American library books Β» Drama Β» Shakespeare's Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (best book series to read txt) πŸ“•

Read book online Β«Shakespeare's Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (best book series to read txt) πŸ“•Β».   Author   -   William Shakespeare



1 ... 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 ... 47
Go to page:
*
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:β€”

"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 lastβ€”and richly, gaily clad,
As for a birthday feast."

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

119. 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:β€”

"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."

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

Scene II.β€”

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 isβ€”

"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."

6. 'Tis an ill cook, etc. Cf. Puttenham, Arte of English Poesie, 1589:β€”

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

14. 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.

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

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

26. 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."

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

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

38. Short in our provision. Very feminine and housewifely! Cf. Lear, ii. 4. 208:β€”

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

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

Scene III.β€”

5. Cross. Perverse. Cf. Hen. VIII. iii. 2. 214:β€”

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

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

15. 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."

23. 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.

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

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

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

36. Like. Likely; as often.

39. As in a vault, etc. As is here = to wit, namely. Cf. Ham. i. 4. 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.

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

43. Festering. Corrupting; as in Hen. V. iv. 3. 88 and Sonn. 94. 14.

47. 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."

49. Distraught. Distracted. S. uses the word again in Rich. III. iii. 5. 4: "distraught and mad with terror." Elsewhere he has distracted (as in Temp. $1.$2. 12, Macb. ii. 3. 110, etc.) or distract (as in J.C. iv. 3. 155, Ham. iv. 5. 2, etc.). Spenser has distraught often; as in F.Q. iv. 3. 48: "Thus whilest their minds were doubtfully distraught;" Id. iv. 7. 31: "His greedy throte, therewith in two distraught" (where it is = drawn apart, its original sense), etc.

58. Romeo, I come, etc. The 1st quarto has here the stage-direction, "She fals vpon her bed within the Curtaines." The ancient stage was divided by curtains, called traverses, which were a substitute for sliding scenes. Juliet's bed was behind these curtains, and when they were closed in front of the bed the stage was supposed to represent the hall in Capulet's house for the next scene. When he summons the Nurse to call forth Juliet, she opens the curtains and the scene again becomes Juliet's chamber, where she is discovered apparently dead. After the lamentations over her, the 1st quarto gives the direction, "They all but the Nurse goe foorth, casting Rosemary on her and shutting the Curtens;" and then follows the scene with Peter and the Musicians. The stage had no movable painted scenery.

Scene IV.β€”

2. Pastry. That is, the room where pastry was made. Cf. pantry (Fr. paneterie, from pain), the place where bread is kept, etc. Staunton quotes A Floorish upon Fancie, 1582:β€”

"Now having seene all this, then shall you see hard by
The pastrie, mealehouse, and the roome whereas the coales do ly."

S. uses pastry only here. For the double meaning of the word, cf. spicery (Fr. Γ©picerie), which was used both for the material (Rich. III. iv. 4. 424) and the place where it was kept.

4. Curfew-bell. As the curfew was rung in the evening, the only way to explain this is to assume that it means "the bell ordinarily used for that purpose" (Schmidt). In the three other instances in which S. has the word (Temp. v. 1. 40, M. for M. iv. 2. 78, Lear, iii. 4. 121), it is used correctly.

5. Bak'd meats. Pastry. S. uses the term only here and in Ham. i. 2. 180. Nares says that it formerly meant "a meat pie, or perhaps any other pie." He cites Cotgrave, who defines pastisserie as "all kind of pies or bak'd meats;" and Sherwood (English supplement to Cotgrave), who renders "bak'd meats" by pastisserie. Cf. The White Devil:β€”

"You speak as if a man
Should know what fowl is coffin'd in a bak'd meat
Afore it is cut up;"

that is, what fowl is under the crust of the pie. Good Angelica perhaps means Lady Capulet, not the Nurse; and, as Dowden suggests, Spare not the cost seems more appropriate to the former. It may, however, be the Nurse, who here seems to be treated as a kitchen servantβ€”perhaps to avoid the introduction of another character.

6. Go, you cot-quean, etc. Several editors give this speech to Lady Capulet; on the

1 ... 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 ... 47
Go to page:

Free e-book: Β«Shakespeare's Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (best book series to read txt) πŸ“•Β»   -   read online now on website american library books (americanlibrarybooks.com)

Comments (0)

There are no comments yet. You can be the first!
Add a comment