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OMEO
W
'oUm.TW.I3L^^9
?^arfaarli College fLiftrarg
LIBRARY OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
COLLECTION OF TEXT-BOOKS
CONTRIBUTED BY THE PUBLISHERS
TRANSF ERRED
2044 097 060 388
THE TRAGEDY OF
ROMEO AND JULIET
THE ARDElij i^HAKESPEARE
General Editor^ C. H. Hebfobd, Litt.D., Univernty of Manchester
THE TRAGEDY OF
ROMEO AND JULIET
EDITED BY
ROBERT ADGER LAW, Ph.D.
ADJUNCT FR0FEB80R OF ENGUBH.
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO
Kilo
^j .T- ^*i .^. x^« l^lfc^f Education Library transferred to-
THE ARDEN SHAKESPEARE
A MIDSTJMMEB NIGHT'S DREAM.
' Bdited l^ Bdmund K. Ohamben, B.A., Oxford.
AS YOU LIKE IT.
Edited by J. 0. Smith, M.A, Edinburglu
COBIOIiANTJS.
Edited by Edmund K. Cbwnben, B. A, Oxford.
OYMRETiTNE.
Editedl^ A J. Wyatt, ILA, Cambridge.
HAMLET.
Edited by Edmimd K. Cbambera, B.A., Oxford.
HENBTIV— FIRST PART.
Edited by F. W. Moorman, B.A., Torkahira Oollege.
HENRY V.
Edited by O. 0. Moore Smith, M.A, Cambridge.
HENRY Vin.
Edited by D. Nichol 8mith,M.A, Edinburgh.
JULnJS C^SAR.
Edited by Arthur D. Innea, M.A, Oxford.
KING JOHN.
Edited by O. 0. Moore Smith, MA, Cambridge.
KING LEAR.
Edited by D. Eiohol Smith, tt.A, Edinburgh.
MACBETH.
Edited by Edmund K. Chambers, B.A., Oxford.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
Edited by J. C. Smith, M.A, Edinburgh.
RICHARD IL
Edited by 0. H. Herford, LittD., Cambridge.
RICHARD m.
Edited l^ George Macdonald, MA, Oxford.
ROMEO AND JULIET.
Edited by Robert A. Law, Ph.D., Hanrard.
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
Edited l^ H. L. Withers, B.A, Oxford.
THE TEMPEST.
Edited by F. S. Boaa, MA, Oxford.
TWELFTH NIGHT.
Edited by Arthur D. Innea, M.A, Oxford.
Ihe remaining rolnmaa are in preparation.
OonvaBT, 1913, bt D. C. Hbact & Co.
1l8
IRANSFEhr.tD TO
HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY
JUN li) 1921
GENERAL PREFACE
In this edition of Shakespease an attempt is made
to present the greater plays of the dramatist in their
literary aspect, and not merely as material for the study
of philology or grammar. Criticism purely verbal and
textual has only been included to such an extent as
may serve to help the student in the appreciation of
the essential poetry. Questions of date and literary
history have been fblly dealt with in the Introductions,
but the larger space has been devoted to the interpre-
tative rather than the matter-of-fact order of scholar-
ship. ^Esthetic judgments are never final, but the
Editors have attempted to suggest points of view from
which the analysis of 'dramatic motive and dramatic
character may be profitably undertaken. In the Notes
likewise, while it is hoped that all unfamilifiur expressions
and allusions have been adequately explained, yet it
has been thought even more important to consider the
dramatic value of each scene, and the part which it
plays in relation to the whole. These general princi-
ples are common to the whole series; in detail each
Editor is alone responsible for the play or plays that
have been intrusted to him.
Every volume of the series has been provided with a
Glossary, an Essay upon Meti*e, and an Index ; and
Appendices have been added upon points of special
interest which could not conveniently be treated in the
Introduction or the Notes. The text is based by the
several Editors on that of the Globe edition.
CONTENTS
Page
Intsoduction •••••••••••• V
D&AMATIS PeRSONJS 2
Romeo and Juliet 3
Notes. 123
Appendix A— lie. Text 187
Appendix B — Earlier Versions of the Story . . 193
Appendix C — The Dutch Version of 1634 . . 208
Appendix D — Metre 213
Glossary 221
Index of Words 227
General Index 231
INTRODUCTION
1. HISTORY OF THE PLAY
The earliest edition ^ of Romso and JulUt, so for as is known, is
in quarto form, dated 1597, with the titie :
** An I ExcEixENT I conceited Tragedie | of | Romeo and luliet, |
As it hath been often (with great applause) | plaid publiquely, by
the right Ho- | nourable the L. of Humdon | his Seruants. | Lon-
don, I Printed by lohn Danter. | 1597.*'
A second Quarto was issued two years later, bearing the title :
*' The I Moot Ex- | cellont and lamentable | Tragedie, of Romeo
I and lulist. \ Newly oorrecUd^ auffmented^ and \ amended : \ As it
hath bene sundry times publiquely acted, by the | right Honour,
able the Lord Chamberlaine | his Seruants. | London | Printed by
Thomas Creede, for Cuthbert Burby, and are to | be sold at his
shop neare the Exchange. | 1599."
In 1609 a third Quarto appeared, substituting for the Lord Cham-
berlain's Servants on its title-page, " the Kings Maiesties Seruants,"
the new name of Shakespeare's company of actors. Probably
some years later was published an undated Quarto, on some
copies of which appear for the first time the words, ** Written by
W. Shdke-apeare:' A fifth Quarto was issued in 1637. The play
was also printed in the first collection of Shakespeare's plays, made
by Heminge and Condell in what is known as the First Folio (F 1),
or Folio of 1693, and in all subsequent collected editions.
Careful inirestigation by many scholars has shown pretty clearly
the relationship of these texts to one another. The 1597 Quarto (Q 1)
stands alone, and all editors agree that the Quarto of 1599 (Q 9)
^ Published entire in Fumess's Variofum Edition of Romeo and
Juliet, Parallel texts of the first two Quartos have been published
and criticallv edited by Tycho Mommsen : Shakeepearee Romeo and
Julia (1859), and P. A. Daniel, New Shak8i>ere ScKnety, Series U, 1
(1874). Readings of Q 1 which differ most widely from the accepted
text wiU be found in Appendix A.
vi INTRODUCTION
possesses much greater authority. The third Quarto (Q 3) is based
on the text of the second, the undated Quarto and F 1 on Q 3, and
all later Quartos and Folios on those that preceded them. That is
to say, all accepted texts are based ultimately on Q 2,
The statement on the title-page of Q S that the drama was " newly
corrected, augmented, and amended,'* after the composition of Q 1,
is beUeved to be perfectly true. Mr. P. A. Daniel, who has excel-
lently edited the parallel texts, counts 3007 lines in Q S, and only
9SS2 lines in Q 1. After minute inirestigation he finds unmistak-
able evidence that certain parts of the play were revised by the
author. But it is not generally believed that Q 1 represents the
play as Shakespeare wrote it before revision . The more commonly
accepted view is that Q 1 is a piratical edition ** made up partly from
copies of the original play, partly from recollection and from notes
taken during the performance." However, the text of Q 1 is im-
portant for comparative purposes, not only because it contains many
lines as they stood before revision by Shakespeare, but because in
many other cases evident corruptions in the texts of Qq Ff have
been corrected by turning to the corresponding lines in Q 1.
Borneo and Juliet seems to have been presented on the London
stage some time between July, 1596, and April, 1597, by Shake-
speare's company. The part played by one actor in early perfbrm-
ances is known, for in QqS, 3 the stage-direction after iv. 5. 10],
Enter Peter, reads Enter WiU Kemp, Kemp was a famous
comedian who also played Dogberry in Mueh Ado. Mr. William
Poel^ conjectures that Shakespeare himself took the part of Ben-
volio, both on account of a supposed temperamental similarity
between the two, and because of Benvolio's hazel eyes ^ and grand-
fatherly ' appearance. But this is not to be proved.
One of the first English allusions to the play is that found in
Marston's Scourge of VtUanie (1598), as foUows :
'' I set thy lips abroach, from whence doth flow
Naught but pure Juliet and Romeo."
A further reference in the same passage to *' Curtaine plaudeties '*
has been taken to mean that The Curtain was the theatre in which
the tragedy was being played.* The play is again mentioned in
* Transactions of the New Shakspere Society, 1887-912, ii. 235-6.
« Cf.iii. 1.21. * a. ii. 4. 83.
* Cf. Murray, English Dramatic Companies 1658-16^2 (1910), i.
96. The title-page of Q 3 (1Q09) tells us that the play was then acted
at the Globe.
INTRODUCTION vii
Weever'8 Epigrami (1599), and echoed in the plays of TFity BsgwUd
and ThB Wtidom of Doctor DocUpoU. The popularity thus attested
is believed to have continued till the closing of the theatres in 1642.
Meanwhile an English company of actors plajring at Dresden in
1626 presented a somewhat debased version of the play in the
German tongue.^
Immediately after the re-opening of the London theatres Borneo
and JuUet must have been revived, for Pepys saw the first perform-
ance and wrote in his Diary, March 1, 1662 : ** Thence to the Opera,
and there saw Borneo and JuUett the first time it was ever acted,
but it is a play of itself the worst that ever I heard and the worst
acted that ever I saw these people do, and I am resolved to go
no more to see the first time of acting, for they were all of them
out more or less." In this company Harris was playing Romeo,
Bettertxm Mercutio, and Miss Saunderson Juliet'
Shortly after this time James Howard altered the play to a tragi-
comedy, which saved the lives of both lovers, and it is recorded
that Howard's version and Shakespeare's were actually played on
alternate nights. But the most notable recasting of liie play was
done by Thomas Otway, author of Venice Preserved. In a play
called The History and FaU of Caius Marius^ Otway attempted to
graft the plot of this tragedy on the story of one of Plutarch's
Roman heroes, frankly acknowledging in his prologue that about
half the play was Borneo and Jtdiet. Caius Marias was first played
at Dorset Garden in 1680, with Betterton and Mrs. Barry taldng
important parts. Later it was on the boards at both Drury Lane
and the Haymarket with Mrs. Bracegirdle, again with Mrs. Porter,
in the heroine's rdle, but, strange to say, each time the Nurse was
played by a man. Though this hybrid continued to be acted at
least Bs late as 1717 and drove Shakespeare's play from the iijtage
for sixty years, modem readers find in it little to enhance Otway's
reputation.
At last in 1744 Theophilus Gibber at the Haymarket revived
Shakespeare's play, with the addition of a few lines from Otway.
Here, as in Otway and in Da Porto before him, Juliet is made to
awake before Romeo dies from the poison. The revival was
attended with great success, and at Drury Lane four years later it
^ Printed entire, with English translation in parallel columns, by
Cohn, 8hakesj)eare in Germany (1865), pp. 310 ff. An elaborate ex-
amination of this German version is maide by M. J. Wolff, Shake^
speare Jahrbuch, xlvii. (1911), 92 ff.
> Genest, History of the English Stage (1892), L 4SU
viii INTRODUCTION
was acted nineteen times with Barry and Mrs. Gibber in the leading
parts. A notable example of stage rivalry began Sept. 28, 1750,
when Barry and Mrs. Gibber at Govent Garden vied with Garrick
and Miss Bellamy at Drury Lane in presenting this play night after
night till October 9 in their respective theatres. From that day to
this the play has remained a favorite with London theatre-goers.
Nor has its popularity been confined to England. The first known
English company of actors coming to America in 1759, under the
leadership of Lewis Hallam, presented this as one of three Shake-
spearian plays in New York;^ and when Philadelphia builtits first
permanent theatre, the Southwark, in 1766, this was among the
first plays given there.* By the end of the eighteenth century
the drama had been translated into both German and French. In
Germany it has been almost second to Hamlet in popularity.
Goethe arranged the play for performance in the Weimar Theatre
in 1811,' and this version held possession of the Berlin stage till
1849. Ducis produced a French adaptation of it in 1771, it has been
translated into French four or five times, and there are many
echoes of Shakespeare*s language, especially of the balcony scene,
in one modem French play, Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerao,
2. THE DATE OF THE FLAY
The date of composition of the play cannot be determined with
certainty. One limit is fixed by the statement on the title-page of
Q 1 that it was played by " the L. of Hunsdon his servants." Now
we know that this company of actors was so called only between
July, 1596, and April, 1597, because the First Lord Hunsdon, who
was Lord Chamberlain, died July 99, 1596, his son became Lord
Chamberlain on April 17, 1597, and except in the interval the actors
were called the Lord Chamberlain's servants. So the play must
have been on the stage during that period. But whether it was an
entirely new play then, whether it had been played for several years,
1 See Seilhamer, G. 0., History of the American Theatre (1888), i.
47. Romeo and Juliet was the only one of the three repeated during
the season. The other plays were Richard III and Lear.
* Ibid., pp. 154, 156, showing that it was played three times that
season, as was true of no other Shakespearian drama. It had been
played in Charleston in 1764. See The Nation, xcvi. 201 (New York,
1913).
* Summarized in Fumess's Variorum R/rmeo and Juliet, pp. 448 ff .
INTRODUCTION ix
or whether it had ahready been revised from its original form are
questions hard to solve. Internal evidence gives some assistance.
Many critics have seen in the Nurse's words, ** T is since the earth-
quake now eleven years " (L 3. 23 ; note on that line) a definite
reference to the earthquake of 1580, which terrified all England.
On that ground they have dated the original composition of the
play at 1591, an assumption scarcely warranted by the nature of
the evidence. Yet the frequency of rhyme and word quibbling in
the play, its metrical characteristics in general, the passionate na-
ture of its emotion, all argue for composition during Shakespeare's
youth. We shall not go far astray then in assigning it to the pe-
riod between 1593 and 1595, with revision some two or three years
after the original version was put on the stage.
3. SOURCES OF THE PLOT
In various forms the essential incidents of Romeo and Juliet ap-
peared in literary history long before Shakespeare's birth. We
may be sure that Shakespeare himself was unacquainted with
most of these versions, yet it is interesting to trace their appear-
ance in literature.^
What is apparently the earliest literary form of the story is the
noveUino of Massuccio of Salerno (1476), in which two Sienese
lovers, Mariotto Mignanelli and Gianozza Saraceni, are secretly
wedded and then separated on the hero's flight to Alexandria fol-
lowing his committal of homicide. To avoid wedding another
man, chosen for her by her father, Gianozza resorts to a sleeping
potion furnished by a friar, is delivered from the tomb, and es-
capes to Alexandria in disguise of a monk. Her messenger to
Mariotto is captured by pirates, her husband receives a false report
of her death, comes to her tomb, and attempting to break it open
is captured and beheaded. The wife dies in a convent of a broken
heart. But Luigi da Porto, in his Istatia di due nohili amanti
{circa 1530), first localized the story in Verona, named the lovers
Romeo and GiuUetta, and assigned a family feud as the motive for
the secret marriage. Da Porto mentions no Nurse, but his Count
of Lodrone corresponds to Paris. Romeo's courtship lasts for
many days, and his banishment occurs some time after the secret
^ In a" Greek romance by Xenophon of Ephesus, the story of
Ahrocamaa and Anthia, firat print^ in 1726, the heroine escapes
from an undesired wedding by means of a sleeping potion.
X INTRODUCTION
wedding. Before the poison has slain her husband, Giulietta
awakens in the tomb, and a pathetic dialogue ensues, followed by
the death of both. In 1554 came the important prose version of
Bandello, who develops the story at some length and employs al-
most all the characters and incidents that appear in the versions to
which Shakespeare is immediately indebted. For example, Ban-
dello mentions characters corresponding to Rosaline and Benvolio,
and dwells on Romeo's first love, Paris is so christened, and the
Nurse is created.
From Italian the tale now passed into other languages. Pierre
Boaistuau translated Bandello into French prose in his Histoires
TroffiqfMs (1559), making two important changes fix>m his source.
Bandello had followed Da Porto in having Juliet waken before
Romeo*s death, converse with him for some minutes, and after his
death expire from grief. Boaistuau makes her awaken to find her
husband already dead, and upon discovering this fact, to slay herself
with his dagger.! From Boaistuau came two, and possibly three,
English redactions which were known to Shakespeare. Evidence
that Shakespeare was acquainted with any foreign version is ex-
ceedingly weak.
First in importance of these English redactions b Arthur
Brooke's poem, Bomeus and Juliet, published in 1569.^ On his
title-page Brooke tells us that the ** history ** was '* written first in
Italicm by Bandell,'* but his lines are evidently based on Boais-
tuau's French rather than on Bandello's Italian. In some places
^ Attempts have been made to prove that Shakespeare was in-
debted to another dramatic version of the tale, blind Groto's tragedy.
La Hadriana, but the weight of critical opinion is against this theory.
The theme served also as the plot of two Spanish plays. Lope de
Vega's tragi-comedy, Castekines y Montesea, and Laa Bandos de Verona
by Francisco de Rojas. A comic Italian version, Li tragici sticcessi
(Venice, 1611), ia discussed by Miss Winifred Smith in Modern Philol-
ogy, vii. 217-20 (October, 1909). The statement made by Giro-
lamo de la Cortein his history of Verona (1594, 1596), that the stoiy
is historically true, is not now accepted. Prince Escalus had histori-
cal origin in the person of Bartolomeo de la Scala, who ruled Verona
about 1303, but otherwise the plot is the product of fiction.
' A fairly complete summary of the poem is given in Appendix B
of tins volume, though no attempt is there made to quote aU lines or
expressions apparently echoed in the play. The entire poem has been
reprinted and edited several times, notably by P. A. Daniel for the
New Shakspere Society, Series II, 1 (1875), and more recently by
J. J. Munro, in The Shakespeare Classics (1908).
INTRODUCTION xi
Brooke's poem is a very dose translation of Boaistnau, but as a
rule he translates freely, as may easily be seen by a comparison of
the poem with the much more literal prose translation by Painter.
Brooke moves with special freedom in his treatment of the Nurse.
He it is to whom we are first indebted for accounts of her conver-
sations with Romeo and with Juliet about Romeo, and for mention
of her bribery by the lover on her first visit to him. Brooke found
her in Boaistuau a kindly old woman, willing to aid her, ** nurse-
child** in the secret love affair ; he left her a typically garrulous,
vulgar, sordid female attendant whose very wickecbess amuses
rather than repels. Shakespeare*s whole conception of her char-
acter was caught from the pages of Brooke. Yet, as Mr. Munro
says in cm admirable discussion of the merits and defects of
Brooke's work,i " There is nothing truly organic about the whole
poem ; its parts are out of proportion ; it is loose in its construc-
tion, and vagarious in its progress. Its atmosphere is that of
mdodramci, and there is not one truly noble person in it'*
Boaistuau's tale was again translated into English by William
Painter under the title of Ehomeo and JulUtta in the second volume
of the Palace of Pleasure (1567). As already stated, this prose ver-
sion of the tale follows dosely Boaistuau's French, and it is not sur-
prising that Shakespeare relied on the more vivacious, even though
more prolix, narrative of Brooke rather than on Painter. How-
ever, it is probable that he did read Painter's novd before compos-
ing the drama.^
Was cm English play on the subject written before Shake-
8peare*s? This question seems to be answered affirmativdy by
Brooke's positive statement in the preface to his poem, ** Though
I saw the same argument lately set forth on stage with more com-
mendation than I can look for — being there much better set forth
than I have or can do — yet the same matter penned as it is may
serve to like good effect." These words imply that it was an Eng-
lish rather tha^ a foreign play that Brooke saw, yet this play, like
the vast majority of its contemporary dramas, is no longer extcmt
If the play was still in existence thirty years after Brooke saw it, we
may be sure, from all that we know of Shakespeare's habits of
workmcmship, that he would likely have tednen advcmtage of any
hint that he could get from reading this old drama or seeing it
acted. For many years scholars have thought that this lost play»
if ever recovered, would prove to be another one of his sources.
^ Brooke's Eomeua and Juliet, Introd., p. li.
* The iM)blem is further dis(^ussed in Appendix G
xii INTRODUCTION
In its original form the play has not been recoyered, nor is it
likely to be. But recently Dr. Harold De Wolf Fuller has pointed
out! that a well known Dutch play, Borneo en Jtdiette, published
in 1634, and written by Jacob Struijs, is in all probability not a
debased version founded on Shakespeare, as has been generally
thought, but an almost literal translation of a pre-Shakespearian
English play. If one accepts this statement, it will be difficult for
him not to reach the further conclusions that Struijs's "original *'
was the lost play seen by Brooke as early as 1569, and that it
served as a source for Shakespeare. For Dr. Fuller makes it clear
that either Shakespeare knew the ** original," or else Struijs was
indebted to Brooke, Boaistuau, and Shakespeare, all three.
Acceptance of Dr. Fuller's theory requires belief in three propo-
sitions : viz., (1) that a pre-Shakespearian English play of Romeo
and Juliet existed, as one would infer from Brooke's statement ;
(3) that Shakespeare knew and made use of the play ; (3) that
Strugs translated into Dutch this early English play about 1630 in
Ignorance of Shakespeare's greater work on the same subject. Of
these propositions the third is by far the most difficult of proof.
Without attempting to follow in detail Dr. Fuller's subtle argument
on this point let it suffice to say that he makes it certain either that
Shakespeare adopted numerous hints, stage devices, and scenic
arrangements from the earlier play, or that Struijs was indebted to
Shakespeare. But these marks of the indebtedness of one play-
wright to the other are of such a nature as to impress any one
who knows both Shakespeare and the earlier English drama with
the strength of Dr. Fuller's contention. In numerous places the
Dutch play agrees with Boaistuau's and with Brooke's versions
of the story, but not with Shakespeare ; that a Dutch dramatist
should use these narrative versions as sources is unlikely. Besides,
many of Struijs's lines] contain just the hints and turns of expres-
sion that £u;ted most like magic to Shakespeare's quick fancy.
Had Struijs, on the other hand, known Shakespeare's work, he
would almost certainly have made more use of it than he has done.
But while one must admit that Dr. Fuller has suggested a rational
solution for a series of baffling problems, yet, for the present at
^ In Modern Philology y iv. 75-120 (1906). A brief summary
of the Dutch play, based on Dr. Fuller 's summary will be found
in Appendix B of this volume. Prof. J. W. Cunliffe, in a note in
The Modem Language Review, vii. 324 (1912), shows that Brooke
was admitted to the plays of the Inns of Court at Christmas, 1561,
and may then have seen the play that he mentions.
INTRODUCTION xiii
least, his conclusions must be accepted with caution. From their
very nature they do not admit of the proof that attends some other
results of Shakespearian research.
If Shakespeare, then, was indebted to Brooke's poem, to Painter's
prose narrative, and probably also to the lost play on the same sub-
ject, the question arises as to the extent of his use of each source.
Malone, though he was ignorant of Struijs, long ago settled all
doubts in favor of Brooke. The names assigned to various char-
acters by Shakespeare, the circumstance of Capulet's writing down
the names of his guests, and scores of verbal similarities between
the two versions point to Shakespeare's preference for the poetic
version. To the older English play Dr. Fuller accounts Shake-
speare indebted for suggestions as to Romeo's description of Juliet
at the feast, for the meeting of the lovers by night, for Friar Law-
rence's soliloquy before his cell, for Tybalt's motive for attack on
Romeo, for the visit of the Nurse to the Friar's cell during Romeo's
lamentations, for the parting words of the lovers, and for the cir-
cumstance of Mercutio's death at Tybalt's hands. To Painter the
debt is apparently much smaller than to either of the other sources,
but in two or three incidents the language of Shakespeare supports
the natural inference that at one time he had read Painter's novel
4. CRITICAL APPRECIATION
All this accounting of items to show the dramatist's dependence
on his predecessors may cause the reader to assign small credit to
Shakespeare for what he has done in this play. Yet no course
could involve greater misunderstandings of the master's art Like
other great literary men, particularly the Elizabethans, Shakespeare
seldom or never takes the trouble to ** make up " the stories with
which he works. He is willing to borrow from any convenient
material not only names and incidents for his drama, but sugges-
tions for character development, hints for motives, and if the source
chances to be another play, numerous bits of "stage business."
The careful study of his work reveals a phenomenal memory for
details of this type, and a yet more marvelous quickness in per-
ception of the possibilities lying in a casual phrase and adapt-
able to the acted drama. Grasping at once the latent meaning of
a mere turn of expression in what he reads or hears, he visual-
izes the situation as no one else has done. Then he moulds the
separate incidents into a form approaching the perfection of nar-
xiv INTRODUCTION
TtAirt and dramatic art From his interpretation the characters
and events in some fsuniliar story become to our eyes so real and
so vitalised that henceforth we associate this stoiy with Shake-
speare's name.
Supreme artistry of this type is illustrated in the play before us.
From Brooke's Bammu and JuUet come all the essentials of Shake-
speare's plot, and even the kernels of his phraseology in numerous
lines. And yet in Shakespeare the entire conception of the men
and women and their actions has been transformed, enriched, and
purified ; while the verses in which the characters speak are never
the tedious, hobbling lines of Brooke, but often bursts of highest
lyric poetry. Brooke's coloring of the story may be gathered
from the words of his preface : '* And to this end, good Reader, is
this tragical matter written, to describe unto thee a couple of un-
fortunate lovers, thralling tiiemsdves to unhonest desire ; neglect-
ing the authority and advice of parents and friends ; conferring
their principal counsels with drunken gossips cuid superstitious
friars (the naturally fit instruments of unchastity) ; attempting all
adventures of peril for th' attaining of their wished lust ; using
auricular confession, the key of whoredom and treason, for further-
ance of their purpose ; abusing the honourable name of lawful
marriage to doak the shame of stolen contracts ; finally by all
means of unhonest life hasting to most unhappy death. " ^ Shake-
speare, taking the plot directly from Brooke, has made it world-
fsunous in poetry and drama as a story of unsullied though
passionate love. While the emotions are burning at no less inten-
sity than those in the similar narrativesof Troilus and;Criseyde, and
Tristan and Iseult, Borneo and Juliet differs from them in its strict
adherence to moral laws and in its freedom from grosser dements.
Moreover, Shakespeare has deftly suffused the play in a *' tone
color" of moonlit Italian gardens, in perfect harmony with the
theme.
The work is more than a dramatic poem. Its undying interest
on the stage ^m 1597 down to the present hour, when Miss Mar-
lowe's interpretation of Juliet delights widdy scattered audiences,
attests its strong qualities as an acting drama. When one passes
dther from the tiresome account of Brooke or from the loosdy con-
structed earlier dramas of Shakespeare to this tragedy, one is quick
to note its organic nature, the rapidity of its movement, and the
soreness of hand that characterizes most of its scenes. Despite
* Munro, p. Ixvi.
INTRODUCTION xv
some unmodeffn cbaxacteri^tics, on the boards to-day the JSoumo
and JuU^9 acted by even a second-rate company, will obtam a
strong reaction from many who are never struck spdlbound by the
magic of the poet*s name. Its success as a stage play must be due
to the human interest of its appeal.
Of Shakespeare's skill in creating humorous dramatic situations,
two examples may suffice. Juliet, in Brooke's poem, laments Ty-
balt's death at Romeo's hand and denounces her kinsman's slayer
in much the same language as she uses in iiL S. Suddenly she
checks herself and accuses " her cruel murthering tongue " of slan-
dering her husband. Now Shakespeare presents that precise situ-
ation with this important difference : Juliet's abuse of her husband
does not cease until she hears the Nurse echo her sentiments and
ezdaim, ** Shame come to Romeo ! " Immediately the wife is stung
to reply, ** Blister'd be thy tongue for such a wish," rebuking
first the Nurse and then herself for uttering such words. The
second situation, again involving the Nurse, is equally true to life
but essentially comic, and the humor is worthy of Chaucer. To pre-
vent Romeo ftom committing suicide on hearing his doom of banish-
meat and to direct him to a path of safety, the Friar makes a
speech of some fifty lines, pointing out the cowardice and foolish-
ness of self-slaughter, and its inevitable consequence on Juliet.
He concludes this rather lengthy harangue by telling the Nurse to
inform Juliet that Romeo will visit her. In open-eyed astonish-
ment the old woman ejaculates, not what we expect, but —
"O Lord, I could have stay'd here aU the night
To hear good counsel : O, what learning is ! "
Tet when critically examined as a tragedy, Borneo and Juliet^
despite the excellent construction of its opening scene and the di-
rect movement toward its catastrophe, fedls below the plane of
HamUt^ Macbeth^ OtheUOf and other plays belonging to the period
of Shakespeare's finest art. Certain faults in the dramatic struc-
ture of Borneo and Juliet^ critics have frankly recognized. It has
been pointed out, for example, that .the tragedy really turns upon
accident, upon a succession of unfortunate incidents, any one of
which might have resulted differently and wrought out ultimate
happiness to hero and heroine. Now in Shakespeare's later trage-
dies the outcome does not depend on chance, but is the inevitable
result of some trait in the hero's character. A less important struc-
tural blemish concerns the climax of this play. The counterplot
xvi INTRODUCTION
meets the main plot in the last scene of Act iii, where the heroine
fyucea the alternative of immediate forced marriage with Paris, or
disinheritance and threatened death fix>m her father. At that
moment no escape seems possible. But the turning point of the
lovers' fortunes has come in an earlier scene marked by sharp ex-
citement and rapid action, the rekindling of bitter hatred between
the rival houses, the killing of two important characters, and the
banishment of the hero from Verona. The juxtaposition of these
two climaxes mars the unity of the whole. Other faults that
we may find with the play, like the injection of low comedy into
such a serious scene as iv. 5, the fondness of Mercutio and Friar
Laurence for long, undramatic speeches, the digressions in iiL 5,
resulting from satire on contemporary fashions, may be accredited
to conventions of the time. Shakespeare is not Ibsen and does not
attempt to reduce his plots to the simplest possible terms. That is
to say, most imperfections are due either to Shakespeare's inexpe-
rience as a dramatist, or to Elizabethan habits of play-making.
Analysis of the characters reveals even more clearly the youth-
fulness of the author. Juliet, so thoroughly delightful in her girl-
ishness, is the embodiment of unstained youthful passion. Her
nature presents no complexities, and after her first meeting with
Romeo she has but one interest in life. Her lover, on the other
hand, draws from her all his spiritual [strength, and as soon as he
feels himself out of touch with her grows utterly hopeless. Re-
newed communion with Juliet transforms him into a man, di- .
rect, alert, and resourceful. News of her death begets desperate
resolution. When the servant and Paris attempt to interfere with
his course, they are brushed aside as boys. The womanly tender-
ness of his last speech marks no decline in his masculinity ; he
boldly drinks the poison, and after a dozen words lies dead em-
bracing his wife's body. Each lover finds in the other one complete
satisfaction for all ambitions and desires. The minor characters
in the play ^serve mainly as foils to the larger figures. Phleg-
matic Benvolio is opposed first to the fury of Tybalt, then to the
melancholy of Romeo, and finally to the wit of Mercutio. Affec-
tionate Lady Montague presents a complement to spiteful Lady
Capulet. The impetuosity of the hero is well set off by the gentle-
ness of his rival for Juliet's hand, and the opposition between them
makes Romeo's killing of Paris a dramatic necessity. This crea-
tion of one artificial character to fit the needs of another again
betrays the playwright's immaturity.
If this estimate be correct, the play is entitled to higher rank
INTRODUCTION xvii
as a sympathetic portrayal of yoathfui love than as a great world
tragedy. The tone of its most exalted poetic passages would befit
a romantic comedy like A Midaummer Nighfs Lrecrni, With such
comedies and not with the other tragedies, this drama should be
compared, if we would realize its significance in the development
of Shakespeare's art
Judged simply as poetry, Borneo and Juliet takes a high place in
English verse. The imperishable lines of the famous '* balcony
scene**; Juliet's passionate soliloquy while awaiting her husband's
visit, a passage remarkable for its delicacy in treating a subject so
closely akin to the sensual ; the pathetic verses in which the lovers
part at daybreak to meet no more — these are instances of love
poetry of the highest artistic value. Mr. Gollancz has pointed out
the strong lyric element in the complete and fragmentary sonnets,
the epithalamium of Juliet, the suggestion of aiubade on the morning
after the marriage. Other types of poetry are seen in Mercutio's
oft-quoted description of Queen Mab, in the moving scene where
Juliet drinks the sleeping-potion after painting in realistic imagery
the possible horrors attending her, in Romeo's terribly intense,
compressed speeches throughout the last act. The intrinsic beauty
of such passages can scarcely be pointed out to those whose appre-
ciation does not arise from their own reading and study; but few
to whom English poetry ever makes appeal will remain insensible
to these lines.
"Here 's much to do with hate but more with love." Our real
concern is with the two chief actors in the tragedy, and it matters
little to us whether childish old Capulet and his ancient enemy will
finally become reconciled. Most readers would prefer to follow the
well-established custom of modem stage presentations and have the
curtain rung down and the lights put out at the point where Juliet
sheathes Romeo's dagger in her own bosom. From the lovers'
standpoint this ending may be thought of as happy. The bond
' that unites them has proved sufficient to withstand the jarrings
of £unily hatred and the naturally strong ties of filial obligation.
It has enabled them to triumph over all outward circumstances,
even over the resentment stirred by the slaying of a favorite kins-
man. The very stars that have apparently conspired against the
fortunes of the pair are at last defied. In their death Romeo and
Juliet are not divided. Their love is immortaL
THE TRAGEDY OF
ROMEO AND JULIET
DRAMATIS PERSONS
^^^^^8 Prince of Verona
Paris . . A young nobleman, kinsman to the Prince
Montague ) Heads of two houses, at variance with each
Capulet ) other
An Old Man Cousin to Capulet
^^**=^ Son to Montague
Mercutio, Kinsman to the Prince, and friend to Romeo
Benvolio, Nephew to Montague, and friend to Romeo
^Y^^^T Nephew to Lady Capulet
Friar Laurence )
Friar John 5 Franciscans
Balthasar Servant to Romeo
Sampson )
Gregory > Servants to Capulet
P«TER Servant to Juliet's nurse
Abraham Servant to Montague
An Apothecary
Three Musicians
Page to Paris ; another Page ; an Officer
Lady Montague Wife to Montague
Lady Capulet Wife to Capulet
Juliet Daughter to Capulet
Nurse to Juliet
Citizens of Verona ; several Men and Women, relations
to both houses; Maskers, Guards, Watchmen, and
Attendants.
Chorus
SCENE — Verona: Mantua
9
Romeo and Juliet
PROLOGUE
Enter Chorus
Chor. Two households, both alike in dignity.
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene.
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage.
Which, but their children's end, nought could re-
move.
Is now the two hours' traflBic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
[Exit.
10
ACT I
Scene I — Verona. A public place
EfUer Sampson and Gregory of the house o/*Capulet,
armed with swords and bucklers
Sam. Gregory, o' my word, we '11 not cany coals.
Ore. No, for then we should be colliers.
Sam. I mean, an we be in choler, we *11 draw.
Ore. Ay, while you live, draw your neck out o'
the collar.
Sam. I strike quickly, being moved.
' Gre. But thou art not quickly moved to strike.
Sam. A dog of the house of Montague moves me., lo
Gre. To move is to stir; and to be valiant is to
stand: therefore, if thou art moved, thou runn'st
away.
Sam. A dog of that house shall move me to
stand: I will take the wall of any man or maid of
Montague's.
Gre. That shows thee a weak slave; for the weak-
est goes to the wall.
Sam. True; and therefore women, being the
weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall: therefore lo
I will push Montague's men from the wall, and thrust
his maids to the wall.
Gre. The quarrel is between our masters and us
their men.
4
ScENsOnE] ROMEO AND JULIET 5
Sam. 'T is all one, I will show myself a tyrant:
when I have fought with the men, I will be cruel
with the maids, and cut off their heads.
Gre. The heads of the maids ?
Sam. Ay, the heads of the maids, or thdr maiden- so
heads; take it in what sense thou wilt.
Gre. They must take it in sense that feel it.
Sam. Me they shall feel while I am able to stand :
and 't is known I am a pretty piece of flesh.
Gre. 'T is well thou art not fish; if thou hadst,
thou hadst been poor John. Draw thy tool; here
comes two of the house of the Montagues.
Sam. My naked weapon is out: quarrel, I will
back thee. 40
Gre. How! turn thy back and run?
Sam. Fear me not.
Gre. No, marry; I fear thee!
Sam. Let us take the law of our sides; let them
begin.
Gre. I will frown as I pass by, and let them take
it as they list.
Sam. Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb
at them; wluch is a disgrace to them, if they bear
it. BO
Enter Abraham and Balthasar
Abr. Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
Sam. I do bite my thumb, sir.
Abr. Do you bite your thimib at us, sir?
Sam. [Aside to Gbe.] Is the law of our side, if I
say ay?
Ore. No.
6 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Okk
Sam. No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir;
but I bite my thumb, sir.
Gre. Do you quarrel, sir?
Abr, Quarrel, sir! no, sir. oo
Sam. If you do, sir, I am for you: I serve as good
a man as you.
Abr. No better.
Sam. Well, sir.
Gre. Say "better": here comes one of my mas-
ter's kinsmen.
Sam. Yes, better, sir.
Abr. You lie.
Sam. Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember
thy swashing blow. [They fight. 70
Enter Benvolio
Ben. Part, fools!
Put up your swords; you know not what you do.
[Beats down (heir swords.
Enter Tybalt
Tyb. What, art thou drawn among these heart-
less hinds?
Turn thee, BenvoUo, look upon thy death.
Ben. I do but keep the peace: put up thy sword.
Or manage it to part these men with me.
Tyb. What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the
word.
As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee:
Have at thee, coward. [Theyfi^hL
ScekeOke] ROMEO AND JULIET 7
Enter several of both houses, who join the fray ;
then enter Citizens^ with clubs
First Cit. Clubs, bills, and partisans! strike! beat
them down! so
Down with the Capulets ! down with the Montagues !
Enter Capulet in his gown, and Lady Capulet
Cap. What noise is this? Give me my long
sword, ho!
La. Cap. A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for
a sword?
Cap. My sword, I say! Old Montague is come,
And flourishes his blade in spite of me.
Enter Montague and Lady Montague
Mon. Thou villain Capulet, — Hold me not, let
me go.
La. Mon. Thou shalt not stir a foot to seek a foe.
Enter Prince, with Attendants
Prin. Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
Profaners of this neighbour-stainM steel, —
Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you
beasts, 90
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins.
On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
Throw your mistemper'd weapons to the ground.
And hear the sentence of your mov6d prince.
Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word.
By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
8 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Om
Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets.
And made Verona's ancient citizens
Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments, loo
To wield old partisans, in hands as old,
Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate:
If ever you disturb our streets again.
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
For this time, all the rest depart away:
You, Capulet, shall go along with me;
And, Montague, come you this afternoon,
To know our further pleasure in this case.
To old Free-town, our common judgment-place.
Once more, on pain of death, all men depart. no
[Exeunt all hut MovdagvSy Lady Montague^
and Benvolio.
Man. Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?
Speak, nephew, were you by, when it began?
Ben. Here were the servants of your adversary.
And yours, close fighting ere I did approach:
I drew to part them: in the instant came
The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepared.
Which, as he breathed defiance to my ears.
He swung about his head and cut the winds,
Who, nothing hurt withal, hiss'd him in scorn:
While we were interchanging thrusts and blows, iso
Came more and more and fought on part and part.
Till the prince came, who parted either part.
La. Man. O, where is Romeo? saw you him to-
day?
Bight glad I am he was not at this fray.
Ben. Madam, an hour before the worshipped sun
Peer'd forth the golden window of the east,
ScemxOke] ROMEO AND JULIET 9
A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad;
Where, midemeath the grove of sycamore
That westward rooteth from the city's side.
So early walking did I see your son: iso
Towards him I made, but he was ware of me
And stole into the covert of the wood:
I, measuring his affections by my own,
That most are busied when they 're most alone.
Pursued my humour, not pursuing his,
And gladly shunn'd who gladly fled from me.
Mon. Many a morning hath he there been seen.
With tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew.
Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs;
But all so soon as the all-cheering sun 140
Should in the farthest east begin to draw
The shady curtains from Aurora's bed.
Away from Ught steals home my heavy son.
And private in his chamber pens himself.
Shuts up his windows, locks fair dayUght out
And makes himself an artificial night:
Black and portentous must this humour prove.
Unless good counsel may the cause remove.
Ben. My noble uncle, do you know the cause?
Mon, I neither know it nor can learn of him. 150
Ben, Have you importimed him by any means?
Mon, Both by myself and many other friends :
But he, his own affections' counsellor.
Is to himself — I will not say how true —
But to himself so secret and so close.
So far from sounding and discovery,
As is the bud bit with an envious worm.
Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air, '
10 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act One
Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.
Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow, leo
We would as willingly give cure as know.
Enter Romeo
Ben. See, where he comes: so please you, step
aside;
I '11 know his grievance, or be much denied.
Hon. I would thou wert so happy by thy stay.
To hear true shrift. Come, madam, let 's away.
[Exeunt Montague and Lady,
Ben. Good morrow, cousin.
Rom. Is the day so young?
Ben. But new struck nine.
Rom. Ay me! sad hours seem long.
Was that my father that went hence so fast?
Ben. It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo's
hours?
Rom. Not having that, which, having, makes
them short. i7o
Ben. In love?
Rom. Out —
Ben. Of love?
Rom. Out of her favour, where I am in love.
Ben. Alas, that love, so gentle in his view.
Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!
Rom. Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still.
Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!
Where shall we dine? O me! What fray was here?
Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all. iso
Here 's much to do with hate, but more with love.
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
Scene Oke] ROMEO AND JULIET 11
O any thing, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh?
Ben. No, coz, I rather weep.
Rom. Good heart, at what?
Ben. At thy good heart's oppression. i9o
Rom. Why, such is love's transgression.
Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,
Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest
With more of thine: this love that thou hast shown
Doth add more grief to too-much of mine own.
Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
Being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:
What is it else? a madness most discreet,
A choking gall and a preserving sweet. 200
Farewell, my coz.
Ben. Soft! I will go along;
An if you leave me so, you do me wrong.
Rom. Tut, I have lost myself; I am not here;
This is not Romeo, he 's some other where.
Ben. Tell me in sadness, who is that you love.
Rom. What, shall I groan, and tell thee?
Ben. Groan! why, no;
But sadly tell me who.
Rom. Bid a sick man in sadness make his will:
Ah, word ill urged to one that is so ill!
In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman. 210
12 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Okk
Ben. I aim'd so near, when I supposed you loved.
Rom. A right good mark-man! And she 's fair
I love.
Ben. A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.
Rom. Well, in that hit you miss: she '11 not be
hit
With Cupid's arrow; she hath Dian's wit;
And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd.
From love's weak childish bow she lives imharm'd.
She will not stay the siege of loving terms.
Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes.
Nor ope her lap to saint-sedudng gold: 220
O, she is rich in beauty, only poor.
That when she dies with beauty dies her store.
Ben. Then she hath sworn that she will still
live chaste?
Rom. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge
waste.
For beauty starved with her severity
Cuts beauty oflF from all posterity.
She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair.
To merit bliss by making me despair:
She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow
Do I Uve dead that Kve to tell it now. £8o
Ben. Be ruled by me, forget to think of her.
Rom. O, teach me how I should forget to think.
Ben. By giving liberty unto thine eyes;
Examine other beauties.
Rom. 'T is the way
To call hers exquisite, in question more.
These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows
Being black put us in mind they hide the fair;
ScekeTwo] ROMEO AND JULIET IS
He that is strucken blind cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost:
Show me a mistress that is passing fair» mo
What doth her beauty serve, but as a note
Where I may read who pass'd that passing fair?
Farewell: thou canst not teach me to forget.
Ben. I 'U pay that doctrine, or else die in debt.
[Exeunt.
Scene II — A Street
Enter Capulet, Paris, and Servant
Cap. But Montague is bound as well as I,
In penalty alike; and 't is not hard, I think.
For men so old as we to keep the peace.
Par. Of honourable reckoning are you both;
And pity 't is you Uved at odds so long.
But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?
Cap. But saying o'er what I have said before:
My child is yet a stranger in the world;
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;
Let two more summers wither in their pride, lo
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.
Par. Younger than she are happy mothers made.
Cap. And too soon marr'd are those so early
made.
The earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she,
She is the hopeful lady of my earth:
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
U ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Oms
lies my consent and fair according voice.
This night I hold an old accustom'd feast, 20
Whereto I have invited many a guest,
Such as I love; and you, among the store,
One more, most welcome, makes my number
more.
At my poor house look to behold this night
Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven
Kght:
Such comfort as do lusty young men feel
When well-apparell'd April on the heel
Of limping winter treads, even such delight
Among fresh female buds shall you this night
Inherit at my house; hear all, all see, so
And like her most whose merit most shall be:
Which on more view, of many mine being one
May stand in number, though in reckoning none.
Come, go with me. [To Serv., giving a paper] Gro,
sirrah, trudge about
Through fair Verona; find those persons out
Whose names are written there, and to them say,
My house and welcome on their pleasure stay.
[Exeunt Capvlet and Paris,
Serv. Find them out whose names are written
here! It is written, that the shoemaker should med-
dle with his yard, and the tailor with his last, the 40
fisher with his pencil, and the painter with his nets;
but I am sent to find those persons whose names
are here writ, and can never find what names the
writing person hath here writ. I must to the
learned. — In good time.
Scene Two] ROMEO AND JULIET 15
Enter Benvouo and Romeo
Ben, Tut, man, one fire boms out another's
burning,
One pain is lessened by another's anguish;
Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning;
One desperate grief cures with another's languish:
Take thou some new infection to thy eye, 50
And the rank poison of the old will die.
Rom. Your plaintain-leaf is excellent for that.
Ben. For what, I pray thee?
Rom. For your broken shin.
Ben. Why, Romeo, art thou mad?
Rom. Not mad, but bound more than a mad-
man is;
Shut up in prison, kept without my food,
Whipp'd and tormented and — God-den, good fellow.
Serv. God gi' god-den. I pray, sir, can you
read?
Rom. Ay, mine own fortune in my misery. eo
Serv. Perhaps you have learned it without
book: but, I pray, can ycfti read any thing you
see?
Rom. Ay, if I know the letters, and the language.
Serv. Ye say honestly: rest you merry!
Rom. Stay, fellow; I can read. [Reads.
"Signior Martino and his wife and daughters;
County Anselme and his beauteous sisters; the
lady widow of Vitruvio; Signior Placentio and
his lovely nieces; Mercutio and his brother Valen- 70
tine; mine uncle Capulet, his wife, and daugh-
ters; my fair niece Rosaline; Livia; Signior Va-
16 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act One
lentio, and his cousin Tybalt; Lucio and the lively
Helena."
A fair assembly: whither should they come?
Serv. Up.
Bern. Whither?
Serv. To supper; to our house.
Rom. Whose house?
Serv. My master's. so
Rom. Indeed, I should have ask'd you that
before.
Serv. Now I '11 tell you without asking: my
master is the great rich Capulet; and if you be
not of the house of Montagues, I pray, come and
crush a cup of wine. Rest you merry! [Eoni.
Ben. At this same ancient feast of Capulet's
Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so lovest.
With all the admired beauties of Verona:
Go thither; and with unattainted eye 90
Compare her face with some that I shall show,
And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.
Rom. When the devout religion of mine eye
Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to
fires;
And these, who, often drown'd, could never die,
Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars!
One fairer than my love! the all-seeing sun
Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun.
Ben. Tut, you saw her fair, none else being by.
Herself poised with herself in either eye; 100
But in that crystal scales let there be weigh'd
Your lady's love against some other maid
That I will show you shining at this feast.
Scene Three] ROMEO AND JULIET 17
And she shall scant show well that now shows
best.
Rom. I'll go along, no such sight to be shown.
But to rejoice in splendour of mine own. [Exeunt.
Scene III — A room in Capulet*s house
Enter Lady Capulet and Nurse
La. Cap. Nurse, where 's my daughter? call her
forth to me.
Nurse. Now, by my maidenhead at twelve year
old,
I bade her come. What, lamb! what, lady-bird!
God forbid! Where 's this girl? What, Juliet!
Enter Juliet
Jul. How now! who calls?
Nurse. Your mother.
Jul. Madam, I am here.
What is your will?
La. Cap. This is the matter: — nurse, give leave
awhile.
We must talk in secret: — nurse, come back again;
I have remember'd me, thou 's hear our counsel.
Thou know'st my daughter 's of a pretty age. lo
Nurse. Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.
La. Cap. She 's not fourteen.
Nurse. I '11 lay fourteen of my teeth, —
And yet, to my teen be it spoken, I have but four, —
She is not fourteen. How long is it now
To Lanunas-tide?
18 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act One
La. Cap. A fortnight and odd days.
Nurse. Even or odd, of all days in the year,
Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen.
Susan and she — God rest all Christian souls! —
Were of an age: well, Susan is with God;
She was too good for me: but, as I said, so
On Lanmias-eve at night shall she be fourteen;
That shall she, marry; I remember it well.
'T is since the earthquake now eleven years;
And she was wean'd, — I never shall forget it, —
Of all the days of the year, upon that day:
For I had then laid wormwood to my dug.
Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall:
My lord and you were then at Mantua: —
Nay, I do bear a brain: — but, as I said.
When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple so
Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool.
To see it tetchy, and fall out with the dug!
" Shake " quoth the dove-house: 't was no need, I
trow.
To bid me trudge:
And since that time it is eleven years;
For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood,
She could have run and waddled all about;
For even the day before, she broke her brow:
And then my husband — God be with his soul!
