Shakespeare's Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare (best books to read all time .TXT) 📗
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58. Antic face. Referring to Romeo's mask. Cf. ii. 4. 29 below.
59. Fleer. Sneer, mock; as in Much Ado, v. 1. 58, etc. For scorn at, cf. A.Y.L. iii. 5. 131, K. John, i. 1. 228, etc. We find scorn without the preposition in L. L. L. iv. 3. 147: "How will he scorn!" Solemnity here expresses only the idea of ceremony, or formal observance. Cf. the use of solemn = ceremonious, formal; as in Macb. iii. 1. 14: "To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir;" T. of S. iii. 2. 103: "our solemn festival," etc. Hunter quotes Harrington, Ariosto:—
64. In spite. In malice; or, as Schmidt explains it, "only to defy and provoke us." Cf. i. 1. 75 above.
67. Content thee. "Compose yourself, keep your temper" (Schmidt). Cf. Much Ado, v. 1. 87, T. of S. i. 1. 90, 203, ii. 1. 343, etc. So be contented; as in M.W. iii. 3. 177, Lear, iii, 4. 115, etc.
68. Portly. The word here seems to mean simply "well-behaved, well-bred," though elsewhere it has the modern sense; as in M.W. i. 3. 69: "my portly belly;" 1 Hen. IV. ii. 4. 464: "A goodly portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent," etc.
72. Do him disparagement. Do him injury. Cf. "do danger" (J.C. ii. 1. 17), "do our country loss" (Hen. V. iv. 3. 21), "do him shame" (R. of L. 597, Sonn. 36. 10, L. L. L. iv. 3. 204), etc. See also iii. 3. 118 below.
77. It fits. Cf. A.W. ii. 1. 147: "where hope is coldest, and despair most fits," etc.
81. God shall mend my soul! Cf. A.Y.L. iv. 1. 193: "By my troth, and in good earnest, and so God mend me, and by all pretty oaths that are not dangerous," etc. See also 1 Hen. IV. iii. 1. 255.
83. Cock-a-hoop. "Of doubtful origin" (New. Eng. Dict.), though the meaning is clear. Set cock-a-hoop = play the bully. S. uses the word only here.
86. Scathe. Injure. S. uses the verb nowhere else; but cf. the noun in K. John, ii. 1. 75: "To do offence and scathe in Christendom;" Rich. III. i. 3. 317: "To pray for them that have done scathe to us," etc.
87. Contrary. Oppose, cross; the only instance of the verb in S. Steevens quotes Greene, Tully's Love: "to contrary her resolution;" Warner, Albion's England: "his countermand should have contraried so," etc. The accent in S. is variable. Cf. the adjective in iii. 2. 64 below.
88. Well said. Well done. Cf. Oth. ii. 1. 169, v. 1. 98, etc. Princox = a pert or impertinent boy; used by S. only here. Steevens quotes The Return from Parnassus, 1606: "Your proud university princox." Cotgrave renders "un jeune estourdeau superbe" by "a young princox boy."
Coleridge remarks here: "How admirable is the old man's impetuosity, at once contrasting, yet harmonized with young Tybalt's quarrelsome violence! But it would be endless to repeat observations of this sort. Every leaf is different on an oak-tree; but still we can only say, our tongues defrauding our eyes, This is another oak leaf!"
91. Patience perforce. Compulsory submission; a proverbial expression. Nares quotes Ray's Proverbs: "Patience perforce is a medicine for a mad dog" (or "a mad horse," as Howell gives it). Cf. Spenser, F.Q. ii. 3. 3:—
94. Convert. For the intransitive use, cf. R. of L. 592, Much Ado, i. 1. 123, Rich. II. v. 1. 66, v. 3. 64, etc. Some make it transitive, with now seeming sweet (= "what now seems sweet") as its object; but this seems too forced a construction.
96. The gentle fine. The sweet penance for the offence; that is, for the rude touch of my hand. For fine the early eds. have "sin" or "sinne." The emendation is due to Warburton; but some editors retain "sin."
105. Let lips do, etc. Juliet has said that palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss. She afterwards says that palmers have lips that they must use in prayer. Romeo replies that the prayer of his lips is that they may do what hands do, that is, that they may kiss.
