Shakespeare's Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (best book series to read txt) π
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In his reply the Friar asks:β
122. Wit. See on i. 4. 47 above.
127. Digressing. Deviating, departing. It is = transgressing in Rich. II. v. 3. 66: "thy digressing son."
132. Like powder, etc. See on ii. 6. 10 above. Steevens remarks: "The ancient English soldiers, using match-locks instead of flints, were obliged to carry a lighted match hanging at their belts, very near to the wooden flask in which they kept their powder."
134. And thou, etc. And thou torn to pieces with thine own means of defence.
144. Pout'st upon. Cf. Cor. v. 1. 52: "We pout upon the morning."
151. Blaze. Make public. Cf. blazon in ii. 6. 26 above, and emblaze in 2 Hen. VI. iv. 10. 76.
154. Lamentation. Metrically five syllables.
157. Apt unto. Inclined to, ready for. Cf. iii. 1. 32 above.
166. Here stands, etc. "The whole of your fortune depends on this" (Johnson). Cf. ii. 3. 93 and ii. 4. 34 above.
171. Good hap. Piece of good luck. Cf. ii. 2. 190 above.
174. So brief to part. To part so soon.
Scene IV.β11. Mew'd up. Shut up. Cf. T of S. i. 1. 87, 188, etc. Mew originally meant to moult, or shed the feathers; and as hawks were then shut up, it got the secondary sense it has here.
12. Desperate. Overbold, venturesome.
23. Keep no great ado. Elsewhere in S. the phrase is, as now, make ado. Cf. T.G. of V. iv. 4. 31, 1 Hen. IV. ii. 4. 223, Hen. VIII. v. 3. 159, etc.
25. Held him carelessly. Cf. 3 Hen. VI. ii. 2. 109: "I hold thee reverently;" Id. ii. 1. 102: "held thee dearly," etc.
28. And there an end. Cf. T.G. of V. i. 3. 65, ii. 1. 168, Rich. II. v. 1. 69, etc.
32. Against. Cf. iv. 1. 113 below: "against thou shalt awake."
34. Afore me. "By my life, by my soul" (Schmidt). Cf. Per. ii. 1. 84: "Now, afore me, a handsome fellow!" So before me, as in T.N. ii. 3. 194, Oth. iv. 1. 149, etc.
35. By and by. Presently. See on ii. 2. 151 above.
Scene V.βJuliet's Chamber. The scene is variously given by the editors as "The Garden," "Anti-room of Juliet's Chamber," "Loggia to Juliet's Chamber," "An open Gallery to Juliet's Chamber overlooking the Orchard," "Juliet's Bedchamber; a Window open upon the Balcony," "Capulet's Orchard," etc. As Malone remarks, Romeo and Juliet probably appeared in the balcony at the rear of the old English stage. "The scene in the poet's eye was doubtless the large and massy projecting balcony before one or more windows, common in Italian palaces and not unfrequent in Gothic civil architecture. The loggia, an open gallery, or high terrace [see cut on p. 85], communicating with the upper apartments of a palace, is a common feature in Palladian architecture, and would also be well adapted to such a scene" (Verplanck).
4. Nightly. It is said that the nightingale, if undisturbed, sits and sings upon the same tree for many weeks together (Steevens). This is because the male bird sings near where the female is sitting. "The preference of the nightingale for the pomegranate is unquestionable. 'The nightingale sings from the pomegranate groves in the daytime,' says Russel in his account of Aleppo. A friend ... informs us that throughout his journeys in the East he never heard such a choir of nightingales as in a row of pomegranate-trees that skirt the road from Smyrna to Boudjia" (Knight).
8. Lace. Cf. Macb. ii. 3. 118: "His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood;" Cymb. ii. 2. 22:β
See on ii. 4. 44 above. We have the word used literally in Much Ado, iii. 4. 20: "laced with silver." On the severing clouds, cf. J.C. ii. 1. 103:β
and Much Ado, v. 3. 25: "Dapples the drowsy east with spots of grey."
9. Night's candles, etc. Cf. Macb. ii. 1. 5.: "Their candles are all out." See also M. of V. v. 1. 220 and Sonn. 21. 12.
13. Some meteor, etc. Cf. 1 Hen. IV. ii. 4. 351: "My lord, do you see these meteors? do you behold these exhalations?" and Id. v. 1. 19: "an exhal'd meteor."
