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?"

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._ v. i. 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.

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