Dearpage
en

Romeo and JulietPart 26

Part 26

  1. Them. S. makes news both singular and plural. For the latter, cf. Much Ado, i. 2. 4.

  2. Give me leave. Let me alone, let me rest. See on i. 3. 7 above.

  3. Ache. Spelt "ake" in the folio both here and in 49 below. This indicates the pronunciation of the verb. The noun was pronounced aitch, and the plural was a dissyllable; as in Temp. i. 2. 370, T. of A. i. 1. 257, etc.

  4. Stay the circumstance. Wait for the particulars. Cf. A.Y.L. iii.

  5. 221: "let me stay the growth of his beard," etc. On circumstance, cf. v. 3. 181 below: "without circumstance" (= without further particulars). See also V. and A. 844, Ham. v. 2. 2, etc.

  6. Simple. Silly; as often. Cf. iii. 1. 35 below, and simpleness in iii. 3. 77.

  7. Past compare. Cf. iii. 5. 236 below: "above compare," etc.

  8. As. As if; a common ellipsis.

  9. O' t'other. On the other. Cf. i. 1. 44 above: "of our side."

  10. Beshrew. A mild form of imprecation, often used playfully. Cf. iii. 5. 221, 227 below.

56-58. Your love, etc. Printed as prose by the Cambridge editors, Daniel, and some others.

  1. Coil. Ado, "fuss." See Much Ado, iii. 3. 100, M.N.D. iii. 2. 339, etc.

  2. Straight at any news. Capell explains it, "at such talk (of love and Romeo), any talk of that kind." Perhaps, as Dowden suggests, the meaning is, "It is their way to redden at any surprise."

SCENE VI.--9. These violent delights, etc. Malone compares R. of L. 894: "These violent vanities can never last." He might have added Ham. ii. 1. 102:--

"This is the very ecstasy of love, Whose violent property fordoes itself."

  1. Like fire and powder. For the simile, cf. iii. 3. 132 and v. 1. 64 below.

  2. His. Its; as often. Its was just coming into use when S. wrote. Cf. v. 3. 203 below.

  3. Confounds. Destroys; as often. Cf. Macb. ii. 2. 12, iv. 1. 54, iv. 3. 99, etc. So confusion often = destruction, ruin; as in iv. 5. 61 below.

  4. Too swift, etc. "The more haste, the worse speed."

  5. Will ne'er wear out, etc. White thinks that the reading of the 1st quarto, "So light a foot ne'er hurts the trodden flower," is "a daintier and more graceful, and therefore, it would seem, a more appropriate figure." The quarto, it is true, gives the "daintier" figure, which has been used by the poets from Pope's description of Camilla flying "o'er the unbending corn" to Tennyson's Olivia in The Talking Oak:--

"The flower she touch'd on dipt and rose, And turn'd to look at her."

It would be appropriate in the Friar's mouth if he were in the fields, as in ii. 3, and Juliet had met him there. Very likely S. at first wrote it as in the quarto, but his poetic instinct led him to change it in revising the play. The speaker is now in his cell, with its stone floor worn by the tread of many heavy feet--such as one sees in old churches and monasteries in Europe--but Juliet's light step will not thus wear "the everlasting flint." The comparison is natural and apt.

  1. Gossamer. Light filaments floating in the air, especially in autumn. Their origin was formerly not understood, but they are now known to be the webs of certain species of spiders. Cf. Lear, iv. 6. 49: "Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air." S. uses the word only twice.

  2. Vanity. "Here used for 'trivial pursuit,' 'vain delight.' The word was much used in this sense by divines in Shakespeare's time, and with much propriety is so put into the good old Friar's mouth" (Clarke).

  3. Confessor. For the accent on the first syllable, cf. M. for M. iv. 3. 133: "One of our covent and his confessor;" and Hen. VIII. i.

  4. 149: "His confessor, who fed him every minute," etc. See also iii. 3. 49 below.

  5. And that. And if. This use of that (in place of a preceding conjunction) is common in S. Cf. L. L. L. v. 2. 813, T. and C. ii. 2. 179, etc.

