Romeo and Juliet

some writer whom he followed, had in mind the churchyard of Saint Mary the Old in Verona, and the monument of the Scaligers which stood in it." See the cut on p. 136, and cf. Br...

_Paris._ Give me thy torch, boy; hence, and stand aloof; Yet put it out, for I would not be seen. Under yond yew-trees lay thee all along, Holding thine ear close to the hollow...

The earliest edition of _Romeo and Juliet_, so far as we know, was a quarto printed in 1597, the title-page of which asserts that "it hath been often (with great applause) plaid...

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 Wi...

16. _The very pin_, etc. The allusion is to archery. The _clout_ (cf. _L. L. L._ iv. 1. 136), or white mark at which the arrows were aimed, was fastened by a black pin in the ce...

used by persons of good fashion in our author's time. In the _Household Book of the Earls of Northumberland_, compiled at the beginning of the same century, it appears that they...

"At thone syde of her chayre, her lover Romeo: And on the other side there sat one cald Mercutio. A courtier that eche where was highly had in pryce: For he was coorteous of his...

_Juliet._ Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day. It was the nightingale, and not the lark, That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear; Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate...

"Gallop apace, bright Phœbus, through the skie, And dusky night, in rusty iron car; Between you both, shorten the time, I pray, That I may see that most desired day;"

Nares, the phrase got this meaning from the fact that the carriers of wood and coals were esteemed the very lowest of menials. Cf. _Hen. V._ iii. 2. 49, where there is a play up...

11. _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 Me...

_Sampson._ True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall. Therefore 20 I will push Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the w...

_Benvolio._ I pray thee, good Mercutio, let's retire. The day is hot, the Capulets abroad, And if we meet we shall not scape a brawl; For now, these hot days, is the mad blood s...

_Romeo._ He jests at scars that never felt a wound.-- [_Juliet appears above at a window._ But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the...

overheard, as the rhyme in _found_ and _wound_ indicates. The Cambridge ed. suggests that in the old arrangement of the scene the wall may have been represented as dividing the...

_Mercutio._ Alas, poor Romeo! he is already dead; stabbed with a white wench's black eye; shot thorough the ear with a love-song; the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind...

_Romeo._ There is no world without Verona walls, But purgatory, torture, hell itself. Hence banished is banish'd from the world, And world's exile is death. Then banished 20 Is...

"She is drawn with the most wonderful power and discrimination. In the prosaic homeliness of the outline, and the magical illusion of the colouring, she reminds us of some of th...

seems to say the opposite of what he evidently means, and various attempts have been made to explain away the inconsistency. It appears to be one of the peculiar cases of "doubl...

in S. (cf. _Hen. VIII._ i. 4. 94, etc.) except in _W. T._ iv. 4. 664: "take your sweet-heart's hat." Schmidt would print it as two words (as is common in the old eds.) except in...

9. _Fourteen years._ In Brooke's poem her father says, "Scarce saw she yet full xvi. yeres;" and in Paynter's novel "as yet shee is not attayned to the age of xviii. yeares."

1 _Servingman._ Away with the joint-stools, remove the court-cupboard, look to the plate.--Good thou, save me a piece of marchpane; and, as thou lovest me, let the porter let in...

_Juliet._ Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, Towards Phœbus' lodging; such a waggoner As Phaethon would whip you to the west And bring in cloudy night immediately.-- Spread...

_Nurse._ Mistress! what, mistress! Juliet! Fast, I warrant her, she.-- Why, lamb! why, lady! fie, you slug-a-bed! Why, love, I say! madam! sweet-heart! why, bride! What, not a w...

10. _Vanish'd._ A singular expression, which Massinger has imitated in _The Renegado_, v. 5: "Upon those lips from which those sweet words vanish'd." In _R. of L._ 1041 the word...

_Paris._ Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death, And therefore have I little talk'd of love; For Venus smiles not in a house of tears. Now, sir, her father counts it dangerou...

SCENE. I.--1. _The flattering truth._ This is apparently = that which bears the flattering semblance of truth. It has perplexed some of the critics, but their emendations do not...

_Benvolio._ The date is out of such prolixity. We'll have no Cupid hoodwink'd with a scarf, Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath, Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper; Nor no...

Ado_, v. 3. 27 is = "bright blue," and Dyce defines it as "blue, azure"; but there is no reason why the word should not have its ordinary meaning. The _grey_, as in _M.N.D._ iii...

_Capulet._ But saying o'er what I have said before. My child is yet a stranger in the world; She hath not seen the change of fourteen years. Let two more summers wither in their...

_Friar Laurence._ The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night, Chequering the eastern clouds with streaks of light, And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels From forth day...

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_: "Se...

_Lady Capulet._ This is the matter:--Nurse, give leave awhile, We must talk in secret.--Nurse, come back again; I have remember'd me, thou's hear our counsel. Thou know'st my da...

_Romeo._ If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep My dreams presage some joyful news at hand. My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne, And all this day an unaccustom'd sp...

_Juliet._ The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse; In half an hour she promis'd to return. Perchance she cannot meet him; that's not so. O, she is lame! love's heralds s...

10. _Ay me!_ Often changed here and elsewhere to "Ah me!" which occurs in the old eds. of S. only in v. 1. 10 below. _Ay me!_ is found thirty or more times. Milton also uses it...

17. _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 therefor...

_Juliet._ Ay, those attires are best; but, gentle nurse, I pray thee, leave me to myself to-night, For I have need of many orisons To move the heavens to smile upon my state, Wh...

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....

S. uses _pastry_ only here. For the double meaning of the word, cf. _spicery_ (Fr. _épicerie_), which was used both for the material (_Rich. III._ iv. 4. 424) and the place wher...

_Juliet._ Where I have learn'd me to repent the sin Of disobedient opposition To you and your behests, and am enjoin'd By holy Laurence to fall prostrate here 20 And beg your pa...

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...

26. _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;...

_Capulet._ Things have fallen out, sir, so unluckily That we have had no time to move our daughter. Look you, she lov'd her kinsman Tybalt dearly, And so did I.--Well, we were b...

_Romeo._ Amen, amen! but come what sorrow can, It cannot countervail the exchange of joy That one short minute gives me in her sight. Do thou but close our hands with holy words...

_Mercutio._ Nay, I'll conjure too.-- Romeo! humours! madman! passion! lover! Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh! Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied; Cry but 'Ay me!' pro...

evidently Franciscans. "In his kindness, his learning, and his inclination to mix with and, perhaps, control the affairs of the world, he [Laurence] is no unapt representative o...

_Capulet._ Mass, and well said; a merry whoreson, ha! Thou shalt be logger-head.--Good faith, 'tis day; 21 The county will be here with music straight, For so he said he would....

_Friar John._ Going to find a barefoot brother out, One of our order, to associate me, Here in this city visiting the sick, And finding him, the searchers of the town, Suspectin...

_Enter Chorus._ This is generally put at the end of act i., but, as it refers to the future, rather than the past, it may be regarded as a prologue to act ii. There is no divisi...

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.

Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie, And young affection gapes to be his heir; That fair for which love groan'd for and would die, With tender Juliet match'd, is now not fa...