*A was a merry man — took up the child: 40
" Yea," quoth he, " dost thou fall upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit;
Wilt thou not, Jule? " and, by my holidame,
The pretty wretch left crying and said " Ay."
To see, now, how a jest shall come about!
ScDTE Thbke] ROMEO AND JULIET 19
I warrant, an I should live a thousand years,
I never should forget it: "Wilt thou not, Jule? "
quoth he;
And, pretty fool, it stinted, and said " Ay.'*
La. Cap. Enough of this; I pray thee, hold thy
peace.
Nurse. Yes, madam: yet I cannot choose but
laugh, M
To think it should leave crying, and say " Ay."
And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow
A bump as big as a young cockerel's stone;
A parlous knock; and it cried bitterly:
" Yea," quoth my husband, " fall'st upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward, when thou comest to age;
Wilt thou not, Jule? " it stinted, and said " Ay/'
Jul. And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse,
say I.
Nurse. Peace, I have done. God mark thee to
his grace!
Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nursed: eo
An I might live to see thee married once,
I have my wish.
La. Cap. Marry, that " marry " is the very theme
I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet,
How stands your disposition to be married?
Jul. It is an honour that I dream not of.
Nurse. An honour! were not I thine only nurse,
I would say thou hadst suck'd wisdom from thy
teat.
La. Cap. Well, think of marriage now; younger
than you.
Here in Verona, ladies of esteem, 70
20 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Oke
Are made already mothers: by my count,
I was your mother much upon these years
That you are now a maid. Thus, then, in brief:
The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.
Nurse. A man, young lady! lady, such a man
As all the worid — why, he 's a man of wax.
La. Cap. Verona's summer hath not such a
flower.
Nurse. Nay, he 's a flower; in faith, a very
flower.
La. Cap. What say you? can you love the
gentleman?
This night you shall behold him at our feast; so
Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face.
And find delight writ there with beauty's pen;
Examine every several lineament
And see how one another lends content.
And what obscured in this fair volume lies,
Find written in the margent of his eyes.
This precious book of love, this unbound lover.
To beautify him, only lacks a cover:
The fish lives in the sea, and 't is much pride
For fair without the fair within to hide: 90
That book in many's eyes doth share the glory,
That in gold clasps locks in the golden story;
So shall you share all that he doth possess.
By having him, making yourself no less.
Nurse. No less! nay, bigger; women grow by
men.
La. Cap. Speak briefly, can you like of Paris'
love?
Jul. I '11 look to like, if looking liking move:
Scene Foue] ROMEO AND JULIET 21
But no more deep will I endart mine eye
Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.
Enter a Servant
Serv. Madam, the guests are come, supper loo
served up, you called, my young lady asked for,
the nurse cursed in the pantry, and everything in
extremity. I must hence to wait; I beseech you,
follow straight.
La. Cap. We follow thee. {Exii Servant.] Juliet,
the county stays.
Nurse. Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy
days. [Exeunt.
Scene IV — A Street
Enter Romeo, Mercutio, Benvolio, tvith Jive or six
Maskers, Torch-bearers, and others
Rom. What, shall this speech be spoke for our
excuse?
Or shall we on without apology?
Ben. The date is out of such prolixity:
We '11 have no Cupid hoodwink'd with a scarf,
Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath.
Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper;
Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke
After the prompter, for our entrance:
But let them measure us by what they will;
We '11 measure them a measure, and be gone. lo
Rcmi. Give me a torch: I am not for this
ambling;
Being but heavy, I will bear the light.
22 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act One
Mer. Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you
dance.
JRom. Not I, believe me: you have dancing
shoes
With nimble soles: I have a soul of lead
So stakes me to the groimd I cannot move.
Mer. You are a lover; borrow Cupid's wings.
And soar with them above a common bound.
Rom. I am too sore enpierc6d with his shaft
To soar with his light feathers, and so bound, 20
I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe:
Under love's heavy burden do I sink.
Mer. And, to sink in it, should you burden
love;
Too great oppression for a tender thing.
Bom. Is love a tender thing? it is too rough,
Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn.
Mer. If love be rough with you, be rough with
love;
Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.
Give me a case to put my visage in:
A visor for a visor! what care I so
What curious eye doth quote defonnities?
Here are the beetle-brows shall blush for me.
Ben. Come, knock and enter; and no sooner in.
But every man betake him to his legs.
Bom. A torch for me: let wantons light of
heart
Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels,
For I am proverb'd with a grandsire phrase;
I '11 be a candle-holder, and look on.
The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done.
ScEME Four] ROMEO AND JULIET 28
Mer. Tut, dun 's the mouse, the constable's
own word: 40
If thou art dun, we '11 draw thee from the mire
Of this sir-reverence love, wherein thou stick'st
Up to the ears. Come, we bum daylight, ho!
Rom. Nay, that 's not so.
Mer. I mean, sir, in delay
We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day.
Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits
Five times in that ere once in our five wits.
Rom. And we mean weU in going to this mask;
But 't is no wit to go.
Mer. Why, may one ask?
Rom. I dream'd a dream to-night.
Mer. And so did I. 50
Rom. Well, what was yours?
Mer. That dreamers often lie.
Rom. In bed asleep, while they do dream things
true.
Mer. O, then, I see. Queen Mab hath been with
you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes.
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the forefinger of an alderman.
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs.
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers, 00
The traces of the smallest spider's web,
The collars of the moonshine's watery beams.
Her whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film.
Her waggoner, a smaU grey-coated gnat.
24 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act OmE
Not half so big as a round little worm
Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid;
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub.
Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers.
And in this state she gallops night by night to
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of
love;
O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies
straight.
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees.
O'er ladies' Ups, who straight on kisses dream,
Which oft the angry M ab with blisters plagues.
Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are:
Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose.
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;
And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail
Tickling a parson's nose as 'a lies asleep, so
Then dreams he of another benefice:
Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck.
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats.
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades.
Of healths five fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes.
And, being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two
And sleeps again. This is that very Mab
That plats the manes of horses in the night.
And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs, 90
Which once untangled much misfortune bodes:
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs.
That presses them and learns them first to bear.
Making them women of good carriage:
Scene Five] ROMEO AND JULIET 25
This is she —
Rom. Peace, peace! Mercutio, peace!
Thou talk'st of nothing.
Mer. True, I talk of dreams.
Which are the children of an idle brain.
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,
Which is as thin of substance as the air
And more inconstant than the wind, who wooes loo
Even now the frozen bosom of the north.
And, being anger'd, puflPs away from thence.
Turning his face to the dew-dropping south.
Ben. This wind you talk of, blows us from our-
selves;
Supper is done, and we shall come too late.
Rom. I fear, too early; for my mind misgives
Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night's revels and expire the term
Of a despised life closed in my breast, no
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
But He, that hath the steerage of my course.
Direct my sail! On, lusty gentlemen.
Ben. Strike, dnun. [Exeunt.
Scene V — A hall in Capidefs house
Musicians waiting. Enter Serving-men^ with napkins
First Serv. Where 's Potpan, that he helps
not to take away? he shift a trencher? he scrape
a trencher!
Sec. Serv. When good manners shall he aU in
26 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Oms
one or two men's hands, and they unwashed too,
't is a foul thing.
First Serv. Away with the joint-stools, re-
move the court-cupboard, look to the plate. Good
thou, save me a piece of marchpane; and, as thou
lovest me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone lo
and Nell. Antony, and Potpan!
Sec. Serv. Ay, boy, ready.
First Serv. You are looked for and called for,
asked for and sought for, fn the great chamber.
Sec. Serv. We cannot be here and there too.
Cheerly, boys; be brisk awhile, and the longer
liver take all.
Enter Capulet, with Juuet and others of his house, meet-
ing the Guests and Maskers
Cap. Welcome, gentlemen! ladies that have their
toes
TJnplagued with corns will have a bout with you.
Ah ha, my mistresses! which of you all so
Will now deny to dance? she that makes dainty.
She, I '11 swear, hath corns; am I come near ye
now?
Welcome, gentlemen! I have seen the day
That I have worn a visor, and could tell
A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear.
Such as would please: 't is gone, 't is gone, 't is gone:
You are welcome, gentlemen! Come, musicians,
play.
A hall, a hall! give room! and foot it, girls.
[MiLsic playsy and they darvce.
More light, you knaves; and turn the tables up.
Scians Five] ROMEO AND JULIET 27
And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot. so
Ah, sirrah, this unlook'd-for sport comes well.
Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin Capulet;
For you and I are past our dancing-days:
How long is 't now, since last yourself and I
Were in a mask?
Sec. Cap. By 'r lady, thirty years.
Cap. What, man! 't is not so much, 't is not so
much:
'T is since the nuptial of Lucentio,
Come pentecost as quickly as it will.
Some five and twenty years; and then we mask'd.
Sec. Cap. 'T is more, 't is more: his son is elder,
sir; 40
His son is thirty.
Cap. Will you tell me that?
His son was but a ward two years ago.
Rom. [To a Serving-man] What lady is that,
which doth enrich the hand
Of yonder knight?
Serv. I know not, sir.
Rom. O, she doth teach the torches to bum
bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows, 50
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I '11 watch her place of stand.
And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
28 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Owk
Tyb. This, by his voice, should be a Montague.
Fetch me my rapier, boy. What dares the slave
Come hither, cover'd with an antic face.
To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?
Now, by the stock and honour of my kin, «o
To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.
Ca'p. Why, how now, kinsman! wherefore storm
you so?
Tyh, Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe,
A villain that is hither come in spite.
To scorn at oiu* solemnity this night.
Cap, Young Romeo is it?
Tyh, 'T is he, that villain Romeo.
Cap, Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone;
He bears him like a portly gentleman;
And, to say truth, Verona brags of him
To be a virtuous and well-go vem'd youth: 70
I would not for the wealth of all this town
Here in my house do him disparagement:
Therefore be patient, take no note of him:
It is my will, the which if thou respect,
Show a fair presence and put oflF these frowns.
An ill-beseeming semblance for a feast.
Tyb, It fits, when such a villain is a guest:
I 'U not endure him.
Cap, He shall be endured:
What, goodman boy! I say, he shall: go to;
Am I the master here, or you? go to. so
You '11 not endure him! God shall mend my soul!
You '11 make a mutiny among my guests!
You will set cock-a-hoop! you '11 be the man!
Tyb. Why, uncle, 't is a shame.
Scene Five] ROMEO AND JULIET 29
Cap. Go to, go to;
You are a saucy boy: is 't so, indeed?
This trick may chance to scathe you, I know what:
You must contrary me! marry, 't is time.
Well said, my hearts! You are a princox; go:
Be quiet, or — More light, more light! For shame!
I '11 make you quiet. What, cheeriy, my hearts! oo
Tyb. Patience perforce with wilful choler meet-
ing
Makes my flesh tremble in their diflferent greeting.
I will withdraw: but this intrusion shall
Now seeming sweet convert to bitter gall. [Exit.
Rom. [To Juliet] If I profane with my un-
worthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
Jul. Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too
much.
Which mannerly devotion shows in this; loo
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do
touch.
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
Rom. Have not saints lips, and holy palmers
too?
Jul. Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in
prayer.
Rom. O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands
do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
Jtd. Saints do not move, though grant for
prayers' sake.
so ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Oke
Rom. Then move not, while my prayer's eflfect I
take.
Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.
Jul. Then have my lips the sin that they have
took. 110
Bom. Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly
urged!
Give me my sin again.
Jul. You kiss by the book.
Nurse. Madam, your mother craves a word with
you.
Rom. What is her mother?
Nurse. Marry, bachelor.
Her mother is the lady of the house.
And a good lady, and a wise, and virtuous:
I nursed her daughter, thiat you talk'd withal;
I teU you, he that can lay hold of her
Shall have the chinks.
Rom. Is she a Capulet?
dear accoimt! my life is my foe's debt. i80
Ben. Away, be gone; the sport is at the best.
Rom. Ay, so I fear; the more is my unrest.
Cap. Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone;
We have a trifling foolish banquet towards.
Is it e'en so? Why, then, I thank you aU;
1 thank you, honest gentlemen; good night.
More torches here! Come on then, let 's to bed.
Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late;
I 'U to my rest. [Exeunt all but Juliet and Nurse.
Jul. Come hither, nurse. What is yond gentle-
man? ISO
Nurse. The son and heir of old Tiberio.
Sci»E Five] ROMEO AND JULIET 31
Jvl. What 's he that now is going out of door?
Nurse. Marry, that, I think, be young Petrucio.
Jul. What 's he that follows there, that would
not dance?
Nurse. I know not.
Jul. Go, ask his name: if he be married.
My grave is like to be my wedding bed.
Nurse.' His name is Romeo, and a Montague;
The only son of yoiu* great enemy.
Jul. My only love sprung from my only hate! i4o
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me.
That I must love a loathed enemy.
Nurse. What 's this? what 's this?
Jid. A rhyme I leam'd even now
Of one I danced withal.
[One calls vyithin " Juliet."
Nurse. Anon, anon!
Come, let 's away; the strangers all are gone.
[Exeunt.
ACT II
PROLOGUE
Enter Chorus
Chor. Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie.
And young affection gapes to be his heir;
That fair for which love groaned for and would die.
With tender Juliet match'd, is now not fair.
Now Romeo is beloved, and loves again.
Alike bewitched by the charm of looks.
But to his foe supposed he must complain,
And she steal love's sweet bait from fearful hooks:
Being held a foe, he may not have access
To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear; lo
And she as much in love, her means much less
To meet her new-belov6d any where:
But passion lends them power, time means, to meet,
Tempering extremities with extreme sweet. [Eodt.
Scene I — A l^me hy the wall of Capulefs orchard
Enter Romeo
Rom. Can I go forward when my heart is here?
Timi back, dull earth, and find thy centre out.
[He climbs the waUy and leaps down vnthin it.
Enter Benyouo and Mercutio
Ben. Romeo! my cousin Romeo!
Mer. He is wise;
And on my life, hath stol'n him home to bed.
39
ScmraONE] ROMEO AND JULIET 33
Ben. He ran this way, and leap'd this orchard
wall:
Call, good Mercutio.
Mer. Nay, I '11 conjure too,
Romeo! humours! madman! passion! lover!
Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh:
Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied;
Cry but "Ay me!" pronoimce but "love" and
" dove; " 10
Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word.
One nick-name for her piu'blind son and heir,
Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim.
When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid!
He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not;
The ape is dead, and I must conjure him.
I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes.
By her high forehead and her scarlet lip.
By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh
And the demesnes that there adjacent lie, 20
That in thy likeness thou appear to us!
Ben. An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him.
Mer. This cannot anger him: 't would anger him
To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle
Of some strange nature, letting it there stand
Till she had laid it and conjured it down;
That were some spite: my invocation
Is fair and honest, and in his mistress' name
I conjure only but to raise up him.
Ben. Come, he hath hid himself among these
trees, so
To be consorted with the humorous night:
Blind is his love and best befits the dark.
34 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Two
M&r. If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.
Now will he sit under a medlar-tree,
And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit
As maids call medlars, when they laugh alone.
O, Romeo, that she were, O, that she were
An open et ccetera, thou a poperin pear!
Romeo, good night: I '11 to my truckle-bed;
This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep: 40
Come, shall we go?
Ben. Go, then; for 't is in vain
To seek him here that means not to be foimd.
[Exeunt.
Scene II — Capulefs orchard
Enter Romeo
Rom. He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
[Juliet appears above^ at a window.
But, soft! what light through yonder window
breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon.
Who is already sick and pale with grief.
That thou her maid art far more fair than she:
Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green
And none but fools do wear it; cast it oflf.
It is my lady, O, it is my love! 10
O, that she knew she were!
She speaks, yet she says nothing: what of that?
Her eye discourses; I will answer it.
I am too bold, 't is not to me she speaks:
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven.
Scian:Two] ROMEO AND JULIET 35
Having some business, do entreat her ^es
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars.
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven so
Would through the airy region stream so bright.
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O! that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!
Jtd. Ay me!
Rom. She speaks:
O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art
As glorious to this night, being o'er my head.
As is a wing6d messenger of heaven
Unto the white-upturned wondering eyes
Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him so
When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds
And sails upon the bosom of the air.
Jtd, O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou
Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love.
And I '11 no longer be a Capulet.
Rom. [Aside,] Shall I hear more, or shall I
speak at this?
Jul, 'T is but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What 's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, 4o
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What 's in a name? that which we call a rose
86 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Two
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd»
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.
Bom. I take thee at thy word:
Call me but love, and I *11 be new baptized; ao
Henceforth I never will be Romeo.
Jtd. What man art thou that thus bescreen'd in
night
So stumblest on my counsel?
Rom. By a name
I know not how to tell thee who I am:
My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself.
Because it is an enemy to thee;
Had I it written, I would tear the word.
Jul. My ears have yet not drunk a hundred
words
Of that tongue's utterance, yet I know the sound:
Art thou not Romeo and a Montague? 6o
Rom. Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike.
Jul. How cam'st thou hither, tell me, and
wherefore?
The orchard waUs are high and hard to climb.
And the place death, considering who thou art.
If any of my kinsmen find thee here.
Rem. With love's Ught wings did I o'er-perch
these walls;
For stony Umits cannot hold love out.
And what love can do, that dares love attempt;
Therefore thy kinsmen are no let to me.
ScimeTwo] ROMEO AND JULIET 37
Jul. If they do see thee, they will murder thee, to
Rom, Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye
Than twenty of their swords: look thou but sweet.
And I am proof against their enmity.
Jul. I would not for the world they saw thee
here.
Rom, I have night's cloak to hide me from their
sight;
And but thou love me, let them find me here:
My life were better ended by their hate.
Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.
Jul, By whose direction found'st thou out this
place?
Hom. By love, who first did prompt me to in-
quire; 80
He lent me counsel and I lent him eyes.
I am no pilot; yet, wert thou as far
As that vast shore wash'd with the farthest sea,
I would adventure for such merchandise.
Jul, Thou know'st the mask of night is on my
face,
Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek
For that which thou hast heard me speak to-night.
Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain deny
What I have spoke: but farewell compliment!
Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say " Ay," 90
And I will take thy word: yet, if thou swear'st.
Thou mayst prove false; at lovers' perjuries.
They say, Jove laughs. O gentle Romeo,
If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully:
Or if thou think'st I am too quickly won,
I '11 frown and be perverse and say thee nay.
88 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Two
So thou wilt woo; but, else, not for the world.
In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond.
And therefore thou mayst think my 'haviour light:
But trust me, gentleman, I *11 prove more true loo
Than those that have more cunning to be strange.
I should have been more strange, I must confess.
But that thou overheard'st, ere I was ware.
My true love's passion: therefore pardon me.
And not impute this yielding to Ught love.
Which the dark night hath so discovered.
Rom. Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear
That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops —
Jul. O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant
moon.
That monthly changes in her circled orb, no
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.
Rom. What shall I swear by?
Jul. Do not swear at all;
Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self.
Which is the god of my idolatry.
And I '11 believe thee.
Rom. If my heart's dear love —
Jul. Well, do not swear: although I joy in thee,
I have no joy of this contract to-night:
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
Ere one can say, " It lightens." Sweet, good night! i«o
This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath.
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet. .
Good night, good night! as sweet repose and rest
Come to thy heart as that within my breast!
Rom. O, wilt thou leave me so imsatisfied?
SckweTwo] ROMEO AND JULIET 39
Jul. What satisfaction canst thou have to-night?
Rom. The exchange of thy love's faithful vow
for mine.
Jtd. I gave thee mine before thou didst request
it:
And yet I would it were to give again.
Rom. Wouldst thou withdraw it? for what pur-
pose, love? 130
Jul. But to be frank, and give it thee again.
And yet I wish but for the thing I have:
My bounty is as boundless as the sea.
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
[Nurse calls uyithin.
I hear some noise within; dear love, adieu!
Anon, good nurse! Sweet Montague, be true.
Stay but a little, I will come again. [Exit, above.
Rom. O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard,
Being in night, all this is but a dream, 140
Too flattering-sweet to be substantial.
Re-enter Juliet^ above
Jul. Three words, dear Romeo, and good night
indeed.
If that thy bent of love be honourable.
Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow.
By one that I 'U procure to come to thee.
Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite;
And all my fortunes at thy foot I *11 lay,
And follow thee my lord throughout the world.
Nurse. \Wiihin\ Madani!
40 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Two
Jvl. ' I come, anon. — But if thou mean'st not
well, ifio
I do beseech thee —
Nurse. [Witiiin] Madam!
Jul. By and by, I come : —
To cease thy suit, and leave me to my grief:
To-morrow will I send.
Rom. So thrive my soul —
Jul. A thousand times good night ! [Eadt^ above.
Rom. A thousand times the worse, to want thy
Ught.
Love goes toward love, as school-boys from their
books.
But love from love, toward school with heavy
looks. [Retiring.
Re-enter Juukt, above
Jul. Hist! Romeo, hist! O, for a falconer's
voice.
To lure this tassel-gentle back again! leo
Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud;
Else would I tear the cave where Echo lies,
And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine.
With repetition of my Romeo's name.
Rom. It is my soul that calls upon my name:
How silver-sweet soimd lovers' tongues by night.
Like softest music to attending ears!
Jul. Romeo!
Rom. My dear?
Jul. At what o'clock to-morrow
Shall I send to thee?
Scene Two] ROMEO AND JULIET 41
Rom. At the hour of nine.
Jul. I will not fail: 't is twenty years till then. i7o
I have forgot why I did call thee back.
Rom. Let me stand here till thou remember it.
Jul. I shall forget, to have thee still stand there,
Remembering how I love thy company.
Rom. And I '11 still stay, to have thee still forget,
Forgetting any other home but this.
Jtd. 'T is almost morning; I would have thee
gone:
And yet no further than a wanton's bird;
Who lets it hop a little from her hand.
Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves, iso
And with a silk thread plucks it back again,
So loving-jealous of his liberty.
Rom. I would I were thy bird.
Jtd. Sweet, so would I :
Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.
Good night, good night! parting is such sweet
sorrow.
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.
[Exit above.
Rom. Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy
breast!
Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest!
Hence will I to my ghostly father's cell.
His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell. [Exit. i90
42 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Two
Scene III — Friar Laurence* s cell
Enter Friar Laurence^ with a basket
Fri. L. The grey-eyed mom smiles on the frown-
ing night.
Chequering the eastern clouds with streaks of light.
And fleek6d darkness like a drunkard reels
Prom forth day's path and Titan's fiery wheels:
Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye.
The day to cheer and night's dank dew to dry,
I must up-fill this osier cage of ours
With baleful weeds and precious-juic6d flowers.
The earth that 's nature's mother is her tomb;
What is her burying grave that is her womb, lo
And from her womb children of divers kind
We sucking on her natural bosom find.
Many for many virtues excellent,
None but for some and yet all different.
O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies
In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities:
For nought so vile that on the earth doth live
But to the earth some special good doth give.
Nor aught so good, but, strained from that fair use
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse: 20
Virtue itself tiums vice, being misapplied;
And vice sometimes by action dignified.
Within the infant rind of this small flower
Poison hath residence and medicine power:
For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each
part;
Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart.
Two such oppiosed kings encamp them still
ScenbThbee] ROMEO AND JULIET 43
In man as well as herbs, grace, and rude will;
And where the worser is predominant.
Full soon the canker death eats up that plant. so
Enter Romeo
Rom. Good morrow, father.
Fri. L. Benedicite!
What early tongue so swetet saluteth me?
Young son, it argues a distemper'd head
So soon to bid good morrow to thy bed:
Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye.
And where care lodges, sleep will never lie;
But where unbruisM youth with unstufiF'd brain
Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign:
Therefore thy earliness doth me assure
Thou art up-roused by some distemperatiu*e; 4o
Or it not so, then here I hit it right.
Our Romeo hath not been in bed to-night.
Rom. That last is true; the sweeter rest was
mine.
Fri. L. Grod pardon sin ! wast thou with Rosaline?
Rom. With Rosaline, my ghostly father? no;
I have forgot that name, and that name's woe.
Fri. L. That 's my good son : but where hast thou
been, then?
Rom. I 'U tell thee, ere thou ask it me again.
I have been feasting with mine enemy.
Where on a sudden one hath wounded me, so
That 's by me woimded: both our remedies
Within thy help and holy physic lies:
I bear no hatred, bless6d man, for, lo.
My intercession likewise steads my foe.
44 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Two
Fri. L. Be plain, good son, and homely in thy
drift;
Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift.
Rom, Then plainly know, my heart's dear love
is set
On the fair daughter of rich Capulet:
As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine;
And all combined, save what thou must combine eo
By holy marriage: when and where and how
We met, we woo'd and made exchange of vow,
I '11 tell thee as we pass; but this I pray,
That thou consent to marry us to-day.
Fri. L. Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here !
Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear.
So soon forsaken? young men's love then lies
Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.
Jesu Maria, what a deal of brine
Hath wash'd thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline! 70
How much salt water thrown away in waste.
To season love, that of it doth not taste!
The sun not yet thy sighs from heaven clears,
Thy old groans ring yet in my ancient ears;
Lo, here upon thy cheek the stain doth sit
Of an old tear that is not wash'd oflF yet:
If e'er thou wast thyself and these woes thine.
Thou and these woes were all for Rosaline:
And art thou changed? pronounce this sentence, then.
Women may fall, when there 's no strength in men. so
Rom. Thou chid'st me oft for loving Rosaline.
Fri. L. For doting, not for loving, pupil mine.
Rom. And bad'st me bury love.
Fri. L. Not in a grave.
ScwE Four] ROMEO AND JULIET 45
To lay one in, another out to have.
Rom. I pray thee, chide not : she whom I love now
Doth grace for grace and love for love allow;
The other did not so.
Fri. L, O, she knew well
Thy love did read by rote and could not spell.
But come, young waverer, come, go with me.
In one respect I 'U thy assistant be; 90
For this alliance may so happy prove.
To turn your households' rancour to pure love.
Rom. O, let us hence; I stand on sudden haste.
Fri. L. Wisely and slow; they stumble that run
fast. [Exeunt.
Scene IV — A Street
Enter Benvolio and Mercutio
Mer. Where the devil should this Romeo be?
Came he not home to-night?
Ben. Not to his father's; I spoke with his man.
Mer. Ah, that same pale hard-hearted wench,
that Rosaline,
Torments him so, that he will sure run mad.
Ben. Tybalt, the kinsman of old Capulet,
Hath sent a letter to his father's house.
Mer. A challenge, on my life.
Ben. Romeo will answer it.
Mer. Any man that can write may answer a
letter. 10
Ben. Nay, he will answer the letter's master,
how he dares, being dared.
Mer. Alas, poor Romeo! he is already dead;
46 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Two
stabbed with a white wench's black eye; shot
thorough the ear with a love-song; the very pin
of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy's butt-
shaft; and is he a man to encounter Tybalt?
Ben. Why, what is Tybalt?
Mer. More than prince of cats, I can tell you.
O, he is the courageous captain of complements, so
He fights as you sing prick-song, keeps time,
distance, and proportion; rests me his minim
rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom: the
very butcher of a silk button, a duellist, a duel-
list; a gentleman of the very first house, of the
first and second cause: ah, the immortal pcLSsadoI
the punto reversal the hail
Ben. The what?
Mer. The pox of such antic, lisping, aflPecting
fantasticoes; these new tuners of accents! "By so
Jesu, a very good blade! a very tall man! a very
good whore! " Why, is not this a lamentable
thing, grandsire, that we should be thus afflicted
with these strange files, these fashion-mongers,
these perdona-mi's who stand so mudi on the
new form, that they cannot sit at ease on the old
bench? O, their bones, their bones!
Enter Romeo
Ben. Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo.
Mer. Without his roe, like a dried herring:
O fiesh, fiesh, how art thou fishified! Now is he 4o
for the numbers that Petrarch fiowed in: Laura
to his lady was a kitchen-wench; marry, she
had a better love to be-rhyme her; Dido a dowdy;
Scene Four] ROMEO AND JULIET 47
Cleopatra a gipsy; Helen and Hero hildings and
harlots; Thisbe a grey eye or so, but not to the
purpose. Signior Romeo, bon jour I there 's a
French salutation to your French slop. You gave
us the counterfeit fairly last night.
Rom. Good morrow to you both. What counter-
feit did I give you ? 50
Mer. The slip, sir, the slip; can you not con-
ceive?
Rom. Pardon, good Mercutio, my business was
great; and in such a case as mine a man may
strain courtesy.
Mer. That 's as much as to say, such a case as
yours constrains a man to bow in the hams.
Rom. Meaning, to court'sy.
Mer. Thou hast most kindly hit it.
Rom. A most courteous exposition. eo
Mer. Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy.
Rom. Pink for flower.
Mer. Right.
Rom. Why, then is my pump well flowered.
Mer. Well said: follow me this jest now till
thou hast worn out thy pump, that when the
single sole of it is worn, the jest may remain after
the wearing sole singular.
Rom. O single-soled jest, solely singular for the
singleness. 70
Mer. Come between us, good Benvolio; my wits
faint.
Rom. Switch and spurs, switch and spurs; or
I '11 cry a match.
Mer. Nay» if thy wits run the wild-goose chase.
48 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Two
I am done; for thou hast more of the wild-
goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have
in my whole five: was I with you there for the
goose?
Rom. Thou wast never with me for any thing
when thou wast not there for the goose. so
Mer. I will bite thee by the ear for that jest.
Rom. Nay, good goose, bite not.
Mer. Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting; it is a
most sharp sauce.
Rom. And is it not well served in to a sweet
goose?
Mer. O, here 's a wit of cheveril, that stretches
from an inch narrow to an ell broad!
Rom. I stretch it out for that word " broad; "
which added to the goose, proves thee far and wide oo
a broad goose.
Mer. Why, is not this betteif now than groaning
for love? now art thou sociable, now art thou
Romeo; now art thou what thou art, by art as
well as by nature: for this drivelling love is like a
great natural, that runs lolling up and down to
hide his bauble in a hole.
Ben. Stop there, stop there.
Mer. Thou desirest me to stop in my tale against
the hair. loc
Ben. Thou wouldst else have made thy tale large.
Mer. O, thou art deceived; I would have made
it short; for I was come to the whole depth of my
tale; and meant, indeed, to occupy the argument
no longer.
Rom. Here 's goodly gear!
Scene Four] ROMEO AND JULIET 49
Enter Nurse and Peter
Mer. A sail, a sail!
Ben. Two, two; a shirt and a smock.
Nurse. Peter! no
Peter. Anon!
Nurse. My fan, Peter.
Mer. Good Peter, to hide her face; for her fan 's
the fairer face.
Nurse. God ye good morrow, gentlemen.
Mer. God ye good den, fair gentlewoman.
Nurse. Is it good den?
Mer. 'Tis no less, I tell you; for the bawdy
hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon.
Nurse. Out upon you! what a man are you! 120
Bom. One, gentlewoman, that God hath made
for himself to mar.
Nurse. By my troth, it is well said; " for him-
self to mar," quoth 'a? Gentlemen, can any of you
tell me where I may find the yoimg Romeo?
Bom. I can tell you; but young Romeo will
be older when you have found him than he was
when you sought him: I am the youngest of that
name, for fault of a worse.
Nurse. You say well. 130
Mer. Yea, is the worst well? very well took, i'
faith; wisely, wisely.
Nurse. If you be he, sir, I desire some confi-
dence with you.
Ben. She will indite him to some supper.
Mer. A bawd, a bawd, a bawd! So ho!
Bom. What hast thou foimd?
50 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Two
Mer, No hare, sir; unless a hare, sir, in a lenten
pie, that is something stale and hoar ere it be
spent. [Sings, 440
"An old hare hoar.
And an old hare hoar.
Is very good meat in lent:
But a hare that is hoar
Is too much for a score.
When it hoars ere it be spent."
Romeo, will you come to your father's? we '11 to
dinner, thither.
Rom, I will follow you.
Mer, Farewell, ancient lady; farewell, [singing] i«o
" lady, lady, lady."
[Exeunt Mercvtio and Benvolio,
Nurse, Marry, farewell! I pray you, sir, what
saucy merchant was this, that was so full of his
ropery?
Rom, A gentleman, niu*se, that loves to hear
himself talk, and will speak more in a minute
than he will stand to in a month.
Nurse, An 'a speak anything against me, I '11
take him down, an 'a were lustier than he is, and
twenty such Jacks; and if I cannot, I '11 find leo
those that shall. Scurvy knave! I am none of his
flirt-gills; I am none of his skains-mates. And
thou must stand by too, and sufiFer every knave to
use me at his pleasure?
Peter, I saw no man use you at his pleasure; if
I had, my weapon should quickly have been out,
I warrant you: I dare draw as soon as another
SceoteFoub] ROMEO AND JULIET 51
man, if I see occasion in a good quarrel, and the
law on my side.
Nurse, Now, afore God, I am so vexed, that i7o
every part about me quivers. Scurvy knave!
Pray you, sir, a word; and as I told you, my
young lady bade me inquire you out; what she
bade me say, I will keep to myself: but first let
me tell ye, if ye should lead her in a fool's
paradise, as they say, it were a very gross kind
of behavioiu*, as they say: for the gentlewoman
is yoimg; and, therefore, if you should deal
double with her, truly it were an ill thing to
be offered to any gentlewoman, and very weak iso
dealing.
Rom, Nurse, commend me to thy lady and mis-
tress. I protest unto thee —
Nurse. Good heart! and, i' faith, I will tell her
as much: Lord, Lord, she will be a joyful woman.
Rom, What wilt thou tell her, nurse? thou dost
not mark me.
Nurse, I will tell her, sir, that you do protest;
which, as I take it, is a gentlemanlike offer. i9o
Rom, Bid her devise
Some means to come to shrift this afternoon;
And there she shall at Friar Laurence' cell
Be shrived, and married. Here is for thy pains.
Nurse, No, truly, sir; not a penny.
Rom, Go to; I say you shall.
Nurse. This afternoon, sir? well, she shall be
there.
Rom. And stay, good nurse; behind the abbey
wall:
52 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Two
Within this hour my man shall be with thee, 200
And bring thee cords made like a tackled stair;
Which to the high top-gallant of my joy
Must be my convoy in the secret night.
Farewell; be trusty, and I '11 quit thy pains:
Farewell; commend me to thy mistress.
Nurse. Now God in heaven bless thee! Hark
you, sir.
Rom. What say'st thou, my dear nurse?
Nurse. Is your man secret? Did you ne'er hear
say,
Two may keep counsel, putting one away?
Rom. I warrant thee, my man 's as true as steel. 210
Nurse. Well, sir; my mistress is the sweetest
lady — Lord, Lord! when 't was a little prating
thing: — O, there is a nobleman in town, one Paris,
that would fain lay knife aboard; but she, good
soul, had as lief see a toad, a very toad, as see
him. I anger her sometimes and tell her that
Paris is the properer man; but, I '11 warrant you,
when I say so, she looks as pale as any clout in
the versal world. Doth not rosemary and Romeo
begin both with a letter? 220
Rom. Ay, nurse; what of that? both with an R.
Nurse. Ah, mocker, that 's the dog's name; R
is for the — No; I know it begins with some
other letter: — and she hath the prettiest sententious
of it, of you and rosemary, that it would do you
good to hear it.
Rom. Commend me to thy lady.
Nurse. Ay, a thousand times. [Exit Romeo.]
Peter! 280
Scene Five] ROMEO AND JULIET 53
Pet. Anon!
Nurse.- Peter, take my fan, and go before, and
apace. [Exeunt.
Scene V — Capulefs orchard
Enter Juuet
Jul. The clock struck nine when I did send the
nurse;
In half an hour she promised to return.
Perchance she cannot meet him: that 's not so.
O, she is lame! love's heralds should be thoughts.
Which ten times faster glide than the Sim's beams.
Driving back shadows over loiu'ing hills:
Therefore do nimble-pinion'd doves draw love,
And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.
Now is the sun upon the highmost hill
Of this day's journey, and from nine till twelve lo
Is three long hours, yet she is not come.
Had she aflFections and warm youthful blood.
She would be as swift in motion as a ball;
My words would bandy her to my sweet love.
And his to me:
But old folks, many feign as they were dead;
Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.
O God, she comes!
Enter Nurse and Peter
O honey nurse, what news?
Hast thou met with him? Send thy man away.
Nurse. Peter, stay at the gate. [Exit Peter, ^o
Jul. Now, good sweet nurse, — O Lord, why
look'st thou sad?
Though news be sad, yet tell them merrily;
54 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Two
If good, thou shamest the music of sweet news
By playing it to me with so sour a face.
Nurse. I am aweary, give me leave awhile:
Fie, how my bones ache! What a jaimt have I had!
Jul, I would thou hadst my bones, and I thy
news.
Nay, come, I pray thee, speak; good, good nurse,
speak.
Nurse. Jesu, what haste? can you not stay
awhile?
Do you not see that I am out of breath? so
Jul. How art thou out of breath, when thou
hast breath
To say to me that thou art out of breath? ,,
The excuse that thou dost make in this delay
Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse.
Is thy news good, or bad? answer to that;"
Say either, and I 'U stay the circumstance:
Let me be satisfied, is 't good or bad?
Nurse. Well, you have made a simple choice;
you know not how to choose a man: Romeo! no,
not he; though his face be better than any man's, 40
yet his leg excels all men's; and for a hand, and a
foot, and a body, though they be not to be talked
on, yet they are past compare: he is not the
flower of courtesy, but, I '11 warrant him, as gentle
as a lamb. Go thy ways, wench; serve God.
What, have you dined at home?
Jul. No, no: but all this did I know before.
What says he of our marriage? what of that?
Nurse. Lord, how my head aches! what a head
have I!
Scene Five] ROMEO AND JULIET 55
It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces. bo
My back o' t' other side, — O, my back, my back!
Beshrew your heart for sending me about.
To catch my death with jaimting up and down!
Jtd. V faith, I am sorry that thou art not well.
Sweet, sweet, sweet nurse, tell me, what says my
love?
Nurse. Your love says like an honest gentleman,
and a courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, and,
I warrant, a virtuous, — Where is yoiu* mother?
Jtd. Where is my mother! why, she is within; eo
Where should she be? How oddly thou repUest!
" Your love says like an honest gentleman.
Where is your mother? "
Nurse. O, God's lady dear!
Are you so hot? marry, come up, I trow;
Is this the poultice for my aching bones?
Henceforward do your messages yourself.
Jul. Here 's such a coil! come, what says
Romeo?
Nurse. Have you got leave to go to shrift to-
day?
Jul. I have.
Nurse. Then hie you hence to Friar Laiu^nce'
cell; 70
There stays a husband to make you a wife:
Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks.
They 'U be in scarlet straight at any news.
Hie you to church; I must another way.
To fetch a ladder, by the which yoiu* love
Must climb a bird's nest soon, when it is dark:
I am the drudge and toil in your delight.
56 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Two
But you shall bear the burden soon at night.
Go; I 'U to dinner; hie you to the cell.
Jvl. Hie to high fortune! Honest nurse» fare-
well. [Exeunt, so
Scene VI — Friar Laurence* s cell
Enter Friar Laurence and Romeo
Fri. L, So smile the heavens upon this holy act.
That after hours with sorrow chide us not!
Rom. Amen, amen! but come what sorrow can.
It cannot countervail the exchange of joy
That one short minute gives me in her sight:
Do thou but close our hands with holy words.
Then love-devouring death do what he dare;
It is enough I may but call her mine.
Fri. L. These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, lo
Which as they kiss consume: the sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness
And in the taste confounds the appetite:
Therefore love moderately; long love doth so;
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.
Enter Juliet
Here comes the lady: O, so light a foot
Will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint:
A lover may bestride the gossamer
That idles in the wanton summer air.
And yet not fall; so light is vanity. to
Jul. Good even to my ghostly confessor.
ScEWE Six] ROMEO AND JULIET 51
Fri. L. Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for iis
both.
Jul, As much to him, else is his thanks too
much.
iZom. Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy
Be heaped like mine and that thy skill be more
To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath
This neighbour air, and let rich music's tongue
Unfold the imagined happiness that both
Receive in either by this dear encounter.
Jvl, Conceit, more rich in matter than in words, so
Brags of his substance, not of ornament:
They are but beggars that can count their worth;
But my true love is grown to such excess
I cannot siun up sum of half my wealth.
Fri. L. Come, come with me, and we will make
short work;
For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone
Till holy church incorporate two in one. [Exeunt.
ACT III
Scene I — A public place
Enter Mercutio, Benvolio^ Page> and Servants
Ben. I pray thee, good Mercutio, let 's retire:
The day is hot, the Capulets abroad.
And, if we meet, we shall not scape a brawl;
For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.
Mer. Thou art like one of those fellows that
when he enters the confines of a tavern claps me
his sword upon the table and says " God send me no
need of thee!" and by the operation of the second
cup draws it on the drawer, when indeed there is
no need. lo
Ben. Am I Hke such a fellow?
Mer. Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy
mood, as any in Italy, and as soon moved to be
moody, and as soon moody to be moved.
Ben. And what to?
Mer. Nay, an there were two such, we should
have none shortly, for one would kill the other.
Thou! why, thou wilt quarrel with a man that
hath a hair more, or a hair less, in his beard, than
thou hast: thou wilt quarrel with a man for so
cracking nuts, having no other reason but be-
cause thou hast hazel eyes: what eye but such
an eye would spy out such a quarrel? Thy
head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of
58
ScekeOne] ROMEO AND JULIET 59
meat, and yet thy head hath been beaten as
addle as an egg for quarrelling: thou hast quar-
relled with a man for coughing in the street,
because he hath wakened thy dog that hath lain
asleep in the sim: didst thou not fall out with a
tailor for wearing his new doublet before Easter? so
with another, for tying his new shoes with old riband?
and yet thou wilt tutor me from quarrelling!
Ben. An I were so apt to quarrel as thou art,
any man should buy the fee-simple of my life for
an hour and a quarter.
Mer. The fee-simple! O simple!
Ben. By my head, here come the Capulets.
Mer. By my heel, I care not.
Enter Tybalt and others
Tyb. Follow me close, for I will speak to
them. 40
Gentlemen, good den: a word with one of you.
Mer. And but one word with one of us? couple
it with something; make it a word and a blow.
Tyb. You shall find me apt enough to that, sir,
an you will give me occasion.
Mer. Could you not take some occasion without
giving?
Tyb. Mercutio, thou consort'st with Romeo, —
Mer, Consort! what, dost thou make us min-
strels? an thou make minstrels of us, look to hear so
nothing but discords: here *s my fiddlestick; here's
that shall make you dance. 'Zoimds, consort!
Ben. We talk here in the public haunt of men:
Either withdraw unto some private place,
60 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Tmn:
And reason coldly of your grievances,
Or else depart; here all eyes gaze on ns.
Met. Men's eyes were made to look, and let
them gaze;
I will not budge for no man's pleasure, I.
Enter Romeo
Tyh. Well, peace be with you, sir: here comes
my man.
Mer. But I 'U be hang*d, sir, if he wear your
livery: 6o
Marry, go before to field, he 'U be your follower;
Your worship in that sense may call him " man."
Tyh, Romeo, the hate I bear thee can afford
No better term than this, — thou art a villain.
Rom. Tybalt, the reason that I have to love
thee
Doth much excuse the appertaining rage
To such a greeting: villain am I none;
Therefore farewell; I see thou know'st me not.
Tyh, Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries
That thou hast done me; therefore turn and
draw. 70
Rom. I do protest, I never injured thee.
But love thee better than thou canst devise.
Till thou shalt know the reason of my love:
And so, good Capulet, — which name I tender
As dearly as mine own, — be satisfied.
Mer. O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!
Alia stoccata carries it away. [Draws.
Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk?
Scene One] ROMEO AND JULIET 6l
Tyb. What wouldst thou have with me?
Mer. Good king of cats, nothing but one of your so
nine lives; that I mean to make bold withal, and,
as you shall use me hereafter, dry-beat the rest of
the eight. Will you pluck your sword out of his
pilcher by the ears? make haste, lest mine be
about your ears ere it be out.
Tyb. I am for you. [Drawing,
Rom. Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up.
Mer. Come, sir, your passado. [They fight,
Rom. Draw, Benvolio; beat down their weapons.
Gentlemen, for shame, forbear this outrage! 90
Tybalt, Mercutio, the prince expressly hath
Forbidden bandying in Verona streets:
Hold, Tybalt! good Mercutio!
[TybdU under Romeo's arm stabs Mercutio^
and flies with his followers.
Mer. I am hurt.
A plague o' both your houses! I am sped.
Is he gone, and hath nothing?
Ben. What, art thou hurt?
Mer. Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch; marry, 'tis
enough.
Where is my page? Go, villain, fetch a surgeon.
[Eodt Page.
Rom. Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much.
Mer. No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so
wide as a church-door; but 't is enough, 't will 100
serve: ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find
me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for
this world. A plague o' both your houses!
'Zoimds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch
62 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Thbik
a man to death! a braggart, a rogue, a villain,
that fights by the book of arithmetic! Why the
devil came you between us? I was hurt under
your arm.
Rom. I thought all for the best.
Mer. Help me into some house, Benvolio, no
Or I shall faint. A plague o' both your houses !
They have made worms' meat of me: I have it.
And soundly too: your houses!
[Exeunt Mercvtio and Benvolio.
Bom. This gentleman, the prince's near ally.
My very friend, hath got this mortal hurt
In my behalf; my reputation stain'd
With Tybalt's slander, — Tybalt, that an hour
Hath been my kinsman! O sweet Juliet,
Thy beauty hath made me effeminate
And in my temper soften'd valour's steel! i«o
Re-enter Benvolio
Ben. O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio 's dead!
That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds.
Which too imtimely here did scorn the earth.
Rom. This day's black fate on more days doth
depend;
This but begins the woe others must end.
Ben. Here comes the furious Tybalt back again, iso
Rom. Alive, in triumph! and Mercutio slain!
Away to heaven, respective lenity.
And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now!
Re-eiUer Tybalt
Now, Tybalt, take the villain back again,
That late thou gavest me; for Mercutio's soul
ScEins Chill ROMEO AND JULIET 6S
Is but a little way above our heads.
Staying for thine to keep him company:
Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him.
Tyb. Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort hin[i
here,
Shalt with him hence.
Rom. This shall determine that.
[They fight; Tybalt faUs.
Ben. Romeo, away, be gone!
The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain.
Stand not amazed: the prince will doom thee
death.
If thou art taken: hence, be gone, away! i4o
Rom. O, I am fortune's fool!
Ben. Why dost thou stay? [Exit Romeo.
Enter Citizens^ &c.
First Cit. Which way ran he that kill'd Mercutio?
Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he?
Ben. There Kes that Tybalt.
First Cit. Up, sir, go with me;
I charge thee in the prince's name, obey.
Enter Prince, attended; Montague, Capulet, their
• Wives, and others
Prin. Where are the vile beginners of this fray?
Ben. O noble prince, I can discover all
The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl:
There lies the man, slain by young Romeo,
That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio. i50
La. Cap. Tybalt, my cousin! O my brother's
child!
64 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Theee
O prince! O cousin! husband! O, the blood is spilt
Of my dear kinsman! Prince, as thou art true.
For blood of ours, shed blood of Montague.
O cousin, cousin!
Prin. Benvolio, who began this bloody fray?
Ben. Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did
slay;
Romeo, that spoke him fair, bade him bethink
How nice the quarrel was, and lu'ged withal
Your high displeasure: all this, uttered leo
With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly
bow'd.
Could not take truce with the unruly spleen
Of Tybalt deaf to peace, but that he tilts
With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast.
Who, all as hot, turns deadly point to point.
And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats
Cold death aside, and with the other sends
It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity
Retorts it: Romeo he cries aloud,
"Hold, friends! friends, part! " and, swifter than
his tongue, i70
His agile arm beats down their fatal points.
And 'twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm
An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled;
But by and by comes back to Romeo,
Who had but newly entertain'd revenge.
And to 't they go like lightning, for, ere I
Could draw to part them, was stout Tybalt slain.
And as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly.
This is the truth, or let Benvolio die. iso
ScEKE Two] ROMEO AND JULIET 65
La. Cap, He is a kinsman to the Montague;
Affection makes him false; he speaks not true:
Some twenty of them fought in this black strife,
And all those twenty could but kill one life.
I beg for justice, which thou, prince, must give;
Romeo slew Tybalt, Romeo must not live.
Prin. Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio;
Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?
Mon. Not Romeo, prince, he was Mercutio's friend;
His fault concludes but what the law should end, i90
The life of Tyb^t.
Prin, And for that offence
Immediately we do exile him hence:
I have an interest in your hate's proceeding.
My blood for yoiu* rude brawls doth he a-bleeding;
But I 'U amerce you with so strong a fine
That you shall all repent the loss of mine:
I will be deaf to pleading and excuses;
Nor tears, nor prayers, shall purchase out abuses:
Therefore use none: let Romeo hence in haste.
Else, when he 's found, that hour is his last. «oo
Bear hence this body and attend our will:
Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.
[Exeunt,
Scene II — Capulet*s orchard
Enter Juliet
Jul, Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds.
Towards Phoebus' lodging: such a waggoner
As Phaethon would whip you to the west.
And bring in cloudy night immediately.
66 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Three
Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night.
That runaways' eyes may wink, and Romeo
Leap to these arms, imtalk'd of and unseen.
Lovers can see to do their amorous rites
By their own beauties; or, if love be blind.
It best agrees with night. Come, dvil night, lo
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black.