109. As Malone remarks, kissing in a public assembly was not then thought indecorous. Cf. Hen. VIII. i. 4. 28.
White remarks: "I have never seen a Juliet on the stage who appeared to appreciate the archness of the dialogue with Romeo in this scene. They go through it solemnly, or at best with staid propriety. They reply literally to all Romeo's speeches about saints and palmers. But it should be noticed that though this is the first interview of the lovers, we do not hear them speak until the close of their dialogue, in which they have arrived at a pretty thorough understanding of their mutual feeling. Juliet makes a feint of parrying Romeo's advances, but does it archly, and knows that he is to have the kiss he sues for. He asks, 'Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?' The stage Juliet answers with literal solemnity. But it was not a conventicle at old Capulet's. Juliet was not holding forth. How demure is her real answer: 'Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use—in prayer!' And when Romeo fairly gets her into the corner, towards which she has been contriving to be driven, and he says, 'Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purg'd,' and does put them to that purgation, how slyly the pretty puss gives him the opportunity to repeat the penance by replying, 'Then have my lips the sin that they have took!'"
114. What. Who; as often. Cf. 130 below.
119. Shall have the chinks. This seems much like modern slang. S. uses it only here; but Tusser (Husbandry, 1573) has both chink and chinks in this sense, and the word is found also in Florio, Cotgrave, Holinshed, Stanihurst, and other old writers.
120. My life, etc. "He means that, as bereft of Juliet he should die, his existence is at the mercy of his enemy, Capulet" (Staunton). Cf. Brooke:—
124. Foolish. A mere repetition of the apologetic trifling. Banquet sometimes meant a dessert, as here and in T. of S. v. 2. 9:—
Nares quotes Massinger, Unnatural Combat:—
and Taylor, Pennilesse Pilgrim: "our first and second course being threescore dishes at one boord, and after that alwayes a banquet." Towards = ready, at hand (Steevens). So toward; as in M.N.D. iii. 1. 81: "What, a play toward!"
125. Is it e'en so? The 1st quarto has here the stage-direction: "They whisper in his eare;" that is, whisper the reason of their departure.
128. By my fay. That is, by my faith. Cf. Ham. ii. 2. 271, etc.
130. Come hither, nurse, etc. Cf. Brooke:—
136. If he be married, etc. "Uttered to herself while the Nurse makes inquiry" (Dowden). Married is here a trisyllable.
142. Prodigious. Portentous. Cf. M.N.D. v. 1. 419, K. John, iii. 1. 46, Rich. III. i. 2. 23, etc.
ACT IIEnter Chorus. This is generally put at the end of act i., but, as it refers to the future, rather than the past, it may be regarded as a prologue to act ii. There is no division of acts or scenes in the early eds.
2. Gapes. Rushton quotes Swinburn, Briefe Treatise of Testaments and Last Willes, 1590: "such personnes as do gape for greater bequests;" and again: "It is an impudent part still to gape and crie upon the testator."
3. On the repetition of for, cf. A.W. i. 2. 29: "But on us both did haggish age steal on;" Cor. ii. 1. 18: "In what enormity is Marcius poor in?" etc. Fair = fair one; as in M.N.D. i. 1. 182, etc.
10. Use. Are accustomed. We still use the past tense of the verb in this sense, but not the present. Cf. Temp. ii. 1. 175: "they always use to laugh at nothing;" T.N. ii. 5. 104: "with which she uses to seal;" A. and C. ii. 5. 32: "we use To say the dead are well," etc. See also Milton, Lycidas, 67: "Were it not better done, as others use," etc.
14. Extremities. That is, extreme difficulties or dangers.
Scene I.—2. Dull earth. "Romeo's epithet for his small world of man, the earthlier portion of himself" (Clarke). Cf. Sonn. 146. 1: "Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth."
5. Orchard. That is, garden; the only meaning in S.
6. Conjure. Accented by S. on either syllable, without regard to the meaning.
7. Humours! Fancies, caprices. Some read "Humour's madman! Passion-lover!" See on 29 below.
10. Ay me! Often changed here and elsewhere to "Ah me!" which occurs in the old eds. of S. only in v. 1. 10 below. Ay me! is found thirty or more times. Milton also uses it often.
11. My gossip Venus. Cf. M. of V. iii. 1. 7: "if my gossip Report be an honest woman of her word."
13. Young Abraham Cupid. The 2d and 3d
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