Rom. Good heart, at what? Doth add more grief to too much of mine own. Ben. [Going. 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.21 Rom. What! shall I groan, and tell thee? Ben. Groan! why, no; But sadly 22 tell me who. Rom. Bid a sick man in sadness make his will,— Ah! word ill urg'd to one that is so ill!— In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman. Ben. I aim'd so near, when I suppos'd you lov'd. 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'll not be hit With Cupid's arrow,-she hath Dian's wit; That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store.23 Ben. Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste? 20. Being purg'd. . . . being vex'd. "Purg'd" is here used for 'made clear,' 'made bright;' and "vex'd" is used for 'troubled,'' made turbid.' 21. Who is that you love. It,' or ''t,' is elliptically understood after "is" here. See Note 51, Act iv., "Coriolanus." 22. Sadly. Seriously,' 'sedately.' See Note 70, Act ii., "Much Ado." 23. With beauty dies her store. This has been changed by Theobald to 'with her dies beauty's store,' but the passage means with her individual beauty dies so large a store of beauty.' 24 To call hers, exquisite, in question more. 'To make her Rom. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste; For beauty, starv'd with her severity, Cuts beauty off from all posterity. She is too fair, too wise; wisely too fair, Ben. Be rul'd by me, forget to think of her. Rom. Oh, teach me how I should forget to think. Ben. By giving liberty unto thine eyes; Examine other beauties. 'Tis the way Rom. To call hers, exquisite, in question more : 24 He that is strucken blind cannot forget SCENE 11.-A Street. Enter CAPULET, PARIS, and Servant. Cap. But Montague is bound as well as I, In penalty alike; and 'tis not hard, I think, For men so old as we to keep the peace. Par. Of honourable reckoning are you both; And pity 'tis you liv'd 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, 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. Earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she,28 beauty, which is so exquisite, the more a subject of admiration to me.' 25. These happy masks. The masks usually worn; and happy in being privileged to touch the sweet countenances beneath. "These" is here used to instance a general observation. See Note 69, Act ii., "Measure for Measure." 26. Passing. 'Surpassingly,'' supremely.' 27. What doth her beauty serve. 'For' is elliptically understood after 66 " serve.' 28. Earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she. This line conveys the idea that Capulet had other children who died early. She is the hopeful lady of my earth:29 29. She is the hopeful lady of my earth. Inasmuch as Fille de terre is an old French term for an heiress, and as Shakespeare occasionally uses "earth" for 'land' or 'landed possessions,' he probably uses the expression in the text to signify 'she is the hopeful inheritrix of my landed estates;' but inasmuch as he employs the word "earth" in this very play (see Note 1, Act ii) to express corporeal part, material part, the earthly portion of man, it is most likely that Capulet is intended to include the sense of 'she is my sole surviving offspring, in whom I have centred all my hopes.' 30. Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light. One of the commentators pronounces this to be "nonsense," while another observes that he will "not say it is absolute nonsense,' At my poor house, look to behold this night but thinks it "very absurd." As a poetical hyperbole may it not bear the excellent sense of 'mortal ladies, brilliant as stars, that make night as bright as day?' 31. Inherit. Here used in the sense of 'possess,' 'have.' See Note 18, Act iv., "Tempest." 32. Such, amongst view of many, mine, &c. This is the reading of the 1597 Quarto; which we have adopted as being less obscure than that of the Folio and the other Quartos. Our interpretation of the passage is 'My daughter being one among many such ["earth-treading stars" and "fresh female buds," as I have described, and whom you will see there, she may stand in the number of them, though she may not be counted by you as "her whose merit most shall be."" May stand in number, though in reckoning none. My house and welcome on their pleasure stay. Enter BENVOLIO and ROMEO. Ben. Tut, man, one fire burns out another's One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish ; Rom. Your plantain leaf 35 is excellent for that. Shut up in prison, kept without my food, 33. The shoemaker should meddle with his yard, and the tailor with his last. "Yard" means 'yard-wand,' 'yardmeasure.' See Note 104, Act ii., "First Part Henry IV." The present passage affords a specimen of that kind of blundering joke which Shakespeare amuses himself with putting into the mouths of his clown-characters. See Note 36, Act iv., "Midsummer Night's Dream." The servant of the present scene is styled 'the clown' in the old copies. 