Read Ebook: Shakespeare's Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare William Rolfe W J William James Editor

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Ebook has 879 lines and 60969 words, and 18 pages

"For thy complexion shifts to strange effects, After the moon."

"Brief as the lightning in the collied night, That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!' The jaws of darkness do devour it up; So quick bright things come to confusion."

"In few vnfained woords your hidden mynd vnfolde, That as I see your pleasant face, your heart I may beholde. For if you doe intende my honor to defile: In error shall you wander still, as you haue done this whyle, But if your thought be chaste, and haue on vertue ground, If wedlocke be the ende and marke which your desire hath found: Obedience set aside, vnto my parentes dewe: The quarell eke that long agoe betwene our housholdes grewe: Both me and myne I will all whole to you betake: And following you where so you goe, my fathers house forsake."

"And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school."

"Another way I have to man my haggard, To make her come and know her keeper's call."

"What force the stones, the plants, and metals haue to woorke, And diuers other thinges that in the bowels of earth do loorke, With care I haue sought out, with payne I did then proue; With them eke can I helpe my selfe at times of my behoue," etc.

"Whereby I see that Time's the king of men, He's both their parent, and he is their grave."

"She lifts the coffer-lids that close his eyes, Where lo! two lamps burnt out in darkness lies."

"A whitely wanton with a velvet brow, And two pitch-balls stuck in her face for eyes;"

"For kings are clouts that every man shoots at, Our crown the pin that thousands seek to cleave."

"A man of compliments, whom right and wrong Have chose as umpire of their mutiny."

"would under-peep her lids, To see the enclosed lights, now canopied Under these windows, white and azure lac'd With blue of heaven's own tinct."

"Which purchase if thou make, for fear of slips Set thy seal-manual on my wax-red lips."

"which gifts, Saving your mincing, the capacity Of your soft cheveril conscience would receive, If you might please to stretch it."

"here afore Heaven, I ratify this my rich gift," etc.

"When they see they may her win, They leave then where they did begin; They prate, and make the matter nice, And leave her in fooles paradise."

"A prety babe it was when it was yong: Lord how it could full pretely haue prated with it tong."

"This man malicious which troubled is with wrath, Nought els soundeth but the hoorse letter R. Though all be well, yet he none aunswere hath Save the dogges letter glowming with nar, nar."

"I met her deity Cutting the clouds towards Paphos, and her son Dove-drawn with her;"

"Thus weary of the world, away she hies, And yokes her silver doves."

"This is the very ecstasy of love, Whose violent property fordoes itself."

"The flower she touch'd on dipt and rose, And turn'd to look at her."

It would be appropriate in the Friar's mouth if he were in the fields, as in ii. 3, and Juliet had met him there. Very likely S. at first wrote it as in the quarto, but his poetic instinct led him to change it in revising the play. The speaker is now in his cell, with its stone floor worn by the tread of many heavy feet--such as one sees in old churches and monasteries in Europe--but Juliet's light step will not thus wear "the everlasting flint." The comparison is natural and apt.

"Visit by night your lady's chamber-window With some sweet consort; to their instruments Tune a deploring dump," etc.

"O, may we soon again renew that song, And keep in tune with Heaven, till God ere long To his celestial consort us unite, To live with him, and sing in endless morn of light!"

"Benvolio presents a triple alternative: either to withdraw to a private place, or to discuss the matter quietly where they were, or else to part company; and it is supremely in character that on such an occasion he should perceive and suggest all these methods of avoiding public scandal" .

"John, to stop Arthur's title in the whole, Hath willingly departed with a part," etc.

"Enlarge'd by its new sympathy with one, Grew bountiful to all."

"our suffering country Under a hand accurst."

"And there is in this business more than nature Was ever conduct of;"

"And cries aloud, 'Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk! My soul shall keep thine company to heaven; Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast, As in this glorious and well-foughten field We kept together in our chivalry!'"

"Heat them, and they retort that heat again To the first giver," etc.

"Gallop apace, bright Phoebus, 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;"

Herford regards this interpretation as "a prosaic idea;" but it seems to me perfectly in keeping with the character and the situation. The marriage was a secret one, and Juliet would not have Romeo, if seen, supposed to be a paramour visiting her by night. She knows also the danger he incurs if detected by her kinsmen. Cf. ii. 2. 64 fol. above.

"as we watch these kites That bate and beat and will not be obedient."

"A cockatrice hast thou hatch'd to the world, Whose unavoided eye is murtherous," etc.

"To hear and absolutely to determine Of what conditions we shall stand upon."

"look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under it."

Mrs. Jameson remarks on this passage: "This highly figurative and antithetical exuberance of language is defended by Schlegel on strong and just grounds; and to me also it appears natural, however critics may argue against its taste or propriety. The warmth and vivacity of Juliet's fancy, which plays like a light over every part of her character--which animates every line she utters--which kindles every thought into a picture, and clothes her emotions in visible images, would naturally, under strong and unusual excitement, and in the conflict of opposing sentiments, run into some extravagance of diction." Cf. i. 1. 168 fol. above.

"No faith, no honesty in men; all naught, All perjur'd, all dissemblers, all forsworn;"

which may be what S. wrote.

"Ah cruell murthering tong, murthrer of others fame: How durst thou once attempt to tooch the honor of his name?

Whether shall he poore banishd man, now flye? What place of succor shall he seeke beneth the starry skye? Synce she pursueth him, and him defames by wrong: That in distres should be his fort, and onely rampier strong."

"When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions."

"Ah! do not, when my heart hath scap'd this sorrow, Come in the rearward of a conquer'd woe"--

"Myself would, on the rearward of reproaches, Strike at thy life."

The metaphor is a military one, referring to a rear-guard or reserve which follows up the attack of the vanguard or of the main army.

"O, behold this ring, Whose high respect and rich validity Did lack a parallel."

"Yet nature is made better by no mean, But nature makes that mean," etc.

See also v. 3. 240 below.

"Art thou quoth he a man? thy shape saith, so thou art: Thy crying and thy weping eyes, denote a womans hart. For manly reason is quite from of thy mynd outchased, And in her stead affections lewd, and fancies highly placed. So that I stoode in doute this howre If thou a man, or woman wert, or els a brutish beast."

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