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Romeo and JulietPart 31

Part 31

"Receiue this vyoll small and keepe it as thine eye; And on the mariage day, before the sunne doe cleare the skye, Fill it with water full vp to the very brim, Then drinke it of, and thou shalt feele throughout eche vayne and lim A pleasant slumber slide, and quite dispred at length On all thy partes, from euery part reue all thy kindly strength; Withouten mouing thus thy ydle parts shall rest, No pulse shall goe, ne hart once beate within thy hollow brest, But thou shalt lye as she that dyeth in a traunce: Thy kinsmen and thy trusty frendes shall wayle the sodain chaunce; The corps then will they bring to graue in this church yarde, Where thy forefathers long agoe a costly tombe preparde, Both for them selfe and eke for those that should come after,[7] Both deepe it is, and long and large, where thou shalt rest, my daughter, Till I to Mantua sende for Romeus, thy knight; Out of the tombe both he and I will take thee forth that night."

  1. Surcease. Cf. R. of L. 1766: "If they surcease to be that should survive;" and Cor. iii. 2. 121: "Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth." For the noun, see Macb. i. 7. 74.

  2. Paly. Cf. Hen. V. iv. chor. 8: "paly flames;" and 2 Hen. VI. iii. 2. 141: "his paly lips."

  3. Two and forty hours. It is difficult to make this period agree with the time of the events that follow. Maginn would read "two and fifty hours;" and "two and thirty" has been suggested, which is more in accordance with the dates given in the play. In iv. 1. 90 the Friar says to Juliet:--

"Wednesday is to-morrow: To-morrow night look that thou lie alone," etc.

[Footnote 7: For the rhyme of after and daughter, cf. T. of S. i.

  1. 245, 246, W.T. iv. 1. 27, 28, and Lear, i. 4. 341, 344.]

This agrees with the preceding dates. The conversation in iii. 4 is late on Monday evening (cf. lines 5 and 18), and Lady Capulet's talk with Juliet about marrying Paris (iii. 5. 67 fol.) is early the next (Tuesday) morning. The visit to the Friar is evidently on the same day; and the next scene (iv. 2) is in the evening of that day. Juliet comes home and tells her father that she has been to the Friar's, and is ready to marry Paris. The old man at once decides to have the wedding "to-morrow morning" (that is, Wednesday) instead of Thursday. Lady Capulet objects, but finally yields to her husband's persistency; and so Juliet goes to her chamber, and drinks the potion on Tuesday evening, or twenty-four hours earlier than the Friar had directed. He of course is notified of the change in the time for the wedding, as he is to perform the ceremony, and will understand that Juliet has anticipated the time of taking the potion, and that she will wake on Thursday morning instead of Friday. If so, instead of extending the "two and forty hours," as Maginn does, we need rather to shorten the interval. We may suppose the time of v. 3 to be as early as three o'clock in the morning. It is summer, and before daylight. Paris and Romeo come with torches, and the Friar with a lantern. Romeo tells his servant to deliver the letter to his father "early in the morning." The night watchmen are still on duty. Since we can hardly send Juliet to bed before nine in the evening on Tuesday, thirty hours is the most that can be allowed for the interval, unless we add another day and accept the fifty-two of Maginn. But this does not seem required by anything in act v.--not even by the "two days buried" of v. 3. 176, for Thursday would be the second day that she had lain in the tomb. The marriage was to be early on Wednesday morning, and the funeral took its place. Balthasar "presently took post" (v. 1. 21) to tell the news to Romeo at Mantua, less than twenty-five miles distant. He arrives before evening (cf. v. 1. 4: "all this day," which indicates the time), and Romeo at once says, "I will hence to-night." He has ample time to make his preparations and to reach Verona before two o'clock the next morning. He has been at the tomb only half an hour or so (v. 3. 130) before the Friar comes. It must have been near midnight (see v. 2. 23) when Friar John returned to Laurence's cell; so that, even if he had not been despatched to Mantua until that morning, he would have had time to go and return, but for his unexpected detention. I see no difficulty, therefore, in assuming that the drama closes on Thursday morning; the difficulty would be in prolonging the time to the next morning without making the action drag.

  1. In thy best robes, etc. The Italian custom here alluded to, of carrying the dead body to the grave richly dressed and with the face uncovered (which is not mentioned by Paynter), S. found particularly described in Romeus and Juliet:--

"Now throughout Italy this common vse they haue, That all the best of euery stocke are earthed in one graue;

An other vse there is, that whosoeuer dyes, Borne to their church with open face vpon the beere he lyes, In wonted weede attyrde, not wrapt in winding sheete."

Cf. Ham. iv. 5. 164: "They bore him barefac'd on the bier." Knight remarks that thus the maids and matrons of Italy are still carried to the tomb; and he quotes Rogers, Italy:--

"And lying on her funeral couch, Like one asleep, her eyelids closed, her hands Folded together on her modest breast As 'twere her nightly posture, through the crowd She came at last--and richly, gaily clad, As for a birthday feast."

  1. Drift. Scheme. Cf. ii. 3. 55 above.

  2. Inconstant toy. Fickle freak or caprice. Cf. Ham. i. 3. 5: "a fashion and a toy in blood;" Id. 1. 4. 75: "toys of desperation;" Oth. iii. 4. 156: "no jealous toy," etc. Inconstant toy and womanish fear are both from Brooke's poem:--

"Cast of from thee at once the weede of womannish dread, With manly courage arme thy selfe from heele vnto the head;

God graunt he so confirme in thee thy present will, That no inconstant toy thee let [hinder] thy promesse to fulfill."

