New infection (1.2.44-55)

Enter BENVOLIO and ROMEO BENVOLIO      Tut, man, one fire burns out another’s burning,                         One pain is lessened by another’s anguish;                         Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning;                         One desperate grief cures with another’s languish: Take thou some new infection to thy eye,                         And the rank poison of the old will […]

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Comic confusion (1.2.34-43)

CAPULET                                [To Servant] Go, sirrah, trudge about                         Through fair Verona, find those persons out                         Whose names are written there [Gives a paper.], and to them say,                         My house and welcome on their pleasure stay.                                                                         Exit [with Paris] SERVANT        Find them out whose names are written here! It is written that the […]

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Fennel/female buds (1.2.26-34)

CAPULET        Such comfort as do lusty young men feel                         When well-apparelled April on the heel                         Of limping winter treads, even such delight                         Among fresh fennel buds shall you this night                         Inherit at my house; hear all, all see;                         And like her most whose merit most shall be;                         Which on […]

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Earth-treading stars (1.2.20-25)

CAPULET        This night I hold an old accustomed feast,                         Whereto I have invited many a guest,                         Such as I love, and you among the store,                         One more, most welcome, makes my number more.                         At my poor house look to behold this night                         Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light. (1.2.20-25) […]

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Choice and voice (1.2.14-19)

CAPULET        Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she;                         She’s the hopeful lady of my earth.                         But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,                         My will to her consent is but a part;                         And she agreed, within her scope of choice                         Lies my consent and fair according voice. (1.2.14-19)   […]

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A stranger in the world (1.2.1-13)

Enter CAPULET, COUNTY PARIS, and the Clown [SERVANT to Capulet] CAPULET        But Montague is bound as well as I,                         In penalty alike, and ’tis not hard, I think,                         For men so old as we to keep the peace. PARIS              Of honourable reckoning are you both,                         And pity ’tis, you lived at odds […]

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Reflection on 1.1

Some thoughts on 1.1. It’s long – by a very rough line count, around 8% of the play. And it’s really good. The tonal shifts dazzle: the coiled spring of the Prologue. The increasing pace and driving rhythm of the servants (and the way in which this moves so naturally into first, verse, and then […]

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A note where I may read (1.1.219-229)

ROMEO                                               ’Tis the way                         To call hers (exquisite) in question more:                         These happy masks that kiss fair ladies’ brows,                         Being black, puts us in mind they hide the fair;                         He that is strucken blind cannot forget                         The precious treasure of his eyesight lost;                         Show me a mistress that is […]

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Teach me how I should forget to think (1.1.216-219)

BENVOLIO      Be ruled by me, forget to think of her. ROMEO           O teach me how I should forget to think. BENVOLIO      By giving liberty unto thine eyes,                         Examine other beauties. (1.1.216-219)   Plenty more fish in the sea, in other words. (According to the OED, the Cambridge student Gabriel Harvey made this observation in […]

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She hath foresworn to love (1.1.208-215)

BENVOLIO      Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste? ROMEO           She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste;                         For beauty starved with her severity                         Cuts beauty off from all posterity.                         She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair,                         To merit bliss by making me despair.                         She […]

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