And learn me how to lose a winning match.
Played for a pair of stainless maidenhoods:
Hood my unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle; till strange love, grown
bold.
Think true love acted simple modesty.
Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in
night;
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
Whiter than new snow on a raven's back.
Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-brow'd
night, so
Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die.
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sim.
O, I have bought the mansion of a love.
But not possess'd it, and, though I am sold.
Not yet enjoy 'd: so tedious is this day
As is the night before some festival
To an impatient child that hath new robes so
And may not wear them. O, here comes my nurse.
And she brings news; and every tongue that speaks
But Romeo's name speaks heavenly eloquence.
Scene Two] ROMEO AND JULIET 67
Enter Nurse, with cords
Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there?
the cords
That Romeo bid thee fetch?
Nurse. Ay, ay, the cords.
[Throws them down.
Jvl. Ay me! what news? why dost thou wring
thy hands?
Nurse. Ah, well-a-day! he 's dead, he 's dead,
he 's dead!
We are undone, lady, we are undone! —
Alack the day! he 's gone, he *s kill'd, he 's dead!
Jvl. Can Heaven be so envious?
Nurse. Romeo can, 40
Though Heaven cannot: O, Romeo, Romeo!
Who ever would have thought it? Romeo!
Jvl. What devil art thou, that dost torment me
thus?
This torture should be roar'd in dismal hell.
Hath Romeo slain himself ? say thou but * /,* ,
And that bare vowel " I *' shall poison more
Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice:
I am not I, if there be such an I;
Or those eyes shut, that make thee answer, " /."
If he be slain, say " I "; or if not, no: dO
Brief sounds determine of my weal or woe.
Nurse. I sawthe wound, I saw it with mine eyes, —
God save the mark! — here on his manly breast:
A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse;
Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaub'd in blood.
All in gore blood; I swounded at the sight.
68 ROMEO AND JULIET [Acrr Three
Jvl. O, break, my heart! poor bankrupt, break
at once!
To prison, eyes; ne'er look on liberty!
Vile earth, to earth resign; end motion here;
And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier! ao
Nurse. O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had!
O courteous Tybalt! honest gentleman!
That ever I should live to see thee dead!
Jvl. What storm is this that blows so con-
trary?
Is Romeo slaughter'd? and is Tybalt dead?
My dear-loved cousin, and my dearer lord?
Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom!
For who is living, if those two are gone?
Nurse. Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished;
Romeo, that kill'd him, he is banished. 70
Jvl. O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's
blood?
Nurse. It did, it did; alas the day, it did!
Jvl. O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!
Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
Despised substance of divinest show!
Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st,
A danm^d saint, an honourable villain!
O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell, so
When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?
Was ever book containing such vile matter
So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell
In such a gorgeous palace!
ScekeTwo] ROMEO AND JULIET 69
Nurse. There 's no trust.
No faith, no honesty in men; all perjured,
All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.
Ah! where 's my man? give me some aqua vitcs:
These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me
old.
Shame come to Romeo!
Jul. Blister'd be thy tongue oo
For such a wish! he was not bom to shame:
Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit;
For 't is a throne where honour may be crown'd
Sole monarch of the universal earth.
O, what a beast was I to chide at him!
Nurse. Will you speak well of him that kill'd
your cousin?
Jul. Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?
Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy
name.
When I, thy three-hours' wife, have mangled it?
But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin? loo
That villain cousin would have kill'd my husband:
Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring;
Your tributary drops belong to woe,
Which you mistaking offer up to joy.
My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain;
And Tybalt 's dead, that would have slain my
husband:
All this is comfort; wherefore weep I then?
Some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death.
That murder'd me: I would forget it fain;
But, O, it presses to my memory, no
Like damned guilty deeds to sinners' minds:
70 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Thbee
" Tybalt is dead, and Romeo — banished; **
That 'banished,' that one word "banished,"
Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt's death
Was woe enough, if it had ended there:
Or, if sour woe delights in fellowship
And needly will be rank'd with other griefs,
Why follow'd not, when she said "Tybalt 's dead,"
Thy father, or thy mother, nay, or both.
Which modem lamentation might have moved? i«o
But, with a rearward following Tybalt's death,
"Romeo is banished," to speak that word.
Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,
All slain, all dead. "Romeo is banished!"
There is no end, no limit, measure, bound.
In that word 's death; no words can that woe sound.
Where is my father, and my mother, nurse?
Nurse. Weeping and wailing over Tybalt's corse:
Will you go to them? I will bring you thither.
Jvl. Wash they his wounds with tears: mine
shall be spent, iso
When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment.
Take up those cords: poor ropes, you are beguiled.
Both you and I; for Romeo is exiled:
He made you for a highway to my bed;
But I, a maid, die maiden-widowed.
Come, cords, come, nurse; I '11 to my wedding
bed;
And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!
Nurse. Hie to your chamber: I '11 find Romeo
To comfort you: I wot well where he is.
Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at night: 140
I '11 to him; he is hid at Laurence' cell.
SceheTheee] ROMEO AND JULIET 71
JvL. O, find him! give this ring to my true
knight,
And bid him come to take his last farewell.
[Exeunt.
Scene III — Friar Laurence's cell
Enter Friar Laurence
Fri. L. Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou
fearful man:
Affliction is enamour'd of thy parts.
And thou art wedded to calamity.
Enter Romeo
Rom. Father, what news? what is the prince's
doom?
What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand.
That I yet know not?
Fri. L. Too familiar
Is my dear son with such sour company:
I bring thee tidings of the prince's doom.
Bom. What less than dooms-day is the prince's
doom?
Fri. L. A gentler judgment vanish'd from his lips, lo
Not body's death, but body's banishment.
Rom. Ha, banishment ! be merciful, say '* death; "
For exile hath more terror in his look,
Much more, than death: do not say '^banishment."
Fri. L. Here from Verona art thou banished:
Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.
Bom. There is no world without Verona walls.
But purgatory, torture, hell itself.
72 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Three
Hence — banished is banish'd from the world.
And world's exile is death: then banished £o
Is death mis-term'd: calling death banishment.
Thou cutt'st my head off with a golden axe.
And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.
Fri. L. O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!
Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind prince.
Taking thy part, hath rush'd aside the law.
And tum'd that black word death to banishment:
This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not.
Rom. 'Tis torture, and not mercy: heaven is
here,
Where Juliet lives; and every cat and dog 8o
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: 40
Flies may do this, but I from this must fly:
They are free men, but I am banished:
And say'st thou yet, that exile is not death?
Hadst thou no poison mix'd, no sharp-ground
knife,
No sudden mean of death, though ne'er so mean.
But "banished" to kill me? — "banished"?
O friar, the damned use that word in hell;
Howlings attend it: how hast thou the heart.
ScekeTheee] ROMEO AND JULIET 73
Being a divine, a ghostly confessor,
A sin-absolver, and my friend profess'd, 50
To mangle me with that word ** banished "?
Fri. L. Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak
a word.
Rom. O, thou wilt speak again of banishment.
Fri. L. I 'U give thee armour to keep oflf that
word;
Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy.
To comfort thee, though thou art banished.
Rom. Yet "banished"? Hang up philosophy!
Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom.
It helps not, it prevails not: talk no more. eo
Fri, L. O, then I see that madmen have no ears.
Rom. How should they, when that wise men
have no eyes?
Fri. L. Let me dispute with thee of thy estate.
Rom. Thou canst not speak of that thou dost
not feel:
Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love.
An hour but married, Tybalt murder6d,
Doting like me and like me banished.
Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear
thy hair.
And fall upon the ground, as I do now.
Taking the measure of an immade grave. 70
[Knocking vnthin.
Fri. L. Arise; one knocks; good Romeo, hide
thyself.
Rom. Not I; imless the breath of heart-sick
groans.
74 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Three
Mist-like, infold me from the search of eyes.
[Knocking.
Fri. L. Hark, how they knock! Who 's there?
Romeo, arise;
Thou wilt be taken. Stay awhile! Stand up;
[Knocking.
Run to my study. By and by. God's will.
What simpleness is this! I come, I come!
[Knocking.
Who knocks so hard? whence come you? what 's
your will?
Nurse. [Within,] Let me come in, and you shall
know my errand;
I come from Lady Juliet.
Ffi. L. Welcome then. so
Enter Nurse
Nurse. O holy friar, O, tell me, holy friar.
Where is my lady's lord? where 's Romeo?
Fri. L. There on the ground, with his own
tears made drunk.
Nurse. O! he is even in my mistress' case.
Just in her case! O woful sympathy!
Piteous predicament! Even so lies she.
Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering.
Stand up, stand up; stand, an you be a man:
For Juliet's sake, for her sake, rise and stand;
Why should you fall into so deep an O? 90
Rom. Nurse!
Nurse. Ah sir! ah sir! Well, death 's the end
of all.
Scsm Three] ROMEO AND JULIET 75
Rom. Spakest thou of Juliet? how is it with
her?
Doth she not think me an old murderer,
Now I have stain'd the childhood of our joy
With blood removed but little from her own?
Where is she? and how doth she? and what says
My concealed lady to our cancell'd love?
Nurse. O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and
weeps;
And now falls on her bed; and then starts up, loo
And Tybalt calls; and then on Romeo cries.
And then down falls again.
Rom. As if that name.
Shot from the deadly level of a gun,
Did murder her; as that name's cursed hand
Murder'd her kinsman. O, tell me, friar, tell me.
In what vile part of this anatomy
Doth my name lodge? tell me, that I may sack
The hateful mansion. [Drawing his sword.
Fri. L. Hold thy desperate hand:
Art thou a man? thy form cries out thou art:
Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote no
The unreasonable fury of a beast:
Unseemly woman in a seeming man!
Or ill-beseeming beast in seeming both!
Thou hast amazed me: by my holy order,
I thought thy disposition better temper'd.
Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thysdl?
And slay thy lady too that lives in thee.
By doing damned hate upon thyself?
Why rail'st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and
earth?
76 ROMEO AND JULIET [Acrr Thkee
Since birth, and heaven, and earth, all three do meet 120
In thee at once; which thou at once wouldst lose.
Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit;
Which, like a usurer, abound'st in all,
And usest none in that true use indeed
Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit:
Thy noble shape is but a form of wax.
Digressing from the valour of a man;
Thy dear love sworn but hollow perjury,
KilUng that love which thou hast vow'd to cherish;
Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love, iso
Mis-shapen in the conduct of them both.
Like powder in a skilless soldier's flask,
Is set a-fire by thine own ignorance.
And thou dismember'd with thine own defence.
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: 140
A pack of blessings lights upon thy back;
Happiness courts thee in her best array;
But, like a misbehaved and sullen wench.
Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love:
Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.
Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed.
Ascend her chamber, hence and comfort her:
But look thou stay not till the watch be set.
For then thou canst not pass to Mantua;
Where thou shalt live, till we can find a time 150
To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends.
ScDfEFouR] ROMEO AND JULIET 77
Beg pardon of tiie prince, and call thee back
With twenty hundred thousand times more joy
Than thou went'st forth in lamentation.
Go before, nurse: commend me to thy lady;
And bid her hasten all the house to bed,
Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto:
Romeo is coming.
Nurse. O Lord, I could have stay'd here all the
night
To hear good counsel: O, what learning is! leo
My lord, I '11 tell my lady you will come.
Rom. Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide.
Nurse. Here, sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir:
Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late. [Eont.
Rom. How well my comfort is revived by this!
Fri. L. Go hence; good night; and here stands
all your state:
Either be gone before the watch be set.
Or by the break of day disguised from hence:
Sojourn in Mantua; I '11 find out your man.
And he shall signify from time to time i70
Every good hap to you that chances here:
Give me thy hand; 't is late: farewell; good night.
Rom. But that a joy past joy calls out on me.
It were a grief, so brief to part with thee:
Farewell. [Exeunt.
Scene IV — A room in Capulefs house
Enter Capulet^ Lady CapuleT; and Paris
Cap. Things have fall'n out, sir, so unluckily.
That we have had no time to move our daughter:
78 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Thbee
Look you, she loved her kinsman Tybalt dearly,
And so did I: — well, we were bom to die.
*T is very late, she 'U not come down to-night:
I promise you, but for your company,
I would have been a-bed an hour ago.
Par. These times of woe afford no time to woo.
Madam, good night: commend me to your daughter.
La. Cap, I will, and know her mind early to-
morrow; 10
To-night she is mew'd up to her heaviness.
Cap. Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender
Of my child's love: I think she will be ruled
Li 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?
Par. Monday, my lord.
Cap. Monday! ha! ha! Well, Wednesday is
too soon,
O' Thursday let it be: o' Thursday, tell her, £0
She shall be married to this noble earl.
Will you be ready? do you like this haste?
We '11 keep no great ado, — a friend or two;
For, hark you, Tybalt being slain so late,
It may be thought we held him carelessly,
Being our kinsman, if we revel much:
Therefore we '11 have some half a dozen friends.
And there an end. But what say you to Thursday?
Par. My lord, I would that Thursday were to-
morrow.
Cap. Well, get you gone : o' Thursday be it, then, so
ScEWK Five] ROMEO AND JULIET 79
Go you to Juliet ere you go to bed.
Prepare her, wife, against this wedding-day.
Farewell, my lord. light to my chamber, ho!
Afore me! it is so very very late.
That we may call it early by and by.
Good night. [Exeunt.
Scene V — Capulet's orchard
Enter Romeo and Juuet above, at the tmndoro
Jvl. Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:
It was the nightingale, land not the lark.
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree:
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.
Rom. It was the lark, the herald of the mom.
No nightingale: look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east:
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops. !•
I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
Jvl. Yon light is not daylight, I know it, I:
It is some meteor that the sun exhales,
To be to thee this night a torch-bearer.
And light thee on thy way to Mantua:
Therefore stay yet; thou need'st not to be gone.
Rom. Let me be ta'en, let me be put to death;
I am content, so thou wilt have it so.
I '11 say yon grey is not the morning's eye,
'T is but the pale reflex of C3nithia's brow; so
Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat
The vaulty heaven so high above our heads:
80 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Thbeb
I have more care to stay than will to go:
Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it so.
How is 't, my soul? let 's talk; it is not day.
Jvl. It is, it is; hie hence, be gone, away!
It is the lark that sings so out of tune.
Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.
Some say the lark makes sweet division;
This doth not so, for she divideth us: so
Some say the lark and loathed toad change eyes;
O, now I would they had changed voices too!
Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray.
Hunting thee hence with hunt*s-up to the day.
O, now be gone; more Ught and light it grows.
Rom. More light and light: more dark and dark
our woes!
Enter Nurse^ to the chamber
Nurse. Madam!
Jul. Nurse?
Nurse. Your lady mother is coming to your
chamber:
The day is broke; be wary, look about. [ExU. 40
Jul. Then, window, let day in, and let life out.
Rom. Farewell, farewell! one kiss, and I 'U
descend. [He goeth doion.
Jul. Art thou gone so? love, lord, ay, husband,
friend!
I must hear from thee every day in the hour.
For in a minute there are many days:
O, by this count I shall be much in years.
Ere I again behold my Romeo!
Rom. Farewell!
ScekkFive] ROMEO AND JULIET 81
I will omit no opportunity
That may convey my greetings, love, to thee. «o
Jvl. O, think'st thou, we shall ever meet again?
Rom. I doubt it not; and all these woes shall
serve
For sweet discourses in our time to come.
Jvl. O God! I have an ill-divining soul!
Methinks I see thee, now thou art below.
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb:
Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale.
Rom. And trust me, love, in my eye so do you:
Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu! adieu!
[Exit.
Jvl. O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle: eo
If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him
That is renown'd for faith? Be fickle, fortune;
For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long,
But send him back.
La. Cap. \WUhin.] Ho, daughter, are you up?
Jul. Who is *t that calls? is it my lady mother?
Is she not down so late, or up so early?
What unaccustom'd cause procures her hither?
Enter Lady Capulet
La. Cap. Why, how now, Juliet?
Jtd. Madam, I am not well.
La. Cap. Evermore weeping for your cousin's
death? 70
What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with
tears?
And if thou couldst, thou couldst not make him
live;
82 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Three
Therefore, have done: some grief shows much of
love;
But much of grief shows still some want of wit.
JmZ. Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss.
La. Cap. So shall you feel the loss but not the
friend
Which you weep for.
Jvl. Feeling so the loss,
I cannot choose but ever weep the friend.
La. Cap. Well, girl, thou weep'st not so much
for his death.
As that the villain lives which slaughter'd him. so
Jtd. What villain, madam?
La. Cap. That same villain, Romeo.
Jvl. [Aside.] Villain and he be many miles
asunder. —
God pardon him! I do, with all my heart;
And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart.
La. Cap. That is, because the traitor murderer
lives.
Jvl. Ay, madam, from the reach of these my
hands:
Would none but I might venge my cousin's death!
La. Cap. We will have vengeance for it, fear
thou not:
Then weep no more. I '11 send to one in Mantua,
Where that same banished runagate doth live, 90
Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram.
That he shall soon keep Tybalt company:
And then, I hope, thou wilt be satisfied.
Jvl. Indeed, I never shall be satisfied
With Romeo, till I behold him — dead —
ScEKE Five] ROMEO AND JULIET 83
Is my poor heart so for a kinsman vexed:
Madam, if you could find out but a man
To bear a poison, I would temper it;
That Romeo should, upon receipt thereof,
Soon sleep in quiet. O, how my heart abhors loo
To hear him named, and cannot come to him.
To wreak the love I bore my cousin
Upon his body that hath slaughtered him!
La. Cap. Find thou the means, and I '11 find
such a man.
But now I '11 tell thee joyful tidings, girl.
Jul. And joy comes well in such a needy time.
What are they, I beseech your ladyship?
La. Cap. Well, well, thou hast a careful father,
child;
One who, to put thee from thy heaviness.
Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy, no
That thou expect'st not nor I looked not for.
Jvl. Madam, in happy time, what day is that?
La. Cap. Marry, my child, early next Thursday
mom,
The gallant, young and noble gentleman,
The Coimty Paris, at Saint Peter's Church,
Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.
Jvl. Now, by Saint Peter's Church and Peter too.
He shall not make me there a joyful bride.
I wonder at this haste; that I must wed
Ere he, that should be husband, comes to woo. i£0
I pray you, tell my lord and father, madam,
I will not marry yet; and, when I do, I swear,
It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,
Rather than Paris. These are news indeed!
84 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Thuee
La. Cap. Here comes your father; tell him so
yourself.
And see how he will take it at your hands.
Enter Capulbt and Nurse
Cap. When the sun sets, the air doth drizzle
dew;
But for the sunset of my brother's son.
It rains downright.
How now! a conduit, girl? what, still in tears? iso
Evermore showering? In one little body
Thou counterfeit'st a bark, a sea, a wind;
For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea.
Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is.
Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, thy sighs;
Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them,
Without a sudden calm, will overset
Thy tempest-tossed body. How now, wife!
Have you delivered to her our decree?
La. Cap. Ay, sir; iSut she will none, she gives
you thanks. uo
I would the fool were married to her grave!
Cap. Soft! take me with you, take me with you,
wife.
How! will she none? doth she not give us thanks?
Is she not proud? doth she not count her blest,
Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom?
Jvl. Not proud, you have; but thankful, that
you have:
Proud can I never be of what I hate;
But thankful even for hate, that is meant love.
SgekeFite] ROMEO AND JULIET 85
Cap, How now, how now, chop-logic! What is
this? 150
" Proud," and " I thank you," and " I thank you
not; "
And yet " not proud: " mistress minion, you.
Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds.
But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next.
To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you baggage!
You tallow-face!
La. Cap. Fie, fie! what, are you mad?
Jid. Crood father, I beseech you on my knees,
Hear me with patience but to speak a word. leo
Cap. Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient
wretch!
I tell thee what: get thee to church o' Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face:
Speak not, reply not, do not answer me;
My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest
That God had lent us but this only child;
But now I see this one is one too much.
And that we have a curse in having her:
Out on her, hilding!
Nurse. God in heaven bless her!
You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so. i7o
Cap. And why, my lady wisdom? hold your
tongue.
Good prudence; smatter with your gossips, go.
Nurse. I speak no treason.
Cap. O, God ye god-den.
Nurse. May not one speak?
86 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Three
Cap. Peace, you mumbling fool!
Utter your gravity o*er a gossip's bowl;
For here we need it not.
La. Cap. You are too hot.
Cap. God's bread! it makes me mad:
Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play.
Alone, in company, still my care hath been
To have her matched: and having now provided iso
A gentleman of noble parentage.
Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly train'd,
StufP'd, as they say, with honourable parts.
Proportioned as one's thought would wish a man;
And then to have a wretched puling fool,
A whining mammet in her fortime's tender.
To answer " I '11 not wed; I cannot love,
I am too young; I pray you, pardon me."
But, an you will not wed, I '11 pardon you:
Graze where you will, you shall not house with
me: i90
Look to 't, think on 't, I do not use to jest.
Thursday is near; lay hand on heart, advisei
An you be mine, I '11 give you to my friend;
An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets.
For, by my soul, I '11 ne'er acknowledge thee.
Nor what is mine shall never do thee good:
Trust to 't, bethink you : I '11 not be forsworn. [Exit.
Jtd. Is there no pity sitting in the clouds,
That sees into the bottom of my grief?
O, sweet my mother, cast me not away! «oo
Delay this marriage for a month, a week;
Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed
In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.
Scene Five] ROMEO AND JULIET 87
La. Cap. Talk not to me, for I '11 not speak a
word:
Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee. [ExU.
Jul. O God! — O nurse, how shall this be pre-
vented?
My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven;
How shall that faith return again to earth.
Unless that husband send it me from heaven
By leaving earth? comfort me, counsel me. «io
Alack, alack, that Heaven should practise strata-
gems
Upon so soft a subject as myself!
What say'st thou? hast thou not a word of joy?
Some comfort, nurse.
Nurse. Faith, here it is.
Romeo is banish'd; and all the world to nothing,
That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you;
Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth.
Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
I think it best you married with the county.
O, he 's a lovely gentleman! . sso
Romeo 's a dishclout to him: an eagle, madam.
Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye
As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,
I think you are happy in this second match.
For it excels your first: or if it did not.
Your first is dead; or 't were as good he were,
As living here and you no use of him.
Jvl. Speakest thou from thy heart?
Nurse. And from my soul too;
Or else beshrew them both.
Jvl. Amen!
88 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Three
Nurse. What?
Jul. Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous
much.
Go in; and tell my lady I am gone, tso
Having displeased my father, to Laurence' cell
To make confession and to be absolved.
Nurse. Marry, I will; and this is wisely done.
[Exit.
Jul. Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!
Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn.
Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue
Which she hath praised him with above compare
So many thousand times? Go, counsellor;
Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain. t40
I 'U to the friar, to know his remedy:
If all else f ail, myself have power to die. [Exit.
ACT IV
Scene I — Friar Laurence's ceU
Enter Friar Laurence and Paris
Fri. L. On Thursday, sir? the time is very short.
Par. My father Capulet will have it so;
And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.
Fri. L. You say you do not knowthe lady's mind:
Uneven is the course, I like it not.
Par. Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's deaths
And therefore have I little talk'd of love;
For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.
Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous
That she doth give her sorrow so much sway, lo
And in his wisdom hastes our marriage.
To stop the inundation of her tears;
Which, too much minded by herself alone,
May be put from her by society:
Now do you know the reason of this haste.
Fri.L. [Aside.] I would' I knew not why it
should be slow'd.
Look, sir, here comes the lady towards my cell.
Enter Juuet
Par. Happily met, my lady and my wife!
Jid. That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.
Par. That may be, must be, love, on Thursday
next. so
Jid. What must be shall be.
90 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Four
Fri. L. That *s a certain text.
Par, Come you to make confession to this
father?
Jul. To answer that, I should confess to you.
Par, Do not deny to him that you love me.
Jtd, I will confess to you that I love him.
Par, So will ye, I am sure, that you love me.
Jul, If I do so, it will be of more price,
Being spoke behind your back, than to your face.
Par, Poor soul, thy face is much abused with
tears.
Jtd, The tears have got small victory by that; so
For it was bad enough before their spite.
Par. Thou wrong'st it, more than tears, with
that report.
Jtd. That is no slander, sir, which is a truth;
And what I spake, I spake it to my face.
Par, Thy face is mine, and thou hast slander 'd
it.
Jul. It may be so, for it is not mine own.
Are you at leisure, holy father, now;
Or shall I come to you at evening mass?
Fri, L. My leisure serves me, pensive daughter,
now.
My lord, we must entreat the time alone. 40
Par, God shield I should disturb devotion!
Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse ye:
Till then, adieu; and keep this holy kiss. [Exit,
Jul, O, shut the door! and when thou hast done
so.
Gome weep with me; past hope, past cure, past
help!
Scene One] ROMEO AND JULIET 91
Fri. L. Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief;
It strains me past the compass of my wits:
I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,
Ou Thursday next be married to this county.
Jvl. Tell me not, friar, that thou hear'st of this, 50
Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it:
If in thy wisdom thou canst give no help,
Do thou but call my resolution wise.
And with this knife I '11 help it presently.
God joined my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands;
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo seal'd.
Shall be the label to another deed.
Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
Turn to another, this shall slay them both:
Therefore, out of thy long-experienced time, eo
Give me some present counsel, or, behold,
'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that
Which the commission of thy years and art
Could to no issue of true honour bring.
Be not so long to speak; I long to die.
If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy.
Fri. L. Hold, daughter: I do spy a kind of hope,
Which craves as desperate an execution
As that is desperate which we would prevent. 70
If, rather than to marry Coimty Paris,
Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself.
Then is it likely thou wilt undertake
A thing like death to chide away this shame.
That copest with death himself to scape from it;
And, if thou darest, I '11 give thee remedy.
Jid. O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
92 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Fora
From off the battlements of yonder tower;
Or walk in thievish ways; or bid me lurk
Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears; ' so
Or shut me nightly in a ehamel-hoiise,
O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones.
With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls;
Or bid me go into a new-made grave
And hide me with a dead man in his shroud;
Things that, to hear them told, have made me
tremble;
And I will do it without fear or doubt,
To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love.
Fri. L. Hold, then; go home, be merry, give
consent
To marry Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow: oo
To-morrow night look that thou lie alone;
Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber:
Take thou this vial, being then in bed.
And this distilled liquor drink thou off;
When presently through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humour, for no pulse
Shall keep his native progress, but surcease:
No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou livest;
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To paly ashes, thy eyes' windows fall, loo
Like death, when he shuts up the day of life;
Each part, deprived of supple government.
Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death:
And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt continue two and forty hours,
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes
ScekkTwo] ROMEO AND JULIET 93
To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead:
Then, as the maimer of our coimtry is,
In thy best robes uncovered on the bier no
Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
In the mean time, against thou shalt awake.
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift.
And hither shall he come: and he and I
Will watch thy waking, and that very night
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
And this shall free thee from this present shame;
If no unconstant toy, nor womanish fear.
Abate thy valour in the acting it. i£o
Jvl. Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear!
Fri. L. Hold; get you gone, be strong and pros-
perous
In this resolve: I '11 send a friar with speed
To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.
Jul. Love give me strength! and strength shall
help afford.
Farewell, dear father! [Exeunt.
Scene II — Hall in Capulefs house
Enter Capulbt, Lady Capulet, Nurse^ and two
Servingmen
Cap. So many guests invite as here are writ.
[Exit First Servant.
Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks.
Sec. Serv. You shall have none ill, sir; for I '11
try if they can lick their fingers.
Cap. How canst thou try them so?
94 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Four
See. Sen. Marry, sir, 't is an ill cook that cannot
lick his own fingers: therefore he that cannot lick
his fingers goes not with me.
Cap. Go, be gone. [Exit Sec. Servant.
We shall be much unfnrnish'd for this time. lo
What, is my daughter gone to Friar Laurence?
Nurse. Ay, forsooth.
Cap. Well, he may chance to do some good on
her:
A peevish self-will'd harlotry it is.
Nurse. See where she comes from shrift with
merry look.
Enter Juukt
Cap. How now, my headstrong! where have you
been gadding?
Jul. Where I have leam'd me to repent the sin
Of disobedient opposition
To you and your behests, and am enjoin'd
By holy Laurence to fall prostrate here, to
To beg your pardon: pardon, I beseech you!
Henceforward I am ever ruled by you.
Cap. Send for the county; go tell him of this:
I '11 have this knot knit up to-morrow morning.
Jid. I met the youthful lord at Laurence' cell;
And gave him what becomed love I might.
Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty.
Cap. Why, I am glad on 't; this is well: stand
up:
This is as 't should be. Let me see the county;
Ay, marry, go, I say, and fetch him hither. ao
Scene Three] ROMEO AND JULIET 95
Now, afore God! this reverend holy friar.
All our whole city is much bound to him.
Jul. Nurse, will you go with me into my closet.
To help me sort such needful ornaments
As you think fit to furnish me to-morrow?
La. Cap. No, not till Thursday; there is time
enough.
Cap. Go, nurse, go with her: we '11 to church
to-morrow. [Exeunt Juliet and Nurse.
La. Cap. We shall be short in our provision:
'T is now near night.
Cap. Tush, I will stir about.
And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, wife: 40
Go thou to Juliet, help to deck up her;
I '11 not to bed to-night; let me alone;
I '11 play the housewife for this once. What, ho!
They are all forth. Well, I will walk myself
To County Paris, to prepare him up
Against to-morrow: my heart is wondrous light.
Since this same wayward girl is so reclaim'd.
[Exeunt,
Scene III — Juliet's chamber
Enter Juliet and Nurse
Jid. Ay, those attires are best: but, gentle
nurse,
I pray thee, leave me to myself to-night;
For I have need of many orisons
To move the heavens to smile upon my state.
Which, well thou know'st, is cross and full of sin.
96 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Four
Enter Lady Capulkt
La. Cap. What, are you busy, ho? need you my
help?
Jtd. No, madam; we have eull'd such neces-
saries
As are behoveful for our state to-morrow:
So please you, let me now be left alone,
And let the nurse this night sit up with you; lo
For, I am sure, you have your hands full all.
In this so sudden business.
La. Cap. Good night:
Get thee to bed, and rest; for thou hast need.
[Exeunt Lady Capulet and Nurse.
Jul. Farewell! God knows when we shall meet
again.
I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins.
That almost freezes up the heat of life:
I '11 call them back again to comfort me:
Nurse! What should she do here?
My dismal scene I needs must act alone.
Come, vial. «o
What if this mixture do not work at all?
Shall I be married then to-morrow morning?
No, no; this shall forbid it: lie thou there.
[Laying down her dagger.
What if it be a poison, which the friar
Subtly hath minister'd to have me dead.
Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour'd,
Because he married me before to Romeo?
I fear it is: and yet, methinks, it should not,
For he hath still been tried a holy man.
ScekeThbee] ROMEO AND JULIET 97
How if, when I am laid into the tomb, so
I wake before the time that Romeo
Come to redeem me? there 's a. fearful point!
Shall I not, then, be stifled in the vault.
To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in.
And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?
Or, if I live, is it not very like.
The horrible conceit of death and night.
Together with the terror of the place, —
As in a vault, an ancient receptacle,
Where, for these many hundred years, the bones 40
Of all my buried ancestors are pack'd:
Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
lies festering in his shroud; where, as they say.
At some hours in the night spirits resort; —
Alack, alack, is it not like that I,
So early waking, what with loathsome smells.
And shrieks like mandrakes' torn out of the earth.
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad: —
O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught.
Environed with all these hidequs fears? 50
And madly play with my forefathers' joints?
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud?
And, in this rage, with some great kinsman's bone.
As with a dub, dash out my desperate brains?
O, look! methinks I see my cousin's ghost
Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body
Upon a rapier's point: stay, Tybalt, stay!
Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee.
[She falls upon her bed, vrithin the curtains.
98 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Four
Scene IV — Hcdl in Capulefs house
Enter Lady Capulet and Nurse
La. Cap. Hold, take these keys, and fetch more
spices, nurse.
Nurse. They call for dates and quinces in the
pastry.
Enter Capulet
Cap. Come, stir, stir, stir! the second cock hath
crow'd.
The curfew bell hath rung, 't is three o'clock:
Look to the baked meats, good Angelica:
Spare not for cost.
Nurse. Go, you cot-quean, go,
Get you to bed; faith, you 'U be sick to-morrow
For this night's watching.
Cap. No, not a whit: what! I have watch'd
ere now
All night for lesser cause, and ne'er been sick. lo
La. Cap. Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in
your time;
But I will watch you from such watching now.
[Exeunt Lady Capulet and Nurse.
Cap. A jealous-hood, a jealous-hood!
Enter three or four Servingmen^ with spits j . logs, and
baskets
Now, fellow,
What 's there?
First Serv. Things for the cook, sir; but I know
not what.
ScekePive] ROMEO AND JULIET 99
Cap. Make haste, make haste. [Exit First Serv.]
Sirrah, fetch drier logs:
Call Peter, he will show thee where they are.
Sec. Serv. I have a head, sir, that will find out logs.
And never trouble Peter for the matter. [Eodt.
Cap. Mass, and well said; a merry whoreson,
ha!
Thou shalt be logger-head. Grood faith, 't is day: so
The county will be here with music straight.
For so he said he would: I hear him near.
[Miunc toithin.
Nurse! Wife! What, ho! What, nurse, I say!
Re-enter Nurse
Go, waken Juliet, go, and trim her up;
I '11 go and chat with Paris: hie, make haste,
Make haste; the bridegroom he is come already:
Make haste, I say. [Exeunt.
Scene V — Juliefs chamber
Enter Nurse*
Nurse. Mistress! what, mistress! Juliet! fast, I
warrant her, she:
Why, lamb! why, lady! fie, you slug-a-bed!
Why, love, I say! madam! sweet-heart! why,
• bride!
What, not a word? you take your pennyworths
now;
Sleep for a week; for the next night, I warrant.
The County Paris hath set up his rest
That you shall rest but little. Grod forgive me.
100 ROMEO AND JULIET {Act Foue
Marry, and amen, how sound is she asleep!
I needs must wake her. Madam, madam, madam!
Ay, let the county take you in your bed; lo
He '11 fright you up, i' faith. Will it not be?
[Undraws the curtains.
What, dress'd! and in your clothes! and down
again!
I must needs wake you: Lady! lady! lady!
Alas, alas! Help, help! my lady 's dead!
O, well-a-day, that ever I was bom!
Some aqua vitse, ho! My lord! my lady!
Enter Lady Capulkt
La. Cap. What noise is here?
Nurse. O lamentable day!
La. Cap. What is the matter?
Nurse. Look, look! O heavy day!
La. Cap.' O me! O me! my child, my only life.
Revive, look up, or I will die with thee! so
Help, help! Call help.
Enter Capulet
Cap. For shame, bring Juliet forth; her lord
is come.
Nurse. She 's dead, deceased, she 's dead; alack
the day!
La. Cap. Alack the day, she 's dead, she 's dead,
she 's dead!
Cap. Ha! let me see her: out, alas! she 's cold;
Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff;
Life and these lips have long been separated:
ScekeFive] ROMEO AND JULIET 101
Death lies on her like an untimely frost
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.
Nurse. O lamentable day!
La. Cap. O woful time! so
Cap. Death, that hath ta'en her hence to make
me wail.
Ties up my tongue, and will not let me speak.
Enter Friar Laurence and Paris^ with Musicians
Fri. L. Come, is the bride ready to go to church?
Cap. Ready to go, but never to return.
O son! the night before thy wedding-day
Hath Death lain with thy wife. There she lies.
Flower as she was, deflowered by him.
Death is my son-in-law. Death is my heir;
My daughter he hath wedded: I will die.
And leave him all; life, living, all is Death's. 40
Par. Have I thought long to see this morning's
face.
And doth it give me such a sight as this?
La. Cap. Accursed, unhappy, wretched, hateful
day!
Most miserable hour that e'er time saw
In lasting labour of his pilgrimage!
But one, poor one, one poor and loving child.
But one thing to rejoice and solace in.
And cruel death hath catch'd it from my sight!
Nurse. O woe! O woful, woful, woful day!
Most lamentable day, most woful day, 50
That ever, ever, I did yet behold!
O day! O day! O day! O hateful day!
Never was seen so black a day as this:
102 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Foua
O woful day, O wofiil day!
Par. Beguiled, divorced, wronged, spited, slain!
Most detestable death, by thee beguiled.
By cruel cruel thee quite overthrown!
O love! O life! not life, but love in death!
Cwp. Despised, distressed, hated, martyr*d,
kill'd!
Uncomfortable time, why camest thou now eo
To murder, murder oiur solemnity?
O child! O child! my soul, and not my child!
Dead art thou! Alack! my child is dead;
And with my child my joys are buried.
Fri. L. Peace, ho, for shame! confusion's cure
lives not ^
In these confusions. Heaven and yourself
Had part in this fair maid; now heaven hath all,
And all the better is it for the maid:
Yoiur part in her you could not keep from death.
But heaven keeps his part in eternal life. 70
The most you sought was her promotion;
For 't was your heaven she should be advanced:
And weep ye now, seeing she is advanced
Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself?
O, in this love, you love your child so ill.
That you run mad, seeing that she is well:
She 's not well married that lives married long; ;
But she 's best married that dies married young.
Dry up yoiur tears, and stick your rosemary
On this fair corse; and, as the custom is, so
In all her best array bear her to church:
For though fond natiure bids us all lament.
Yet nature's tears are reason's merriment.
Scene Five] ROMEO AND JULIET 103
Cap. All things that we ordained festival.
Turn from their office to black funeral;
Our instruments to melancholy bells,
Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast.
Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change.
Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse.
And all things change them to the contrary. 90
Fri. L. Sir, go you in; and, madam, go with
him;
And go, Sir Paris; every one prepare
To follow this fair corse unto her grave:
The heavens do lour upon you for some ill;
Move them no more by crossing their high will.
[Exeunt Capidetf Lady Capvlet^ Pans,
and Friar.
First Mus, Faith, we may put up our pipes, and
be gone.
Nurse. Honest good fellows, ah, put up, put up;
For, well you know, this is a pitiful case. [Exit,
First Mus. Ay, by my troth, the case may be 100
amended.
Enter Pktkr
Pet. Musicians, O, musicians! "Heart's ease.
Heart's ease: " O, an you will have me live, play
" Heart's ease."
First Mus. Why " Heart's ease " ?
Pet. O, musicians, because my heart itself plays
" My heart is full of woe: " O, play me some merry
dump, to comfort me.
First Mus. Not a dump we: 't is no time to play
now. 110
104 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Four
Pet. You will not, then?
First Mus, No.
Pel, I will then give it you soundly.
First Mus. What will you give us?
Pet. No money, on my faith, but the gleek; I
will give you the minstrel.
First Mus. Then will I give you the serving-
creature.
Pet. Then will I lay the serving-creature's
dagger on your pate. I will cany no crotchets: i«o
I '11 re you, I '11 /a you; do you note me?
First Mus. An you re us and fa us, you note us.
Sec. Mus. Pray you, put up your dagger, and
put out your wit.
Pet. Then have at you with my wit! I will
dry-beat you with an iron wit, and put up my iron
dagger. Answer me like men:
" When griping grief the heart doth wounds
And doleful dumps the mind oppress^
Then music with her silver sound " — iso
Why, " silver sound "? why " music with her silver
sound " ? What say you, Simon Catling?
First Mu^s. Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet
sound.
Pel. Pretty! What say you, Hugh Rebeck?
Sec. Mus. I say " silver sound," because musi-
cians sound for silver.
Pel. Pretty too! What say you, James Sound-
post?
Third Mu^s. 'Faith, I know not what to say. i4o
Pet. O, I cry you mercy; you are the singer: I
ScKKE FiTE] ROMEO AND JULIET 105
will say for you. It is " music with her silver
sound/' because musicians have no gold for sound
" Then music toith her silver sound
With speedy help doth lend redress.**
[Exit.
First Mv^. What a pestilent knave is this same !
Sec. Mus. Hang him, Jack! Come, we '11 in here;
tarry for the mourners, and stay dinner. [Exeunt.
ACT V
Scene I — Mantua. A Street
Enter Romeo
Bxmi, If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep.
My dreams presage some joyful news at hand:
My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne;
And all this day an unaccustom'd spirit
Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.
I dreamt my lady came and found me dead —
Strange dream, that gives a dead man leave to
think! —
And breathed such life with kisses in my lips.
That I revived, and was an emperor.
Ah me! how sweet is love itself possess'd, lo
When but love's shadows are so rich in joy!
Enter Balthasar, booted
News from Verona! — How now, Balthasar!
Dost thou not bring me letters from the friar?
How doth my lady? Is my father well?
How fares my Juliet? that I ask again;
For nothing can be ill, if she be well.
Bal, Then she is well, and nothing can be ill:
Her body sleeps in Capel's monument.
And her immortal part with angels lives.
I saw her laid low in her kindred's vault, 20
106
Scene Oke] ROMEO AND JULIET 107
And presently took post to tell it you :
O, pardon me for bringing these ill news,
Since you did leave it for my office, sir.
Rom. Is it even so? then, I defy you, stars!
Thou know'st my lodging: get me ink and paper.
And hire post-horses; I will hence to-night.
Bal, I do beseech you, sir, have patience:
Your looks are pale and wild, and do import
Some misadventure.
Rom. Tush, thou art deceived:
Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do. so
Hast thou no letters to me from the friar?
Bed. No, my good lord.
Rom. No matter: get thee gone.
And hire those horses; I 'U be with thee straight.
[Eocit BaUhasar.
Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night.
Let 's see for means: O mischief, thou art swift
To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!
I do remember an apothecary, —
And hereabouts he dwells, — which late I noted
Li tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows.
Culling of simples; meagre were his looks, 40
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones:
And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
An alligator stuff'd, and other skins
Of ill-shaped fishes; and about his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes.
Green earthen pots, bladders and musty seeds.
Remnants of packthread and old cakes of roses.
Were thinly scatter'd, to make up a show.
Noting this penury, to myself I said
108 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Pivk
"' An if a man did need a poison now, ^o
Whose sale is present death in Mantua,
Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him."
O, this same thought did but forerun my need;
And this same needy man must sell it me.
As I remember, this should be the house.
Being holiday, the beggar's shop is shut.
What, ho! apothecary!
Enter Apothecary
Ap. Who calls so loud?
Rom. Come hither, man. I see, that thou art
poor:
Hold, there is forty ducats: let me have
A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear eo
As will disperse itself through all the veins
That the life-weary taker may fall dead
And that the trunk may be discharged of breath
As violently as hasty powder fired
Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb.
Ap. Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua's law
Is death to any he that utters them.
Rom. Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness.
And fear'st to die? famine is in thy cheeks.
Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes, 70
Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back;
The world is not thy friend nor the world's law;
The world affords no law to make thee rich;
Then be not poor, but break it, and take this.
Ap. My poverty, but not my will, consents.
Rom. I pay thy poverty, and not thy will.
Ap. Put this in any liquid thing you will,
ScekeTwo] ROMEO AND JULIET 109
And drink it off; and, if you had the strength
Of twenty men, it would despatch you straight.
Rom. There is thy gold, worse poison to men's
souls, 80
Doing more murder in this loathsome world.
Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not
seU.
I sell thee poison; thou hast sold me none.
Farewell: buy food, and get thyself in flesh.
Come, cordial and not poison, go with me
To Juliet's grave; for there must I use thee.
[Exeunt.
Scene II — Friar Laurences cell
Enter Friar John
Fri. J. Holy Franciscan friar! brother, ho!
Enter Friar Laurence
Fri. L. This same should be the voice of Friar
John.
Welcome from Mantua: what says Romeo?
Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter.
Fri. J. Going to find a bare-foot brother out.
One of our order, to associate me.
Here in this city visiting the sick.
And finding him, the searchers of the town.
Suspecting that we both were in a house
Where the infectious pestilence did reign, lo
Seal'd up the doors and would not let us forth;
So that my speed to Mantua there was stay'd.
110 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Five
Fri. L. Who bare my letter, then, to Romeo?
Fri. J. I could not send it, — here it is again, —
Nor get a messenger to bring it thee.
So fearful were th^ of infection.
Fri. L. Unhappy fortune! by my brotherhood.
The letter was not nice but full of charge
Of dear import, and the neglecting it
May do much danger. Friar John, go hence; so
Get me an iron crow, and bring it straight
Unto my cell.
Fri. J. Brother, I '11 go and bring it thee. [Exit.
Fri. L. Now must I to the monument alone;
Within this three hours will fair Juliet wake:
She wQl beshrew me much that Romeo
Hath had no notice of these accidents;
But I wQl write again to Mantua,
And keep her at my cell till Romeo come;
Poor living corse, closed in a dead man's tomb!
[Exit.
Scene III — A Churchyard; in it a tomb belonging to the
Capidets
Enter Paris, and his Page, bearing flowers and a
torch
Par. Give me thy torch, boy: hence, and stand
aloof:
Yet put it out, for I would not be seen.
Under yond yew-trees lay thee all along.
Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground;
So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread.
Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves.
ScEKE Three] ROMEO AND JULIET 111
But thou shalt hear it: whistle then to me,
As signal that thou hear'st something approach.
Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee, go.
Page. [Aside,] I am ahnost afraid to stand alone lo
Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure.
{Retires.
Pat. Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I
strew, —
O woe! thy canopy is dust and stones; —
Which with sweet water nightly I will dew.
Or, wanting that, with tears distill'd by moans:
The obsequies that I for thee will keep
Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep.
[The Page whistles.
The boy gives warning something doth approach.
What cursed foot wanders this way to-night.
To cross my obsequies and true love's rite? «o
What, with a torch! muffle me, night, awhile.
[Retires.
Enter Romeo and Balthasar^ with a torch, mat-
tock, 4^.
Rom. Give me that mattock and the wrenching
iron.
Hold, take this letter: early in the morning
See thou deliver it to my lord and father.
Give me the light: upon thy life, I charge thee,
Whatever thou hear'st or seest, stand all aloof.
And do not interrupt me in my course.
Why I descend into this bed of death.
Is partly to behold my lady's face;
But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger' so
112 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Five
A precious ring, a ring that I must use
In dear employment: therefore hence, be gone:
But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry
In what I further shall intend to do.
By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint
And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs:
The time and my intents are savage-wild.
More fierce and more inexorable far
Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.
Bed. I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you. 40
Rom. So shalt thou show me friendship. Take
thou that:
live, and be prosperous: and farewell, good fellow.
Bed. [Aside.] For all this same, I '11 hide me
hereabout:
His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt. [Retires.
Rom. Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,
Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth,
Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open.
And, in despite, I '11 cram thee with more food!
[Opens the tomh.
Par. This is that banish'd haughty Montague,
That murder'd my love's cousin, with which
grief, 50
It is supposed, the fair creature died;
And here is come to do some villainous shame
To the dead bodies: I will apprehend him.
[Ccymes forward.
Stop thy unhallow'd toil, vile Montague!
Can vengeance be pursued further than death?
Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee:
Obey, and go with me; for thou must die.
ScEWE Three] ROMEO AND JULIET 118
Rom. I must indeed; and therefore came I
hither.
Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man;
Fly hence, and leave me: think upon these gone; eo
Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth,
Put not another sin upon my head.
By urging me to fury: O, be gone!
By heaven, I love thee better than myself;
For I come hither arm'd against myself:
Stay not, be gone; live, and hereafter say,
A madman's mercy bade thee nm away.
Par. I do defy thy conjurations.
And apprehend thee for a felon here.
Rom. Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee,
boy! [They fight. 70
Page. O Lord, they fight! I will go call the
watch. [Eani.
Par. O, I am slain. [Falls.] If thou be merciful.
Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet. [Dies.
Rom. In faith, I will. Let me peruse this face.
Mercutio's kinsman, noble County Paris!
What said my man, when my betossed soul
Did not attend him as we rode? I think
He told me Paris should have married Juliet:
Said he not so? or did I dream it so?
Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet, so
To think it was so? O, give me thy hand.
One writ with me in sour misfortune's book!
I '11 bury thee in a triumphant grave;
A grave? O, no! a lantern, slaughter 'd youth.
For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes
This vault a feasting presence full of light.
114 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Five
Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr'd.
[Laying Paris in the tomb.
How oft, when men are at the pomt of death.
Have they been merry! which their keepers call
A lightning before death: O, how may I oo
Call this a Ughtning? O my love! my wife!
Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath.
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:
Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet
Is crimson in thy Ups and in thy cheeks.
And death's pale flag is not advanced there.
Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?
O, what more favour can I do to thee.
Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain
To sunder his that was thine enemy? loo
Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet,
Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believe
That unsubstantial death is amorous.
And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
For fear of that, I still will stay with thee:
And never from this palace of dim night
Depart again: here, here will I remain
With worms that are thy chambermaids; O, here
Will I set up my everlasting rest, no
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your
last!
Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!
ScEKE Theee] ROMEO AND JULIET 115
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!
Here 's to my love! [Drinks.] O true apothecary!
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. 120
[Dies.
Enter, at the other end of the churchyardy Friar Lau-
rence^ with a lantern, crow, and spade
Fri. L. Saint Francis be my speed! how oft to-
night
Have my old feet stumbled at graves! Who 's
there?
Bal. Here 's one, a friend, and one that knows
you well.
Fri. L. Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my
friend.
What torch is yond, that vainly lends his light
To grubs and eyeless skulls? as I discern.
It bumeth in the Capels' monument.
Bal. It doth so, holy sir; and there 's my
master.
One that you love.
Fn. L. Who is it?
Bal. Romeo.
Fri. L. How long hath he been there?