34. In good time. 'Opportunely,' 'appositely.' 31, Act i., "Two Gentlemen of Verona." See Note 35. Your plantain leaf, &c. An example of the irrelevant jesting which was a favourite kind of fun with Shakespeare. See Note 30, Act i., First Part Henry IV." 36. For your broken shin. See Note 16, Act iii., "Love's Labour's Lost." Rom. Indeed, I should have ask'd you that before. Serv. Now I'll tell you without asking: my Ben. At this same ancient feast of Capulet's Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars! Ben. Tut, you saw her fair, none else being by, Montagues than the Capulets. See, in Note 63 of this Act, the quotation from Painter's " Palace of Pleasure;" where Mercutio is described as "wel beloved of al men and in al companies wel intertained." 39. My fair niece Rosaline. This is the point in the play which testifies that Romeo's first fancy, Rosaline, is a member of the Capulet family. 40. To supper. These words, in the old copies, are made to form part of the previous speech; but they seem to belong to the servant rather than to Romeo. Theobald made the correction. 41. Crush a cup of wine. A convivial phrase in familiar use formerly, equivalent to the modern one of 'crack a bottle.' 42. And these,- who, often drown'd. "Who," is here used for 'which,' in reference to 'eyes' as implied in "eye.” 43. That crystal scales. Here "scales" is used as a noun 37. Bound more than a madman is. See Note 64, Act iii., singular; as if it were 'a pair of scales' or a 'balance." "Twelfth Night." 38. Mercutio and his brother Valentine. It is noteworthy that Mercutio here figures among the invited guests in Capulet's list for his feast, although we find him always associating with the young men of the Montague family. He is the prince's "kinsman ;" and in this capacity it may be supposed that he is on terms of acquaintance with both the rival houses, although evidently having greater intimacy with and more liking for the 44. Your lady's love. It has been plausibly suggested that this is a misprint for 'your lady-love;' but it is possible that "your lady's love" may mean the small amount of love borne you by your lady.' Romeo has before told Benvolio that "she hath forsworn to love;" and it may be that, in Shakespeare's elliptical style, the passage means 'let there be weighed the little love your lady bears you against the charms of some other maid,' &c. This is the 47. Lammas-tide. Lammas-day is the 1st of August. 48. 'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years. line which suggested to Tyrrwhitt his surmise respecting the date when Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" was written; a surmise that we mentioned in our opening Note of the present play. That our author alluded to an event so noted in popular remembrance as the earthquake of 1580 we think most probable; but that the allusion contains precise particularisation of period when the event occurred in connection with the writing of the play, we doubt. A dramatist so skilled as Shakespeare would not, we think, thus register a particular so subject to fluctuation as a date; for what would be an eleven years' interval when he wrote might become a twelve years' interval when the play was put upon the stage, and would certainly become an altogether accurate interval by the time the play had been performed during many seasons. Thus, what was intended as a telling point would in the course of a few months lose all meaning. appears to us that the "eleven years" in this line is simply a step by which the old nurse helps herself to retrace the age of her foster-child; she recalls the date of its birth, by recalling It 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, On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen; That shall she, marry; I remember it well. 'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years;48 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 :49—but, as I said, When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple Of my dug, and felt it bitter, pretty fool,50 To see it tetchy, and fall out with the dug! Shake, quoth the dove-house: 'twas 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,51 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,53 and said “Ay." that of its weaning; and it must be remembered,- -as a proof of Shakespeare's fidelity to truth even in such nursery matters as these, that weaning among Italians takes place at a much later epoch in a child's life than it does among English children. It is no uncommon thing in Italy, even at the present day, to see a child of two or three years old running after its mother and tugging at her skirts to claim its wonted refection. It suited Shakespeare, in the string of characteristic pottering garrulity which he has put into the nurse's mouth here, that the nursling should be able to "stand alone" and toddle about; and therefore he availed himself of the Italian custom to give a more vividly local colouring, as well as to depict the mode in which such minds as the nurse's usually contrive to record facts and epochs. 