36. _By the rood._ That is, by the cross; as in _Ham._ iii. 4. 14, _Rich. III._ iii. 2. 77, etc. For _alone_ the 1st and 2d quartos have "high-lone," which Herford, Dowden, and some others adopt. "It is an alteration of _alone_, of obscure origin" (_New Eng. Dict._) found in Marston, Middleton, and other writers of the time. In George Washington's _Diary_ (1760) it is used of mares. According to the description here, Juliet could not have been much more than a year old at the time. See on 23 above.
38. _Mark._ Appoint, elect. Cf. _T.A._ i. 1. 125: "To this your son is mark'd, and die he must."
40. _To see thee married once._ Once see thee married.
51. _Much upon these years._ Nearly at the same age. Cf. _M. for M._ iv. 1. 17: "much upon this time;" _Rich. III._ v. 3. 70: "Much about cock-shut time," etc. As Juliet is fourteen, Lady Capulet would be about twenty-eight, while her husband, having done masking for some thirty years (see i. 5. 35 fol.), must be at least sixty. See also on v. 3. 207 below.
55. _A man of wax._ "As pretty as if he had been modelled in wax" (Schmidt). Steevens quotes _Wily Beguiled_: "Why, he's a man as one should picture him in wax." White adds from Lyly, _Euphues and his England_: "so exquisite that for shape he must be framed in wax," and refers to iii. 3. 126 below. Dyce cites _Faire Em_:--
"A sweet face, an exceeding daintie hand: A body, were it framed of wax By all the cunning artists of the world, It could not better be proportioned."
60. _Read o'er the volume_, etc. Here one quibble leads to another by the power of association. "The _volume_ of young Paris's face suggests the _beauty's pen_, which hath _writ_ there. Then the obscurities of the fair volume are written in _the margin of his eyes_ as comments of ancient books are always printed in the margin. Lastly, this _book of love_ lacks a _cover_; the _golden story_ must be locked with _golden clasps_" (Knight).
62. _Married._ The reading of 2d quarto; the other early eds. have "severall," which some editors adopt. _Married_ = "closely joined, and hence concordant, harmonious" (Schmidt). Cf. _T. and C._ i. 3. 100: "The unity and married calm of states;" and _Sonn._ 8. 6:--
"If the true concord of well-tuned sounds, By unions married, do offend thine ear."
See also Milton, _L'All._ 137: "Married to immortal verse."
65. _Margent._ Malone quotes _R. of L._ 102:--
"But she that never cop'd with stranger eyes Could pick no meaning from their parting looks, Nor read the subtle shining secrecies Writ in the glassy margent of such books."
See also _Ham._ v. 2. 162.
67. _Cover._ "A quibble on the law phrase for a married woman, who is styled a _femme couverte_ [_feme covert_] in law French" (Mason).
68. _Lives in the sea._ Is not yet caught. The bride has not yet been won. Farmer thought it an allusion to fish-skin as used for binding books.
70. _Many's._ Cf. _Sonn._ 93. 7: "In many's looks," etc.
74. _Like of._ Cf. _Much Ado_, v. 4. 59: "I am your husband, if you like of me."
76. _Endart._ Not elsewhere used by S. and perhaps of his own coining.
80. _Cursed._ Because she is not at hand to help. _In extremity_ = at a desperate pass. Cf. _M.N.D._ iii. 2. 3, _A.Y.L._ iv. 1. 5, etc.
83. _County._ Count; as often in this play. See also _M. of V._ i. 2. 49, _A.W._ iii. 7. 22, etc.
## SCENE IV.--Mercutio is thus described in Brooke's poem:--
"At thone syde of her chayre, her lover Romeo: And on the other side there sat one cald Mercutio. A courtier that eche where was highly had in pryce: For he was coorteous of his speche, and pleasant of devise. Euen as a Lyon would emong the lambes be bolde: Such was emong the bashfull maydes, Mercutio to beholde. With frendly gripe he ceasd [seized] fayre Juliets snowish hand: A gyft he had that nature gaue him in his swathing band. That frosen mountayne yse was neuer halfe so cold As were his handes, though nere so neer the fire he dyd them holde."
In Paynter's _Palace of Pleasure_ he is spoken of as "an other Gentleman called _Mercutio_, which was a courtlyke Gentleman, very well beloued of all men, and by reason of his pleasaunt and curteous behauior was in euery company wel intertayned." His "audacity among Maydens" and his cold hands are also mentioned.
1. _This speech._ Furness would read "the speech"; but, as the scene opens in the midst of the conversation, S. may have meant to imply that some one in the company has suggested an introductory speech. See the following note.
3. _The date is out_, etc. That is, such tediousness is now out of fashion. Steevens remarks: "In _Henry VIII._ where the king introduces himself to the entertainment given by Wolsey [i. 4] he appears, like Romeo and his companions, in a _mask_, and sends a messenger before to make an apology for his intrusion. This was a custom observed by those who came uninvited, with a desire to conceal themselves for the sake of intrigue, or to enjoy the greater freedom of conversation. Their entry on these occasions was always prefaced by some speech in praise of the beauty of the ladies or the generosity of the entertainer; and to the _prolixity_ of such introductions I believe Romeo is made to allude. So in _Histrio-mastix_, 1610, a man expresses his wonder that the maskers enter without any compliment: 'What, come they in so blunt, without device?' In the accounts of many entertainments given in reigns antecedent to that of Elizabeth, I find this custom preserved. Of the same kind of masquerading see a specimen in _T. of A._ [i. 2], where Cupid precedes a troop of ladies with a speech." Collier compares _L. L. L._ v. 2. 158 fol.
5. _Bow of lath._ The Tartar bows resembled in form the old Roman or Cupid's bow, such as we see on medals and bas-reliefs; while the English bow had the shape of the segment of a circle.
6. _Crow-keeper._ Originally a boy stationed in a field to drive the birds away (as in _Lear_, iv. 6. 88: "That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper"); afterwards applied, as here, to what we call a _scarecrow_. The latter was often a stuffed figure with a bow in his hand.
7, 8. These lines are found only in the 1st quarto, and were first inserted in the text by Pope. White believes that they were purposely omitted, but only on account of their disparagement of the prologue-speakers on the stage. Prologues and epilogues were often prepared, not by the author of the play, but by some other person; and this was probably the case with some of the prologues and epilogues in S. _Faintly_ = "in a weak mechanical way" (Ulrici). _Entrance_ is a trisyllable, as in _Macb._ i. 5. 40.
10. _A measure._ A formal courtly dance. Cf. _Much Ado_, ii. 1. 80: "as a measure, full of state and ancientry;" and for the play on the word, _Id._ ii. 1. 74, _L. L. L._ iv. 3. 384, and _Rich. II._ iii. 4. 7.
11. _A torch._ Maskers were regularly attended by torch-bearers. The commentators quote illustrations of this from other authors, but do not refer to _M. of V._ ii. 4. 5: "We have not spoke us yet of torch-bearers;" and 21 just below:--
"Will you prepare you for this masque to-night? I am provided of a torch-bearre."
See also _Id._ ii. 6. 40 fol. For the contemptuous use of _ambling_, see _Ham._ iii. 1. 151, _1 Hen. IV._ iii. 2. 60, etc.
12. _The light._ For the poet's frequent playing on the different senses of _light_, see on i. 1. 134 above. Cf. ii. 2. 105 below.
15. _Soul._ For the play on the word, cf. _M. of V._ ii. 4. 68, iv. 1. 123, and, _J.C._ i. 1. 15.
19. _Enpierced._ Used by S. nowhere else.
20. _Bound._ For the quibble, Steevens compares Milton, _P.L._ iv. 180:--
"in contempt At one slight bound high overleap'd all bound Of hill or highest wall," etc.
29. _Give me a case._ Perhaps Mercutio thinks he will wear a mask, and then changes his mind. Littledale suggests pointing "visage in!" It is possible, however, that lines 30-32 refer to a mask that is handed to him, and which he decides to wear, though it is an ugly one. On the whole, I prefer this explanation.
31. _Quote._ Note, observe. Cf. _Ham._ ii. 1. 112:--
"I am sorry that with better heed and judgment I had not quoted him."
32. _Beetle-brows._ Prominent or overhanging brows. Cf. the verb _beetle_ in _Ham._ i. 4. 71.
36. _Rushes._ Before the introduction of carpets floors were strewn with rushes. Cf. _1 Hen. IV._ iii. 1. 214: "on the wanton rushes lay you down;" _Cymb._ ii. 2. 13:--
"Our Tarquin thus Did softly press the rushes," etc. See also _R. of L._ 318, _T. of S._ iv. 1. 48, and _2 Hen. IV._ v. 5. 1. The stage was likewise strewn with rushes. Steevens quotes Dekker, _Guls Hornbook_: "on the very rushes where the comedy is to daunce."
37. _I am proverb'd_, etc. The old proverb fits my case, etc. _To hold the candle_ is a very common phrase for being _an idle spectator_. Among Ray's proverbs is "A good candle-holder proves a good gamester" (Steevens).
39. _The game_, etc. An old proverbial saying advises to give over when the game is at the fairest; and Romeo also alludes to this.
40. _Dun's the mouse._ Apparently = keep still; but no one has satisfactorily explained the origin of the phrase. Malone quotes _Patient Grissel_, 1603: "yet don is the mouse, lie still;" and Steevens adds _The Two Merry Milkmaids_, 1620: "Why then 'tis done, and dun's the mouse and undone all the courtiers."
41. _If thou art Dun_, etc. Douce quotes Chaucer, _C.T._ 16936:
"Ther gan our hoste for to jape and play, And sayde, 'sires, what? Dun is in the myre.'"
Gifford explains the expression thus: "_Dun in the mire_ is a Christmas gambol, at which I have often played. A log of wood is brought into the midst of the room: this is _Dun_ (the cart-horse), and a cry is raised that he is _stuck in the mire_. Two of the company advance, either with or without ropes, to draw him out. After repeated attempts, they find themselves unable to do it, and call for more assistance. The game continues till all the company take part in it, when Dun is extricated of course; and the merriment arises from the awkward and affected efforts of the rustics to lift the log, and from sundry arch contrivances to let the ends of it fall on one another's toes. This will not be thought a very exquisite amusement; and yet I have seen much honest mirth at it." Halliwell-Phillipps quotes _Westward Hoe_, 1607: "I see I'm born still to draw dun out o' th' mire for you; that wise beast will I be;" and Butler, _Remains_: "they meant to leave reformation, like Dun in the mire."
42. _Sir-reverence._ A contraction of "save reverence" (_salva reverentia_), used as an apology for saying what might be deemed improper. Cf. _C. of E._ iii. 2. 93: "such a one as a man may not speak of without he say 'Sir-reverence.'" Taylor the Water-Poet says in one of his epigrams:--
"If to a foule discourse thou hast pretence, Before thy foule words name sir-reverence, Thy beastly tale most pleasantly will slip, And gaine thee praise, when thou deserv'st a whip."
Here "Mercutio says he will draw Romeo from the _mire of this love_, and uses parenthetically the ordinary form of apology for speaking so profanely of love" (Knight). For the full phrase, see _Much Ado_, iii. 4. 32, _M. of V._ ii. 2. 27, 139, etc.
43. _Burn daylight._ "A proverbial expression used when candles are lighted in the daytime" (Steevens); hence applied to superfluous actions in general. Here it is = waste time, as the context shows. Cf. _M.W._ ii. 1. 54, where it has the same meaning.
45. _We waste_, etc. The quartos have "We waste our lights in vaine, lights lights by day;" the folios, "We wast our lights in vaine, lights, by day." The emendation is Capell's. Daniel and Dowden read, "light lights by day," which is very plausible.
47. _Five wits._ Cf. _Much Ado_, i. 1. 66: "four of his five wits went halting off;" _Sonn._ 141. 9: "But my five wits nor my five senses." Here the _five wits_ are distinguished from the _five senses_; but the two expressions were sometimes used interchangeably. The _five wits_, on the other hand, were defined as "common wit, imagination, fantasy, estimation (judgment), and memory."
50. _To-night._ That is, last night, as in _M.W._ iii. 3. 171: "I have dreamed to-night;" _W.T._ ii. 3. 10: "He took good rest to-night," etc. See also ii. 4. 2 below.
53. _Queen Mab._ No earlier instance of _Mab_ as the name of the fairy-queen has been discovered, but S. no doubt learned it from the folk-lore of his own time. Its derivation is uncertain.
54. _The fairies' midwife._ Not midwife _to_ the fairies, but the fairy whose department it was to deliver the fancies of sleeping men of their dreams, those _children of an idle brain_ (Steevens). T. Warton believes she was so called because she steals new-born infants, and leaves "changelings" (see _M.N.D._ ii. 1. 23, etc.) in their place.
55. _No bigger_, etc. That is, no bigger than the figures cut in such an agate. Cf. _Much Ado_, iii. 1. 65: "If low, an agate very vilely cut." Rings were sometimes worn on the _thumb_. Steevens quotes Glapthorne, _Wit in a Constable_, 1639: "and an alderman as I may say to you, he has no more wit than the rest o' the bench; and that lies in his thumb-ring."
57. _Atomies._ Atoms, or creatures as minute as atoms. Cf. _A.Y.L._ iii. 2. 245: "to count atomies;" and _Id._ iii. 5. 13: "Who shut their coward gates on atomies." In _2 Hen. IV._ v. 4. 33, Mrs. Quickly confounds the word with _anatomy._ S. uses it only in these four passages, _atom_ not at all.
59. _Spinners._ Long-legged spiders, mentioned also in _M.N.D._ ii. 2. 21: "Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!"
65. _Worm._ Nares says, under _idle worms_: "Worms bred in idleness. It was supposed, and the notion was probably encouraged for the sake of promoting industry, that when maids were idle, worms bred in their fingers;" and he cites Beaumont and Fletcher, _Woman Hater_, iii. 1:--
"Keep thy hands in thy muff and warm the idle Worms in thy fingers' ends."
67-69. _Her chariot ... coachmakers._ Daniel puts these lines before 59. Lettsom says: "It is preposterous to speak of the parts of a chariot (such as the waggon-spokes and cover) before mentioning the chariot itself." But _chariot_ here, as the description shows, means only the _body_ of the vehicle, and is therefore one of the "parts."
76. _Sweetmeats._ That is, kissing-comfits. These artificial aids to perfume the breath are mentioned by Falstaff, in _M.W._ v. 5. 22.
77. _A courtier's nose._ As this is a repetition, Pope substituted "lawyer's" (from 1st quarto), but this would also be a repetition. Other suggestions are "tailor's" and "counsellor's;" but the carelessness of the description is in perfect keeping with the character. See the comments on the speech p. 290 below.
79. _Sometime._ Used by S. interchangeably with _sometimes_.
84. _Ambuscadoes._ Ambuscades; used by S. only here. The _Spanish blades_ of Toledo were famous for their quality.
85. _Healths_, etc. Malone quotes _Westward Hoe_, 1607: "troth, sir, my master and sir Goslin are guzzling; they are dabbling together fathom deep. The knight has drunk so much health to the gentleman yonder, upon his knees, that he hath almost lost the use of his legs." Cf. _2 Hen. IV._ v. 3. 57:--
"Fill the cup, and let it come; I'll pledge you a mile to the bottom."
89. _Plats the manes_, etc. "This alludes to a very singular superstition not yet forgotten in some parts of the country. It was believed that certain malignant spirits, whose delight was to wander in groves and pleasant places, assumed occasionally the likeness of women clothed in white; that in this character they sometimes haunted stables in the night-time, carrying in their hands tapers of wax, which they dropped on the horses' manes, thereby plaiting them in inextricable knots, to the great annoyance of the poor animals and vexation of their masters. These hags are mentioned in the works of William of Auvergne, bishop of Paris in the 13th century" (Douce).
90. _Elf-locks._ Hair matted or clotted, either from neglect or from the disease known as the _Plica Polonica_. Cf. _Lear_, ii. 3. 10: "elf all my hair in knots;" and Lodge, _Wit's Miserie_, 1596: "His haires are curld and full of elves locks."
91. _Which_, etc. The real subject of _bodes_ is _which once untangled_ = the untangling of which.
97. _Who._ For _which_, as often; but here, perhaps, on account of the personification. Cf. _2 Hen. IV._ iii. 1. 22:--
"the winds, Who take the ruffian billows by the top."
103. _My mind misgives_, etc. One of many illustrations of Shakespeare's fondness for presentiments. Cf. ii. 2. 116, iii. 5. 53, 57, etc., below. See also 50 above.
105. _Date._ Period, duration; as often in S. Cf. _R. of L._ 935: "To endless date of never-ending woes;" _Sonn._ 18. 4: "And summer's lease hath all too short a date;" _M.N.D._ iii. 2. 373: "With league whose date till death shall never end," etc.
106. _Expire._ The only instance of the transitive use in S. Cf. Spenser, _F.Q._ iv. 1. 54: "Till time the tryall of her truth expyred."
107. _Clos'd._ Enclosed, shut up. Cf. v. 2. 30 below: "clos'd in a dead man's tomb." See also _R. of L._ 761, _Macb._ iii. 1. 99, etc.
111. In the early eds. the stage-direction is "_They march about the Stage, and Seruingmen come forth with_ [or _with their_] _Napkins_." This shows that the scene was supposed to be immediately changed to the hall of Capulet's house.
## SCENE V.--2. _Shift a trencher._ "Trenchers [wooden plates] were still
used by persons of good fashion in our author's time. In the _Household Book of the Earls of Northumberland_, compiled at the beginning of the same century, it appears that they were common to the tables of the first nobility" (Percy). To _shift a trencher_ was a technical term. For _scrape a trencher_, cf. _Temp._ ii. 2. 187: "Nor scrape trencher, nor wash dish."
7. _Joint-stools._ A kind of folding-chair. Cf. _1 Hen. IV._ ii. 4. 418, _2 Hen. IV._ ii. 4. 269, etc.
8. _Court-cupboard._ Sideboard. Steevens quotes Chapman, _Monsieur D'Olive_, 1606: "Here shall stand my court-cupboard with its furniture of plate;" and his _May-Day_, 1611: "Court-cupboards planted with flaggons, cans, cups, beakers," etc. Cotgrave defines _dressoir_ as "a court-cupboord (without box or drawer), onely to set plate on."
_Good thou._ For this vocative use of _good_, cf. _Temp._ i. 1. 3, 16, 20, _C. of E._ iv. 4. 22, etc.
9. _Marchpane._ A kind of almond-cake, much esteemed in the time of S. Nares gives the following from one of the old English receipt-books, _Delightes for Ladies_, 1608: "_To make a marchpane_.--Take two poundes of almonds being blanched, and dryed in a sieve over the fire, beate them in a stone mortar, and when they be small mix them with two pounde of sugar beeing finely beaten, adding two or three spoonefuls of rosewater, and that will keep your almonds from oiling: when your paste is beaten fine, drive it thin with a rowling pin, and so lay it on a bottom of wafers, then raise up a little edge on the side, and so bake it, then yce it with rosewater and sugar, then put it in the oven againe, and when you see your yce is risen up and drie, then take it out of the oven and garnish it with pretie conceipts, as birdes and beasts being cast out of standing moldes. Sticke long comfits upright in it, cast bisket and carrowaies in it, and so serve it; guild it before you serve it: you may also print of this _marchpane_ paste in your molds for banqueting dishes. And of this paste our comfit makers at this day make their letters, knots, armes, escutcheons, beasts, birds, and other fancies." Castles and other figures were often made of marchpane, to decorate splendid desserts, and were demolished by shooting or throwing sugar-plums at them. Cf. Beaumont and Fletcher, _Faithful Friends_, iii. 2:--
"They barr'd their gates, Which we as easily tore unto the earth As I this tower of marchpane."
16. _Cheerly._ Cheerily, briskly. Cf. _Temp._ i. 1. 6, 29, etc.
16. _The longer liver take all._ A proverbial expression.
18. _Toes._ Pope thought it necessary to change this to "feet." Malone remarks that the word "undoubtedly did not appear indelicate to the audience of Shakespeare's time, though perhaps it would not be endured at this day." We smile at this when we recollect some of the words that were endured then; but it shows how fashions change in these matters.
21. _Deny._ Refuse. Cf. _L. L. L._ v. 2. 228: "If you deny to dance;" _T. of S._ ii. 1. 180: "If she deny to wed," etc. _Makes dainty_ = affects coyness. Cf. _K. John_, iii. 4. 138:--
"And he that stands upon a slippery place Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up."
22. _Am I come near ye now?_ Do I touch you, or hit you, now? Cf. _1 Hen IV._ i. 2. 14: "Indeed, you come near me now, Hal." Schmidt is clearly wrong in giving _T.N._ ii. 5. 29 as another example of the phrase in this sense. He might have given _T.N._ iii. 4. 71.
23. _Welcome, gentlemen!_ Addressed to the masked friends of Romeo.
28. _A hall, a hall!_ This exclamation occurs frequently in the old comedies, and is = make room. Cf. _Doctor Dodypoll_, 1600: "Room! room! a hall! a hall!" and Jonson, _Tale of a Tub_: "Then cry, a hall! a hall!"
29. _Turn the tables up._ The tables in that day were flat leaves hinged together and placed on trestles; when removed they were therefore turned up (Steevens).
30. _The fire._ S. appears to have forgotten that the time was in summer. See p. 19 above.
32. _Cousin._ The "uncle Capulet" of i. 2. 70. The word was often used loosely = kinsman in S. Cf. iii. 1. 143 below: "Tybalt, my cousin! O my brother's child!"
37. _Nuptial._ The regular form in S. In the 1st folio _nuptials_ occurs only in _Per._ v. 3. 80.
43. _What lady is that_, etc. Cf. Brooke's poem:--
"At length he saw a mayd, right fayre of perfect shape: Which Theseus, or Paris would haue chosen to their rape. Whom erst he neuer sawe, of all she pleasde him most: Within himselfe he sayd to her, thou iustly mayst thee boste. Of perfit shapes renoune, and Beauties sounding prayse: Whose like ne hath, ne shalbe seene, ne liueth in our dayes. And whilest he fixd on her his partiall perced eye, His former loue, for which of late he ready was to dye, Is nowe as quite forgotte, as it had neuer been."
47. _Her beauty hangs._ The reading of the later folios, adopted by many editors. The quartos and 1st folio have "It seemes she hangs." As Verplanck remarks, it is quite probable that the correction was the poet's own, obtained from some other MS. altered during the poet's life; it is besides confirmed by the repetition of _beauty_ in 49. Delius, who retains _it seems_, thinks that the boldness of the simile led the poet to introduce it in that way; but it is Romeo who is speaking, and the simile is not over-bold for him. The commentators often err in looking at the text from the "stand-point" of the critic rather than that of the character.
48. _Ethiope's ear._ For the simile, cf. _Sonn._ 27. 11: "Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night," etc. Holt White quotes Lyly, _Euphues_: "A fair pearl in a Morian's ear."
55. _I ne'er saw_, etc. Cf. _Hen. VIII._ i. 4. 75:--
"The fairest hand I ever touch'd! O beauty, Till now I never knew thee!"
57. _What dares_, etc. How dares, or why dares, etc. Cf. _2 Hen. IV._ i. 2. 129: "What tell you me of it? be it as it is;" _A. and C._ v. 2. 316: "What should I stay?" etc.
58. _Antic face._ Referring to Romeo's mask. Cf. ii. 4. 29 below.
59. _Fleer._ Sneer, mock; as in _Much Ado_, v. 1. 58, etc. For _scorn at_, cf. _A.Y.L._ iii. 5. 131, _K. John_, i. 1. 228, etc. We find _scorn_ without the preposition in _L. L. L._ iv. 3. 147: "How will he scorn!" _Solemnity_ here expresses only the idea of ceremony, or formal observance. Cf. the use of _solemn_ = ceremonious, formal; as in _Macb._ iii. 1. 14: "To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir;" _T. of S._ iii. 2. 103: "our solemn festival," etc. Hunter quotes Harrington, _Ariosto_:--
"Nor never did young lady brave and bright Like dancing better on a solemn day."
64. _In spite._ In malice; or, as Schmidt explains it, "only to defy and provoke us." Cf. i. 1. 75 above.
67. _Content thee._ "Compose yourself, keep your temper" (Schmidt). Cf. _Much Ado_, v. 1. 87, _T. of S._ i. 1. 90, 203, ii. 1. 343, etc. So _be contented_; as in _M.W._ iii. 3. 177, _Lear_, iii, 4. 115, etc.
68. _Portly._ The word here seems to mean simply "well-behaved, well-bred," though elsewhere it has the modern sense; as in _M.W._ i. 3. 69: "my portly belly;" _1 Hen. IV._ ii. 4. 464: "A goodly portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent," etc.
72. _Do him disparagement._ Do him injury. Cf. "do danger" (_J.C._ ii. 1. 17), "do our country loss" (_Hen. V._ iv. 3. 21), "do him shame" (_R. of L._ 597, _Sonn._ 36. 10, _L. L. L._ iv. 3. 204), etc. See also iii. 3. 118 below.
77. _It fits._ Cf. _A.W._ ii. 1. 147: "where hope is coldest, and despair most fits," etc.
81. _God shall mend my soul!_ Cf. _A.Y.L._ iv. 1. 193: "By my troth, and in good earnest, and so God mend me, and by all pretty oaths that are not dangerous," etc. See also _1 Hen. IV._ iii. 1. 255.
83. _Cock-a-hoop._ "Of doubtful origin" (_New. Eng. Dict._), though the meaning is clear. _Set cock-a-hoop_ = play the bully. S. uses the word only here.
86. _Scathe._ Injure. S. uses the verb nowhere else; but cf. the noun in _K. John_, ii. 1. 75: "To do offence and scathe in Christendom;" _Rich. III._ i. 3. 317: "To pray for them that have done scathe to us," etc.
87. _Contrary._ Oppose, cross; the only instance of the verb in S. Steevens quotes Greene, _Tully's Love_: "to contrary her resolution;" Warner, _Albion's England_: "his countermand should have contraried so," etc. The accent in S. is variable. Cf. the adjective in iii. 2. 64 below.
88. _Well said._ Well done. Cf. _Oth._ ii. 1. 169, v. 1. 98, etc. _Princox_ = a pert or impertinent boy; used by S. only here. Steevens quotes _The Return from Parnassus_, 1606: "Your proud university princox." Cotgrave renders "_un jeune estourdeau superbe_" by "a young princox boy."
Coleridge remarks here: "How admirable is the old man's impetuosity, at once contrasting, yet harmonized with young Tybalt's quarrelsome violence! But it would be endless to repeat observations of this sort. Every leaf is different on an oak-tree; but still we can only say, our tongues defrauding our eyes, This is another oak leaf!"
91. _Patience perforce._ Compulsory submission; a proverbial expression. Nares quotes Ray's _Proverbs_: "Patience perforce is a medicine for a mad dog" (or "a mad horse," as Howell gives it). Cf. Spenser, _F.Q._ ii. 3. 3:--
"Patience perforce: helplesse what may it boot To frett for anger, or for griefe to mone?"
94. _Convert._ For the intransitive use, cf. _R. of L._ 592, _Much Ado_, i. 1. 123, _Rich. II._ v. 1. 66, v. 3. 64, etc. Some make it transitive, with _now seeming sweet_ (= "what now seems sweet") as its object; but this seems too forced a construction.
96. _The gentle fine._ The sweet penance for the offence; that is, for the rude touch of my hand. For _fine_ the early eds. have "sin" or "sinne." The emendation is due to Warburton; but some editors retain "sin."
