1
From the Diary note of Johannes de Witt (1596):
“There are four amphitheatres in London so beautiful that they are worth visit, which aregiven different names from
their different signs. In these theatres, a different play is offered to the public every day. The two more excellent of
these are situated on the other side of the Thames, towards the South, and they are called the Rose and the Swan from
their signboards. There are two other theatres outside the city towards the North, on the road that leads to the Episcopal
gate called Bishopsgate in the vernacular. There is also a fifth, but of a different structure, intended for fights of
animals, in which many bears, bulls, and dogs of stupendous size are held in different cages and behind fences, which
are kept for the fight to provide a most pleasant spectacle to the people. The most outstanding of all the theatres,
however, and the largest, is the sawn (in the vernacular, the theatre of the swan), as its seats 3,000 people. It is built out
of flint stones stacked on top of each other (of which there is great store in Britain), supported by wooden pillars which,
by their painted marble colour, can deceive the most acute observers. As its form seems to bear the appearance of a
Roman work, I have made a drawing of it”.
Arthur Brooke, The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet (1562)
1
2
Brooke
Romeus’s waiting for Juliet in the church:
v. 747: “Eche minute seemde an howre, and every
howre a day”;
The lovers’waiting to meet again at night after the
secret marriage:
v. 823: “For my part, I do gesse eche howre seems
twenty yere.”
vv. 1962, 1967: “That I with long and earnest sute,
provided have for thee / … / Such is the nobleness,
and honor of the race”
3
v. 2326: “…wherefore this night my purpose is to
pray”
4
v. 2258: “At Freetwone, where he myndes to make
for him a costly feast” [Freetown is here Capulet’s
house outside Verona]
5
vv. 2523-2525: “Another use there is, that
whosoever dyes, / Borne to their church with open
face, upon the beere he lyes / In wonted weede
attyred, not wrapt in winding sheete” [the servant’s
tale of how Romeo gets to know about Juliet’s
death]
vv. 2511-2514: “In steade of mariage gloves, now
funerall gloves they have, / And whom they should
see maried, they follow to the grave. / The feast
that should have been of pleasure and of joy, / Hath
every dish, and cup, fild full of sorrow and annoye”
6
Q1
Second balcony scene:
[14] Juliet [to Romeo at
their parting]: vv. 40-41:
“For in an hour there are
many minutes. / Minutes are
days, so will I number
them.”
Q2
Second balcony scene:
[3.5] Juliet [to Romeo at
their parting]: vv. 45-46:
“For in a minute there are
many days. / O, by this
count I shall be much in
years.”
[14]: Capulet: vv. 142-143:
“And having now found out
a gentleman / Of princely
parentage, youthful and
nobly trained”
[17] v. 7: “For I have many
things to think upon”.
[3.5] Capulet: vv. 178-179:
“…and having now provided
/ A gentleman of noble
parentage”
[4.3] v. 3: “For I have need
of many orisons”
[4.4] Capulet: v. 6: “Spare
not for cost”
[17] Friar: vv. 104-106:
“And, as the custom of our
country is, / In all her best
and sumptuous ornaments /
Convey her where her
ancestors lie tombed”
[17] Capulet: vv. 106-107:
“Let it be so. Come, woeful
sorrow-mates, / let us
together taste this bitter
fate”
[5.1] Balthasar: v. 109-111:
“Then as the manner of our
country is, / In thy best
robes, uncovered on the bier,
/ Thou shall be borne to that
same ancient vault”
[4.5] vv. 84-90: “All things
that we ordained festival, /
Turn from their office to
black
funeral:
/
Our
instruments to melancholy
bells, / our wedding cheer to
a sad burial feast; / Our
solemn hymns to sullen
dirges change; / Our bridal
flowers serve for a buried
corse; / And all things
change them to the
contrary”
2
From Brooke’s “Preface”:
«[…] neglecting the authority and advise of parents and friends, conferring their principal counsel with drunken
gossips, and superstitious friars (the naturally fit instruments of unchastity) attempting all adventures of peril, for
the attaining of their wished lust, using auricular confession (the key of whoredom, and treason) for furtherance
of their purpose, abusing the honourable name of lawful marriage, to cloak the shame of stolen contracts, finally,
by all means of unhonest life, hasting to most unhappy death».
“The Argument”
LOVE hath inflamed twain by sudden sight,
And both do grant the thing that both desire.
They wed in shrift by counsel of a friar.
Young Romeus climbs fair Juliet’s bower by night.
Three months he doth enjoy his chief delight.
By Tybalt’s rage provoked unto ire,
He payeth death to Tybalt for his hire.
A banished man he ’scapes by secret flight.
New marriage is offered to his wife.
She drinks a drink that seems to reave her breath:
They bury her that sleeping yet hath life.
Her husband hears the tidings of her death.
He drinks his bane. And she with Romeus’ knife,
When she awakes, herself, alas ! she slay’th.
ll. 25.32:
There were two ancient stocks, which Fortune high did
Above the rest, indued with wealth, and nobler of their race.
Loved of the common sort, loved of the prince alike,
And like unhappy were they both, when Fortune list to strike;
Whose praise, with equal blast, Fame in her trumpet blew;
The one was cleped Capulet, and th' other Montague.
A wonted use it is, that men of likely sort,
(I wot not by what fury forced) envy each other’s port.
3
Romeo and Juliet – FRONTISPICE
Q1
AN
EXCELLENT
conceited Tragedie
OF
Romeo and Iuliet.
As it hath been often (with great applause)
plaid publiquely, by the right Honourable the L. of Hunsdon
his Seruants.
LONDON,
Printed by Iohn Danter.
1597.
Q2
The
most ex
cellent and lamentable
Tragedy, of Romeo and Juliet.
Newly corrected, augmented, and
Amended:
As it hath been sundry times publiquely acted by the
Right Honourable the Lord Chamberlaine
his Seruants. London
Prited bny thomas Creede, for Cuthbert Burby, and
are
To sold at his hop neare the Exchange.
1599.
The Prologue
Q1
Q2
Two houshold Frends alike in dignitie,
(In faire Verona, where we lay our Scene)
From ciuill broyles broke into enmitie,
Whose ciuill warre makes ciuill hands uncleane.
