ROMEO and JULIET; ACT 1, Scene 3
In this scene, we meet Juliet and the Nurse. Lady Capulet sends the Nurse out of the room in order to talk to Juliet about marriage - a sort of “mother-daughter” talk – but she gets embarrassed and calls the Nurse in again to do the dirty work for her.
When is Juliet’s birthday?
July 31st.
How many teeth does the Nurse have?
Four
Approximately how old is Lady Capulet?
Twenty five or maybe twenty six.
Who is Susan?
The nurse’s daughter.
What happened to her?
She died.
“Susan and she (Juliet) were of an age (God rest all Christian souls!
Well, Susan is with God;
She was too good for me.”
How long ago was the earthquake which shook the dove house (bird house)?
“Shake, quoth the dovehouse! Twas no need, I trow (I vow) / To bid me trudge! (You didn’t have to tell me twice to start runnin’!)
And since that time it is eleven years,…”
Where were Lord and Lady Capulet at the time of the earthquake?
In Mantua, probably on vacation, while Juliet stayed behind in Verona with the Nurse and her family.
Explain the joke the Nurse’s husband made.
When Juliet was small and learning to walk, she fell forward and hit her head that left a small bump on her forehead. The Nurse’s husband laughed and joked that when she is older she will fall on her back instead. (It’s a slightly naughty, sexual joke.)
The nurse is maternal and very earthy and lusty. In many ways, she is fulfilling the maternal role that Juliet’s mother should fill, but does not. According to the custom of the day, the Nurse actually breastfed Juliet, not the mother. The Nurse is talking about an incident which occurred eleven years ago, when Juliet was two years old, and the Nurse was trying to wean Julet from the breast.
“And she was weaned (I shall never forget it) …. For I had then laid wormword to my dug…”
(Wormword was a bitter ointment put on the breast so the baby would not want to nurse.)
(Dug is breast)
“When it (Juliet) did taste the wormwood on the nipple / Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool, / To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug!”
What is the extended metaphor Lady Capulet uses to describe Paris?
She is comparing Paris to a book.
“Read o’er the volume of young Paris’ face…”
“…find delight writ there with beauty’s pens;”
“…how one another lends content;”
“…what obscured in this fair volume lies
Find written in the margent of his eye.
This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
To beauty him only lacks a cover.”
That book in many’s eyes doth share the glory,
That in gold clasps locks in the golden story;” (many people see him as handsome; and his beautiful looks hold inside his beautiful content).
Juliet’s mother asks her if she would be open to Paris’s love. Like Lord Capulet, Juliet’s mother reveals herself to be a very open and progressive parent. In the 1500’s, (and in many parts of the world today) parents, not the children, decide whom and when they will marry. Juliet’s response is that she will look at Paris with the intention to like, but she will not like him more than her mother will allow.
The women’s conversation is interrupted by a servant who comes in to tell them the evening’s party is about to begin, and their services are needed in the preparation for the evening’s festivities.
Act 1, Scene 4:
Setting: late that night (Sunday night) in front of the Capulet villa. Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio are deciding how best to crash the party. Remember, they are sworn enemies of the Capulets and what they are about to do is very dangerous.
Romeo: What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse? / Or shall we on without apology?
Benvolio: The date is out of such prolixity.
At that time it was the custom, although even then the custom was fading and increasingly considered old fashioned, for invited guests to announce themselves in a clever or eloquent way when they entered.
The three friends are deciding whether they should announce themselves
Tartar’s painted bow of lath: badly made costume of a savage with fake bow and arrow. This costume would scare the ladies at the party.
Nor no without-book prologue: Memorized.
Faintly spoke / After the prompter: Shyly and badly spoken by an ill prepared actor.
Benvolio boldy states they should saunter in and let the Capulets look at them if they like (“measure us by what they will”) and he, Romeo and Mecutio will dance (“measure them a measure”) and then leave.
There are many references to light and dark and lightness and heaviness; and LOTS of puns relating to feelings of depression and heaviness.
Can you find them?
Romeo: Give me a torch. I am not for this ambling. // Being but heavy, I will bear the light.
Find other examples of Romeo being totally emo over his unrequited love for Rosaline.
Romeo: Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, / Too rude, too boist’rous, and it pricks like thorn.
Notice Mercutio’s tough love approach to love:
“if love be tough with you, be tough with love!”
More puns which show Romeo being emo over Rosaline.
Romeo: You have dancing shoes / With nimble soles; I have a soul of lead / So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.
Romeo: Under love’s heavy burden do I sink.
Romeo: I am too sore empierced with his shaft ; To soar with his light feathers; and so bound / I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe. // Under love’s heavy burden do I sink.
Romeo: I’ll be a candleholder and look on;
The game was ne’er so fair. And I am done.
Dun: mouse color. It is grayish brown and is also the color of a horse.
Romeo: I am done. (As in stick a fork in me, I’m done).
Mercutio, ever clever, plays off that word “done”, refers to a mouse (“Dun’s the mouse”) in a fairy tale that is now lost to us, and a horse that is stuck in the mud.
Thou art dun (as in being a horse, a dun colored horse, stuck in the mud….).
Mercutio is calling Romeo a stick in the mud (a killjoy, a wet blanket, etc.). “We’ll pull thee from the mire (the mud) of this self-reverence love (self-indulgent, self absorbed love), wherein thou stickest / Upon to the ears.”