105. _Let lips do_, etc. Juliet has said that palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss. She afterwards says that palmers have lips that they must use in prayer. Romeo replies that the prayer of his lips is that they may do what hands do, that is, that they may kiss.
109. As Malone remarks, kissing in a public assembly was not then thought indecorous. Cf. _Hen. VIII._ i. 4. 28.
White remarks: "I have never seen a Juliet on the stage who appeared to appreciate the archness of the dialogue with Romeo in this scene. They go through it solemnly, or at best with staid propriety. They reply literally to all Romeo's speeches about saints and palmers. But it should be noticed that though this is the first interview of the lovers, we do not hear them speak until the close of their dialogue, in which they have arrived at a pretty thorough understanding of their mutual feeling. Juliet makes a feint of parrying Romeo's advances, but does it archly, and knows that he is to have the kiss he sues for. He asks, 'Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?' The stage Juliet answers with literal solemnity. But it was not a conventicle at old Capulet's. Juliet was not holding forth. How demure is her real answer: 'Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use--in prayer!' And when Romeo fairly gets her into the corner, towards which she has been contriving to be driven, and he says, 'Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purg'd,' and does put them to that purgation, how slyly the pretty puss gives him the opportunity to repeat the penance by replying, 'Then have my lips the sin that they have took!'"
114. _What._ Who; as often. Cf. 130 below.
119. _Shall have the chinks._ This seems much like modern slang. S. uses it only here; but Tusser (_Husbandry_, 1573) has both _chink_ and _chinks_ in this sense, and the word is found also in Florio, Cotgrave, Holinshed, Stanihurst, and other old writers.
120. _My life_, etc. "He means that, as bereft of Juliet he should die, his existence is at the mercy of his enemy, Capulet" (Staunton). Cf. Brooke:--
"So hath he learnd her name, and knowth she is no geast. Her father was a Capilet, and master of the feast. Thus hath his foe in choyse to geue him lyfe or death: That scarsely can his wofull brest keepe in the liuely breath."
124. _Foolish._ A mere repetition of the apologetic _trifling_. _Banquet_ sometimes meant a dessert, as here and in _T. of S._ v. 2. 9:--
"My banquet is to close our stomachs up, After our great good cheer."
Nares quotes Massinger, _Unnatural Combat_:--
"We'll dine in the great room, but let the music And banquet be prepared here;"
and Taylor, _Pennilesse Pilgrim_: "our first and second course being threescore dishes at one boord, and after that alwayes a banquet." _Towards_ = ready, at hand (Steevens). So _toward_; as in _M.N.D._ iii. 1. 81: "What, a play toward!"
125. _Is it e'en so?_ The 1st quarto has here the stage-direction: "_They whisper in his eare_;" that is, whisper the reason of their departure.
128. _By my fay._ That is, by my faith. Cf. _Ham._ ii. 2. 271, etc.
130. _Come hither, nurse_, etc. Cf. Brooke:--
"As carefull was the mayde what way were best deuise To learne his name, that intertaind her in so gentle wise. Of whome her hart receiued so deepe, so wyde a wound, An aucient dame she calde to her, and in her eare gan rounde.[5] This old dame in her youth, had nurst her with her mylke, With slender nedle taught her sow, and how to spin with silke. What twayne are those (quoth she) which prease vnto the doore, Whose pages in theyr hand doe beare, two toorches light before. And then as eche of them had of his household name, So she him namde yet once agayne the yong and wyly dame. And tell me who is he with vysor in his hand That yender doth in masking weede besyde the window stand. His name is Romeus (said shee) a Montegewe. Whose fathers pryde first styrd the strife which both your householdes rewe."
136. _If he be married_, etc. "Uttered to herself while the Nurse makes inquiry" (Dowden). _Married_ is here a trisyllable.
142. _Prodigious._ Portentous. Cf. _M.N.D._ v. 1. 419, _K. John_, iii. 1. 46, _Rich. III._ i. 2. 23, etc.
[Footnote 5: That is, whisper. Cf. _W.T._ i. 2. 217, _K. John_, ii. 1. 566, etc.]
## ACT II
_Enter Chorus._ This is generally put at the end of act i., but, as it refers to the future, rather than the past, it may be regarded as a prologue to act ii. There is no division of acts or scenes in the early eds.
2. _Gapes._ Rushton quotes Swinburn, _Briefe Treatise of Testaments and Last Willes_, 1590: "such personnes as do gape for greater bequests;" and again: "It is an impudent part still to gape and crie upon the testator."
3. On the repetition of _for_, cf. _A.W._ i. 2. 29: "But on us both did haggish age steal on;" _Cor._ ii. 1. 18: "In what enormity is Marcius poor in?" etc. _Fair_ = fair one; as in _M.N.D._ i. 1. 182, etc.
10. _Use._ Are accustomed. We still use the past tense of the verb in this sense, but not the present. Cf. _Temp._ ii. 1. 175: "they always use to laugh at nothing;" _T.N._ ii. 5. 104: "with which she uses to seal;" _A. and C._ ii. 5. 32: "we use To say the dead are well," etc. See also Milton, _Lycidas_, 67: "Were it not better done, as others use," etc.
14. _Extremities._ That is, extreme difficulties or dangers.
## SCENE I.--2. _Dull earth._ "Romeo's epithet for his small world of man,
the earthlier portion of himself" (Clarke). Cf. _Sonn._ 146. 1: "Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth."
5. _Orchard._ That is, garden; the only meaning in S.
6. _Conjure._ Accented by S. on either syllable, without regard to the meaning.
7. _Humours!_ Fancies, caprices. Some read "Humour's madman! Passion-lover!" See on 29 below.
10. _Ay me!_ Often changed here and elsewhere to "Ah me!" which occurs in the old eds. of S. only in v. 1. 10 below. _Ay me!_ is found thirty or more times. Milton also uses it often.
11. _My gossip Venus._ Cf. _M. of V._ iii. 1. 7: "if my gossip Report be an honest woman of her word."
13. _Young Abraham Cupid._ The 2d and 3d quartos have "Abraham: Cupid;" the other early eds. "Abraham Cupid." Upton conjectured "Adam Cupid," with an allusion to the famous archer, Adam Bell, and was followed by Steevens and others. Theobald suggested "auborn," and it has since been shown that _abraham_, _abram_, _aborne_, _aborn_, _abron_, _aubrun_, etc., were all forms of the word now written _auburn_. In _Cor._ ii. 3. 21 the 1st, 2d, and 3d folios read: "our heads are some browne, some blacke, some Abram, some bald;" the 4th folio changes "Abram" to "auburn." In _T.G. of V._ iv. 4. 194, the folio has "Her haire is _Aburne_, mine is perfect _Yellow_." These are the only instances of the word in S. "Auburn" is adopted by a few editors, and is explained as = "auburn-haired," but that surely is no _nickname_. Schmidt understands "Young Abraham Cupid" to be used "in derision of the eternal boyhood of Cupid, though in fact he was at least as old as father Abraham." Cf. _L. L. L._ iii. 1. 182: "This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;" and _Id._ v. 2. 10: "For he hath been five thousand years a boy." Furness in his Variorum ed. gives "Adam," but he now prefers "Abraham" = the young counterfeit, with his sham make-up, pretending to be _purblind_ and yet _shooting so trim_. He thinks the allusion to the _beggar-maid_ also favours this explanation. _Abraham-man_, originally applied to a mendicant lunatic from Bethlehem Hospital, London, came to be a cant term for an impostor wandering about and asking alms under pretence of lunacy. Herford says that "Adam" is made almost certain by _Much Ado_, i. 1. 260; but it is by no means certain that the allusion there is to Adam Bell, as he assumes.
_Trim._ The reading of 1st quarto; the other early eds. have "true." That the former is the right word is evident from the ballad of _King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid_ (see Percy's _Reliques_), in which we read:--
"The blinded boy that shoots so trim From heaven down did hie, He drew a dart and shot at him, In place where he did lie."
For other allusions to the ballad, see _L. L. L._ iv. 1. 66 and _2 Hen._ _IV._ v. 3. 106.
16. _Ape._ As Malone notes, _ape_, like _fool_ (see on i. 3. 31 above), was sometimes used as a term of endearment or pity. Cf. _2 Hen. IV._ ii. 4. 234: "Alas, poor ape, how thou sweatest!"
22. _Circle._ Alluding to the ring drawn by magicians. Cf. _A.Y.L._ ii. 5. 62: "a Greek invocation, to call fools into a circle." See also _Hen._ _V._ v. 2. 320.
25. _Spite._ Vexation. Cf. i. 5. 64 above.
29. _Humorous._ Humid. Delius (like Schmidt) sees a quibble in the word: "_moist_ and _capricious_, full of such humours as characterize lovers, and as whose personification Mercutio had just conjured Romeo under the collective name _humours_."
32. _Truckle-bed._ Trundle-bed; one made to run under a "standing-bed," as it was called. Cf. _M.W._ iv. 5. 7: "his standing-bed and truckle-bed." The former was for the master, the latter for the servant. Mercutio uses the term in sport, and adds a quibble on _field-bed_, which was a camp-bed, or a bed on the ground.
## SCENE II.--1. _He jests_, etc. Referring to Mercutio, whom he has
overheard, as the rhyme in _found_ and _wound_ indicates. The Cambridge ed. suggests that in the old arrangement of the scene the wall may have been represented as dividing the stage, so that the audience could see Romeo on one side and Mercutio on the other. Mr. F.A. Marshall thinks that Romeo "merely stepped to the back of the stage at the beginning of the scene, and was supposed to be concealed from the others, not coming out till they had gone. Juliet would appear on the 'upper stage' [the balcony at the back of the Elizabethan stage], which did duty in the old plays for so many purposes."
7. _Be not her maid._ Be not a votary to the moon, or Diana (Johnson). Cf. _M.N.D._ i. 1. 73.
8. _Sick._ The 1st quarto has "pale," which is adopted by some editors. It has been objected that _sick and green_ is a strange combination of _colours_ in a livery; but it is rather the _effect_ of the colours that is meant. Cf. _T.N._ ii. 4. 116: "with a green and yellow melancholy." Perhaps, as Dowden remarks, the word _green-sickness_ (see iii. 5. 155) suggested the epithets.
29. _White-upturned._ So Theobald and most of the editors. The early eds. have "white, upturned," which Marshall prefers as better expressing "the appearance of an upturned eye by moonlight."
39. _Thou art thyself_, etc. That is, you would be yourself, or what you now are, even if you were not a Montague; just "as a rose is a rose--has all its characteristic sweetness and beauty--though it be not called a rose" (White). The thought is repeated below in _So Romeo would ... that title_. The passage would not call for explanation if critics had not been puzzled by it.
46. _Owes._ Possesses; as very often. Cf. _M.N.D._ ii. 2. 79, _Macb._ i. 3. 76, i. 4. 10, iii. 4. 113, etc.
52. _Bescreen'd._ Used by S. only here.
58. _Yet not._ A common transposition. Cf. _Hen. V._ iii. 3. 46: "his powers are yet not ready;" _Hen. VIII._ ii. 4. 204: "full sick, and yet not well;" _Cor._ i. 5. 18: "My work hath yet not warm'd me," etc.
61. _Dislike._ Displease. Cf. _Oth._ ii. 3. 49: "I'll do 't; but it dislikes me." So _like_ = please; as in _Ham._ v. 2. 276: "This likes me well," etc.
62. _Wherefore._ For the accent on the last syllable, cf. _M.N.D._ iii. 2. 272: "Hate me! Wherefore? O me! what news, my love!"
66. _O'er-perch._ Used by S. nowhere else.
69. _Let._ Hindrance; as in _R. of L._ 330, 646, and _Hen. V._ v. 2. 65. Cf. the verb in _Ham._ i. 4. 85, etc.
78. _Prorogued._ Delayed; as in iv. 1. 48 below. On _wanting of_, cf. v. 1. 40 below: "Culling of simples."
83. _As that vast shore_, etc. Possibly suggested, as some have thought, by the voyages of Drake and other explorers to America about the time when S. was writing.
84. _Adventure._ Venture, try the chance. Cf. _Cymb._ iii. 4. 156:--
"O for such means! Though peril to my modesty, not death on 't, I would adventure."
89. _Farewell compliment!_ Away with formality! The early eds. have "complement" or "complements," as in ii. 4. 19 below and elsewhere.
93. _At lovers' perjuries_, etc. Douce remarks that S. found this in Ovid's _Art of Love_--perhaps in Marlowe's translation:--
"For Jove himself sits in the azure skies, And laughs below at lovers' perjuries."
Cf. Greene, _Metamorphosis_: "What! Eriphila, Jove laughs at the perjurie of lovers."
99. _Haviour._ Not "'haviour," as often printed. It is found in North's _Plutarch_ and other prose.
101. _To be strange._ To appear coy or shy. Cf. iii. 2. 15 below: "strange love" (that is, coy love).
103. _Ware._ See on i. 1. 121 above.
106. _Discovered._ Revealed, betrayed. Cf. iii. 1. 145 below, where it is = tell, explain.
109. _The inconstant moon._ Cf. _M. for M._ iii. 1. 25:--
"For thy complexion shifts to strange effects, After the moon."
See also _L. L. L._ v. 2. 212, _Lear_, v. 3. 19, and _Oth._ iii. 3. 178. Hunter quotes Wilson, _Retorique_, 1553: "as in speaking of constancy, to shew the sun who ever keepeth one course; in speaking of inconstancy, to shew the moon which keepeth no certain course."
116. _Do not swear._ Coleridge remarks here: "With love, pure love, there is always an anxiety for the safety of the object, a disinterestedness by which it is distinguished from the counterfeits of its name. Compare this scene with the _Temp._ iii. 1. I do not know a more wonderful instance of Shakespeare's mastery in playing a distinctly rememberable variation on the same remembered air than in the transporting love-confessions of Romeo and Juliet and Ferdinand and Miranda. There seems more passion in the one, and more dignity in the other; yet you feel that the sweet girlish lingering and busy movement of Juliet, and the calmer and more maidenly fondness of Miranda, might easily pass into each other."
117. _Contract._ Accented by S. on either syllable, as suits the measure. The verb is always _contráct_. See also on i. 4. 103 above.
119. _Like the lightning_, etc. Cf. _M.N.D._ i. 1. 145:--
"Brief as the lightning in the collied night, That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!' The jaws of darkness do devour it up; So quick bright things come to confusion."
124. _As that_, etc. As to that heart, etc.
131. _Frank._ Bountiful; repeated in _bounty_. Cf. _Sonn._ 4. 4:--
"Nature's bequest gives nothing but doth lend, And being frank she lends to those are free;" and _Lear_, iii. 4. 20: "Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all."
139. _Afeard_. Used by S. interchangeably with _afraid_ (v. 3. 10 below).
141. _Substantial._ Metrically a quadrisyllable.
142. _Three words_, etc. Cf. Brooke's poem:--
"In few vnfained woords your hidden mynd vnfolde, That as I see your pleasant face, your heart I may beholde. For if you doe intende my honor to defile: In error shall you wander still, as you haue done this whyle, But if your thought be chaste, and haue on vertue ground, If wedlocke be the ende and marke which your desire hath found: Obedience set aside, vnto my parentes dewe: The quarell eke that long agoe betwene our housholdes grewe: Both me and myne I will all whole to you betake: And following you where so you goe, my fathers house forsake."
143. _Bent._ Inclination; as in _J.C._ ii. 1. 210: "I can give his humour the true bent," etc.
144. _Send me word to-morrow_, etc. This seems rather sudden at first glance, but her desire for immediate marriage is due, partially at least, to what she has just learned (i. 3) of the plan to marry her to Paris.
151. _Madam!_ This forms no part of the verse, and might well enough be separated from it, like the _Juliet_ in i. 5. 145 above. _By and by_ = presently; as in iii. 1. 173 and iii. 3. 76 below.
152. _Suit._ The reading of 4th ("sute") and 5th quartos; the other early eds. have "strife." The expression "To cease your sute" occurs in Brooke's poem, a few lines below the passage just quoted.
153. _To-morrow._ "In the alternative which she places before her lover with such a charming mixture of conscious delicacy and girlish simplicity, there is that jealousy of female honour which precept and education have infused into her mind, without one real doubt of his truth, or the slightest hesitation in her self-abandonment; for she does not even wait to hear his asseverations" (Mrs. Jameson).
157. _Toward school_, etc. Cf. _A.Y.L._ ii. 7. 145:--
"And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school."
160. _Tassel-gentle._ The _tassel-gentle_ or _tercel-gentle_ is the male hawk. Dyce quotes Cotgrave, _Fr. Dict._: "Tiercelet. The Tassell or male of any kind of Hawke, so tearmed, because he is, commonly, a third part less than the female;" and Holmes, _Academy of Armory_: "_Tiercell_, _Tercell_, or _Tassell_ is the general name for the Male of all large Hawks." Malone says that the _tiercel-gentle_ was the species of hawk appropriated to the prince, and thinks that on that account Juliet applies it to Romeo. We find _tercel_ in _T. and C._ iii. 2. 56: "The falcon as the tercel." The hawk was trained to know and obey _the falconer's voice_. Cf. _T. of S._ iv. 1. 196:--
"Another way I have to man my haggard, To make her come and know her keeper's call."
For _haggard_ = wild hawk, see _Much Ado_, iii. 1 36, _T.N._ iii. 1. 71, etc.
163. _Airy tongue._ Cf. Milton, _Comus_, 208: "And airy tongues, that syllable men's names," etc.
166. _Silver-sweet._ Cf. _Per._ v. 1. 111: "As silver-voic'd." See also iv. 5. 124 below: "Then music with her silver sound," etc. The figure is a very common one.
167. _Attending._ Attentive. Cf. _T.A._ v. 3. 82: "To lovesick Dido's sad attending ear."
171. _I have forgot why I did call thee back._ We know, and she knew, that it was _only_ to call him back, parting was "such sweet sorrow."
178. _A wanton's bird._ Here _wanton_ means simply a playful girl. It is often used in such innocent sense (cf. i. 4. 35 above), and is sometimes masculine, as in _K. John_, v. 1. 70 and _Rich. II._ ii. 3. 164.
181. _Plucks it back._ Cf. Sonn. 126. 6: "As thou goest onwards, still will pluck thee back." See also _W.T._ iv. 4. 476, 762 and _A. and C._ i. 2. 131. _Pluck_ is a favourite word with S.
182. _Loving-jealous._ Compound adjectives are much used by S. Cf. i. 1. 79, 176, 178, i. 2. 25, i. 4. 7, 100, etc., above.
190. _Dear hap._ Good fortune. The 1st quarto has "good hap," which occurs in iii. 3. 171 below.
189. _Ghostly._ Spiritual; as in ii. 3. 45, ii. 6. 21, and iii. 3. 49 below.
## SCENE III.--1. _Grey-eyed._ Delius says that _grey_ here and in _Much
Ado_, v. 3. 27 is = "bright blue," and Dyce defines it as "blue, azure"; but there is no reason why the word should not have its ordinary meaning. The _grey_, as in _M.N.D._ iii. 2. 419, _J.C._ ii. 1. 103, and iii. 5. 19 below, is the familiar poetic grey of the early morning before sunrise. Whether ascribed, as here, to the eyes of the Morn, or, as in Milton's _Lycidas_, to her sandals, does not matter. See also on iii. 5. 8 below.
3. _Flecked._ Spotted, dappled; used by S. nowhere else.
4. _From forth._ Cf. _M.W._ iv. 4. 53: "Let them from forth a sawpit rush at once," etc. For _Titan_ as the sun-god, cf. _V. and A._ 177, _T. and C._ v. 10. 25, _Cymb._ iii. 4. 166, etc.
7. _Osier cage._ Basket. Dowden suggests that _of ours_ is "possibly not merely for the rhyme's sake, but because the Franciscan had no personal property."
8. _Precious-juiced flowers._ S. here prepares us for the part which the Friar is afterwards to sustain. Having thus early found him to be a chemist, we are not surprised at his furnishing the sleeping-draught for Juliet. Cf. Brooke's poem:--
"What force the stones, the plants, and metals haue to woorke, And diuers other thinges that in the bowels of earth do loorke, With care I haue sought out, with payne I did then proue; With them eke can I helpe my selfe at times of my behoue," etc.
9. _The earth_, etc. Cf. Milton, _P.L._ ii. 911: "The womb of nature, and perhaps her grave." See also _Per._ ii. 3. 45:--
"Whereby I see that Time's the king of men, He's both their parent, and he is their grave."
15. _Mickle._ Much, great; a word already half obsolete in the time of S. Cf. _C. of E._ iii. 1. 45: "The one ne'er got me credit, the other mickle blame," etc. _Powerful grace_ = "efficacious virtue" (Johnson); or = gracious power.
19. _Strain'd._ Wrenched, forced. Cf. _M. of V._ iv. 1. 184: "The quality of mercy is not strain'd" (that is, excludes the idea of force or compulsion), etc.
23. _Weak._ So all the early eds. except 1st quarto, which has "small." _Weak_ seems the better word as opposed to the following _power_ (Daniel).
25. _With that part._ That is, with its odour. Malone and Clarke take _part_ to be = the sense of smell.
26. _Slays._ The 2d quarto has "staies" (= stops, paralyzes), which some editors prefer.
27. _Encamp them._ For the reflexive use, cf. _Hen. V._ iii. 6. 180: "we'll encamp ourselves." On the figurative _encamp_, cf. _L.C._ 203.
29. _Worser._ Cf. iii. 2. 108 below: "worser than Tybalt's death." _Predominant_ was originally an astrological term. See _A.W._ i. 1. 211, etc.
30. _Canker._ Canker-worm. Cf. _V. and A._ 656: "The canker that eats up Love's tender spring;" _T.G. of V._ i. 1. 43: "in the sweetest bud The eating canker dwells," etc.
34. _Good morrow._ Here = good-by.
37. _Unstuff'd._ "Not overcharged" (Schmidt); used by S. only here.
40. _With some._ The editors generally adopt "by some" from the 1st quarto; but _with = by_ is so common in S. that the reading of all the other early eds. may be accepted. See on i. 1. 148 and i. 2. 49 above. _Distemperature_ = disorder. Cf. _C. of E._ v. 1. 82: "Of pale distemperatures and foes to life."
41, 42. _Or if not so_, etc. Marshall doubts whether S. wrote these lines. Of course, they belong to the first draft of the play.
51. _Both our remedies._ The healing of both of us. Cf. _A.W._ i. 3. 169: "both our mothers" = the mother of both of us. See also _Ham._ iii. 1. 42, _Cymb._ ii. 4. 56, etc.
52. _Lies._ Cf. _V. and A._ 1128:--
"She lifts the coffer-lids that close his eyes, Where lo! two lamps burnt out in darkness lies."
See also _Rich. II_. iii. 3. 168 and _Cymb._ ii. 3. 24.
54. _Steads._ Benefits, helps. Cf. _Temp._ i. 2. 165: "Which since have steaded much;" _M. of V._ i. 3. 7: "May you stead me?" etc.
55. _Homely in thy drift._ Simple in what you have to say. Cf. iv. 1. 114 below.
56. _Riddling._ Cf. _M.N.D._ ii. 2. 53: "Lysander riddles very prettily;" and 1 _Hen. VI._ ii. 3. 57: "a riddling merchant."
61. _When and where and how_, etc. An instance of the so-called "chiastic" construction of which S. was fond. Cf. _M.N.D._ iii. 1. 113, 114, _Ham._ iii. 1. 158, 159, _A. and C._ iii. 2. 15-18, etc.
73. _Sighs._ Compared to vapours which the _sun_ dispels.
72. _To season love._ A favourite metaphor with S., though a homely one; taken from the use of salt in preserving meat. For the reference to salt tears, cf. _A.W._ i. 1. 55, _T.N._ i. 1. 30, _R. of L._ 796, _L.C._ 18, etc.
74. _Ancient._ Aged; as in ii. 4. 133 below. See also _Lear_, ii. 2. 67, _Cymb._ v. 3. 15, etc.
88. _Did read by rote_, etc. "Consisted of phrases learned by heart, but knew nothing of the true characters of love" (Schmidt).
93. _I stand on sudden haste._ I must be in haste. Cf. the impersonal use of _stand on_ or _upon_ = it concerns, it is important to; as in _C. of E._ iv. 1. 68: "Consider how it stands upon my credit;" _Rich._ _II._ ii. 3. 138: "It stands your grace upon to do him right" (that is, it is your duty), etc. Cf. ii. 4. 34 below.
## SCENE IV.--2. _To-night._ Last night. See on i. 4. 50 above.
13. _How he dares._ For the play on _dare_ = venture, and _dare_ = challenge, cf. _2 Hen. VI._ iii. 2. 203. There is also a play on _answer_.
15. _A white wench's black eye._ Cf. _L. L. L._ iii. 1. 108:--
"A whitely wanton with a velvet brow, And two pitch-balls stuck in her face for eyes;"
and Rosalind's reference to the "bugle eyeballs" of Phebe in _A. Y.L._ iii. 5, 47, which the shepherdess recalls as a sneer: "He said mine eyes were black," etc.
_Thorough._ Through. Cf. _M.N.D._ ii. 1. 3, 5, _W.T._ iii. 2. 172, _J.C._ iii. 1. 136, v. 1. 110, etc.
16. _The very pin_, etc. The allusion is to archery. The _clout_ (cf. _L. L. L._ iv. 1. 136), or white mark at which the arrows were aimed, was fastened by a black pin in the centre. Cf. Marlowe, _Tamburlane_, 1590:--
"For kings are clouts that every man shoots at, Our crown the pin that thousands seek to cleave."
17. _Butt-shaft._ A kind of arrow used for shooting at butts; formed without a barb, so as to be easily extracted (Nares).
20. _Prince of cats._ _Tybert_ is the name of the cat in _Reynard the Fox_. Steevens quotes Dekker, _Satiromastix_, 1602: "tho' you were Tybert, the long-tail'd prince of cats;" and _Have with You_, etc.: "not Tibalt, prince of cats." _Tibert_, _Tybert_, and _Tybalt_ are forms of the ancient name _Thibault_. Cf. iii. 1. 77 below.
21. _Captain of compliments._ A complete master of etiquette. Cf. _L. L. L._ i. 1. 169:--
"A man of compliments, whom right and wrong Have chose as umpire of their mutiny."
As Schmidt remarks, the modern distinction of _compliment_ and _complement_ is unknown to the orthography of the old eds. See on ii. 2. 89 above.
22. _Prick-song._ Music sung from notes (Schmidt); so called from the points or dots with which it is expressed. S. uses the word only here. When opposed to _plain-song_, it meant counter-point as distinguished from mere melody. Here, as Elson shows, there is a reference to marking the time "by tapping the foot in time with the music, or, more frequently and more artistically, by waving the hand as the conductor of an orchestra waves his baton."
23. _Me._ For the "ethical dative," cf. _J.C._ i. 2. 270: "He plucked me ope his doublet," etc.
25. _Button._ Steevens quotes _The Return from Parnassus_, 1606: "Strikes his poinado at a button's breadth." Staunton cites George Silver's _Paradoxes of Defence_, 1599: "Signior Rocco, ... thou that takest upon thee to hit anie Englishman with a thrust upon anie button," etc. Duels were frequent in England in the time of S. The matter had been reduced to a science, and its laws laid down in books. The _causes_ of quarrel had been duly graded and classified, as Touchstone explains in _A.Y.L._ v. 4. 63 fol.
26. _Of the very first house._ Of the first rank among duellists.