Bal. Full half an hour, iso
Fri. L. Go with me to the vault.
Bal. I dare not, sir:
My master knows not but I am gone hence;
And fearfully did menace me with death,
If I did stay to look on his intents.
116 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Fm:
Fri. L. Stay then; I '11 go alone. Fear comes
upon me;
O, much I fear some ill unlucky thing.
Bed. As I did sleep under this yew-tree here,
I dreamt my master and another fought.
And that my master slew him.
Fri. L. Romeo! [Advances.
Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains i40
. The stony entrance of this sepulchre?
What mean these masterless and gory swords
To Ue discolour'd by this place of peace?
[Enters the tomb.
Romeo! O, pale! Who else? what, Paris too?
And steep'd in blood? Ah! what an unkind hour
Is guilty of this lamentable chance!
The lady stirs. [Juliet wakes,
Jul. O comfortable friar! where is my lord?
I do remember well where I should be,
And there I am. Where is my Romeo? 150
[Noise within.
Fri. L. I hear some noise. Lady , come from that
nest
Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep:
A greater power than we can contradict
Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away.
Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead;
And Paris too. Come, I '11 dispose of thee
Among a sisterhood of holy nuns:
Stay not to question, for the watch is coming;
Come, go, good Juliet [Noise again], I dare no
longer stay.
ScEinfi Theee] ROMEO AND JULIET 117
Jvl. Go, get thee hence, for I will not away. leo
[ExitFri. L.
What 's here? a cup, closed m my true love's hand?
Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end:
O churl! drimk all, and left no friendly drop
To help me after? I will kiss thy lips;
Haply, some poison yet doth hang on them,
To make me die with a restorative. [Kisses him.
Thy lips are warm.
First Watch. [Within.] Lead, boy: which way?
Jul. Yea, noise? then I '11 be brief. O happy
dagger! [Snatching Romeo's dagger.
This is thy sheath [Stabs herself]; there rust, and
let me die. 170
[Falls on Romeo's body and dies.
Enter Watch, with the Page of Paris
Page. This is the place; there, where the torch
doth bum.
First Watch. The ground is bloody; search about
the churchyard:
Go, some of you, whoe'er you find, attach.
Pitiful sight! here lies the county slain:
And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead.
Who here hath lain this two days buried.
Go, tell the prince: run to the Capulets:
Raise up the Montagues: some others search:
We see the ground whereon these woes do lie;
But the true ground of all these piteous woes iso
We cannot without circiunstance descry.
118 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Five
Re-enter some of the Watch, mth Balthasar
Sec. Watch. Here 's Romeo's man; we found him
in the churchyaxd.
First Watch. Hold him in safety, till the prince
come hither.
Re-enter others of the Watch, with Friar Laurence
Third Waich. Here is a friar, that trembles, sighs,
and weeps:
We took this mattock and this spade from him.
As he was coming from this churchyard side.
First Waich. A great suspicion: stay the friar too.
Enter the Prince and Attendants
Prin. What misadventure is so early up.
That calls our person from our morning's rest?
Enter Capulet, Lady Capulet, and others
Cap. What should it be, that they so shriek
abroad? loo
La. Cap. The people in the street cry Romeo,
Some Juliet, and some Paris; and all run.
With open outcry, toward our monument.
Prin. What fear is this which startles in our
ears?
First Watch. Sovereign, here lies the County
Paris slain;
And Romeo dead; and Juliet, dead before,
Warm and new kill'd.
Prin. Search, seek, and know how this foul
murder comes.
Scene Thhee] ROMEO AND JULIET 119
First Watch. Here is a friar, and slaughtered
Romeo's man;
With instruments upon them, fit to open 200
These dead men's tombs.
Cap. O heavens ! O wife, look how our daughter
bleeds!
This dagger hath mista'en, — for, lo, his house
Is empty on the back of Montague, —
And it mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom!
La. Cap. O me! this sight of death is as a bell,
That warns my old age to a sepulchre.
Enter Montague and others
Prin. Come, Montague; for thou art early up.
To see thy son and heir more early down.
Man. Alas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night; 210
Grief of my son's exile hath stopp'd her breath:
What further woe conspires against mine age?
Prin. Look, and thou shalt see.
Mon. O thou untaught! what manners is in
this.
To press before thy father to a grave?
Prin. Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while,
Till we can clear these ambiguities.
And know their spring, their head, their true de-
scent;
And then will I be general of your woes
And lead you even to death: meantime forbear, no
And let mischance be slave to patience.
Bring forth the parties of suspicion.
Fri. L. I am the greatest, able to do least.
Yet most suspected, as the time and place
120 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Fm:
Doth make against me, of this direful murder;
And here I stand, both to impeach and purge
Myself condemned and myself excused.
Prin. Then say at once what thou dost know
in this.
Fri. L. I will be brief, for my short date of
breath
Is not so long as is a tedious tale. tso
Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet;
And she, there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife:
I married them; and their stol'n marriage-day
Was Tybalt's dooms-day, whose untimely death
Banish 'd the new-made bridegroom from this city.
For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined.
You, to remove that siege of grief from her,
Betroth'd and would have married her perforce
To County Paris: then comes she to me.
And, with wild looks, bid me devise some means 240
To rid her from this second marriage.
Or in my cell there would she kill herself.
Then gave I her, so tutor'd by my art,
A sleeping potion; which so took effect
As I intended, for it wrought on her
The form of death: meantime, I writ to Romeo,
That he should hither come as this dire night.
To help to take her from her borrow'd grave.
Being the time the potion's force should cease.
But he which bore my letter, Friar John, sffo
Was stay'd by accident, and yesternight
Retum'd my letter back. Then all alone
At the prefixed hour of her waking.
Came I to take her from her kindred's vault;
ScEKE Three] ROMEO AND JULIET 121
Meaning to keep her closely at my cell.
Till I conveniently could send to Romeo:
But when I came, some minute ere the time
Of her awaking, here untimely lay
The noble Paris and true Romeo dead.
She wakes; and I entreated her come forth, «6o
And bear this work of heaven with patience:
But then a noise did scare me from the tomb;
And she, too desperate, would not go with me,
But, as it seems, did violence on herself.
All this I know; and to the marriage
Her nurse is privy: and, if aught in this
Miscarried by my fault, let my old life
Be sacrificed, some hour before his time.
Unto the rigour of severest law.
Prin. We still have known thee for a holy
man. sro
Where 's Romeo's man? what can he say in this?
Bal. I brought my master news of Juliet's
death;
And then in post he came from Mantua
To this same place, to this same monument.
This letter he early bid me give his father.
And threaten'd me with death, going in the vault.
If I departed not and left him there.
Prin. Give me the letter; I will look on it.
Where is the county's page, that raised the watch?
Sirrah, what made your master in this place? sso
Page. He came with flowers to strew his lady's
grave;
And bid me stand aloof, and so I did:
Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb;
122 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Pivb
And, by and by, my master drew on him;
And then I ran away to call the watch.
Prin. This letter doth make good the friar's
words.
Their course of love, the tidings of her death:
And here he writes that he did buy a poison
Of a poor 'pothecary, and therewithal
Came to this vault to die, and lie with Juliet. 200
Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague!
See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate.
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with
love.
And I for winking at your discords too.
Have lost a brace of kinsmen: all are punish'd.
Cap. O brother Montague, give me thy hand:
This is my daughter's jointure, for no more
Can I demand.
Mon. But I can give thee more:
For I will raise her statue in pure gold;
That while Verona by that name is known, soo
There shall no figure at such rate be set
As that of true and faithful Juliet.
Cap. As rich shall Romeo by his lady lie;
Poor sacrifices of our enmity!
Prin. A glooming peace this morning with it
brings;
The Sim for sorrow, will not show his head;
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon'd and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Borneo. [Exeunt, sio
NOTES
ABBREVIATIONS
Abbott Abbott*s Shakeipearian Orammar, Sd edi-
tion.
Brooke Arthur Brooke^s poem, Bomeus and JuUet,
ed. Munro, J. J.
F 1 or F First Folio (1623) of Shakespeare^s plays.
F8 Second Folio (1632).
Ff Folios.
N. E. Diet . , . A New English Dictionary ^ ed. Murray.
Ql First Quarto (1597) of JRonMO and /ti/i«<.
Q2 Second Quarto (1599).
Q3 Third Quarto (1607).
Q4 Fourth Quarto.
Q5 Fifth Quarto (1637).
Qq Quartos.
Schmidt Schmidi^s 8hdke9pea/re Lexioon,
PROLOGUE
The object of a prologue is to give the audience in a few words,
the subject and character of the play about to be presented. Since
this prologue has no marked stylistic excellence, doubt is some-
times expressed as to its authorship. The form is identical with
that of Shakespeare's sonnets, as is the epilogue to Henry V. See
Appendix A, iv, for the form of the Prologue printed in Q 1.
4. civH^ itf. belonging to the state.
6. stoT'Cross'd. The domination of evil stars governed the fate
of the lovers. Belief that stars control our destiny is not unknown
at the present day, but among the Elizabethans it had more gen-
eral acceptance. In this play Romeo, especially, refers to it again
and again. Shakespeare's interest in astrology is attested in Son-
nets xiv and xv.
8. do. Rowe's correction from the older doth, which is retained
124 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act One
by some editors and is defensible on grounds of usage. But the suc-
cession of sounds, ** Doth wUh theit dea^A,** makes the line undeni-
ably harsh.
12. two hours'. Of interest as indicating the length of perform-
ance of an Elizabethan play. Allusions in contemporary dramas
point to the same conclusion. Cf. Henry VIII, Prologue:
" may see away their shilling
Richly in two short hours."
ACT I -SCENE 1
This scene is an admirable example of dramatic skill in opening
the play. A fight beginning among some ignorant servants and
gradually involving most of the important personages in the Capu-
let and Montague families, not only introduces these characters,
but at the same time explains the situation between the houses,
emphasizes the senseless feud, and strikes the keynote of the trag-
edy. In contrast to the mad fiiry of most of his ftiends and foes is
Romeo'ri affected melancholy, the result of unrequited love for a
Capulet maiden. His presence in such an atmosphere is sure to
bring misfortune. The fiery speeches of Tybalt and the explicit
warning by Prince Escalus foreshadow the tragic developments of
act iii. scene 1.
1, carry coals, put up with insults, bear affronts. The lowest
metaial servants were supposed to carry the coal, and hence to sub-
mit to any indignity. In the same connection may be explained
the term eolUer, in the next line.
4. choler. As the pun would indicate, the pronunciation was
then as now almost the same as that of " collar." Jonson has the
same pun. Every Man in His Humour, iiL 5. &-9.
15. take the wall, figurative for "getting the better of." In
the narrow, undrained streets of this period the side of the road
nearest the wall was safer and hence was mucn sought after when
travellers met But it was deemed one of the privileges of rank to
** take the wall" side from those of meaner birth.
17. the weakest goes to the wall, a popular proverb of the time,
and the title of an anonymous play, published in 1600.
20. weaker vessels, a Biblical allusion. See 1 Peter, iiL 7.
S7. poor John, hake dried and salted, apparently the staple food
of servants during Lent. Of course Gregory is hitting at the lean-
ness of his comrade.
Scene Owe] NOTES 125
88. two of . , . the Montagues. They recognize their foes at
a distance by the tokens worn in their caps. Cf . Gascoigne, ]>wiee
of a Masque (1575) :
"And for a further proof e 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."
44. take the law of our sides. Q 1 reads on our sides, which
gives the correct meaning.
48. bite my thumb, " to threaten or defie, by putting the thumbe
naile into the mouth, and with a jerke (from the upper teeth) make
to knacke " (Cotgrave).
85. one of my mastefs kinsmen^ i. e. Tybalt Benvolio coming
from the other side, is unnoticed.
70. swashing J the reading of Qq. 4, 5, generally accepted in place
of \hetD€uhing oJP Q 9, F. Swashing means smashing, crushing, as
in As You Like It, i. 3. 199, '* a swashing and a martial outside.**
But Dowden thinks washing '* is possible," and follows Daniel in
citing Richard Harvey, Plains PerceoaU (1589) : " A washing blow
of this [a quarter-staff] is as good as a Laundresse. '* To this cita-
tion may be added Fletcher, The Wild-Goose Chase (c 1691), v. 4. 38,
«• give her but a washing blow,'* which Wilson emends to swashing,
71. Part, fools! Benvolio furnishes a strong foil to Tybalt, and
later to Mercutio.
73. What, art thou drawn? Is your sword drawn? See I. 77,
below.
heartless hinds. Note the word-play between hearts and hart
Heartless here signifies cowardly. Hinds may mean female deer,
as well as menials.
79. Have at thee, I shall strike thee, a conventional threat
80. Clubs, bills, and partisans, a call for men armed with these
weapons to put down the disturbance. " Clubs ! *' was a familiar
street-cry of Shakespeare*s London, originally applied to the ap-
prentices, but later to the policemen.
81. in his gown, i. e. nightgown. Old Capulet's rest has been
disturbed by the ftay.
82. my long sword, for defence ; his short sword served only for
ornament.
83. a crutch. Lady Capulet, who is younger than her husband.
Insinuates that he is too infirm to engage in conflict
126 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Oke
86. in spite of me. Not the modem sense ofthe phrase, but** in
despite or defiance of me.'* Cf. Milton, UAUegro :
" Then to come in spite of sorrow.
And at my window bid good morrow."
96. airy word, light word. Cf. HamUt, iL 3. 267: •* I hold
ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow's
shadow."
102. cankefd. See Glossary.
109. Free-town, ViUa Franca in the Italian story. Shakespeare
found the English word in Brooke, used of the castle in which Paris
and Juliet were to wed. See Appendix B, 1.
119. Who, nothing hurt withal. Who in Elizabethan English is
frequently used of inanimate objects regarded as persons. See
Abbott, § 964, and cf. i. 4. 100, and iil 3. 38, below. For the ad-
verbial use of nothing, cf. Abbott, § 65. WUhcd = with it, as fre-
quently in Shakespeare.
128. "The sycamore or wild-fig tree Shakespeare has referred
to in Lovers Labour's Lost, v. 3, and in Othello, iv. 3, as a tree whose
shade is dedicated to dejected lovers " (Delius).
131. ware. See Glossary.
134. This line was adapted from Q 1 by Pope. Many editors
prefer the reading of the other Quartos and the Folio :
" Which then most sought where most might not be found.
Being one too many by my weary self."
Hudson, adopting this latter reading, construes *' His disposition
was to be in solitude, as he could hardly endure even so much com-
pany as himself." The thought of the present reading is funda-
mentally ** never less alone than when alone," an apothegm
attributed by Cicero to Scipio Africanus, and repeated many times
by both Latin and English writers. An extended series of notes on
the phrase was called forth by Professor A. S. Cook in Modem
Language Notes, xxiv, xxv, and xxvi.
143. Observe the double pun here concerning the heavy son
(sun) who steals away from light
167. bit with. For the use of this preposition where we should
use "by," cf. Abbott, § 193.
159. the sun. Theobald's emendation for the same of Qq Ff.
161. Enter Romeo. Some critics place his entrance four lines
below, where Benvolio first addresses him. Romeo probably enters
Scene One] NOTES 127
at the back of the stage and is coming forward to meet his friends
while they are speaking these lines.
165. to hear true shrift, as to hear an honest confession. For
omission of e», see Abbott, § 281.
166. good morrow, good morning. Romeo is surprised to learn
that it is not yet noon.
167. ay me! the lover*s sigh. Note Juliet's use of it, ii. 2, 25,
and Mercutio*s raillery, ii. 1. 10, below.
176. view, i. e, appearance. In L 177, below, it means sight,
power of seeing.
177. still. See Glossary.
178. Love is represented as blindfolded, and yet he finds his
way to the hearts of all. The meaning is not, as some have
thought, that Love perceives the road that he is forbidden to take.
These lines fairly represent the conventional love-language of the
Elizabethans.
181. The family hatred interferes with Romeo's love. Rosaline
is a Capulet, as i. 9. 72, below, indicates.
183. create. Some editors prefer created, the reading of Q 2.
The meaning would be the same in both cases, but create seems
preferable on account of the rhyme so produced. Couplets are often
introduced into the midst of blank verse, as in IL 190-197, 199-204,
208-209, etx;., below.
198. propagate, "to extend ; to increase ** (Webster), a sense
now obsolete.
to have it prest, by having it pressed ; the infinitive is used
gerundially. See Abbott, § 356. Dowden suggests that the ref-
erence is to Benvolio's word, oppression, L 190, above.
196. too much of mine own. Professor Chambers cites Hamlet,
iv. 7. 117 :
" For goodness growing to a plurisy.
Dies in his own too much."
196. raised. So reads Q 1 ; others have made, which some
editors prefer.
197. purged, purified ftY>m smoke.
200. choking gall . . . preserving sweet. ** The line means
that love kills and keeps alive, is a bane and an antidote " (Dowden).
206. sadness, soberness, seriousness. So sadfy, L 207, means
seriously.
214-226. It has been suggested that Shakespeare may have
intended these lines as a compliment to Queen Elizabeth.
128 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act One
216. Dion's wit^ " a mind like Diana's, witib reference botib to
her will and to her intelligence " (Strunk).
216. strong proof, "a state of having been tried and having
stood the test " (Herford).
217. unharm'd, the reading of Q 1, which has been generally
adopted. F 1 and all the quartos except Q 1 read uncharrn*d, but
this word seems inconsistent with the figure of the bow and arrow.
Collier has encharmed.
218. siege. The figure of a besieged castle, applied to a lady
sued by her lover, was one of the most common in Shakespeare*s
day. So Cymbelins, iii. 4. 136 :
" That Cloten, whose love-suit hath been to me
As fearful as a siege."
V&mu and Adonis, 423 : " Remove your siege from my unyielding
heart." It is the same figure that Regan uses in Kin^ Lear, v. 3.
76, when in token of complete surrender to Edmund she exclaims :
** Dispose of them, of me ; the walls are thine."
222, 224-226. By resolving to remain a maiden she will leave
no one to inherit her beauty. Dowden quotes Sonnets, xi. 9-10 :
" Let those whom Nature hath not made for store
Harsh, featureless, and rude, bairenly perish."
The same thought is repeated many times in Sonnets, i.-xviL It is
also found in contemporary writings. So about 1590 Robert Greene
in his play. Friar Bacon (Works, ed. Collins, v. 1. 1908) makes Lacy
exclaim to his beloved Margaret, who is about to become a mm:
" Twere injurie to me.
To smother up such bewtie in a cell."
227. wisely too fair. ** There is in her too much sanctimonious
wisdom united with beauty which induces her to continue chaste
with the hope of attaining heavenly bliss " (Malone).
236. " To force that exquisite beauty of hers yet more upon my
judgment, and so make me more keenly alive to it " (Herford).
236. these happy masks, probably not referring specifically to
masks worn by spectators at the play, but to women's masks in
general, kappy in being permitted to touch their fair brows. Of
course, there is a further suggestion that Rosaline's beauty sur-
passes that of x>ther ladies as far as a fair lady's countenance sur-
Scene Two] NOTES 129
passes the mask. The figures elaborated in lines 238-49 give
other turns to the same thought.
238. stmcken. For form see Abbott, § 344, and compare King
Lear, i 4. 93: "I '11 not be stmcken, my lord."
240. passing, surpassingly, exceedingly, as in OtheUo, i 3. 160 :
" T was strange, *t was passing Strang^."
244. doctrine, teaching, instruction, the literal sense of the
word. Hence, pay that doctrine = give that instruction, whatever
may be the cost.
SCENE 9
Here we are concerned with two distinct Dues of action. First,
Paris is shown (as in no earlier version of the story) to be a claim-
ant for Juliet's hand even before the latter meets Romeo. Then,
at the suggestion of Benvolio, Romeo decides on the dangerous
step of attending uninvited a feast at the Capulet home.
1. But Montague is bound. Shakespeare learned early the
playwright's trick of adding vitality to his scenes by opening them
in the midst of a conversation.
4. reckoning, estimation, distinction. N, E, Diet quotes
Cogan's translation of Pinto's Travels, xlvii. 971 : " He found that
some fifty thousand were missing, all men of little reckoning."
9. fourteen years. Painter makes Juliet eighteen, and Brooke
makes her sixteen. Exactly why Shakespeare reduces her age
still more is not easy to see. One theory is that in the edition of
Brooke which he used, ** xvi " may have been misprinted '* xiv."
Professor Barrett Wendell suggests that he wished to use the pun
in i. 3. 13, below, and that the word ** six " there would give too
harsh a sibilant line. Another critic thinks that, owing to Capulet's
real or feigned reluctance to part with his daughter, Shakespeare
changed the age in order to give him a better excuse. But Dow-
den notes that Shakespeare's Marina in Pericles is fourteen, that
Miranda in The Tempest is only fifteen, and elsewhere that Abigail
in Marlowe's Jew of Malta, described as " the sweetest flower in
Cytherea's field " (cf. iv. 5. 99, below), is fourteen. This seems to
indicate that some literary convention guided Shakespeare, although
fourteen strikes modem readers as unreasonably young.
11. Cf. Brooke, 1. 1860 : ** Scarce saw she yet full sixteen years :
too young to be a bride."
13. vnade, the reading of Q 9, F, against the married of Q 1.
The quibble between made and mar occurs in ii. 4. 191-9, below*
130 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act One
But there is a similar quibble between marred and married found
in Shakespeare and other writers, as in All V WeU^ ii. 3. 315 : *' A
young man married is a man that 's marred. "
14. all my hopes but she. Capulet, who is an old man, may
have lost some children by a former wife. That Juliet is the only
child of the present union is distinctly implied in iii. 5. 166, below.
On the other hand, Shakespeare may have made here, as else-
where, a slip too trivial to be noticed in an acted play.
For the use of she where her is demanded by strict grammatical
laws, cf. Abbott's explanation, § 911, that she seemed more like an
uninflected noun than he.
16. lady of my earth, probably a mere translation of the French
expression for heiress, fiUe de terre, with a quibble on earth in the
previous line. But Dowden takes earth to mean ** my body,** as in
ii. 1. 2.
17. but a part, subordinate to. Capulet forgets this speech
later. Cf. iii. 5. 150 ff.
23. makes. Apparently there is confusion as to subject be-
tween you and one more. Cf. Abbott, § 419. Or we may place a
semicolon after store, in which case one would be the subject of the
verb.
26. earth-treading stars, i. e. **all the admired beauties of
Verona."
26. young men. Johnson su^^sted the emendation yeomen,
but Malone compares Sonnets, xcviii. 2-S :
" When proud-pied April dress'd in all his trim
Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing."
SO. inheritf obtain. Cf. Luke, xviii. 18 : ** Good Master, what
shall I do to inherit eternal life ? "
32, 33. The couplet is undoubtedly obscure and has given critics
much difficulty. The meaning seems to be, ** On further observa-
tion of many of these, my daughter may be counted anong the
number, though her estimation, or value, will be nothing." The
figure one was then considered as no number. To show this many
passages from Elizabethan writings have been cited, as Sonnets,
czxxvi. 8 :
" Among a number one is reckon'd none ;
Then in the number let me pass untold."
46. in good time, at the opportune moment. Just when he needs
them he sees coming two men who can probably read the list for him«
Scene Two] NOTES 131
46. Cf. Coriolanus, iy. 7. 54 : *' One fire drives out one fire ; one
nail, one naiL** Brooke, L 907, puts it :
" And as out of a plank a nail a nail doth drive.
So novel love out of the mind the ancient love doth rive."
46-61. These lines, like Romeo*s speech, U. 9S-8, below, in
form and spirit resemble the seHeUe, or concluding six lines of the
sonnet as Shakespeare wrote it. Cf. v. 3. 19-17, and v. 3. 305-10,
below. Complete sonnets in the play are the Prologue, the Chorus
between acts i. and ii., and 1. 5. 95-108, below. The presence of
these sonnet forms in the text points to early workmanship of
Shakespeare, when he was experimenting with metrical forms.
48. hoip. On this old form where we use the weak preterit
helped^ see Abbott, § 343. The older form is still heard.
49. cures, heals ; the only instance of the verb used intransi-
tively by Shakespeare.
62. Romeo is not insane, as Benvolio affects to conclude from this
remark, but is too busy dreaming of Rosaline to follow closely his
friend's observations. Since Benvolio has mentioned '* grief
(which sometimes meant a wound), infection, and poison, he sug-
gests a sovereign remedy for physical hurts, viz. the plantain leaf.
66-67. These lines indicate tiie ordinary treatment of madmen
by Shakespeare's contemporaries. Readers of Twelfth Night will
recall how Malvolio is imprisoned and tormented during his sup-
posed madness.
68. God gi' god'den, God give you a good evening. According
to Schmidt this salutation was used only by the common people to
their superiors. Cf. ii. 4. 116, and iii. 5. 173, below.
66. rest you merry! God keep you merry, the parting
salutation.
70, 72. The names of both Mercutio and Rosaline will be no-
ticed on the list of invited guests. Mercutio seems to be on
friendly terms with both of the hostile houses, while Rosaline is a
niece to Old Capulet
86. crush a cup, a common expression for drinking, like " crack
a bottle " to-day. Compare Shallow's phrase, ** crack a quart " in
2 H&my IV, v. S. 66.
90. unattainted, t. «. impartial.
98-98. See note on U. 46-51, above.
96 ff. Reference is to Romeo's eyes, which though often drowned
in tears still live to maintain their opinion. If Benvolio's state-
182 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Owe
ments be true, Romeo would wish the tears to be changed to fire,
so that Uke heretics his eyes might be destroyed. Witches were
burned because, according to popular belief, they could not be
drowned.
101. that crystal scales. For other nouns now plural but used
as singular by Shakespeare, see Abbott, § 338.
102. lady's love. So read all the old editions. Theobald pro-
posed lady-hvs, an emendation which has met with general fetvor.
104. scant, scarcely ; an adverb here.
SCENE 3
The heroine of the play now first appears on the stage in conver-
sation with her mother and a garrulous nurse. News as to Paris*s
prospective suit is received by her with indifference, as her heart is
not now set on marriage. The whole scene clearly looks forward to
scene 5 of this act.
8. /aefy-&ircf, sweetheart; a term of affection. Cf. Jonson, C^ti-
thia's Bevels (1600 ; ed. Judson, A. C), ii. 4. 7 : " Is that your new
ruffe, sweet lady-bird? "
4. God forbid ! Probably the true meaning of this ejaculation
is that given by Dyce : that the Nurse, not getting any reply to her
call, exclaims, ** God forbid ** that any harm should have come to
her darling.
The line is scanned. No. 1, in Appendix D.
7. give leave awhile, let us talk awhile in private ; a common
form of dismissal. Cf. S Henry F/, iiL IB. 33: "Lords, give us
leave. Ill try this widow's wit."
9. thou 's, a colloquialism for "Thou shalt.*' Cf. Lear, iv. 6.
246 : " Ise try whether your costard or my hallow be the harder,"
where the first word is a similarly formed contraction for "I
shall."
13. teen. For meaning see Glossary, and cf. note on L 2, 9,
above. Tbe Nurse employs this word with four to bring out the
pun.
The line is scanned. No. 2, in Appendix D.
16. LammaS'tide, loof-mass, August 1, in England, the time
of harvest festival. All the events of the play take place in July
or August. This is in harmony with Benvolio*s words, iii. 1. 9-4,
below.
17. The line is scanned. No. 3, in Appendix D.
Scene Three] NOTES 133
23. since the earthquake . . . eleven years. The signifi-
cance of this line in determining the date of the play has already
been referred to in the Introduction. It need hardly be said here
that from the general character of the Nurse*s speech not too much
seriousness should be attached to her statements. Although she
claims to bear a brain, she is garrulity itself, and contradicts
herself several times in the course of her remarks. Granting that
a reference to the earthqttake would to the audience imply only
the great earthquake of 1580, it does not follow that the play must
have been written eleven years later. For if this be true, it is hard
to see why the words eleven years should have been left un-
changed when the play was revised some time after 1591.
26. The line is scanned. No. 4, in Appendix D.
27. Rolfe suggests here a comparison with the words of Dame
Quickly where in 2 Henry IV, ii. 1. 93 ff., she recalls to Falstaff tke
most exact circumstances of his promising to marry her.
The line is scanned, No. 5, in Appendix D.
29. hear a brain, have a good memory. See N, E, Diet, under
brain for other examples of the phrase.
81. pretty fool. Fool is used here as a term of endearment, as
in the extremely pathetic allusion to Cordelia by her aged father,
Lear, v. 3. 305 : "And my poor fool is dead ! "
33. Shake, quoth the dove-house. The dove-house shook.
Daniel notes the phrase in other dramas of the day, as Peele, Old
Wives' Tale (ed. Neilson), 1. 746 : *• Bounce, quoth the guns."
Exactly the same words are in Beaumont and Fletcher, The Knight
of the Burning Pestle, v. 1. 95.
36. The line is scanned. No. 6, in Appendix D.
alone, the reading of the Folio and late Quartos as opposed to the
high-lone of Q 1 and hylone of Q 2. Many editors prefer the latter
reading, which would not alter the sense of the passage. Dowden
adopting it quotes JV. E. Diet, and adds : ** Some early examples
are of infants, which leads me to conjecture that it was a favorite
nursery word, as nurses nowadays encourage a child to stand loney-
proudy. " The usual substitute for the last word in at least one part
of the United States with which I am familiar is loney-Umey, but I
am told that high-loney is still not unknown as a synonymous ex-
pression. Cf. our idiom, ** It *s high time," etc., where high is used
as an intensive.
69. mark, designate, elect, as in Henry V, iv. 3. 20, **if we are
marked to die."
66. an honour that I dream not of. Apparently Jonson parodies
134 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act One
this line in Cynthia's Revels (ed. Judson), iv. 1. 31: ** *tis an animaU
I dreame not of." The italics of tiie one word changed are
Jonson's.
72. much upon these years, almost at the same age. How old
does this make Lady Capiilet? Her husband is evidently much
oldar.
76. man of wax, t. e. perfect The meaning is given in a pas-
sage cited by Dyce from Faire Em, an anonymous ^drama once
attributed to Shakespeare :
" A sweet face, an exceeding darntie hand :
A body, were it framed of wax
By all the cunning artists of the world.
It could not better be proportioned."
Dowden quotes Field, A Woman is a Weathercock : " By Jove, it
is a little man of wax.**
81-94. "Shakespeare was evidently fond of resembling the face
t> a book, and having once arrived at this similitude, the compari-
son, however odd, of the eyes to the margin, wherein of old the
commentary on the text was printed, is not altogether unnatural.
This passage, which presents both the primary and the subordinate
metaphor, is the best example he has given of this peculiar associ-
ation of ideas '* (Staunton). Cf. i. 1. 241-2, above, where Rosa-
line's face is compared to a note. The large number of conceits in
the passage point to its composition during the immaturity of the
author, and when euphuism was in vogue.
83. married lineament, all the members of his body well har-
monized. This reading, since the figure is consistent with the tone
of the whole speech, seems more satisfactory than the several linear
ment of Q 1 and Ff, adopted by some editors.
\86. margent of his eyes. Malone quotes Lucreee, 99-102 :
" But she that never coped with stranger eyes.
Could pick no meaning from their parling looks.
Nor read the subtle-shining secrecies
Writ in the glassy margents of such books."
88. cover. Probably, as Mason suggests, this is merely a quib-
ble on the contemporary French law phrase for a married woman,
who was styled &feme covert.
89. lives in the sea. Probably she means that the bride was
yet to be caught, alluding to the famiUar proverb.
Scene Four] NOTES 135
96. like of. Abbott, § 177, gives other instances of this idiom
in Shakespeare. Formerly it was customary to say, *' It likes me
of the man,*' rather than "I like the man." Abbott thinks the
phrase in question may have originated in this impersonal use of
the verb.
98. endart. Pope preferred engage found in Q 1, but the present
reading merely begins the figure from archery which is continued in
the next line.
SCENE 4
Of little dramatic importance is this scene, though it contains one
notable poetic passage. Then it introduces the high-spirited Mer-
cutio, henceforth to play a leading rdle in the plot. In Brooke
Mercutio is a rival of Romeo, but Shakespeare, while using him as
a foil to both Benvolio and Romeo, makes him the indirect cause
of Tybalt's death, and so of Romeo's banishment
1. this speech. Fumess suggests the speech, but there is not
sufficient reason fbr emendation. Romeo perhaps feels the need
of an apology more than his companions do, since it is the home of
his father's chief enemy which he is entering uninvited.
8. prolixity, tedious detail It was customary for maskers on
coming to a feast to send in some one to announce their arrival
Thus in Henry VIIL i. 4. ^S, the Chamberlain announces in stately
words the coming of the King and his fellow-maskers ; and in Timon
of Athens, \. 2. 1S8, Cupid is the forerunner of ** certain ladies most
desirous of admittance."
4. hoodwinJ^d, blindfolded ; the literal meaning of the word,
from hood + winked.
6. a Tartar's painted bow. " The Tartarian bows . . . resem-
bled in their form the old Roman or Cupid's bow, such as we see
on medals and bas-reliefs. Shakespeare uses the epithet to distin-
guish it from the English bow, whose shape is the segment of a
circle " (Douce).
" Lath means here wood ; but bows were regularly made of this
material. Perhaps Shakespeare was thinking of the * dagger of
lath ' used by the Vice in tiie moralities, and used ItUh to fill out
his line without special regard to the context." Cf. Twelfth Night,
iv. 2. 134 ff.:
" Like to the old Vice . . .
Who with dagger of lath.
In his rage and his wrath.
Cries, ah, ha! to the devil."
136 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act One
6. like, in the shape of. Compare M<uhM, i 3. 9-10, where
the First Witch threatens :
" And, like a rat without a tail,
I *11 do, I '11 do, and I 'U do."
crow-keeper = scarecrow.
7» 8. These lines evidently have more than a literal significance,
and two interpretations of them are possible. It is sometimes sug-
gested that the dramatist may be striking at actors who i a a witk-
TtU-book prologue would speak ** more than is set down for them.**
Compare the advice to the players in HamUt^ iiL 2. 42 ff. But
Professor £. K. Chambers regards this explanation as " not likely,'*
and adds, "The reference is to a Prologue speaker who doesn*t
know his lines.*' This last interpretation would explain why the
actor without the book in his hands speaks faintly . . . after the
prompter.
8. entrance, a trisyllable. See Appendix D, and cf. Macheth^
1. 5. 40 : ** That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan.**
11. a torch. Every troop of maskers had its torchbearer. So
Jessica in male attire carries the torch for Lorenzo and his com-
pany of maskers in The Merchant of Venice, ii. 6. Romeo is a£Pecting
too melancholy a mood to take part in the vanity of his fellows.
12. heavy . . . light, a quibble which apparently age could not
wither nor custom stale for the Elizabethan. The numerous puns
in this scene will not escape any careful reader ; e, g, meature, meae-
ure; soles, soul; sore, soar; hound, bound; done, dun. While such
puns occur more frequently in Shakespeare*s earlier than in his
later plays, the dramatist employed them till the last
21. pitch, literally = point, but it probably continues the figure
from falconry expressed or implied in lines 18-93.
30. a visor for a visor ! Possibly, as some explain, an ugly
mask is handed to Mercutio and he takes it. Others think that he
dons no mask on account of his fantastic face. Littledale makes
the plausible suggestion to punctuate with an exclamation point
after L 39, as Mercutio refuses the offered mask.
3L quote, notice, observe ; cf. TroUus and Cressida, iv. 5. 233 :
"I have . . . quotedjoint by joint.'*
36. rushes, used then on floors as we use carpets.
38. a candle-holder, idle spectator, like our "wall-flower."
Romeo is proverVd with this grandsire phrase.
40. dun 's the mouse. Malone cites Patient Orissel (1603) ; " don
is the mouse, lie stilL" He adds, " I know not why, this phrase
Scene Four] NOTES 137
seems to have meant * Peace ; be still ! ' and hence it may be said to
be * the constable's own word ' while apprehending an offender and
afraid of alarming him by any noise." The origin of the phrase is
still unsettled, but as the mouse is dun-colored and proverbially
quiet, some connection between the two qualities may have been
supposed. Of course, Mercutio characteristically goes far astray to
employ the pun.
41. Having quibbled once with dun, Mercutio thinks of another
proverb founded on the common use of the word, like Dobbin, as
the name of an old horse, ** to draw Dun out of the mire." Gifford
describes a Christmas game which he himself played and which
was so called. The object of the game was to lift Dun, a log which
had been brought into the midst of the room, and take it out The
fun arose from letting the log fall on some one's toes. A friendly
critic has called my attention to the feict that in another Eliza-
bethan play. Sir John Oldcctstle, v. 3, one of the characters, Dick
Dunne, is mired in a slough, but I cannot see that the passage
sheds much light on the expression. The proverb is as old as
Chaucer, for in the prologue to the Manciple's Tale^ are found the
words, " Dun is in the mire."
42. Of this sir-reverence. So Q 1 ; other early editions Or save
your [or you] reverence. In either case we have a translation or
contraction of the Latin ablative absolute, eahyd reveretUid, It was
a common form of apology for the introduction of euiy impropriety
in conversation, and later came to take on the meaning of the im-
proper words themselves. Exactly what Mercutio intends to sig-
nify will perhaps not bear too close examination.
43. bum daylight, to light a candle while the sun is shining ;
figuratively used of wasting time, as Mercutio explains.
47. five wits, employed sometimes as synonymous with the five
senses, and again, according to Stephen Hawes (1554) as the intel-
lectual faculties or five inlets of ideas, " common wit, imagination,
fantasy, estimation (or judgment), and memory." The expression
here seems to bear the second interpretation. Mercutio says they
are burning daylight ; Romeo, taking the remark literally, denies it
since they have their candles lighted at night. Mercutio begs him
to consider the speeches with regard to their meaning, and find his
judgment there rather than among the intellectual faculties. A
recent illuminating discussion in this field is Dowden's article on
** Elizabethan Psychology " in The Atlantic Monthly, yoL 100, pp.
388-99.
60. dream'd a dream. Romeo is superstitious by nature, and
188 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Oke
he fears the result of this masking from the start. Since the audi-
ence must have known the story well, the effect of this speech
would not be lost on them.
61. Note the contrast between the two friends. Compare the
conversation on the same subject between the cock and the hen in
Chaucer's NufC9 Priest's Tale.
63 ff. Is there any reason why this long speech of Mercutio*s
should be introduced into the conversation here|? Q 1 inserts after
1. 53 a query of Benvolio, ** Queen Mab, what*s she?" But even
with this reading the passage is scarcely justified from a dramatic
standpoint, and it must be taken as a lyrical outburst illustrating
the ebullient fancy of the author at this stage. It is in much
the same strain as the feury scenes of A Midsummer Nighf^s
Dream.
63. Queen Mab, a familiar personage in Celtic folklore, but
there has not been found in English literature any earlier reference
to her than this. Drayton's Nymphidia (1597) contains a descrip-
tion of her chariot, apparently imitated from Shakespeare. Pro-
fessor Chambers, in his edition of A Midsummer Nights Dream
of this series, p. 144, has an interesting note on the various
names of the fEury queen, there called Titania. He observes
that the present account of Mab " has many points which
resemble the characteristics of the domestic spirit as found in
Robin Goodfellow."
64. fairies midwife. Not to the fairies, but the fairy, herself,
who delivers dreamers of theur femcies, those children of an idle
brain, 1. 97.
66. agate-stone, a figure cut in the agate of a ring. So in
2 Henry IV, i. 2. 19, Fsdstaff, complaining of the diminutive size
of his page, excliums, " I was never manned with an agate until
now."
69. spinners', spiders'. Compare Latimer's words : '* Where the
bee gathereth honey, even there the spinner gathereth venome."
So also A Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 2. SI : <* Hence, you long^
legg'd spinners, hence ! "
63. film, ** the thin skin which separates the seed in the pods "
(Schmidt).
66. lazy finger, an allusion to the popular belief that idle yoimg
women were apt to have worms in their fingers.
77. courtier's. Pope tries to avoid the repetition here by sub-
stituting lawyer's, the reading of Q 1, but that word is open to
precisdy the same objection, being used in 1. 73, above. The
Scene Four] NOTES 189
repetition may not have been intentional, but there is no necessity
for emendation.
85. Cf. 2 Hmry /F, v. a 66-7 :
" Fill the cup» and let it come ;
I 'U pledge you a mile to the bottom."
89. According to Douce reference is made to a superstition that
evil spirits, taking the form of women clothed in white, 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.
90. elf 'locks, hairs beUeved to have been tangled by fairies or
elves.
91. bodes. The real subject of this verb, which, is plural, but
the notion of entangling gives a singular verb-form. See Abbott,
§337.
100. who. See note on i. 1. 119, above.
103. face. Is this word or side better? The latter has the
authority of all the early editions except Q 1, from which Pope
restored the present reading.
dew-dropping south. For some reason Shakespeare seems to
hav€ associated the south with dampness, mist, and contagion. So
he has. As Tou Like It, iii* 6. 50, *' Like foggy south puffing with
wind and rain"; 2 Henry IV, ii. 4. 392, " Like the south. Borne
with black vapour"; Troilus and Cressida, v. 1. 21, "The rotten
diseases of the south"; 2 Henry VI, iii. 2. 384, **And with the
southern clouds contend in tears"; Coriolanus, i. 4. 30, "All the
contagion of the south light on you"; Cymbeline, ii. 3. 136,
"The south-fog rot him "; and Cymbeline, iv. 2. 349, "From the
spongy south."
106. Again Romeo displays his fatalism. We were informed in
the Prologue that this was " a pair of star-cross*d lovers."
109. expire, cause to expire, finish. Dowden cites Lyly, Ewphues
(Arber, p. 77) : " To swill the drink that will expyre thy date."
11 L The folios add a stage-direction: They march about the
stage, and Servingmen come forth toith their napkins. After some
frolicsome horse play they were to leave the stage and the next
scene was to follow immediately.
140 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Oke
SCENE 6
A series of pictures of the feasting, dancing, and parleying at
Capiilet*s banquet forms, irom tlie spectacular standpoint, one of
the most effective scenes in the play. But despite the prevailing
tone of happiness in the first meeting of Romeo and Juliet, the in-
evitable love resulting on both sides is accompanied by a note of
tragedy, not only in the threats of Tybalt, the chief antagonist, but
also in the mental forebodings of evil that come to both lovers.
1. As in the opening scene, a touch of realism is added by begin-
ning the action with a conversation between servants. Of this con-
versation there is no hint in any known source.
8. court-cupboard, a movable cupboard used for the display of
plate.
good thou. See Abbott, § 13, for similar instances of the voca-
tive use of good.
16. the longer liver take all. Let him who lasts longer get the
whole reward — a familiar proverb of the time.
18. gentlemen, a dissyllable : see Appendix D, No. 7, for scan-
sion of line.
21. deny, refuse, as in The Taming of the Shrew, ii 1. 180 : ** If
she deny to wed, I '11 crave the day When I shall ask the bans.'*
makes dainty, affects timidity.
22. come near you. Does the cap fit you? Compare ifl«nry/F,
i 9. 14: ** Indeed you come near me now, HaL"
28. a hall ! Make room !
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. quench the fire. Why should a fire be burning in an Italian
house in midsummer? The answer is that in Brooke's Bomeus and
Juliet the feast at Capilet's house occurs when " weary winter
nights restore the Christmas games." Shakespeare in shortening
the time of action and placing the feast in the hot season probably
overlooked this slight anachronism. He was not in the habit of
watching such details with the modem critic's eye.
82. cousin. Capulet is really his uncle, for see i. 9. 71, above,
but the term ** cousin " was then used of almost any relative. Later
Lady Capulet calls Tybalt her cousin although he is her nephew.
37. nuptial, nuptials, wedding ; the usual form of the noun in
Shakespeare.
ScEKE Five] NOTES 141
48 fl. Fuller compares the Bom§o m JtdUtte of Stn4J8, trana-
lating from this Dutch play (see Appendix C) as follows : ** There
for the first time I beheld my love, who like a silver moon shone
down upon her mates. Next other jewels a brilliant diamond she
appeared. Her two eyes I saw sparlde as gleam Castor and PoUnx
on high.*'
46. knight. Cf. Brooke here : ** With torch in hand a comely
knight did lead her forth to dance.**
47. It Mems she hangs. This is the reading of all the Quartos
and of F 1. Some editors prefer that ofF2, Hir bMuty kangi, etc.
There appears to be little to choose between the two readings, but
that of the text is certainly the more authoritative. Cf. Sanmts
xxvii,lL 11-112:
"Which like a jewel hung in ghastly night.
Makes black night hideous and her old face new." ^
68. In older versions of the story Romeo seises her left hand
while Mercntio holds the right.
66 fl. For corresponding lines in the Dutch play, see Appendix C.
67. what dares^ how dares. C£ Vmub and Adonis, 950 : ** What
may a heavy groan advantage thee ? " Theobald, followed by some
modem editors, punctuates. What! dares, etc.
68. aniic face, Tybalt refers to the mask which Romeo had
donned; "a. grinning face, such as merry-andrews wear"
(Ddius).
69. scHemnxty, See Glossary.
64. in spite, ** only to defy and provoke us " (Schmidt). Cf.
i, 1. 85, above.
68. pcr^y, "of a good deportment, well-behaved, weU-bred"
(Schmidt).
78. This little incident serves to bring out deariy the contrast
between Old C!apulet and his fiery nephew. With the same bitter
hatred of the Montagues that controls Tybalt, the unde is hdd in
check by his regard for the laws of hospitality.
81. mend my soul, amend or save my soul. Cf. As You Like
Itf iv. 1. 193 : ** by my troth, and in good earnest, and so God
mend me, and by all pretty oaths that are not dangerous.**
88. set cock-a-hoop, set all by the ears. Though a great deal
has been written about the last word, its etymology is still doubtfuL
See artide on the subject in N, E, D.
87. contrary, cross, act in opposition ta The verb is fedrly
common among Elizabethan writers.
142 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Two
91. patience perforce, endurance of irremediable ills; a pro-
verbial expression.
94. convert Lettsom takes svoest as a substantive, and oono0rt
as a transitive verb, but the latter was frequently used intransi-
tively ; cf. Luenee, 592: *' Stones dissolved to water do convert."
95-108. Note the Shakespearian sonnet-structure of the lines.
Cf. note on I 2. 46-51, above.
96. fine. Emended by Theobald from the older nn or sinne ;
Herford and Dowden retain the original reading. The present text
would give the meaning of '* pleasing punishment*' However,
Dowden explains sin» "To touch Juliet at all is sin; but the
profanation with Romeo's hand is a rough sin ; to touch with his
lips is *the gentle sin."*
104. pUgrim. Halliwell-Phillips prints a cut from Inigo Jones,
a famous Elizabethan architect and coadjutor of Ben Jonson,
showing the acted Romeo in this scene attired in pilgrim's garb.
This was a conventional disguise, and is employed to-day in the
acting of The Winter's Tale, iv. 4, by King Polixenes and Camillo.
112. by the book, according to rule.
119. chinks, used colloquially as a term for money.
120. The Cambridge editors doubt the genuineness of this line,
but cf. Brooke at this point, L 395 : '* Thus hath his foe in choice
to give him life or death." Note the word-play in aeoaunt and
debt.
124. banquet. Here the meaning is ''dessert," a course of
sweetmeats, fruit and wine; cf. Timon of Athens, i. 2. 160:
"Ladies, an idle banquet attends you."
126. Is it e^en so? According to the old stage-directions they
** whisper in his ear " probably the reason for their departure.
142. prodigious, portentous ; cf. A Midsummer Nighfs Dream,
V. 1. 419 : " Nor mark prodigious."
ACT II. PROLOGUE
In the original editions the play is not divided into acts and
scenes, and some editors of the play prefer to place this prologue
at the end of Act i, rather than at the beginning of the second act.
It really makes no material difference. Since the lines are so com-
monplace and serve so little dramatic purpose, it is seriously ques-
tioned whether they were written by Shakespeare. Like the
Prologue to Act i, the lines are in sonnet form.
Scene O^ NOTES 143
3. fair, Steevens reads it as a dissyllable, and omits the /or,
but emendation is minecessary. Fair signifies a beautiful woman,
a conmion meaning for the word in Shakespeare and as late as the
eighteenth century.
far which love groaned for. Such duplications of a preposi-
tion are common in Elizabethan literature ; cf. At Tou Like It, li.
7. 138 : " The scene wherein we play in."
SCENE 1
This short scene shows Romeo^s escape from his friends into
Capulet's garden. It also occupies time between Capulet^s feast
and Juliet's soliloquy after retiring the same night Benvolio again
serves as foil to Mercutio.
2. dvU earth, figurative for Romeo's body, the centre of which
is his heart, lost to Juliet
6. orchard, garden. So in Julius Ccesar, Hi. 9. 953, Antony
speaks of Caesar's gardens as his "new-planted orchards." But
Capulet's garden contains fruit-trees, as iL 2, 108 shows.
6. conjure. Here we accent the last syllable of the word, but
in 1. 93 the first syllable. In Elizabethan English the modem dis-
tinction in meaning between the two pronunciations of this word
did not exist.