Chorus: Two households both alike in dignity,
(In fair Verona where we lay our scene)
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatall loynes of these two foes,
A paire of starre-crost Louers tooke their life:
Whose misaduentures, piteous ouerthrowes,
(Through the continuing of their Fathers strife,
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life,
Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
And death-markt passage of their Parents rage)
Is now the two howres traffique of our Stage.
The which if you with patient eares attend,
What here we want wee'l studie to amend.
The fearful passage of their death-marked love,
And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
Which but their children’s end, naught could remove,
Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
2nd Chorus
Q1
Q2
Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie,
And young affection gapes to be his heir;
That fair for which love groaned for and would die,
With tender Juliet matched is now not fair.
Now Romeo is beloved and loves again,
Alike bewitchèd by the charm of looks,
But to his foe supposed he must complain,
And she steal love’s sweet bait from fearful hooks.
4
Being held a foe, he may not have access
To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear,
And she as much in love, her means much less
To meet her new belovèd anywhere:
But passion lends them power, time means, to meet,
Temp’ring extremities with extreme sweet.
The secret marriage
Q1- [9] Q2 – (2.6)
Q1
Enter Romeo, Frier.
Q2
Enter Friar [Laurence] and Romeo.
Rom: Now Father Laurence, in thy holy grant
Consists the good of me and Iuliet.
Friar: So smile the heavens upon this holy act
That after-hours with sorrow chide us not.
Fr: Without more words I will doo all I may,
To make you happie if in me it lye.
Rom: 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,
Then love-devouring death do what he dare,
It is enough I may but call her mine.
Rom: This morning here she pointed we should meet,
And consumate those neuer parting bands,
Witnes of our harts loue by ioyning hands,
And come she will.
Fr: I gesse she will indeed,
Youths loue is quicke, swifter than swiftest speed.
Hast is common hindrer in crosse way.
Friar: These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die like fire and powder,
10
Which as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness
And in the taste confounds the appetite.
Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so;
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.
15
Enter Iuliet somewhat fast, and embraceth Romeo.
Enter Juliet.
See where she comes.
So light of foote nere hurts the troden flower:
Of loue and ioy, see see the soueraigne power.
Here comes the lady. Oh so light a foot
Will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint.
A lover may bestride the gossamers
That idles in the wanton summer air,
And yet not fall, so light is vanity.
Iul: Romeo.
Rom: My Iuliet welcome. As doo waking eyes
(Cloasd in Nights mysts) attend the frolike Day,
So Romeo hath expected Iuliet,
And thou art come.
5
20
Jul: Good even to my ghostly confessor.
Friar: Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both.
Jul: As much to him, else is his thanks too much.
Iul:
I am (if I be Day)
Comme to my Sunne: shine foorth, and make me faire.
Rom: All beauteous fairnes dwelleth in thine eyes.
Iul: Romeo from thine all brightnes doth arise
Fr: Come wantons, come, the stealing houres do passe
Defer imbracements till some fitter time,
Part for a while, you shall not be alone,
Till holy Church haue ioynd ye both in one.
Rom: Ah Juliet, if the measure of thy joy
Be heaped like mine, and that thy skill be more
To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath
This neighbor air, and let rich music's tongue
Unfold the imagined happiness that both
Receive in either by this dear encounter.
Jul.: Conceit, more rich in matter than in words
Brags of his substance, not of ornament.
They are but beggars that can count their worth,
25
30
5
But my true love is grown to such excess
I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth.
Rom: Lead holy Father, all delay seemes long.
Iul: Make hast, make hast, this lingring doth vs wrong.
Fr: O, soft and faire makes sweetest worke they say.
Friar: Come, come with me, and we will make short
work;
35
For by your leaves, you shall not stay alone
Till Holy Church incorporate two in one.
Juliet’s soliloquies
Arthur Brooke
Q2 (1599)
1893-8
1.3.80-100
The person of the man, the
features of
his face,
His youthful years, his fairness,
and his port, and seemly grace,
With curious words she paints
before her daughter's eyes,
And then with store of virtue's
praise she heaves him to the
skies.
She vaunts his race, and gifts that
Fortune did him give,
Whereby, she saith, both she and
hers in great delight shall live.
Old La: What say you, can you loue the
Gentleman?
This night you shall behold him at our
feast,
Reade ore the volume of young Paris
face,
And find delight, writ there with bewties
pen,
Examine euery married liniament,
And see how one an other lends content:
And what obscurde in this faire volume
lies,
Finde written in the margeant of his
eyes.
This precious booke of loue, this
vnbound louer,
To bewtifie him, onely lacks a Couer.
The fish liues in the sea, and tis much
pride
For faire without the faire, within to
hide:
That booke in manies eyes doth share
the glorie
That in gold claspes locks in the golden
storie:
So shall you share all that he doth
possesse,
By hauing him, making your selfe no
lesse.
Nurse. No lesse, nay bigger women
grow by men.
OldLa: Speake briefly, can you like of
Paris loue?
Iul: Ile looke to like, if looking liking
moue.
But no more deepe will I endart mine
eye,
Then your consent giues strength to
make flie.
Q1 (1597)
6
2.2.33-49
5.73-87
Iul: O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art
thou Romeo?
Denie thy father and refuse thy name:
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworne my
loue,
And ile no longer be a Capulet.
Iul: Ah Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art
thou Romeo?
Denie thy Father, and refuse thy name,
Or if thou wilt not be but sworne my
loue,
And il'e no longer be a Capulet.
Rom: Shall I heare more, or shall I
speake at this?
Rom: Shall I heare more, or shall I
speake to this?
Iul: Tis but thy name that is my enemie:
Thou art thy selfe, though not a
Mountague,
Whats Mountague? it is nor hand nor
foote,
Nor arme nor face, ô be some other
name
Belonging to a man.
Whats in a name that which we call a
rose,
By any other word would smell as
sweete,
So Romeo would wene he not Romeo
cald,
Retaine that deare perfection which he
owes,
Without that tytle, Romeo doffe thy
name,
And for thy name which is no part of
thee,
Take all my selfe.