27. _Passado._ "A motion forwards and thrust in fencing" (Schmidt). Cf. _L. L. L._ i. 2. 184: "the passado he respects not." The _punto reverso_ was a back-handed stroke. We have _punto_ (= thrust) in _M.W._ ii. 3. 26: "to see thee pass thy punto." The _hay_ was a home-thrust; from the Italian _hai_ = thou hast it (not "he has it," as Schmidt and others explain it). Johnson gives it correctly: "The _hay_ is the word _hai_, you _have_ it, used when a thrust reaches the antagonist, from which our fencers, on the same occasion, without knowing, I suppose, any reason for it, cry out ha!"
30. _Fantasticoes._ Steevens quotes Dekker, _Old Fortunatus_: "I have danced with queens, dallied with ladies, worn strange attires, seen fantasticoes," etc.
32. _Grandsire._ Addressed to Benvolio in raillery of his staid demeanour.
33. _Fashion-mongers._ Cf. _Much Ado_, v. 1. 94: "fashion-monging boys."
34. _Pardonnez-mois._ Fellows who are continually saying _pardonnez-moi_; a hit at Frenchified affectation. The Cambridge ed. has "perdona-mi's" (Italian, suggested by the "pardona-mees" of the 4th and 5th quartos). Herford reads "pardon-me's."
35. _Form._ There is a play on the word, as in _L. L. L._ i. 1. 209: "sitting with her upon the form ... in manner and form following." Blakeway remarks: "I have heard that during the reign of large breeches it was necessary to cut away hollow places in the benches in the House of Commons, to make room for those monstrous protuberances, without which contrivance they who stood on the new form could not sit at ease on the old bench."
36. _Bons._ The early eds. have "bones," which is unintelligible. The correction is due to Theobald, and is generally adopted.
38. _Without his roe._ "That is, he comes but half himself; he is only a sigh--_O me!_ that is, _me O!_ the half of his name" (Seymour). It may mean without his mistress, whom he has had to leave; roe meaning a female deer as well as the spawn of a fish. Cf. _L. L. L._ v. 2. 309, where the Princess says: "Whip to our tents, as roes run over land;" and _T. and C._ v. 1. 68: "a herring without a roe."
42. _Be-rhyme._ Cf. _A.Y.L._ iii. 2. 186: "I was never so be-rhymed," etc.
43. _Hildings._ Base menials; used of both sexes. Cf. _T. of S._ ii. 1. 26: "For shame, thou hilding;" _A.W._ iii. 6. 4: "If your lordship find him not a hilding, hold me no more in your respect," etc. See also iii. 5. 167 below. It is used as an adjective in _2 Hen. IV._ i. 1. 57 and _Hen. V._ iv. 2. 29.
44. _Grey eye._ Here Malone and others make _grey_ = blue; while Steevens and Ulrici take the ground that it has its ordinary meaning. The latter quote _Temp._ i. 2. 269 ("This blue-eyed hag") in proof that blue eyes were accounted ugly; but the reference there, as in _A.Y.L._ iii. 2. 393 ("a blue eye and sunken"), seems to be to a bluish circle about the eyes. It is curious that these are the only specific allusions to blue eyes in S. In _W.T._ i. 2. 136, some make "welkin eye" = blue eye; but it is more probably = heavenly eye, as Schmidt gives it. In _V. and A._ 482 ("Her two blue windows faintly she upheaveth") the eyelids, not the eyes, are meant, on account of their "blue veins" (_R. of L._ 440). Cf. _Cymb._ ii. 2. 21:--
"would under-peep her lids, To see the enclosed lights, now canopied Under these windows, white and azure lac'd With blue of heaven's own tinct."
Malone cites both this last passage and _V. and A._ 482 as referring to blue eyes; but the "azure _lac'd_" ought to settle the question in regard to the former, and "windows" evidently has the same meaning in both. If the "blue windows" _were_ blue eyes, Malone would make out his case, for in _V. and A._ 140 the goddess says "Mine eyes are grey and bright." But why should the poet call them _blue_ in the one place and _grey_ in the other, when the former word would suit the verse equally well in both? In my opinion, when he says _blue_ he means blue, and when he says _grey_ he means grey. See on ii. 3. 1 above. The _New Eng. Dict._ does not recognize blue as a meaning of _grey_. It seems, however, from certain passages in writers of the time that the word was sometimes = bluish grey or bluish; but never "bright blue" (as Delius defines it) or clear blue, as Dyce and others assume.
46. _Slop._ For _slops_ (= large loose breeches), see _Much Ado_, iii. 2. 36, etc. _Gave us the counterfeit_ = played a trick on us. _Counterfeit_ is used for the sake of the coming play on _slip_, which sometimes meant a counterfeit coin. Cf. Greene, _Thieves Falling Out_, etc.: "counterfeit pieces of money, being brasse, and covered over with silver, which the common people call slips." There is also a play upon the word in the only other instance in which S. uses it, _V. and A._ 515:--
"Which purchase if thou make, for fear of slips Set thy seal-manual on my wax-red lips."
58. _Kindly._ The word literally means "naturally, in a manner suited to the character or occasion" (Schmidt); hence aptly, pertinently.
63. _Then is my pump_, etc. The idea seems to be, my shoe or _pump_, being _pinked_ or punched with holes, is well _flowered_. Cf. _unpinked_ in _T. of S._ iv. 1. 136: "And Gabriel's pumps were all unpink'd i' the heel."
68. _Single-soled._ "With a quibble on _sole_ and _soul_ = having but one sole, and silly, contemptible" (Schmidt). Steevens gives several examples of _single-soled_ = mean, contemptible. _Singleness_ here = simplicity, silliness.
74. _Wild-goose chase._ A kind of horse-race, resembling the flight of wild geese. Two horses were started together; and if one got the lead the other was obliged to follow over whatever ground the foremost rider chose to take (Holt White).
77. _Was I with you_, etc. Was I even with you, have I paid you off? as, perhaps, in _T. of S._ iv. 1. 170: "What, do you grumble? I'll be with you straight!" For the allusion to _five wits_ see on i. 4. 47 above.
80. _I will bite thee by the ear._ A playful expression of endearment, common in the old dramatists.
81. _Good goose, bite not._ A proverbial phrase, found in Ray's _Proverbs_.
82. _Sweeting._ A kind of sweet apple. The word is still used in this sense, at least in New England. Steevens quotes Sumner's _Last Will and Testament_, 1600: "as well crabs as sweetings for his summer fruits." There was also a variety known as the _bittersweet_. Cf. _Fair Em_: "And left me such a bitter sweet to gnaw upon."
84. _And is it not well served in_, etc. White remarks that "the passage illustrates the antiquity of that dish so much esteemed by all boys and many men--goose and apple-sauce." Cf. the allusions to mutton and capers in _T.N._ i. 3. 129, and to beef and mustard in _M.N.D._ iii. 1. 197 and _T. of S._ iv. 3. 23.
86. _Cheveril._ Soft kid leather for gloves, proverbially elastic. Cf. _Hen. VIII._ ii. 3. 32:--
"which gifts, Saving your mincing, the capacity Of your soft cheveril conscience would receive, If you might please to stretch it."
See also _T.N._ iii. 1. 13: "a cheveril glove," etc.
90. _A broad goose._ No satisfactory explanation of this quibble has been given. Schmidt defines _broad_ here as "plain, evident." Dowden suggests that there is a play on _brood-goose_, which occurs in Fletcher, _Humorous Lieutenant_, ii. 1: "They have no more burden than a brood-goose" (breeding goose).
95. _Natural._ Fool, idiot. Cf. _Temp._ iii. 2. 37 and _A.Y.L._ i. 2. 52, 57.
97. _Gear._ Matter, business. Cf. _T. and C._ i. 1. 6: "Will this gear ne'er be mended?" _2 Hen. VI._ i. 4. 17: "To this gear the sooner the better," etc.
99. _Two, two_, etc. This is given to Mercutio in most of the early eds., and White doubts whether it belongs to the sober Benvolio; but he is not incapable of fun. Cf. 125 below.
102. _My fan, Peter._ Cf. _L. L. L._ iv. 1. 147: "To see him walk before a lady and to bear her fan!" The fans of the time of S. were large and heavy.
105. _God ye good morrow._ That is, God give ye, etc. For _good den_, see on i. 2. 57 above.
109. _Prick of noon._ Point of noon. Cf. 3 _Hen. VI._ i. 4. 34: "at the noontide prick." See also _R. of L._ 781.
123. _Confidence._ Probably meant for _conference_. Cf. _Much Ado_, iii. 5. 3, where Dogberry says, "Marry, sir, I would have some confidence with you that decerns you nearly."
125. _Indite._ Probably used in ridicule of the Nurse's _confidence_. Mrs. Quickly uses the word in the same way in _2 Hen. IV._ ii. 1. 30: "he is indited to dinner."
126. _So ho!_ The cry of the sportsmen when they find a hare. Hence Romeo's question that follows.
129. _Hoar._ Often = mouldy, as things grow white from moulding (Steevens).
134. _Lady, lady, lady._ From the old ballad of _Susanna_, also quoted in _T.N._ ii. 3. 85: "There dwelt a man in Babylon, lady, lady!"
136. _Merchant._ Used contemptuously, like _chap_, which is a contraction of _chapman_. Cf. _1 Hen. VI._ ii. 3. 57: "a riddling merchant;" and Churchyard's _Chance_, 1580: "What saucie merchaunt speaketh now, saied Venus in her rage?"
137. _Ropery._ Roguery. Steevens quotes _The Three Ladies of London_, 1584: "Thou art very pleasant and full of thy roperye." Cf. _rope-tricks_ in _T. of S._ i. 2. 112, which Schmidt explains as "tricks deserving the halter." Nares and Douce see the same allusion in _ropery_.
143. _Jacks._ For the contemptuous use of the word, cf. _M. of V._ iii. 4. 77: "these bragging Jacks;" _Much Ado_, v. 1. 91: "Boys, apes, braggarts, Jacks, milksops!" etc.
144. _Flirt-gills._ That is _flirting Gills_ or women of loose behaviour. _Gill_ or _Jill_ was a familiar term for a woman, as _Jack_ was for a man. Cf. the proverb, "Every Jack must have his Jill;" alluded to in _L. L. L._ v. 2. 885 and _M.N.D._ iii. 2. 461. The word is a contraction of _Gillian_ (see _C. of E._ iii. 1. 31), which is a corruption of _Juliana_. _Gill-flirt_ was the more common form.
145. _Skains-mates._ A puzzle to the commentators. As _skein_ is an Irish word for knife (used by Warner, Greene, Chapman, and other writers of the time) Malone and Steevens make _skains-mates_ mean "cut-throat companions" or fencing-school companions. Schmidt defines it as "messmates," and Nares as probably = "roaring or swaggering companions." Various other explanations have been suggested; but there is probably some corruption in the first part of the compound.
153. _Afore._ Not a mere vulgarism. It is used by Capulet in iii. 4. 34 and iv. 2. 31 below. Cf. _Temp._ iv. 1. 7:--
"here afore Heaven, I ratify this my rich gift," etc.
158. _In a fool's paradise._ Malone cities _A handfull of Pleasant Delightes, 1584_:--
"When they see they may her win, They leave then where they did begin; They prate, and make the matter nice, And leave her in fooles paradise."
and Barnaby Rich's _Farewell_: "Knowing the fashion of you men to be such, as by praisyng our beautie, you think to bring into a fooles paradize."
162. _Weak._ Explained by Schmidt as "stupid." Clarke thinks that "she intends to use a most forcible expression, and blunders upon a most feeble one."
177. _And stay_, etc. The pointing is White's. Most editors follow the early eds. and read "And stay, good nurse, behind the abbey wall, etc."
180. _A tackled stair._ That is, a rope-ladder. Cf. "ladder-tackle" in _Per._ iv. 1. 61.
181. _High top-gallant._ The top-gallant mast; figuratively for summit or climax. Steevens quotes Markham, _English Arcadia_, 1607: "the high top-gallant of his valour." S. uses the term only here.
183. _Quit._ Requite, reward. Cf. _Ham._ v. 2. 68, 280, etc.
184. _Mistress._ A trisyllable here.
188. _Two may keep counsel._ That is, keep a secret. Cf. _T.A._ iv. 2. 144: "Two may keep counsel when the third's away."
191. _Lord_, etc. Cf. Brooke's poem:--
"A prety babe (quod she) it was when it was yong: Lord how it could full pretely haue prated with it [its] tong."
194. _Lieve._ Often used for _lief_ in the old eds. It is sometimes found in good writers of recent date. Mätzner quotes Sheridan: "I had as lieve be shot."
195. _Properer._ Handsomer. Cf. _A.Y.L._ i. 2. 129, iii. 5. 51, etc. See also _Hebrews_, xi. 23.
197. _Pale as any clout._ A common simile of which Dowden cites examples from Bunyan and others. _Versal_ is a vulgarism for _universal_.
198. _A letter._ One letter. Cf. _Ham._ v. 2. 276: "These foils have all a length," etc. For _rosemary_ as the symbol of remembrance, see _Ham._ iv. 5. 175.
200. _The dog's name._ _R_ was called "the dog's letter." Cf. Jonson, _Eng. Gram._: "R is the dog's letter and hurreth in the sound." Farmer cites Barclay, _Ship of Fools_, 1578:--
"This man malicious which troubled is with wrath, Nought els soundeth but the hoorse letter R. Though all be well, yet he none aunswere hath Save the dogges letter glowming with nar, nar."
Dyce remarks: "Even in the days of the Romans, _R_ was called _the dog's letter_, from its resemblance in sound to the snarling of a dog."
208. _Before, and apace._ Go before, and quickly. For _apace_, cf. iii. 2. 1 below.
## SCENE V.--7. _Love._ That is, Venus. Cf. _Temp._ iv. 1. 94:--
"I met her deity Cutting the clouds towards Paphos, and her son Dove-drawn with her;"
and _V. and A._ 1190:--
"Thus weary of the world, away she hies, And yokes her silver doves."
9. _Highmost._ Cf. _Sonn._ 7. 9: "But when from highmost pitch, with weary ear," etc. We still use _hindmost_, _topmost_, etc.
11. _Hours._ A dissyllable; as in iii. 1. 198.
14. _Bandy._ A metaphor from tennis. Cf. _L. L. L._ v. 2. 29: "Well bandied both; a set of wit well play'd," etc. See on iii. 1. 91 below.
18. _Honey nurse._ Cf. _L. L. L._ v. 2. 530: "my fair, sweet, honey monarch;" _T. of S._ iv. 3. 52: "my honey love," etc.
22. _Them._ S. makes _news_ both singular and plural. For the latter, cf. _Much Ado_, i. 2. 4.
25. _Give me leave._ Let me alone, let me rest. See on i. 3. 7 above.
26. _Ache._ Spelt "ake" in the folio both here and in 49 below. This indicates the pronunciation of the verb. The noun was pronounced _aitch_, and the plural was a dissyllable; as in _Temp._ i. 2. 370, _T. of A._ i. 1. 257, etc.
36. _Stay the circumstance._ Wait for the particulars. Cf. _A.Y.L._ iii. 2. 221: "let me stay the growth of his beard," etc. On _circumstance_, cf. v. 3. 181 below: "without circumstance" (= without further
## particulars). See also _V. and A._ 844, _Ham._ v. 2. 2, etc.
38. _Simple._ Silly; as often. Cf. iii. 1. 35 below, and _simpleness_ in iii. 3. 77.
43. _Past compare._ Cf. iii. 5. 236 below: "above compare," etc.
50. _As._ As if; a common ellipsis.
51. _O' t'other._ On the other. Cf. i. 1. 44 above: "of our side."
52. _Beshrew._ A mild form of imprecation, often used playfully. Cf. iii. 5. 221, 227 below.
56-58. _Your love_, etc. Printed as prose by the Cambridge editors, Daniel, and some others.
66. _Coil._ Ado, "fuss." See _Much Ado_, iii. 3. 100, _M.N.D._ iii. 2. 339, etc.
72. _Straight at any news._ Capell explains it, "at such talk (of love and Romeo), _any_ talk of that kind." Perhaps, as Dowden suggests, the meaning is, "It is their way to redden at any surprise."
## SCENE VI.--9. _These violent delights_, etc. Malone compares _R. of L._
894: "These violent vanities can never last." He might have added _Ham._ ii. 1. 102:--
"This is the very ecstasy of love, Whose violent property fordoes itself."
10. _Like fire and powder._ For the simile, cf. iii. 3. 132 and v. 1. 64 below.
12. _His._ Its; as often. _Its_ was just coming into use when S. wrote. Cf. v. 3. 203 below.
13. _Confounds._ Destroys; as often. Cf. _Macb._ ii. 2. 12, iv. 1. 54, iv. 3. 99, etc. So _confusion_ often = destruction, ruin; as in iv. 5. 61 below.
15. _Too swift_, etc. "The more haste, the worse speed."
17. _Will ne'er wear out_, etc. White thinks that the reading of the 1st quarto, "So light a foot ne'er hurts the trodden flower," is "a daintier and more graceful, and therefore, it would seem, a more appropriate figure." The quarto, it is true, gives the "daintier" figure, which has been used by the poets from Pope's description of Camilla flying "o'er the unbending corn" to Tennyson's Olivia in _The Talking Oak_:--
"The flower she touch'd on dipt and rose, And turn'd to look at her."
It would be appropriate in the Friar's mouth if he were in the fields, as in ii. 3, and Juliet had met him there. Very likely S. at first wrote it as in the quarto, but his poetic instinct led him to change it in revising the play. The speaker is now in his cell, with its stone floor worn by the tread of many heavy feet--such as one sees in old churches and monasteries in Europe--but Juliet's light step will not thus wear "the everlasting flint." The comparison is natural and apt.
18. _Gossamer._ Light filaments floating in the air, especially in autumn. Their origin was formerly not understood, but they are now known to be the webs of certain species of spiders. Cf. _Lear_, iv. 6. 49: "Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air." S. uses the word only twice.
20. _Vanity._ "Here used for 'trivial pursuit,' 'vain delight.' The word was much used in this sense by divines in Shakespeare's time, and with much propriety is so put into the good old Friar's mouth" (Clarke).
21. _Confessor._ For the accent on the first syllable, cf. _M. for M._ iv. 3. 133: "One of our covent and his confessor;" and _Hen. VIII._ i. 2. 149: "His confessor, who fed him every minute," etc. See also iii. 3. 49 below.
25. _And that._ And if. This use of _that_ (in place of a preceding conjunction) is common in S. Cf. _L. L. L._ v. 2. 813, _T. and C._ ii. 2. 179, etc.
26. _Blazon it._ Set it forth. Cf. _Oth._ ii. 1. 63: "One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens," etc.
29. _Encounter._ Meeting. It is often used, as here, of the meeting of lovers. Cf. _Much Ado_, iii. 3. 161, iv. 1. 94, M.W. iii. 5. 74, etc.
30. _Conceit._ Conception, imagination. Cf. _Ham._ iii. 4. 114: "Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works," etc. So _conceited_ = imaginative in _R. of L._ 1371: "the conceited painter," etc.
32. _They are but beggars_, etc. Cf. _A. and C._ i. 1. 15: "There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd." _Worth_ = wealth.
36. _Leaves._ The plural is used because the reference is to more than one person; a common construction in S. Cf. _Rich. II._ iv. 1. 314: "your sights," etc.
## ACT III
## SCENE I.--2. _The day is hot._ "It is observed that in Italy almost all
assassinations are committed during the heat of summer" (Johnson).
3. _Scape._ Not "'scape," as often printed. The word is used in prose; as in _M. of V._ ii. 2. 174, etc.
6. _Me._ See on ii. 4. 23 above. We have the same construction in _him_, two lines below, where some eds. have "it" (from 1st quarto).
8. _Operation._ Effect. Cf. _2 Hen. IV._ iv. 3. 104: "A good sherris-sack hath a twofold operation in it," etc.
11. _Am I_, etc. "The quietness of this retort, with the slight but significant emphasis which we imagine thrown upon the _I_, admirably gives point to the humorous effect of Mercutio's lecturing Benvolio--the sedate and peace-making Benvolio, and lectured by Mercutio, of all people!--for the sin of quarrelsomeness" (Clarke).
12. _Jack._ See on ii. 4. 127 above.
14. _Moody._ Angry. Cf. _2 Hen. IV._ iv. 4. 39: "But, being moody, give him line and scope," etc.
31. _Tutor me from._ Teach me to avoid.
39. _Good den._ See on i. 2. 57 above.
43. _Apt enough to._ Ready enough for. Cf. iii. 3. 157 below.
47. _Consort'st with._ Keepest company with. Cf. _V. and A._ 1041, _M.N.D._ iii. 2. 387, _T. and C._ v. 3. 9, etc.
48. _Consort._ The word (with accent on first syllable) sometimes meant a company of musicians. Cf. _T.G. of V._ iii. 2. 84:--
"Visit by night your lady's chamber-window With some sweet consort; to their instruments Tune a deploring dump," etc.
See also _2 Hen. VI._ iii. 2. 327. In these passages the modern eds. generally read "concert." Milton has _consort_ in the same sense in the _Ode at a Solemn Musick_, 27:--
"O, may we soon again renew that song, And keep in tune with Heaven, till God ere long To his celestial consort us unite, To live with him, and sing in endless morn of light!"
Cf. _Ode on Nativ._ 132: "Make up full consort to the angelic symphony;" _Il Pens._ 145: "With such consort as they keep," etc. "The _consorts_ of S.'s time were not only concerted music, but generally composed of such instruments as belonged to one family. If, for example, only viols were employed, the consort was called _whole_, but if virginal, lute, or flute came into the combination, it was a _broken consort_, or _broken music_" (Elson). Cf. _A.Y.L._ i. 2. 150, etc.
51. _Zounds._ Like _'swounds_ (see _Ham._ ii. 2. 604), an oath contracted from "God's wounds!" and generally omitted or changed in the folio in deference to the statute of James I. against the use of the name of God on the stage. Here the folio has "Come."
54. _Reason coldly._ Talk coolly or dispassionately. Cf. _M. of V._ ii. 8. 27: "I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday;" and _Much Ado_, iii. 2. 132: "bear it coldly but till midnight," etc.
"Benvolio presents a triple alternative: either to withdraw to a private place, or to discuss the matter quietly where they were, or else to part company; and it is supremely in character that on such an occasion he should perceive and suggest all these methods of avoiding public scandal" (White).
55. _Depart._ Perhaps = part. Cf. 3 _Hen. VI._ ii. 6. 43: "A deadly groan, like life and death's departing," etc. So _depart with_ = part with; as in _K. John_, ii. 1. 563:--
"John, to stop Arthur's title in the whole, Hath willingly departed with a part," etc.
In the Marriage Ceremony "till death us do part" was originally "us depart." The word is used in the same sense in Wiclif's Bible, _Matthew_, xix. 6. On the other hand, _part_ often = depart; as in _T.N._ v. 1. 394, _Cor._ v. 6. 73, _T. of A._ iv. 2. 21, etc.
57. _I._ The repetition of the pronoun at the end of the sentence is common in S. Cf. _T.G. of V._ v. 4. 132: "I care not for her, I;" _Rich._ _III._ iii. 2. 78: "I do not like these several councils, I;" _T.A._ v. 3. 113: "I am no vaunter, I;" _Id._ v. 3. 185: "I am no baby, I," etc. See also iii. 5. 12 below.
62. _The hate I bear thee._ The reading of 1st quarto. The other early eds. have "love"; but Tybalt is not given to irony.
64. _Love._ Delius says that this "is of course ironical," but the reiteration in the next speech shows that it is not. Romeo's love for Juliet embraces, in a way, all her kindred. His heart, as Talfourd expresses it in _Ion_,--
"Enlarge'd by its new sympathy with one, Grew bountiful to all."
65. _Appertaining rage_, etc. That is, the rage appertaining to (belonging to, or becoming) such a greeting. Cf. _Macb._ iii. 6. 48:--
"our suffering country Under a hand accurst."
68. _Boy._ Often used contemptuously; as in _Much Ado._ v. 1. 83, 187, _Cor._ v. 6. 101, 104, 117, etc.
73. _Tender._ Regard, cherish. Cf. _Ham._ i. 3. 107: "Tender yourself more dearly," etc.
76. _A la stoccata._ Capell's emendation of the "Alla stucatho" or "Allastucatho" of the early eds. _Stoccata_ is the Italian term for a thrust or stab with a rapier. It is the same as the "stoccado" of _M.W._ ii. 1. 234, the "stock" of _Id._ ii. 3. 26, and the "stuck" of _T.N._ iii. 4. 303 and _Ham._ iv. 7. 162. _Carries it away_ = carries the day.
79. _King of cats._ See on ii. 4. 20 above. On _nine lives_, cf. Marston, _Dutch Courtezan_: "Why then thou hast nine lives like a cat," etc. A little black-letter book, _Beware the Cat_, 1584, says that it was permitted to a witch "to take on her a cattes body nine times." Trusler, in his _Hogarth Moralized_, remarks: "The conceit of a cat's having nine lives hath cost at least nine lives in ten of the whole race of them. Scarce a boy in the streets but has in this point outdone even Hercules himself, who was renowned for killing a monster that had but three lives."
81. _Dry-beat._ Beat soundly. Cf. _L. L. L._ v. 2. 263: "all dry-beaten with pure scoff." See also iv. 5. 120 below. S. uses the word only three times; but we have "dry basting" in _C. of E._ ii. 2. 64.
83. _Pilcher._ Scabbard; but no other example of the word in this sense has been found. _Pilch_ or _pilche_ meant a leathern coat, and the word or a derivative of it may have been applied to the leathern sheath of a rapier.
87. _Passado._ See on ii. 4. 27 above.
89. _Outrage._ A trisyllable here. Cf. _entrance_ in i. 4. 8.
91. _Bandying._ Contending. Cf. 1 _Hen. VI._ iv. 1. 190: "This factious bandying of their favourites." For the literal sense, see on ii. 5. 14 above.
92. The 1st quarto has here the stage-direction, _"Tibalt under Romeos arme thrusts Mercutio in and flyes_;" which some modern eds. retain substantially.
93. _Sped._ Dispatched, "done for." Cf. _M. of V._ ii. 9. 72: "So begone; you are sped;" _T. of S._ v. 2. 185: "We three are married, but you two are sped," etc. See also Milton, _Lycidas_, 122: "What need they? They are sped" (that is, provided for).
100. _Grave._ Farmer cites Lydgate's _Elegy on Chaucer_: "My master Chaucer now is grave;" and Steevens remarks that we have the same quibble in _The Revenger's Tragedy_, 1608, where Vindice dresses up a lady's skull and says: "she has a somewhat grave look with her." Cf. John of Gaunt's play on his name when on his death-bed (_Rich. II._ ii. 1. 82).
104. _Fights by the book of arithmetic_. Cf. ii. 4. 22 above: "keeps time, distance," etc.
111. _Your houses!_ "The broken exclamation of a dying man, who has not breath to repeat his former anathema, 'A plague o' both your houses!'" (Marshall).
113. _My very friend._ Cf. _T.G. of V._ iii. 2. 41: "his very friend;" _M. of V._ iii. 2. 226: "my very friends and countrymen," etc.
116. _Cousin._ Some editors adopt the "kinsman" of 1st quarto; but _cousin_ was often = kinsman. See on i. 5. 32 above.
120. _Aspir'd._ Not elsewhere used transitively by S. Cf. Chapman, _Iliad_, ix.: "and aspir'd the gods' eternal seats;" Marlowe, _Tamburlaine_: "our souls aspire celestial thrones," etc.
121. _Untimely._ Often used adverbially (like many adjectives in -_ly_); as in _Macb._ v. 8. 16, _Ham._ iv. 1. 40, etc. See also v. 3. 258 below.