13. Adam Cupid, Qq. Ff. read Abraham Cupid or Abraham:
Cupid. Upton proposed the emendation, which has been accepted
by most editors. Cupid is given the nickname Adam because of
his likeness to another famous archer, Adam Bell, celebrated in
ballad poetry, and bearing many points of resemblance to Robin
Hood. In Much Ado^l^, 960, just after alluding to * * blind Cupid,"
Benedick cries, " Shoot at me ; and he that hits me, let him be
clapped on the shoulder, and called Adam," But it is not certain
that the reading of all the earlier editions is wrong. Neilson pre-
fers it, Dowden is uncertain. Some topical allusion now lost may
lie in the name. Again, as White shows, '• auburn " was some-
times spelled abrun, ahran, abram, and even Abrafiam. Thus the
meaning may be •' the light-haired Cupid."
14. King Cophetua, an allusion to another contemporary ballad,
Kinff Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, to be found complete in
Percy's Reliques, and again referred to in Love's Labour'* s Lost, i. 9.
114; " Is there not a ballad, boy, of the King and the Beggar?"
One stanza runs :
144 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Two
** The blinded boy tliat shoots so trim
From heaven down did hie^
He drew a dart and shot at him*
In place where he did lye. "
This makes certain the reading trim in L 13, above, which is
adopted from Q 1, as opposed to the true of other Qq.
16. <^, a word used with a connotation of tenderness as ap-
plied to young men, in much the same way as the Nurse vaesfbolt
i. 3, 31, above. Nash writes of the time ** when I was a little ape
at Cambridge.**
24. cn^c/e, a magician's ring. CtAsYouLaB$It^h,6.62:'*T\B
a Greek invocation to call fbols into a circle. **
81. To be associated with the moist or humid night Humowr-
oitf, of course, contains a word-play ; cf. L 7, above.
40. field-bed. Mercutio means the ground ; he says he would
prefer the small comfort of a trundle-bed. It is worth noting that
hi Brooke the Nurse brings a real field4)ed hito Juliet's chamber.
SCENE 2
On account of the marvellous poetic beauty of the lines, the per-
sonal charms of Juliet, and the perfect setting in a moon-lit Italian
garden, this/* balcony scene ** is with readers of the play as^well
as theatre-goers the most popular of the whole drama. In it the
heroine inadvertently reveals her love to Romeo, but is too frank
by nature to unsay any of her speeches when she finds that they
have been overheard. As a result the lovers at once plan mar-
riage, despite each one's presentiment that all will not go well with
them.
2. Fuller sees here again the influence of the 1560 (?) English
play which served as a prototype for the Dutch play of Strays. See
Appendix C
7. /kermaatf, a votary of Diana.
8. sick and green. Q 1 reads *< pale and green,** ^diich Collier
would emend to '* white and green,** on the ground that these
were the colors worn by Elisabethan court fbols. The change is
scarcely justifiable, the meaning of the phrase being rather ** chlo-
rotic,** as Schmidt defines it
16. iwo of the fairest stars. Fuller compares Romeo's words
to those of Phebidas (Mercutio) in the Dutch play : ** Her two
ScEKE Two] NOTES 145
eyes I saw sparkle as gleam Castor and Pollux on Ugh." C£ also
i 5. 46, above.
24. that I were a glove. According to Dr. Fuller this conceit,
like several others in the play, is a characteristic Petrarchism, and
is found in many contemporary sonnets written by the English imi-
tators of Petrarch. Conceits are abundant in Romeo's speeches
throughout this scene, but they are generally absent from Juliet*s,
whose language from the outset is more dhrect than that of her
lover.
25. Ay me ! See note on L 1. 167, and cf. iL 1. 10, above.
ai-2. The same figure is in Mcuhiih^ i 7. S2-3, " heaven's
cherubin, horsed Upon the sightless couriers of the air."
81. lazy'Pacingt Pope's restoration from Q 1. Is it not a better
reading than the laxU-fn^fing of other Qq Ff ?
89* Malone prefers to place the comma after though and take
the latter word in its sense of " however." Most editors accept
the present reading. By changing his hateful name he will lose
none of his personality.
42. belonging to a man. For metre, see Appendix D.
46. owe, own, possess. Cf. Ths Comedy of Errors, ill. 1. 49,
** keepest me out from the house I owe."
58. eounsd, secrets, as frequently in Shakespeare and older
English.
60. dear saint. He is thinking of the conversation they have
had a few minutes ago in Capulet's hall.
61. dislike. For the impersonal use cf. Abbott, § 297, and see
note on i 3. 96, above.
64. Note Juliet's care for her lover's safety.
68. let, stop, obstacle ; as in the funiliar legal phrase, ** without
let or hindrance."
76. but thou love. The first word means " except'* Malone is
clearly mistaken in interpreting the line, <* And so thou do but
love me, I care not what may befrdL"
78. wanting of. On the use of the preposition with certain
participles which are considered verbal nouns, compare Abbott,
! 1T8.
83. In this imaginative passage lies a great deal of the feeling
that prompted Francis Drake and other sixteenth-century voyagers.
84. adventure, venture, dare.
Fuller compares Romeo's love-making in Struts, translating :
" Thou, O Goddess, art the sole beacon towards which I sail. WUt
thou unpityingly withhold thy light fix>m my eye, then must my
146 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Two
ship, to my rain, perish ; for unless some haven be at hand, its
freight wiU sink to the depths."
89. fareweU compliment, away with conventionalities !
98. at lovers' perjuries . . . /ove /oughs, a common proverb of
the time, found in Marlowe's translation of Ovid, and several times
in the writings of Robert Greene.
101. to be strange, to appear shy, reserved. Steevens quotes
Greene's MammUia (1583) : " Is it the fashion in Padua to be so
strange with your friends ? '*
106. discovered, uncovered, revealed; the usual meaning in
early English. Cf. iiL 1. 147, below.
dark night. Note the quibble with light above.
107. by yonder blessed moon. Similarly in Biehard III, iv. 4.
366 : Richard, wooing the Princess Elizabeth through her motiier,
proffers several oaths, all of which are rejected as insufficient sure-
ties of his truth. In The Merchant of Venice^ v. 1. 149, Gratiano
swears *' by yonder moon," and in the same scene Bassanio, taking
Portia's eyes for his byword, is answered, 945-6 :
" swear by your double self.
And there 's an oath of credit."
116* FuUer shows that Juliet's presentiment of coming ill at this
point occurs in Struijs.
117. contract. For the accent see Appendix D.
119, 120. In A Midsummer Nightie Dream, i. 1. 145, the joys
resulting from love are said to be :
" Brief as the lightning in the collied night.
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth.
And ere a man have power to say, ' Behold ! '
The jaws of darkness do devour it up."
131. frank, generous ; as in King Lear, iil 4. 20 : " Your old
kind father, whose frank heart gave all."
188-6. Cf. Juliet's words, ii. 6. 39-4, below.
189. I am qfeard. One should not overlook these frequent
presentiments of coming disaster, nor forget that the audience,
knowing the story beforehand, would understand them in the way
they were intended.
142-8. It is Juliet that takes the initiative. The words of this
speech are adopted almost directly from Brooke, but there is about
them a refinement, a delicacy, not found in the poem.
Scene Thhee] NOTES 147
161. By and by, immediately. The phrase to-day signifies a
longer wait
162. suit. This is Malone's emendation from the older strife,
and is made practically certain by the corresponding passage in
Brooke, " to cease your suit."
168. A similar picture is given in As Tou Like It, iL 7. 146-T, of
the schoolboy " creeping like snail unwillingly to school"
162 fl. Fuller calls attention to the corresponding scene in
Struijs, where Romeo thus addresses the night : ** Come, thou dark
shroud, as is thy wont, and cover with thy shadow the half of this
world's orb ; while I in lonely gloom make echo rewail my own la-
ment, in the innermost of Venus' temple, where my Juliette is."
167. attending, listening, attentive ; as in Titua Andranicus,
V. 3. 89 : <* He did discourse To love-sick Dido's sad attending ear."
178. wanton. See Glossary.
189. ghostly. See Glossary.
190. dear hap, t. e. good happening, g^ood fortune.
SCENE 3
The Friar reluctantiy promises to officiate at a secret wedding, in
order to reconcile the hostile families. His long soliloquy, showing
his knowledge of herbs ** and their true qualities," makes more
plausible his suggestion to Juliet of the sleeping potion in iv. 1.
1. Fuller argues that Shakespeare is directiy indebted here to
the English prototype of Struijs. In the latter play immediately
after a scene in which Romeo takes leave of Juliet at break of day,
the Friar is discovered in front of his cell soliloquizing : ** The black
curtains of heaven's dome fall down towards the west, letting the
eastern sky grow pleasant with light The messenger of the sun
begins to color the horizon a fiery glow. Each bird draws out its
head from under its wing and hops from branch to branch, and
with its sweet voice sings the praise of Gx>d." His meditations
are interrupted by the entrance of Romeo. There is nothing to
suggest this in Brooke or in Painter.
1-6. A profitable study might be made of Shakespeare's descrip-
tions of the early morning. Cf., for example, i. 1. 125 ff., above ;
iii. 5. 7-10, below ; JtUitu Ccesar, ii. 1. 101 ff. ; Handet, I 1. 166-7 ;
Much Ado, V. 3. 25-7 ; Sonnets, vii, xxxiii, xxxiv.
2. chequering, i. e, the lights and shadows resembled a checker
board. Milton's *' chequered shade " carries the same figure.
148 ROMEO AND JULIET {Act Two
8. darkness Ukea drunkard reOs. In SwMntU, vtt. 9-10, itis
the sun at its setting that *' from highmost pitch, with weaiy car,
like feeble age . . . reeleth from the day.**
7. osier cage <^ oiirs, this basket belonging to the order. The
Franciscans held all their property in common.
tma Compare Milton's ParadiM Lo$t, ii. 911 : ** The womb of
nature and perhaps her grave."
82. sometimes. Capell reads fonM^MiMV.
86. that part. Either the odorous part of the flower, or else the
part of the body tliat one smells with.
87. encamp them stitt, are always encamped. For other io-
stanoes of verbs used reflezively, see Abbott, f 996.
88. grace and rude will. Such a theological reference would be
more intelligible to an Elixabethan audience than to one to-day.
They mean about the same as ** vurtue " and ** evfl desires. ** Spoken
by tiie Friar these reflections seem thoroughly in character.
89. worser, not an infrequent form in Shakespeare. It occurs
again, iiL 9. 108, below.
80. canker. SeeGbssary.
Enter Romeo. Early editions place his entrance after L 99.
81. In Struts the Friar replies to Romeo*s salutation : " Deo
graiiatf my son. What brings thee here so early ? This strikes me
as most strange."
87. unbruised, undamaged, uninjured; unstuff% not too
heavily loaded.
61. both our remedies^ a remedy for both of us. See Abbott,
f 919, and cf. HatnUt^ iii. 1. 49, «< both your honours," t. : *' the
honor of both of you."
62* lies. For the form see Abbott, f 335. The singular is em-
ployed because the verb precedes its subject as in i. 1. 38, above.
64. steads, assists, serves. Cf. The Merehant of Veniee, L 3. 7 :
*' May you stead me ? "
66. homely in thy drifts plain in your speech.
68. The conventional Elizabethan " debate " between hearte and
eyee is discussed at length by Professor J. H. Hanford in Modem
Language Notes, zxvi, 161-5. Compare the correspondence in The
NoHon (New York), for March 30 and April 97, 1911. Shakespeare
particularly alludes to this debate in Sonnets, xlvi, xlvii, and czli,
and again in Hie Merchant of Vemee, iii. 9. 63 ff. In general, love
of the eyes seems to indicate mere fkncy, and love of the heart,
genuine affection. See also I 9. 99, above.
78. season love. Shakespeare uses the same flgure again in
Scnrx Four] NOTES 149
AU V W$U, L 1. 55, where the Countess declares tears to be <*the
best brine a maiden can season her praise in. '*
7G. yet As the rhyme indicates, the ]»onunciation was *' yit."
This was the regular spelling in the time of Chaucer.
88. read by rate, you knew only a few phrases learned by heart,
and had not been taught the real meaning of love.
90. in one respect, on one consideration, which is named in the
next line.
92. to turns as to turn. See Abbott, f 281.
98. tflontf on sudtf en ikwte, must be in great haste.
SCENE 4
This scene, which in time closely follows the last, occupying a
slightly later hour of the morning after Capulet*s feast, is struc-
turally divided at the point where the Nurse enters. The objects
of the first half are to show the transformation wrought in Romeo
by Juliet's lore and to tell of the challenge sent to him by Tybalt
The second part completes arrangements for the wedding. Much
of the scene is satire directed against contemporary Englishmen
who affect Italianate methods of dueling.
2. to-nighi, last night ; another illustration of the usage is in
i. 4. 50, above.
12. dares • • • dared, a mere quibble ; the first means ** chal-
lenges," the second, " ventured.**
16. thorough, another spelling of the preposition ikrouffh.
pin, centre ; a term from archery. ** The dout, or white mark
at which arrows were directed, was fastened by a black pin placed
in the centre" (Malone). Cf. £om*« Ldbour't Lattt iv. 1. 138:
" Then will she get the upshoot by cleaving the pin.**
19. prince of cats^ a play on Tybalt*s name. Sir Tybert, an-
other form of the word, is the name of the cat in the beast-fiftble of
Beynard the Pox. Parallel passages have been dted fW>m Ddcker,
Saiiramattko (1609) : " Tho* you were Tybert, the kmg-tail*d prince
of cats*'; and Nash, Havs with Tau to Saffron Waldm (1596):
«• Not Tybalt, prince of cats."
20. captain of complements. He knows all the formalities of
dueling. Compare ii. 9. 89, above. The modem distinction in
spelling and sense between eompUment and eompUmmU did not
exist in the sixteenth century.
150 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Two
21-2. time, distance, and proportion, Steevens quotes from
Jonson, Every Man in His Humour^ i. 4, where Bobadil is teaching
Matthew to fence : ** Note your distance, keep your due proportion
of time." '
22. rests me. Me is the meaningless ** ethical dative," of which
further examples are given by Abbott, § 290.
24. butcher of a silk button. Staunton cites Silver's Paradoxes
of Defence (1599) : " Thou that takest upon thee to hit anie Eng^
lishman with a tiirust upon anie button.**
26. of the very first house, of the first rank, probably; though,
as Dyce shows, the phrase was sometimes used of upstart gentle-
men.
26* first and second cause, i. e. of the quarrel In As Tou
LUce Itf V. 4. 70 ff.. Touchstone enumerates the seven causes or de-
grees of quarreling *' by the book.*' In Jonson's The Alchemist,
Kastril, a country boy, willingly pays Subtle for instruction in the
art of quarreling. Throughout Eiuope in Shakespeare's time the
practice of dueling prevailed so commonly that works like the
treatises of Saviolo and Caranza were written as guide-books to the
science, and schools were established for the teaching of its fine
points. In England especially the practice had been introduced
along with other vicious customs from Italy ; three " Italian teachers
of ofience ** are said to have been living in London by 1599. The
terms passado, punio, reverso, hay, all of which are explained in the
Glossary, are of Italian origin. Mercutio's ridicule is directed not
against the practice of dueling, of which he himself is an adept, but
against the study of it in these Italianate schools. Of course,
Mercutio speaks not as a Veronese, but as an Elizabethan
Londoner, and his hits at a local fashion are not lost on his
audience.
29. affecting, affected, using affectation. Cf. Merry Wwes, ii. 1.
145 : "I never heard such a drawling, affecting rogue.**
81. taU, valiant, sturdy ; a frequent sense in Shakespeare.
88. grandsire. Mercutio addresses the sober Benvolio as one
of an elder generation who has known better times.
84. flies. The term is explained in the words that follow it
Dowden notes that Hamlet calls the shallow Osric a •* water-fly "
in Handet, v. 9. 84, while courtiers are denominated *' gilded but-
terflies ** in Lear, v. a 13.
86. perdona mi's, Italian for " pardon-me's.** Qq. 4, 5 read
pardonorfnees, Q 9 has pardons mees, F pardonnnee^s. Theobald
emended to pardonnesMnois, which is accepted by many editors as
ScEKE Four] NOTES 151
a hit at the Frenchified foshions of Englishmen. The Cambridge
editors, however, beliere that the present reading is in harmon7
with the Italian terms, a few lines above.
86. form. Remembering that this word is sometimes used of a
long bench with no back, note the quibble with the word bench in
the line just below.
87. bones, the reading of Qq. F, but some editors follow Theo-
bald in emending to borCa^ the French word that men shouted on
seeing a good stroke.
89. without his roe. Some suggest that this means that Romeo
has lost his roe, or female deer (dear) ; others, that the first sylla-
ble of his name is gone, leaving only " me O ! ** or " O me ! '* the
sigh. In either case Mercutio^s pim is far-fetched.
46. grey eye or so. Thisbe was rather handsome, but that is
neither here nor there. Such is the general meaning of the pas-
sage. Grey eyes were then greatly admired, but whether or not
the color was the same as the word now indicates, is a disputed
question.
47-8. gave us the counterfeit. Halliwell-Phillips quotes
Nash's Jaek Wilton (1594): ** Ale me shee was but a counterfeit
slip, for she . . . gave me the slip''; and Guilpin's Skialetheia
(1598) : " Is he not fond then which a slip receaves For currant
money? "
66. strain courtesy. Note the word-play with oorutraiM eourf'ay,
below.
69. kindly, " naturaUy, in a manner suited to the character or
occasion, pertinently " (Schmidt).
64. flowered. His dancing shoe was pinked, that is, perfo-
rated. Cf. H&nry VIII, v. 4. 50, *< railed upon me till her pinked
porringer fell off her head."
66-70. Puns are in abundance here. Romeo is to foUow, i. e.
to ponder over the joke till he has worn out his shoe, that when its
ringle sole is worn, the joke alone may remain. Single, besides its
present meaning, may have the sense of simple, silly ; another
quibble lies between eole and souL So Romeo's reply means that
Mercutio's jest is absolutely alone in its kind for silliness. On
single-eoUd Malone quotes Holinshed's Ireland, p. 93 : ** A meane
tower might sewe such single-soale kings as were at that time in
Ireland." Literally the word means "having but a single sole,"
hence exceedingly poor, then mean, contemptible, as here.
78. Romeo advises Mercutio to urge on his fainting wits with
ewiieh and epur, or else acknowledge defeat in the wit-combat. On
152 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Two
wits, 1. 79, cf. note on L 4. 47, above. Some editon fbUow Q 1 in
reading «0tto/it<.
76. wUd-goose chase. According to Dyce, the name was orig^
inally applied to one kind of horse race, in which the horses were
started together, the rider who gained the lead forcing the other to
follow him wherever he chose to go.
78. Was I with you, etc. Did my renuurk about the goose hit
you?
81. bite . . . by /h« ear, an expression of endearment (Schmidt).
82. good goose, bite not, a proverb of the day, found In Ray*s
collection.
91. broad goose. The pun may have some reference to a brood,
or breeding, goose, as broad was often spelled braode or brood. It
may mean an obvious goose, or an unrestrained goose. Delius and
Collier prefer the reading of F, cibroad^ construing it, ** for and wide
abroad — goose."
98-4. now art thou Romeo. Cf. i 1. 904 : « This is not Romeo,
he 's some other where." The transformation noted by Mercutio
must be apparent to every reader. The development of Romeo^s
character is perhaps the most interesting theme for study in the
whole play, but he 'does not reach full matwity until the news
is brought to him of Juliet's supposed death.
96. natural idiot, fool. So As Tou Like It, i. 9. 57 : [ Nature ]
<* hath sent this natural for our whetstone."
112. My fan, Peter. Fans were large enough in those days for
ladies of quality, and those like the Nurse, who aped them, to have
special fan-bearers. Cf. Lovers Labour's Lost, iv. 1. 147 : " To
see him walk before a lady and to bear her fan."
116. God ye good morrow, God give you a good morning; a
form of salute used only by the lower classes to their superiors.
Of course Mercutio employs a simUar form in reply only for the
purpose of mocking the old Nurse. Oood dsn, as explained in
a note to i 9. 58, is the contraction for " Good evening." This
latter salutation was then used, as it is in rural England and in the
Southern states to-day, at any time after noon.
121-2. God hath made for himself to mar. Qq followed by
some modem editors omit the for. The Nurse's reply as well as the
sense of a passage makes the emendation very plausible. See note
on i. 9. 13 above.
188. confidence. The Nurse^s [blunder for eonfsrsnes. Cf.
Merry Wives, i. 4. 179 : '* I will tell your worship more of the wart
the next time we have confidence." In Much Ado, iiL 5. 3, Dog-
Scene Five] NOTES 153
beny makes the same bluider. ** I would have some confidence
with you that decerns you nearly.''
185. indite^ invite. Benvolio possesses some sense of humor.
186. So hot the cry of the sportsman when he starts a hare.
So Romeo immediately inquires what game has been found.
16L " lady, lady, lady." Mercutio is singing the refrain to iSfti-
jofMui, a ballad licensed in 159S. In Twdfik Night, ii 3. 84, Sir Toby
sings the first line : ** There dwelt a num in Babylon, lady, lady.**
The full text of the ballad is preserved in Percy's Rdiques.
168. saucy merchant, *' impudent fellow ; merehant is used like
ehap, a shortened form of chapman *' (Dowden). Dyce compares
The Fair Maid of Briitow, (1605) : "What [sjausie merchant have
you got there?**
169. law on my side. Peter's boldness is on a par with that of
Sampson, i. 1. 54, above. It will be noted also that the Nurse
gives no vent to her indignation until Mercutio is safely out of
hearing.
180. weak. Perhaps the Nurse means wtoiM. Collier (MS.) so
emends the line.
201. cords made like c tackled stair, a rope ladder of the kind
used on shipboard.
206. mistress, a trisyllable. See Appendix D.
220. with a letter, with the same letter.
228. the dog's name. R, as resembling a growl, was known fifom
andent times as the dog's letter. It is so called in Ben Jonson's
English grammar and in other works, and even gave rise to the
verb ariM, to growl. Having heard something of this, the illiter-
ate Nurse takes as mockery the statement that R stands for Romeo.
226. rosemary. SymboliEing remembrance, this flower was
much in &vor with lovers and at weddings. Cf. Haimlit, iv. 5. 175 :
" There 's rosemary, that 's for remembrance " ; and see iv. 5. 79,
below, for reference to its use at funerals.
SCENE 5
This scene furthers the action but a very little. Emphasis is on
the humorous situation.
1. struck nine. Note the carefuhiess with which the time is
marked at many points in the play. It was noon when the Nurse
was inquiring for Romeo in the last scene.
154 ROMEO AND JUUET [Act Two
7. love, t. «. Venus.
13-5. A figure borrowed from the game of tennis.
16. The metre is broken here, the sense is seemingly incom-
plete, and the couplet following certainly looks suspicious. Why
should Juliet say old folks . . . fngn cu they w&re dead? Or why
should Uad be called jM^f Collier's MS. suggested old folks seem
as dead, and substituted dull for pale. White conjectured that
manyfahie is a misprint for marry, fare, Keightley, though read-
ing duU for pale, dtes Chaucer, Troibas and Creseide, ii : '* With
asshen pale as lede. ** Pope omits the entire couplet as interpolated.
18. honey nurse. Cf. 1 Henry IV, i, 2. 179 : " my good sweet
honey lord."
22. them. The word news in Shakespeare's day was used as
either singular or plural.
25. give me leave awhile. Cf. L 3. 7, and note. Q 1 reads let
me rest, which amounts to the same thing.
36. stay the circumstance^ wait for the details. Cf. v. 3. 181,
below, and Titus Andronicus, iv. 2. 156 : ** Tell them both the cir-
cumstance of alL "
44. flower of courtesy, perfection of courtesy. Cf. ii. 4. 61,
above.
60. as. See Abbott, § 107. " If" is unplied.
51. This line is scanned. No. 8, in Appendix D.
56-9. This is sometimes regarded as a rude sort of verse and so
printed. Servants and ignorant persons often so speak in Elizar
bethan dramas.
67. coil, hubbub, turmoil So The Comedy of Errors, iii 1. 48 :
" What a coil is there, Dromio ? "
73. straight at any news. The meaning is clear enough without
resort to the emendations that have been proposed ; as, ** straight-
way at my news ** (Hanmer), or "straight at my next news"
(Walker). The Nurse makes a general comment on Juliet's habit
of blushing on slight provocation.
SCENE 6
A short scene marks the last upward stage of the lovers' fortunes.
But the tragic foreshadowing is even more notable here than in
previous scenes.
This scene underwent apparently the most thorough revision be-
tween the writing of Q 1 and that of Q 9. The readings of Q 1 will
be found in Appendix A
Scene Six] NOTES 155
3-8* The suggestion of these lines comes directly from Brooke ;
see Appendix B.
A similar note is sounded in the conclusion of Browning's In a
Balcony, where Norbert and Constance are satisfied in the very
presence of " love-devouring death/*
" Nor, This is life's height.
. . . Men have died ^
.Trying to find this pUu;e, which we have found."
" We are past harm now.
. . . This must end here:
It is too perfect."
0-15. The Friar's calm words suggest a passage in Wordsworth's
Laodamia:
" Be taught, O faithful Consort, to control
Rebellious passion: for the gods approve
The depth, and not the tumult, of the soul; .
A fervent, not ungovernable, love.
Thy transports moderate."
Some critics [^find in the Friar's speech the keynote of the entire
play, and think that Shakespeare intended it as a moral lesson, a
warning against the dangers of violent love and violent hatred. All
that we know of the dramatist and the way that he worked, ren>
ders such an opinion untenable.
9. violent ... violent. On the pronunciation see Appendix D.
10. like fire and powder. The Friar uses the same simile again
in iii. 3. 132, below.
12. his, its. The latter word became fixed as the possessive
of U after the time of Shakespeare. As in the King James version
of the Bible, the regular neuter possessive form was Aif, though
U was occasionally employed. See Abbott, § 998.
13. confounds, destroys, ruins. Cf. confusion » destruction, in
iv. 5. ^, below.
17. Is not the reading of Q 1 better: "So light of foote nere
hurts the troden flower " ? The idea is a familiar one in poetry ;
it is found, for example, in Scott's Lady of the Lake and Tenny-
son's Maud.
21. confessor. Accented eon' f boot ^ ; see Appendix D.
156 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Thekk
85. thai. Fw the use of this oonjunctioD where modem English
requires the repetition of it, cf . Abbott, f 2S5.
80. conceit See Glossary.
82. Steevens notes the same sentiment repeated in Antony and
CUopatra, i 1. 15 : " Therefs beggary m the love that can ^be
reckoned."
84. sum up sum of htdf my wealtJu The usual quibble.
Emendations have often been proposed, but they seem unnecessary.
Staunton gives a reasonable interpretation : '* 1 cannot sum up
the sum, or total, of half my wealth."
ACT III -SCENE 1
Here the plot reaches a turning-point. The chance meeting on
a warm day of Tybalt and Mercutio, hot-headed representatives of
the opposing houses, together with Mercutio's misinterpretation of
Romeo's attitude, leads to an encounter in which Mercutio is slain.
Stung to revenge, Romeo fights and slays Tybalt and is thereupon
banished. Thus for the fii^ time the antagonistic forces gain a
victory, and the lovers* fortunes begin to decline.
4. these hot days* Reed cites Sir Thomas Smith's Commonr
wmUH of England (1583) : ** For in the warme time people for the
most part be more unruly."
6. m«, ethical dative ; see note to iL 4. 99, above.
9. drawer, i. «., the waiter. C£ 1 Hewry /F, ii 4. 33 : •« 1
question my puny drawer." <
11. Clarke notes that this quiet retort gives point to the humor
of Mercutio's lecturing the staid Benvolio on the sin of quarrel-
someness.
14. moved to he moody sounds like an*echo of i. I. 8, above.
16. what to? Of course|Benvollo is asking what he is moved
to, and of course Mercutio's misunderstanding of the last word is
deliberate.
82. tutor me from, <* teach me to avoid " (Rolfe).
41. genitemen, a dissyllable ; see Appendix D.
42. It is frequently stated that the part borne by Mercutio in
this quarrel, and afterwards his death, are details original with
Shakespeare, and are not given in any earlier version of the story.
Fuller shows (cf. Appendix C) that in Struts is a scene closely
resembling this, in which Phebidas, who corresponds to Mercutio
here, quarrels and fights with Thibout. Romeo comes up and tries
ScKWE One] NOTES 157
to part them, but at that instant Thibout thrusts at Phebidas and
slays him.
45. occasion, here almost » cause.
49. consort Mercutio is as usual looking for an opportunity to
quibble, and takes this word in the sense of a company of min-
strels — a concert
52. zounds, an oath, meaning literally, " By God*s wounds."
55. reason coldly, speak quietly, without anger.
68. The doubling of the negative, considered incorrect to-day,
was long thought to add emphasis to a statement. The personal
pronoun is often repeated at the end of a sentence. So Titus An-
dronioust v. 3. 113 : ** Alas, you know I am no vaunter, I.** King
Lear, ii 9. 104 : •• He cannot flatter, he."
59. my man. Tybalt means ** the man I am seeking," but Mer-
cutio, quibbling as usual, wilfully takes the phrase in the sense of
*< my servant," and affirms that Romeo is man enough to follow
Tybalt to the field for a fight
62. hate I bear thee, still another restoration by Pope from Ql.
Other early editions, followed by some modem, read IovbJd place
ofhats.
66. appertaining rage, rage appertaining to.
69. boy, a contemptuous use. Cf. i. 5. 79 and 85, above, and
V. 3. 70, below.
77. alia stoccata, another Italian fencing term, meaning a thrust
or stab with a rapier, but Mercutio applies the phrase to Tybalt
carries it away, carries the victory, has the better. We still
speak of carrying an election.
78. rat-catcher, another allusion to his name. Cf. ii. 4. 19,
above, and corresponding note, and L 80, below.
Ufitt you walk ? Will you come aside with me ?
90. outrage, a trisyllable. See Appendix D, and cf. note on
entrance, i. 4. 8, above.
94. sped, ** dispatched, undone " (Schmidt). So Merchant of
Vemee, ii. 9. 72 : " So be gone ; you are sped."
96-113. For the reading of corresponding lines in Ql, see Ap-
pendix A, IV.
102. grave man, a characteristic jest for the dying Mercutio.
peppered, literally covered ** with wounds as thick as the par-
ticles of pepper sprinkled on a dish " (Webster). Mercutio means
that the one wound that he has received has been just as effective.
Cf. 1 Henry IV, v. 3. 37 : "I have led my ragamuffins where they
are peppered."
158 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Three
106. fights by the hook of arithmetic, " fights by the rules of
the teachers of fencing," interprets Dowden, who compares ii. 4.
21-3, above.
109. What is the dramatic irony of this statement ?
113. your houses. "The ineffectual attempt to repeat his
former sentence, * A plague o' both your houses ! ' . . . serves ex-
quisitely to indicate the faint speech of the dying man, and poet-
ically to image his failing powers " (Clarke).
114. ally, relative ; cf. 1. 194, below.
118. kinsman, \he reading of Ql; many editors prefer the
eoimnof Q9, F.
. 122. aspired, used transitively, means not "attempted to
reach," but "actually reached, attained." Malone quotes Mar-
lowe's Tamburlaine (1590); " And both our souls aspire celestial
thrones."
128. respective lenity, considerate gentleness.
129. conduct. See Glossary.
139. amazed, in a maze, completely bewildered, as frequently
in Shakespeare. '
141. fortune's fool So the old King in Lear, iv. 6. 195, declares
himself " the natural fool of fortune." Hotspur m 1 Henry /F,
V. 4. 81, exclaims : " Thought's the slave of life and life's time's
fool."
148. manage, conduct, course.
, 164. Lady Capulet is the first to demand revenge.
167 ff. Does Benvolio in this speech tell the whole truth, or is
he not endeavoring to smooth over Mercutio's part in the conflict?
In general the speech corresponds to that in i. 1. 113 ff. Neither
adds much to the play. Note Benvolio's diction, his careful balanc-
ing of adjectives and phrases.
168. spoke him fair, telked kindly to him. Cf. S Henry VI,
iv. 1. 120 : *' My gracious lord, entreat him, speak him fair."
169. nice. See Glossary.
162. to*«<nice," make peace "(Schmidt).
169. retorts, hurls back, the literal meaning of the word < Lat.
retorquere, twist back.
176. by and by. Cf. note to ii. 2, 151, above.
194. My blood, etc. Mercutio is related to the Prince.
ScEWE Two] NOTES 159
SCENE 9
This scene, rich in its poetry, is closely related to that following,
each scene showing from the standpoint of one of the lovers that
the events of the day have made the catastrophe inevitable. The
chief incident in the plot is the Nurse's suggestion looking toward
one more meeting of the lovers.
1 ff. These lines are to be regarded as Juliet's marriage hymn,
'* differing in nothing from the legitimate epithalamium but as
blank verse differs from the rhymed stanza."
1. Malone was the first to notice the close similarity of these
opening lines to passages in Bamaby Riche*s Farewell (1583) ; and
Marlowe's Edward II (before 1593). Thefirst reads : " 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." So the
second:
" Gallop apace, bright Phoebus, 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."
Even if such imitations were conscious on the part of Shakespeare,
he cannot be accused of plagiarism for making use of what he
found elsewhere. In his day literary men freely and openly bor-
rowed plots, expressions, and ideas from one another with no
thought of wrong-doing.
6. runaways^ eyes. The most difficult passage in the whole
play. Q 9, Q 3 read runnawayes ; Q 4, Q 5, F 1 run-awayeB ; F 9, F 3
runrawaies; F 4 run-aways^ all without the apostrophe. The present
reading is that of the Olobe Shakespeare^ which takes the first word
in the sense of ramblers, or vagabonds, whose eyes, Juliet hopes,
wiU not be able to see Romeo at night. Although this reading is
ably supported by Prof. J. W. Hales in LongmarCs Magazine^ Feb-
ruary, 1899, it has not been adopted by such recent editors of the
play as Herford, Dowden, and Neilson. For a full discussion of
the whole problem the student is referred to the Variorwn (Fumess)
edition of the play, pp. 367-95, and to the authorities just cited.
It may be well here to summarize briefly the theories held by
various editors, and supported with great ingenuity. (1) Emenda-
160 ROMEO ANB JULIET [Aci Three
tions have been suggested as follows: nffiio«r'#, conjectured by
Heath, and adopted by Hudson ; unaioarM , conjectured by Jackson
and adopted by Knight (ed. 1), Collier (ed. 1), and Verplanck ;
ruds day% by Dyce and Chambers ; enemisa\ by Collier (ed. 2), etc ,
etc. On the other hand are those who keep the reading of Qq
and Ff. (2) Some of the latter (Delius, Schmidt, and Daniel)
make rufunoays plural, as in the Globe text, followed here. (3)
Others, reading runaway^s, find in it a reference to Cupid, Phaeton,
Night, Moon, Day, etc. If this reading be correct, perhaps the
allusion to the sun, suggested by Warburton, and followed by
Hudson, White, Dowden, and other editors, is the most plausible.
Juliet wishes that Phaeton were driving the sun*s chariot this day
at least, so that he might bring in night immediately. Then wiUi
the swiftness of her fancy she sees her wish already accomplished ;
the sun has actually played the "runaway."
Dowden hesitatingly suggests a new pointing of the lines :
" Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night I
— That [=yonder] runaway's eyes may wink— and Romeo,
Leap to these arms ! Untalk*d of and unseen.
Lovers can see to do their amorous rites."
Neilson practically adopts this punctuation, reading :
"Spread thy close curtam, love-performing night.
That runaway's eyes may wink ; and, Romeo,
Jjeap to these arms ! Untalk'd of and unseen
Lovers can see to do their amorous rites."
9. Steevens compares here Milton*s Comus :
"'^rtue could see to do what Virtue would
By her own radiant light, though sun and moon
Were in the flat sea sunk.**
Professor Wendell adds that the difference between the underlying
thought of the two passages is characteristic of the difference
between Elizabethans and Puritans.
12. learn. See Glossary.
14. Hood my unmann'd blood. Terms in falconry are used
figuratively. A hawk was hooded until let fiy at the game and
was said to be unmann'd when not sufficiently acquainted with her
Scene Two] NOTES l6l
keeper. When the hood was taken off, she hat^, or fluttered
with her wings. The pun on the third word in this line is obvious.
15. black mantle. Cf. Brooke, 1. 457, " when on earth the
Night her mantle black hath spread." See ii. 2, 75, above.
strange love. Cf. iL 2. 101. Similarly in All*9 WeU, v. a 168 :
" Why do you look so strange upon your wife ?"
21-6. The most pronounced conceits in which Juliet indulges
are found in this and succeeding passages in this scene.
26. In connection with this whole soliloquy Mrs. Jameson's
words should be read, giving, as they do, a woman's impression of
Juliet's innate purity of mind. ** Lict 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 often shocked at the
utter want of taste and refinery 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 playfiil and fantastic in the imagery
and language, that the charm of sentiment and innocence is thrown
over the whole."
45. /, a play on aye and eye, both spelled frequently with the
single vowel.
47. death-dealing eye of cockatrice, a beast seemingly identi-
cal with the basilisk, whose power is thus described in Warner's
AlUan'9 England (1586) :
"iEsculap an herdsman did espie
That did with easy sight enforce a basilisk to flye
Albeit naturally that beast doth murther with the ^e."
So also Biehard III, iv. 1. 55-6 :
"A cockatrice hast thou hatch' d to the world.
Whose una voided eye is murderous."
53. God save the mark! Used similarly after the mention of
woundi, 1 Hmry IV, i. 3. 56, Professor Kittredge in Words and
thmr Ways compares the Latin absit omen used by the Romans
" when they found it necessary to mention an unlucky or disas-
162 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Three
trous thing. ■ God save the mark * is the Nurse's inteijection when
she describes the wound in Tybalt's breast and touches her own
body in significant gesture. Our * Don't speak of it ! ' gives vague
expression to the same feeling." For mark Q 1 reads sample,
66. gore blood, clotted blood, as in the anonymous play of
Selimus (1595) : "Color my strong hands with his gore blood."
swounded, swooned. Compare the vulgar * * drownded " of to-day.
67-60. For reading of Q 1 see Appendix A, IV.
64. contraru* For accentuation see Appendix D.
69. Since Romeo is banished, why does not JuUet go with him ?
In Brooke's poem this course is suggested by Juliet, but Romeo
tells her that if she does go she will undo both of them because her
father wiU certainly pursue and overtake the couple and vent on
them his wrath. Shakespeare in condensing the story ignored this
incident.
73. Possibly a reference to the serpent in the Garden of Eden,
which, according to one popular legend, had the head and face of a
beautiful woman. See Skeat's Complete Works of Chaucer^ vol. y.
p. 153, for an interesting note on the subject.
74. dragon keep so fair a cave, an allusion to the tale familiar
in Germanic folklore of a cave filled with treasure and guarded by
a dragon. The best-known forms of this tale are in the Middle
High German Niebelungenliedt and in the hero's last adventure re-
counted in the Anglo-Saxon poem, Be<ymdf.
76-78. Cf. Romeo's paradoxical language, i. 1. 181 ff.
83-4. book . . . So fairly bound. We have already noted the
same conceit, further elaborated in i. 3. 81 ff.
86-6. Cf . Fletcher, The WUdrOoose Chase (c. 1691) ii. 1. 161-2.
" Is there no faith.
No troth, nor modesty, in men ? "
87. naught, wicked ; cf. Lear, ii. 4. 130 : '< Beloved Regan, thy
sister's naught"
The line is scanned. No. 9, in Appendix D.
90. Blistefd be thy tongue. In Brooke, U. 1145-6, Juliet after
accusing Romeus becomes ** wroth with herself," and soliloquizes :
** Ah cruel murdering tongue, murderer of others' fame,
How durst thou once attempt to touch the honour of his name ? "
Shakespeare, by a characteristic stroke of art, turns her indignation
on the Nurse's tongue instead of on her own.
Scene Three] NOTES 163
92. Here, as Steevens points out,' Shakespeare is possibly in-
debted to the account in Painter's Palace of Plsamre : ** Is it pos-
sible that under such beautie and rare comelinesse, disloyaltie and
treason may have their siedge and lodging ? " Sisdge is an old word
for "seat"
98. poor my lord. Possessive adjectives, when unemphatic, are
sometimes transposed, being really combined with nouns. Cf.
Abbott, § 13, and iii. 5. 200, below.
smooth, speak kindly of, flatter. Probably a quibble lies between
this word and mangle^ which sometimes to smooth linen, but here
means tear, dismember.
108. worser. Cf. note on ii. 3. 29, above.
114. slain ten thousand Tybalts, is " worse than the loss of
ten thousand Tybalts " (Mason).
114, 116, 117, 118, 121. Note] the consistent figure of an army
on the march.
120. modern, ordinary.
121. rearward. Another pun on this and rear word is doubt-
less intended.
142. my true knight. Romeus is frequently termed a knight in
Brooke.
The Nurse plays the same part for Juliet here that the Friar does
for Romeo in the next scene. In this passage she certainly shows
good sense and courage.
SCENE 3
The sympathetic Friar suggests a solution of their difficulties
which promises ultimate happiness to the lovers, and he also
arranges for their farewell meeting. Thus an important purpose of
the scene is to add an element of suspense to the plot.
2-3. Even the Friar uses conceits ; cf. L 83, below.
10. vanish' d, a very peculiar use of the word, as Keightley points
out. He suggests "issued, or some word of similar meaning.'*
Dowden adds : " I suspect that banishment in the next line misled
the printer ; but possibly (and it is strange that this has not been
suggested) Shakespeare wrote, * A gentler judgment — ** banish*d "
— from his lips. ' '* In support of Dowden's first suggestion it may
be noted that in the Second Quarto the word vanisht is placed ex-
actly above hanish-meut letter for letter.
12. banisfynent. Romeo rings the changes on this word just as
Juliet does in the preceding scene.
164 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Three
26. rush'd, CapeU suggests pushed and Collier brusKd,
29. Steevens quotes Diyden, Palamon and ArcUe, for a similar
turn:
" Heaven is not, but where Emily abides.
And where she *s absent all is hell besides."
38. validity, value. So AlVs Well that Ends Well, v. 3. 199:
"this ring.
Whose high respect and rich validity
Did lack a parallel."
84. courtship. According to Schmidt the two meanings of
"courtliness, civility," and "courting, wooing," blend into one
here and in As You Like It, iii. 9. 364 : " an inland man, one that
knew courtship too well, for there he fell in love."
38. who. For this form of the relative used of inanimate per-
sons and objects regarded as persons, where modem English re-
quires wkichj cf. note on i. 1. 119, and see Abbott, § 964.
41. This line, certainly from a poetic standpoint one of the worst
in Shakespeare, has given editors much trouble on account of evi-
dent confusion in the printing of it and of those that follow in the
early editions. Q 9, the authoritative text, reads :
"This may flyes do, when I from this must flie.
And sayest thou yet, that exile is not death ?
But Romeo may not, he is banished.
Flies may do this, but I from this must flie :
They are freemen, but I am banished."
Q 1 omits IL 38-39, and runs :
"And steale immortall kisses from her lips; '
But Romeo may not, he is banished.
Flies may doo this, but I from this must flye.'*
F 1 arranges the lines :
"This may Flies doe, when I from this must flie.
And, saist thou yet, that exile is not death ?
But Romeo may not, hee is banished."
The reading of the present text is that first propose^ by Steevens
and has proved generally acceptable to editors.
ScEKB Three] NOTES l65
46. mean. This form is used here for the sake of the pun, but
it is found elsewhere in Shakespeare, as in i Henry F/, iii. 2. 10 :
** Our sacks shall be a mean to sa^k the city. **
54-5. armour, . . . milK The figure changes here ; it is not a
clear case of mixed metaphor.
55. Malone compares a passage from Lyly*s Euphuea (15Q0)f
a book which every educated Elizabethan read: **Thou sayest
banishment is better to the freebome. There be many meates
which are sowre in the mouth and sweet in the maw ; but if thou
mingle them with sweet sawces, they yeeld both a pleasant taste
and wholesome nourishment I speake this to this~end ; that
though thy exile seems grievous to thee, yet, guiding thyselfe with
the rules of philosophy, it shall be more tolerable.** The same
thought is in the familiar words of As You Like It, ii. 1. 12:
"Sweet are the uses of adversity."
60. prevails, avails, as in Henry F, iiL 2. 16 : «* If wishes would
prevail with me, My purpose should not fail with me."
63. dispute, reason, discuss; as in Lovers Labour ''s Lost, v. 1.
69 : ** Thou disputest like an infant"
71 ff. No such dialogue is found in Painter or Brooke, but
duller shows that it is fairly close to that of Struijs in the corre-
sponding scene. Fuller translates :
•* Fr, L. My son keep to thy senses . . . Truly thy grief ex-
ceeds all bounds. Methinks I hear some one. Still ! I will go
first and see who it is, that thou mayst not be betrayed ; and so
it be not a trusty friend, he shall remain outside. Ha ! 't is the
nurse. Now I may open the door.
** (Enter Nurse.)
"Romeo. My heart is comforted. What may she bring?
Welcome, nurse; how is it with my Juliette? What tidings
bringest thou me?
** Nurse, Alas ! Romeo, thy mistress lies for thy sake in ex-
treme grief; she sighs the whole day long, and cannot sleep an
hour of the night — so presses her her sorrow. My heart breaks
to hear her moan and sob in the bitterest of the night Thy
absence, my lord, makes her often call for death."
85-6. O woeful sympathy! Piteous predicament! In all
the early editions these words are included as here in the Nurse's
speech. Most modem editors follow Farmer and Steevens in trans-
ferring them to the Friar, on the ground that it is out of character
for the ignorant nurse to use such language. But Detius, Daniel,
166 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Thbjse
and Neilson, as well as the Cambridge editors, preserve the earlier
reading.
90. an O, an affliction, expressed by the use of that inteijection.
94. old, practised; as in our expression, "old reprobate."
98. conceaVd. The fact that Juliet is his lady is concealed from
the world. The word was pronounced much like caneeWd in the
same line, producing a pun.
103. level, aim, range; cf. Portia's "level at my affection,'*
Merchant of Venice^ i. 2. 41.
106. anatomy, body, as in King John, iiL 4. 40 : " That fell
anatomy. Which cannot hear."
109. In this speech Shakespeare is closely following Brooke.
For the antithesis between man and beasts cf. Macbeth, i. 7. 46 fF.
119. Again the dramatist seems to have made an unimportant
slip in transferring some of the details of the story to the stage.
Romeo has not been railing on his birth here, but in Brooke's
poem he does so rail.
126. form of wax. The disparagement implied in the Friar's
use of this phrase raises the question whether the Nurse's reference
to Paris in i. 3. 76, as a man of wax, may have a similar turn. But
the Nurse probably does not so intend, for she is all admiration of
Paris's person.
127. digressing. See Glossary.
132. Steevens notes that English soldiers using matchlocks had
to carry lighted matches near the wooden flasks in which was their
powder.
134. "And thou torn to pieces with thine own weapons"
(Johnson).
161. blaze, publish, make known < Old Norse bldea, blow. Cf.
blazon, in ii. 6. 26, above, = proclaim.
169. This characteristic remark of the old Nurse affords a much-
desired comic relief.
SCENE 4
The counterplot now develops a new and impossible complica-
tion, a second marriage of Juliet following the first. The complete
entanglement lies in the fact that Romeo's killing of Tybalt makes
likewise impossible the alternative course, the announcement of the
first marriage.
4. born to die, a commonplace already uttered by the Nurse in
ill. 3. 99, above. Capulet's grief is not profound.
Scene Five] NOTES l67
8. woe . • • woo. Note the quibble.
11. meufd up, confined, shut up ; cf. The Taming of the Shrew,
i. 1. 188: "And therefore has he closely mew'd her up." The
word comes from the Latin mutaref change, through the French.
Used first to indicate the change by moulting of a bird's feathers, it
developed the sense here because moulting hawks were caged.
12. desperate tender, bold offer. Steevens cites The Weakest
Ooeth to the WalHl600)i "Witness this desperate tender of mine
honor."
23. keep no great ado, as we colloquially say, " make no great
fuss.
32. against. See Glossary.
34. Afore me, originally perhaps, as Dyce explains, God before
WW, t. «. , in the presence of God. Some critics explain the words as
an address to the torch-bearer to carry the light before Capulet to
the chamber, but this is unlikely.
36. by and by. Cf. note on ii. 9. 151, above.
41-64. For reading of Q 1 see Appendix A, IV.
SCENE 5
The decline of the lovers' fortunes is now accelerated. First
with retarded movement, in lines full of foreboding, Romeo leaves
Juliet for Mantua. Then the storm breaks. In quick succession
come Lady Capulet's formal announcement of the plan for Juliet's
wedding to Paris, the daughter's flat refusal, old Capulet's frenzy
on hearing this news, his coarse taunts, and threats of death unless
his wiU be observed. Next, Juliet's pathetic appeal to her mother
meets with a cold response, and even the Nurse's counsel is delib-
erately wicked. Desperate, Juliet cuts loose from them all, resolved
on going to the Friar and ready for suicide if he cannot help.
CapvUefs Orchard, There is much diversity of opinion as to the
setting here, and some editors would divide tiie scene after 1. 59.
The chief difficulty with this arrangement is that Juliet stays on
the stage the whole time. It is probable that in Elizabethan play-
houses all the action, except Romeo's descent to the ground, took
place above the main floor on the balcony at the back of the stage.
This balcony was supposed to represent Juliet's chamber.
1. FuUer sees here again the influence of the EngHsh play fol-
lowed by Struts. In the Dutch version Romeo declares that it is
four o'clock and he has to depart His wife expresses surprise to
168 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Three
hear that it is so late, and later utters the fear that they shall neveiv
more meet. Romeo calms her fears and climbs down.