  6. Blazon it. Set it forth. Cf. Oth. ii. 1. 63: "One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens," etc.

  7. Encounter. Meeting. It is often used, as here, of the meeting of lovers. Cf. Much Ado, iii. 3. 161, iv. 1. 94, M.W. iii. 5. 74, etc.

  8. Conceit. Conception, imagination. Cf. Ham. iii. 4. 114: "Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works," etc. So conceited = imaginative in R. of L. 1371: "the conceited painter," etc.

  9. They are but beggars, etc. Cf. A. and C. i. 1. 15: "There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd." Worth = wealth.

  10. Leaves. The plural is used because the reference is to more than one person; a common construction in S. Cf. Rich. II. iv. 1. 314: "your sights," etc.

ACT III

SCENE I.--2. The day is hot. "It is observed that in Italy almost all assassinations are committed during the heat of summer" (Johnson).

  1. Scape. Not "'scape," as often printed. The word is used in prose; as in M. of V. ii. 2. 174, etc.

  2. Me. See on ii. 4. 23 above. We have the same construction in him, two lines below, where some eds. have "it" (from 1st quarto).

  3. Operation. Effect. Cf. 2 Hen. IV. iv. 3. 104: "A good sherris-sack hath a twofold operation in it," etc.

  4. Am I, etc. "The quietness of this retort, with the slight but significant emphasis which we imagine thrown upon the I, admirably gives point to the humorous effect of Mercutio's lecturing Benvolio--the sedate and peace-making Benvolio, and lectured by Mercutio, of all people!--for the sin of quarrelsomeness" (Clarke).

  5. Jack. See on ii. 4. 127 above.

  6. Moody. Angry. Cf. 2 Hen. IV. iv. 4. 39: "But, being moody, give him line and scope," etc.

  7. Tutor me from. Teach me to avoid.

  8. Good den. See on i. 2. 57 above.

  9. Apt enough to. Ready enough for. Cf. iii. 3. 157 below.

  10. Consort'st with. Keepest company with. Cf. V. and A. 1041, M.N.D. iii. 2. 387, T. and C. v. 3. 9, etc.

  11. Consort. The word (with accent on first syllable) sometimes meant a company of musicians. Cf. T.G. of V. iii. 2. 84:--

"Visit by night your lady's chamber-window With some sweet consort; to their instruments Tune a deploring dump," etc.

See also 2 Hen. VI. iii. 2. 327. In these passages the modern eds. generally read "concert." Milton has consort in the same sense in the Ode at a Solemn Musick, 27:--

"O, may we soon again renew that song, And keep in tune with Heaven, till God ere long To his celestial consort us unite, To live with him, and sing in endless morn of light!"

Cf. Ode on Nativ. 132: "Make up full consort to the angelic symphony;" Il Pens. 145: "With such consort as they keep," etc. "The consorts of S.'s time were not only concerted music, but generally composed of such instruments as belonged to one family. If, for example, only viols were employed, the consort was called whole, but if virginal, lute, or flute came into the combination, it was a broken consort, or broken music" (Elson). Cf. A.Y.L. i. 2. 150, etc.

  1. Zounds. Like 'swounds (see Ham. ii. 2. 604), an oath contracted from "God's wounds!" and generally omitted or changed in the folio in deference to the statute of James I. against the use of the name of God on the stage. Here the folio has "Come."

  2. Reason coldly. Talk coolly or dispassionately. Cf. M. of V. ii.

  3. 27: "I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday;" and Much Ado, iii. 2. 132: "bear it coldly but till midnight," etc.

"Benvolio presents a triple alternative: either to withdraw to a private place, or to discuss the matter quietly where they were, or else to part company; and it is supremely in character that on such an occasion he should perceive and suggest all these methods of avoiding public scandal" (White).

  1. Depart. Perhaps = part. Cf. 3 Hen. VI. ii. 6. 43: "A deadly groan, like life and death's departing," etc. So depart with = part with; as in K. John, ii. 1. 563:--

"John, to stop Arthur's title in the whole, Hath willingly departed with a part," etc.

In the Marriage Ceremony "till death us do part" was originally "us depart." The word is used in the same sense in Wiclif's Bible, Matthew, xix. 6. On the other hand, part often = depart; as in T.N. v. 1. 394, Cor. v. 6. 73, T. of A. iv. 2. 21, etc.