14. Torch-bearer. See on i. 4. 11 above.
19. Yon grey. See on ii. 4. 44 above.
20. The pale reflex of Cynthia's brow. That is, the pale light of the moon shining through or reflected from the breaking clouds Brow is put for face, as in M.N.D. v. 1. 11: "Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt," etc. Some critics have thought that a setting moon was meant; but only a rising moon could light up "the severing clouds" in the way described. The reflection (if we take reflex in that literal sense) is from their edges, as the light from behind falls upon them. Have these critics never seenβ
when the moon was behind it?
21. Nor that is not. Double negatives are common in S.
22. The vaulty heaven. Cf. K. John, v. 2. 52: "the vaulty top of heaven;" and R. of L. 119: "her vaulty prison" (that is, Night's).
29. Division. "The breaking of a melody, or its descant, into small notes. The modern musician would call it variation" (Elson). Cf. 1 Hen. IV. iii. 1. 210:β
The word is a quadrisyllable here.
31. The lark, etc. The toad having beautiful eyes, and the lark very ugly ones, it was a popular tradition that they had changed eyes. (Warburton).
33. Affray. Startle from sleep; as Chaucer in Blaunche the Duchess (296) is affrayed out of his sleep by "smale foules" (Dowden).
34. Hunt's-up. The tune played to wake and collect the hunters (Steevens). Cf. Drayton, Polyolbion: "But hunts-up to the morn the feather'd sylvans sing;" and again in Third Eclogue: "Time plays the hunts-up to thy sleepy head." We have the full form in T.A. ii. 2. 1: "The hunt is up, the morn is bright and grey." The term was also applied to any morning song, and especially one to a new-married woman. Cotgrave (ed. 1632) defines resveil as "a Hunts-up, or morning song, for a new-maried wife, the day after the mariage."
43. My lord, etc. From 1st quarto; the other quartos and 1st folio have "love, Lord, ay husband, friend," for which Dowden reads: "love-lord, ay, husband-friend." Friend was sometimes = lover; as in Much Ado, v. 2. 72, Oth. iv. 1. 3, A. and C. iii. 12. 22, Cymb. i. 4. 74, etc. Cf. Brooke's poem, where Juliet referring to Romeo, says:β
and of their parting the poet says:β
44. Day in the hour. The hyperbole is explained by what follows.
53. I have an ill-divining soul. "This miserable prescience of futurity I have always regarded as a circumstance particularly beautiful. The same kind of warning from the mind Romeo seems to have been conscious of, on his going to the entertainment at the house of Capulet" (Steevens). See i. 4. 48 and 103 fol. above.
54. Below. From 1st quarto; the other early eds. have "so lowe," which is preferred by some of the modern editors.
58. Dry sorrow drinks our blood. An allusion to the old notion that sorrow and sighing exhaust the blood. Cf. M.N.D. iii. 2. 97, Ham. iv. 7. 123, Much Ado, iii. 1. 78, etc.
65. Down. Lying down, abed (Dowden).
66. Procures her. Leads her to come. Cf. ii. 2. 145 above. See also M.W. iv. 6. 48: "procure the vicar To stay for me," etc.
67. Why, how now, Juliet! Mrs. Jameson remarks: "In the dialogue between Juliet and her parents, and in the scenes with the Nurse, we seem to have before us the whole of her previous education and habits: we see her, on the one hand, kept in severe subjection by her austere parents; and, on the other, fondled and spoiled by a foolish old nurseβa situation perfectly accordant with the manners of the time. Then Lady Capulet comes sweeping by with her train of velvet, her black hood, her fan, and rosaryβthe very beau-ideal of a proud Italian matron of the fifteenth century, whose offer to poison Romeo, in revenge for the death of Tybalt, stamps her with one very characteristic trait of the age and the country. Yet she loves her daughter, and there is a touch of remorseful tenderness in her lamentations over her, which adds to our impression of the timid softness of Juliet and the harsh subjection in which she has been kept."
69. Wash him from his grave, etc. The hyperbole may remind us of the one in Rich. II. iii. 3. 166 fol.
72. Wit. See on iii. 3. 122 above.
73. Feeling. Heartfelt. Cf. "feeling sorrows" in W.T. iv. 2. 8 and Lear, iv. 6. 226.
82. Like he. The inflections of pronouns are often confounded by S.
84. Ay, madam, etc. Johnson remarks that "Juliet's equivocations are rather too artful for a mind disturbed by the loss of a new lover." To this Clarke well replies: "It appears to us that, on the contrary, the evasions of speech here used by the young girl-wife are precisely those that a mind, suddenly and sharply awakened from previous inactivity, by desperate love and grief, into self-conscious strength, would instinctively use. Especially are they exactly the sort of shifts and quibbles that a nature rendered timid by stinted intercourse with her kind, and by communion limited to the innocent confidences made by one of her age in the confessional, is prone to resort
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