Iul: Tis but thy name that is mine
enemie.
Whats Mountague? It is nor hand nor
foote,
Nor arme, nor face, nor any other part.
Whats in a name? That which we call a
Rose,
By any other name would smell as
sweet:
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo
cald,
Retaine the diuine perfection he owes:
Without that title Romeo part thy name,
And for that name which is no part of
thee,
Take all I haue.
2.5.1-17
8.1-6
Iul: The clocke strooke nine when I did
send the Nurse,
In halfe an houre she promised to
returne,
Perchance she cannot meete him, thats
notso:
Oh she is lame, loues heraulds should be
thoughts,
Which ten times faster glides then the
Suns beames,
Driuing backe shadowes ouer lowring
hills.
Therefore do nimble piniond doues
draw loue,
And therefore hath the wind swift Cupid
wings:
Now is the Sun vpon the highmost hill,
Of this dayes iourney, and from nine till
twelue,
Is there long houres, yet she is not
come,
Had she affections and warme youthfull
bloud,
She would be as swift in motion as a
ball,
Iul: The clocke stroke nine when I did
send my Nursse
In halfe an houre she promist to returne.
Perhaps she cannot finde him..Thats not
so.
Oh she is lazie, Loues heralds should be
thoughts,
and runne more swift, than hastie
powder fierd,
Doth hurrie from the fearfull Cannons
mouth.
7
My words would bandie her to my
sweete loue.
And his to me, but old folks, many fain
as they wer dead,
nwieldie, slowe, heauie, and pale as
lead.
3.2.1-33
5.1-4
Gallop apace, you fierie footed steedes,
Towards Phoebus lodging, such a
wagoner
As Phaetan would whip you to the west,
And bring in clowdie night
immediately.
Spread thy close curtaine loueperforming night,
That runnawayes eyes may wincke, and
Romeo
Leape to these armes, vntalkt of and
vnseene,
Louers can see to do their amorous
rights,
And by their owne bewties, or if loue be
blind,
It best agrees with night, come ciuill
night,
Thou sober suted matron all in blacke,
And learne me how to loose a winning
match,
Plaide for a paire of stainlesse
maydenhoods.
Hood my vnmand bloud bayting in my
cheekes,
With thy blacke mantle, till strange loue
grow bold,
Thinke true loue acted simple modestie:
Come night, come Romeo, come thou
day in night,
For thou wilt lie vpon the winges of
night,
Whiter then new snow vpon a Rauens
backe:
Come gentle night, come louing black
browd night,
Giue me my Romeo, and when I shall
die,
Take him and cut him out in little
starres,
And he will make the face of heauen so
fine,
That all the world will be in loue with
night,
And pay no worship to the garish Sun.
O I haue bought the mansion of a loue,
But not possest it, and though I am sold,
Not yet enioyd, so tedious is this day,
As is the night before some festiuall,
To an impatient child that hath new
robes
Iul: Gallop apace you fierie footed
steedes
To Phoebus mansion, such a Waggoner
As Phaeton, would quickly bring you
thether,
And send in cloudie night immediately.
Enter Nurse wringing her hands, with
the ladder
of cordes in her lap.
8
And may not weare them. O here comes
my Nurse:
Enter Nurse with cords.
And she brings newes, and euery tongue
that speaks
But Romeos name, speakes heauenly
eloquence:
2.350-2.402
4.3.14-58
17-10-27
2350
So much unfortunate as I? so
much past hope as I?
What, am I not myself, of all that
yet were born,
The deepest drenchéd in despair,
and most in Fortune's scorn?
For lo, the world for me hath
nothing else to find,
Beside mishap and wretchedness
and anguish of the mind;
Since that the cruel cause of my
unhappiness
Hath put me to this sudden
plunge, and brought to such
distress,
As, to the end I may my name
and conscience save,
I must devour the mixéd drink
that by me here I have,
Whose working and whose force
as yet I do not know."
Farewell, God knowes when we shall
meete againe,
I haue a faint cold feare thrills through
my veines,
That almost freezes vp the heate of life:
Ile call them backe againe to comfort
me.
Nurse, what should she do here?
My dismall sceane I needs must act
alone.
Come Violl, what if this mixture do not
worke at all?
Shall I be married then to morrow
morning?
No, no, this shall forbid it, lie thou
there,
What if it be a poyson which the Frier
Subtilly hath ministred to haue me dead,
Least in this marriage he should be
dishonourd,
Because he married me before to
Romeo?
I feare it is, and yet me thinks it should
not,
For he hath still bene tried a holy man.
How if when I am laid into the Tombe,
I wake before the time that Romeo
Come to redeeme me, theres a fearfull
poynt:
Shall I not then be stiffled in the Vault?
To whose foule mouth no healthsome
ayre breaths in,
And there die strangled ere my Romeo
comes.
Or if I liue, is it not very like,
The horrible conceit of death and night,
Togither with the terror of the place,
As in a Vaulte, an auncient receptacle,
Where for this many hundred yeares the
bones
Of all my buried auncestors are packt,
Where bloudie Tybalt yet but greene in
earth,
Lies festring in his shroude, where as
they say,
At some houres in the night, spirits
resort:
Alack, alack, is it not like that I
So early waking, what with loathsome
Farewell, God knowes when wee shall
meete againe.
2360
And of this piteous plaint began
another doubt to grow:
"What do I know," quoth she, "if
that this powder shall
Sooner or later than it should, or
else, not work at all?
And then my craft descried as
open as the day,
The people's tale and laughingstock shall I remain for aye."
"And what know I," quoth she,
"if serpents odious,
And other beasts and worms that
are of nature venomous,
That wonted are to lurk in dark
caves underground,
And commonly, as I have heard,
in dead men's tombs are found,
Shall harm me, yea or nay, where
I shall lie as dead? -2370
Or how shall I that alway have in
so fresh air been bred,
Endure the lothsome stink of such
Ah, I doo take a fearfull thing in hand.
What if this Potion should not worke at
all,
Must I of force be married to the
Countie?
This shall forbid it. Knife, lye thou
there.