122. _Depend._ Impend (Schmidt). Cf. _R. of L._ 1615: "In me moe woes than words are now depending;" and _Cymb._ iv. 3. 23: "our jealousy Doth yet depend."
126. _Respective._ Considerate. Cf. _M. of V._ v. 1. 156: "You should have been respective," etc.
127. _Conduct._ Conductor, guide. Cf. _Temp._ v. 1. 244:--
"And there is in this business more than nature Was ever conduct of;"
_Rich. III._ i. 1. 45: "This conduct to convey me to the Tower," etc. See also v. 3. 116 below.
129. _For Mercutio's soul_, etc. The passage calls to mind one similar yet very different in _Hen. V._ iv. 6. 15 fol.:--
"And cries aloud, 'Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk! My soul shall keep thine company to heaven; Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast, As in this glorious and well-foughten field We kept together in our chivalry!'"
133. _Consort._ Accompany. Cf. _C. of E._ i. 2. 28: "And afterward consort you till bedtime;" _J.C._ v. 1. 83: "Who to Philippi here consorted us," etc. For the intransitive use of the word, see on 43 above.
137. _Doom thee death._ Cf. _Rich. III._ ii. 1. 102: "to doom my brother's death;" _T.A._ iv. 2. 114: "The emperor, in his rage, will doom her death." _Amazed_ = bewildered, stupefied; as often.
139. _Fortune's fool._ Made a fool of by fortune, the sport of fortune. Cf. _Lear_, iv. 6. 195: "The natural fool of fortune." See also _Ham._ i. 4. 54: "we fools of nature;" and cf. _M. for M._ iii. 1. 11, _Macb._ ii. 1. 44, etc.
145. _Discover._ Uncover, reveal. See on ii. 2. 106 above.
146. _Manage._ "Bringing about" (Schmidt); or we may say that _all the manage_ is simply = the whole course. The word means management, administration, in _Temp._ i. 2. 70: "the manage of my state;" _M. of V._ iii. 4. 25: "The husbandry and manage of my house," etc. It is especially used of horses; as in _A.Y.L._ i. 1. 13, etc.
156. _Spoke him fair._ Spoke gently to him. Cf. _M.N.D._ ii. 1. 199: "Do I entice you? do I speak you fair?" _M. of V._ iv. 1. 275: "Say how I lov'd you, speak me fair in death" (that is, speak well of me after I am dead), etc.
157. _Nice._ Petty, trivial. Cf. _Rich. III._ iii. 7. 175: "nice and trivial;" _J.C._ iv. 3. 8: "every nice offence," etc. See also v. 2. 18 below.
160. _Take truce._ Make peace. Cf. _V. and A._ 82: "Till he take truce with her contending tears;" _K. John_, iii. 1. 17: "With my vex'd spirits I cannot take a truce," etc. _Spleen_ = heat, impetuosity. Cf. _K. John_, iv. 3. 97: "thy hasty spleen;" _Rich. III._ v. 3. 350: "Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons!" etc.
167. _Retorts._ Throws back; as in _T. and C._ iii. 3. 101:--
"Heat them, and they retort that heat again To the first giver," etc.
171. _Envious._ Malicious; as often.
173. _By and by._ Presently. See on ii. 2. 151 above, and cf. iii. 3. 76 and v. 3. 284 below.
180. _Affection makes him false._ "The charge, though produced at hazard, is very just. The author, who seems to intend the character of Benvolio as good, meant, perhaps, to show how the best minds, in a state of faction and discord, are detorted to criminal partiality" (Johnson).
188. _Concludes._ For the transitive use (= end), cf. _2 Hen. VI._ iii. 1. 153: "Will not conclude their plotted tragedy."
190. _Exile._ Accented by S. on either syllable. So also with the noun in iii. 3. 20 and v. 3. 211 below.
193. _Amerce._ Used by S. only here.
196. _Purchase out._ Cf. buy out in _C. of E._ i. 2. 5, _K. John_, iii. 1. 164, _Ham._ iii. 3. 60, etc.
198. _Hour._ Metrically a dissyllable; as in ii. 5. 11 above. Cf. _Temp._ v. 1. 4. etc.
200. _Mercy but murthers_, etc. Malone quotes Hale, _Memorials_: "When I find myself swayed to mercy, let me remember likewise that there is a mercy due to the country."
## SCENE II.--1. _Gallop apace_, etc. Malone remarks that S. probably
remembered Marlowe's _Edward II._, which was performed before 1593:--
"Gallop apace, bright Phœbus, through the skie, And dusky night, in rusty iron car; Between you both, shorten the time, I pray, That I may see that most desired day;"
and Barnaby Rich's _Farewell_, 1583: "The day to his seeming passed away so slowely that he had thought the stately steedes had bin tired that drawe the chariot of the Sunne, and wished that Phaeton had beene there with a whippe." For the thought, cf. _Temp._ iv. 1. 30.
3. _Phaethon._ For other allusions to the ambitious youth, see _T.G. of V._ iii. 1. 153, _Rich. II._ iii. 3. 178, and _3 Hen. VI._ i. 4. 33, ii. 6. 12.
6. _That runaways' eyes may wink._ This is the great _crux_ of the play, and more has been written about it than would fill a volume like this. The condensed summary of the comments upon it fills twenty-eight octavo pages of fine print in Furness, to which I must refer the curious reader. The early eds. have "runnawayes," "run-awayes," "run-awaies," or "run-aways." Those who retain this as a possessive singular refer it variously to Phœbus, Phaethon, Cupid, Night, the sun, the moon, Romeo, and Juliet; those who make it a possessive plural generally understand it to mean persons running about the streets at night. No one of the former list of interpretations is at all satisfactory. Personally, I am quite well satisfied to read _runaways'_, and to accept the explanation given by Hunter and adopted by Delius, Schmidt, Daniel, and others. It is the simplest possible solution, and is favoured by the _untalk'd of_ that follows. White objects to it that "_runaway_ seems to have been used only to mean one who ran away, and that _runagate_, which had the same meaning then that it has now, would have suited the verse quite as well as _runaway_;" but, as Furnivall and others have noted, Cotgrave apparently uses _runaway_ and _runagate_ as nearly equivalent terms. In a letter in the _Academy_ for Nov. 30, 1878, Furnivall, after referring to his former citations in favour of _runaways_ = "runagates, runabouts," and to the fact that Ingleby and Schmidt have since given the same interpretation, adds, "But I still desire to cite an instance in which Shakspere himself renders Holinshed's 'runagates' by his own 'runaways.' In the second edition of Holinshed's _Chronicle_, 1587, which Shakspere used for his _Richard III._, he found the passage (p. 756, col. 2): 'You see further, how a company of traitors, thieves, outlaws, and _runagates_, be aiders and partakers of this feate and enterprise,' etc. And he turned it thus into verse (1st folio, p. 203):--
"'Remember whom you are to cope withall, A sort of Vagabonds, Rascals, and _Run-awayes_, A scum of Brittaines, and base Lackey Pezants, Whom their o're-cloyed Country vomits forth To desperate Aduentures, and assur'd Destruction. You sleeping safe, they bring you to vnrest.'" etc.
Herford regards this interpretation as "a prosaic idea;" but it seems to me perfectly in keeping with the character and the situation. The marriage was a secret one, and Juliet would not have Romeo, if seen, supposed to be a paramour visiting her by night. She knows also the danger he incurs if detected by her kinsmen. Cf. ii. 2. 64 fol. above.
10. _Civil._ Grave, sober. Cf. _M.W._ ii. 2. 101: "a civil modest wife," etc.
12. _Learn._ Teach; as often. Cf. _A.Y.L._ i. 2. 5, _Cymb._ i. 5. 12, etc.
14. _Hood my unmann'd blood_, etc. The terms are taken from falconry. The hawk was _hooded_ till ready to let fly at the game. Cf. _Hen. V._ iii. 7. 121: "'tis a hooded valour; and when it appears it will bate." An _unmanned_ hawk was one not sufficiently trained to know the voice of her keeper (see on ii. 2. 159 above). To _bate_ was to flutter or flap the wings, as the hawk did when unhooded and eager to fly. Cf. _T. of S._ iv. 1. 199:--
"as we watch these kites That bate and beat and will not be obedient."
Dyce quotes Holmes, _Acad. of Armory_: "_Bate_, Bateing or Bateth, is when the Hawk fluttereth with her Wings either from Pearch or Fist, as it were striveing to get away; also it is taken from her striving with her Prey, and not forsaking it till it be overcome."
15. _Strange._ Reserved, retiring.
17. _Come, Night_, etc. Mrs. Jameson remarks: "The fond adjuration, 'Come, Night, come, Romeo, _come thou day in night_!' expresses that fulness of enthusiastic admiration for her lover which possesses her whole soul; but expresses it as only Juliet could or would have expressed it--in a bold and beautiful metaphor. Let it be remembered that, in this speech, Juliet is not supposed to be addressing an audience, nor even a confidante; and I confess I have been shocked at the utter want of taste and refinement in those who, with coarse derision, or in a spirit of prudery, yet more gross and perverse, have dared to comment on this beautiful 'Hymn to the Night,' breathed out by Juliet in the silence and solitude of her chamber. She is thinking aloud; it is the young heart 'triumphing to itself in words.' In the midst of all the vehemence with which she calls upon the night to bring Romeo to her arms, there is something so almost infantine in her perfect simplicity, so playful and fantastic in the imagery and language, that the charm of sentiment and innocence is thrown over the whole; and her impatience, to use her own expression, is truly that of 'a child before a festival, that hath new robes and may not wear them.' It is at the very moment too that her whole heart and fancy are abandoned to blissful anticipation that the Nurse enters with the news of Romeo's banishment; and the immediate transition from rapture to despair has a most powerful effect."
18. _For thou_, etc. "Indeed, the whole of this speech is imagination strained to the highest; and observe the blessed effect on the purity of the mind. What would Dryden have made of it?" (Coleridge).
20. _Black-brow'd Night._ Cf. _King John_, v. 6. 17: "Why, here walk I in the black brow of night."
25. _The garish sun._ Johnson remarks: "Milton had this speech in his thoughts when he wrote in _Il Pens._, 'Till civil-suited morn appear,' and 'Hide me from day's garish eye.'" S. uses _garish_ only here and in _Rich. III._ iv. 4. 89: "a garish flag."
26, 27. _I have bought_, etc. There is a strange confusion of metaphors here. Juliet is first the buyer and then the thing bought. She seems to have in mind that what she says of herself is equally true of Romeo. In the next sentence she reverts to her own position.
30. _That hath new robes_, etc. Cf. _Much Ado_, iii. 2. 5: "Nay, that would be as great a soil in the new gloss of your marriage as to show a child his new coat and forbid him to wear it." See also _Macb._ i. 7. 34.
40. _Envious._ Malignant; as in i. 1. 148 and iii. 1. 171 above.
45. _But ay._ In the time of S. _ay_ was commonly written and printed _I_, which explains the play upon the word here. Most editors print "but 'I'" here, but it does not seem necessary to the understanding of the quibble. Lines 45-51 evidently belong to the first draft of the play.
47. _Death-darting eye_, etc. The eye of the fabled cockatrice or basilisk was said to kill with a glance. Cf. _T.N._ iii. 4. 215: "they will kill one another by the look, like two cockatrices;" _Rich. III._ iv. 1. 55:--
"A cockatrice hast thou hatch'd to the world, Whose unavoided eye is murtherous," etc.
49. _Those eyes._ That is, Romeo's.
51. _Determine of._ Decide. Cf. _2 Hen IV._ iv. 1. 164:--
"To hear and absolutely to determine Of what conditions we shall stand upon."
See also _T.G. of V._ ii. 4. 181, _Rich. III._ iii. 4. 2, etc.
53. _God save the mark!_ An exclamation of uncertain origin, commonly = saving your reverence, but sometimes, as here = God have mercy! Cf. _1 Hen. IV._ i. 3. 56. So _God bless the mark_! in _M. of V._ ii. 2. 25, _Oth._ i. 1. 33, etc.
56. _Gore-blood._ Clotted blood. Forby remarks that the combination is an East-Anglian provincialism. Halliwell-Phillipps cites Vicars, trans, of _Virgil_, 1632: "Whose hollow wound vented much black gore-bloud." _Swounded_ is the reading of the 1st quarto; the other early eds. have "sounded," "swouned," and "swooned." In _R. of. L._ 1486 we have "swounds" rhyming with "wounds."
57. _Bankrupt._ The early eds. have "banckrout" or "bankrout," as often in other passages and other writers of the time.
64. _Contrary._ The adjective is accented by S. on the first or second syllable. Cf. _Ham._ iii. 2. 221, etc. For the verb, see on i. 5. 87 above.
73. _O serpent heart_, etc. Cf. _Macb._ i. 5. 66:--
"look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under it."
Mrs. Jameson remarks on this passage: "This highly figurative and antithetical exuberance of language is defended by Schlegel on strong and just grounds; and to me also it appears natural, however critics may argue against its taste or propriety. The warmth and vivacity of Juliet's fancy, which plays like a light over every part of her character--which animates every line she utters--which kindles every thought into a picture, and clothes her emotions in visible images, would naturally, under strong and unusual excitement, and in the conflict of opposing sentiments, run into some extravagance of diction." Cf. i. 1. 168 fol. above.
83. _Was ever book_, etc. Cf. i. 3. 66 above.
84. _O, that deceit_, etc. Cf. _Temp._ i. 2. 468: "If the ill spirit have so fair a house," etc.
86, 87. Mr. Fleay improves the metre by a slight transposition, which Marshall adopts:--
"No faith, no honesty in men; all naught, All perjur'd, all dissemblers, all forsworn;"
which may be what S. wrote.
_Naught_ = worthless, bad. Cf. _Much Ado_, $1. $2. 157, _Hen. V._ i. 2. 73, etc. The word in this sense is usually spelt _naught_ in the early eds., but _nought_ when = nothing. _Dissemblers_ is here a quadrisyllable. See p. 159 above.
90. _Blister'd_, etc. "Note the Nurse's mistake of the mind's audible struggle with itself for its decisions in _toto_" (Coleridge).
92. _Upon his brow_, etc. Steevens quotes Paynter: "Is it possible that under such beautie and rare comelinesse, disloyaltie and treason may have their siedge and lodging?" The image of shame _sitting_ on the brow is not in Brooke's poem.
98. _Poor my lord._ Cf. "sweet my mother," iii. 5. 198 below. The figurative meaning of _smooth_ is sufficiently explained by the following _mangle_. Cf. i. 5. 98 above, and see Brooke's poem:--
"Ah cruell murthering tong, murthrer of others fame: How durst thou once attempt to tooch the honor of his name?
* * * * *
Whether shall he (alas) poore banishd man, now flye? What place of succor shall he seeke beneth the starry skye? Synce she pursueth him, and him defames by wrong: That in distres should be his fort, and onely rampier strong."
108. _Worser._ Cf. ii. 3. 29 above. S. uses it often, both as adjective and adverb.
112. _Banished._ Note how the trisyllabic pronunciation is emphatically repeated in this speech; as in Romeo's in the next scene (19-50).
116. _Sour woe delights_, etc. That is, "misfortunes never come single." Cf. _Ham._ iv. 5. 78:--
"When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions."
117. _Needly will._ Needs must. _Needly_ was not coined by S., as some have supposed, being found in _Piers Plowman_ and other early English. He uses it only here.
120. _Modern._ Trite, commonplace; the only meaning of the word in S. See _A.Y.L._ ii. 7. 156, _Macb._ iv. 3. 170, etc.
121. _Rearward._ Cf. Sonn. 90. 6:--
"Ah! do not, when my heart hath scap'd this sorrow, Come in the rearward of a conquer'd woe"--
(that is, to attack me anew); and _Much Ado_, iv. 1. 128:--
"Myself would, on the rearward of reproaches, Strike at thy life."
The metaphor is a military one, referring to a rear-guard or reserve which follows up the attack of the vanguard or of the main army.
126. _Sound._ Utter, express; or "'to sound as with a plummet' is possible" (Dowden). _That word's death_ = the death implied in that word.
130. _Wash they_, etc. That is, let them wash, etc. Some eds. put an interrogation mark after _tears_, as the 2d quarto does.
137. _Wot._ Know; used only in the present tense and the participle _wotting_.
## SCENE III.--1. _Fearful._ Full of fear, afraid; Cf. _M.N.D._ v. 1. 101,
165, etc.
2. _Parts._ Gifts, endowments. Cf. iii. 5. 181 below: "honourable parts."
6. _Familiar._ A quadrisyllable here.
7. _Sour company._ Cf. "sour woe" in iii. 2. 116 above, "sour misfortune" in v. 3. 82 below, etc. The figurative sense is a favourite one with S.
10. _Vanish'd._ A singular expression, which Massinger has imitated in _The Renegado_, v. 5: "Upon those lips from which those sweet words vanish'd." In _R. of L._ 1041 the word is used of the breath.
20. _Exile._ For the variable accent (cf. 13 above and 43 below), see on iii. 1. 190.
26. _Rush'd aside the law._ Promptly eluded or contravened the law. The expression is peculiar, and may be corrupt. "Push'd" and "brush'd" have been suggested as emendations.
28. _Dear mercy._ True mercy. Cf. _Much Ado_, i. 1. 129: "A dear happiness to women," etc.
29. _Heaven is here_, etc. "All deep passions are a sort of atheists, that believe no future" (Coleridge).
33. _Validity._ Value, worth. Cf. _A.W._ v. 3. 192:--
"O, behold this ring, Whose high respect and rich validity Did lack a parallel."
See also _T.N._ i. 1. 12 and _Lear_, i. 1. 83.
34. _Courtship._ Courtesy, courtliness (as in _L. L. L._ v. 2. 363: "Trim gallants, full of courtship and of state," etc.); with the added idea of privilege of courting or wooing. For a similar blending of the two meanings, cf. _A.Y.L._ iii. 2. 364.
38. _Who._ Cf. i. 1. 109 and i. 4. 97 above.
42. _Free men._ Bitterly sarcastic.
45. _Mean._ Often used by S. in the singular, though oftener in the plural. Cf. _W.T._ iv. 4. 89:--
"Yet nature is made better by no mean, But nature makes that mean," etc.
See also v. 3. 240 below.
48. _Howling._ For the association with _hell_, cf. _2 Hen. IV._ ii. 4. 374 and _Ham._ v. 1. 265.
49. _Confessor._ For the accent, see on ii. 6. 21 above.
52. _Fond_ = foolish; as often in S. Cf. iv. 5. 78 below.
55. _Adversity's sweet milk._ Cf. _Macb._ iv. 3. 98: "the sweet milk of concord," etc.
59. _Displant._ Transplant. S. uses the word only here and in _Oth._ ii. 1. 283: "the displanting of Cassio."
60. _Prevails._ Avails. Cf. _unprevailing_ in _Ham._ i. 2. 107.
62. _When that._ This use of _that_ as a "conjunctional affix" is common. Cf. ii. 6. 25 above.
63. _Dispute._ That is, reason. The verb is used transitively in a similar sense in _W.T._ iv. 4. 411 and _Macb._ iv. 3. 220.
70. _Taking the measure_, etc. Cf. _A.Y.L._ ii. 6. 2: "Here lie I down, and measure out my grave."
77. _Simpleness._ Folly. Elsewhere = simplicity, innocence; as in _Much Ado_, iii. 1. 70, _M.N.D._ v. 1. 83, etc. Cf. _simple_ in ii. 5. 38 and iii. 1. 35.
85. _O woful sympathy_, etc. The early eds. give this speech to the Nurse. Farmer transferred it to the Friar, and is followed by most of the modern eds.
90. _O._ Grief, affliction. In _Lear_, i. 4. 212, it means a cipher. It is also used for anything circular; as marks of small-pox (_L. L. L._ v. 2. 45), stars (_M.N.D._ iii. 2. 188), a theatre (_Hen. V._ prol. 13), and the earth (_A. and C._ v. 2. 81).
94. _Old._ Practised, experienced. Cf. _L. L. L._ ii. 1. 254, v. 2. 552, _T. and C._ i. 2. 128, ii. 2. 75, etc.
98. _My conceal'd lady._ Not known to the world as my wife. _Conceal'd_ is accented on the first syllable because before the noun.
103. _Level._ Aim; as in _Sonn._ 117. 11: "the level of your frown;" _Hen. VIII._ i. 2. 2: "the level Of a full-charg'd confederacy," etc. Cf. the use of the verb in _Much Ado_, ii. 1. 239, _Rich. III._ iv. 4. 202, etc.
106. _Anatomy._ Contemptuous for body; as in _T.N._ iii. 2. 67.
108. _Hold thy desperate hand!_ etc. Up to this point, as Marshall remarks, the Friar "treats Romeo's utter want of self-control with a good-humoured tolerance.... It is only when the young man's passion threatens to go to the point of violating the law of God and man that he speaks with the authority of a priest, and in the tone of stern rebuke. This speech is a most admirable composition, full of striking good sense, eloquent reasoning, and noble piety."
109. _Art thou_, etc. Cf. Brooke's poem:--
"Art thou quoth he a man? thy shape saith, so thou art: Thy crying and thy weping eyes, denote a womans hart. For manly reason is quite from of [off] thy mynd outchased, And in her stead affections lewd, and fancies highly placed. So that I stoode in doute this howre (at the least) If thou a man, or woman wert, or els a brutish beast."
113. _Ill-beseeming._ Cf. i. 5. 76 above.
115. _Better temper'd._ Of better temper or quality. Cf. _2 Hen. IV._ i. 1. 115: "the best temper'd courage in his troops."
118. _Doing damned hate._ Cf. v. 2. 20 below: "do much danger," etc.
119. _Why rail'st thou_, etc. Malone remarks that Romeo has not here railed on his birth, etc., though in Brooke's poem he does:--
"And then, our Romeus, with tender handes ywrong: With voyce, with plaint made horce, wͭ sobs, and with a foltring tong, Renewd with nouel mone the dolours of his hart, His outward dreery cheere bewrayde, his store of inward smart, Fyrst nature did he blame, the author of his lyfe, In which his ioyes had been so scant, and sorrowes aye so ryfe: The time and place of byrth, he fiersly did reproue, He cryed out (with open mouth) against the starres aboue," etc.
In his reply the Friar asks:--
"Why cryest thou out on loue? why doest thou blame thy fate? Why dost thou so crye after death? thy life why dost thou hate?"
122. _Wit._ See on i. 4. 47 above.
127. _Digressing._ Deviating, departing. It is = transgressing in _Rich. II._ v. 3. 66: "thy digressing son."
132. _Like powder_, etc. See on ii. 6. 10 above. Steevens remarks: "The ancient English soldiers, using match-locks instead of flints, were obliged to carry a lighted _match_ hanging at their belts, very near to the wooden _flask_ in which they kept their powder."
134. _And thou_, etc. And thou torn to pieces with thine own means of defence.
144. _Pout'st upon._ Cf. _Cor._ v. 1. 52: "We pout upon the morning."
151. _Blaze._ Make public. Cf. _blazon_ in ii. 6. 26 above, and _emblaze_ in _2 Hen. VI._ iv. 10. 76.
154. _Lamentation._ Metrically five syllables.
157. _Apt unto._ Inclined to, ready for. Cf. iii. 1. 32 above.
166. _Here stands_, etc. "The whole of your fortune depends on this" (Johnson). Cf. ii. 3. 93 and ii. 4. 34 above.
171. _Good hap._ Piece of good luck. Cf. ii. 2. 190 above.
174. _So brief to part._ To part so soon.
## SCENE IV.--11. _Mew'd up._ Shut up. Cf. _T of S._ i. 1. 87, 188, etc.
_Mew_ originally meant to moult, or shed the feathers; and as hawks were then shut up, it got the secondary sense it has here.
12. _Desperate._ Overbold, venturesome.
23. _Keep no great ado._ Elsewhere in S. the phrase is, as now, _make ado._ Cf. _T.G. of V._ iv. 4. 31, _1 Hen. IV._ ii. 4. 223, _Hen. VIII._ v. 3. 159, etc.
25. _Held him carelessly._ Cf. _3 Hen. VI._ ii. 2. 109: "I hold thee reverently;" _Id._ ii. 1. 102: "held thee dearly," etc.
28. _And there an end._ Cf. _T.G. of V._ i. 3. 65, ii. 1. 168, _Rich. II._ v. 1. 69, etc.
32. _Against._ Cf. iv. 1. 113 below: "against thou shalt awake."
34. _Afore me._ "By my life, by my soul" (Schmidt). Cf. _Per._ ii. 1. 84: "Now, afore me, a handsome fellow!" So _before me_, as in _T.N._ ii. 3. 194, _Oth._ iv. 1. 149, etc.
35. _By and by._ Presently. See on ii. 2. 151 above.
## SCENE V.--_Juliet's Chamber._ The scene is variously given by the
editors as "The Garden," "Anti-room of Juliet's Chamber," "Loggia to Juliet's Chamber," "An open Gallery to Juliet's Chamber overlooking the Orchard," "Juliet's Bedchamber; a Window open upon the Balcony," "Capulet's Orchard," etc. As Malone remarks, Romeo and Juliet probably appeared in the balcony at the rear of the old English stage. "The scene in the poet's eye was doubtless the large and massy projecting balcony before one or more windows, common in Italian palaces and not unfrequent in Gothic civil architecture. The _loggia_, an open gallery, or high terrace [see cut on p. 85], communicating with the upper apartments of a palace, is a common feature in Palladian architecture, and would also be well adapted to such a scene" (Verplanck).
4. _Nightly._ It is said that the nightingale, if undisturbed, sits and sings upon the same tree for many weeks together (Steevens). This is because the male bird sings near where the female is sitting. "The preference of the nightingale for the _pomegranate_ is unquestionable. 'The nightingale sings from the pomegranate groves in the daytime,' says Russel in his account of Aleppo. A friend ... informs us that throughout his journeys in the East he never heard such a choir of nightingales as in a row of pomegranate-trees that skirt the road from Smyrna to Boudjia" (Knight).
8. _Lace._ Cf. _Macb._ ii. 3. 118: "His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood;" _Cymb._ ii. 2. 22:--
"white and azure lac'd With blue of heaven's own tinct," etc.
See on ii. 4. 44 above. We have the word used literally in _Much Ado_, iii. 4. 20: "laced with silver." On _the severing clouds_, cf. _J.C._ ii. 1. 103:--
"yon grey lines That fret the clouds are messengers of day;"[6]
and _Much Ado_, v. 3. 25: "Dapples the drowsy east with spots of grey."
9. _Night's candles_, etc. Cf. _Macb._ ii. 1. 5.: "Their candles are all out." See also _M. of V._ v. 1. 220 and _Sonn._ 21. 12.
13. _Some meteor_, etc. Cf. _1 Hen. IV._ ii. 4. 351: "My lord, do you see these meteors? do you behold these exhalations?" and _Id._ v. 1. 19: "an exhal'd meteor."
14. _Torch-bearer._ See on i. 4. 11 above.
[Footnote 6: At the meeting of the new Shakspere Society, Oct. 11, 1878, the chairman read a paper by Mr. Ruskin on the word _fret_ in this passage. The following is from the report in the London _Academy_:--
"_Fret_ means primarily the rippling of the cloud--as sea by wind; secondarily, the breaking it asunder for light to come through. It implies a certain degree of vexation, some dissolution, much order, and extreme beauty. The reader should have seen 'Daybreak,' and think what is broken and by what. The cloud of night is broken up, by Day, which breaks out, breaks in, as from heaven to earth, with a breach in the cloud wall of it. The thing that the day breaks up is partly a garment _rent_, the blanket of the dark torn to be peeped through...."]
19. _Yon grey._ See on ii. 4. 44 above.