  1. I. The repetition of the pronoun at the end of the sentence is common in S. Cf. T.G. of V. v. 4. 132: "I care not for her, I;" Rich. III. iii. 2. 78: "I do not like these several councils, I;" T.A. v.

  2. 113: "I am no vaunter, I;" Id. v. 3. 185: "I am no baby, I," etc. See also iii. 5. 12 below.

  3. The hate I bear thee. The reading of 1st quarto. The other early eds. have "love"; but Tybalt is not given to irony.

  4. Love. Delius says that this "is of course ironical," but the reiteration in the next speech shows that it is not. Romeo's love for Juliet embraces, in a way, all her kindred. His heart, as Talfourd expresses it in Ion,--

"Enlarge'd by its new sympathy with one, Grew bountiful to all."

  1. Appertaining rage, etc. That is, the rage appertaining to (belonging to, or becoming) such a greeting. Cf. Macb. iii. 6. 48:--

"our suffering country Under a hand accurst."

  1. Boy. Often used contemptuously; as in Much Ado. v. 1. 83, 187, Cor. v. 6. 101, 104, 117, etc.

  2. Tender. Regard, cherish. Cf. Ham. i. 3. 107: "Tender yourself more dearly," etc.

  3. A la stoccata. Capell's emendation of the "Alla stucatho" or "Allastucatho" of the early eds. Stoccata is the Italian term for a thrust or stab with a rapier. It is the same as the "stoccado" of M.W. ii. 1. 234, the "stock" of Id. ii. 3. 26, and the "stuck" of T.N. iii. 4. 303 and Ham. iv. 7. 162. Carries it away = carries the day.

  4. King of cats. See on ii. 4. 20 above. On nine lives, cf. Marston, Dutch Courtezan: "Why then thou hast nine lives like a cat," etc. A little black-letter book, Beware the Cat, 1584, says that it was permitted to a witch "to take on her a cattes body nine times." Trusler, in his Hogarth Moralized, remarks: "The conceit of a cat's having nine lives hath cost at least nine lives in ten of the whole race of them. Scarce a boy in the streets but has in this point outdone even Hercules himself, who was renowned for killing a monster that had but three lives."

  5. Dry-beat. Beat soundly. Cf. L. L. L. v. 2. 263: "all dry-beaten with pure scoff." See also iv. 5. 120 below. S. uses the word only three times; but we have "dry basting" in C. of E. ii. 2. 64.

  6. Pilcher. Scabbard; but no other example of the word in this sense has been found. Pilch or pilche meant a leathern coat, and the word or a derivative of it may have been applied to the leathern sheath of a rapier.

  7. Passado. See on ii. 4. 27 above.

  8. Outrage. A trisyllable here. Cf. entrance in i. 4. 8.

  9. Bandying. Contending. Cf. 1 Hen. VI. iv. 1. 190: "This factious bandying of their favourites." For the literal sense, see on ii. 5. 14 above.

  10. The 1st quarto has here the stage-direction, "Tibalt under Romeos arme thrusts Mercutio in and flyes;" which some modern eds. retain substantially.

  11. Sped. Dispatched, "done for." Cf. M. of V. ii. 9. 72: "So begone; you are sped;" T. of S. v. 2. 185: "We three are married, but you two are sped," etc. See also Milton, Lycidas, 122: "What need they? They are sped" (that is, provided for).

  12. Grave. Farmer cites Lydgate's Elegy on Chaucer: "My master Chaucer now is grave;" and Steevens remarks that we have the same quibble in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1608, where Vindice dresses up a lady's skull and says: "she has a somewhat grave look with her." Cf. John of Gaunt's play on his name when on his death-bed (Rich. II. ii.

  13. 82).

  14. Fights by the book of arithmetic. Cf. ii. 4. 22 above: "keeps time, distance," etc.

  15. Your houses! "The broken exclamation of a dying man, who has not breath to repeat his former anathema, 'A plague o' both your houses!'" (Marshall).

Page 1 of 9

DP
Domínio Público
Public Books·—
0

Comments (0)

Sign in to leave a comment.
  • No comments yet. Start the conversation.