LADY CAPULET         We shall be short in our provision,

                                    ’Tis now near night.

CAPULET                                                        Tush, I will stir about,

                                    And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, wife:

                                    Go thou to Juliet, help to deck up her;

                                    I’ll not to bed tonight; let me alone,

                                    I’ll play the huswife for this once. What ho!

                                    They are all forth. Well, I will walk myself

                                    To County Paris, to prepare up him

                                    Against tomorrow. My heart is wondrous light,

                                    Since this same wayward girl is so reclaimed.

                                                                                    Exeunt. (4.2.37-46)

’Tis now near night – that’s the crucial detail here, rather than any anticipated inadequacies in the catering – and Lady Capulet’s anxieties about time pressure and things being out of control here stand for Juliet’s undoubted nerves. Capulet is back to being expansive: he’s got what he wants, so all’s right with the world. But my heart is wondrous light is clearly setting him up for a fall, for the terrible situation in a few short hours when not being ready for the guests will seem utterly trivial. Capulet’s now given so many orders that he’s run out of servants, so he’s going to go to Paris himself to tell him the good news and prepare up him against tomorrow; he sees himself as responsible for everyone, as the ultimate father figure as well as the huswife, the ultimate host. Reclaimed is interesting here: it means to restore to obedience, to reform, put right, correct – but it’s also a word that’s used specifically of animals and, especially, hawks. (Birds! Birds are back!) To reclaim a hawk is to call it back, with words or a lure. But Juliet is no longer under her father’s control: in the balcony scene she was Romeo’s nïesse, his hawk, and he was her tassel-gentle, tied to her with a silken thread; she longed for a falconer’s voice. Romeo and Juliet have imagined themselves as both hawks and falconers; they answer to each other’s voice alone; they fly together and long to return to each other. Capulet cannot reclaim his daughter.