4. yon pomegranate. Note the realistic eflfect of the adjective.
The pomegranate tree appears to be the favorite hamit of the
nightingale in many lands.
8. lace, " to diversify with streaks of color " (N, E, Diet), Cf.
Macbeth^ ii. 3. 118: "His silver'd skin laced with his golden
blood."
9. Cf. Sonnets^ xxi. 19 : " Those gold candles fix'd in heaven's
air." For other dawn pictures in Shakespeare, see note on ii. 3.
1-6, above.
12. / know it, L See note on iii. 1. 58, above.
13. exhales. According to popular scientific notions at the time
meteors were composed of vapors drawn up by the sun. Many
lines in Shakespeare illustrate this belief, as Julitu CasMtr^ iL 1. 44 :
" The exhalations whizzing in the air
Give so much light that I may read by them."
19. morning's eye, Cf. Milton's Lycidas: ** under the opening
eyelids of the mom."
20. reflex, reflection. The moon shining on the clouds is re-
flected therefrom. Brow is used for face, but some editors change
the word to &oio, and understand it as referring to the segment of
the new moon.
21. Nor . . . not. For the double negative see note on iii. 1. 58,
above.
21-2. Other passages in which Shakespeare refers to the lark
are Love's Labour > Lost, v. 2. 914 ; Midsummer Nighfs Dream, i. 1.
184, iii. 1. 133, iv. I. 98 ; Merchant of Venice, v. 1. 102 ; Taming of
th» Shrew, iv. 3. 177 ; Cymheline, ii. 3. 21 ; Eichard II, iii. 3. 183 ;
Winter's Tale, iv. 3. 9 ; All 's Well, ii. 5. 7 ; Troilus and Cressida^
iv. 2. 9.
26. Juliet strives to detain her husband, but when she finds him
yielding to her persuasions and thereby imperilling his life, she im-
mediately changes her tone and thinks only of his safety. She has
shown the same unselfishness in ii. 2. 64, above.
28. unpleasing sharps, acute and shrill sounds (Schmidt).
29. division, a quadrisyllable. The meaning is thus given in
N, E, Diet, : " The execution of a rapid melodic passage, originally
conceived as the dividing of each of a succession of long notes into
several short ones." Cf. Heywood, A Woman Killed with Kindness
(acted 1603), V. 2. 13-15:
ScKWK Five] NOTES l69
"Her lute! Oh, God! Upon this instrument
Her fingeis have rung quick division
Sweeter than that which now divides our hearts."
31. An old saying due to the fact that the (English) lark has ugly
eyes, and the toad, beautiful If they had only changed voices
too, Juliet says, there would be no need to heed the summons.
84. hunt's-up. '* Originally * the hunt is up,* name of an old
song and its tune, sung or played to awaken huntsmen in the
morning; . , . hence ... an early morning song" {N. E, Diet.),
It is used particularly of a " song for a new-married wife, the day
after the marriage," as Cotgrave informs us. Technically, such a
song is called an aubade.
43. Some editors prefer the reading of Q 1 : ** my Lord, my
Love, my Frend." The text here is practically that of other Qq
and F. It must be remembered that^W^m^ in Elizabethan English
bore a much warmer connotation than it bears at present. Dowden
points out that in the corresponding passage in Brooke ^H^nd and
friendship occur where we should speak of lover and love,
51-7. The presentiment of coming evil, which we have noted
in several scenes before, here assumes more definite shape. But
Romeo, who in the last scene was in the depths of despair, has
taken on new hope, and is sure that all will be well with them.
Henceforth his courage never falters.
52-3. Possibly an echo of the familiar line from Vergil, JEneid^
1. 203 : ** forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit."
69. Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Dry = thirsty. " The belief
that grieving exhausts the blood and impairs the health, is more
than once alluded to by Shakespeare " (Clarke). Cf. Midsummer
Nighfs Dream, ill 2. 97 : ** sighs of love that costs the fresh blood
dear."
67. down, i «., downstairs, with a quibble on up,
68. procures, brings ; cf. ii. 9. 145, above, where the verb means
"cause to come."
71. Cf. Juliet's words, iil 2. 130, above : " Wash they his wound
with tears."
75. feeling, affecting, heartfelt
78. cannot choose but To Elizabethans this phrase meant
scarcely more than "must necessarily." Cf. S Henry IV, iii. 9.
990-1 : " Nay, she must be old ; she cannot choose but be old."
82. be, a frequent use ; there is no need to adopt are, the read-
ing of Ql. Abbott, §300.
170 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Three
8i. like he. For the nominative form, cf. Abbott, § 906.
89-92. Compare Lady Capulet's cry for immediate revenge of
the death of Tybalt, iii. 1. 154, above.
91. shall give. The relative is omitted, as frequently in Shake-
speare. Cf. Abbott, § 944.
97-100. Dr. Johnson, the stem moralist, declares that " Ju-
liet^s equivocations are rather too artful for a mind disturbed by
the loss of a new lover.'* Clarke repUes that they are "eiiactly
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 confes-
sional, is apt to resort to, when first left to itself in difficulties of
situation and abrupt encounter with life's perplexities." Besides,
it has been pointed out ** that this is a typical Elizabethan quibbling
passage, and that Shakespeare has brought this about in an artifi-
cial way so that Juliet is forced to quibble. Such quibbles as she
uses are perfectly nugatory as to her character. She quibbles
chiefly for the amusement of the audience."
Absolute frankness does not guide Juliet in all her conversations
with her mother, her father, the Nurse, or Count Paris. But there
are good reasons for her lack of confidence in each of them.
99. That, so that. Abbott, § 283.
106. needy, needful, necessary.
107. they. Tidings^ like news, is either singular or plural in
Shakespeare. Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 14. 119 : " This sword
but shown to Cffisar with this tidings ; " and the same play, ii 5.
87 : " Let ill tidings tell Themselves when they be felt."
110. sorted ouU contrived, brought about.
112. in happy time. This day of joy comes appropriately, just
at the right time. The thought is the same as in L 106.
119. Juliet's irony is adapted from Brooke, IL 1905-6 :
" Madam, I marvel much that you so lavas [i e. wasteful] are
Of me your child."
122. / swear. Some editors, probably wishing to save Juliet
from using an oath here, follow Q 1 in omitting this expression.
But just six lines above the girl has sworn "by Saint Peter's
church, and Peter too." She is greatly stirred with indignation,
and in no mood to employ soft language or show timidify- See
Appendix D for other examples of alexandrines.
li27. the air J the reading of Qq 4, 5, adopted by most editors,
though Malonejprefers the earth of Q 9, F.
ScmrB Five] NOTES 171
130. conduit Brooke apparently has a particular fondness for
this j&gure. See Appendix B for instances of its use.
Malone notes that ** conduits in the form of human figures were
common in Shakespeare's time."
127-31. Note quibbles on sunt sunset, son, dew, rain, showering,
131-8. Another series of conceits not appreciated by modem
readers.
136. Who. Cf. note to i. 1. 119, above.
' 142. take me with you, let me catch your meaning. Cf. Pal-
staff's exquisite rejoinder to the Prince's description of him,
1 Henry IV, ii. 4. 506 : '* I would your grace would take me with
you : whom means your grace ? "
Capulet's outrageous language to his daughter should be com-
pared with King Lear's to Cordelia, Lear, i. 1. 110 ff. Neither
father is willing to believe that his child will not accede to any of
his desires. When an unreasonable request is refused, each par-
ent breaks into an ungovernable storm of wrath, which raises the
protest of a subordinate. Even closer parallels to the language of
Capulet wiU be found in that of the Lord Mayor to his daughter
Rose in Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday (1599), iiL 3 ff.
146. wrought, succeeded in winning, effected.
166. hurdle, a sledge to drag criminals to execution. N, E,Dict.
cites Dickens, Tale of Two Cities : ** He '11 be drawn on a hurdle
to be half hanged. "
168. tallow-face, Romeo in L 59 has remarked on the girl's
paleness, ascribing it to ** dry sorrow." Old Capulet, now thor-
oughly angry, hints a less delicate cause.
166. lent, Q 1 has sent, which many editors adopt. The use of
lent in this sense is well established. In Brooke, L 1795, Lady
Capulet says of Tybalt, ** God hath claimed the life that was but
lent" So the pre-Shakespearian King Leir (published 1605), 43-4 :
" My gracious Lord, I hartily do wish.
That God had lent you an heyre indubitate."
This, it wiU be noticed, does not refer to one who has died, but, as
in the text, to a non-existent child. Moreover, a recent newspaper
item from London reports **a curious variation from the usual
birth notice " in Surrey, reading " the loan of a son," whose name
follows. The item continues, ** A similar idea is to be found in an
epitaph in Kingsbridge church yard in Devon. It runs : ' My
parents dear, do not lament. I was not given, but only lent.' "
172. smatter, prate, prattle. Dowden cites Heywood, The
172 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Four
Pa/rd(mer and the Friar: " What, standest thou there all the day
smattering ! "
173. God ye god-den. See note on i. 9. 58, above. Of course
Capulet is ironical in this speech, and he probably bows as he
utters it, precisely as Mercutio has mocked the Nurse in it 4. 116.
178. The line is scanned. No. 10, in Appendix D.
183. Rolfe compares Much Ado, i. 1. 56>7, ** stufPed with all
honourable virtues."
186. in her fortune's tender, when fortune is offered to her.
192. Cf. Brooke, 1. 1983, ** Advise thee well, and say that thou
art warned now." advise — reflect, consider.
198-9. Cf. the wretched king's appeal, Lear, ii. 4. 192 ff. :
" O, heavens.
If you do love old men, if your sweet sway
Allow obedience, if yourselves are old.
Make it your cause; send down and take my part! "
200. sweet my mother. Compare note to ill. 2. 98, above.
206. With what infinite pathos the helpless girl now turns to the
Nurse after being repelled alike by her raging father and hard-
hearted mother !
214 fl. Shakespeare is again following Brooke or the old play.
In both Struijs and Brooke such a conversation occurs, but it is
later in the story.
222. green* Green eyes were then looked on with great favor.
Dowden cites Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 1 : " Thy rare green eye."
229. Amen! The girl is really putting a period to the curse
that the Nurse has just pronounced on her heart and soul. It is
a heartfelt expression of her abhorrence of the wickedness now
revealed.
234. Q 1 has a significant stage-direction here. As the Nurse
withdraws, Juliet ** lookes after" her. In her amazement at the
woman's perfidy, the young wife watches her untU she is out of
sight
ACT IV - SCENE 1
Act iv. is devoted to Juliet's struggles against the antagonistic
forces, her endeavor by means of a desperate expedient to escape
the destruction that threatens her. This secures for the audience
a brief lightening of the tension in the hope that the catastrophe
may yet be averted. In Scene 1 Juliet throws Paris off his guard.
ScewkOhi:] notes 173
then learns from the Friar of his dangerous remedy, and immedi-
ately agrees to try it.
8. This line has given editors much mmecessary trouble. The
meaning is obviously, to use Dr. Johnson's paraphrase, "His haste
shall not be abated by my slowness. " According to modem stand-
ards the words would mean the reverse ; but to slack may be taken
in the sense, '* that I should slack," '* in order to slack."
6. uneven, ** indirect, not straightforward" (Dowden). Hamlet^
iL 2. 998 : ** Be even and direct with me," shows the contrary term.
11. marriage, a trisyllable ; see Appendix D.
18-86. Rolfe thinks that " this put of the scene evidently came
from the first draft of the play." Not necessarily ; it is the sort of
** give and take" dialogue that is frequent throughout the Eliza-
bethan drama, and Juliet's assumed lightness at first makes more
effective her declaration of despair on the moment of Paris's
departure.
21. What must be shdR be, Italian •• eh$ sera sera (sarAy
quoted by Marlowe and translated. The sentiment is common
with Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
29. abused, disfigured, defaced ; < Liat dbutor, alusus^ < a&,
away from, -f titor, use.
88. evening mass. The term has called forth from several
editors' comment on Shakespeare's '* error " as to Roman Catholic
usages, but the dramatist is right Bowdon's BeUgion of Shake-
speare (1899) shows " that mass was used of various church offices ;
that in the stricter sense of mass there was great latitude in ancient
times as to the hour ; that Pius V. (1566-79) prohibited evening
masses ; that the new law was slow in coming into operation in
Grermany, and perhaps in England ; finally, that in Verona the for-
bidden custom lingered to the nineteenth century " (Dowden).
41. shield, avert, forbid, as in AU's WeU, I 3. 174: «• God shield
you mean it not"
devotion, a quadrisyllable. See Appendu D, and cf. ill. 5. 99,
division,
44-6. It is worthy of note that in this outburst of Juliet's deep
anguish every word is a simple monosyllable.
64. this knife. It seems to have been a custom for ladies of
that day to wear knives at their girdles with which to cut meat at
dinner.
67. label. To deeds in Elizabethan times labels, not stamps*
were affixed. These labels were the strips of ribbon or parchment to
which seals were attached.
174 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Foub
62. extremes, extreme hardships or sufferings.
62 fl. This knife sliall determine the issue between me and my
sufiPerings. In Brooke Juliet tells her mother that rather than
marry Paris she will pierce her breast with «• bloody knife."
64. commission, authority.
78. yonder tower. Again a restoration by Pope from Q 1.
Ulrici adopts and defends the reading of Qq, Ff. ** any tower,** as
more natural and more vigorous. The reading of the text is dra-
matically much more effective. Cf. note to lit 5. 4, above.
79. thievish ways, i. e, roads or paths frequented^by thieves.
89-120. Shakespeare again closely follows Brooke. See Appen-
dix B, 1.
105i two and forty hours, Shakespeare here departs from his
source, probably, as Dowden suggests, in order to give ** an air of
precision and verisimilitude to the Friar's arrangement" Since no
amount of arithmetic will make these figures accord exactly with
the situation in the final act, several emendations have been pro-
posed here. Editors sometimes forget that these plays were
written for the stage, and that audiences in Shakespeare's day^were
not accustomed to figure out time analyses in their notebooks.
109. as the manner of our country is. The explanatory clause
is put in for the benefit of the English audience. Shakespeare
found this Italian custom particulary alluded to in Brooke. It is
also referred to m Coryat's CrudUiea (1776), ii. 27.
114. driftt scheme, design ; literally, driving, < M. E drifts
verbal abstract < A. S. dn/an^ drive. Cf. ii. 3. 55, above.
119. no inconstant toy. No light whim, caprice. C£ Brooke*
IL 9189-90:
" God grant he so confirm in thee thy present wiU,
That no inconstant toy thee let thy promise to fulfil."
122. get you gone. Reflexive use of the verb. Abbott, § 296.
SCENE d
In this scene, whUe the hostile forces are apparently triumphant,
we find Juliet, in obedience to the counsel of the Friar, again de-
ceiving them with pretended submission.
2. twenty cunning cooks, Capulet has evidently forgotten his
intention not to ** revel much" on account of Tybalt's death.
Scene Three] NOTES 175
6. an f72 dookt etc., a proverbial expression occurriDg also in
Ftxttenhaxa'aArto/EnglishPoe3i6(l5S9)i "A bad cook that can-
not his own fingers lick."
14. peevish self-uMd harlotry, Cf. 1 Henry IV, iil 1. 198,
where Glendower, who really loves his daughter, says that she is
*' a peevish self-willed harlotry, one that no persuasion can do good
upon."
26. becomedf becoming. For this frequent Elizabethan idiom,
cf. Abbott, §§ 294, 374.
81. Brooke, U. 2949-50 :
*' In all our commonweal scarce one is to be found
But is for some good turn, unto this holy father bound."
33. closet, chamber, private room.
39. near nighU a deft touch by the dramatist looking forward
to the next scene, and giving point to Lady Capulet's housewifely
concern. It troubles some critics that it should be just after day-
break when Juliet departs for the Friar*s cell, but near night when
she returns. An Elizabethan audience would not have demanded
a foolishly close attention to consistency in such details.
SCENE 3
Here the desperate remedy proposed by the Friar is finally put
to the test. Arter playing her part with her mother and the Nurse,
as in Scene 1 with Paris, and in Scene 2 with her father, Juliet by
the supreme effort of her life dares even the tomb for the sake of
her husband. The fad that her actual awakening in Act v. is
dramatically foreshadowed intensifies the horror.
1. ay. Evidently in answer to a question of the Nurse as to the
garments she wished to put on for her wedding day. How closely
Shakespeare follows Brooke throughout this scene will appear by
comparison with the summary of the poem, Appendix B, 1.
2. leave me to myself. Juliet is following out the Friar's in-
structions, iv. 1. 91, above. The Nurse is in the habit of sleep-
ing in Juliet's chamber.
6. cross, perverse ; not *' ill-tempered."
12. this so sudden business. The irony in the phrase should
not be overlooked.
19. must act alone. Here is the pathos of the whole situation.
176 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Foue
The young girl who so desires counsel and sympathy is cut off ftom
help in every direction.
20. Come, vial. Note the metrical pause after these words.
23. this shall forbid it See note on iv. 1. 54, above.
24-68. The readmg.of these lines in Q 1 will be found in Ap-
pendix A, IV.
29. Cf. line 270 of the final scene, "We stiU have known thee
for a holy man."
39. As, «. tf. "as, for example." Cf. Hamlet, i. 4. 25 : "As, in
their birth."
receptacle, Cf. Titus Andronious, i. 1. 92 : " O sacred receptacle
of my joys."
42. green, t. e. fresh ; cf. Sonnets, IxilL 13-4 :
" His beauty shall in these black lines be seen.
And they shall live, and he in them still green."
47. mandrakes. On account of the resemblance of the mandrake,
or mandragora, root and the human figure, and perhaps abo on ac-
count of the first syllable of its name, it was popularly supposed to
be engendered by dead criminals. When the root was torn from
the ground, it is said to utter such shrieks that those hearing it went
mad or died. Steevens collected a number of literary allusions to
this belief, to which Shakespeare again refers in IS Henry F/, iii 2,
310 : " Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake^s groan."
67. stay— stop, don't follow Romeo.
68. within the curtains. This stage direction is^taken horn Q 1.
The curtains fell from the raised stage, or balcony, and were used,
when necessary, to shut off that portion underneath. Juliet falls
upon her bed, the curtains close in front of her, and the action then
goes forward in the HaU in front
SCENE 4
2. pastry here means place where pastry is prepared, pantry,
larder.
4. curfew. Originally applied only to the evening bell, the term
came to include other ringings.
'tis three o'clock. Still another marking of the time, but note
that several hours seem to pass within a few minutes, for at the
dose it is day and time to waken Juliet Q 1 reads fours a elaeks.
Scene Five] NOTES 177
iV. E, Diet, quotes the Liverpool Municipal Records of 1673 and
1704 to show that the curfew was there rung at four o'clock.
6. baked meatSy pies, pastry; particularly applied to meat pies.
Angelica, probably the name of Liady Capulet, as the remark
would be addressed to her rather than to the Nurse.
6. Spare not for cost. This is the same Capulet who in the last
scene would fain hire twenty cunning cooks, and who in i. 5 refuses
to harm even his bitter enemies, so long as they are his guests.
Shakespeare got the hint firom Brooke, who teUs us, 1. 158, that
Capel ** spar'th for no cost ** in his banquet.
6-6. Go, you cot-quean, etc. Some editors assign this speech to
Lady Capulet, thinking it too bold for the Nurse to utter. But the
latter is allowed exceptional liberties with her tongue, and usually
takes advantage of them. Mark her plain language to Capulet, ill
6, 169 ff.
11. mouse-hunt See Glossary.
26. the bridegroom he is come. For the redundant pronoun,
cf. Abbott, § S43.
SCENE 6
This scene shows the apparent success of the Friar's plan and
the defeat of the counterplot, leaving the audience in hopes that
the story may yet end happily. Hence the tone of farce in the
grief-making, and the comic interlude at the close of the scene are .
dramatically effective.
1. The line is scanned. No. 11, in Appendix D.
12. down, i.e. in bed.
26 fl. The directness and evident restraint of this speech indicate
Capulet's genuine affection for his child. If we are to judge from
his speeches here, his grief is more sincere than that of any one
else present
82. wm not let me speak, Malone quotes from Brooke the state-
ment that Capulet was so grief-stricken that he had no power to
weep '* ne yet to speak," and adds that Shakespeare was here fol-
lowing the poem closely, ** without recollecting that he had made
Capulet in this scene clamorous in his grief." The latter assertion
may be doubted. As Rolfe suggests, it would be perfectly natural
for the old man to make this speech and afterwards become *' clam-
orous in his grief." Consistency is not one of Capulet's virtues.
40. living, property, possessions ; as in Winter's TdU, iv. 3. 104»
<* where my land and living lies."
178 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Four
41. / (hought long to see, it seemed to me a long time until I
could see. Brooke, L 2274, tells us that Paris*s '* longing heart
thinks long for their appointed hour." The phrase is common, oc-
curring again in at least two anonymous plays which Shakespeare
knew. In The Troublssome Reign of King John, Part II, we have :
" The nobles, commons, clergie, all estates . . .
Thinke longe to see their new elected king."
Again in the older King Lmr, L 499, Ragan says of her betrothed,
" Well, I thinke long untill I see my Morgan.*'
48. catch'd. An unusual form found again in Corioktmu, L 3. 68.
49 fl. Perhaps, as R. G. White suggests, Shakespeare is here
ridiculing the style of the 1581 {translation of Seneca's Tragediea,
Dowden compares the Pyramus and Thisbe play in A Midsummer
Night^s Dream. Much Elizabethan poetry is of this same florid
style.
66. detestable. For accent see Appendix D, and cf. v. 3. 45,
below.
60. Uncomfortable, affording no comfort, joyless.
65. confusion's^ ruin's, destruction's ; quibbling with confusions,
below, which has the modem sense. Cf. confounds in ii. 6. 13,
above.
The Friar proves a good actor here. Nothing in his behavior in-
dicates his knowledge that Juliet is not really dead.
70. hiSi its, as in ii. 6. 12, above.
72. advanced, exalted, as in v. 3. 96, below, with a play on the
usual sense of the word.
76. she is well, a phrase often used as a euphemism for death.
Cf. V. 1. 17, below.
79. rosemary. See note on ii. 4. 226, above. Several editors
cite Dekker, Wonderful Year {Works, ed. Grosart, L 129): "The
rosemary that was washt in sweete water to set out the Bridall is
now wet in teares to furnish her buriall."
80. as the custom is. See note on iv. 1. 109, above.
84. The corresponding passage in Brooke is quoted. Appen-
dix B.
99. case. The Nurse of course uses the word in the common
sense of *' state of affairs," but the musician quibbles, applying it
to the cover for his instrument
101. Enter Peter, From two of the Quartos we learn that Will
Kemp, the famous comedian, who belonged to Shakespeare's com-
ScEOTE Five] NOTES 179
pany of actors, played the part of Peter, for they read here, ** Enter
Will Kemp." This portion of the scene was probably written
particularly for him. Some time has to elapse between Juliet*B
supposed death and the announcement of the fact to Romeo in
the next scene. In the interim Kemp may well entertain the
audience after the manner of the gravedigger in Hamlet, v. 1,
and the drunken porter in Macbetht il 3. Were Juliet really
dead, this unseemly mirth in her home might shock our sense of
decency.
103. " Hearfs ease," the name of a popular tune mentioned in
Rychardes*s Misogomu {drea 1560). Thei music is to be found in
Naylor*s Shakespeare and Music, p. 193.
107. Steevens points out that the burden of the first stanza of
*• A Pleasant New Ballad of Two Lovers," which was reprinted in
the Shakespeare Society Paperst i 12, is " Hey ho ! my heart is full
of woe."
107-8. merry dump. Peter gets his terms mixed, as dump
means a doleful strain.
116. •« To give the gleek " was to scoff, to mock. Perhaps there
was in the term minatrel some contemptuous connotation not now
present
117-8. serving-creature, «. e, retort by calling you a serving-
creature, which seems to have been another insulting term.
120. carry no crotchets, put up with none of your whims. A
quibble is here, crotchets meaning ** musical characters," as well as
" caprices."
121. re you , , , fa you. Ulrici suggests more quibbles. Bay
meant to befoul, and fay to cleanse. Peter might do both with a
" dry-beating."
126. have at you. ** Peter takes ptU out not as meant, i. e. ex-
tinguish, but as the opposite of put up (your dagger), and so draw,
unsheathe " (Dowden).
128. When griping grief, etc. The entire poem quoted here
may be found in Percy's ReUques, Series I, Book 2, under the title,
"A Song to the Lute in Musicke." It was written by Richard
Edwards, and published in the Paradyee ofDaynty Devises (1576),
a famous Elizabethan anthology.
132. Simon Catling. The surname, like those of Beheck and
Soundpost, below, indicates the profession. Catling is ** a small
lute-string made of catgut " ; and rebeck, ** an instrument of three
strings " (Steevens). Cf. Milton's UAUegro : " And the jocund
rebecks sound."
180 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Five
186. Pretty t Peter is patronizing the musicians for their an-
swers to his riddle. Pope restored the word from Q 1, in place of
Prates^ as in Q 9, and Protest in Q 3, F. A similar replacement
occurred in L 138, below. Few editors reject Pope's reading.
147. ^estSenf, pestering, plaguy.
ACT V— SCENE 1
Neither Paris nor the Capulets, whom Juliet has so outwitted,
prove to be the lovers' most formidable foes, but it is now seen
that they are fighting against their own evil fate, or the stars, as
already hinted several times in the play. Here a mistaken report
of Juliet's death hurries Romeo on to the catastrophe.
1. The meaning is. If I may trust that creation of sleep, t. e, my
dream, '* which bears the flattering semblance of truth." Q 1 reads
•• eye "of sleep, which many editors prefer. "Ruth," "sooth,"
" death," and other unnecessary substitutes for truth have been
suggested.
3. bosom's lords heart Steevens notes that in Chester's £ow'«
Martyr (1601), the phrase occurs and is marginally explained as
Cupid.
4. an unaccustom'd spirit It is unusual for Romeo to be so
cheerful that he can interpret an evil dream as presaging good.
His cheerfulness began, we remember, the morning of his de-
parture from Juliet, when he endeavored to calm her presen-
timents.
Munro, following Skeat, compares with this passage a famous
one in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde^ v. 1164 ff. There Troilus,
like Romeo, separated from his love, and about to receive evil
news of her, says :
" But hardely, it is not al for nought
That in myn herte I now reioyse thus.
It IS ayein som good I have a thought.
Noot I not how, but sin that I was wrought
Ne felte I swich a confort, dar I seye;
She comth to-night, my lyf, that dorste I leye! "
In each case the story gains dramatically by the strong contrast
between what the hero expects to hear and what he really hears
about his loved one.
ScEKE Oke] notes 181
8. Steeyens compares Mariowe's n«ro and Lecvnd&r (published
1598) : " He kissed her and breathed life mto her lips." The figure
may easily have occurred to the two writers independently, but
Shakespeare may have known the poem in manuscript, as Marlowe
died in 1593. The poem is quoted in As You Like It, iii 5. S2, and
referred to, ibid., iv. 1. lQO-6.
10. Ah me ! This may be, as Rolfe implies, only another in-
stance of the lover's sigh. Cf. i 1. 167; ii 1. 10; U. 9. 95, and
iil 2. 36, above.
11. hooted, to indicate that he had come on horseback.
17. IS well. Cf. note on iv. 5. 76, above.
18. Capels', another form of Capulets' which Shakespeare found
also in Brooke.
21. presently. See Glossary ; cf. presmt, 1. 51, below.
22. pardon tne, an allusion to the ancient custom of punishing
the bringer of evil tidings, occasionally by death, while the mes-
senger of good was rewarded. Balthasar seems almost to deserve
severe punishment for the promptness and bluntness with which he
delivers the false news.
these iU news. See note on ii 5. 99.
24. Note the simplicity of the words, yet, as Clarke says :
** There is a terribly quiet depth of concentrated anguish and will
in this brief despairing ejaculation of Romeo's that is more expres-
sive than a hundred raving lines of lament would be." According
to Fuller, in Struijs Romeo does rave at some length : '* Is my mis-
tress dead? Is it true? How comes it then that Phoebus still
shines on ? Or can he still without flickering cast his gase upon
the earth ? " And this vein continues for several lines more.
27. patience, a trisyllable.
86. in, into; cf. Abbott, § 159.
89. weeds, clothing, garments; ** widows' weeds" illustrates
the term.
overwhelming, overhanging.
46 If. This description was suggested by Brooke, though the
concrete details are Shakespeare's. See Appendix B.
60. Gear — stuff. The language is dose to Brooke's.
61. Cf. Lyly, Euphuss (Works, ed. Bond, p. 918) : " One dtoppe
of poyson disperseth it selfe into everye vaine."
67. any he, any man ; a frequent Elizabethan usage. Cf. Ab-
bott, § 994.
Utters, puts into circulation, trades in. Th$ WmUr's Tale, iv. 4.
330, says that money ** doth utter " ware.
182 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Five
68. bare, poor, lean ; FalstafTs men in 1 H&my IV, iv, 9, 75,
are said to be "poor and bare."
77 fl. Steevens thought that perhaps Shakespeare in this speech
*' had not quite forgotten ** Chaucer's Pardoner^s Tale, in which an
apothecary speaks similarly of the ** violent " poison which he is
selling. This suggestion is confirmed by Romeo's reply, which
contains the very moral enforced and reiterated by Chaucer
throughout the tale.
SCENE 2
looks backward to Scene 1, explaining why the true account of
Juliet did not reach Romeo, and forward to Scene 3, suggesting
that the Friar may yet be in time to avert the catastrophe.
6. bare-foot brother. Dowden notes that this information is
gleaned from Brooke, but that the poem places the pestilence at
Mantua. See Appendix B, 1.
16. infection, a quadrisyllable ; see Appendix D.
18. nice. For the meaning of this word see Glossary.
charge, weight, importance.
19. dear, i. e. of great importance.
21. crow, crow-bar. The Comedy of Errors, iii 1. 80 : "Go bor-
row me a crow."
SCENE 3
Seemingly Fortune, or, as Romeo believes, their evil star, deter-
mines the ^te of the lovers. Had Juliet's sleeping potion lost its
effect a half-hour earlier, had the Friar arrived at tiie tomb a few
moments sooner, the lives of both lovers would have been saved.
Even Paris, by diance meeting Romeo at the grave, is involved in
their common fate. But only a sacrifice like this could mitigate
the long-standing hatred between the families. Such is the dra-
matic explanation of the reconcilement.
1. In Brooke the name of Paris does not occur after the wed-
ding morning. His presence at the tomb, and death there in de-
fence of the family honor appear to be inventions of Shakespeare,
who has notably oralted the character of Juliet's wooer.
3. lay thee all along, lie at full length. Note the reflexive use.
12. Cf Hamlet, v. 1. 966 ff., where the Queen strews flowers
over Ophelia's grave and employs similar language.
18-7. For the form of these lines in Q 1, see Appendix A, IV.
Metrically they make a sestette. See note on i 2. 46-^1, above.
Scene Three] NOTES 183
14. sweet water, water which has been periiimed.
41. take thou that, Romeo throws him a purse.
44. doubt, distrust, have suspicions about
46. detestable. For accent see Appendix D.
69. youth, Romeo consistently addresses Paris as too young a
man to fight, just as he himself is addressed by Tybalt in iii. 1. As
in that scene he shows here an aversion to personal combat and a
desire for peace, but Fate is against him each time.
84. lantern here signifies a tower erected on top of a building and
furnished with windows to admit light Juliet's grave is like such
a tower.
86. presence, presence chamber, or room in which a person of
rank receives visitors.
87. by a dead man, " Romeo being now determined to put an
end to his life, considers himself as already dead ** (Malone).
90. lightning before death, Steevens shows by several quotar
tions that this was a proverbial expression for an exaltation of the
spirits just before expiring. The lightning just below is a pun for
a lightening of spirits.
94-6. With this passage Steevens compares Daniers Complaint
o/Bosatnond(U92), U. 773^:
" And nought-respecting death (the last of paines)
Plac'd his pale colours (th* ensigne of his might)
Upon his new-got spoyle before his right."
96. advanced, raised, exalted ; cf. iv. 5. 72, above.
97. In this address to Tybalt Shakespeare is once more closely
following Brooke.
103. Fuller compares a passage in Struts immediately following
Romeo's receipt of the news of Juliet's death. There Romeo ex-
claims : '* O death, O cruel death ! thee will I curse to all eternity
. . . O archer, void of reason, or else uncertain of thy aim I thou
hast envied the earth the fostering of her, and thou grudgest me
the joyful embraces of such a wife."
108-6. Here again, as Malone points out, is a dose resem-
blance to Daniel's OomjMnt o/Eosamond^ IL 841-^, which run :
"Ah, how me thinkes I see Death dallying seekes.
To entertaine it selfe in Loves sweet place
And ugly Death sits faire within her face."
110. set up my everlasting rest, a metaphor from card-playing
which appears frequently in Ehsabethaa literature. For a player
184 ROMEO AND JULIET [Act Five
to set up his rest meant literally to lay his heaviest wager, to ven-
ture all. Romeo also has in mind the literal meaning of the phrase,
as has the King in Leofr, i. 1. 125. Cf. too iv. 5. 6, above.
111. inauspicious stars. To the last Romeo ascribes his mis-
fortunes to the influence of the planets.
115. *' An everlasting bargain to Death, who buys up wholesale. "
116. conduct. See Glossary, and cf. iii. 1. 199, above.
117. desperate pilot, Romeo has used the same metaphor be-
fore, i. 4. 112, above. But there he seems to refer to Fate, while
here the pilot is himself.
121. speed, a guarding Power who promotes success < A. S.
gped, success.
131. go with me. Even the eminently sensible Friar has enough
human nature in his make-up to fear going alone at night to a
tomb.
146. unkind. For accentuation see Appenda D.
148. comfortable^ comforting, inclined to comfort or console;
cf. uncamfortablef iv. 5. 60.
162. timeless, untimely.
170. rust Many editors prefer the rM^ of Ql. Reference to a
sheath was first made in Q 2, where the reading is that of the pres-
ent text.
dies. On the stage to-day the play frequently ends here. The
hero and the heroine are botii dead, and what follows is thought to
be in the nature of an anti-climax. But, as Dr. Fuller has sug^
gested to me, this ending would not satisfy a story-loving Eliza-
bethan audience. They would wish to know what became of the
minor characters, and perhaps to [have the moral of the story set
down at length. Besides, as some one else suggests, it is Shake-
speare's habit to use an anti-dimax in order to bring the audience
Imck to life.
173. attach, arrest
176. these two days. The sleeping potion was to have its effect
for " two and forty hours." Cf . iv. 1. 105.
170-80. Note the quibbling even at this juncture.
181. circumstance. See note on ii. 5, 36, above.
203. his 7tou5e,|the dagger's sheath. Cf. note on ii. 6. 13, above.
204. on the back, where the dagger was customarily worn, as
Steevens proves by several citations.
207. my old age. Rolfe notes this as a slip. Probably the
phrase is due to carelessness on Shakespeare's part, though in view
of all her afiBictions Lady Capulet may well have felt old.
Scene Theee NOTES 185
210. My wife is dead. The tender sympathy of Lady Mon-
tague for her son effectively contrasts with Lady Capulet's hard-
ness toward her daughter. Cf. i. 1. 12S-4.
211. After this line in Q 1 we have : <* And young Benvolio is
deceased too."
214. manners is, Fortheusageof a singular verb with certain
nouns plural in form but singular in meaning, cf. Abbott, § 333.
News to-day is similarly used.
216. outrage, outcry, passionate outburst
222. parties of suspicion, persons under suspicion, suspected
ones. The plural of party in the sense of "people" is heard
to-day, but outside of the courts is considered vulgar.
228 fl. " Shakespeare was led into this uninteresting narrative
by following Bomeus and JuUet too closely" (Malone). But Pro-
fessor Chambers suggests that it is necessary to prepare Montague
and Capulet for reconciliation.
229. I will be brief . In Brooke the Friar*s speech is anything
but brief.
247. as, Cf. Abbott, § 114, for the redundant use.
266. closely, secretly ; our phrase, " keep it close," is founded
on the same sense.
273. in post, post haste.
280. made, was doing, as frequently in Shakespeare.
284. by and by. See note to ii 9. 151, above.
295. brace of kinsmen, i e, Mercutio and Paris.
306-10. Note the sestette again.
308. According to Brooke, the Nurse and the Apothecary were
punished, Romeo's servant was pardoned, and Friar Laurence
retired to a hermitage.
APPENDIX A
READINGS OF THE FIRST QUARTO
As already stated in the Introduction, the accepted text of Bomw
and JuUst is based not on the First Quarto (published by Danter
in 1597), but chiefly on the Second Quarto (published by Creede
in 1599), which bears on its title-page the statement that the play
has been ** newly corrected, augmented, and amended.'* The rela-
tion between the two quartos is clearly set forth by Mr. P. A.
Daniel in the introduction to his edition of the ParaUd Texts :
** A hasty and separate perusal of Q 1 may leave the reader with
the impression that it represents an earlier play than that given in
the subsequent editions ; read line by line with Q 2 its true charac-
ter soon becomes apparent It is an edition made up partly from
copies of portions of the original play, partly from recollection and
from notes taken during the performance. Q 2 gives us for the
first time a substantially true representation of the original play.
Still, Q 1 is of great value, as it affords the means of correcting
many errors which crept into the ' copy ' from which Q 2 was
printed, and also, in its more perfect portions, affords conclusive
evidence that that * copy ' underwent revision, received some slight
augmentations, and, in some few places, must have been entirely
rewritten."
To portray this situation more graphically, information is ^ven
below as to (1) acts and scenes where Q 1 practically coincides with
the present text ; (2) passages in the accepted text omitted from
Q 1 ; (3) some cases of evident garbling in Q 1 ; (4) some cases in
which revision is evident between the writing of Ql and that
of Q2.
I. Passages in which Q 1 subotamtially agrees with Q 2
i. 1. 162-222; i. 2 ; 1. 3. 1-48; i. 4. 1-16 and^ 35-114 ; L 5.
29-146.
u. 1 ; ii. 2. 1-120 ; ii. 3; il 4. 1-204.
188 APPENDIX A
iii. 1. 1-33 ; iii. 3. 1-117 and 155-74 ; iii. 4 ; iu. 5. 1-36, 130^-
805 and 914-^.
iv. 1. 1-51 and 61-98 ; iv. 2 ; iv. 4 ; iv. 5. 107-50.
V. 1.
II. PASaAOES OMITTED FROM Q 1
(This list is not intended to be complete. Minor verbal differ-
ences are necessarily not taken into account. For practical pur-
poses passages of less than five lines have been excluded.)
i 1. 67-87, 115-29, 136-46, 151-61, 223-44 ; i. 3. 49-57, 69-73,
79-95 ; I 4. 17-28 ; i. 5. 1-17, 24-8.
il Chorus ; u. 2. 121-35, 150-6 ; ii. 3. 9-14 ; ii. 4 205-31 ; iL 5.
5-17, 20-4, 28-37 ; ii 6 (Rewritten. Cf. IV, below).
iii. 1. 52-8, 95-113 (Rewritten), 160^8; iii. 2. 5-33, 42-.51, 57-60
(Rewritten), 74-82,93-9, 102-6, 114r-22, 132-9 ; iii. 3. 118-34, 149-
54 ; ui. 5. 37-41, 60-4, 72-7, 83-8, 97-103, 206-13.
iv. 1. 52-60, 99-103, 106-14, 116-26; iv. 2. 40-5; iv. 3. 8-13,
15-20, 24^6 (Rewritten) ; iv. 5. 26-32, 43-64 (Rewritten). 66-79,
82-97, 102-6.
V. 2. 24-9 ; v. 3. 6-11, 13-7 (Rewritten), 79-86, 92-102. 104-8,
111-6, 177-«3, 217-21, 224-31, 236-42, 245-9 (Rewritten). 252-6.
III. Instances of Garbled Lines in Q 1
Numerous lines in Q 1 show text corruption, due either to mis-
printing or to misunderstanding the original version. A few of
the more striidng cases wiU illustrate how the corruption arose.
In Q 1 the Prologue reads :
"iTwo houshold Frends alike in dignitie,
(In faire Veronct, where we lay our Scene)
From civill broyles broke into enmitie.
Whose civill warre makes civill handes uncleane.
From forth the latall loynes of these two foes,
A paire of starre-crost Louers tooke their life:
Whose misadventures, piteous overthrowes,
(Through the continuing of their Fathers strife.
And death-markt passage of their Parents rage)
Is now the two howres traffique of our Stage.
The which if you with patient ears attend.
What here we want wee'l studie to amend."
APPENDIX A 189
Though these lines are the same in effect as the lines in other
quartos, on comparison one will find only twelve lines in the Q 1
version as against fourteen in Q 2. Q 1 omits altogether 1. 11,
confuses the wording of 11. 9 and 10, combining the two, and makes
minor changes in other lines.
i. 5. 107 reads : " Saints do not move, though grant for prayers'
sake."
In place of this Q 1 has : ** Saints doe not moove though : grant
nor praier forsake."
ii. 2. 188 : *♦ Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest ! "
Q 1 runs : ** I would that I were sleep and peace of sweet to
rest."
iii. 1. 12-4 : '* Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood
as any in Italy, and as soon moved to be moody, and as soon
moody to be moved."
Q 1 : "Go too, thou art as hot a lacke being moovde, and as
soone moovde to be moodie, and as soone moodie to be moovd."
iii. 5. 44-5 : ** I must hear from thee every day in the hour.
For in a minute there are many days."
Q 1 : <* I must heare from thee everie day in tiie hower :
For in an hower there are manie minutes.
Minutes are dayes, so will I number them."
iii. 5. 926-7 : «• Your first is dead ; or 't were as good he were.
As living here and you no use of him."
Q 1 : ** As for your husband he is dead :
Or twere as good he were, for you have no use of him."
iv. 5. 38-40 : *< Death is my son-in-law. Death is my heir ;
My daughter he hath wedded : I wUl die.
And leave him all."
Q 1 : " Death is my Sonne in Law, to him I give all that I
have."
V. 3. 133-4 : *< And fearfully did menace me with death.
If I did stay to look on his intents."
Q 1 : ** On paine of death he chargde me to be gone.
And not for to disturbe him in his enterprise."
V. 3. 140-1 : ** Alack, alack, what blood is this which stains
The stony entrance of this sepulchre ? "
Q 1 : « What bloud is this that staines the entrance
Of this marble stony monument ? "
190 APPENDIX A
IV. PASaAOES IN Q 1 REVISED IN THE COMPOSITION OF Q S
Comparison of certain passages in Q 1 with corresponding lines
in Q S point clearly to the author's revision of the play after Q 1
was written. These passages from Q 1 foUow.
Corresponding to ii. 6 of our text, Q 1 reads :
Enter Romeo, Frier,
Bom: Now Father Laurence, in thy holy grant
Consists the good of me and ItUiet
Fr : Without more words I will doo all I may.
To make you happie if in me it lye.
Bom: This morning here she pointed we should meet.
And consumate those never parting bands,
Witnes of our harts love by ioyning hands,
And come she will.
Fr: I gesse she will indeed,
Youths love is quicke, swifter than swiftest speed.
Enter ItUiet somewhat fast, and embraoeth Borneo.
See where she comes.
So light of foote nere hurts the troden flower :
Of love and ioy, see see the soveraigne power.
lid: Borneo.
Bom: My Itdiet welcome. As doo waking eyes
(Cloasd in Nights mysts) attend the frolicke Day,
So Borneo hath expected ItUiet,
And thou art come.
lul: I am (if I be Day)
Come to my Sunne : shine foorth, and make me faire.
Bom: AU beauteous faimes dwelleth in thine eyes.
IiU: Borneo from thine all brightnes doth arise.
Fr: Come wantons, come, the stealing houres do passe
Defer imbracements till some fitter time.
Part for a while, you shall not be alone.
Till holy Church haue ioynd ye both in one.
Bom: Lead holy Faljier, all delay seemes long.
ItU: Make hast, make hast, this lingring doth us wrong.
J^*; O, soft and faire makes sweetest worke they say.
Hast is a common hindrer in crosse way. Exeunt omnes.
APPENDIX A 191
Corresponding to iii. 1. 95-113, Q 1 has :
Bom: What art thou hurt man, the wound is not deepe.
Mer: Noe not so deepe as a Well, not so wide as a bame doore,
but it will serve I warrant. What meant you to come betweene
us ? I was hurt under your arme.
Bom : I did all for the best
Mer: Apoxe of your houses, I am fairely drest. Sirra goe
fetch me a Surgeon.
Boy : I goe my Lord.
Mer: I am pepperd for this world, I am sped yfedth, he hath
made wormes meate of me, & ye aske for me to morrow you
shall finde me a grave-man. A poxe of your houses, I shall be
fairely mounted upon foure mens shoulders: For your house of
the MounUffuea and the CapoUts: and then some peasantly rogue,
some Sexton, some base slave shall write my Epitapth, that TyhaU
came and broke the Princes Lawes, and Mercutio was slaine for
the first and second cause. Wher *s the Surgeon ?
Boy: Hee 's come sir.
Mer: Now heele keepe a mumbling in my guts on the other
side, come BenvoUoy lend me thy hand : a poxe of your houses.
Corresponding to iii. 9. 57-60, Q. 1 reads :
Ah Borneo, Borneo, what disaster hap
Hath severd thee from thy true Jvlietf
Ah why should Heaven so much conspire with Woe,
Or Fate envie our happie Marriage,
So soone to sunder us by timelesse Death?
Corresponding to iv. 3. 94-58 are these lines :
What if this Potion should not worke at all.
Must I of force be married to the Countie?
This shall forbid it. Knife, lye thou there.
What if the Frier should give me this drinke
To poyson mee, forfeare I should disclose
Our former marriage? Ah, I wrong him much.
He is a holy and religious Man:
I will not entertaine so bad a thought.
What if I should be stifled m the Toomb?
Awake an houre before the appointed time:
Ah then I feare I shall be lunaticke.
And playing with my dead forefathers bones^
192 APPENDIX A
Dash out imr franticke braines. Me tliinkeB I see
My Cosin TybdU weltring in his bloud»
Seeking for Romeo: stay TyhaU stay,
Romeo I come, this doe I dnnke to tiiee.
Corresponding to iv. 5. 41-64 are these lines :
Par: Have I thought long to see this mornings face,
And doth it now present such prodegies?
Accurst, unhappy, miserable man,
Forlome, forsaken, destitute I am:
Borne to the world to be a slave in it.
Distrest, remediles, and unfortunate.
O heavens, O nature, wherefore did you make me.
To five so vile, so wretched as I shall.
Cap: O heere she lies that was our hope, our ioy.
And being dead, dead sorrow nips us all. '
All at once cry out and taring {heir hand*.
AU cry: And all our ioy, and all our hope is dead.
Dead, lost, undone, absented, whol^ fled.
Cap: Cruel, uniust, impartiall destmies.
Why to this day have you preserved my life?
To see my hope, my stay, my ioy, my life,
Deprivde of sence, of life, of all by death,
Cruell, uniust, impartiall destinies.
Cap: O sad fac*d sorrow map of miseiy.
Why this sad time have I desird to see.
This day, this uniust, this impartiall day
Wherein I hop'd to see my comfort full.
To be deprivde by suddaine destinie.
Moth: O woe, alacke, distrest, why should I live?
To see this day, this miserable day.
Alacke the time that ever I was borne.
To be partaker of this destinie,
Alacke the day, alacke and wdladay.
Corresponding to v. 3. 19-7 are the following lines t
Par: Sweete Flower, with flowers I strew thy Bridale bed:
Sweete Tombe that in thy circuite dost container
The perfect modell of etemitie:
Faire Itdiet that with Angells dost remaine.
Accept this latest favour at my hands.
That living honourd thee, and being dead
With f unerall praises doo adome thy Tombe.
APPENDIX B
EARLIER VERSIONS OF THE STORY
Tabular View
ShakeapMrs eompared with Brooke and Painter
Note. — Bdow is an attempt to represent graphically the agree-
ment between Romeo and Juliet and earlier versions of the same
story by Arthur Brooke and William Painter. In the first column
are references to the play, while in the second the corresponding
passages in Brooke's poem are indicated. In the second colunm
passages enclosed thus * ^ refer to matter contained in Brooke
alone and not in Painter, or his immediate source, Boaistuau. No
table, however, can satisfactorily present the situation, for not
only has Shakespeare changed numerous details of the story that
cannot be represented in tabular form, but also his Inspiration for
a phrase or an incident is frequently to be found at some point in
Brooke far removed from the context For example, the wording
at iv. 5. 84r-90, was undoubtedly suggested by Brooke, IL 9507-
14 ; but the foundation of that scene was laid for Shakespeare in
IL 2403-72.
Shakespeare Brooke
Prologue,
1-14.
Argument, U. 1-14.
i. 1.
1-87.
U. 955-92.
88-165.
• • . .
166-244.
89-154
2.
1-5.
• • • •
6-19.
1857-60.
. 1881-88.
20-106.
....
3.
• • • •
4
• • • •
193
194
APPENDIX B
Shakebfeaiif.
Brooke
5.
1-^.
155-252.
56-113.
«...
114^-46.
319-64.
Prologue to iL
. • • .
ii. 1.
• . . .
2.
467^64.
3.