20. _The pale reflex of Cynthia's brow._ That is, the pale light of the moon shining through or reflected from the breaking clouds _Brow_ is put for face, as in _M.N.D._ v. 1. 11: "Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt," etc. Some critics have thought that a setting moon was meant; but only a rising moon could light up "the severing clouds" in the way described. The _reflection_ (if we take _reflex_ in that literal sense) is from their _edges_, as the light from behind falls upon them. Have these critics never seen--
"a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night"
when the moon was behind it?
21. _Nor that is not._ Double negatives are common in S.
22. _The vaulty heaven._ Cf. _K. John_, v. 2. 52: "the vaulty top of heaven;" and _R. of L._ 119: "her vaulty prison" (that is, Night's).
29. _Division._ "The breaking of a melody, or its descant, into small notes. The modern musician would call it variation" (Elson). Cf. _1 Hen. IV._ iii. 1. 210:--
"Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bower, With ravishing division, to her lute."
The word is a quadrisyllable here.
31. _The lark_, etc. The toad having beautiful eyes, and the lark very ugly ones, it was a popular tradition that they had changed eyes. (Warburton).
33. _Affray._ Startle from sleep; as Chaucer in _Blaunche the Duchess_ (296) is _affrayed_ out of his sleep by "smale foules" (Dowden).
34. _Hunt's-up._ The tune played to wake and collect the hunters (Steevens). Cf. Drayton, _Polyolbion_: "But hunts-up to the morn the feather'd sylvans sing;" and again in _Third Eclogue_: "Time plays the hunts-up to thy sleepy head." We have the full form in _T.A._ ii. 2. 1: "The hunt is up, the morn is bright and grey." The term was also applied to any morning song, and especially one to a new-married woman. Cotgrave (ed. 1632) defines _resveil_ as "a Hunts-up, or morning song, for a new-maried wife, the day after the mariage."
43. _My lord_, etc. From 1st quarto; the other quartos and 1st folio have "love, Lord, ay husband, friend," for which Dowden reads: "love-lord, ay, husband-friend." _Friend_ was sometimes = lover; as in _Much Ado_, v. 2. 72, _Oth._ iv. 1. 3, _A. and C._ iii. 12. 22, _Cymb._ i. 4. 74, etc. Cf. Brooke's poem, where Juliet referring to Romeo, says:--
"For whom I am becomme vnto my selfe a foe, Disdayneth me, his steadfast frend, and scornes my frendship so;"
and of their parting the poet says:--
"With solemne othe they both theyr sorowfull leaue do take; They sweare no stormy troubles shall theyr steady friendship shake."
44. _Day in the hour._ The hyperbole is explained by what follows.
53. _I have an ill-divining soul._ "This miserable prescience of futurity I have always regarded as a circumstance particularly beautiful. The same kind of warning from the mind Romeo seems to have been conscious of, on his going to the entertainment at the house of Capulet" (Steevens). See i. 4. 48 and 103 fol. above.
54. _Below._ From 1st quarto; the other early eds. have "so lowe," which is preferred by some of the modern editors.
58. _Dry sorrow drinks our blood._ An allusion to the old notion that sorrow and sighing exhaust the blood. Cf. _M.N.D._ iii. 2. 97, _Ham._ iv. 7. 123, _Much Ado_, iii. 1. 78, etc.
65. _Down._ Lying down, abed (Dowden).
66. _Procures her._ Leads her to come. Cf. ii. 2. 145 above. See also _M.W._ iv. 6. 48: "procure the vicar To stay for me," etc.
67. _Why, how now, Juliet!_ Mrs. Jameson remarks: "In the dialogue between Juliet and her parents, and in the scenes with the Nurse, we seem to have before us the whole of her previous education and habits: we see her, on the one hand, kept in severe subjection by her austere parents; and, on the other, fondled and spoiled by a foolish old nurse--a situation perfectly accordant with the manners of the time. Then Lady Capulet comes sweeping by with her train of velvet, her black hood, her fan, and rosary--the very beau-ideal of a proud Italian matron of the fifteenth century, whose offer to poison Romeo, in revenge for the death of Tybalt, stamps her with one very characteristic trait of the age and the country. Yet she loves her daughter, and there is a touch of remorseful tenderness in her lamentations over her, which adds to our impression of the timid softness of Juliet and the harsh subjection in which she has been kept."
69. _Wash him from his grave_, etc. The hyperbole may remind us of the one in _Rich. II._ iii. 3. 166 fol.
72. _Wit._ See on iii. 3. 122 above.
73. _Feeling._ Heartfelt. Cf. "feeling sorrows" in _W.T._ iv. 2. 8 and _Lear_, iv. 6. 226.
82. _Like he._ The inflections of pronouns are often confounded by S.
84. _Ay, madam_, etc. Johnson remarks that "Juliet's equivocations are rather too artful for a mind disturbed by the loss of a new lover." To this Clarke well replies: "It appears to us that, on the contrary, the evasions of speech here used by the young girl-wife are precisely those that a mind, suddenly and sharply awakened from previous inactivity, by desperate love and grief, into self-conscious strength, would instinctively use. Especially are they exactly the sort of shifts and quibbles that a nature rendered timid by stinted intercourse with her kind, and by communion limited to the innocent confidences made by one of her age in the confessional, is prone to resort to, when first left to itself in difficulties of situation and abrupt encounter with life's perplexities."
87. _In Mantua_, etc. No critic, so far as I am aware, has noted the slip of which S. is guilty here. Romeo is said to be _living_ in Mantua, but an hour has hardly elapsed since he started for that city; and how can the lady know of the plan for his going there which was secretly suggested by the friar the afternoon before?
89. _Shall give._ The ellipsis of the relative is not uncommon.
92. _I never shall be satisfied_, etc. Daniel remarks: "The several interpretations of which this ambiguous speech is capable are, I suppose: 1. I never shall be satisfied with Romeo; 2. I never shall be satisfied with Romeo till I behold him; 3. I never shall be satisfied with Romeo till I behold him dead; 4. Till I behold him, dead is my poor heart; 5. Dead is my poor heart, so for a kinsman vext."
96. _Temper._ Compound, mix. Cf. _Ham._ v. 2. 339: "It is a poison temper'd by himself;" _Cymb._ v. 250: "To temper poisons for her," etc.
97. _That._ So that; as often. _Receipt_ is not elsewhere applied by S. to the _receiving_ of food or drink, though it is used of _what is received_ in _R. of L._ 703 and _Cor._ i. 1. 116.
100. _Cousin._ Some editors add "Tybalt" (from 2d folio) to fill out the measure.
104. _Needy._ Joyless. The word is = needful in _Per._ i. 4. 95: "needy bread."
105. _They._ S. makes _tidings_, like _news_ (cf. ii. 5. 22 with ii. 5. 35), either singular or plural. Cf. _J.C._ iv. 3. 155: "That tidings;" _Id._ v. 3. 54: "These tidings," etc.
108. _Sorted out._ Cf. _1. Hen. VI._ ii. 3. 27: "I'll sort some other time to visit you," etc.
109. _Nor I look'd not._ See on iii. 5. 21 above.
110. _In happy time._ Schmidt explains this as here = "_à propos_, pray tell me." Elsewhere it is = just in time; as in _A.W._ v. 1. 6, _Ham._ v. 2. 214, _Oth._ iii. 1. 32, etc.
113. _County._ See on i. 3. 83 above.
120. _I swear._ Collier thinks these words "hardly consistent with Juliet's character;" but, as Ulrici remarks, "they seem necessary in order to show her violent excitement, and thereby explain her conduct." They appear to crowd the measure, but possibly "I will not marry yet" ("I'll not marry yet") may count only as two feet.
122. _These are news._ See on 105 above.
125. _The air._ The reading of the 4th and 5th quartos; the other early eds. have "the earth," which is adopted by many editors. Hudson remarks: "This is scientifically true; poetically, it would seem better to read _air_ instead of _earth_." It happens, however, that science and poetry agree here; for it is the watery vapour in the _air_ that is condensed into dew. Malone, who also says that the reading _earth_ is "philosophically true," cites _R. of L._ 1226: "But as the earth doth weep, the sun being set;" but this only means that the earth is wet with dew. To speak of the earth as _drizzling_ dew is nonsense; we might as well say that it "drizzles rain" (_Much Ado_, iii. 3. 111). Elsewhere S. refers to the "falling" dew; as in _K. John_, ii. 1. 285, _Hen. VIII._ i. 3. 57, _Cymb._ v. 5. 351, etc.
128. _Conduit._ Probably alluding to the human figures that spouted water in fountains. Cf. _R. of L._ 1234:--
"A pretty while these pretty creatures stand, Like ivory conduits coral cisterns filling."
See also _W.T._ v. 2. 60.
129-136. _Evermore ... body._ This long-drawn "conceit" is evidently from the first draught of the play.
134. _Who._ See on i. 1. 109 above.
138. _She will none._ Cf. _M.N.D._ iii. 2. 169: "Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none," etc.
140. _Take me with you._ Let me understand you. Cf. _1 Hen. IV._ ii. 4. 506: "I would your grace would take me with you; whom means your grace?"
143. _Wrought._ "Not = induced, prevailed upon, but brought about, effected" (Schmidt). Cf. _Henry VIII._ iii. 2. 311: "You wrought to be a delegate;" _Cor._ ii. 3. 254: "wrought To be set high in place," etc.
144. _Bridegroom._ The 2d quarto has "Bride." This was used of both sexes in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but S. never makes it masculine. _The New Eng. Dict._ quotes Sylvester, _Du Bartas_ (1598): "Daughter dear ... Isis bless thee and thy Bride," etc.
148. _Chop-logic._ Sophist; used by S. only here.
150. _Minion._ Originally = favourite, darling (as in _Temp._ iv. 1. 98, _Macb._ i. 2. 19, etc.), then a spoiled favourite, and hence a pert or saucy person.
151. _Thank me no thankings_, etc. Cf. _Rich. II._ ii. 3. 87: "Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle," etc.
152. _Fettle._ Prepare, make ready. It is the reading of the quartos and 1st folio; the later folios have "settle," which may be what S. wrote. He does not use _fettle_ elsewhere, and the long _s_ and _f_ were easily confounded in printing.
155. _Out_, etc. "Such was the indelicacy of the age of S. that authors were not contented only to employ these terms of abuse in their own original performances, but even felt no reluctance to introduce them in their versions of the most chaste and elegant of the Greek or Roman poets. Stanyhurst, the translator of Virgil, in 1582, makes Dido call Æneas _hedge-brat_, _cullion_, and _tar-breech_ in the course of one speech. Nay, in the interlude of _The Repentance of Mary Magdalene_, 1567, Mary Magdalene says to one of her attendants, '_Horeson_, I beshrowe your heart, are you here?'" (Steevens).
164. _Lent._ The 1st quarto has "sent," which some editors adopt. Clarke thinks it may be a misprint for "left," as Capulet (i. 2. 14) speaks as if he had had other children; but S. is careless in these minor matters. See on i. 5. 30 and v. 3. 207.
167. _Hilding._ See on ii. 4. 43 above.
171. _God ye god-den._ See on i. 2. 57 above.
172. _Peace._ Theobald repeated the word for the sake of the measure. _Peace_ may perhaps be metrically a dissyllable, as in _A.Y.L._ ii. 4. 70.
175-177. _God's bread!_ etc. The text of the early eds. is evidently corrupt here. The reading in the text is Malone's, and perhaps gives very nearly what S. wrote on the revision of the play.
181. _Stuff'd_, etc. Cf. _Much Ado_, i. 1. 56: "stuffed with all honourable virtues," etc. For _parts_, cf. iii. 3. 2 above.
184. _Mammet._ Puppet, doll. Cf. _1 Hen. IV._ ii. 3. 95: "To play with mammets." The word is also written _mawmet_, and is a contraction of _Mahomet_. _In her fortune's tender_ = when good fortune presents itself. Cf. iii. 4. 12 above.
189. _Use._ See on ii. chor. 10 above.
190. _Lay hand on heart, advise._ Consider it seriously. Cf. Brooke's poem:--
"Aduise thee well, and say that thou art warned now, And thinke not that I speake in sporte, or mynd to breake my vowe."
198. _Sweet my mother._ Cf. iii. 2. 98: "Ah, poor my lord," etc.
209. _Should practise stratagems_, etc. Should, as it were, entrap me into so painful and perplexing a situation. Schmidt makes _stratagem_ sometimes = "anything amazing and appalling," and cites this passage as an instance.
212. _Faith, here 'tis_, etc. S. here follows Brooke:--
"She setteth foorth at large the fathers furious rage, And eke she prayseth much to her the second mariage; And County Paris now she praiseth ten times more, By wrong, then she her selfe by right had Romeus praysde before," etc.
Mrs. Jameson remarks: "The old woman, true to her vocation, and fearful lest her share in these events should be discovered, counsels her to forget Romeo and marry Paris; and the moment which unveils to Juliet the weakness and baseness of her confidante is the moment which reveals her to herself. She does not break into upbraidings; it is no moment for anger; it is incredulous amazement, succeeded by the extremity of scorn and abhorrence, which takes possession of her mind. She assumes at once and asserts all her own superiority, and rises to majesty in the strength of her despair."
220. _Green._ We have green eyes again in _M.N.D._ v. 1. 342: "His eyes were green as leeks." Cf. _The Two Noble Kinsmen_, v. 1: "With that rare green eye." Clarke remarks: "The brilliant touch of green visible in very light hazel eyes, and which gives wonderful clearness and animation to their look, has been admiringly denoted by various poets from time immemorial." In a sonnet by Drummond of Hawthornden, the gods are represented as debating of what colour a beauty's eyes shall be. Mars and Apollo vote for black:--
"Chaste Phœbe spake for purest azure dyes, But Jove and Venus green about the light, To frame thought best, as bringing most delight, That to pin'd hearts hope might for aye arise."
Cf. Longfellow, _The Spanish Student_: "Ay, soft emerald eyes;" and again:--
"in her tender eyes Just that soft shade of green we sometimes see In evening skies."
In a note on the former passage, the poet says: "The Spaniards, with good reason, consider this colour of the eyes as beautiful, and celebrate it in song.... Dante speaks of Beatrice's eyes as emeralds (_Purgat._ xxxi. 116). Lami says in his _Annotazioni_, 'Erano i suoi occhi d' un turchino verdiccio, simile a quel del mare.'"
221. _Beshrew._ See on ii. 5. 52 above.
225. _Here._ Not referring to Verona, but = "in this world" (Johnson).
233. _Ancient damnation._ The abstract for the concrete, explained by what follows. Steevens cites _The Malcontent_, 1604: "out, you ancient damnation!"
234. _Is it more sin_, etc. Mrs. Jameson remarks: "It appears to me an admirable touch of nature, considering the master-passion which, at this moment, rules in Juliet's soul, that she is as much shocked by the nurse's dispraise of her lover as by her wicked, time-serving advice. This scene is the crisis in the character; and henceforth we see Juliet assume a new aspect. The fond, impatient, timid girl puts on the wife and the woman: she has learned heroism from suffering, and subtlety from oppression. It is idle to criticise her dissembling submission to her father and mother; a higher duty has taken place of that which she owed to them; a more sacred tie has severed all others. Her parents are pictured as they are, that no feeling for them may interfere in the slightest degree with our sympathy for the lovers. In the mind of Juliet there is no struggle between her filial and her conjugal duties, and there ought to be none."
236. _Compare._ See on ii. 5. 43 above.
## ACT IV
## SCENE I.--3. _And I am nothing slow to slack his haste._ Paris here
seems to say the opposite of what he evidently means, and various attempts have been made to explain away the inconsistency. It appears to be one of the peculiar cases of "double negative" discussed by Schmidt in his Appendix, p. 1420, though he does not give it there. "The idea of negation was so strong in the poet's mind that he expressed it in more than one place, unmindful of his canon that 'your four negatives make your two affirmatives.'" Cf. _Lear_, ii. 4. 142:--
"You less know how to value her desert Than she to scant ["slack" in quartos] her duty;"
that is, you are more inclined to depreciate her than she to scant her duty.
5. _Uneven._ Indirect. Cf. the use of _even_ in _Ham._ ii. 2. 298: "be even and direct with me," etc. Sometimes the word is = perplexing, embarrassing; as in _1 Hen. IV._ i. 1. 50: "uneven and unwelcome news," etc.
11. _Marriage._ A trisyllable here; as in _M. of V._ ii. 9. 13, etc. So also in the quotation from Brooke in note on iii. 5. 212 above.
13. _Alone._ When alone; opposed to _society_ below.
16. _Slow'd._ The only instance of the verb in S.
18-36. This part of the scene evidently came from the first draft of the play.
20. _That may be must be._ That _may be_ of yours must be.
29. _Abus'd._ Marred, disfigured.
31. _Spite._ Cf. i. 5. 64 above.
38. _Evening mass._ Ritson and others say that Juliet means _vespers_, as there is no such thing as _evening mass_; and Staunton expresses surprise that S. has fallen into this error, since he elsewhere shows a familiarity with the usages of the Roman Catholic Church. It is the critics who are in error, not S. Walafrid Strabo (_De Rebus Eccles._ xxiii.) says that, while the time for mass is regularly before noon, it is sometimes celebrated in the evening ("aliquando _ad vesperam_"). Amalarius, Bishop of Trèves (_De Eccles. Off._ iv. 40), specifies Lent as the season for this hour. The _Generales Rubricæ_ allow this at other times in the year. In Winkles's _French Cathedrals_, we are told that, on the occasion of the marriage of Henrietta of France, daughter of Henry IV., with the Duke of Chevreuse, as proxy for Charles I. of England, celebrated in Notre Dame at Paris, May 11, 1625, "mass was celebrated in the evening." See _Notes and Queries_ for April 29 and June 3, 1876; also M'Clintock and Strong's _Biblical Cyclopædia_, under _Mass._
40. _We must entreat_, etc. We must beg you to leave us to ourselves. Cf. _Hen. VIII._ i. 4. 71:--
"Crave leave to view these ladies and entreat An hour of revels with them."
41. _God shield._ God forbid. Cf. _A.W._ i. 3. 74: "God shield you mean it not." So "Heaven shield," in _M. for M._ iii. 1. 141, etc. _Devotion_ is here a quadrisyllable.
45. _Past cure_, etc. Cf. _L. L. L._ v. 2. 28: "past cure is still past care."
48. _Prorogue._ See on ii. 2. 78 above.
54. _This knife._ It was the custom of the time in Italy as in Spain for ladies to wear daggers at their girdles.
57. _The label._ The seal appended by a slip to a deed, according to the custom of the day. In _Rich. II._ v. 2. 56, the Duke of York discovers, by the depending seal, a covenant which his son has made with the conspirators. In _Cymb._ v. 5. 430, _label_ is used for the deed itself.
62. _Extremes._ Extremities, sufferings. Cf. _R. of L._ 969:--
"Devise extremes beyond extremity, To make him curse this cursed crimeful night."
The meaning of the passage is, "This knife shall decide the struggle between me and my distresses" (Johnson).
64. _Commission._ Warrant, authority. Cf. _A.W._ ii. 3. 279: "you are more saucy with lords and honourable personages than the commission of your birth and virtue gives you heraldry."
66. _Be not so long to speak._ So slow to speak. Clarke remarks here: "The constraint, with sparing speech, visible in Juliet when with her parents, as contrasted with her free outpouring flow of words when she is with her lover, her father confessor, or her nurse--when, in short, she is her natural self and at perfect ease--is true to characteristic delineation. The young girl, the very young girl, the girl brought up as Juliet has been reared, the youthful Southern maiden, lives and breathes in every line by which S. has set her before us."
78. _Yonder._ Ulrici "cannot perceive why Juliet must designate a
## particular, actual tower, since all that follows is purely imaginary;"
but to me the reference to a tower in sight seems both forcible and natural, and the transition to imaginary ordeals is equally natural.
83. _Reeky._ Reeking with foul vapours, or simply = foul, as if soiled with smoke or _reek_. Cf. _reechy_ (another form of the same word) in _Much Ado_, iii. 3. 143, _Ham._ iii. 4. 184, etc.
93. _Take thou this vial_, etc. Cf. Brooke's poem:--
"Receiue this vyoll small and keepe it as thine eye; And on the mariage day, before the sunne doe cleare the skye, Fill it with water full vp to the very brim, Then drinke it of, and thou shalt feele throughout eche vayne and lim A pleasant slumber slide, and quite dispred at length On all thy partes, from euery part reue all thy kindly strength; Withouten mouing thus thy ydle parts shall rest, No pulse shall goe, ne hart once beate within thy hollow brest, But thou shalt lye as she that dyeth in a traunce: Thy kinsmen and thy trusty frendes shall wayle the sodain chaunce; The corps then will they bring to graue in this church yarde, Where thy forefathers long agoe a costly tombe preparde, Both for them selfe and eke for those that should come after,[7] Both deepe it is, and long and large, where thou shalt rest, my daughter, Till I to Mantua sende for Romeus, thy knight; Out of the tombe both he and I will take thee forth that night."
97. _Surcease._ Cf. _R. of L._ 1766: "If they surcease to be that should survive;" and _Cor._ iii. 2. 121: "Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth." For the noun, see _Macb._ i. 7. 74.
100. _Paly._ Cf. _Hen. V._ iv. chor. 8: "paly flames;" and 2 _Hen. VI._ iii. 2. 141: "his paly lips."
105. _Two and forty hours._ It is difficult to make this period agree with the time of the events that follow. Maginn would read "two and fifty hours;" and "two and thirty" has been suggested, which is more in accordance with the dates given in the play. In iv. 1. 90 the Friar says to Juliet:--
"_Wednesday_ is to-morrow: To-morrow night look that thou lie alone," etc.
[Footnote 7: For the rhyme of _after_ and _daughter_, cf. _T. of S._ i. 1. 245, 246, _W.T._ iv. 1. 27, 28, and _Lear_, i. 4. 341, 344.]
This agrees with the preceding dates. The conversation in iii. 4 is late on Monday evening (cf. lines 5 and 18), and Lady Capulet's talk with Juliet about marrying Paris (iii. 5. 67 fol.) is early the next (Tuesday) morning. The visit to the Friar is evidently on the same day; and the next scene (iv. 2) is in the evening of that day. Juliet comes home and tells her father that she has been to the Friar's, and is ready to marry Paris. The old man at once decides to have the wedding "to-morrow morning" (that is, Wednesday) instead of Thursday. Lady Capulet objects, but finally yields to her husband's persistency; and so Juliet goes to her chamber, and drinks the potion on _Tuesday_ evening, or twenty-four hours earlier than the Friar had directed. He of course is notified of the change in the time for the wedding, as he is to perform the ceremony, and will understand that Juliet has anticipated the time of taking the potion, and that she will wake on _Thursday_ morning instead of Friday. If so, instead of extending the "two and forty hours," as Maginn does, we need rather to shorten the interval. We may suppose the time of v. 3 to be as early as three o'clock in the morning. It is summer, and before daylight. Paris and Romeo come with torches, and the Friar with a lantern. Romeo tells his servant to deliver the letter to his father "early in the morning." The night watchmen are still on duty. Since we can hardly send Juliet to bed before nine in the evening on Tuesday, _thirty_ hours is the most that can be allowed for the interval, unless we add another day and accept the fifty-two of Maginn. But this does not seem required by anything in
## act v.--not even by the "two days buried" of v. 3. 176, for Thursday
would be the second day that she had lain in the tomb. The marriage was to be early on Wednesday morning, and the funeral took its place. Balthasar "presently took post" (v. 1. 21) to tell the news to Romeo at Mantua, less than twenty-five miles distant. He arrives before evening (cf. v. 1. 4: "all this day," which indicates the time), and Romeo at once says, "I will hence _to-night_." He has ample time to make his preparations and to reach Verona before two o'clock the next morning. He has been at the tomb only half an hour or so (v. 3. 130) before the Friar comes. It must have been near midnight (see v. 2. 23) when Friar John returned to Laurence's cell; so that, even if he had not been despatched to Mantua until that morning, he would have had time to go and return, but for his unexpected detention. I see no difficulty, therefore, in assuming that the drama closes on Thursday morning; the difficulty would be in prolonging the time to the next morning without making the action drag.
110. _In thy best robes_, etc. The Italian custom here alluded to, of carrying the dead body to the grave richly dressed and with the face _uncovered_ (which is not mentioned by Paynter), S. found particularly described in _Romeus and Juliet_:--
"Now throughout Italy this common vse they haue, That all the best of euery stocke are earthed in one graue;
* * * * *
An other vse there is, that whosoeuer dyes, Borne to their church with open face vpon the beere he lyes, In wonted weede attyrde, not wrapt in winding sheete."
Cf. _Ham._ iv. 5. 164: "They bore him barefac'd on the bier." Knight remarks that thus the maids and matrons of Italy are still carried to the tomb; and he quotes Rogers, _Italy_:--
"And lying on her funeral couch, Like one asleep, her eyelids closed, her hands Folded together on her modest breast As 'twere her nightly posture, through the crowd She came at last--and richly, gaily clad, As for a birthday feast."
114. _Drift._ Scheme. Cf. ii. 3. 55 above.
119. _Inconstant toy._ Fickle freak or caprice. Cf. _Ham._ i. 3. 5: "a fashion and a toy in blood;" _Id._ 1. 4. 75: "toys of desperation;" _Oth._ iii. 4. 156: "no jealous toy," etc. _Inconstant toy_ and _womanish fear_ are both from Brooke's poem:--
"Cast of from thee at once the weede of womannish dread, With manly courage arme thy selfe from heele vnto the head;
* * * * *
God graunt he so confirme in thee thy present will, That no inconstant toy thee let [hinder] thy promesse to fulfill."
121. _Give me, give me!_ Cf. _Macb._ i. 3. 5: "'Give me,' quoth I."
## SCENE II.--2. _Twenty cunning cooks._ Ritson says: "Twenty cooks for
half a dozen guests! Either Capulet has altered his mind strangely, or S. forgot what he had just made him tell us" (iii. 4. 27). But, as Knight remarks, "Capulet is evidently a man of ostentation; but his ostentation, as is most generally the case, is covered with a thin veil of indifference." Cf. i. 5. 124: "We have a trifling foolish banquet towards."
According to an entry in the books of the Stationers' Company for 1560, the preacher was paid six shillings and twopence for his labour; the minstrel, twelve shillings; and the cook, fifteen shillings. But, as Ben Jonson tells us, a master cook is--
"a man of men For a professor; he designs, he draws, He paints, he carves, he builds, he fortifies, Makes citadels of curious fowl and fish.
* * * * *
He is an architect, an engineer, A soldier, a physician, a philosopher, A general mathematician."
6. _'Tis an ill cook_, etc. Cf. Puttenham, _Arte of English Poesie_, 1589:--
"As the old cocke crowes so doeth the chick: A bad cooke that cannot his owne fingers lick."
14. _Harlotry._ S. uses the noun only in this concrete sense: literally in _Oth._ iv. 2. 239; and in a loose contemptuous way, as here (= silly wench), in 1 _Hen. IV._ iii. 1. 198: "a peevish, self-willed harlotry, one that no persuasion can do good upon." For _peevish_ = foolish, childish, cf. _A.Y.L._ iii. 5. 110, _M.W._ i. 4. 14, etc.
17. _Learn'd me._ Taught myself, learned; not elsewhere used reflexively by S. Cf. iii. 2. 12 above.
18. _In disobedient opposition._ This line has but two regular accents, the others being metrical. See p. 159 above. _Opposition_ has five syllables.
26. _Becomed._ Becoming. Cf. "lean-look'd" = lean-looking in _Rich. II._ ii. 4. 11, "well-spoken" in _Rich. III._ i. 3. 348, etc. We still say "well-behaved."