49. I do bear a brain. An idiomatic phrase formerly in use, equivalent to 'I have my wits about me,' 'I have a memory.' 50. Pretty fool. Example of the word "fool" used as an expression of fondling and tenderness. See Note 63, Act v., "Twelfth Night." 51. By the rood. See Note 16, Act iii., Henry IV." 52. "Second Part Wretch. Sometimes, as here, used as a term of affection. See Note 8, Act iii., "Third Part Henry VI." 53. Stinted. 'Stopped,'' desisted.' Chaucer uses the word in one of his loveliest passages, de cribing the nightingale "that stinteth first, when she beginneth sing," if she hear any noise near. Nurse. Peace, I have done, God mark thee to his grace! 59 La. Cap. Enough of this; I pray thee, hold thy This precious book of love, this unbound lover,58 Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nurs'd: La. Cap. Marry, that marry is the very theme 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,54 Are made already mothers: by my count, Nurse. A man, young lady! lady, such a man As all the world 55-why, he's a man of wax, 56 La. Cap. Verona's summer hath not such a flower. This night you shall behold him at our feast; 54. Younger than you, here in Verona, &c. This is again a touch of truth to national habits. In Italy it is no very uncommon event for girls of fourteen and fifteen to become matrons. 55. Such a man as all the world. Example of the inconsecutive construction by which Shakespeare sometimes gives characteristic effect to his speeches. See Note 81, Act ii., "Henry V." 56. A man of wax. 'A man as shapely and well-made as if he had been modelled in wax.' It has been pointed out that Shakespeare had classical warrant for this expression; inasmuch as Horace uses the term, "Cerca brachia," waxen arms, to denote well-moulded or well-shaped arms. 57. Find written in the margin. Comments, and abstract explanations of the arguments in the text, were printed in the margin of ancient books. 58. This unbound lover. The epithet "unbound" affords a play on the book without a binding and the young man without a marriage tie. 59. A cover. In double reference to the cover of a book and to the technical legal term 'coverture,' which signifies marriage subsistent. The term is legally applied to a woman's marriage; from the old French law term, femme couverte, meaning a woman sheltered by marriage under her husband. 65. The fish lives in the sea. The speaker means to say, the fish is not yet caught which is to supply this "cover' or 'coverture.' Formerly fish-skin was occasionally used for bindings to books; and the bride who is to be bound in marriage with Paris has not yet been won. Lady Capulet proceeds to urge that it would be a pride for some fair girl to form the ornament of so fair a youth; since many a book richly ornamented Jul. I'll look to like, if looking liking move: But no more deep will I endart mine eye Than your consent gives strength to make it fly. Enter a Servant. Serv. Madam, the guests are come, supper 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. [Exit Servant.]— Juliet, the county stays,62 Nurse. Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days. [Exeunt. 62. The county stays. "County" is an old form of 'count.' See Note 115, Act i., "Twelfth Night." 63. Mercutio. In the version of the story of Romeo and Juliet contained in Painter's "Palace of Pleasure," 1567, there is mention made of "another gentleman, called Mercutio, which was a courtlike gentleman, very wel beloved of all men, and by reason of his pleasant and curteous behavior was in al companies wel intertained." From this slender indication, what an admirable completion of character has Shakespeare formed! 64 The date is out of such prolixity. It was the custom formerly for those who came to an entertainment masked, either for the purpose of preserving their incognito or for the sake of temporarily puzzling their entertainers as to their identity, to precede their entrance by an address spoken to propitiate the host or hostess, in which lavish praise of the entertainers and elaborate compliment to the beauty of the lady-guests formed a large part. Shakespeare has shown this custom elsewhere, by making the king, in "Henry VIII.," Act i., sc. 4, come masked and preceded by an announcer; while in "Timon of Athens," Act i., sc. 2, a troop of ladies, wearing visors, are marshalled in by Cupid as their herald. Also, in "Love's Labour's Lost," Act v., sc. 2, where the King of Navarre and his masked companions are ushered in by Moth and his attempted oration. |