NURSE ‘Shake!’ quoth the dove-house; ’twas no need, I trow, To bid me trudge. And since that time it is eleven years, For then she could stand high-lone; nay, by th’rood, She could have run and waddled all about; For even the day before, she broke her brow, And […]
Continue ReadingEarthquakes and weaning (1.3.24-33)
NURSE ’Tis since the earthquake now eleven years, And she was weaned – I never shall forget it – Of all the days of the year, upon that day; For I had then laid wormwood to my dug, Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall. My lord and you […]
Continue ReadingLammas-tide, and Susan (1.3.15-23)
NURSE How long is it now To Lammas-tide? LADY CAPULET A fortnight and odd days. NURSE Even or odd, of all days in the year, Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen. Susan and she – God rest all Christian souls! – Were of an age. Well, Susan is with […]
Continue ReadingA pretty age (1.3.8-15)
LADY CAPULET This is the matter. Nurse, give leave a while, We must talk in secret. Nurse, come back again, I have remembered me, thou s’ hear our counsel. Thou knowest my daughter’s of a pretty age. NURSE Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour. LADY CAPULET She’s not fourteen. […]
Continue ReadingJuliet! (1.3.1-7)
Enter CAPULET’S WIFE and NURSE LADY CAPULET Nurse, where’s my daughter? call her forth to me. NURSE Now by my maidenhead at twelve year old, I bade her come. What, lamb! What, ladybird God forbid, where’s this girl? What, Juliet! Enter JULIET JULIET How now, who calls? NURSE Your mother. JULIET Madam, I am here, […]
Continue ReadingReflection on 1.2
The scene division is editorial, and it’s clear that the action is continuous between 1.1 and 1.2; it’s not implausible to imagine it as having happened in real time, given that Capulet goes with the Prince to be admonished half way through 1.1, and then is reporting this to Paris as they enter at the […]
Continue ReadingSplendour of mine own (1.2.94-101)
BENVOLIO Tut, you saw her fair, none else being by, Herself poised with herself in either eye; But in that crystal scales let there be weighed Your lady’s love against some other maid That I will show you shining at this feast, And she shall scant show well that now […]
Continue ReadingDevout religion (1.2.88-93)
ROMEO When the devout religion of mine eye Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires; And these who, often drowned, could never die, Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars. One fairer than my love! the all-seeing sun Ne’er saw her match since first the world begun. (1.2.88-93) And […]
Continue ReadingSwans and crows (1.2.82-87)
BENVOLIO At this same ancient feast of Capulet’s Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so loves With all the admirèd beauties of Verona: Go thither, and with unattainted eye Compare her face with some that I shall show, And I will make thee think thy swan a crow. (1.2.82-87) […]
Continue ReadingGuest list… (1.2.55-81)
ROMEO God-den, good fellow. SERVANT God gi’ god-den. I pray, sir, can you read? ROMEO Ay, mine own fortune in my misery. SERVANT Perhaps you have learned it without book; but I pray, can you read any thing you see? ROMEO Ay, if I know the letters and the language. SERVANT Ye say honestly, rest […]
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