33. _Closet._ Chamber; as in _Ham._ ii. 1. 77, iii. 2. 344, iii. 3. 27, etc. Cf. _Matthew_, vi. 6.
34. _Sort._ Select. Cf. iii. 5. 108 above.
38. _Short in our provision._ Very feminine and housewifely! Cf. _Lear_, ii. 4. 208:--
"I am now from home, and out of that provision Which shall be needful for your entertainment."
41. _Deck up her._ Such transpositions are not rare in S. The 1st quarto has "prepare up him" in 45 just below.
## SCENE III.--5. _Cross._ Perverse. Cf. _Hen. VIII._ iii. 2. 214:--
"what cross devil Made me put this main secret in the packet I sent the king?"
8. _Behoveful._ Befitting; used by S. nowhere else.
15. _Thrills._ The ellipsis is somewhat peculiar from the fact that the relative is expressed in the next line. We should expect "thrilling" or "And almost."
23. _Lie thou there._ See on iv. 1. 54 above. Moreover, as Steevens notes, _knives_, or daggers, were part of the accoutrements of a bride. Cf. Dekker, _Match me in London_: "See at my girdle hang my wedding knives!" and _King Edward III._, 1599: "Here by my side do hang my wedding knives," etc. Dyce remarks that the omission of the word _knife_ "is peculiarly awkward, as Juliet has been addressing the vial just before;" but S. wrote for the stage, where the action would make the reference perfectly clear.
27. _Because he married me_, etc. A "female" line with two extra syllables; like v. 3. 256 below. See p. 158 above.
29. _Tried._ Proved; as in _J.C._ iv. 1. 28, _Ham._ i. 3. 62, etc.
34. _Healthsome._ Wholesome; used by S. only here.
36. _Like._ Likely; as often.
39. _As in a vault_, etc. _As_ is here = to wit, namely. Cf. _Ham._ i. 4. 25, etc.
Steevens thinks that this passage may have been suggested to S. by the ancient charnel-house (now removed) adjoining the chancel of Stratford church; but that was merely a receptacle for bones from old graves and disused tombs, while the reference here is to a family tomb still in regular use, where the body of Tybalt has just been deposited, and as Juliet knows that she also will be when supposed to be dead. S. was of course familiar with such tombs or _vaults_.
_Receptacle._ For the accent on the first syllable, cf. _T.A._ i. 1. 92: "O sacred receptacle of my joys!" So also in _Per._ iv. 6. 186; the only other instance of the word in S.
42. _Green._ Fresh, recent; as in _Ham._ i. 2. 2, etc.
43. _Festering._ Corrupting; as in _Hen. V._ iv. 3. 88 and _Sonn._ 94. 14.
47. _Mandrakes'._ The plant _Atropa mandragora_ (cf. _Oth._ iii. 3. 130 and _A. and C._ i. 5. 4, where it is called "mandragora"), the root of which was thought to resemble the human figure, and when torn from the earth to utter shrieks which drove those mad who heard them. Cf. 2 _Hen. VI._ iii. 2. 310: "Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groans," etc. Coles, in his _Art of Simpling_, says that witches "take likewise the roots of mandrake, ... and make thereof an ugly image, by which they represent the person on whom they intend to exercise their witchcraft." The plant was of repute also in medicine, as a soporific (see the passages noted above in which it is called _mandragora_) and for sundry other purposes. Sir Thomas More observes that "Mandragora is an herbe, as phisycions saye, that causeth folke to slepe, and therein to have many mad fantastical dreames." How the root could be got without danger is explained by Bullein, in his _Bulwark of Defence against Sicknesse_, 1575: "Therefore they did tye some dogge or other lyving beast unto the roote thereof wythe a corde, and digged the earth in compasse round about, and in the meane tyme stopped their own eares for feare of the terreble shriek and cry of this Mandrack. In whych cry it doth not only dye it selfe, but the feare thereof kylleth the dogge or beast which pulleth it out of the earth."
49. _Distraught._ Distracted. S. uses the word again in _Rich. III._ iii. 5. 4: "distraught and mad with terror." Elsewhere he has _distracted_ (as in _Temp._ v. i. 12, _Macb._ ii. 3. 110, etc.) or _distract_ (as in _J.C._ iv. 3. 155, _Ham._ iv. 5. 2, etc.). Spenser has _distraught_ often; as in _F.Q._ iv. 3. 48: "Thus whilest their minds were doubtfully distraught;" _Id._ iv. 7. 31: "His greedy throte, therewith in two distraught" (where it is = drawn apart, its original sense), etc.
58. _Romeo, I come_, etc. The 1st quarto has here the stage-direction, "_She fals vpon her bed within the Curtaines_." The ancient stage was divided by curtains, called _traverses_, which were a substitute for sliding scenes. Juliet's bed was behind these curtains, and when they were closed in front of the bed the stage was supposed to represent the hall in Capulet's house for the next scene. When he summons the Nurse to call forth Juliet, she opens the curtains and the scene again becomes Juliet's chamber, where she is discovered apparently dead. After the lamentations over her, the 1st quarto gives the direction, "_They all but the Nurse goe foorth, casting Rosemary on her and shutting the Curtens_;" and then follows the scene with Peter and the Musicians. The stage had no movable painted scenery.
* * * * *
## SCENE IV.--2. _Pastry._ That is, the room where pastry was made. Cf.
_pantry_ (Fr. _paneterie_, from _pain_), the place where bread is kept, etc. Staunton quotes _A Floorish upon Fancie_, 1582:--
"Now having seene all this, then shall you see hard by The pastrie, mealehouse, and the roome whereas the coales do ly."
S. uses _pastry_ only here. For the double meaning of the word, cf. _spicery_ (Fr. _épicerie_), which was used both for the material (_Rich. III._ iv. 4. 424) and the place where it was kept.
4. _Curfew-bell._ As the curfew was rung in the evening, the only way to explain this is to assume that it means "the bell ordinarily used for that purpose" (Schmidt). In the three other instances in which S. has the word (_Temp._ v. 1. 40, _M. for M._ iv. 2. 78, _Lear_, iii. 4. 121), it is used correctly.
5. _Bak'd meats._ Pastry. S. uses the term only here and in _Ham._ i. 2. 180. Nares says that it formerly meant "a meat pie, or perhaps any other pie." He cites Cotgrave, who defines _pastisserie_ as "all kind of pies or bak'd meats;" and Sherwood (English supplement to Cotgrave), who renders "bak'd meats" by _pastisserie_. Cf. _The White Devil:_--
"You speak as if a man Should know what fowl is coffin'd in a bak'd meat Afore it is cut up;"
that is, what fowl is under the crust of the pie. _Good Angelica_ perhaps means Lady Capulet, not the Nurse; and, as Dowden suggests, _Spare not the cost_ seems more appropriate to the former. It may, however, be the Nurse, who here seems to be treated as a kitchen servant--perhaps to avoid the introduction of another character.
6. _Go, you cot-quean_, etc. Several editors give this speech to Lady Capulet; on the ground that the Nurse is not present, having been sent for spices. It has also been suggested that a servant would not venture to be so impudent to her master; but, as we have seen, the Nurse is an old and petted servant who is allowed a good deal of liberty. For the same reason she may not have gone for the spices at once, but may have lingered, gossip-like, to hear what Capulet had to say. A _cot-quean_ is a man who meddles with female affairs; used by S. only here.
11. _Mouse-hunt._ A woman-hunter. For _mouse_ as a term of endearment, see _Ham._ iii. 4. 183, _L. L. L._ v. 2. 19, and _T.N._ i. 5. 69.
13. _Jealous-hood._ Jealousy; the abstract for the concrete; used by S. only here.
16. _Drier logs._ For the kitchen; not a slip like that in i. 5. 30.
21. _Logger-head._ Blockhead. Cf. _L. L. L._ iv. 3. 204: "Ah, you whoreson loggerhead!" So _logger-headed_; as in _T. of S._ iv. 1. 128: "You logger-headed and unpolish'd grooms!"
* * * * *
## SCENE V.--3. _Sweet-heart._ Accented on the last syllable; as regularly
in S. (cf. _Hen. VIII._ i. 4. 94, etc.) except in _W. T._ iv. 4. 664: "take your sweet-heart's hat." Schmidt would print it as two words (as is common in the old eds.) except in this latter passage.
28. _Will not let me speak._ Malone remarks: "S. has here followed the poem closely, without recollecting that he had made Capulet, in this scene, clamorous in his grief. In _Romeus and Juliet_, Juliet's mother makes a long speech, but the old man utters not a word:--
"'But more then all the rest the fathers hart was so Smit with the heauy newes, and so shut vp with sodain woe, That he ne had the powre his daughter to bewepe, Ne yet to speake, but long is forsd his teares and plaint to kepe.'"
The poem may have suggested Capulet's speech; but S. is not at fault in making him afterwards find his tongue and become "clamorous in his grief." That was perfectly natural.
36. _Life, living._ There is no necessity for emendation, as some have supposed. _Living is_ = means of living, possessions; as in _M. of V._ v. 1. 286: "you have given me life and living," etc.
37. _Thought._ Expected, hoped; as in _Much Ado_, ii. 3. 236, etc.
41. _Labour._ Referring to the toilsome progress of time, as in _T. of A._ iii. 4. 8 (Delius).
44. _Catch'd._ Also used for the participle in _L. L. L._ v. 2. 69 and _A. W._ i. 3. 176; and for the past tense in _Cor._ i. 3. 68. Elsewhere S. has _caught_.
45. _O woe!_ White thinks that in "this speech of mock heroic woe" S. ridicules the translation of Seneca's _Tragedies_ (1581); but it is in keeping with the character. Probably this and the next two speeches belong to the early draft of the play, with much that precedes and follows.
52. _Detestable._ For the accent on the first syllable (as always in S.), cf. _K. John_, iii. 4. 29, _T. of A._ iv. 1. 33, and v. 3. 45 below.
55. _Despis'd, distressed_, etc. In this line, as in 51, note the mixture of contracted and uncontracted participles.
56. _Uncomfortable._ Cheerless, joyless; the one instance of the word in S.
60. _Buried._ A trisyllable here; as in v. 3. 176 below.
61. _Confusion's._ Here, the word is = ruin, death; but in the next line it is = confused lamentations. Cf. _R. of L._ 445: "fright her with confusion of their cries."
66. _His._ Its. _Heaven_ is not personified here.
67. _Promotion._ A quadrisyllable here.
72. _Well._ Often thus used of the dead. Cf. _W.T._ v. 1. 30, 2 _Hen. IV._ v. 2. 3, _Macb._ iv. 3. 179, _A. and C._ ii. 5. 33, etc. See also v. 1. 17 below.
75. _Rosemary._ That is, the rosemary that had been brought for the wedding; for it was used at both weddings and funerals. Cf. Herrick, _The Rosemarie Branch:_--
"Grow for two ends, it matters not at all, Be 't for my bridall or my buriall;"
and Dekker, _Wonderful Year_: "The rosemary that was washed in sweet water to set out the bridal, is now wet in tears to furnish her burial." Cf. ii. 4. 198 above.
76. _As the custom is._ See on iv. 1. 110 above.
78. _Fond._ Foolish (cf. iii. 3. 52 above), as opposed to _reason_.
80. _All things_, etc. Cf. Brooke's poem:--
"Now is the parentes myrth quite chaunged into mone, And now to sorrow is retornde the ioy of euery one; And now the wedding weedes for mourning weedes they chaunge, And Hymene into a Dyrge; alas! it seemeth straunge: In steade of mariage gloues, now funerall gloues they haue, And whom they should see maried, they follow to the graue. The feast that should haue been of pleasure and of ioy Hath euery dish and cup fild full of sorow and annoye."
95. _Case._ There is a play upon the other sense of the word (a case for a musical instrument); as in _W.T._ iv. 4. 844: "but though my case be a pitiful one, I hope I shall not be flayed out of it" (that is, out of my skin).
96. _Enter Peter._ From the quartos we learn that William Kempe played the part of Peter, as he did that of Dogberry in _Much Ado_.
In explanation of the introduction of this part of the scene, Knight remarks: "It was the custom of our ancient theatre to introduce, in the irregular pauses of a play that stood in place of a division into acts, some short diversions, such as a song, a dance, or the extempore buffoonery of a clown. At this point of _R. and J._ there is a natural pause in the action, and at this point such an interlude would probably have been presented, whether S. had written one or not.... Will Kempe was the Liston of his day, and was as great a popular favourite as Tarleton had been before him. It was wise, therefore, in S. to find some business for Will Kempe that should not be entirely out of harmony with the great business of his play. The scene of the musicians is very short, and, regarded as a necessary part of the routine of the ancient stage, is excellently managed. Nothing can be more naturally exhibited than the indifference of hirelings, without attachment, to a family scene of grief. Peter and the musicians bandy jokes; and though the musicians think Peter a 'pestilent knave,' perhaps for his inopportune sallies, they are ready enough to look after their own gratification, even amidst the sorrow which they see around them. A wedding or a burial is the same to them. 'Come, we'll in here; tarry for the mourners, and stay dinner.' So S. read the course of the world--and it is not much changed."
"To our minds," says Clarke, "the intention was to show how grief and gayety, pathos and absurdity, sorrow and jesting, elbow each other in life's crowd; how the calamities of existence fall heavily upon the souls of some, while others, standing close beside the grievers, feel no jot of suffering or sympathy. Far from the want of harmony that has been found here, we feel it to be one of those passing discords that produce richest and fullest effect of harmonious contrivance."
Furness states that in Edwin Booth's acting copy this scene of Peter and the musicians is transposed to i. 5. 17 above.
99. _Heart's ease._ A popular tune of the time, mentioned in _Misogonus_, a play by Thomas Rychardes, written before 1570.
101. _My heart is full of woe._ The burden of the first stanza of _A Pleasant new Ballad of Two Lovers_: "Hey hoe! my heart is full of woe" (Steevens).
102. _Dump._ A mournful or plaintive song or melody. Calling it _merry_ is a joke of Peter's. Cf. _T.G. of V._ iii. 2. 85: "A deploring dump." See also _R. of L._ 1127.
109. _Gleek._ Scoff. Cf. 1 _Hen. VI._ iii. 2. 123: "Now where's the Bastard's braves, and Charles his gleeks?" _To give the gleek_ was "to pass a jest upon, to make a person ridiculous." It is impossible to say what is the joke in _give you the minstrel_. Some suppose that _gleek_ suggests _gleeman_, one form of which in Anglo-Saxon was _gligman_, but no such form is found in English, if we may trust the _New Eng. Dict._ The reply of the musician may perhaps mean "that he will retort by calling Peter the servant to the minstrel" (White).
114. _I will carry no crotchets._ I will bear none of your whims; with a play on _crotchets_, as in _Much Ado_, ii. 3. 58. Cf. _carry coals_ in i. 1. 1 above. The play on _note_ is obvious.
120. _Drybeat._ See on iii. 1. 81 above. For _have at you_, cf. i. 1. 64 above.
122. _When griping grief_, etc. From a poem by Richard Edwards, in the _Paradise of Daintie Devises_. See also Percy's _Reliques_.
126. _Catling._ A small string of _catgut_. Cf. _T. and C._ iii. 3. 306: "unless the fiddler Apollo get his sinews to make catlings on."
132. _Pretty._ Some of the German critics are troubled by _pretty_, because Peter does not intend to praise; and irony, they say, would be out of place. It is simply a jocose patronizing expression = That's not bad in its way, but you haven't hit it. The _rebeck_ was a kind of three-stringed fiddle. Cf. Milton, _L'All._ 94: "And the jocund rebecks sound," etc.
141. _Pestilent._ Often used in an opprobrious sense; as in _Lear_, i. 4. 127: "A pestilent gall to me!" _Oth._ ii. 1. 252: "A pestilent complete knave," etc.
142. _Jack._ See on iii. 1. 12 above; and for _stay_ = wait for, on ii. 5. 36.
## ACT V
SCENE. I.--1. _The flattering truth._ This is apparently = that which bears the flattering semblance of truth. It has perplexed some of the critics, but their emendations do not better it. For _flattering_ in the sense of illusive, cf. ii. 2. 141. Some have wondered that S. here makes the presentiment a hopeful one; but as a writer in the _Cornhill Magazine_ (October, 1866) remarks, the presentiment was true, but Romeo did not trust it. Had he done so, his fate would not have been so tragic.
3. _My bosom's lord._ That is, my heart; not Love, or Cupid, as some would make it. Lines 3-5 seem to me only a highly poetical description of the strange new cheerfulness and hopefulness he feels--a reaction from his former depression which is like his dream of rising from the dead an emperor.
10. _Ah me!_ See on _Ay me!_ ii. 1. 10 above. It may be a misprint for "Ay me!" here.
12. _Balthasar._ Always accented by S. on the first syllable. The name occurs in _C. of E._, _Much Ado_, and _M. of V._
17. _She is well._ See on iv. 5. 72 above.
18. _Capel's._ The early eds. have "_Capels_"; the modern ones generally "Capels'." The singular seems better here, on account of the omission of the article; but the plural in v. 3. 127: "the Capels' monument." S. uses this abbreviation only twice. Brooke uses _Capel_ and _Capulet_ indiscriminately. See quotation in note on i. 1. 28 above.
21. _Presently._ Immediately; the usual meaning in S. Cf. iv. 1. 54 and 95 above.
27. _Patience._ A trisyllable, as in v. 3. 221 and 261 below.
29. _Misadventure._ Mischance, misfortune; used by S. only here and in v. 3. 188 below. _Misadventured_ occurs only in prol. 7 above.
36. _In._ Into; as often. Cf. v. 3. 34 below.
37. _I do remember_, etc. Joseph Warton objects to the detailed description here as "improperly put into the mouth of a person agitated with such passion." "But," as Knight remarks, "the mind once made up, it took a perverse pleasure in going over every circumstance that had suggested the means of mischief. All other thoughts had passed out of Romeo's mind. He had nothing left but to die; and everything connected with the means of death was seized upon by his imagination with an energy that could only find relief in words. S. has exhibited the same knowledge of nature in his sad and solemn poem of _R. of L._, where the injured wife, having resolved to wipe out her stain by death,
"'calls to mind where hangs a piece Of skilful painting, made for Priam's Troy.'
She sees in that painting some fancied resemblance to her own position, and spends the heavy hours till her husband arrives in its contemplation." See _R. of L._ 1366 fol. and 1496 fol.
39. _Overwhelming._ Overhanging. Cf. _V. and A._ 183: "His lowering brows o'erwhelming his fair sight." See also _Hen. V._ iii. 1. 11. For _weeds_ = garments, see _M.N.D._ ii. 2. 71, etc.
40. _Simples._ Medicinal herbs. Cf. _R. of L._ 530, _Ham._ iv. 7. 145, etc.
43. _An alligator stuff'd._ This was a regular part of the furniture of an apothecary's shop in the time of S. Nash, in his _Have With You_, etc., 1596, refers to "an apothecary's crocodile or dried alligator." Steevens says that he has met with the alligator, tortoise, etc., hanging up in the shop of an ancient apothecary at Limehouse, as well as in places more remote from the metropolis. In Dutch art, as Fairholt remarks, these marine monsters often appear in representations of apothecaries' shops.
45. _A beggarly account_, etc. Cf. Brooke's poem:--
"And seeking long (alac too soone) the thing he sought, he founde. An Apothecary sate vnbusied at his doore, Whom by his heauy countenaunce he gessed to be poore. And in his shop he saw his boxes were but fewe, And in his window (of his wares) there was so small a shew, Wherfore our Romeus assuredly hath thought, What by no frendship could be got, with money should be bought; For nedy lacke is lyke the poore man to compell To sell that which the cities lawe forbiddeth him to sell. Then by the hand he drew the nedy man apart, And with the sight of glittring gold inflamed hath his hart: Take fiftie crownes of gold (quoth he) I geue them thee.
* * * * *
Fayre syr (quoth he) be sure this is the speeding gere, And more there is then you shall nede for halfe of that is there Will serue, I vnder take, in lesse than halfe an howre To kill the strongest man aliue; such is the poysons power."
51. _Present._ Immediate; as in iv. 1. 61 above. Cf. _presently_ in 21 above. Secret poisoning became so common in Europe in the 16th century that laws against the sale of poisons were made in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and other countries. Knight says: "There is no such law in our own statute-book; and the circumstance is a remarkable exemplification of the difference between English and Continental manners." But that this practice of poisoning prevailed to a considerable extent in England in the olden time is evident from the fact that in the 21st year of the reign of Henry VIII. an act was passed declaring the employment of secret poisons to be high-treason, and sentencing those who were found guilty of it to be boiled to death.
60. _Soon-speeding gear._ Quick-despatching stuff. Cf. the extract from Brooke just above. For _gear_, see ii. 4. 97 above.
64. _As violently_, etc. See on ii. 6. 9 above.
67. _Any he._ Cf. _A.Y.L._ iii. 2. 414: "that unfortunate he;" 3 _Hen. VI._ i. 1. 46: "The proudest he;" _Id._ ii. 2. 97: "Or any he the proudest of thy sort," etc. _Utters them_ = literally, sends them _out_, or lets them go from his possession; hence, sells them. Cf. _L. L. L._ ii. 1. 16 and _W.T._ iv. 4. 330.
70. _Starveth._ That is, look out hungrily; a bold but not un-Shakespearian expression, for which Otway's "stareth" (adopted by some editors) is a poor substitution. See on i. 1. 216 above; and for the inflection, on prol. 8.
## SCENE II.--4. _A barefoot brother._ Friars Laurence and John are
evidently Franciscans. "In his kindness, his learning, and his inclination to mix with and, perhaps, control the affairs of the world, he [Laurence] is no unapt representative of this distinguished order in their best days" (Knight). Warton says that the Franciscans "managed the machines of every important operation and event, both in the religious and political world."
Cf. Brooke's poem:--
"Apace our frier Iohn to Mantua him hyes; And, for because in Italy it is a wonted gyse That friers in the towne should seeldome walke alone, But of theyr couent ay should be accompanide with one Of his profession, straight a house he fyndeth out, In mynde to take some frier with him, to walke the towne about."
Each friar has a companion assigned him by the superior when he asks leave to go out; and thus they are a check upon each other (Steevens).
6. _Associate me._ Accompany me. For the transitive use, cf. _T.A._ v. 3. 169: "Friends should associate friends in grief and woe."
9. _A house._ According to both the poem and the novel, this was the convent to which the "barefoot brother" belonged.
16. _Infection._ A quadrisyllable. Cf, iv. 1. 41 above.
18. _Nice._ Trifling, unimportant. See on iii. 1. 157 above. For _charge_, cf. _W.T._ iv. 4. 261: "I have about me many parcels of charge."
19. _Dear._ Cf. v. 3. 32 below: "dear employment."
20. _Do much danger._ See on iii. 3. 118 above.
25. _This three hours._ The singular _this_ is often thus used; but cf. iv. 3. 40 above: "these many hundred years;" and v. 3. 176 below: "these two days."
26. _Beshrew._ See on ii. 5. 52 above.
## SCENE III.--_A Churchyard_, etc. Hunter says: "It is clear that S., or
some writer whom he followed, had in mind the churchyard of Saint Mary the Old in Verona, and the monument of the Scaligers which stood in it." See the cut on p. 136, and cf. Brooke, who refers to the Italian custom of building large family tombs:--
"For euery houshold, if it be of any fame; Doth bylde a tombe, or digge a vault, that beares the housholdes name: Wherein (if any of that kindred hap to dye) They are bestowde; els in the same no other corps may lye. The Capilets her corps in such a one dyd lay Where Tybalt slaine of Romeus was layde the other day."
At the close of the poem we are told that--
"The bodies dead, remoued from vaulte where they did dye, In stately tombe, on pillers great of marble, rayse they hye. On euery syde aboue were set, and eke beneath, Great store of cunning Epitaphes, in honor of theyr death. And euen at this day the tombe is to be seene; So that among the monumentes that in Verona been, There is no monument more worthy of the sight, Then is the tombe of Iuliet and Romeus her knight."
See also the quotation in note on iv. 1. 93 above. Brooke's reference to the "stately tombe, on pillers great," etc., was doubtless suggested by the Tomb of the Scaligers.
3. _Lay thee all along._ That is, at full length. Cf. _A.Y.L._ ii. 1. 30: "As he lay along Under an oak;" _J.C._ iii. 1. 115: "That now on Pompey's basis lies along," etc.
6. _Unfirm._ Cf. _J.C._ i. 3. 4, _T.N._ ii. 4. 34, etc. S. also uses _infirm_, as in _Macb._ ii. 2. 52, etc.
8. _Something._ The accent is on the last syllable, as Walker notes; and Marshall prints "some thing," as in the folio.
11. _Adventure._ Cf. ii. 2. 84 above.
14. _Sweet water._ Perfumed water. Cf. _T.A._ ii. 4. 6: "call for sweet water;" and see quotation in note on iv. 5. 75 above.
20. _Cross._ Thwart, interfere with. Cf. iv. 5. 91 above.
21. _Muffle._ Cover, hide. Cf. i. 1. 168 above; and see _J.C._ iii. 2. 191, etc. Steevens intimates that it was "a low word" in his day; but, if so, it has since regained its poetical character. Tennyson uses it repeatedly; as in _The Talking Oak_: "O, muffle round thy knees with fern;" _The Princess_: "A full sea glazed with muffled moonlight;" _In Memoriam_: "muffled round with woe," etc. Milton has _unmuffle_ in _Comus_, 321: "Unmuffle, ye faint stars."
32. _Dear._ See on v. 2. 19 above.
33. _Jealous._ Suspicious; as in _Lear_, v. 1. 56, _J.C._ i. 2. 71, etc.
34. _In._ Into. See on v. 1. 36 above.
37. _Savage-wild._ Cf. ii. 2. 141 above.
39. _Empty._ Hungry. Cf. _V. and A._ 55: "Even as an empty eagle, sharp by fast" (see also 2 _Hen. VI._ iii. 1. 248 and 3 _Hen. VI._ i. 1. 268); and _T. of S._ iv. 1. 193: "My falcon now is sharp and passing empty."
44. _Doubt._ Distrust; as in _J.C._ ii. 1. 132, iv. 2. 13, etc.
45. _Detestable._ See on iv. 5. 52 above.
47. _Enforce._ Force; as often. Cf. _Temp._ v. 1. 100: "Enforce them to this place," etc.
50. _With._ Often used to express the relation of cause.
59. _Good gentle youth_, etc. "The gentleness of Romeo was shown before [iii. 1. 64 fol.] as softened by love, and now it is doubled by love and sorrow, and awe of the place where he is" (Coleridge).
68. _Conjurations._ Solemn entreaties; as in _Rich. II._ iii. 2. 23, _Ham._ v. 2. 38, etc. Some have taken it to mean incantations. _Defy_ = refuse; as in _K. John_, iii. 4. 23: "I defy all counsel," etc.
74. _Peruse._ Scan, examine. Cf. _Ham._ iv. 7. 137: "peruse the foils," etc.
76. _Betossed._ Agitated; used by S. nowhere else.
82. _Sour._ See on iii. 3. 7 above.
84. _Lantern._ Used in the architectural sense of "a turret full of windows" (Steevens). Cf. Parker, _Glossary of Architecture_: "In Gothic architecture the term is sometimes applied to _louvres_ on the roofs of halls, etc., but it usually signifies a tower which has the whole height, or a considerable portion of the interior, open to the ground, and is lighted by an upper tier of windows; lantern-towers of this kind are common over the centre of cross churches, as at York Minster, Ely Cathedral, etc. The same name is also given to the light open erections often placed on the top of towers, as at Boston, Lincolnshire," etc. The one at Boston was used as a lighthouse _lantern_ in the olden time.