What if the Frier should giue me this
drinke
To poyson mee, for feare I should
disclose
Our former marriage? Ah, I wrong him
much,
He is a holy and religious Man:
I will not entertaine so bad a thought.
What if I should be stifled in the
Toomb?
Awake an houre before the appointed
time:
An then I feare I shall be lunaticke,
And playing with my dead forefathers
bones,
Dash out my franticke braines. Me
thinkes I see
9
an heapéd store
Of carcases not yet consumed,
and bones that long before
Intombéd were, where I my
sleeping-place shall have,
Where all my ancestors do rest,
my kindred's common grave?
Shall not the friar and my
Romeus, when they come,
Find me, if I awake before, ystifled in the tomb?"
And whilst she in these thoughts
doth dwell somewhat too long,
The force of her imagining anon
did wax so strong,
That she surmised she saw, out of
the hollow vault,
2380
A grisly thing to look upon, the
carcase of Tybalt;
Right in the selfsame sort that she
few days before
Had seen him in his blood
embrued, to death eke wounded
sore.
And then when she again within
herself had weighed
That quick she should be buried
there, and by his side be laid,
All comfortless, for she shall
living fere have none,
But many a rotten carcase, and
full many a naked bone;
Her dainty tender parts 'gan
shiver all for dread,
Her golden hairs did stand
upright upon her chillish head.
Then presséd with the fear that
she there livéd in,
2390
A sweat as cold as mountain ice
pierced through her slender skin,
That with the moisture hath wet
every part of hers:
And more besides, she vainly
thinks, whilst vainly thus she
fears,
A thousand bodies dead have
compassed her about,
And lest they will dismember her
she greatly stands in doubt.
But when she felt her strength
began to wear away,
By little and little, and in her
heart her fear increaséd aye,
Dreading that weakness might, or
foolish cowardice,
Hinder the execution of the
purposed enterprise,
As she had frantic been, in haste
smels,
And shrikes like mandrakes torne out of
the earth,
That liuing mortalls hearing them run
mad:
O if I walke, shall I not be distraught,
Inuironed with all these hidious feares,
And madly play with my forefathers
ioynts?
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his
shrowde,
And in this rage with some great
kinsmans bone,
As with a club dash out my desprate
braines.
looke, me thinks I see my Cozins Ghost,
Seeking out Romeo that did spit his
body
Vpon a Rapiers poynt: stay Tybalt, stay?
Romeo, Romeo, Romeo, heeres drinke,
I drinke to thee.
My Cosin Tybalt weltring in his bloud,
Seeking for Romeo: stay Tybalt stay.
Romeo I come, this doe I drinke to
thee.
10
the glass she caught,
2400
And up she drank the mixture
quite, withouten farther thought.
Then on her breast she crossed
her arms long and small,
And so, her senses failing her,
into a trance did fall.
5.3.160-70
20.112-18
Iul: Go get thee hence, for I will not
away.
Whats heere? a cup closd in my true
loues hand?
Poison I see hath bin his timelesse end:
O churle, drunke all, and left no friendly
drop
To help me after, I will kisse thy lips,
Happlie some poyson yet doth hang on
them,
To make me dye with a restoratiue.
Thy lips are warme.
Iul: Goe get thee gone.
Whats heere a cup closde in my louers
hands?
Ah churle drinke all, and leaue no drop
for me.
Enter Boy and Watch.
Watch: This way, this way.
Watch: Leade boy, which way.
Iul: I, noise? then must I be resolute.
O happy dagger thou shalt end my
feare,
Rest in my bosome, thus I come to thee.
Iuli: Yea noise? then ile be briefe. O
happy dagger
This is thy sheath, there rust and let me
dye.
Enter Watch.
The Friar’s tale
Q1 – [20]
Fr: I am the greatest able to doo least.
Most worthie Prince, heare me but speake the truth.
And Ile informe you how these things fell out.
Iuliet here slaine was married to that Romeo,
Without her Fathers or her Mothers grant:
The Nurse was priuie to the marriage.
The balefull day of this vnhappie marriage,
Was Tybalts doomesday: for which Romeo
Was banished from hence to Mantua.
He gone, her Father sought by soule constraint
To marrie her to Paris: but her Soule
(Loathing a second Contract) did refuse
To giue consent; and therefore did she vrge me
Hither to finde a meanes she might auoyd
What so her Father sought to force her too
Or els all desperately she threatned
Euen in my presence to dispatch of her selfe.
Then did I giue her, (tutord my mine arte)
A potion that should make her seeme as dead:
And told her that I would with all post speed
Send hence to Mantua for her Romeo,
Q2 – (5.3)
Friar: I am the greatest, able to do least,
Yet most suspected, as the time and place
Doth make against me of this direful murder;
And here I stand both to impeach and purge
Myself condemnèd and myself excused.
225
Prince: Then say at once what thou dost know in this.
Friar: I will be brief, for my short date of breath
Is not so long as is a tedious tale.
Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet,
230
And she, there dead, that’s Romeo’s faithful wife.
I married them, and their stol’n marriage day
Was Tybalt’s doomsday, whose untimely death
Banished the new-made bridegroom from this city,
For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined.
235
You, to remove that siege of grief from her,
Betrothed and would have married her perforce
To County Paris. Then comes she to me,
And with wild looks bid me devise some means
To rid her from this second marriage,
240
11
That he might come and take her from the Toombe,
But he that had my Letters (Frier Iohn)
Seeking a Brother to associate him,
Whereas the sicke infection remaind,
Was stayed by the Searchers of the Towne.
But Romeo vnderstanding by his man,
That Iuliet was deceasde, returnde in post
Vnto Verona for to see his loue.
What after happened touching Paris death,
Or Romeos is to me vnknowne at all.
But when I came to take the Lady hence,
I found them dead, and she awakt from sleep:
Whom faine I would haue taken from the tombe,
Which she refused seeing Romeo dead.
Anone I heard the watch and then I fled,
What after happened I am ignorant of.
And if in this ought haue miscaried
By me, or by my meanes let my old life
Be sacrificd some houre before his time.
