Cap. How now, my headstrong? where have you been gadding?" Jul. Where I have learn'd me to repent the sin To you, and your behests; and am enjoin'd And beg your pardon:-Pardon, I beseech you! Cap. Send for the county; go tell him of this; Cap. Why, I am glad on 't; this is well,-stand up: Now, afore God, this reverend holy friar, La. Cap. No, not till Thursday; there is time enough. morrow. 'Tis now near night.2 7 gadding?] The primitive sense of this word was to strag gle from house to house, and collect money, under pretence of singing carols to the Blessed Virgin. See Mr. T. Warton's note on Milton's Lycidas, v. 40. Steevens. 8 becomed love-] Becomed for becoming: one participle for the other; a frequent practice with our author. Steevens. 9 this reverend holy friar, All our whole city is much bound to him.] So, in Romeus and Juliet, 1562: 66 this is not, wife, the friar's first desert; "In all our commonweal scarce one is to be found, "But is, for some good turn, unto this holy father bound.” Malone. Thus the folio, and the quartos, 1599, and 1609. The oldest quarto reads, I think, more grammatically: All our whole city is much bound unto. Steevens. 1 We shall be short-] That is, we shall be defective. Johnson. 2 'Tis now near night.] It appears, in a foregoing scene, that Ro Cap. Tush! I will stir about, And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, wife: I'll not to bed to-night; let me alone; I'll play the housewife for this once.-What, ho!- To county Paris, to prepare him up Against to-morrow: my heart is wond'rous light, SCENE III. Juliet's Chamber. Enter JULIET and Nurse. Jul. Ay, those attires are best:-But, gentle nurse, I pray thee, leave me to myself to-night; For I have need of many orisons* meo parted from his bride at day-break on Tuesday morning. Immediately afterwards she went to Friar Laurence, and he particularly mentions the day of the week, ["Wednesday is to-morrow."] She could not well have remained more than an hour or two with the friar, and she is just now returned from shrift;-yet lady Capulet says, "'tis near night," and this same night is ascertained to be Tuesday. This is one out of the many instances of our author's inaccuracy in the computation of time. Malone. 3 Enter Juliet and Nurse.] Instead of the next speech, the quarto, 1597, supplies the following short and simple dialogue: "Nurse. Come, come; what need you anie thing else? 66 Juliet. Nothing, good Nurse, but leave me to myselfe. "Nurse. Well there's a cleane smocke under your pillow, and so good night." Steevens. 4 For I have need &c.] Juliet plays most of her pranks under the appearance of religion: perhaps Shakspeare meant to punish her hypocrisy. Johnson. The pretence of Juliet's, in order to get rid of the Nurse, was suggested by The Tragicall Hystory of Romeus and Juliet, and some of the expressions of this speech were borrowed from thence: "Dear friend, quoth she, you know to-morrow is the day "Of new contract; wherefore, this night, my purpose is to pray "Unto the heavenly minds that dwell above the skies, "That all the remnant of my life may be exempt from sor row; To move the heavens to smile upon my state, La. Cap. What, are you busy? do you need my help? So please you, let me now be left alone, And let the nurse this night sit up with you; La. Cap. Good night! Get thee to bed, and rest; for thou hast need. [Exeunt La. CAP. and Nurse. Jul. Farewel!"-God knows, when we shall meet again. I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins, That almost freezes up the heat of life: I'll call them back again to comfort me ;- My dismal scene I needs must act alone.- What if this mixture do not work at all?" "Wherefore, I pray you, leave me here alone this night, light, "For you must curl my hair, and set on my attire -." Malone. 5 Farewel! &c.] This speech received considerable additions after the elder copy was published. Steevens. 6 I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins. That almost freezes up the heat of life:] So, in Romeus and Juliet, 1562: "And whilst she in these thoughts doth dwell somewhat too long, "The force of her imagining anon did wax so strong, "A grisly thing to look upon, the carcase of Tybalt; Right in the self same sort that she few days before "Had seen him in his blood embrew'd, to death eke wounded sore. "Her dainty tender parts 'gan shiver all for dread, "A sweat as cold as mountain ice pierc'd through her tender Must I of force be married to the county?8- [Laying down a Dagger. 7 What if this mixture does not work at all?] Here also Shakspeare appears to have followed the poem: 66 to the end I may my name and conscience save, "Shall harm me, yea or nay, where I shall lie as dead? "Shall not the friar and my Romeus, when they come, "Find me, if I awake before, y-stifled in the tomb?" Malone. 8 Must I of force be married to the county?] Thus the quarto, 1597, and not, as the line has been exhibited in the late editions, Shall I of force be married to the Count? The subsequent ancient copies read, as Mr. Steevens has observed, Shall I be married then to-morrow morning? Malone. 9 Lie thou there.-[Laying down a Dagger.] This stage-direc tion has been supplied by the modern editors. The quarto, 1597, reads: "Knife, lie thou there." It appears from several passages in our old plays, that knives were formerly part of the accoutrements of a bride; and every thing behoveful for Juliet's state had just been left with her. So, in Decker's Match me in London, 1631: "See at my girdle hang my wedding-knives!" Again, in King Edward III. 1599: "Here by my side do hang my wedding knives: In the third Book of Sidney's Arcadia we are likewise inform ed, that Amphialus "in his crest carried Philocleas' knives, the only token of her forced favour." Steevens. In order to account for Juliet's having a dagger, or, as it is called in old language, a knife, it is not necessary to have recourse to the ancient accoutrements of brides, how prevalent so. Hh VOL. XII. What if it be a poison, which the friar Come to redeem me? there's a fearful point! To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in, The horrible conceit of death and night, Where, for these many hundred years, the bones Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,3 ever the custom mentioned by Mr. Steevens may have been; for Juliet appears to have furnished herself with this instrument immediately after her father and mother had threatened to force her to marry Paris: "If all fail else, myself have power to die." Accordingly, in the very next scene, when she is at the Friar's cell, and before she could have been furnished with any of the apparatus of a bride, (not having then consented to marry the count) she says "Give me some present counsel, or, behold, ""Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife 1 I will not entertain so bad a thought.] This line I have restored from the quarto, 1597 Steevens. 2 As in a vault, &c.] This idea was probably suggested to our poet by his native place. The charnel at Stratford upon Avon is a very large one, and perhaps contains a greater number of bones than are to be found in any other repository of the same kind in England. I was furnished with this observation by Mr. Murphy, whose very elegant and spirited defence of Shakspeare against the criticisms of Voltaire, is not one of the least considerable out of many favours which he has conferred on the literary world. Steevens. 3 Hamlet: 66 green in earth,] i. e. fresh in earth, newly buried. So, in - of our dear brother's death, "The memory be green." Steevens. |