86. _Presence._ Presence-chamber, state apartment; as in _Rich. II._ i. 3. 289 and _Hen. VIII._ iii. 1. 17.
87. _Death._ The abstract for the concrete. The _dead man_ is Romeo, who is so possessed with his suicidal purpose that he speaks of himself as dead. Steevens perversely calls it one of "those miserable conceits with which our author too frequently counteracts his own pathos."
88-120. _How oft when men_, etc. "Here, here, is the master example how beauty can at once increase and modify passion" (Coleridge).
90. _A lightning before death._ "A last blazing-up of the flame of life;" a proverbial expression. Steevens quotes _The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington_, 1601:--
"I thought it was a lightning before death, Too sudden to be certain."
Clarke notes "the mingling here of words and images full of light and colour with the murky grey of the sepulchral vault and the darkness of the midnight churchyard, the blending of these images of beauty and tenderness with the deep gloom of the speaker's inmost heart."
92. _Suck'd the honey_, etc. Cf. _Ham._ iii. 1. 164: "That suck'd the honey of his music vows." Steevens quotes Sidney, _Arcadia_: "Death being able to divide the soule, but not the beauty from her body."
96. _Death's pale flag._ Steevens compares Daniel, _Complaint of Rosamond_:--
"And nought-respecting death (the last of paines) Plac'd his pale colours (th' ensign of his might) Upon his new-got spoil."
97. _Tybalt_, etc. Cf. Brooke's poem:--
"Ah cosin dere, Tybalt, where so thy restles sprite now be, With stretched handes to thee for mercy now I crye, For that before thy kindly howre I forced thee to dye. But if with quenched lyfe not quenched be thine yre, But with revengeing lust as yet thy hart be set on fyre, What more amendes, or cruell wreke desyrest thou To see on me, then this which here is shewd forth to thee now? Who reft by force of armies from thee thy living breath, The same with his owne hand (thou seest) doth poyson himselfe to death."
106. _Still._ Constantly, always; as very often. Cf. 270 below.
110. _Set up my everlasting rest._ That is, remain forever. To _set up one's rest_ was a phrase taken from gaming, the _rest_ being the highest stake the parties were disposed to venture; hence it came to mean to have fully made up one's mind, to be resolved. Here the form of expression seems to be suggested by the gaming phrase rather than to be a figurative example of it.
112-118. _Eyes ... bark._ Whiter points out a coincidence between this last speech of Romeo's and a former one (i. 4. 103 fol.) in which he anticipates his misfortunes. "The ideas drawn from the _stars_, the _law_, and the _sea_ succeed each other in both speeches, in the same order, though with a different application."
115. _Dateless._ Limitless, eternal. Cf. _Sonn._ 30. 6: "death's dateless night;" _Rich. III._ i. 3. 151: "The dateless limit of thy dear exile," etc.
_Engrossing._ Malone says that the word "seems here to be used in its clerical sense." There seems to be at least a hint of that sense, suggested by _seal_ and _bargain_; but the leading meaning is that of all-seizing, or "taking the whole," as Schmidt explains it.
116. _Conduct._ See on iii. 1. 127 above. For _unsavoury_, cf. _V. and A._ 1138: "sweet beginning, but unsavoury end." Schmidt, who rarely makes such a slip, treats both of these examples as literal rather than metaphorical. The only example of the former sense in S. (not really his) is _Per._ ii. 3. 31: "All viands that I eat do seem unsavoury."
118. _Thy._ Pope substituted "my," but _thy_ may be defended on the nautical principle that the pilot is the master of the ship after he takes her in charge. That seems to be Romeo's thought here; he gives up the helm to the "desperate pilot," and says, "The ship is yours, run her upon the rocks if you will."
121. _Be my speed._ Cf. _Hen. V._ v. 2. 194: "Saint Denis be my speed!" _A.Y.L._ i. 2. 222: "Hercules be thy speed!" etc.
122. _Stumbled at graves._ The idea that to stumble is a bad omen is very ancient. Cicero mentions it in his _De Divinatione_. Melton, in his _Astrologaster_, 1620, says that "if a man stumbles in a morning as soon as he comes out of dores, it is a signe of ill lucke." Bishop Hall, in his _Characters_, says of the "Superstitious Man" that "if he stumbled at the threshold, he feares a mischief." Stumbling at graves is alluded to in _Whimzies, or a New Cast of Characters_, 1631: "His earth-reverting body (according to his mind) is to be buried in some cell, roach, or vault, and in no open space, lest passengers (belike) might stumble on his grave." Steevens cites 3 _Hen. VI._ iv. 7. 11 and _Rich. III._ iii. 4. 86.
127. _Capels'._ See on v. 1. 18 above.
138. _I dreamt_, etc. Steevens considers this a touch or nature: "What happens to a person under the manifest influence of fear will seem to him, when he is recovered from it, like a dream." It seems to me more likely that the man confuses what he saw while half asleep with what he might have dreamt.
145. _Unkind._ Usually accented on the first syllable before a noun, but otherwise on the second. This often occurs with dis-syllabic adjectives and participles. _Unkind_ and its derivatives are often used by S. in a much stronger sense than at present. In some cases, the etymological sense of _unnatural_ (cf. _kind_ and _kindly_ = natural) seems to cling to them. Cf. _J.C._ iii. 2. 187, _Lear_, i. 1. 263, iii. 4. 73, etc.
148. _Comfortable._ Used in an active sense = ready to comfort or help; as in _A.W._ i. 1. 86, _Lear_, i. 4. 328, etc.
158. _The watch._ It has been asserted by some of the critics that there was no watch in the old Italian cities; but, however that may have been, S. follows Brooke's poem:--
"The watchemen of the towne the whilst are passed by, And through the gates the candel light within the tombe they spye."
162. _Timeless._ Untimely. Cf. _T.G. of V._ iii. 1. 21: "your timeless grave;" _Rich. II._ iv. 1. 5: "his timeless end," etc.
163. _Drunk all, and left._ The reading of 2nd quarto. The 1st has "drink ... leave," and the folio "drink ... left."
170. _There rest._ From 1st quarto; the other early eds. have "rust," which some editors prefer. To me _rest_ seems both more poetical and more natural. That at this time Juliet should think of "Romeo's dagger, which would otherwise rust in its sheath, as rusting in her heart," is quite inconceivable. It is a "conceit" of the worst Elizabethan type.
The tragedy here ends in Booth's Acting Copy (Furness).
173. _Attach._ Arrest; as in _C. of E._ iv. 1. 6, 73, iv. 4. 6, _Rich. II._ ii. 3. 156, _Hen. VIII._ i. 1. 217, i. 2. 210, etc.
176. _These two days._ See on iv. 1. 105 above.
181. _Without circumstance._ Without further particulars. Cf. ii. 5. 36 above.
203. _His house._ Its sheath. See on ii, 6. 12 above.
204. _On the back._ The dagger was commonly turned behind and worn at the back, as Steevens shows by sundry quotations.
207. _Old age._ A slip which, strangely enough, no editor or commentator has noticed. Furness notes no reference to it, and I find none in more recent editions. See on i. 3. 51 above.
211. _Grief of my son's exile._ Cf. _Much Ado_, iv. 2. 65: "and upon the grief of this suddenly died." For the accent of _exile_, cf. iii. 1. 190 and iii. 3. 20 above.
After this line the 1st quarto has the following: "And yong _Benuolio_ is deceased too;" but, as Ulrici remarks, "the pacific, considerate Benvolio, the constant counseller of moderation, ought not to be involved in the fate which had overtaken the extremes of hate and passion."
214. _Manners._ S. makes the word either singular or plural, like _news_, _tidings_ (see on iii. 5. 105 above), etc. Cf. _A.W._ ii. 2. 9, _W.T._ iv. 4. 244, etc. with _T.N._ iv. 1. 53, _Rich. III._ iii. 7. 191, etc.
216. _Outrage._ Cf. 1 _Hen. VI._ iv. 1. 126:--
"Are you not asham'd With this immodest clamorous outrage To trouble and disturb the king and us?"
There, as here, it means a mad outcry. Dyce quotes Settle, _Female Prelate_: "Silence his outrage in a jayl, away with him!"
221. _Patience._ A trisyllable. See on v. 1. 27 above. In the next line _suspicion_ is a quadrisyllable.
229. _I will be brief_, etc. Johnson and Malone criticise S. for following Brooke in the introduction of this long narrative. Ulrici well defends it as preparing the way for the reconciliation of the Capulets and Montagues over the dead bodies of their children, the victims of their hate. For _date_, see on i. 4. 105 above.
237. _Siege._ Cf. the same image in i. 1. 209.
238. _Perforce._ By force, against her will; as in _C. of E._ iv. 3. 95, _Rich. II._ ii. 3. 121, etc.
241. _Marriage._ A trisyllable. See on iv. 1. 11 above, and cf. 265 below.
247. _As this dire night._ This redundant use of _as_ in statements of time is not uncommon. Cf. _J.C._ v. 1. 72: "as this very day was Cassius born," etc.
253. _Hour._ A dissyllable; as in iii. 1. 198 above.
257. _Some minute._ We should now say "some minutes," which is Hanmer's reading. Cf. "some hour" in 268 below.
258. _Untimely._ For the adverbial use, see on iii. 1. 121 above.
270. _Still._ Always. See on 106 above.
273. _In post._ In haste, or "post-haste." Cf. v. 1. 21 above. We find "in all post" in _Rich. III._ iii. 5. 73, and "all in post" in _R. of L._ 1.
276. _Going in._ See on v. 1. 36 above.
280. _What made your master?_ What was your master doing? Cf. _A.Y.L._ i. 1. 3, ii. 3. 4, etc.
284. _By and by._ Presently. See on ii. 2. 151 above.
289. _Pothecary._ Generally printed "'pothecary" in the modern eds., but not in the early ones. It was a common form of the word. Cf. Chaucer, _Pardoneres Tale_:--
"And forth he goth, no longer wold he tary, Into the toun unto a potecary."
_Therewithal._ Therewith, with it. Cf. _T.G. of V._ iv. 4. 90:--
"Well, give her that ring and therewithal This letter," etc.
291. _Be._ Cf. _Ham._ iii. 2. 111, v. 1. 107, etc.
295. _A brace of kinsmen._ Mercutio and Paris. For the former, see iii. 1. 112; and for the latter, iii. 5. 179 and v. 3. 75. Steevens remarks that _brace_ as applied to men is generally contemptuous; as in _Temp._ v. 1. 126: "But you, my brace of lords," etc. As a parallel to the present passage, cf. _T. and C._ iv. 5. 175: "You brace of warlike brothers, welcome hither!"
305. _Glooming._ Used by S. only here. Steevens cites _Tom Tyler and his Wife_, 1578: "If either he gaspeth or gloometh." Cf. Spenser, _F.Q._ i. 14: "A little glooming light, much like a shade." Young uses the verb in his _Night Thoughts_, ii.: "A night that glooms us in the noontide ray."
308. _Some shall be pardoned_, etc. In the novel, Juliet's attendant is banished for concealing the marriage; Romeo's servant set at liberty because he had acted under his master's orders; the apothecary tortured and hanged; and Friar Laurence permitted to retire to a hermitage, where he dies five years later.
APPENDIX
CONCERNING ARTHUR BROOKE
Little is known of the life of Arthur Broke, or Brooke, except that he wrote _Romeus and Juliet_ (1562) and the next year published a book entitled _Agreement of Sundry Places of Scripture, seeming in shew to jarre, serving in stead of Commentaryes not only for these, but others lyke_; a translation from the French. He died that same year (1563), and an _Epitaph_ by George Turbervile (printed in a volume of his poems, 1567) "on the death of maister Arthur Brooke" informs us that he was "drowned in passing to Newhaven."
So far as I am aware, no editor or commentator has referred to the singular prose introduction to the 1562 edition of _Romeus and Juliet_. It is clear from internal evidence that it was written by Brooke, and it is signed "Ar. Br."--the form in which his name also appears on the title-page; but its tone and spirit are strangely unlike those of the poem. We have seen (p. 25 above) that he refers to the perpetuation of "the memory of so perfect, sound, and so approved love" by the "stately tomb" of Romeo and Juliet, with "great store of cunning epitaphs in honour of their death;" but in the introduction he expresses a very different opinion of the lovers and finds a very different lesson in their fate. He says: "To this end (good Reader) is this tragical matter written, to describe unto thee a couple of unfortunate lovers, thralling themselves to unhonest desire, neglecting the authority and advice of parents and friends, conferring their principal counsels with drunken gossips and superstitious friars (the naturally fit instruments of unchastity), attempting all adventures of peril for the attaining of their wicked lusts, using auricular confession (the key of whoredom and treason) for furtherance of their purpose, abusing the honourable name of lawful marriage to cloak the shame of stolen contracts; finally, by all means of unhonest life, hasting to most unhappy death." The suggestion is added that parents may do well to show the poem to their children with "the intent to raise in them an hateful loathing of so filthy beastliness."
It is curious that there is not the slightest hint of all this anywhere in the poem; not a suggestion that the love of Romeo and Juliet is not natural and pure and honest; not a word of reproach for the course of Friar Laurence. Even the picture of the Nurse, with her vulgarity and unscrupulousness, is drawn with a kind of humour.
I have quoted above (note on ii. 2. 142) what Brooke makes Juliet say to her lover in the balcony scene. In their first interview, she says:--
"You are no more your owne (deare frend) then I am yours (My honor saved) prest tobay [to obey] your will while life endures. Lo here the lucky lot that sild [seldom] true lovers finde: Eche takes away the others hart, and leaves the owne behinde. A happy life is love if God graunt from above That hart with hart by even waight doo make exchaunge of love."
And Romeo has just said:--
"For I of God woulde crave, as pryse of paynes forpast, To serve, obey, and honor you so long as lyfe shall last."
Of the Friar the poet says:--
"This barefoote fryer gyrt with cord his grayish weede, For he of Frauncis order was, a fryer as I reede. Not as the most was he, a grosse unlearned foole: But doctor of divinitie proceeded he in schoole.
* * * * *
The bounty of the fryer and wisdom hath so woune The townes folks harts that welnigh all to fryer Lawrence ronne. To shrive them selfe the olde, the yong, the great and small: Of all he is beloved well and honord much of all. And for he did the rest in wisdome farre exceede The prince by him (his counsell cravde) was holpe at time of neede. Betwixt the Capilets and him great frendship grew: A secret and assured frend unto the Montegue."
At the end of the tragic story the poet asks:--
"But now what shall betyde of this gray-bearded syre? Of fryer Lawrence thus araynde, that good barefooted fryre? Because that many times he woorthely did serve The commen welth, and in his lyfe was never found to swerve, He was discharged quyte, and no marke of defame Did seeme to blot or touch at all the honor of his name. But of him selfe he went into an Hermitage, Two myles from Veron towne, where he in prayers past forth his age; Till that from earth to heaven his heavenly sprite dyd flye: Fyve yeres he lived an Hermite, and an Hermite dyd he dye."
The puzzling prose preface to the poem is followed, in the original edition, by another in verse, similarly headed "To the Reader," from which we learn that Brooke had written other poems, which with this he compares to unlicked whelps--"nought els but lumpes of fleshe withouten heare" (hair)--but _this_ poem, he says, is "the eldest of them" and his "youthfull woorke." He has decided to publish it, but "The rest (unlickt as yet) a whyle shall lurke" (that is, in manuscript)--
"Till tyme give strength to meete and match in fight With slaunders whelpes."
I suspect that after this poem was written he had become a Puritan,--or more rigid in his Puritanism,--but nevertheless lusted after literary fame and could not resist the temptation to publish the "youthfull woorke." But after writing the verse prologue it occurred to him--or some of his godly friends may have admonished him--that the character of the story and the manner in which he had treated it, needed further apology or justification; and the prose preface was written to serve as a kind of "moral" to the production. After the suggestion to parents quoted above he adds: "Hereunto if you applye it, ye shall _deliver my dooing from offence_, and profit your selves. Though I saw the same argument lately set foorth on stage with more commendation then I can looke for (being there much better set forth then I have or can dooe) yet the same matter penned as it is, may serve to lyke good effect, if the readers do brynge with them lyke good myndes, to consider it, which hath the more incouraged me to publishe it, such as it is."
The reader may be surprised that Brooke refers to having seen the story "on stage;" but the Puritans did not altogether disapprove of plays that had a moral purpose. It will be remembered that Stephen Gosson, in his _Schoole of Abuse_ (1579), excepts a few plays from the sweeping condemnation of his "plesaunt invective against Poets, Pipers, Plaiers, Jesters, and such like caterpillers of a Commonwelth"--among them being "_The Jew_,... representing the greedinesse of worldly chusers, and the bloody minds of usurers," which may have anticipated Shakespeare in combining the stories of the caskets and the pound of flesh in _The Merchant of Venice_.
That Brooke was a Puritan we may infer from the religious character of the only other book (mentioned above) which he is known to have published. His death the same year probably prevented his carrying out the intention of licking the rest of his poetical progeny into shape for print.
COMMENTS ON SOME OF THE CHARACTERS
JULIET.--Juliet is not fortunate in her parents. Her father is sixty or more years old (as we may infer from what he says in i. 5. 29 fol.), while her mother is about twenty-eight (see i. 3. 50), and must have been married when she was half that age. Her assertion that Juliet was born when she herself was "much upon these years" of her daughter (who will be fourteen in about a fortnight, as the Nurse informs us in the same scene) is somewhat indefinite, but must be within a year or two of the exact figure. Her marriage was evidently a worldly one, arranged by her parents with little or no regard for her own feelings, much as she and her husband propose to marry Juliet to Paris.
We may infer that Capulet had not been married before, though, as he himself intimates and the lady declares (iv. 4. 11 fol.), he had been a "mouse-hunt" (given to flirtation and intrigue) in his bachelor days; and she thinks that he needs "watching" even now, lest he give her occasion for jealousy.
Neither father nor mother seems to have any marked affection for Juliet, or any interest in her welfare except to get her off their hands by what, from their point of view, is a desirable marriage. Capulet says (iii. 5. 175):--
"God's bread! it makes me mad! Day, night, late, early, At home, abroad, alone, in company, Waking, or sleeping, still my care hath been To have her match'd; and having now provided A gentleman of noble parentage, Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly train'd, Stuff'd, as they say, with honourable parts, Proportion'd as one's thought would wish a man,-- And then to have a wretched puling fool, A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender, To answer 'I'll not wed; I cannot love, I am too young; I pray you, pardon me.'"
It is more than he can endure; and his wife, when Juliet begs her to interpose and "delay the marriage for a month, a week," refuses to "speak a word" in opposition to his determination to let her "die in the streets" if she does not marry Paris that very week. "Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee," the Lady adds, and leaves the hapless girl to her despair. A moment before she had said, "I would the fool were married to her grave!"
Earlier in the play (i. 2. 16) Capulet has said to Paris:--
"But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart, My will to her consent is but a part; An she agree, within her scope of choice, Lies my consent and fair according voice;"--
but from the context we see that this is merely a plausible excuse for not giving the count a definite answer just then. The girl, he says, is "yet a stranger in the world" (has not yet "come out," in modern parlance), and it is best to wait a year or two:--
"Let two more summers wither in their pride Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride."
He sees no reason for haste; but later, influenced by the noble wooer's importunities and the persuasions of his wife, who has favoured an early marriage from the first (i. 3), he takes a different tone (iii. 4. 12):--
"_Capulet._ Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender Of my child's love. I think she will be rul'd In all respects by me; nay, more, I doubt it not.-- Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed; Acquaint her here of my son Paris' love, And bid her, mark you me, on Wednesday next-- But, soft! what day is this?
_Paris._ Monday, my lord.
_Capulet._ Monday! ha, ha! Well, Wednesday is too soon. O' Thursday let it be; o' Thursday, tell her, She shall be married to this noble earl."
"She _shall_ be married," and the day is fixed. Already he calls Paris "my son." No question now of delay, and getting her "consent" as a condition of securing his own!
At the supposed sudden death of their daughter the parents naturally feel some genuine grief; but their conventional wailing (iv. 5) belongs to the earlier version of the play, and it is significant that Shakespeare let it stand when revising his work some years afterwards. As Tieck remarks, it "had not the true tragic ring"--and why should it?
Most of the critics have assumed that Shakespeare makes Juliet only fourteen, because of her Italian birth; but in the original Italian versions of the story she is eighteen, and Brooke makes her sixteen. All of Shakespeare's other youthful heroines whose ages are definitely stated or indicated are very young. Miranda, in _The Tempest_, is barely fifteen, as she has been "twelve year" on the enchanted island and was "not out [full] three years old" when her father was driven from Milan. Marina, in _Pericles_, is only fifteen at the end of the play; and Perdita only sixteen, as we learn from the prologue to act iv. of _The Winter's Tale_.
In Juliet's case, I believe that the youthfulness was an essential element in Shakespeare's conception of the character. With the parents and the Nurse he has given her, she could only have been, at the opening of the play, the mere girl he makes her. She must be too young to have discovered the real character of her father and mother, and to have been chilled and hardened by learning how unlike they were to the ideals of her childhood. She must not have come to comprehend fully the low coarse nature of the Nurse, her foster-mother. The poet would not have dared to leave the maiden under the influence of that gross creature till she was eighteen, or even sixteen. As it is, she has not been harmed by the prurient vulgarity of the garrulous dame. She never shows any interest in it, or seems even to notice it. When her mother first refers to the suit of Paris (i. 3) we see that no thought of love or marriage has ever occurred to her, and the glowing description of a noble and wealthy young wooer does not excite her imagination in the least. Her only response to all that the Lady and the Nurse have urged in praise of Paris is coldly acquiescent:--
"I'll look to like, if looking liking move; But no more deep will I endart mine eye Than your consent gives strength to make it fly."
The playful manner in which Juliet receives the advances of Romeo (i. 5. 95-109) is thoroughly girlish, though we must note that his first speech, as given in the play ("If I profane," etc.), is not the beginning of their conversation, which has been going on while Capulet and Tybalt were talking. This is the first and the last glimpse that we get of her bright young sportiveness. With the kiss that ends the pretty quibbling the girl learns what love means, and the larger life of womanhood begins.
The "balcony scene" (ii. 2)--the most exquisite love scene ever written--is in perfect keeping with the poet's conception of Juliet as little more than a child--still childlike in the expression of the new love that is making her a woman. Hence the absolute frankness in her avowal of that love--an ideal love in which passion and purity are perfectly interfused. There is not a suggestion of sensuality on Romeo's part any more than on hers. When he asks, "O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?" it is only the half-involuntary utterance of the man's impatience--so natural to the man--that the full fruition of his love must be delayed. Juliet knows that it involves no base suggestion, and a touch of tender sympathy and pity is mingled with the maiden wisdom of the innocent response, "What satisfaction canst thou have to-night?"
Lady Martin (Helena Faucit), who has played the part of Juliet with rare power and grace, and has written about it no less admirably, remarks on this scene: "Women are deeply in debt to Shakespeare for all the lovely and noble things he has put into his women's hearts and mouths, but surely for nothing more than for the words in which Juliet's reply [to Romeo, when he has overheard her soliloquy in the balcony] is couched. Only one who knew of what a true woman is capable, in frankness, in courage, and self-surrender when her heart is possessed by a noble love, could have touched with such delicacy, such infinite charm of mingled reserve and artless frankness, the avowal of so fervent, yet so modest a love, the secret of which had been so strangely stolen from her. As the whole scene is the noblest pæan to Love ever written, so is what Juliet says supreme in subtlety of feeling and expression, where all is beautiful. Watch all the fluctuations of emotion which pervade it, ... the generous frankness of the giving, the timid drawing back, fearful of having given too much unsought; the perplexity of the whole, all summed up in that sweet entreaty for pardon with which it closes."
Juliet's soliloquy in iii. 3 is no less remarkable for its chaste and reverent dealing with a situation even more perilous for the dramatist. We must not forget that it _is_ a soliloquy, "breathed out in the silence and solitude of her chamber," as Mrs. Jameson reminds us; or, we may say, not so much as breathed out, but only thought and felt, unuttered even when no one could have heard it. As spoken to a theatrical audience, it is only to a sympathetic listener who appreciates the situation that it can have its true effect, and one feels almost guilty and ashamed at having intruded upon the sacred privacy of the maiden meditation. Even to comment upon it seems like profanity.
Here, as in the balcony scene, Juliet is simply the "impatient child" to whom she compares herself, looking forward with mingled innocence and eagerness to the fruition of the "tender wishes blossoming at night" that inspire the soliloquy.
In one of Romeo's speeches in the interview with Friar Laurence after the death of Tybalt (iii. 3), there is a delicate tribute to the girlish purity and timidity of Juliet, though it occurs in a connection so repellent to our taste that we may fail to note it. This is the passage:--
"heaven is here, Where Juliet lives, and every cat and dog And little mouse, every unworthy thing, Live here in heaven and may look on her, But Romeo may not. More validity, More honourable state, more courtship lives In carrion-flies than Romeo. They may seize On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand And steal immortal blessing from her lips, Who, even in pure and vestal modesty, Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin: But Romeo may not, he is banished. This may flies do, when I from this must fly; They are free men, but I am banished."
This is unquestionably from the earliest draft of the play, and is a specimen of the most intolerable class of Elizabethan conceits. As another has said, "Perhaps the worst line that Shakespeare or any other poet ever wrote, is the dreadful one where Romeo, in the very height of his passionate despair, says, 'This may _flies_ do, but I from this must _fly_.'" It comes in "with an obtrusive incongruity which absolutely makes one shudder." The allusion to the "carrion flies" is bad enough, but the added pun on _fly_, which makes the allusion appear deliberate and elaborate rather than an unfortunate lapse due to the excitement of the moment, forbids any attempt to excuse or palliate it. But we must not overlook the exquisite reference to Juliet's lips, that--
"even in pure and vestal modesty Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin."
There we have the true Juliet--the Juliet whose maiden modesty and innocence certain critics (in their comments upon the soliloquy in iii. 3) have been too gross to comprehend. It is to Romeo's honour that he can understand and feel it even when recalling the passionate exchange of conjugal kisses.
The scene (iv. 3) in which Juliet drinks the potion has been misinterpreted by some of the best critics. Coleridge says that she "swallows the draught in a fit of fright," for it would have been "too bold a thing" for a girl of fourteen to have done it otherwise. Mrs. Jameson says that, "gradually and most naturally, in such a mind once _thrown off its poise_, the horror rises to _frenzy_,--her imagination realizes its own hideous creations,"--that is, after picturing all the possible horrors of the tomb, she _sees_, or believes she sees, the ghost of Tybalt, and drinks the potion in the frenzied apprehension the vision excites. On the contrary, as George Fletcher remarks, "the very clearness and completeness with which her mind embraces her present position make her pass in lucid review, and in the most natural and logical sequence, the several dismal contingencies that await her"--thus leading up, "step by step, to this climax of the accumulated horrors, not which she _may_, but which she _must_ encounter, if she wake before the calculated moment. This pressure on her brain, crowned by the vivid apprehension of _anticipated_ frenzy, does, indeed, amid her dim and silent loneliness, produce a momentary hallucination [of Tybalt's ghost], but she instantly recovers herself, recognizes the illusion, ... embraces the one chance of earthly reunion with her lord--'Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee!'"