To the most strickest rigor of the Law
Or in my Cell there would she kill herself.
Then gave I her – so tutored by my art –
A sleeping potion, which so took effect
As I intended, for it wrought on her
The form of death. Meantime I writ to Romeo
That he should hither come as this dire night
To help to take her from her borrowed grave,
Being the time the potion’s force should cease.
But he which bore my letter, Friar John,
Was stayed by accident, and yesternight
Returned my letter back. Then all alone
At the prefixèd hour of her waking
Came I to take her from her kindred’s vault,
Meaning to keep her closely at my cell
Till I conveniently could send to Romeo.
But when I came, some minute ere the time
Of her awakening, here untimely lay
The noble Paris and true Romeo dead.
She wakes, and I entreated her come forth
And bear this work of heaven with patience.
260
But then a noise did scare me from the tomb,
And she, too desperate, would not go with me,
But, as it seems, did violence on herself.
All this I know, and to the marriage
Her Nurse is privy; and if ought in this
Miscarried by my fault, let my old life
Be sacrificed some hour before his time
Unto the rigor of severest law.
245
250
255
265
12
1a -Theatrical functions – Who says what in Q1
absent SHs
•
•
•
•
In scene [2], the name of Paris is missing at l.1;
In scene [4], l. 40 the famous Queen Mab speech on the fairy midwife appears as an extension of Benvolio’s
previous speech since Mercutio’s name is absent;
In scene [17] l. 90, the name of Paris is missing again;
in scene [20] the name of the friar is missing at l. 80, and of Juliet’s at l. 101.
1b -Theatrical functions – Who says what in Q1
different SHs
•
•
•
•
•
•
In [1, ll. 63-64] Q1 a speech of Montague is assigned to Lady Montague;
in [5, ll. 41-42] Q1 assigns a speech to Benvolio which in Q2 is Mercutio’s;
in [7, ll. 82-83] Q1 assigns a few lines to Mercutio and Romeo which in Q2 are pronounced by Benvolio and
Mercutio;
in [14, l. 134] Q1 has Capulet swear, while Q2 has the Nurse swear;
in [16, ll. 10-11 e 14] Q1 assigns a speech to Lady Capulet which in Q2 is the Nurse’s;
in [17, l. 67] a speech of the friar is attributed to Paris.
2- Q1 cuts speeches with implied stage directions
to avoid redundancy between word and gesture
Ex: Q2: 3.2 v. 36: Juliet: “Why dost thou wring thy hands?” Q1: v. 4, leaves out Juliet’s question and replaces
it with → SD: Enter Nurse wriging her hands, with the ladder of cords in her lap
Ex: Q2: 3.2, v. 107: Juliet’s “wherefore weepe I then”: Q1 omits it
3 - Q1 summarises in SDs longer scenes of Q2
in which characters speak and act:
Ex: Q2: vv. 50-71: 9 characters speak and fight: → SD “They draw, to them enters Tybalt, they fight, to them the
Prince, old Montague and his wife, old Capulet and his wife, and other citizens and part them”
4 - Q1 introduces different SDs
changing the action
Ex: Q1 in [12] (corresponding to Q2 3.3) adds the following SD:
“He offers to stab himself, and Nurse snatches the dagger away”.
There follows an interjection of the Nurse “Ah”, and the Friar’’s line: “Hold thy desperate hand”.
13
2nd BALCONY SCENE [14] (3.5) and the resources of the multiple stage
Q1 [14]
Q2 (3.5)
Enter Romeo and Juliet at the window.
Enter Romeo and Juliet aloft.
Jul: Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet nere day,
Jul. Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet neare day:
******
******
So now be gone, more light and light it growes 35
O now be gone, more light and light it growes. 35
Rom: More light and light, more darke and darke our
Rom. More light and light, more darke and darke our
woes. 36
woes. 36
Farewell my Love, one kisse and Ile descend. 37
He goeth downe.
Enter Madame and Nurse.
Nur. Madam. 37
Jul: Art thou gone so, my Lord, my Love, my Friend? 38
******
Ju. Nurse. 38
Nur. Your Lady Mother is coming to your chamber, 39
Rom: And trust me Love, in my eye so doo you, 53
The day is broke, be wary, looke about. 40
Drie sorrow drinkes our blood: adieu, adieu. 54
Juli. Then window let day in, and let life out. 41
Exit.
Enter [WHERE?] Nurse hastely.
Ro. Farewell, farewell, one kisse and Ile descend. 42
Ju. Art thou gone so love, Lord, ay husband, friend, 43
Nur: Madame beware, take heed the day is broke, 55
*******
Your Mother's comming to your Chamber, make all sure.
Rom. And trust me love, in my eye so do you:
56
Drie sorrow drinkes our blood. Adue, adue. 59
Exit.
Ju. O Fortune, Fortune, all men call thee fickle, 6o
[…]
She [WHO?] goeth downe from the window.
Enter [WHERE?] Juliets Mother, Nurse.
But send him backe. 64
Enter Mother.
Moth: Where are you Daughter? 57
La. Ho daughter, are you up? 65
Nur: What Ladie, Lambe, what Juliet? 58
Ju. Who ist that calls? It is my Lady mother. 66
Jul: How now, who calls? 59
Is she not downe so late or up so early? 67
Nur: It is your Mother. 6o
What unaccustomed cause procures her hither? 68
Moth: Why how now Juliet? 61a
La. Why how now Juliet? 69a
Jul: Madam, I am not well. 61b
Ju. Madam I am not well. 69b
Moth: What evermore weeping for your Cosens death: 62
La. Evermore weeping for your Cozens death? 70
58
14
2nd BALCONY SCENE - SDs
Q1 [14]
Enter Romeo and Juliet at the window 1
Q2 (3.5)
Enter Romeo and Juliet aloft I
Enter Madame and Nurse 36
He goeth downe 37
Exit 54 [Romeo]
Exit 59 [Romeo]
Enter Nurse hastely 54
She goeth downe from the window 56
Enter Juliets Mother, Nurse 56
Enter Mother 64
Enter olde Capolet 92
Enter Capulet and Nurse 126
She kneeles downe 117
Exit 156
Exit 197
Exit 164
Exit 205
Shee lookes after Nurse i84
Exit 192
Exit 242
POTION AND TOMB SCENES
(4.3-5.3) – [17-20]: WORD AND GESTURE
Verticality (Q2)
2.2:
3.5
Rom: What light through yonder window breaks?