565-616.
4.
1-181.
• • • •
189-23S.
♦ _ 631-73. ~*
5.
» ^ 674-704.— »
6.
743-72.
ii 1.
1^8.
• • . .
59-209.
955-1074.
9.
1-72.
• • • •
73-137.
1075-162.
13&-43.
1229-34.
3.
♦—1257-510.— »
4.
[suggested by 2256-78.]
5.
1-64.
1701-28.
65-78.
1781-806.
79-242.
1887-2004.
iv. 1.
1-43.
[suggested by 2265-72.]
44^126.
2005-191.1
2.
2192-255.
3.
2313-402.
4.
♦ _ 2281-7.— ♦
5.
2403-72.
V. 1.
2515-96.8
2.
2473-50a
a
1-21.
• • . •
22-48.
2613-30.
49-87.
....
88-310.
2631-3020.
^ Brooke nowhere indicates how long the force of the powder
would last, while Painter says it would continue "forty hours at
the least," and Shakespeare, iv. 1. 105, makes it "two and forty
hours."
' Painter makes Romeo pay the" Apothecary fifty ducats; Shake-
speare, V. 1. 59, forty ducats; Brooke, 1. 2577, fifty crowns of gold.
APPENDIX B 195
1. Brockets Bomew and Juliet
Arthur Brockets Bomeus and JidUt is a poem of 3020 lines, of
six or seven feet each, rhymed in couplets. It was first printed at
London in 1569. The text of the poem is preceded by a prose
address to the reader, which, in pointing the moral of the story,
strongly denounces its hero and heroine for neglecting the advice
of parents and friends and concealing their marriage. Then comes
an apparent reference to an earlier play on the subject, which is
discussed elsewhere in this volume (Introduction^ pp.xL-xiii). An-
other address to the reader, in verse, informs him that Brooke has
written other works, but this, *• the eldest of them," is the first
to be offered to the public. •• The Argument," composed of four-
teen rhymed pentameter lines, briefly sets forth the plot. The
poem itself follows.
It opens with a picture of Verona, happy under the rule of
Prince Escalus, but disturbed by strife between the Capulets^ and
and Montagues.^ Their wrath the Prince tried to assuage by
gentle means and persuasion, but when these availed not, " by
thundering threats and princely power. "^ Meanwhile Romeus, a
Montague, an unbearded youth, famous for his beauty, fell in love
with a fair maiden.^ To her he wrote, sent messages, and went in
person to plead for grace, but she would not grant him a friendly
look. The more she retired, the more he was pricked on. After
many months, ** hopeless of his recure," he thought to leave
Verona, hoping that thereby he might quench the fire in his
bosouL But he doubted whether to take this step. *' He moans
the day, he wakes the long and weary night.^ His kindred and
allies knew not what ailed him. One, " the trustiest " of his com-
panions, ** far more than he with counsel filled, and riper of his
years, "^ rebuked Romeus for so wasting away the best part of his
age. For Romeus^s own sake, and for his father's sake he coun-
^ Brooke has CapeUt, Capilet, Capd; MoniageWy Montageu)e, Mon-
iegue, Moniague, etc, Mr. J. J. Munro, in the latest edition of the
poem,The Shakespeare Classics (London, 1908), modernizes the spell-
mg, and is here followed.
' Apparently a hint from which Shakespeare built the whole con-
flict in i. 1. But the events of the latter resemble those of the fight
which resulted in Tybalt's death.
' Rosaline is not named.
* Benvolio is not named b^ Brooke or Painter. Fuller states
that he corresponds to Jacomo m the Dutch play.
196 APPENDIX B
selled the youth to remove the veil of love which blinded him, or
else to bestow his heart elsewhere. To these words Romeus listened
attentively, and pledged himself to frequent feasts by day, ban-
quets by night, and to resort everywhere that ladies were wont to
meet. All that he saw he would like indifferently, viewing them
*• with unallured eye."
** The weary winter nights restore the Christmas games," and
the season invites " townish dames " to banquet. Capel,
i. 2, the chief of his house, began the banqueting. There
was no lady or knight in Verona that Capel did not
himself bid to the feast, or invite **by his name in paper sent."
Yet not a Montague would enter the gate, " save Rom-
i. 4. eus, and he in mask with hidden face," together with five
companions pressed thither. After masking awhile, all
unmasked and showed themselves to the ladies, though **bashfid
Romeus " withdrew into a nook. There the bright torches dis-
closed him to every one, and ladies wondered at his shape and
beauty, and also at his courage in putting himself among so many
foes. The Capulets disdained his presence, yet sup-
i. 5. pressed their ire, being loth, perhaps, to offend their
guests, or perhaps fearing the Prince's wrath. Romeus,
observing the ladies carefully, at length saw one of whom he told
himself her **Hke ns hath, ns shall he seen, ns liveth in our days,**
MThile he looked on her, his former love was quite driven out Not
bold enough to ask her name, Romeus fed his eyes on her. Juliet,
for so was the damsel called, cast eyes on him and was touched
by Love's arrow. A comely knight now led Juliet forth to dance,
and Romeus took a place near the seat that must be hers after the
measure was done. At one side of her chair then sat Romeo,^
while on the other side sat one Mercutio :
"A courtier that each where was highly had in price, ^
For he was courteous of his speech, and pleasant of device.
Even as a lion would among the lambs be bold,
Such was among the bashfid maids Mercutio to behold." '
Mercutio seized Juliet's right hand, although by nature his own
hands were twice as cold as "frozen mountain ice." Romeus
thereupon caught her left hand. She pressed his palm in reply,
and seeing that Love kept him silent, she opened her mouth to
* So spelled by Brooke, here alone, to rhyme with Mercutio.
' Mercutio is not mentioned elsewhere in the poem.
APPENDIX B 197
bless the time of his coming. Inquiring the reason he learned
from her that her hand had been frozen by Mercutio's but was
warmed by his. In response, Romeus affirmed that the love for
her ^in his heart was tea warmer than his hand. Juliet assured
him that she was his, and, ** my honour saved^^^ ready to obey his
will. Romeus asking of some her name, was dismayed to find
that her father was a Capulet. He railed on Fortune and Love,
but was glad that he served *< not a cruel one, as he had done of
old,** The maid likewise desiring to learn his name, called her old
Nurse. ** What twain are those," she asked, " which press unto
the door f " Then she inquired the name of the one ** in masking
weed," and was answered, ** His name is Romeus ... a Mon-
tague" With a show of joy <* she cloaked inward smart,** so that
neither mother nor Nurse descried the hidden harm.
Then Juliet went to bed but not to sleep, pondering over her
wretched state. She questioned whether in the person
iL 9. of Romeus she had not been stung by a snake, whose
purpose was to stain her honor by subtle sleight. But
she concluded that this could not be in one of such perfect shape
and beauty. Besides, she had seen in his face sure signs that he
loved her. Finally she decided to love and serve him if he would
make her his wife, for she hoped that this new alliance would
bring *< unto our houses such a peace as ever shall endure" By this
time Romeus had forsaken his weary bed, and passing with linger-
ing steps by Juliet's home, cast his eyes up to her window, where
he espied his love, and was greeted with pleasant cheer. Often
passing so through the coming days, in a happy hour he espied a
garden plot which " fronted fiill upon her leaning place." Thither
he went by night unafraid, for **whom maketh Love not hold?"
Leaning out of her window one evening, Juliet beheld her lover in
the bright moonlight and rejoiced to see him. But her first words
were to reprove his recklessness. " What if yowr deadly foes, my
kinsmen, saw you here ? " Romeo replied that if need should arise,
he could defend himself, but that life was not so dear that he
would desire to live if he might sacrifice it for her sake. Juliet
declared her heart knit to him, adding that if wedlock were his
end, " Both me and mine I will all whole to you betake. And fol-
lowing you whereso you go, my father's house forsake." But she
warned him to cease his suit if his intent was not honorable. At
this Romeus rejoiced and promised to go before sunrise to Friar
Laurence, his " ghostly sire," for advice ; then to return at the
same hour next night and tell her of it.
198 APPENDIX B
This barefoot friar was a doctor of divinity, acquainted with the
secrets of nature, and beloved by idl Verona. Of Romeus
ii 3. he was specially loved, and him the Friar liked best of all
Verona youth. Romeus told him the lovers' whole story
and with weeping eyes prayed him to accomplish all their desire.
"A thousand doubts and mo in th' old man's head arose,
A thousand dangers like to come the old man doth disclose.
And from tiie spousal rites he redeth him refrain.
Perhaps he shall be bet advised within a week or twain.
Advice is banished quite from those that follow love.
Except advice to what they like their bending mind do move.
As well the father might have counselled him to stay
That from a mountain's top thrown down is falling half the way.
As warn his friend to stop amid his race begun,
Whom Cupid with his smarting whip enforceth forth to run.
Part won by earnest suit, the friar doth grant at last;
■ And part, because he thinks the storms, so lately overpast.
Of both the households' wrath, this marriage might appease;
So that they should not rage again, but quite for ever cease.
The respite of a day he asketh to devise
What way were best, unknown, to end so great an enterprise." *
1.
Meanwhile Juliet unwrapped the secrets of her heart to the
Nurse, who was won " with promised hire " to hide them
ii. 4. in her breast. To Romeus the Nurse was sent to learn
the Friar's advice and the plan for marriage. ** On Sat-
urday,'* quoth Romeus, ** if Juliet come to shrift, she shall be shrived
and married.^ Such a crafty wile pleased mightily the Nurse,
who [promised to devise some excuse to have her come. Then she
began babbling of Juliet's early years.
'**A pretty babe,' quod she, 'it was when it was young;
Lord, how it coiddfuU prettily have prated with it tongue!***
At last this talk wearied even Romeus, who drew from his
pocket six crowns of gold ; for this gift she bowed low.
ii. 5. To Juliet she then hied, and closing the door began to
praise the shape and the face of Romeus. The girl an-
swered that so she had ever thought, but what of the marriage ?
•• Soft" replied the Nurse, ** I fear your hurt by sudden joy,** Ju-
liet affirmed that she desired not to play, and learning that the
wedding was no further off than Saturday, rejoiced greatly.
» Munro, U. 5ffl-61%.
APPENDIX B 199
On Saturday Juliet got her mother's consent to go to shrift,
with the Nurse and a maid. Asking if Friar Laurence
ii. 6. had leisure^ to hear Her shrift, she was taken into his
cell, while the Nurse and the maid were left outside.
In the cell Romeus was already] waiting ; to him **Each minute
seemed an hour, and every hour a day,''* The lovers then made
confession to the Friar, and they were married. Romeus now
asked his wife to send the Nurse to him again that afternoon to
get a ladder of cord, by which at night he would climb to her
window. The day seemed long to the lovers, ** each hour seems
twenty year,"**
At the appointed hour Romeus walked to Capulet*s garden, " so
light he wox he leapt the wall," climbed the ladder, and
liL 5. met his wife. Juliet had ** the waxen quariers" lighted
that she might behold her husband's beauty. Embracing
him she declared :
" Let Fortune do, and death, their worst to me.
Full recompensed am I for all my passed harms." '
Each talked for some time. Thus the night passed.
" The hastiness of Phoebus* steeds in great despite they blame.
The nigh approach of day*s return Aese sedy fools dis-eased" >
Romeus then took his leave but came again at the same hour every
other night until misfortune overtook him.
Their bliss lasted only a month or twain. On the morning after
Easter Day Tybalt, the Capulet*s leader, called to his
iii. 1. followers to wreak vengeance on the Montagues, and
himself led the furious charge. On each side the fray
was long and stout. Hearing the noise, Romeus ran to the place
of combat with a few companions, and they were moved with pity
for the great slaughter. ** Part, friends,** cried Romeus, but the
combatants heard him not. Then he leapt into the throng to part
and bar the blows. Tybalt thrust at him and would have pierced
him through had not Romeus worn a coat of mail. **Ibut part the
fray,** quoth Romeus. •* No, coward, traitor, boy,** replied Tybalt,
striking a blow at his head. Romeus returned the blow, they
fought savagely, until Tybalt fell, slain by a thrust through the
» Cf. iv. 1. 37.
* Cf . ii. 6. 7-8, Romeo's challenge to Fate just before the wedding.
» Cf . iii. 2. 1 ff . ; iii. 5. 1 ff .
200 APPENDIX B
throat. Before the Prince the Capulets brought Tybalt's corpse,
craving punishment for the slayer of their kinsman. The Mon-
tagues pleaded Romeus free of fault. Lookers-on asserted that
Tybalt began the fight. But the Prince sentenced Romeus to exile,
and charged both households on peril of their lives to cease
the strife. News of these events caused grief every-
iii. 9. where ; but most of all to Juliet, who tore her hair and
rent her clothing, bewailing Tybalt's death and denounc-
ing Romeus. Again repenting she blamed herself for touching the
honor of her husband's name. Tybalt she pronounced faulty and
Romeus guiltless. Then she swooned away, and some time
later was found by the Nurse, who revived and comforted her.
" TybaU, yourfirimd, is dead,** quoth the old woman, *^what, ween
you by yowr tmrs to eaU him hack again ? "^ She dared say that
Romeus within a month or two would be called back from exile,
and she urged Juliet to arm herself with patience. At her own
suggestion, she was sent to Laurence's cell, where Romeus lurked.
Laurence had bestowed Romeus in a place hidden and sealed.
When the Nurse came he sent Juliet word that Romeus
iii 3. would visit her again that night at the usual hour. Then
the Friar, shutting the door, gave to Romeus the tidings
of his banishment. Hearing this, Romeus tore his hair, beat his
breast on the ground, rose and struck his head against the walls,
fell down again, and called for speedy death. The Friar tried to
repress him but spoke to the air. With sobs and faltering tongue
Romeus blamed Nature, the time and place of his birth, the cruel
son of Venus, Fortune, himself for not being slain in the fight with
Tybalt In short, he blamed all the world but Juliet Then the
Friar broke in :
^'^Art ihou,* quoth he, *a man? Thy shape saith, so thou art;
Thy crying and thy weeping eyes denote a woman* s heart . . -
So that I stood in doubt dds hour, at the least.
If thou a man or vxmian wert, or else a brutish beast/ ** *
He reminded Romeus how valiantly he had slain his foe, while he,
himself remained unhurt, and upbraided him for blaming Love
and his fate. Then, Hke the Nurse, he foretold that Romeus
would be called home **with double honor ^^ in a short time. To
this counsel Romeus gave ear and soon ceased to weep.
^ It is Lady Capulet who uses this argument to Juliet in iii. 5. 71.
' Note Shakespeare's compression of the same thought, iii. 3. 109-
11.
APPENDIX B 201
Daring the visit to his wife the same night, Juliet begged that
she might accompany him in disguise to Mantua. But
iii. 5. Romeus would not listen to this plan for fear of pursuit
and the cruel punishment of both by Capulet. He
promised that he would, by the help of friends, within four months
be recalled with honor. Fair Lucifer, the morning star, dawned
too soon and the lovers parted. Romeus, disguised as a merchant-
venturer, walked out of Verona's gates and on to Mantua, whence
he sent his man with words of comfort to the Friar. There Ro-
meus soon told his story to the Duke and began plotting for his
pardon. But his fortune he ceased not to bewail. At Verona
Juliet likewise mourned, growing so pale that her mother besought
her to forget Tybalt's death. Juliet replied that she had shed " the
last of Tybalt's tears," and henceforth they should not gush out
•* by conduits of the eyneJ"^
Unable to get at tiie root of her daughter's sorrow, the mother
begged Capulet to provide a husband for the girl, thinking that
her grief was wrought by envy of her married companions. The
old man rejoined that these things had often been on his
1. 9. mind, but that he thought Juliet, who was scarce sixteen
years old, ** too young to he a bride,^ Howsoever, he
would try to find some one to cure her sickness. Conferring with
his friends, he discovered many who wished his daughter's hand
because she was both fair and wise, and her father's only heir. Of
all the suitors he liked best the County Paris, and promised to do
all in his power to bring about a match between him and Juliet
The wife joyed to receive the tidings.
Lady Capulet straightway hied to Juliet, telling her the plan of
** her careful^ loving father^* and praising Paris's person,
ilL 5. his features, and his gifts of fortune. But when Juliet
perceived her parents' intent, she thought that she would
rather be torn asunder by wild horses than be forsworn. So she
answered her mother with unaccustomed boldness. Rather than
grant him to possess her smallest part, she would slay herself. On
her knees she pleaded that she might be allowed to live as hereto-
fore. Amazed, the mother sought her husband and told him all.
** The testy old man, wroth," ordered the maid to be brought in at
once. JuUet came willingly but fell weeping and grovelling at his
feet. The father, calling her unthankful and disobedient, and re^
minding her of the power Roman fathers had over their children,
declared that " both thou and I unworthy are too much " of Paris,
and swore that if *• by Wednesday next^** at ** our castle called Free-
202 APPENDIX B
town," she would not assent to Paris's suit, he would give all he
had " away from her," and then " wed " her for life to a close and
hard jaU.^ Then father and mother departed, and Juliet sought
her chamber to eke out the night with weeping.
Early in the morning she again went to the Friar, and to him
poured forth all her grief, threatening to end her life that
'y. 1. day. Alarmed, the Friar went to his chamber and med-
itated on the danger to her, to Romeus, and to himself if
the truth were made public. At last pity won his heart, and tak-
ing out of his closet a little glass containing a certain powder, he
returned to Juliet Charging her to keep this secret from all,
even the Nurse,^ he advised her to cast off fear, and early on her
marriage day, to fill the vial with water and drink it off In half
an hour she would fall into a slumber, which her kinsmen and
friends would take for death. She would be buried in the costly
tomb of her forefathers, and there rest imtil Romeus came from
Mantua and with the Friar took her unharmed from the tomb.
Then she and Romeus might go to Mantua and live there in secret
until time came to make the news known. To this plan Juliet
gladly assented.
Meeting her mother on the return home, the girl told her that
she had confessed her sins to the Friar and had promised
iv. 2. to be ordered by him. Therefore, though she had long
forsworn the rite of marriage, she was now willing to obey
her mother*s will and to marry the County at the appointed time
and place. She would now go to her closet to pick out " the bravest
garments and the richest jewels the^^e" Much pleased, " the simple
mother '* ran to give the news to Capulet, who in turn bore the
tidings to Paris. He craved that he might visit Juliet at once. On
her mother's advice Juliet gave Paris her most courteous speech
and pleasant looks. Thus she so stole his away heart that he
prayed the parents **the wedlock knot to knit soon up,*** Great
preparations were made for the wedding ; there were such rich
attire, such furniture, such abundance of dainties as one could wish
for. Nothing seemed too dear for purchase.
To her Nurse Juliet told the same story as to her parents. The
Nurse declared that she had done well, praising Paris ten times
more than she had praised Romeus. Why should she languish for
Romeus, who would not return? These wicked words greatly
1 Cf. iii. 5. 141.
* In Shakespeare the motivation is much better. Juliet loses
her confidence in the Nurse. * Cf. iv. 2. 24.
APPENDIX B 203
"dis-eased'* Juliet When the bride perceived her hour ap-
proach, she told the Nurse that she desired to sleep
iv. 3. alone that night since she purposed to pray to ** the
heavenly ndnds ** for their smiles ** v/pon the doings of to-
morrow,^ ^ The Nurse then went away and shut the door. Fol-
lowing the Friar*s directions Juliet now made the mixture, but was
suddenly shaken by a deadly fear of the course she had resolved
on. What if the powder failed to work ? " Is there any one," she
asked herself, " eo much poet hope as 1 ?- " ^ She became fearful of
serpents, of the loathsome air of the tomb where her ancestors
rested; she foresaw the danger of stifling before the coming of
Romeus and the Friar.
" And whilst she in these thoughts doth dwell somewhat too long.
The force of her imagining did toax anon so strong.
That she surmised she saw, out of the hollow vaidt,
A grisly thing to look upon, the carcase of Tybalt;
Right in the selfsame sort that she few days before
Had seen him in his blood ernbrued, to death eke wounded sore.
And then when she again within herself had weighed
That quick she should be buried there, arid by his side be hid.
All comfortless, for she shall living fere have none.
But many a rotten carcase, and full many a naked bone;
Her dainty tender parts gan shiver all for dread.
Her golden hairs did stand upright upon her chillish head.
Then pressSd with the fear that she there livid in,
A sujeat as cold as mountain ice pierced through her slender skin.
That with the moisture hath wet every part of hers:
And mare besides, she vainly thinks, whilst vainly thus she fears,
A thousand bodies dead have compassed her about.
And lest they will dismember her she greatly stands in doubt.
But when she felt her strength began to wear away.
By little and little, and in her heart her fear increased aye.
Dreading that weakness might, or foolish cowardice.
Hinder the execution of the purposed enterprise.
As she had frantic been, in haste the glass she caught.
And up she drarik the mixture quite, wUhouten farther thought.
Then on her breast she crossed her arms long and small.
And so, her senses faUing her, into a trance did fall"
Soon after simrise the Nurse opened the door, calling softly,
then louder, ** Lady you sleep too long; the Earl wUl raise
iv. 5. you by and by," But she spoke to the deaf, for there lay
Juliet*s body stiff and colder than marble. Returning
in haste to the mother, with scratched face and torn hair, ** Dead,
1 Cf. iv. 8.2-4 « Cf. iv. 1. 45.
204 APPENDIX B
quoth she, * %8 my child.* " Lady Capulet rushed to her daughter's
bed and was soon crying out on Death. And while she thus
lamented, the father, Paris, and a company of gentleman and ladies
of Verona pressed in to honor the wedding feast ; but hearing the
heavy news they mourned as if it was the day of wrath. More
than all the rest was the father's heart smitten, so " that he ne
had the power his daughter to beweep ne yet to speak.'* If ever
there was a " lameniable day,"'' that was it.
While Juliet slept, Friar Laurence sent a letter by a trusty friar
of his house to Romeus, in which he wrote of everything
V. 2, that had passed, and begged him to come the next night
to take Juliet out of the tomb. Friar John with this
letter hastened to Mantua, but, following an Italian custom, went
to a house there to get another fnax to accompany him about the
the town. Having entered the house, he might not come out again
because one brother a day or two before had died of the plague,
and all within had been charged not to go outside their convent
gate. Knowing not what the letter held, he deferred till the
morrow to send to Romeus.
Meanwhile Verona was busied about Juliet's obsequies.
**Now 18 the parents* mirth quite changed into moan.
And now to sorrow is returned the joy of every one;
And now the wedding weeds for mourning weeds ihey change^
And Hymene into a dirge; — akut it seemeth strange:
Instead of marriage gloves, now funeral gloves they have.
And whom they should see marriM, they follow to the grave.
The feast that should have been of pleasure and of joy.
Hath every dish and cup filled fidl of sorrow and annoy.** ^
The body of the girl with uncovered fiEu:e was borne on the bier to
the Capulets* tomb. So it came about that Romeus's man, who had
been sent to Verona to spy out the doings of the Capulets, met his
master's wife on the way to her burial Because he knew her
death would touch most his master, he " hied away in
V. 1. post " to carry him the news, announcing that he him-
self had seen her laid within the tomb. With open ears
Romeus too soon received this message; his spirit was almost
ready to break out of its prison house. But the sudden fancy
occurred to him that if he died near her, his death would be a
hundred thousand times more glorious, and his lady better pleased.
Drying his tears he walked abroad, commanding his servant to
1 C£. iv. 5. 84-^0
APPENDIX B 205
staj in the chamber. At the door of a drag shop sat unbusied an
apothecaiy, whose poverty Romeus guessed from his countenance
and the few boxes displayed. Although the city's law forbade the
sale of poison, Romeus belieyed that this man might sell what
could not be got by friendship. He therefore offered him fifty
gold crowns to deUver poison that would kill in less than a half-
hour one who should devour it. Won by covetise, the wretch
sought poison and gave to Romeus, saying that half of the ^^tpeed-
ing gear '* would serve to kill in less than a half-hour the strongest
man ahve.
Romeus then again sent his man, Peter by name,^ to Verona,
charging him to provide lights and instruments for opening the
tomb, but not to bewray his master's secrets. Ordering ink and
paper, Romeus penned a letter to his sire, telling his whole story
and his plan to take his life. He then hired a post-horse, and
with the shade of night entered Verona, where he met
V. S. Peter waiting with lantern and tools wherewith to pry
open the tomb. Getting his man's aid in removing the
stone before the sepulchre, Romeus sent him off with strict charge
not to come near him, but to present the letter to Montague next
day. Now he descended into the tomb and beheld with piteous
eye his wife's body. A hundred times he kissed and embraced
her. At length he drew out the poison and devoured the greater
part Next calling on Juliet, he affirmed that he could not wish
for a more glorious tomb than to be buried with her. Turning to
Tybalt's corpse, he cried with outstretched hands for mercy, de-
manding to know what more amends the slain man could ask than
to see his slayer poison himself before him. Finally praying
Christ for pity on his sinful soul, he fell dead upon Juliet's corpse.
The Friar knowing the instant that Juliet should waken, but
wondering that he heard not from Romeus, went to the tomb with
meet instruments. Horrified to see a light there, he learned from
Peter that his master had been in the tomb some half-hour. Both
entering found the breathless corpse of Romeus. Just then Juliet
awaking knew Laurence and at once asked, *' Where is my
Romeus?" The Friar fearing that they should be taken, pointed
to the corpse and told all that had taken place. He then tried to
instil patience in her, promising to place her in some religious house,
where she could abide the rest of her days in peace. But as soon
as she saw Romeus, '* 9hi$ did urutop the conduit of her tears^ she
1 Balthasar in Shakespeare, while Peter is the Nurse's stupid
boy.
206 APPENDIX B
tore her hair, embraced his corpse, and kissed him a thousand
times. Just then the Friar and Peter, hearing a sudden noise,
fled. Left alone Juliet drew the dagger worn by Romeus, and
embracing and kissing him once more» girt her heart through.
The watch, seeing a light in the tomb, suspected enchanters and
went inside to learn the truth. There they found Romeus and
Juliet dead in each other*s arms, and discovering the two mur-
derers, as they thought, lodged them that night in a deep dungeon.
Next day the Prince ordered an open examination, and had the
two bodies placed on a high stage. The Friar defended himself in
a long discourse, and his story was borne out by Peter and by the
letter of Romeus. The Prince then decreed that the Friar and
Peter should go free, but that the Nurse should be banished and
the Apothecary hanged. Friar Laurence " of himself" retired to
a hermitage, where he died five years later. The Capulets and
the Montagues, now won by pity, forgot their enmity. And the
bodies of Romeus and Juliet were raised into one stately tomb,
which is still to be seen in Verona.
2. Painter's Versiok op the Story
The story of ** Rhomeo and Julietta ^ forms the twenty-fifth
novel in the second volume of William Painter's prose Palace of
Pleasure^ first published 1567, five years after Brooke's poem. The
novel is entitled, *' The goodly history of the true, and constant
love betweene Rhomeo and Julietta, the one of whom died of poy-
son, and the other of sorrow, and hevinesse : wherein be comprysed
many adventures of love, and other devises touchinge the same.**
Painter's version follows closely the French version of Boaistuau,
in his HisUAres Tragiquea (1559), which is also the source of Brooke.
But Brooke enlarged on his story and modified it considerably,
where Painter adhered to the original. Thus the differences be-
tween Brooke and Painter are due almost entirely to Brooke's
changes. These differences may be briefly summed up :
So far as incidents go. Painter does not mention the bribery of
the Nurse by Juliet or Romeo, says little of the Nurse's visit to
Romeo, nothing of her teasing annoimcement of Romeo's message
to Juliet, and nothing of Romeo's behavior in the Friar's cell on
hearing his doom of banishment ; and he makes Juliet eighteen
years old instead of sixteen. As to names of characters Painter
has Rhomeo ; Julietta; Montesches ; CapeUets ; Seflor Escala, or
APPENDIX B 207
Lord Bartholomew of Escala ; ADthonie Capellet (for Brooke's Old
Capilet, or simply Capilet); Thibault ; Pietro or Petre ; Paris, Count
of Lodronne ; Friar Anselm (for Friar John) ; the castle is Villa-
franco (for Freetown) ; all in place of the corresponding forms in
Brooke. It will be observed that Shakespeare almost invariably
follows the poem. But this is not all, for Brooke has really created
a living comic character in the garrulous, vulgar, shrewd old Nurse,
and has g^ven Shakespeare valuable hints for the development of
other characters. Moreover the longer, more prolix narrative of
Brooke contains many details not found in Painter, and the verbal
similarities noted between Shakespeare and Brooke are usually not
to be discovered when Painter's version is compared with Shake-
speare's. All this makes it evident that Shakespeare was following
Brooke rather than Painter in composing this drama.
But we know that Shakespeare read other stories in the Palace
of Pleasure t and it would be strange if he had not read this one be-
fore writing a play on the same subject For same details, trivial
enough in themselves, Shakespeare was apparently indebted to
Painter, though there is a slight possibility that he read Boaistuau
in the original French. (1) In Painter the Friar tells Julietta that
the powder's force will continue " forty houres at the least," while
in Shakespeare (iv. 1. 105) it is *'two and forty hours." Brooke
has no such specific reference. (9) Painter says Romeo paid the
apothecary fifty ducats for his poison, Shakespeare (v. 1. 59) has
forty ducats, but Brooke puts it fifty crowns of gold. These de-
tails add something to the natural probability that Shakespeare
read Painter's work.
APPENDIX C
THE DUTCH VERSION OF IfiSi
The Dutch plaj of Bomso m JulUtU in alexandrine cooplets,
was written about 1630 (published 1634) bj Jacob Struts. The
aigument that this drama is in reality a fairiy literal tran^ation of
the English play seen by Brooke before 1569 is elsewhere^ dis-
cussed. While it cannot be said that Dr. Fuller's case is, in the
light of present evidence, established, yet many considerations
make his theory plausible. The summary of the Dutch play which
follows is based entirely on the more complete sunmiary of Dr.
Fuller in the article referred to.^
Tahie showing Agre$mmt9 between Shakespeare and Struije
Note. — The table below shows the scenes in Straus's play that
correspond to scenes in Shakespeare. Scenes in Strugs not hav-
ing correspondence with any part of Shakespeare are bracketed*
The table is based entirely on Fuller's summary of StruQs.
Srauus.
Prologue.
Prologue.
i. 1. 1-165.
166-944.
Ll!
2. 1-33.
i.4.
34-106.
• •
a
, ,
4.
, ,
5.
i. 1.
ii. 1.
, ^
2.
i.2.
3.
i. 3.
* Introduction, "Sources of the Plot."
s Modem Philohgy, iv, 100-7 (1006).
APPENDIX C
Shakespeare
Struus
4.
, ,
5.
, ,
6.
i. 5.
, ,
[iL 1, ii. 2, iL S.]
iii. 1. 1-141.
ii.4.
14,2-209.
iii. 1.
2.
iii. 9.
3.
iii a
4.
iY.2.
6. 1-64.
iv. 1.
. . . .
[iy.S.]
QS'24a
iv. 4.
iv. 1.
iv.5.
9.
iv. 6.
a
V. 1.
4.
• •
6.
Y.2.
• •
[V.3.]
V. 1.
V. 4.
2.
V.5.
a
V. 6.
209
Steuu8*8 Plat Summabized
Act L Scene 1 corresponds to some extent to Shakespeare, L L
166 ff. Romeo, depressed, acknowledges to Phebidas (= Mercutio)
that he is engaged in a hopeless love. He then recounts the story
of his first meeting with Juliette at a banquet in Capellets' house,
to which he went masked, adding that she pressed his hand daring
the evening with amorous sighs. Realizing the impossibility of
any marriage between the two hostile houses, he is nevertheless
overcome with passion, and walks by Jaliette*s house each night,
hoping for an opportunity to address her. Phebidaa, seeing the
futility of protest, wishes his friend well
The second scene corresponds to Shakespeare, li 2. Romeus
under Juliet*8 window exclaims :
*' Oh that the blessed window would once open, behind which
my goddess lies in sweetest slumber ! Through its opening stream-
ing, my bright sun could reqoicken this half-dead soul of mine. O
my dear love, knowest fhou not my passion ? Doth thy hearths
blood not violently keep time with mine? Methinks that, were
210 APPENDIX C
my lady in such plight, I should a witness of it have within me.
heavens ! what do I see ? A light in my lady's room begins to
burn ; my heart thrills and bounds from fear and joy. Oh, might
1 once accost my goddess on this spot, then were the burden lifted
from my heart. Soft ! let me listen to what she says.
" [Juliette leans out of the window.]
** JuL What troubled voice laments below me here ? Who is it
here goes prowling alone in the darkness and breaks my light
sleep ? Ah, by the moon's light I now see Romeo sheltered, 'neath
my window standing.''^
The remaining incidents of the scene follow as in Shakespeare,
and Romeo goes away to Friar Lourens to arrange for the mar-
riage. The Friar in the next scene, just as in Shakespeare, ii. 3,
soliloquizes for about twenty lines ^ until interrupted by the arrival
of Romeo. He reluctantly consents to wed liie pair next day.
Scene 4 discovers Capellets, Thibout, and Paris discussing the
feud, especially Romeo's intrusion at the banquet
*• Thibout, Alas ! friend Paris, it was the greatest agony for me
not to chastise his impudence on the spot ; my blood boiled from
top to toe. And if it had not been for dishonoring the company I
would have split his head in two before the eyes of alL
** Capellets, It is better that you did not so.
•* Paris. There would have been little honor in it, too.
" Thibout. Be it shame or honor, I say it here, and I swear it,
that I shall be Romeo's undoing the very next time I meet him ;
or, if not, then he shall make me g^eet the dust.
*' Capellets. Pardon his youth.
** Paris. He hath done little that is wrong.
** Thibout. No, my friend, not you nor anyone shall talk me
out of this.
♦* Capellets, Be better advised. " »
For some time they continue to converse on kindred subjects,
Juliet entering meanwhile to obtain her father's permission to at-
tendVonfession. Then, as the closing scene of the act, follows the
wedding of the two lovers acted in pantomime.
Act ii. opens with a monologue by Paris, professing his love for
Juliette. Scene 9 contains the visit of Romeo to his wife's cham-
» Fuller, op. ek., pp. 7-8. Cf. ii. 2. 2 ff.
* Fuller's translation will be found in a note to ii. 8. 1.
» Fuller, op. cU., p. 10. Cf. i. 5. 66 flf.
APPENDIX C 211
ber on the wedding night Scene 3 prepares for the conflict be-
tween the Capellets and the Montesches, Paris trying in vain to
quell the spirits of his own party. In the following scene Phebidas
and a party of Montesches after an evening of pleasure, are at-
tacked by the Capellets under Thibout. Romeo enters just in time
to see Phebidas killed by Thibout. He tries to separate the com-
batants, but is forced to fight, and ends by slaying Thibout.
Act iii. opens with the judgment of Romeo's perpetual banish-
ment from Verona. The next scene may be compared with Shake-
speare, iii. 9, bc^nning with Juliette's lament for Thibout and
denunciation of Uomeo, followed by her repentance, and closing
with the Nurse's going out to meet Romeo in the Friar's celL The
arrangement of the succeeding scene is almost identical with
Shakespeare, iii 3. Romeo at the cell of Lourens is raving over
the news of his banishment, denouncing Fortune, and longing for
death. The Friar, unable to calm him, is alarmed by a knock at
the door. It comes from the Nurse, who reports Juliette in the
same lamentable state as Romeo,i and the latter promises to visit
his wife that night despite the Friar's opposition on account of the
danger involved.
Act iv. Scene 1, like the first part of iii. 5 in Shakespeare, shows
the lovers' last meeting in Juliette's chamber. Romeo refuses to
let his wife accompany him as a page to Mantua, and they sorrow-
fully part Next Paris comes forward to tell us that Juliette has
been promised to him, and Romeo in another monologue bids fare-
well to Verona. Scene 4, Capellets expresses his indignation at
Juliette's declining to obey his will, and threatens her with disin-
heritance if she persists. Then Lourens, in conversation with Ju-
liette, proposes the sleeping potion as a means to escape the second
marriage, and she consents to take it. The closing scene of the
act, resembling Shakespeare, iv. 2, shows elaborate preparations
for the wedding, amidst which the father sends word to Paris that
Juliette is now willing for the match. Paris, delighted, comes to
visit her.
Act V. Scene 1. Juliette dismisses the Nurse in order to take the
sleeping potion, after the Nurse has advised her to go ahead and
marry Paris. But the girl is overcome by fear. The ghost of
Thibout appears, rebukes her for secretly wedding his enemy, and
foretells her death. Juliette, calling upon Romeo, drinks off the
potion. The next scene corresponds to Shakespeare, iv. 5. The
1 Cf. note on iii. 3. 71 ff.
212 APPENDIX C
Norse, attempting to wake Juliette, finds her apparently dead.
Friends come in and lament her, a physician pronounces the death
due to melancholy. In Scene 3, Friar Lourens delivers to Ansel-
mus a letter for Romeo at Mantua. Romeo, in the following scene,
learning from Pedro of Juliette's death, utters a long lament, and
departs in search of poison. Anselmus announces in a monologue
that through delay he has missed Romeo. ** Then, in the final
scene, we see Romeo in the act of forcing an entrance to Juliette's
tomb. Pedro, meanwhile, afraid of seeing spooks, has withdrawn
a little way, in hopes of falling asleep and of thereby dispelling his
fears. In the tomb Romeo addresses tender words to Juliette,
and after kissing her many times, and after begging forgiveness of
Thibout*s body, he drinks the poison, commends his soul to God,
and dies. Juliette then awakes, but, finding her lord dead, she
stabs herself with his sword. At this point Friar Lourens enters ;
he wakes up Pedro and from him learns of Romeo^s mistake. In
utter despair he bids Pedro tell the parents of the lovers what a
dreadful misfortune this feud has led to ; expresses the wish that
peace may now reign between the two families ; and resolves here-
with to retire to some solitary place, because he feels partially
guilty for this tragedy " (Fuller).
APPENDIX D. METRE
I. Shake8peabe*8 Geneeal Ubaoe
Shakespeare's dramas in general are said to be written in poetry,
but a certain proportion of each play is prose. As a rule, when
Shakespeare uses prose, the subject-matter is not serious. Clowns,
servants, and people held to be of low social rank, employ
Prose, prose throughout the plays. So in Romeo and Julist we
should expect the quarrelsome servants in i. 1, Potpan
and his fellows in L 5, Peter and the musicians in iv. 5, to speak in
prose. In the same class fall also most of the Nurse's speeches,
though sometimes, following a well-established contemporary dra-
matic convention, her vehicle is a type of crude blank verse. Mer-
cutio, speaking in i. 4, utters his fancies in lines of rare poetry, but
the mere chaff of his jesting in ii. 4, and the opening of iii. 1, is
rightly conveyed in plain prose. When one discovers a prose pas-
sage in the drama, justification for its use can be found in the con-
tent of the speeches.
All of Shakespeare's dramas likewise contain a certain number
of rhymed verses. Particular cases of rhyme require different ex-
planations. His earlier works show a greater proportion of rhymed
lines than do his later, because the rhymed couplet was the con-
ventional metre of the English drama immediately before
Rhyme. Shakespeare, just as it was in the later drama of Dryden
and Congreve. In his first plays, then, Shakespeare
made large use of the couplet, gradually discarding it as he went
on writing. But two special uses of the couplet are found even in
the latest plays : one or two couplets forming a ** rhyme-tag," as
in V. 1. 85-6, served to put the audience on notice that the scene
was terminated; and sententious observations, like those of the
Friar, ii. 3. 1-30, are given more point in rhyme than in blank
verse. Moreover, the lighter, lyrical touch of some passages is
better brought out in rhyme than in the more stately and dignified
bkmk verse. Thus the rhyming sonnet-structure of the dialogue
between Romeo and Juliet, i. 5. 94p-112, befits the occasion.
214 APPENDIX D
But the normal metre of all Shakespeare's plays is blank verse,
— that is to say, each line contains five dissyllabic feet, with the
stress on the second syllable of the foot, and the lines are un-
rhymed. Thus the accent falls regularly on the second, fourth,
sixth, eighth, and tenth syllables of the line, and every two sylla-
bles compose a foot. A typical line may be scanned :
12 84 56 78 9 10
He jests' | at scars' || that nev'- | er felt' | a woimd'. |
The pause after the second foot (" at scars '*), it wiU be noticed, is
just a little longer than any other until the end of the
Blank line is reached. This mid-line pause is called the coeswra^
Verse : and generally can be found after the second or the third
Type. foot The pause at the close of the line, which is usually
stronger than the ccBsurat is known as the end-pause.
The scansion of English verse depends chiefly on the accentuation
of individual^words and on the sense of the complete lines.
Difficulties met with in the scansion of many lines are due to the
ignorance of the pronunciation of particular words in
Eliza- Elizabethan English. To an American such difficulties
bethan are increased because of the differences between his own
Pronun- countrymen and the English in pronouncing words that
elation, are spelled alike by both. It must be remembered that
in the past three centuries English spelling has changed
far less than English pronunciation. Much of Shakespeare, enun-
ciated as it must have been in his own day, would sound strange
to our ears.
In most words at the present time usage has fixed the accent on
one syllable, so that the word is never accented differently by care-
ful speakers. But in Elizabethan times much more latitude was
permissible, and a poet could adopt either pronunciation of a word
that suited his metrical scheme. For example, to-day we make a
clear distinction in meaning between the two verbs, confjure and
conjured, but Shakespeare in this play uses con' jure (ii. 1. 6 and
ii. 1. 29) in the modem sense of conjured ^ while (ii. 1. 26) he has
conjured' in exactly the same sense. The accentuation of a given
word thus depends largely on its position in the line. For pro-
nouncing adjectives a convenient rule is that stated by Schmidt
(Shakespeare Lexicon^ vol. ii. Appendix), that where an adjective
precedes a monosyllabic noun, or a noun accented on the first
syllable, the adjective is not to be accented on the last syllable.
APPENDIX D 215
Some words through contraction or slurring, not indicated in the
Shorten- *®^*' ^^"^ °°® ^' *^° syllables. Totoarda (1. 1. 131)
ing and" ^^^ warrcmt (iv. 5. 1) are probably to be treated as
Lengthen- mono syllables. Contraction of two hastily pronounced
ing Words, words probably explains i. 5. 27 ; thus :
You're wel' | come gen' | t'l'men! Come', | musi'- |
dans, play'!
In certain words having a very light syllable, this syllable may
be either slurred over or brought out strongly. The two names,
EofMO and Juliet, are each generally dissyllabic, but each one
appears as a trisyllable in some lines of the play. Line ii. 6. 9,
contains both tn'-o-hnt' and vi'-ol&rU, pronounced in three syllables
and two syllables respectively.
Between two vowels, th, v» to, and h are frequently dropped, and
the vowels coalesce in one syllable. So such words as heaven, devil,
ever, either, may be taken as having one syllable or two, according
to the demands of the metre. By simikir vowel coalescence fire,
friar, and hour are usually treated as monosyllabic, though friar
is dissyllabic in v. 3. 187. Words ending in -ton, -ius, or -^ous gen-
erally have a fixed pronunciation for us. In Shalcespeare's day
these suffixes were treated as one syllable or as two indifferently.
So the word division (iii. 5. 29) was pronounced in four syllables
though we never allow it more than three. Similarly the-ed of the
past participle in many verbs might be made into a separate sylla-
ble or not according to rhythmic exigencies.
A converse lengthening process developed extra syllables occa-
sionally. Between the liquids I, m, n, r, and another consonant,
an intermediate vowel sound sometimes appeared. Entrance in
i. 4. 8 is to be pronounced enterance though it has only two sylla-
bles in V. 3. 141. One must not expect either the contraction or
the lengthening to be marked in the printing of the text
But much of the seeming irregularity of Shakespeare^s verse is
undoubtedly due to a deliberate intention on his part to
Variety, introduce variety. Every reader of Pope's poetry, owing
to the ceaseless regularity of its rhythmic beat, must
feel the monotony of the measure. Pope's aim was to be "a
correct poet," and as a rule no alteration can make his lines met-
rically smootiier. But Shakespeare would not be bound by every
petty rule of the strict prosodist, and his poetry is more natural,
more flexible, and more genuinely rhythmical on that account.
216 APPENDIX D
Sometimes' this variety is gained in the insertion of an extra un-
stressed syllable, which is to be hurried over in the read-
Syllables, ing of the line. This may appear at the ecBiura :
But thou' I slew'st Tyb' (alt) ; || there' art | thou
hap' I py too' (iii. 3. 188).
It is more common, however, at the end of the line, forming what
is technically called the *^ feminine ending."
And there' | an end'. | But what' | say you' | to Thurs'(day) ?
(iii. 4. 28).
Conversely, an unstressed half-foot is sometimes omitted immedi-
ately after a pause. The pause really makes up for the omitted
syllable.
ANurse' ! | A Wife' ! | What, ho'! | What, nurse,' 1 1 say' (iv. 4. 23).
A more frequent device of the fpoet to avoid monotony is to
vary his stress. Sometimes the accent is to be placed on
Stress, the first syllable, instead of the second, in one or more
of the feet.
1st, Turn' thee, | Benvo' | Ko, look' | upon' | thy death' (i. 1.74).
1st and 3d. Love' is | a smoke' || raised' with | the fume' | of
sighs' (i. 1. 196).
Stress inversion occurs most frequently in the first foot, and
somewhat less frequently, immediately after the eofsura.
Many lines have in certain feet weak stresses substituted for the
usual strong stress.
Togeth' I er with' | the ter' | ror of' | the place' (iv. 3. 38).
Occasionally such weak stresses are balanced by two long stresses
in an adjoining foot :
Add'ing | to clouds' | more' clouds' | with' his I deep' sighs' (i. 1.
139).
Again variety may be gained by the shifting of pauses, t . e. the
eofwra or the end-line pause. Thus the shift of camtra horn its
regular position is exemplified :
What said my man. When my betossed soul
Pauses. Did not attend him as we rode ? || I think (v. 3. 76-7).
When the end-pause is lacking, we have what is known
as the rwMm or unttopped line, common in the latest of Shake-
APPENDIX D 217
8peftre*s plays, such as The Tempsst and Coriolanus^ but more com-
mon still in the dramas of Beaumont and Fletcher. Borneo and
JvUsty being an early play, contains only a few such verses :
I wake before the time that Romeo
Come to redeem me? (iv. 8. 81-2).
The final variation to be mentioned is the breaking up of lines
by means of the dialogue. Thus a line seemingly incomplete be-
becomes metrically perfect when scanned in connection with the
precediiijg or the following line ; e, g.
Unes Rom, Good mor' | row fa' | ther.
Broken. Ft. L. Ben' | edic' | ite' (ii. 8. 81).
Sometimes part of a line appears to do double duty, serving to
fill out the preceding line and the succeeding one as well. This
phenomenon Abbott calls the " amphibious section.**
Jul, To-^nor | row will 1 1 send. |
Rom, So thrive | my soul —
Jul, A thou I sand times | good night ! (ii. 2. 154-5).
Occasionally broken lines seem to contain six feet, or even more,
but perhaps the extra foot, being parenthetical, is to be left out of
account Professor £. K. Chambers suggests that the extra words
may be pronounced simultaneously with others.
Jul, I do I beseech | thee —
Nuree, Mad | am !
Jul By- I and-by 1 1 come (ii. 2. 151-2).
But even after all these explanations are made to cover accentua-
tion, contraction, lengthening, shift of stress and pauses, there re-
main a certain number of lines which cannot be classed
Irr^^ as pentameter verse. Sometimes lines have been left in-
larities. complete for the dramatic effect. For example, the last
line of iv. 4, just before the discovery of the apparently
lifeless body of Juliet is Capulet*s order to the Nurse to awaken
the bride :
Make haste, 1 1 say. | — | — | — |
The abrupt termination is intentional.
On the other hand, Shakespeare^s plays, like Pope's poetry, con«
tain a certain small number of six-foot verses, or alexandrinee,
Conceming these one should be slow td dogmatise. Contnctkm*
218 APPENDIX D
elision, and slurring may remove mountains. An apparent hexa-
meter line is spoken by Juliet, iL 2, 42, where the context implies
no hasty utterance :
Belong I ing to I a man. | O be | some oth | er name !
Some incomplete or hypermetrical lines may be due to corruption
of the text, an explanation that seems to apply to iL 5. 15-7 of
this play.
The reader, however, must guard against the assumption that
there can be one and only one way to scan a line. Often one
is guided by personal taste or preference to choose this ibethod of
scansion rather than that one, and he cannot be sure that the same
consideration will appeal with equal force to a second reader.
Many lines of classic English poetry may not yield readily to rules
of thumb in disclosing their metrical make-up ; but if one takes
proper account of pauses, ejaculations, and parenthetical words of
address, the rhythm is likely to take care of itself.
IL The Mktre of Borneo and JulUt,
In general, Borneo and Jtdist presents no unusual metrical diffi-
culties, for the rhythm as a whole is notably regular. The play
contains a small proportion of prose lines, and a fair amount of
rhyme, arranged both alternately and in couplets. Its most marked
distinction metrically is the number of lyric measures to be found
therein. Peulicularly the sonnet form is employed several times.
The Prologue of the play, the Prologue to Act ii, and i. 5. 95-108,
form complete Shakespearian sonnets ; while i. 3. 46-51, i. 9. 9S-
8, V. 3. 19-7, and v. 3. 305-10, are sestettes in verse
Rhyme structure. All this argues a special interest on Shake-
in Play. speare*s part in this form of verse during his composition
of this tragedy. Other lyric measures in the play are
something close akin to the epithalamium, or marriage hymn, in
iii. 2, 1-31, and a suggestion of the aubade^ or dawn-song, in iii. 5.