This is substantially Lady Martin's interpretation of the scene, and that which she carried out in action on the stage. She says: "For the moment the great fear gets the better of her great love, and all seems madness. Then in her frenzy of excitement she seems to see Tybalt's figure 'seeking out Romeo.' At the mention of Romeo's name I used to feel all my resolution return. Romeo! She goes to meet him, and what terror shall hold her back? She will pass through the horror of hell itself to reach what lies beyond; and she swallows the potion with his name upon her lips." The lady adds: "What it is to act it I need not tell. What power it demands! and yet what restraint!"
ROMEO.--Some critics have expressed surprise that Shakespeare should have preluded the main story of the drama with the "superfluous complication" of Romeo's love for Rosaline. On the other hand, Coleridge considers it "a strong instance of the fineness of his insight into the nature of the passions." He adds: "The necessity of loving creates an object for itself in man and woman; and yet there is a difference in this respect between the sexes, though only to be known by a perception of it. It would have displeased us if Juliet had been represented as already in love, or as fancying herself so; but no one, I believe, ever experiences any shock at Romeo's forgetting his Rosaline, who had been a mere name for the yearning of his youthful imagination, and rushing into his passion for Juliet." Mrs. Jameson says: "Our impression of Juliet's loveliness and sensibility is enhanced when we find it overcoming in the bosom of Romeo a previous love for another. His visionary passion for the cold, inaccessible Rosaline forms but the prologue, the threshold, to the true, the real sentiment which succeeds to it. This incident, which is found in the original story, has been retained by Shakspeare with equal feeling and judgment; and, far from being a fault in taste and sentiment, far from prejudicing us against Romeo by casting on him, at the outset of the piece, the stigma of inconstancy, it becomes, if properly considered, a beauty in the drama, and adds a fresh stroke of truth to the portrait of the lover. Why, after all, should we be offended at what does not offend Juliet herself? for in the original story we find that her attention is first attracted towards Romeo by seeing him 'fancy-sick and pale of cheer,' for love of a cold beauty."
The German critic Kreyssig aptly remarks: "We make the acquaintance of Romeo at the critical period of that not dangerous sickness to which youth is liable. It is that 'love lying in the eyes' of early and just blossoming manhood, that humorsome, whimsical 'love in idleness,' that first bewildered, stammering interview of the heart with the scarcely awakened nature. Strangely enough, objections have been made to this 'superfluous complication,' as if, down to this day, every Romeo had not to sigh for some Junonian Rosaline, nay, for half a dozen Rosalines, more or less, before his eyes open upon his Juliet."
Young men of ardent and sentimental nature, as Kreyssig intimates, imagine themselves in love--sometimes again and again--before a genuine passion takes possession of them. As Rosalind expresses it, Cupid may have "clapped them on the shoulder," but, they are really "heart-whole." Such love is like that of the song in _The Merchant of Venice_:--
"It is engender'd in the eyes, By gazing fed, and fancy dies In the cradle where it lies."
It lives only until it is displaced by a healthier, more vigorous love, capable of outgrowing the precarious period of infancy.[8] This is not the only instance of the kind in Shakespeare. Orsino's experience in _Twelfth Night_ is similar to Romeo's. At the beginning of the play he is suffering from unrequited love for Olivia, but later finds his Juliet in Viola.
Romeo is a very young man--if indeed we may call him a man when we first meet him. We may suppose him to be twenty, but hardly older. He has seen very little of society, as we infer from Benvolio's advising him to go to the masquerade at Capulet's, in order to compare "the admired beauties of Verona" with Rosaline. He had thought her "fair, none else being by." He is hardly less "a stranger in the world" than Juliet himself. Love develops him as it does her, but more slowly.
Contrast the strength of Juliet's new-born heroism in her budding womanhood, when she drinks the potion that is to consign her to the horrors of the charnel-house, with the weakness of Romeo who is ready to kill himself when he learns that he is to be banished from Verona,--an insignificant fate compared with that which threatens her--banishment from home, a beggar in the streets,--the only alternative a criminal marriage that would forever separate her from her lawful husband, or death to escape that guilt and wretchedness. No wonder that the Friar cannot control his contempt and indignation when Romeo draws his sword:--
"Hold thy desperate hand! Art thou a man? thy form cries out thou art; Thy tears are womanish, thy wild acts denote The unreasonable fury of a beast, Unseemly woman in a seeming man! Or ill-beseeming beast in seeming both! Thou hast amaz'd me; by my holy order, I thought thy disposition better temper'd. Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself? And slay thy lady too that lives in thee, By doing damned hate upon thyself?
* * * * *
What, rouse thee, man! thy Juliet is alive, For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead; There art thou happy. Tybalt would kill thee, But thou slew'st Tybalt; there art thou happy too. The law that threaten'd death becomes thy friend And turns it to exile; there art thou happy. A pack of blessings lights upon thy back, Happiness courts thee in her best array; But, like a misbehav'd and sullen wench, Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love. Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable."
He has the form of a man, but talks and acts like a weak girl, while the girl of fourteen whom he loves--a child three days before, we might say--now shows a self-control and fortitude worthy of a man.
Romeo does not attain to true manhood until he receives the tidings of Juliet's supposed death. "Now, for the first time," as Dowden says, "he is completely delivered from the life of dream, completely adult, and able to act with an initiative in his own will, and with manly determination. Accordingly, he now speaks with masculine directness and energy: 'Is it even so? Then I defy you, stars!' Yes; he is now master of events; the stars cannot alter his course. 'Nothing,' as Maginn has observed, 'can be more quiet than his final determination, "Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to night." ... It is plain Juliet. His mind is made up; the whole course of the short remainder of his life so unalterably fixed that it is perfectly useless to think more about it.' These words, because they are the simplest, are amongst the most memorable that Romeo utters. Now passion, imagination, and will are fused together, and Romeo who was weak has at length become strong."
[Footnote 8: Praed alludes to this affection of the "salad days" of youth in _The Belle of the Ball-room_:--
"Through sunny May, through sultry June, I loved her with a love eternal."
That is about the average span of its "eternity." In Romeo's case it did not last even two months, as we may infer from the fact (i. 1. 136) that his parents have not found out the cause of it, and from what his friends say about it.]
MERCUTIO.--Dryden quotes a traditional saying concerning Mercutio, that if Shakespeare had not killed him, he would have killed Shakespeare. But Shakespeare was never driven to disposing of a personage in that way, because he was unequal to the effort of maintaining the full vigour or brilliancy of the characterization. He did not have to kill off Falstaff, for instance, until he had carried him through three complete plays, and then only because his "occupation," dramatically speaking, "was gone." There was the same reason for killing Mercutio. The dramatist had no further use for him after the quarrel with Tybalt which leads to his death. In both the novel and the poem, Romeo kills Tybalt in a street brawl between the partisans of the rival houses. The dramatic effect of the scene in the play where Romeo avoids being drawn into a conflict with Tybalt until driven to incontrollable grief and wrath by the death of his friend is far more impressive. The self-control and self-restraint of Romeo, in spite of the insults of Tybalt and the disgust of Mercutio at what seems to him "calm, dishonourable, vile submission," show how reluctant the lover of Juliet is to fight with her kinsman. He does his best to restrain his friend from the duel: "Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up--" but to no purpose; nor is his appeal to Benvolio to "beat down their weapons" more successful. He then attempts to do this himself, but the only result is to bring about the death of Mercutio, who exclaims: "Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm." Poor Romeo can only plead, "I thought all for the best."
But at this point in the play, when the tragic complication really begins, the dramatist must dismiss Mercutio from the stage, as he does with Falstaff after Prince Hal has become King. Mercutio must not come in contact with Juliet, nor will Romeo himself care to meet him. He is the most foul-mouthed of Shakespeare's characters, the clowns and profligates not excepted. The only instance in Shakespeare's works in which the original editions omit a word from the text is in a speech of Mercutio's; and Pope, who could on occasion be as coarse as any author of that licentious age, felt obliged to drop two of Mercutio's lines from his edition of the dramatist. Fortunately, the majority of the knight's gross allusions are so obscure that they would not be understood nowadays, even by readers quite familiar with the language of the time.
And yet Mercutio is a fellow of excellent fancy--poetical fancy--as the familiar description of Queen Mab amply proves. Critics have picked it to pieces and found fault with some of the details; but there was never a finer mingling of exquisite poetry with keen and sparkling wit. Its imperfections and inconsistencies, if such they be, are in keeping with the character and the situation. It was meant to be a brilliant improvisation, not a carefully elaborated composition. Shakespeare may, indeed, have written the speech as rapidly and carelessly as he makes Mercutio speak it.
THE TIME-ANALYSIS OF THE PLAY
This is summed up by Mr. P.A. Daniel in his valuable paper "On the Times or Durations of the Actions of Shakspere's Plays" (_Trans. of New Shaks. Soc._ 1877-79, p. 194) as follows:--
"Time of this Tragedy, six consecutive days, commencing on the morning of the first, and ending early in the morning of the sixth.
Day 1. (Sunday) Act I. and Act II. sc. i. and ii. " 2. (Monday) Act II. sc. iii.-vi., Act III. sc. i.-iv.
Day 3. (Tuesday) Act III. sc. v., Act IV. sc. i.-iv. " 4. (Wednesday) Act IV. sc. v. " 5. (Thursday) Act V. " 6. (Friday) End of Act V. sc. iii."
After the above was printed, Dr. Furnivall called Mr. Daniel's attention to my note on page 249 fol. in which I show that the drama may close on Thursday morning instead of Friday. Mr. Daniel was at first disinclined to accept this view, but on second thought was compelled to admit that I was right.
LIST OF CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY
The numbers in parentheses indicate the lines the characters have in each scene.
_Escalus_: i. 1(23); iii. 1(16); v. 3(36). Whole no. 75.
_Paris_: i. 2(4); iii. 4(4); iv. 1(23), 5(6); v. 3(32). Whole no. 69.
_Montague_: i. 1(28); iii. 1(3); v. 3(10). Whole no. 41.
_Capulet_: i. 1(3), 2(33), 5(56); iii. 4(31), 5(63); iv. 2(26), 4(19), 5(28); v. 3(10). Whole no. 269.
_2d Capulet_: i. 5(3). Whole no. 3.
_Romeo_: i. 1(65), 2(29), 4(34), 5(27); ii. 1(2), 2(86), 3(25), 4(54), 6(12); iii. 1(36), 3(71), 5(24); v. 1(71), 3(82). Whole no. 618.
_Mercutio_: i. 4(73); ii. 1(34), 4(95); iii. 1(71). Whole no. 273.
_Benvolio_: i. 1(51), 2(20), 4(13). 5(1); ii. 1(9). 4(14); iii. 1(53). Whole no. 161.
_Tybalt_: i. 1(5), 5(17); iii. 1(14). Whole no. 36.
_Friar Laurence_: ii. 3(72), 6(18); iii. 3(87); iv. 1(56), 5(25); v. 2(17), 3(75). Whole no. 350.
_Friar John_: v. 2(13). Whole no. 13.
_Balthasar_: v. 1(11), 3(21). Whole no. 32.
_Sampson_: i. 1(41). Whole no. 41.
_Gregory_: i. 1(24). Whole no. 24.
_Peter_: iii. 4(7); iv. 5(30). Whole no. 37
_Abram_: i. 1(5). Whole no. 5.
_Apothecary_: v. 1(7). Whole no. 7.
_1st Musician_: iv. 5(16). Whole no. 16.
_2d Musician_: iv. 5(6). Whole no. 6.
_3d Musician_: iv. 5(1). Whole no. 1.
_1st Servant_: i. 2(21), 3(5), 5(11); iv. 4(1). Whole no. 38.
_2d Servant_: i. 5(7); iv. 2(5), 4(2). Whole no. 14.
_1st Watchman_: v. 3(19). Whole no. 19.
_2d Watchman_: v. 3(1). Whole no. 1.
_3d Watchman_: v. 3(3). Whole no. 3.
_1st Citizen_: i. 1(2); iii. 1(4). Whole no. 6.
_Page_: v. 3(9). Whole no. 9.
_Lady Montague_: i. 1(3). Whole no. 3.
_Lady Capulet_: i. 1(1), 3(36), 5(1); iii. 1(11), 4(2), 5(37); iv. 2(3), 3(3), 4(3), 5(13); v. 3(5). Whole no. 115.
_Juliet_: i. 3(8), 5(19); ii. 2(114), 5(43), 6(7); iii. 2(116), 5(105); iv. 1(48), 2(12), 3(56); v. 3(13). Whole no. 541.
_Nurse_: i. 3(61), 5(15); ii. 2(114), 6(43), 7(7); iii. 2(116), 5(105); iv. 1(48), 2(12), 3(56); v. 3(13). Whole no. 290.
"_Prologue_": (14). Whole no. 14.
"_Chorus_": end of act i. (14). Whole no. 14.
In the above enumeration, parts of lines are counted as whole lines, making the total in the play greater than it is. The actual number in each scene is as follows: Prologue (14); i. 1(244), 2(106), 3(106), 4(114), 5(147); Chorus (14); ii. 1(42), 2(190), 3(94), 4(233), 5(80), 6(37); iii. 1(202), 2(143), 3(175), 4(36), 5(241); iv. 1(126), 2(47), 3(58), 4(28), 5(150); v. 1(86), 2(30), 3(310). Whole number in the play, 3053. The line-numbering is that of the Globe ed.
INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES EXPLAINED
a (= one), 215
a hall, a hall! 190
a la stoccata, 221
Abraham Cupid, 197
abused (= marred), 247
ache, 216
adventure (verb), 200, 266
advise (= consider), 244
afeard, 202
affections, 169
affray (verb), 238
afore, 214
afore me, 236
against (of time), 236
agate, 186
airy tongue, 203
all (intensive), 170
alligator, 263
amazed, 224
ambling, 183
ambuscadoes, 187
amerce, 225
anatomy, 234
ancient, 168, 206
and there an end, 236
antic, 191
apace, 215
ape, 198
apt to, 219, 235
as (= as if), 216
as (= namely), 254
as (omitted), 170
as (redundant), 272
associate me, 265
aspire (transitive), 223
atomies, 186
attach (= arrest), 271
attending (= attentive), 203
ay, 229
ay me! 197, 262
baked meats, 256
Balthasar (accent), 262
bandying, 216, 222
bankrupt (spelling), 229
banquet (= dessert), 195
bate (in falconry), 227
bear a brain, to, 179
beetle-brows, 183
behoveful, 253
bent (= inclination), 202
be-rhyme, 209
bescreened, 199
beshrew, 216, 244, 265
betossed, 267
better tempered, 234
bills (weapons), 167
bite by the ear, to, 211
bite the thumb, to, 167
blaze, 235
blazon, 218
bons, 209
bosom's lord, my, 262
both our remedies, 206
bound (play upon) 174, 183
bow of lath, 182
boy (contemptuous), 221
brace, 273
bride (masculine), 243
broad (goose), 212
broken music, 220
burn daylight, to, 185
button, 208
butt-shaft, 207
by and by (= presently), 224, 236, 273
candles (night's), 237
canker (= worm), 205
cankered, 168
Capel's, 262, 270
captain of compliments, 207
carries it away, 221
carry coals, to, 166
carry no crotchets, 261
case (play upon), 183, 259
cat, nine lives of, 221
catched, 258
catling, 261
charge, 265
cheerly, 190
cheveril, 212
chinks, 194
choler (play upon), 166
chop-logic, 243
Chorus, 165
circle (magician's), 198
circumstance, 216, 271
civil (= grave), 227
closed (= enclosed), 188
closet (= chamber), 253
clout, 207
clubs, 167
cock-a-hoop, 192
coil (= ado), 216
colliers, 166
come near, 190
comfortable (active), 271
commission, 248
compare (noun), 216, 246
compliment, 200
concealed, 234
conceit, 218
conclude (transitive), 225
conduct (= conductor), 223, 270
conduit, 242
confessor (accent), 218, 233
confidence (= conference), 212
confound (= destroy), 217
confusions, 258
conjurations, 267
conjure (accent), 197
consort (noun), 219
consort (transitive), 223
consort with, 219
content thee, 192
contract (accent), 201
contrary (accent), 229
contrary (verb), 193
convert (intransitive), 193
cot-quean, 257
county(= count), 181, 241
court-cupboard, 189
courtship, 233
cousin (= kinsman), 223
cousin (= uncle), 190
cover (play upon), 180
cross (= perverse), 253
cross (= thwart), 267
crow-keeper, 182
crush a cup, 176
crystal scales, 176
cure (intransitive), 174
curfew-bell, 256
Cynthia, 238
damnation (concrete), 245
dare (play upon), 207
dark heaven, 173
date (= duration), 188
dateless, 269
dear, 232, 265, 267
dear hap, 204
dear mercy, 232
death (concrete), 268
death-darting eye, 229
defy (= refuse), 267
deny (= refuse), 190
depart (= part), 220
depend (impend), 223
desperate, 236
determine of, 229
detestable (accent), 258
devotion (quadrisyllable), 248
Dian's wit, 171
digressing, 235
discover (= reveal), 201, 224
dislike (= displease), 200
displant, 233
dispute (= reason), 233
dissemblers (metre), 230
distemperature, 206
distraught, 255
division (in music), 238
do danger, 265
do disparagement, 192
do hate, 234
doctrine (= instruction), 172
doom thee death, 223
doth (plural), 165
doubt (= distrust), 267
drawn, 167
drift (= scheme), 252
dry-beat, 222, 261
dump, 260
Dun in the mire, 184
dun's the mouse, 184
earth, 173, 196
elf-locks, 187
empty (= hungry), 267
encamp them, 205
encounter, 218
endart, 181
enforce (= force), 267
engrossing, 269
enpierced, 183
entrance (trisyllable), 182
envious (= malicious), 224, 228
Ethiope, 191
evening mass, 247
exile (accent), 225, 232
expire (transitive), 188
extremes, 248
extremities, 196
faintly, 182
fairies' midwife, 186
familiar (metre), 232
fantasticoes, 208
fashion-mongers, 209
fay (= faith), 195
fearful (= afraid), 232
feeling (= heartfelt), 240
festering, 254
fettle, 243
fine (= penance), 193
fire drives out fire, 174
five wits, 185, 211
flattering (= illusive), 261
flecked, 204
fleer, 191
flirt-gills, 213
flowered (pump), 211
fond (= foolish), 233, 259
fool, 179
foolish, 195
fool's paradise, 214
for (repeated), 196
form (play upon), 209
forth, 169
fortune's fool, 224
frank (= bountiful), 201
Freetown, 169
fret, 237
friend (= lover), 239
from forth, 204
gapes, 196
garish, 228
gear (= matter), 212, 264
ghostly, 204
give leave awhile, 178
give me, 252
give me leave, 216
gleek, 260
glooming, 273
God save the mark! 229
God shall mend my soul! 192
God shield, 248
God ye good morrow! 212
good-den (or god-den), 170, 175, 219, 243
good goose, bite not, 211
good hap, 235
good morrow, 170, 205
good thou, 189
gore-blood, 229
gossamer, 217
grandsire, 209
grave (play upon), 223
grave beseeming, 168
green (eyes), 245
green (= fresh), 254
grey-eyed, 204, 209
haggard (noun), 203
hap, 204
harlotry, 253
have at thee, 167, 261
haviour, 200
hay (in fencing), 208
he (= him), 240
he (= man), 264
healthsome, 254
heartless (= cowardly), 167
Heart's-ease, 260
heavy (play upon), 170
held him carelessly, 236
highmost, 216
high-top-gallant, 214
hilding, 209, 243
his (= its), 259, 270
hoar (= mouldy), 213
hold the candle, to, 184
holp, 174
homely in thy drift, 206
honey (adjective), 216
hood, 227
hour (dissyllable), 216, 225
house (= sheath), 270
humorous, 198
humours, 197
hunts-up, 238
I (repeated), 220
idle worms, 186
ill-beseeming, 234
importuned (accent), 170
in (= into), 262, 267
in extremity, 181
in happy time, 241
in his view, 170
in post, 273
in spite, 168, 192
inconstant, 252
indite (= invite), 213
infection (quadrisyllable), 265
inherit (= possess), 173
it fits, 192
Jack, 213, 219, 261
jealous (= suspicious), 267
jealous-hood, 257
joint-stools, 188
keep ado, 236
kindly, 211, 271
king of cats, 221
knife (worn by ladies), 248, 254
label, 248
labour (of time), 258
lace, 210, 237
Lady, lady, lady, 213
lady-bird, 177
lamentation (metre), 235
Lammas-tide, 178
languish (noun), 174
lantern, 267
lay (= wager), 178
lay along, 266
learn (= teach), 227, 253
leaves, 218
let (noun), 200
level (= aim), 234
lieve, 215
light (play upon), 183
lightning before death, 268
like (= likely), 254
like of, 181
living (noun), 258
loggerhead, 257
long sword, 168
love (= Venus), 215
loving-jealous, 204
Mab, 185
made (= did), 273
maidenhead, 177
make and mar, 172
makes dainty, 190
mammet, 244
man of wax, 179
manage (noun), 224
mandrake, 254
manners (number), 272
many's, 181
marchpane, 189
margent, 180
mark (= appoint), 179
mark-man, 171
marriage (trisyllable), 196, 247, 272
married (figurative), 180
married and marred, 172
masks (ladies'), 172
me (ethical dative), 208, 219
mean (noun), 233
measure (= dance), 182
merchant (contemptuous), 213
mewed up, 236
mickle, 205
minion, 243
misadventure, 262
mistempered, 168
mistress (trisyllable), 214
modern (= trite), 231
moody (= angry), 219
mouse-hunt, 257
moved, 168
much upon these years, 179
muffle, 267
natural (= fool), 212
naught, 230
needly, 231
needy, 241
neighbour-stained, 168
new (adverbial), 170
news (number), 216, 242
nice (= petty, trifling), 224, 265
nightgown, 168
nor ... not, 238, 241
nothing (adverb), 169
nuptial, 191
O (= grief), 233
o'er-perch, 200
of (= on), 167, 216
of the very first house, 208
old (= practised), 234
one is no number, 173
operation (= effect), 219
opposition (metre), 253
orchard (= garden), 197
osier cage, 204
outrage (= outcry), 272
outrage (trisyllable), 222
overwhelming, 263
owe (= possess), 199
pale as a clout, 215
paly, 249
pardonnez-mois, 209
## partisan, 167
parts (= gifts), 232, 244
passado, 208, 222
passing (adverbial), 172
pastry, 256
patience (trisyllable), 262, 272
patience perforce, 193
pay that doctrine, 172
peace (metre), 243
perforce (= by force), 272
peruse (= scan), 267
pestilent, 261
Phaethon, 225
pilcher, 222
pin (in archery), 207
pinked, 211
plantain, 174
pluck, 204
portly, 192
poor my lord, 230
pothecary, 273
pout'st upon, 235
powerful grace, 205
predominant, 205
presence, 268
present(= immediate), 264
presently, 262
pretty, 261
prevails (= avails), 233
prick of noon, 212
prick-song, 208
prince of cats, 207
princox, 193
procure, 239
prodigious, 196
proof (= experience), 171
proof (of armour), 171
properer, 215
prorogued, 200, 248
proverbed, 184
pump (= shoe), 211
punto reverso, 208
purchase out, 225
question (= conversation), 172
quit (= requite), 214
quote (= note), 183
quoth, 179
R, the dog's letter, 215
rearward, 231
reason coldly, 220
rebeck, 261
receipt, 241
receptacle (accent), 254
reckoning, 172
reeky, 249
remember (reflexive), 178
respective, 223
rest you merry! 175
retort (= throw back), 224
riddling, 206
roe (play upon), 209
rood (= cross), 179
ropery, 213
rosemary, 259
round (= whisper), 195
runaways' eyes, 225
rushed aside the law, 232
rushes, 183
sadly (= seriously), 171
sadness, 171
savage wild, 267
scales (singular), 176
scant, 176
scape, 219
scathe, 192
scorn at, 192
season, 206
set abroach, 169
set up my rest, 269
sick and green, 199
siege (figurative), 171, 272
silver-sweet, 203
simpleness, 216, 233
simples (= herbs), 216, 263
single-soled, 211
sir-reverence, 185
skains-mates, 213
slip (= counterfeit), 210
slops, 210
slow (verb), 247
smooth (verb), 231
so (omitted), 241
so brief to part, 235
so ho! 213
solemnity, 192
some minute, 273
some other where, 171
something (adverb), 266
sometime, 187
soon-speeding, 264
sorrow drinks our blood, 239
sort (= select), 253
sorted out, 241
soul (play upon), 183, 211
sound (= utter), 231
sour, 232, 267
sped, 222
speed, be my, 270
spinners, 186
spite, 198, 247
spleen, 224
spoke him fair, 224
stand on sudden haste, 206
star-crossed, 165
starved, 171
starveth, 264
stay (= wait for), 261
stay the circumstance, 216
steads, 206
still (= always), 269, 273
strained, 205
strange, 200, 227
strucken, 172
stumbling at graves, 270
substantial (quadrisyllable), 202
surcease, 249
swashing blow, 167
sweet my mother, 244
sweet water, 266
sweet-heart (accent), 257
sweeting, 211
sweetmeats, 187
swounded, 229
sycamore, 169
tables (turned up), 190
tackled stair, 214
take me with you, 242
take the wall, 166
take truce, 224
tassel-gentle, 203
teen, 178
temper (= mix), 241
tender (noun), 244
tender (= regard), 221
tetchy, 179
thank me no thankings, 243
that (affix), 233
therewithal, 273
this three hours, 265
thorough (= through), 207
thought(= hoped), 258
thou's, 178
thumb, rings for, 186
tidings (number), 241
timeless, 271
't is an ill cook, etc., 252
Titan, 204
toes, 190
to-night (= last night), 185, 207
torch-bearer, 182, 237
towards (= ready), 195
toy (= caprice), 252
trencher, 188
tried (= proved), 254
truckle-bed, 198
tutor me from, 219
two and forty hours, 249
two hours (of a play), 166
two may keep counsel, 214
Tybalt, 207
unattainted, 176
uncomfortable, 259
uneven (= indirect), 247
unfirm, 266
unkind (accent, etc.), 270
unmanned, 227
unsavoury, 270
unstuffed, 205
untimely (adverb), 223, 273
up (transposed), 253
use (tense), 196
utters (= sells), 264
validity, 233
vanished, 232
vanity, 218
vaulty (heaven), 238
Verona, 165
versal, 215
very (adjective), 222
view (= appearance), 170
volume (figurative), 180
wanton (masculine), 203
ware (= aware), 169, 200
was I with you? 211
weeds (= garments), 263
well (of the dead), 258, 262
well said (= well done), 193
what (= how, why), 191
what (= who), 194
wherefore (accent), 200
who (= which), 169, 188, 233, 242
wild-goose chase, 211
will none, 242
wit, 235, 240
with (= by), 170, 267
withal, 169
wits, five, 185
worm (in fingers), 186
wormwood, 178
worser, 205, 221
worshipped sun, 169
worth (= wealth), 218
wot, 232
wrought (= effected), 242
yet not, 199
zounds, 220
ROLFE'S ENGLISH CLASSICS
Edited by WILLIAM J. ROLFE, Litt. D.
Each, $0.56
BROWNING'S SELECT POEMS
Twenty poems (including "Pippa Passes"), with Introduction, Life of Browning, Chronological Table of His Works, List of Books useful in studying them, Critical Comments, and Notes.
BROWNING'S SELECT DRAMAS
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GOLDSMITH'S SELECT POEMS
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NEW ROLFE SHAKESPEARE
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A HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
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Halleck's history of english literature traces the development of that literature from the earliest times to the present in a concise, interesting, and stimulating manner. Although the subject is presented so clearly that it can be readily comprehended by high school pupils, the treatment is sufficiently philosophic and suggestive for any student beginning the study.
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¶ In