Jul: O God I haue an ill diuining soule,
[…] She speakes, yet she saies nothing
Me thinkes I see thee, now thou art so lowe,
[…] See how she leanes her cheeke vpon her hand
As one dead in the bottome of a tombe.
Jul: The Orchard walls are high and hard to climbe,
O Fortune, Fortune, all men call thee fickle,
And the place death, considering who thou art
If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him
Rom: With loues light wings did I orepearch these walls,
That is renowned for faith? be fickle Fortune,
For stonie limits cannot hold loue out
For then I hope thou wilt not keepe him long,
Rom: By loue that first did prompt me to enquire,
But send him backe.
He lent me counsell, and I lent him eyes:
I am no Pylot, yet wert thou as farre
As that vast shore washt with the farthest sea,
I should aduenture for such marchandise.
(4.3)
Jul: My dismall sceane I needs must act alone.
Come Violl. What if this mixture do not worke at all?
Shall I be married then to morrow morning?
No, no, this shall forbid it, lie thou there.
[…] stay, Tybalt, stay?
Romeo, Romeo, Romeo, heeres drinke, I drinke to thee
Q1: She fals upon her bed within the Curtaines.
Q1:[19 -4.4]: They all but the Nurse goe foorth, casting Rosemary on her and shutting the Curtains
15
[20] (5.3)
Rom: Thou detestable mawe, thou wombe of death, 45
Gorg'd with the dearest morsell of the earth:
Thus I enforce thy rotten jawes to open,
And in despight I’ll cram thee with more foode.
Q1: Romeo opens the tombe
Rom: […] O giue me thy hand,
81
One writ with me in sowre misfortunes booke,
Ile bury thee in a triumphant graue.
A Graue, O no. A Lanthorne, slaughtred youth:
For here lies Iuliet, and her bewtie makes
This Vault a feasting presence full of light.
Death lie thou there by a dead man interd.
Rom: […] O my Loue, my wife,
91
Death that hath suckt the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet vpon thy bewtie:
Thou art not conquerd, bewties ensigne yet
Is crymson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
And deaths pale flag is not aduanced there.
[….] Shall I beleeue
102
That vnsubstantiall death is amorous,
And that the leane abhorred monster keepes
Thee here in darke to be his parramour?
For feare of that I still will staie with thee,
And neuer from this pallat of dym night
Depart againe, here, here, will I remaine,
With wormes that are thy Chamber-maides:
O, here Will I set vp my euerlasting rest:
And shake the yoke of inauspicious starres,
From this world wearied flesh ...
Rom. […] eyes looke your last:
112
Armes, take your last embrace: And lips, O you
The doores of breath, seale with a righteous kisse
A dateless bargaine to ingrossing death:
Come bitter conduct, come vnsauoury guide,
Thou desperate Pilot, now at once run on
The dashing Rocks thy seasick weary barke:
Heeres to my Loue.
O true Appothecary:
Thy drugs are quicke. Thus with a kisse I die.
Jul: Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.
160
What’s here? A cup, closed in my true love’s hand?
Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end.
O churl, drunk all, and left no friendly drop
To help me after? I will kiss thy lips;
Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,
To make me die with a restorative.
[She kisses him.]
Thy lips are warm.
Chief watchman [within]: Lead, boy. Which way?
Jul.: Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger
This is thy sheath. There rust and let me die.
16
LAMENTATION SCENE
Q1 [19]
Q2 (4.5)
Par: What is the bride ready to goe to Church?
Friar: Come, is the bride ready to go to church?
Cap: Ready to goe, but neuer to returne.
O Sonne the night before thy wedding day,
Hath Death laine with thy bride, flower as she is,
Deflowerd by him, see, where she lyes,
Death is my Sonne in Law, to him I giue all that I
haue.
Cap.: Ready to go, but never to return.
O son, the night before thy wedding day
35
Hath death lain with thy wife. There she lies,
Flower as she was, deflowerèd by him.
Death is my son-in-law, death is my heir.
My daughter he hath wedded. I will die
And leave him all; life, living, all is death's.
Par: Haue I thought long to see this mornings face,
And doth it now present such prodegies?
Accurst, vnhappy, miserable man,
Forlorne, forsaken, destitute I am:
Borne to the world to be a slaue in it.
Distrest, remediles, and vnfortunate.
O heauens , O nature, wherefore did you make me,
To liue so vile, so wretched as I shall.
Cap: O heere she lies that was our hope, our ioy,
And being dead, dead sorrow nips vs all.
All at once cry out and wring their hands.
All cry: All our ioy, and all our hope is dead,
Dead, lost, vndone, absented, wholy fled.
Cap: Cruel, vniust, impartiall destinies,
Why to this day haue you preseru'd my life?
Too see my hope, my stay, my ioy, my life,
Depriude of sence, of life, of all by death,
Cruell, vniust, impartiall destinies.
[Par.]: O sad fac'd sorrow map of misery,
Why this sad time haue I desird to see.
This day, this vniust, this impartiall day
Wherein I hop'd to see my comfort full,
To be depriude by suddaine destinie.
Moth: O woe, alacke, distrest, why should I liue?
To see this day, this miserable day.
Alacke the time that euer I was borne,
To be partaker of this destinie.
Alacke the day, alacke and welladay.
40
Par: Have I thought long to see this morning’s face,
And doth it give me such a sight as this?
Cap. W.: Accursed, unhappy, wretched hateful day!
Most miserable hour that e'er time saw
In lasting labor of his pilgrimage!
45
But one, poor one, one poor and loving child,
But one thing to rejoice and solace in,
And cruel death hath catched it from my sight!
Nurse: O woe, O woeful, woeful, woeful day!
Most lamentable day, most woeful day
50
That ever, ever I did yet behold!
O day, O day, O day, O hateful day,
Never was seen so black a day as this!