  1. Give me, give me! Cf. Macb. i. 3. 5: "'Give me,' quoth I."

SCENE II.--2. Twenty cunning cooks. Ritson says: "Twenty cooks for half a dozen guests! Either Capulet has altered his mind strangely, or S. forgot what he had just made him tell us" (iii. 4. 27). But, as Knight remarks, "Capulet is evidently a man of ostentation; but his ostentation, as is most generally the case, is covered with a thin veil of indifference." Cf. i. 5. 124: "We have a trifling foolish banquet towards."

According to an entry in the books of the Stationers' Company for 1560, the preacher was paid six shillings and twopence for his labour; the minstrel, twelve shillings; and the cook, fifteen shillings. But, as Ben Jonson tells us, a master cook is--

"a man of men For a professor; he designs, he draws, He paints, he carves, he builds, he fortifies, Makes citadels of curious fowl and fish.

He is an architect, an engineer, A soldier, a physician, a philosopher, A general mathematician."

  1. 'Tis an ill cook, etc. Cf. Puttenham, Arte of English Poesie, 1589:--

"As the old cocke crowes so doeth the chick: A bad cooke that cannot his owne fingers lick."

  1. Harlotry. S. uses the noun only in this concrete sense: literally in Oth. iv. 2. 239; and in a loose contemptuous way, as here (= silly wench), in 1 Hen. IV. iii. 1. 198: "a peevish, self-willed harlotry, one that no persuasion can do good upon." For peevish = foolish, childish, cf. A.Y.L. iii. 5. 110, M.W. i. 4. 14, etc.

  2. Learn'd me. Taught myself, learned; not elsewhere used reflexively by S. Cf. iii. 2. 12 above.

  3. In disobedient opposition. This line has but two regular accents, the others being metrical. See p. 159 above. Opposition has five syllables.

  4. Becomed. Becoming. Cf. "lean-look'd" = lean-looking in Rich. II. ii. 4. 11, "well-spoken" in Rich. III. i. 3. 348, etc. We still say "well-behaved."

  5. Closet. Chamber; as in Ham. ii. 1. 77, iii. 2. 344, iii. 3. 27, etc. Cf. Matthew, vi. 6.

  6. Sort. Select. Cf. iii. 5. 108 above.

  7. Short in our provision. Very feminine and housewifely! Cf. Lear, ii. 4. 208:--

"I am now from home, and out of that provision Which shall be needful for your entertainment."

  1. Deck up her. Such transpositions are not rare in S. The 1st quarto has "prepare up him" in 45 just below.

SCENE III.--5. Cross. Perverse. Cf. Hen. VIII. iii. 2. 214:--

"what cross devil Made me put this main secret in the packet I sent the king?"

  1. Behoveful. Befitting; used by S. nowhere else.

  2. Thrills. The ellipsis is somewhat peculiar from the fact that the relative is expressed in the next line. We should expect "thrilling" or "And almost."

  3. Lie thou there. See on iv. 1. 54 above. Moreover, as Steevens notes, knives, or daggers, were part of the accoutrements of a bride. Cf. Dekker, Match me in London: "See at my girdle hang my wedding knives!" and King Edward III., 1599: "Here by my side do hang my wedding knives," etc. Dyce remarks that the omission of the word knife "is peculiarly awkward, as Juliet has been addressing the vial just before;" but S. wrote for the stage, where the action would make the reference perfectly clear.

  4. Because he married me, etc. A "female" line with two extra syllables; like v. 3. 256 below. See p. 158 above.

  5. Tried. Proved; as in J.C. iv. 1. 28, Ham. i. 3. 62, etc.

  6. Healthsome. Wholesome; used by S. only here.

  7. Like. Likely; as often.

  8. As in a vault, etc. As is here = to wit, namely. Cf. Ham. i.

  9. 25, etc.

Steevens thinks that this passage may have been suggested to S. by the ancient charnel-house (now removed) adjoining the chancel of Stratford church; but that was merely a receptacle for bones from old graves and disused tombs, while the reference here is to a family tomb still in regular use, where the body of Tybalt has just been deposited, and as Juliet knows that she also will be when supposed to be dead. S. was of course familiar with such tombs or vaults.

Receptacle. For the accent on the first syllable, cf. T.A. i. 1. 92: "O sacred receptacle of my joys!" So also in Per. iv. 6. 186; the only other instance of the word in S.

  1. Green. Fresh, recent; as in Ham. i. 2. 2, etc.

  2. Festering. Corrupting; as in Hen. V. iv. 3. 88 and Sonn. 94.

  4. Mandrakes'. The plant Atropa mandragora (cf. Oth. iii. 3. 130 and A. and C. i. 5. 4, where it is called "mandragora"), the root of which was thought to resemble the human figure, and when torn from the earth to utter shrieks which drove those mad who heard them. Cf. 2 Hen. VI. iii. 2. 310: "Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groans," etc. Coles, in his Art of Simpling, says that witches "take likewise the roots of mandrake, ... and make thereof an ugly image, by which they represent the person on whom they intend to exercise their witchcraft." The plant was of repute also in medicine, as a soporific (see the passages noted above in which it is called mandragora) and for sundry other purposes. Sir Thomas More observes that "Mandragora is an herbe, as phisycions saye, that causeth folke to slepe, and therein to have many mad fantastical dreames." How the root could be got without danger is explained by Bullein, in his Bulwark of Defence against Sicknesse, 1575: "Therefore they did tye some dogge or other lyving beast unto the roote thereof wythe a corde, and digged the earth in compasse round about, and in the meane tyme stopped their own eares for feare of the terreble shriek and cry of this Mandrack. In whych cry it doth not only dye it selfe, but the feare thereof kylleth the dogge or beast which pulleth it out of the earth."

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