1 £P. Such lyric notes are of course in thorough harmony with the
general tone of the story. In the 3009 lines printed in Q 9 of
Borneo and JuUet, 405 lines of prose ^ have been counted, 9111 lines
» The figures given here and in the table below are based chiefly
on Fumivairs discussion of the subject in his Introduction to the
Leopold Shakspere. But the percentage of run-on lines in Romeo
and Jtdiet is approximated from an independent count.
APPENDIX D 219
of blank verse, and 486 rhymed pentameter lines, or a percentage
of rhyme equalling 18.7.
It has already been stated that a large proportion of rhyme in a
Shakespearian play is one mark of early composition. For exam-
ple, Love's Labour ^s LosU one of Shakespeare's first plays,
Metrical has a rhyme percentage of 63.2, whUe The Tempest^ per-
Testsfor haps his last play, reaches the percentage of only 0.1.
Date. Had we, then, no other evidence on the question, we
should be inclined to call Romeo and Juliet an early play.
But several other metrical tests throw light on its date. One of
these tests is that of " feminine endings," another of " run-on
lines," and a third of "light or weak endings." By a feminine
ending is meant the ending of a line where an extra half-foot occurs
after the regular pentameter. Thus :
Receive in either by this dear encount | er.
Shakespeare's later works contain many more feminine endings
than do his earlier ones. By a run-on, or unstopped, line is meant
one in which there is no sense-pause at the end of the line.
The run-on lines increase rapidly as Shakespeare continues to
write. A light ending verse is one not feminine that ends with an
auxiliary or some similar word which canno tbe emphasized in
the reading ; such are : am, A«, /, since. A weak ending is one
where the stress is even less ; conjunctions and prepositions, like
and^ as, at, by, nor, placed at the ends of lines, form weak endings.
Now a table of comparison on these points between the three
plays mentioned shows :
Name of play Percentage of Percentage of No. of light No. of weak
fern, endings run-on lines endings endings
Borneo and Juliet 7.96 12.7 6 1
Love's Labour's Lost 4. 5.2 3
The Tempest 32. 24.8 42 25
While one cannot rely on these tests absolutely, but must use
them to confirm other and weightier evidence, they are helpful in
making clear the relative chronological positions of many plays.
In this case they confirm the placing of Romeo and Juliet as one of
the early plays, though later than Lovers Labour's Lost.
Below are listed several lines which may be difficult at first to
scan properly. Most of them will be observed to be speeches of
the Nurse, whose rudely formed blank verse requires ft'equent
[ mn^iritimw m
God" for [ bid"! A I A Wlm V | tUs sbP? I Wliat Ja'fliet).
fL (l 91 13) And yet' | to^^nqr tccn' | be.^ a|Mk(e)ii' ] I have"
I but four'.
SL @. S. 17) Come Lun' | mw^ve" | at m^ \ flUL^dMk.Jie' |
4. aS.8S) OTalKltliedasrBrlo'tlieycu^liilMn'itiAtday'.
5. 0- S. ST) Siftiiv I r tliesim' | im'der | tliedovv'- | hooaewaU' !
C G.S.96) Fcrt]KB'|die....coiiUsUiid'|alone';liiay',by|tlie
7 @.5. 18)'j Wd'cooM^ I gaitr(e)]iicn! | k'din | timtha^ | their
toes',
a. GL^Sl) My back" I o' t' ot]i(e)r^ \Mt,-0/\mj ImA'. \
my back'!
9. (BL «. 87) AAIF | fomroni'. | aflnai^f, | alPdis I aem'(Uers).
10. (m.5. 178) Al>ay^» I Ani^tM Ahour'. I tide^' tme'. I work;
play*.
11. Or. 5.1) Mis'tiaB!|idiat,iii]s'|tiaB! Jii'lliet! &8L' 1 1
W8fr(a)nr | her, she'.
NaUnpenBtobean
GLOSSARY
a* (i. 8. 40), he; a corruption
of the pronoun.
affray (iii. 5. 33), frighten,
make afraid. Anglo-Fr.
afrayer, effrayer; late Lat.
^rtdare, custurb < ex, out of,
+ flidus, peace.
against (iii. 4. 32; iv. 1. 113),
before, in expectation of the
time when. Cf. Hamlet, i. 1.
158 : "ever 'gainst that season
comes."
ambuscado (i. 4. 84), am-
buscade. " An affected re-
fashioning of ambuscade
after Sp. Here Englishmen
may have confused the Sp.
pa. pple. emboscado, am-
bushed . . . with the fem.
sb. emboscada, ambuscade"
(N, E, Diet,).
amerce (iii. 1. 195), punish by
fining, mulct. A. Fr. amercier,
fine, < d, to, -f- merci, mercy.
an, or an if (i. 1. 4, etc.; v. 1.
50), if. Spelled and in
Elizabethan En^., but in
modern spelling distinguished
from the copula, from which
it is probably derived.
apt (iii. 1. 34; iii. 3. 157),
ready, inclined. Cf. Julius
CoBsar, iii. 1. 160: " Live a
thousand years, I shall not
find myself so apt to die."
atomy (i. 4. 57), tiny being,
mite. Lat. atomit (pi. of
alomus, an atom) was
treated as an English sin-
gular. Cf. As You Like
It, iii. 5. 13: " The frail'st
and softest things. Who shut
their coward gates on
atomies."
bandy (ii. 5. 14), beat to and
fro as a tennis ball. Der-
ivation uncertain but con-
nected with Fr. bander,
which has the same mean-
ing.
beetle-brows (i. 4. 32), bushy
or prominent eyebrows. See
discussion of word in N. E,
Diet.
behoveful (iv. 8. 8), suitable,
required.
beshrew (ii. 5. 52; iii. 5. 228,
229), curse; a mild impreca-
tion.
biU (i. 1. 80), '' A kind of pike
or halbert, formerly car-
ried by the English infan-
try, and afterwards the
usual weapon of watchmen"
(Nares). A. S. &t4 a sword.
butt-shaft (ii. 4. 16), an un-
barbed arrow used in shoot-
ing at butts. Cupid's arrow
was supposed not to be
barbed.
canker (ii. 8. 30), a canker-
worm, living on the buds
and leaves of plants. Thus
in Two Oentlemen of Verona^
221
222
GLOSSARY
i. 1. 43: " In the sweetest
bud The eating canker
dwells." < O. Fr. cancre,
chancre < Lat. cancrum
(nom. cancer). So can-
ker'd (i. 1. 102) means (1)
eaten away, rusted, cor-
roded; and then, (2) like a
cancer, malignant.
chapless (iv. 1. 83), without a
chap, or lower jaw, as in
Hamlet, v. (1. 97: " Chapless
and knocked about the
mazzard with a sexton's
spade."
cheerly (i. 6. 16), cheerfully,
gladly; a cry of encourage-
ment used particularly by
sailors.
cheverii (ii. 4. 87), kid leather,
proverbial for its flexibility.
M. E. chevrelle < O. Fr.
chevrele, kid, — diminutive of
ch^e < Lat. capra, goat.
chop-logic (iii. 5. 150), a per-
son who chops logic, hence
a sophistical debater. N.
E, Diet quotes Awdelay
(1561): "Choplogyke is he
that when his mayster re-
buketh him of hys fault, he
wyll geve hym XX wordes
for one."
conceit (ii. 6. 30; iv. 3. 37),
something conceived in the
mind, imagination.
conduct (iii. 1. 129; v. 3.
116), conductor, guide. Cf.
Richard III, i. 1. 45: " Hath
appointed This conduct to
convey me to the Tower."
conjuration (v. 3. 68), adjura-
tion. So Henry V, i. 2.
29: ** We charge you, in the
name of God, take heed.
. . . Under this conjura-
tion speak» my Lord."
cot-quean (iv. 4. 6), a man
doing household work or
busying himself with wom-
en's affairs. Probably < cot,
cottage,-!- ^u^aTt, A. S. ctoen,
woman.
countervail (ii. 6. 4), be of
equal value to. < O. Fr.
corUreffoloir, < Lat. con-
tra, against, -f- valere, be of
worth.
date (i. 4. 3, 108; v. 3. 229),
duration, term of existence.
So Titus Andronicua, i. 1.
168: "Outlive thy father's
days. And fame's eternal
date." Hence dateless (v.
3. 115), without limit of
time, eternal.
digressing (iii. 3. 127), deviat-
ing, departing, as in Tam-
ing of the Shrew, iii. 2. 109:
" I am come to keep my
word. Though in some part
enforced to digress."
distemperature (ii. 3. 40),
mental or physical disorder,
as in Pericles, v. 1. 27:
" Upon what ground is this
distemperature? " Hence,
distemper'd (ii. 3. S3), dis-
ordered.
dowdy (ii. 4. 43), slattern.
dry-beat (iii. 1. 82; iv. 5. 126),
beat soundly; so Pappe
with an Hatchet (1589):
" A yonger^ brother, that
means to drie be^te those
of the Elder house."
endart (i. 3. 98), thrust or
dart in, from the figure of
an arrow.
enpierced (i. 4. 19), pierced,
wounded; sometimes spelled
impierced,
envious (i. 1. 157; iii. 1. 173;
iii. 2. 40), malignant, ma-
GLOSSARY
22S
licious, as frequently in
Shakespeare. In ii. 2. 4, 7
the word has its modern
sense of ** jealous."
fantastico (ii. 4. SO), a (fan-
tastical, eccentric person.
The only other instance of
the word cited by editors
is that by Steevens from
Dekker's Old Fortunatus:
** I haue reveld with kings,
daunced with Queenes, dal-
lied with Ladies, worne
straunge attires, . . . scene
fantasticoes, conuerst with
humorists." It. fantastico.
fashion-monger (ii. 4. 35),
one who affects the newest
fashions, fop. Cf. Mar-
ston. Scourge of Villanie
(1598) : " Each quaint fash-
ion-monger whose sole re-
pute Rests in his trim gay
clothes."
fee-simple (iii. 1. S5), abso-
lute possession. < Anglo-
Lat. feodum simplex, abso-
lute property.
fettle (iii. 5. 154), prepare, make
ready. Possibly < A. S.
f^l, a chain, a band.
flecked (ii. 3. 3), dappled,
spotted. Langland in Piers
Ploughman speaks of
" foules, with flekked
fetheres."
fleer (i. 5. 59), laugh scorn^
fully, sneer. So Much Ado
about Nothing, v. 1. 58:
" Never fleer and jest at
me." Etymology uncertain
but probably connected with
Norw., Sw. Jlira, Dan. flire,
grin.
flirt-gill (ii. 4. 162), woman
of loose behavior. Cf . Beau-
mont and Fletcher, Knight
of the Burning Pestle, iv. 1:
** You heard him take me
up like a flirt-gill, and sing
bawdy songs upon me."
< flirt + gill, a girU a jill,
abbrev. of gillian < Juli'
ana, < Lat. Juliana, prop,
name.
fond (iii. 3. 52; iv. 5. 82),
foolish, as in King Lear, iv.
7. 60: "I am a very foolish,
fond old man." M. E. fond,
fanned, pple. of fonnen, act
as a fool, possibly < O. Fries.
fonne, > Sw. fane, fool.
ghostly (ii. 2. 189; ii. 3. 45),
spiritual. In Shakespeare
the word always has this
sense.
gossamer (ii 6. 18), fine
threads of a spider's silk
floating in the air. M. E.
gos{e)someT{e), probably <
gos, goose + somer, siunmer.
See N, E. Diet, for further
note on word.
haviour (ii. 2. 99), deportment,
bearing, behavior. < Fr.
aveir, avoir, to have. The
initial h- was introduced
later from association with
the English form of the verb.
Not a clipped form of 6e-
havior, which comes from
the verb behave, and has a
separate history.
hilding (ii. 4. 44; iii. 5. 169), a
base, worthless man or
woman. Etymology un-
certain; possibly < A. S.
hinderling < hinder, behind, +
'ling,
hind (i. 1. 73), menial, ser-
vant. < M. E. sg. hine,
A. S. pi. htne, apparently
from gen. pi. htna of higan,
hiwany members of a house-
224
GLOSSARY
hold, domestics. So N. E,
Diet,
humour (i. 1. 135, 147; ii. 1.
7), whim, caprice. In this
sense the word is extremely
common in late Elizabethan
literature. Thus arose the
** comedy of humours," in
which the fun is derived from
the peculiar whim governing
each character.
Jack (ii. 4. 160; iii. 1. 12), a
fellow, a knave. So Richard
III, i. 3. 72: "Since every
Jack became a gentleman.
There *s many a gentle per-
son made a Jack."
jealous-hood (iv. 4. 13), per-
haps jealousy, and 'so, using
the abstract for the con-
crete, a jealous woman. N,
E. Diet, suggests that we
have here two words, hood
referring to the type of fe-
male head or the hood of a
spy, A. S. had: others explain
as the regular suffix < A^ S.
had, condition, as in manhood,
toomanhood,
joint-stools (i. 5, 7), jointed
stools, folding chairs. Cf.
S Henry IV, ii. 4. 269:
" jumps upon join'd stools
and swears with a good
grade."
leam (iii. 2. 12; iv. 2. 17), teach,
as frequently in Shakespeare,
and still heard now.
loggerhead (iv. 4. 20) block-
head, stupid person. The
first part of the word, ac-
cording to N, E, Diet,, was
apparently " invented as
expressing by its sound the
notion of something heavy
and clumsy."
mamxaet (iii. 5. 186), doll,
puppet, baby. Contracted
from Mahomet > Maumet,
Mawmet, which came to
signify an idol because me-
diaeval Christians believed
that the Mohammedans
were idolaters. See Green-
ough and Kittredge, Words
and their Ways, p. 377.
marchpane (i. 5. 9), a cake
containing pounded almonds
and sugar. Nares gives a
recipe for the baking of one.
Probably < Lat. Martins, of
Mars, " having towers, castles
and such like on them," +
Tpanis, bread, through O. Fr.
marcepain,
marry (i. 3. 63; iv. 5. 8), a
common Elizabethan ejacu-
lation, probably derived
from the name of the
Virgin.
measure (i. 4. 10; i. 5. 52), a
slow, stately dance, as in
Much Ado, ii. 1. 80: " Man-
nerly — modest, as a measure,
full of state and ancientry."
minim (ii. 4. 22), in music, the
old name for a half -note;
hence minim rest, a half-
rest.
minion (iii. 5. 152), one made
pert by too much petting,
as in Two Oentlemen of
Verona, i. 2. 92: " You,
minion, are too saucy."
Originally, a loved one, a
darling, Fr. mignon,
misadventure (v. 1. 29;^v. 3.
188), ill adventure, mis-
chance, misfortune. So mis-
adventured (Prol. 7), un-
fortunate. Neither word
is used again by Shake-
speare.
mistemper'd (i. 1. 94)^ un-
GLOSSARY
225
natural, t. e., not tempered
for use in " civil brawls."
mis-sheathed (v. 8. 205), ill
sheathed, placed in the
wrong scabbard.
mouse-hunt (iv. 4. 11), ob-
viously, a woman-hunter,
but whether derived from
the use of mouse as a
term of endearment! for a
woman, or figuratively from
a word denoting a weasel, a
stoat, is uncertain. See Fur-
ness for notes of various com-
mentators on the passage.
nice (iii. 1. 159; v. 2. 18),
trifling, unimportant, as in
Richard III, iii. 7. 175:
" The respects thereof are
nice and trivial." The origi-
nal sense of the word was
foolish; then, foolishly par-
ticular as to trifles. O. Fr.
nice < Lat. nescitu, ignorant.
o'er-perch (ii. 2. 66), fly over.
Used by Shakespeare no-
where else.
partisan (i. 1. 80, 101), "a
military weapon used . . .
by footmen in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries,
consisting of a long-handled
spear, the blade having one
or more lateral cutting pro-
jections, variously shaped,
so as sometimes to pass into
the gisarme and the halberd"
{N, E, Diet).
pilcher (iii. 1. 84), probably
the leather scabbard of a
sword, though no other in-
stance of the word in that
sense is known; related to
pilch, a gown of skin or fur,
< A. S. pylece, < L. Lat.
pellicea, fem. sing, of pelli'
ceus, of skin, < pellia, skin.
present (iv. 1. 61; v. 1. 51),
immediate, instant, as fre-
quently in Shakespeare. So
presently (v. 1. 21), imme-
diately.
prick-song (ii. 4. 21), written
music in distinction from
plain song, ** The first
notes used were small, square
marks without stems, called
pricks, or points " (Clarke's
Dictionary of Musical
Terms),
princox (i. 5. 88), a pert youth,
a coxcomb, < prim -f- cock;
princock is another form of
the word.
properer (ii. 4. 217), better-
looking, handsomer; cf. As
You Like It, iii. 5. 51: " You
are a thousand times a
properer man."
reeky (iv. 1. 83). " reeking
with malodorous vapors;
strictly smoky, and hence
foul"jj^ (Dowden).
ropery (ii. 4. 154), roguery,
rascality. Roperipe in Eliza-
bethan English signified ripe
for a rope, worthy of hanging.
Roper meant a roperipe person.
Dowden cites Beaumont and
Fletcher, The Chances, iii. 1 :
** You *11 leave this ropery
When you come to my
years."
runagate (iii. 5. 90), vagabond;
a corruption of M. £. ren-
Mate, an apostate, a renegade
(due according to Skeat to
popular etymology with
runne a gate, run on the
road) < O. Fr. renegat <
Low Lat. renegatus, pa. ppl.
of renegare < re-, again +
negare, deny.
skains-mate (ii. 4. 162), prob-
226
GLOSSARY
ably " cut-throat com-
panion " (Malone, Stee-
vens), male ruffian. N, E»
Diet, can throw no light on its
derivation or meaning.
slop (ii. 4. 47), a form of loose
trousers affected in the six-
teenth century. So 2
Henry IV, i. 2. 34, " about
the satin for mv short
cloak and my slops.' Cf . O.
Norse sloppr, a long, loose
gown < sleppa, to slip.
solemnity (i. 5. 59, 65; iv. 5.
61), a stately ceremony,
festivity, often referring to
a marriage feast; as in il
Midsummer Night's Dream,
i. 1.11: "the night Of our
. solemnities."
spite (ii. 1. 27), mortification,
vexation. So Hamlet, i. 5.
189: " The time is out of
joint: O cursed spite. That
ever I was born to set it
right! " In neither instance
does the word carry the
sense of personal malevo-
lence, malice, that it bears
to-day. Hence, in spite of
(i. 1. 85; i. 5. 64), for the
purpose of mortifying or
vexing.
still (i. 1. 177; ii. 3. 27; iv. 3. 29)
ever, always, as frequently
in Shakespeare. Cf. Mac-
heth, V. 5. 2: " The cry is
still * They come.' "
Store (i. 2. 22), large number,
abundance.
sweeting (ii. 4. 83), a kind of
apple, called also bitter-
sweet.
tassel-gentle (ii. 2. 160), ter-
cel-gentle, the male hawk,
used in falconry. M. £.
tercel, tercelet, O. Fr. tiercel
< Late Lat. tertiolus, dimin-
utive of Lat. tertiusy third. So
called either because the male
hawk was supposed to be a
third larger than the female,
or because it was supposed
that every third bird in the
nest was a male. The tassel-
gentle and the falcon-gentle, so
termed because of their "fa-
miliar, courteous disposition,"
were commonly appropriated
to the prince in his hunting.
teen (i. 3. 13), sorrow, as
Complaint of Venus, 808:
" Mv face is full of shame,
my heart of teen." M. E.
tene, A. S. teona, reproach,
< teon, accuse.
tetchy (i. 3. 32), peevish, fret-
ful, < M. £. tecche, tache,
habit, vice < O. Fr. tedie, Fr.
tache, spot, blemish.
trencher (i. 5. 2), a large
wooden plate. < O. Fr.
trenchoir, a carving place <
trencher, to carve.
truckle-bed (ii. 1. 39), trundle-
bed, a bed on wheels which
might be pushed under a
larger bed.
versal (ii. 4. 219), the Nurse's
word for universal; a com-
mon vulgarism of the time.
wanton (ii. 2. 178), " a merry
rogue, a tomboy " (Schmidt).
ware (i. 1. 131; ii. 2. 103),
aware, as in As You Like
It, ii. 4. 58: " Thouspeakest
wiser than thou art ware
of."
INDEX OF WORDS
(The references are to the Notes ad loe. Other words will be found
in the Glossary.)
abused, iv. 1. 29.
Adam Cupid, ii. 1. 13.
advanced, iv. 5. 72; v. 8. 96.
adventure, ii. 2. 84.
advise, iii. 5. 192.
affecting, ii. 4. 29.
agate-stone, i. 4. 55.
airy, i. 1. 96.
aUa stoccata, iii. 1. 77.
ally, iii. 1. 114.
amazed, iii. 1. 189.
amen, iii. 5. 229.
anatomy, iii. 8. 106.
antic face, i. 5. 58.
any he, v. 1. 67.
ape, ii. 1. 16.
appertaining, iii. 1. 66.
as = as for example, iv. 8. 89.
aspired, iii. 1. 122.
attach, V. 3. 178.
attending, ii. 2. 167.
baked meats, iv. 4. 5.
banquet, i. 5. 124.
bare, v. 1. 68.
"bear a brain," i. 8. 29.
becomed, iv. 2. 26.
be strange, ii. 2. 101.
"bite by the ear," ii. 4. 81.
bit with, i. 1. 157.
blaze, iii. 3. 151.
bodes, i. 4. 91.
booted, V. 1. 2.
bosom's lord, iv. 1. 3.
boy, iii. 1. 69.
"broad goose," ii. 4. 91.
brow, iii. 5. 20.
"bum daylight," i. 4. 48.
but a part, i. 2. 17.
"butcher of a silk button," i
4.24.
by and by, ii. 2. 151.
candle-holder, i. 4. 88.
cannot choose but, iii. 5. 78.
"captain of complements," i
4. 20.
"carries it away," iii. 1. 77.
"carry coals," i. 1. 1.
"cany no crotchets," iv. 5. 120.
case, iv. 5. 99.
catched, iv. 5. 48.
charge, y. 2. 18.
chequering, ii. 3. 2.
circle, ii. 1. 24.
chinks, iv. 119.
choking gall, i. 1. 200.,
choler, i. 1. 4.
circumstance, ii. 5. 36.
civil, Prol. 4.
closet, iv. 2. 88.
clubs, i. 1. 80.
cockatrice, iii. 2. 47.
coil, ii. 5. 67.
"come near you," i. 5. 22.
comfortable, v. 8. 148.
commission, iv. 1. 64.
compliment, ii. 2. 89.
concealed, iii. 3. 98.
conduit, iii. 5. 130.
confidence, ii. 4. 188.
confines, ii. 6. 18.
confusiou*s, iv. 5. 65.
conjure, ii. 1. 6.
consort, iii. 1. 49.
contrary, i. 5. 87.
227
228
INDEX OF WORDS
convert, i. 5. 04.
counsel, ii. 2. 53.
counterfeit, ii. 4. 48.
court-cupboard, i. 5. 8.
courtier's, i. 4. 77.
courtship, iii. 8. 84.
cousin, i. 5. 32.
cross, iy. 8. 5.
crow, V. 2. 21.
crow-keeper, i. 4. 6.
"crush a cup," i. 2. 86.
cures, i. 2. 49.
curfew, iv. 4. 4.
clear, ii. 2. 190; v. 2. 19.
death-dealing, iii. 2. 47.
deny, i. 5. 21.
desperate, iii. 4. 12.
dew-dropping, i. 4. 103.
Dian's wit, i. 1. 215.
discovered, ii. 2. 106.
dispute, iii. 8. 68.
distance, ii. 4. 21-2.
division, iii. 5. 29.
doctrine, i. 1. 244.
"dog's name," ii. 4. 228.
doubt, V. 8. 44.
down ss downstairs, iii. 5. 67.
down — in bed, iv. 5. 12.
drawer, iii. 1. 9.
drawn, i. 1. 78-77.
drift, ii. 8. 55; iv. 1. 114.
dry, iii. 5. 59.
dump, iv. 5. 107-8.
"Dun in the mire," i. 4. 41.
"dun's the mouse," i. 4. 40.
elf-locks, i. 4. 90.
endart, i. 8. 98.
exhales, iii. 5. 13.
expire, i. 4. 109.
extremes, iv. 1. 62.
/a,iv.5. 121.
fair, ii. Prol. 8.
feeling, iii. 5. 75.
field-bed, ii. 1. 40.
fikn, i. 4. 68.
fine, i. 5. 96.
"five wits," L 4. 47.
flies, ii. 4. 84.
"flower of courte^," ii. 5. 44.
flowered, ii. 4. 64.
fool, i. 3. 81.
form, ii. 4. 86.
"form of wax," iii. 8. 126.
"fortune's fool," iii. 1. 141.
frank, ii. 2. 181.
friend, iii. 5. 42.
gear, v. 1. 60.
give leave, i. 8. 7.
gleek, iv. 5. 115.
"god-dew," i. 2, 58; ii.4.115; iii.
5. 178.
"God save the mark," iii. 2. 53.
"goodthou,"i. 5. 8.
gore-blood, iii. 2. 56.
gown, L 1. 81.
grace, ii. 3. 28.
green* iv. 8. 42.
green eye, iii. 5. 222.
grey eye, ii. 4. 45.
a hall! i. 5. 28.
harlotry, iv. 2. 14.
"have at thee," i. 1. 79.
heartless, i. 1. 73.
hinds, i. 1. 78.
his = its, ii. 6. 12; iv. 5. 70; v.
8.208.
holp, i. 2. 48.
homely, ii. 8. 55.
hood, iii. 2. 14.
honey, ii. 5. 18.
hoodwinked, i. 4. 4.
house, ii. 4. 25.
humourous, ii. 1. 81.
hunt's-i^, iii. 5. 84.
hurdle, iii. 5. 156.
iU, iv. 2. 6.
in = into, v. 1. 86.
in good time, i. 2. 45.
in happy time, iii. 5. 112.
inauspicious, v. 8. 8.
inconstant, iv. 1. 119.
indite, ii. 4. 185.
I inherit, i. 2. 80.
I "keep no great ado," iii. 4. 28.
INDEX OF WORDS
229
kindly, ii. 4. 59.
label, iv. 1. 57.
lace, iii. 5. 8.
lady, ii. 4. 157.
**\aLdy of my earth," i. 2. 15.
lady-bird, i. S. 3.
Lammas-tide, i. 3. 15.
lantern, v. 8. 84.
lath, i. 4. 5.
"la^ finger," i. 4. 66.
lazy-pacing, ii. 2. 31.
lent, iii. 5. 166.
let, ii. 2. 69.
level, iii. 3. 103.
like, i. 4. 6.
"like he," iii. 5. 84.
like of, i. 3. 96.
living, iv. 5. 40.
long sword, i. 1. 82.
love, ii. 5. 7.
made » was doing, v. 3. 280.
"makes dainty," i. 5. 21.
manage, iii. 1. 48.
mandrakes, iv. 3. 47.
mangle, iii. 2. 98.
"man of wax," i. 3. 76.
margent, i. 3. 86.
mark, i. 3. 59; iii. 2. 53
married, i. 3. 83.
mean, iii. 3. 45.
mend, i. 5. 81.
"mewed up," iii. 4. 11.
minstrel, iv. 5. 115.
modem, iii. 2. 120.
morning's eye, iii. 5. 19.
much upon, i. 3. 72.
natural, ii. 4. 96.
naught, iii. 2. 87.
needy, iii. 5. 106.
nothing, i. 1. 119.
nuptial, i. 5. 37.
O, iii. 3. 90.
occasion, iii. 1. 45.
old, iii. 3. 94.
orchard, ii. 1. 5.
osier cage, ii. 3. 7.
outrage, v. 3. 216.
overwhelming, v. 1. 39. •
owe, ii. 2. 46.
"parties of suspicion," v. 3. 222.
passing, i. 1. 240.
pastry, iv. 4. 2.
patience perforce, i. 5. 91.
peppered, iii. 1. 102.
pirdona mis*, ii. 4. 35.
pestilent, iv, 5. 147.
pin, ii. 4. 15.
pitch, i. 4. 21.
plantain, i. 2. 52.
"poor John," i. 1. 37.
portly, i. 5. 68.
post, V. 3. 273.
presence, v. 3. 86.
preserving, i. 1. 200.
pretty, iv. 1. 135.
prevails, iii. 3. 60.
procures, iii. 5. 68.
prodigious, i. 5. 142.
prolixity, i. 4. 3.
proof, i. 1. 216.
propagate, i. 1. 193.
proportion, ii. 4. 24-2.
purged, i. 1. 197.
quote, i. 4. 31.
quoth, i. 3. 33.
read by rote, ii. 3. 88.
rearward, iii. 2. 121.
"reason coldly," iii. 1. 55,
rebeck, iv. 5. 132.
reckoning, i. 2. 4.
reflex, iii. 5. 20.
respect, ii. 3. 90.
"respective lenity," iii. 1. 128.
"rest you merry," i. 2. 65.
retorts, iii. 1. 169.
re, iv. 5. 121.
rosemary, ii. 4. 226; iv. 5. 79.
"runaways* eyes," iii. 2. 6.
rushed, iii. 3. 26.
rushes, i. 4. 36.
sadness, i. 1. 205.
"saucy merchant," ii. 4. 153.
scant, i. 2. 104.
serving-creature, iv. 5. 117-8.
230
INDEX OF WORDS
*'8et cock-a-hoop,** i. 5. 83.
"set up my rest," v. 3. 110.
shake, i. 3. 33.
shield, iv. 1. 41.
"sick and green,** ii. 2. 8.
fflngle-soled," ii. 4. 05-70.
sir-reverence, i. 4. 42.
smatter, iii. 5. 172.
smooth, iii. 2. 98.
so ho! ii. 4. 136.
"sorted out,** iii. 5. 110.
sped, iii. 1. 94.
speed, V. 3. 121.
spinners, i. 4. 59.
epite, i. 1. 85; i. 5. 64.
spoke him fair,** iii. 1. 158.
"stand on sudden haste,** ii. 3. 93.
stay, ii. 5. 36; iv. 3. 57.
steads, ii. 3. 54.
straight, ii. 5. 73.
strange love, iii. 2. 15.
strucken, i. 1. 238.
awashing, i. 1. 70.
sweet water, v. 3. 14.
"switch and spur,** iL 4. 73.
swounded, iii. 2. 56.
flvmpathy, iii. 8. 85-6.
take me with you,** iii. 5. 142.
"take the wall,'* i. 1. 15.
take truce, iii. 1. 162.
tan, ii. 4. 31.
tallow-face, iii. 5. 158.
tender, iii. 5. 186.
that » so that, iii. 5. 99.
"thievish ways,*' iv. 1. 79.
thorough, ii. 4. 15.
thou^t long, iv. 5. 41.
time, ii. 4. 21-2.
timeless, v. 3. 162.
to-night, ii. 4. 2.
torch, i. 4. 11.
thou*s, i. 3. 9.
tutor from, iii. 1. 32.
unattainted, i. 2. 90.
unbruised, ii. 3. 37.
uncomfortable, iv. 5. 60.
uneven, iv. 1. 5.
unmanned, iii. 2. 14.
unstuffed, ii. 3. 87.
utters, V. 1. 67.
validity, Iii. 3. 33.
vanished, iii. 3. 10.
view, i. 1. 175, 177.
visor, i. 4. 80.
walk, iii. 1. 78.
wanting of, ii. 2, 78.
"was I with you,** ii. 4. 78.
weak, ii. 4. 180.
weeds, v. 1. 39.
well, is, iv. 5. 76.
what, i. 5. 67.
who, i. 1. 119; i. 4. 100.
wild-goose chase, iL 4. 75.
will, ii. 3. 28.
"wisely too fair,*' i. 1. 227.
"with a letter,** iL 4. 220.
withal, L 1. 119.
without-book, i. 4. 7.
worser, ii. 3. 29.
wrought, iii. 5. 145.
zounds, iik 1. 52.
GENERAL INDEX
Abbott, A Shakespearian Gra'nv-
mar, I 1. 119, 157, 165, 193.
238; i. 2. 14, 23, 48, 101; i. 3.
96; i. 4. 91; i. 5. 8; ii. 2. 61;
ii. 3. 27, 51, 52, 92; ii. 4. 22;
ii. 5. 50; ii. 6. 12, 25; iii. 2. 98;
iii. 3. 88; iii. 5. 82, 84, 91, 99;
iv. 1. 122; iv. 2. 26; iv. 4. 26;
V. 1. 36, 67; v. 3. 214, 247.
accentuation, ii. 1. 6. See also
Appendix D.
as, omission of, i. 1. 165; ii. 3. 92.
as, redundant, v. 3. 247.
astrology* belief in, Prol. 6; v.
3. 111.
Atlantic Monthly, i. 4. 47.
aubade, iii. 5. 34.
Balthasar, v. 1. 22.
Beaumont and Fletcher, Kniaht
qf the Burning Pestle, i. 3. 33.
Benvolio, i. 1. 71; ii. 4. 33, 135;
iii. 1.11, 157 ff.; v. 3. 211.
Beowulf, iii. 2. 162.
Bowdon, Religion qf Shakespeare,
iv. 1. 38.
Brooke, Romeus and Jidiet, i. 1.
109; i. 2. 9, 11, 46; i.'4. in-
trod.; i. 5. 30, 45, 120; ii. 1.
40; ii. 2. 142-8, 152; ii. 3. 1;
ii. 6. »-8; iii. 2. 15, 69, 90, 142;
iii. 3. 71 ff., 109, 119; iii. 5. 43,
119, 130, 166, 192, 214 ff.; iv.
1. 62 ff., 89-120, 109, 119; iv.
2. 31; iv. 3. 1; iv. 4. 6; iv. 5.
32, 41, 84; v. 1. 18, 45 ff., 60;
V. 2. 5; V. 3. 1, 97, 228 ff., 229,
308. See also Appendix B.
Browning, In a Balcony, ii. 6.
8-8.
Cambridge editors, i. 5. 120; ii.
4.35; iii. 3. 85-6.
Capell, iii. 3. 26.
Capulet, i. 1. 81, 83; i. 2. 14. 17
i. 5. 32, 78; iii. 5. introd., 142,
158, 173; iv. 2. 2; iv. 4. 6;
iv. 5. 25 ff., 32.
Chambers, i. 5, 195; i. 4, 7, 53;
iii. 2. 6; v. 3.228 ff.
Chaucer, i. 4. 41, 51; ii. 5. 15
iii. 2. 73; v. 1. 4, 77 ff.
che sera sera, iv. 1. 21.
Chester, Loee's Martyr, v. 1. 3.
Cicero, i. 1. 134.
Clarke, iii. 1. 113; iii. 5. 59, 97-
100; V. 1. 24.
CoUier, i. 1. 217; ii. 4. 91, 180;
ii. 5. 15; iii. 2. 6; iii. 3. 26.
conceits, i. 1. 200, 218; i. 3. 81-
94; ii. 3. 3, 72; ii. 5. 13-5; ii.
6. 10; iii. 2. 21-5, 83-1, 114 ff.;
iii. 3. 2-3, 29, 54-5; iii. 5. 131-
8; V. 3. 117.
Cook, i. 1. 134.
Coryat, Crudities, iv. 1. 109.
Cotgrave, iii. 5. 34.
Daniel, P. A., i. 3. 33; iii. 2. 6;
iii. 3. 85-6.
Daniel, Complaini of Rosamund,
V. 3. 94-6, 103-5.
dawn, pictures of, ii. 3. 1-^.
debate between heart and eyes, ii.
3.68.
Delsker, ii. 4. 19; iii. 5. 142; iv.
5.79.
DeHus, i. 1. 128; i. 5. 58; ii. 4.
91; iii. 2. 6; iii, 3. 85-6.
Dickens, A Tale qf Two Cities,
iii. 5. 156.
231
232
GENERAL INDEX
double negative, iii. 1. 58.
Douce, i. 4. 5, 89.
Dowden, i. 1. 70, 193, 200, 222;
i. 2. 9, 15; i. 8. 86, 76; i. 4. 109;
i. 5. 96; ii. 1. 18; ii. 4. 84, 158;
iii. 1. 106; iii. 2. 6; iii. 8. 10;
iii. 5. 48, 172, 222; iv. 1. 5,
88; iv. 5. 125; v. 2. 5.
dragon in cave with gold, iii. 2. 74.
Drake, Fnmcis, ii. 2. 88.
dramatic irony, ii. 2. 189.
Drayton, i. 4. 58.
D;irce, i. 8. 4, 76; ii. 4. 75, 158;
iii. 2. 6; iii. 4. 84.
earthquake of 1580, i. 8. 28.
Edwards, "A Song to the Lute,"
iv. 5. 128.
Elizabeth, Queen, i. 1. 214-26.
ethical dative, ii. 4. 22; iii. 1. 6.
evenin|; mass, iv. 1. 88.
evil spurits, i. 4. 89.
Fair Maid of Brittow^ The, ii. 4.
158.
Faire Em, i. 8. 76.
Farmer, iii. 2. 85-6.
fatalism, i. 4. 106.
Field, A Woman is a Weathercock,
i. 8. 76.
"first and second cause," ii. 4. 26.
Fletcher, The WHdrQoose Chase,
i. 1.70; iii. 2. 85-6.
Franciscan order, ii. 8. 7.
Friar Laurence, ii. 8. introd.;
ii. 6. 9-15; iv. 5. 65; v. 2. in-
trod.; V. 8. introd., 181, 229,
808.
Fuller^ u. 2. 24; v. 8. 70. See also
Struijs.
Free-town, i. 1. 109.
Fumess, Variorum Shakespeare,
iii. 2. 6.
Gascoigne, i. 1. 88.
gerundud infinitive, i. 1. 198.
Gi£Ford, i. 4. 41.
"give and take" dialogue, iv. 1.
18-86.
Greene, i. 1. 222; ii. 2. 98, 101.
Guilpin, Skialetheia, ii. 4. 47-8.
Hales, iii. 2. 6.
Halliwell-Phillips, i. 5. 104; iL
4. 47-8.
Hanford, ii. 8. 68.
Hanmer, ii. 5. 78.
Harvey, i. 1. 70.
Hawes, i. 4. 47.
Heath, iii. 2. 6.
Herford, i. 1. 216, 285; iii. 2. 6.
Hevwood, J., The Pardoner and
the Friar, iii. 5. 172.
Heywood, T., A Wom^m Killed
toith Kindness, iii. 5. 29.
Holinshed, ii. 4. 65-70.
Hudson, i. 1. 184; iii. 2. 6.
impersonal use of verbs, i. 8. 96;
u.2. 61.
Italianate dueling fashions, ii. 4.
introd.; ii. 4. 26.
Jackson, iii. 2. 6.
Jameson, Mrs. iii. 2. 26.
Johnson, Samuel, i. 2. 26; iii. 8.
184; iii. 5. 97-100; iv. 1. 80.
Jones, InigOb i. 5. 104.
Jonson, Beo, i. 1. 4; i. 8. 8, 66;
ii. 4. 21-2, 26, 228.
Juliet, 1. 8. introd.; ii. 2. 64, 142-
8; iii. 2. 1 ff., 26; iii. 5. introd.,
26, 97-100, 119, 122, 142, 206,
220, 284; iv. 1. introd., 18-86,
44-5; iv. 2. introd.; iv. 8.
introd., 2, 19; v. 1. introd.;
V. 8. introd.
Eeightley, ii. 5. 16; iii. 8. 10.
Kemp, Will, iv. 5. 101.
Euig Cophetua, ii. 1. 14.
King Leir, iii. 5. 166; iv. 5. 41.
Kittredge and Greenough, Words
and their Ways, iii. 2. 58.
Knight, iii. 2. 6.
Laudy Capulet,*i. I.r88; i. 8. 72;
iii. 5. 89-92; v. 8. 207, 210.
lark, iii. 5. 21-2, 81.
Latuner, i. 4. 59.
length of play's performance^
Frol. 12.
GENERAL INDEX
233
Lettsom, i. 5. 94.
Littledale, i. 4. 30.
Longman's Magazine^ iii. 2. 6.
love-language, i. 1. 178.
lover's sigh, i. 1. 167; ii. 1. 10;
ii. 2. 25; v. 1. 10.
Lyley, Euphuea, i. 4. 109; iii. 8.
55', V. 1. 61.
madmen, treatment of, i. 2. 55-7.
Malone, i. 1. 227; i. 8. 86; i. 4.
40; ii. 2. 39, 76, 152; ii. 4. 65-
70; iii. 1. 122; iii. 2. 1; iii. 5.
127, 130; iv. 5. 32.
Marlowe, i. 2. 9; ii. 5. 98; iii. 1.
122; iii. 2.1; iv. 1. 21; v. 1. 8.
Mason, i. 3. 88; iii. 2. 114.
matches, iii. 3. 132.
Mercutio, i. 2. 70; L 4. introd.;
ii. 4. 15; iii. 1. introd., 11, 15,
42. 102, 113, 194.
meteors, iii. 5. 13.
Milton, i. 1. 85; ii. 3. 2, 9-10;
iii. 2. 9; iii. 5. 19; iv. 5. 132.
Modem Langtiage Notes, i. 1. 134;
ii. 3. 68.
Monosyllabic lines, iv. 1. 44-5.
Montagues, i. 1. 38; v. 3. 210.
morning, descriptions of, ii. 3. 1-6.
Munro, v. 1. 4. See also Brooke.
Nash, u. 1. 16; u. 4. 19, 47-8.
Nation, The, ii. 3. 68.
Naylor, Shakespeare and Music,
iv. 5. 103.
Neilson, ii. 1. 13; iii. 2. 6; iii. 8.
85-6.
New English Dictionary, i. 2. 4;
i. 8. 29, 36; i. 5. 83; iii. 5. 8,
34, 156; iv. 4. 4.
news (plural), ii. 5. 22.
Niebdungenlied, iii. 2. 74.
Nurse, i. 3. 4, 23; ii. 4. 169, 223;
iii. 2. 142; iii. 3. 146, 159; iii.
5. introd., 229, 234; iv. 3. 2;
iv. 4. 5, ^-8; v. 3. 308.
Painter, Palace of Pleasure, i. 2. 9.
ii. 3. 1; iii. 2. 92; iii. 3. 71 ff.
See akio Appendix B.
Paradyse cf Daynty Devises, iv.
W5. 128.
Paris, Count, i. 2. introd.; v. 8.
introd., 1, 59.
participle, past, i. 1. 238.
Patient Grissel, i. 4. 40.
Peele, Old Wives* Tale, i. 8. 83.
Percy, Rdiques, ii. 1. 14; ii. 4.
151; iv. 5. 128.
Peter, ii. 4. 169; v. 8. 101, 135.
petrarchisms, ii. 2. 24.
pilgrim disguise, i. 5. 104.
Pleasant Ballad of Two Lovers, A,
iv. 5. 107.
plural nouns treated as singular,
i. 2. 101; iii. 5. 107; v. 8.
214.
Pope, i. 1. 134; i. 3. 98; i. 4. 77;
ii. 5. 15; iii. 1. 62; iv. 1. 78;
iv. 5. 135.
pronouns, possessive transposed,
iii. 2. 98; possessive used ob-
jectively, ii. 8. 51; relative
omitted, iii. 5. 92; who for
inanimate objects, i. 1. 119; L
4.100.
proverbs, i. 1. 17; i. 3. 89; i. 5.
16; u. 2. 93; u. 4. 82; iii. 4. 4;
iv. 1. 21; V. 3. 90.
proverbs, Ray's Collection of, iL
4.82.
Puttenham, Art cf English Poesy,
iv. 2. 6.
Queen Mab. i. 4. 53.
Quibbles, i. 1. 148; i. 8. 13; i. 4.
12; i. 5. 120; ii. 1. 31; ii. 2.
106; ii. 4. 12, 36, 39, 47-8, 55,
65-70, 82; ii. 6. 34; iii. 1. 49,
59, 102; iii. 2. 14, 45, 121; iiL
8. 41, 45, 98; iii. 4. 8; iii. 5. 67»
97-100, 127-31; iv. 5. 72, 99,
120, 121, 125, 182; v. 8. 90, 110,
179-80.
Ray's collection of proverbs, ii. 4.
82.
redundant words, ii.Prd. 8; iii.
1.58; y.8.247.
254
GENERAL INDEX
Reed, iii. 1. 4.
reflexive use of verbs, ii. 8. 27; iv.
1. 122; V. 3. 3.
Reynard the Fox, ii. 4. 19.
rhymed couplets, i. 1. 188.
Riche, Farewell, iii. 2. 1.
Rolfe, i. 8. 27; iii. 1. 32; iii. 5.
188; iv. 1. 18-86; iv. 5. 82; v.
1. 10; V. 8. 207.
Romeo, i. 1. introd.; i. 2. introd.;
52; i. 4. 1, 11, 51, 106; ii. 4. 98-
4; iii. 3. 119; iii. 5. 51-7; v.
1. 4, 24; V. 8. introd.; 41, 59, 87,
111, 117.
Rosaline, i. 2. 72.
Rowe, Prol. 8.
Rychardes, Misogonus, iv. 5. 103.
Sdmiidt, A Shakeepeare Lexicon,
i. 2. 58; i. 4. 68; i. 5. 64, 68;
ii. 2. 8; ii. 4. 59, 81; iii. 1. 94,
162; iii. 2. 6; iii. 8. 84; iii.
5.28.
Scott, Lady of the Lake, ii. 6.
17.
Scriptures, i. 1. 20; i. 2. 80.
Sdimus, iii. 2. 56.
Seneca's tragedies, iv. 5. 49 ff.
serpent in Eden, iii. 2. 78.
sestette. See sonnet-forms.
Silver, Paradoxes qf Defence, ii.
4.24.
Sir John OldcaaOe, i. 4. 41.
Skeat's edition of Chaucer, iii. 2.
78; V. 1. 4.
Smith, Commonwealth qf England,
iii. 1. 4.
sonnet-forms, i. 2. 46-51, 98-8;
i. 5. 95-108; v. 8. 12-7, 305-10.
stage setting, iii. 5. s. d.
stars. See astrology.
Staunton, i. 8. 81-94; ii. 4. 24;
ii. 6. 84.
Steevens, i. 5. 29; ii. 2. 101; ii.
4. 21-2; ii. 6. 82; iii. 2. 9, 92;
iii. 8. 29, 41, 85-6, 182; iii. 4.
12; iv. 5. 107, 132; v. 1. 8, 8,
77 ff., 90, 94-6.
strong preterit for weak, i. 2.
48.
Struijs, Romeo en Juliette, i. 5.
48 ff.; ii. 2. 2, 15, 84, 116, 162;
ii. 8. 1, 81; iii. 1. 42; iii. 8.
71 ff.; iii. 5. 1, 2, 14 ff.; v. 1.
24, 108. See also Appendix C.
Struck, i. 1. 215.
Susanna, ii. 4. 151.
sycamore, i. 1. 128.
Tartar's bow, i. 4. 5.
Tennyson, Maud, ii. 6. 17.
textual notes, Prol. 8; i. 1. 44,
184, 159, 161, 188, 196, 217;
i. 2. 18, 26, 102; i. 8. 86, 83,
98; i.4.42,58, 77, 108, 111; i.
5. 47, 96, 120; ii. Prol. 8; ii. 1.
13, 14; ii. 2. 8, 31, 89, 152; ii.
8. 22, 80; ii. 4. 35, 37, 78, 91,
121-2; ii. 5. 15, 78; ii. 6.
introd., 17; iii. 1. 118; iii. 2.
6, 53; iii. 3. 10, 26, 41, 85-6;
iii. 5. 48, 122, 127, 166, 284,
iv. 1. 78; iv. 8. 58; iv. 4. 4;
iv. 5. 185; v. 1. 1; v. 8.
170, 211.
that used for it, ii. 6. 25.
Theobald, i. 1. 159; i. 2. 102; i.
5. 57, 96; ii. 4. 85, 87.
tidings, either singular or plural,
iii. 5. 107.
time, marks of, ii. 5. 1; iv. 1. 105;
iv. 2.89; iv. 4. 4; v. 8. 176.
toad, iii. 5. 31.
tragic irony, ii. 6. introd.; iii. 5.
51-7; V. 1. 4.
Troublesome Reign of King John,
The, iv. 5. 41.
TtDO Noble Kinsmen, The, iii. 5.
222.
Tybalt, i. 1. 65, 71; i. 5. introd.,
78; iii. 1. introd. 77.
Ulrici, iv. 2. 78; iv. 5. 121.
Upton, ii. 1. 18.
Vergil, JEneid, iii. 5. 5i^-8.
verb preceding subject, ii. 8.
52.
GENERAL INDEX
235
Verplanck, iii. ft. 6.
Walker, u. 5. 73.
Warburton, iii. 2. 6.
Warner, Attnon^s England, iii.
2.47.
Weakest Goeth to the WaU, The,
iii. 4. 12.
Webster*s International Diction^
ary, i. 1. 193; iii. 1. 102.
Wendell, i. 2. 9; iii. 2. 9.
White, ii. 1. 13; ii. 5. 16; iii. 2.
6; iv. 6. 49 flf.
Wordsworth, Laodamia^ ii. 6. 9-
15.
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