O woeful day, O woeful day!
Par.: Beguiled, divorcèd, wrongèd, spited, slain 55
Most detestable death, by thee beguiled,
By cruel, cruel, thee quite overthrown!
O love, O life, not life, but love in death!
Cap.: Despised, distressèd, hated, martyred, killed!
Uncomfortable time, why cam'st thou now 60
To murder, murder our solemnity?
O child, O child, my soul and not my child!
Dead art thou, alack, my child is dead,
And with my child my joys are burièd.
Friar : Peace ho, for shame! Confusion’s cure lives not
In these confusions.
17
Q2
PARIS
CAPULET WIFE
NURSE
CAPULET
Beguiled, divorcèd,
wrongèd, spited, slain
Accursed, unhappy,
wretched hateful day!
O woe, O woeful, woeful,
woeful day!
Despised, distressèd, hated,
martyred, killed!
Most detestable death, by
thee beguiled,
Most miserable hour that
e'er time saw
Most lamentable day, most
woeful day
Uncomfortable time, why
cam'st thou now
That ever, ever I did yet
behold!
To murder, murder our
solemnity?
O day, O day, O day, O
hateful day,
O child, O child, my soul
and not my child!
Never was seen so black a
day as this!
Dead art thou, alack, my
child is dead,
O woeful day, O woeful
day…
And with my child my joys
are burièd.
By cruel, cruel, thee quite
overthrown!
O love, O life, not life, but
love in death!
In lasting labor of his
pilgrimage!
But one, poor one, one
poor and loving child,
But one thing to rejoice and
solace in,
And cruel death hath
catched it from my sight!
Q1
PARIS
MOTHER
ALL
CAPULET
Par: Haue I thought long to see
this mornings face,
And doth it now present such
prodegies?
Accurst, vnhappy, miserable
man,
Forlorne, forsaken, destitute I am:
Borne to the world to be a slaue
in it.
Distrest, remediles, and
vnfortunate.
O heauens , O nature, wherefore
did you make me,
To liue so vile, so wretched as I
shall.
Cap: O heere she lies that
was our hope, our ioy,
And being dead, dead
sorrow nips vs all.
All at once cry out
and wring their
hands.
All cry: All our ioy,
and all our hope is
dead,
Dead, lost, vndone,
absented, wholy fled.
O sad fac'd sorrow map of
misery,
O woe, alacke, distrest, why
should I liue?
Cruel, vniust, impartiall
destinies,
18
Why this sad time haue I desird
to see.
To see this day, this
miserable day.
Why to this day haue you
preseru'd my life?
This day, this vniust, this
impartiall day
Alacke the time that euer I
was borne,
Too see my hope, my
stay, my ioy, my life,
Wherein I hop'd to see my
comfort full,
To be partaker of this
destinie.
Depriude of sence, of
life, of all by death,
To be depriude by suddaine
destinie.
Alacke the day, alacke and
welladay.
Cruell, vniust, impartiall
destinies.
Q2
Q1
(2.2, vv. 185-192) A
Romeo:
Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast.
Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest.
The grey eyed morne smiles on the frowning night,
Checkring the Easterne Clouds with streaks of light,
And darknesse fleckted like a drunkard reeles,
From forth daies pathway, made by Tytans wheeles.
Hence will I to my ghostly Friers close cell,
His helpe to craue, and my deare hap to tell.
[5, vv. 204-207]
Romeo:
Sleepe dwell vpon thine eyes, peace on thy breast.
I would that I were sleep and peace of sweet to rest.
Now will I go to my Ghostly fathers Cell,
His help to craue, and my good hap to tell.
(2.3, vv. 1-10) B
Enter Frier alone with a basket.
Friar:
The grey-eyed morne smiles on the frowning night,
Checking the Easterne clowdes with streaks of light:
And fleckeld darknesse like a drunkard reeles,
From forth daies path, and Titans burning
wheeles:
Now ere the sun aduance his burning eie,
The day to cheere, and nights dancke dewe to drie,
I must vpfill this osier cage of ours,
With balefull weedes, and precious iuyced flowers,
The earth that’s natures mother is her tombe,
What is her burying graue, that is her wombe.
[6, vv. 1-8]
Enter Frier Francis
Friar
The gray ey’d morne smiles on the frowning night,
Checkring the Easterne clouds with streakes of light,
And flecked darkenes like a drunkard reeles,
From forth daies path, and Titans fierie wheeles:
Now ere the Sunne aduance his burning eye,
The world to cheare, and nights darke dew to drie
We must vp fill this oasier Cage of ours,
With balefull weeds, and precious iuyced flowers
Tavola 1- (P1 = personificazioni; P2 = proverbiale)
ATTO SCENA
2.3: vv. 31-34: Care keeps his watch in every old man’s eye, / And where care lodges, sleep will
never lie; / But where unbruisèd youth with unstuffed brain / Doth couch his limbs, there golden
sleep doth reign.
2.3: vv. 51-52: Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift./ Riddling confession finds but
riddling shrift.
2.3: vv. 63-64: […] Young men's love then lies / Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.
2.3: vv. 65-70: Jesu Maria, what a deal of brine / Hath washed thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline! /
How much salt water thrown away in waste / To season love, that of it doth not taste. / The sun
not yet thy sighs from heaven clears, / Thy old groans yet ring in mine ancient ears.
2.3: v. 74: Women may fall when there’s no strength in men
2.3: vv. 79-80: Not in a grave, / To lay one in another out to have.
P1
X
P2
X
Altre metafore
X
X
Codice petrarchista
X
2.3: v. 84: Thy love did read by rote, that could not spell.
2.3: v. 90: Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.
2.6: vv. 1-2: So smile the heavens upon this holy act / That after-hours with sorrow chide us not
X
X
X
2.6: vv. 9-11: These violent delights have violent ends / And in their triumph die like fire and
powder, / Which as they kiss, consume.
X
Risponde alla metafora di
Romeo: (And [thou] badest
me bury love)
Amore = studio
Codice religioso (Dio =
padre)
Desiderio violento =
polvere da sparo che presto
19
si consuma
2.6: vv. 11-13: The sweetest honey / Is loathsome in his own deliciousness /
And in the taste confounds the appetite.
2.6: v. 15: Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow
3.3: vv. 2-3: Affliction is enamored of thy parts, / And thou art wedded to calamity.
3.3: vv. 15-16: Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.
3.3: vv. 54-55: I'll give thee armor to keep off that word, / Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy,
3.3: v. 83: There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk.
3.3. vv. 108: Thy form cries out thou art.
3.3: vv. 11-12: Unseemly woman in a seeming man, / And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both.
X
X
X
Matrimonio con la sfortuna
X
X
Ebbro di pianto
X
Retorica della ripetizione.
Segue una lunga
dimostrazione
Romeo = usuraio +
metafora dell’abbigliamento
+
retorica della ripetizione
Metafora
dell’abbigliamento +
retorica della ripetizione +
metafora della polvere da
sparo e armi
Mente = compass
3.3: vv. 121-124: Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit, / Which like a usurer
aboundst in all / And usest none in that true use indeed
Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit.
3.3: vv. 129-133: Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love, / Misshapen in the conduct of them
both, / Like powder in a skilless soldier's flask, / Is set afire by thine own ignorance, / And thou
dismembered with thine own defence.
4.1: v. 47: It strains me past the compass of my wits
4.5: vv.: 65-66: […] Confusion’s cure lives not /
In these confusions.
X+
polipto
to
4.5: vv. 77-78: She’s not well married that lives married long, / But she’s best married that dies
married young.
4.5: vv. 82-83: For though fond nature bids us all lament,/ Yet nature’s tears are reason’s
merriment.
X
X
X
Q2
Q1
Enter Frier alone with a basket.
The grey-eyed morne smiles on the frowning night,
Checking the Easterne clowdes with streaks of light:
And fleckeld darknesse like a drunkard reeles,
From forth daies path, and Titans burning wheeles:
Now ere the sun aduance his burning eie,
The day to cheere, and nights dancke dewe to drie,
I must vpfill this osier cage of ours,
With balefull weedes, and precious iuyced flowers,
The earth that’s natures mother is her tombe,
What is her burying graue, that is her wombe
And from her womb children of divers kind
We sucking on her natural bosom find,
Many for many virtues excellent,
None but for some, and yet all different.
Oh, mickle is the powerful grace that lies
In plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities;
Enter Frier Francis
The gray ey’d morne smiles on the frowning night,
Checkring the Easterne clouds with streakes of light,
And flecked darkenes like a drunkard reeles,
From forth daies path, and Titans fierie wheeles:
Now ere the Sunne aduance his burning eye,
The world to cheare, and nights darke dew to drie
We must vp fill this oasier Cage of ours,
With balefull weeds, and precious iuyced flowers.
Oh mickle is the powerfull grace that lies
In hearbes, plants, stones, and their true qualities:
Brooke: Romeus and Juliet (1562, 1567, 1587) (vv. 556-
Painter: Rhomeo and Iulietta (Palace of Pleasure, 1567,
573, vv. 2109-2112)
vol. 2 novella 25)
1) He thankes the Gods, and from the heavens for
vengeance downe he cries/If he have other thought, but as
his lady spake. / And then his look he turned to her, and
this did answer make. / Since, Lady, that you like, to
honor me so much: / As to accept me for your spouse, I
yeelde myself for such. /In true witness wherof, because I
must depart: / Till then my deed do prove my word, I
leave in pawne my heart /
1) Rhomeo which looked for none other thing holding up
his hands to the heavens, wyth incredible joy and
contentation, aunswered: Madame for so much as it hath
pleased you to doe me that honour to accepte me for such
a one, I accord and consent to your request, and do offer
unto you the best part of my heart, which shall remain
with you for gauge and sure testimony of my saying, until
such time as god shall give leave to make the entire owner
and possessor of the same:
20
2) Tomorrow eke betimes, before the sunne arise, / To
fryer Laurence will I wende, to learne his sage advise./ He
is my ghostly syre, and oft he hath me taught / What I
should doe in things of wayght, when I his ayde have
sought./And at this selfe same houre, I plight you heére
my faith: / I will be here (if you think good) to tell you
what he saith. / She was contented well: elsfavour found
be none / That night at Lady Juliet’s hand save pleasant
words alone. /
3) This barefoot friergyrt, with cord his grayish weede.
For he of Frauncis order was, a fryer as I reede, / Not as
the most as he, a grosse unlearned foole: / But doctor of
divinitie proceeded he in schoole. / The secretes eke he
knew, in natures woorkes that loorke: / By magiks arte
most men supposd that he could wonders woorke. / Ne
doth it ill beseemedevines those skils to know / If on no
harmefulldeede they do such skillfulness bestow; / For
justly of no art can men condemn the use / But right and
reason’s lore cry out against the lewdabuse. / […]
4) What force the stones, the plants, and metals have to
woorke, / And divers other things that in the bowels of
earth do loorke, / With care I have sought out, with payne
I did them prove, / With them eke can I helpe myself, at
times of my behove […]
2) And to the intent I may begyn my enterpryse, to
morrow I will to the Frier Laurence for counsel in the
same who besides that he is my ghostly father is
accustomed to give me instruction in al my other secret
affaires, and fayle not (if you please) to meete me
agaynein this place at this very houre, to the intent I may
give you to understand the device betweene him and me,
which they liked very well, and enedded their talke for the
that time. Rhomeo receiving none other favour at his
hands for that night, but only Wordes.
3) Thys Fryer Laurence of whom heareafter we shall
make more ample mention, was an auncient Doctor of
Divinity, at the order of the Fryers Minors, who besides
the happy protestation which he had made in study of
holy writ, was very skillful in philosophy, and a great
searcher of natures Secrets, and exceeding famous in
Magike knowledge, and other hidden and secret sciences,
which nothing diminished his reputation, because he did
not abuse the same.[…]
4) I have proved the secrete properties of Stones, of
Plantes, Metals, and other thingeshydden within the
Bowels of the Earth, wherewith I am able to helpe myself
againste the common Lawe of Men, when necessity doth
serve […]