Is Mercutio a good friend?
What is Mercutio trying to do with the Queen Mab speech?
Midwife: a person who helps to deliver babies. Queen Mab helps deliver fairy babies.
Agate stone: a nice mineral
Alderman: official in the church
How does she get around? In a wagon drawn by atomies (tiny creatures)
Wagons spokes are made of spider legs.
The wagon cover is made of grasshoppers’ wings.
Traces: rings and harnesses (Long poles attached to the cart which are then attached to the harness of the horse so the horse can pull the cart.)
Traces are made of spider webs.
Collars are made of watery moon beam.
The whip is made of cricket’s bone.
The wagoner is the coachman. He drives the wagon.
Gnats: tiny insects that fly around fruit.
Lazy people had worms in their fingers.
Chariot (couch) is made from empty hazel nuts.
Joiner squirrels make the chariots (or couch) for Queen Mab.
They have been doing this since “time out o’ mind” – which is a long time.
Courtier: someone who waits on the king and the queen in court.
Parson: a minister or a preacher
Tithe: a tenth of someone’s money which one is suppose to give to the church.
400 years ago most people were farmers and used the barter system. How did a typical farmer pay his tithe (1/10 of his income) to the church?
A tenth of a pig would be its tail.
Benefice: Parson’s income
“…Of healths five fathoms deep…”
Health: is a toast (To your health!)
Fathom: is twenty feet deep
And is used to measure the depth of water.
The soldier is dreaming of a huge (100 feet deep) tankard of ale or beer or whatever.
“…Drums in his ears, at which he starts and wakes, / And being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two / And sleeps again….”
Anon: soon
War drums: drums were used to urge the soldiers into battle. When old warhorses or soldiers heard the war drums they knew they would be going back into battle.
If you have a bad hair day, (“…bakes the elflocks in foul, sluttish hairs…”) blame Queen Mab, but don’t untangle it because you will have bad luck (“…which once untangled much misfortune bodes.”)
Choose four of the following scenes or sections from the Queen Mab speech; illustrate the four scenes and write the lines underneath them as captions. This will be due on Friday, May 14th.
Lines 53 – 69: 1 scene
Lines 67 – 69: 2nd scene
Lines 70 – 71: 3rd scene
Line 72: 4th scene
Line 73: 5th scene
Lines 74 - 76: 6th scene
Lines 77 – 78: 7th scene
Lines 79 – 81: 8th scene
Lines 82 – 88: 9th scene
Lines 88 – 91: 10th scene
Lines 92 – 95: 11th scene
Foreshadowing:
“…for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night’s revels and expire the term
Of a despised life, closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death…”
Romeo has a premonition that tonight will be the start of a series of events that will lead to his death.
This is an example of foreshadowing which is a literary device used by writers to give hints that something is going to happen later in the play or novel. Anton Chekhov, a Russian writer and playwright who died in 1902, believed that if a gun is spoken about or referred to in the first act, it should definitely be used in the third act.
ROMEO and JULIET
Act 1; Scene 5
Lines: 1- 15
The servants are busy clearing the tables and chairs to make way for the dance. The first serving man and the second serving man are complaining about Potpan, the third serving man who is no where to be found. The first serving man asks the other servant to save him some dessert for later, and to tell the porter (the door man) to leave the door open so that their friends, Susan Grindstone, and Nell, and Anthony can sneak in and have their own par-tay!
Trencher: plate
Joint-stool: stool
Porter: doorman
Marchpane: flan; dessert
Lines 16 – 40
Lord Capulet and Second Capulet
They are discussing the last time they “masked” (wore visors or masks) or in other words, were bachelors and chased the ladies.
Lord Capulet and Second Capulet
Nuptial: wedding or marriage ceremony
Pentecost: Easter
Lines 41 – 92
Romeo, Second Serving Man, Tybalt, Capulet
Lines 41 – 92
Romeo, Second Serving Man, Tybalt, Capulet
Romeo spots the lovely Juliet and forgets all about Rosaline. Tybalt overhears Romeo asking the serving man who Juliet is and flies into a rage that this villain “that is hither come in spite / To scorn at our solemnity this night.” Capulet, mindful that he had been warned just a few hours earlier by the Prince that another riot like the one this afternoon would result in his execution, tells Tybalt to calm down, saying about Romeo that “Verona brags of him, / To be a virtuous and well-governed youth…”
Have you ever been in a situation where your mom or dad was really angry with you and scolding you when a teacher, a principal or a minister, or another adult suddenly walks up? Your mom or dad breaks off in mid-scold and, putting on a fake nice voice, greets the teacher, principal, etc. as if everything is perfectly all right; and then as soon as the teacher, principal, minister, etc. walks away, your mom or dad starts scolding you again? Well, that’s what’s going on between lines 83 – 88. Capulet is scolding Tybalt for wanting to fight Romeo (“This trick may chance to scathe you…”) and then quickly changing attitude, becoming all charming and greeting his guests as they walk up (“Well said, my hearts! –) Then going back to yelling at Tybalt (“You are a princox”) and then turning on the charm with other guests who walk by (Cheerly, my hearts!)
Tybalt reluctantly agrees to obey Capulet’s orders while under his roof (“I will withdraw”) but he is so angry he is trembling. “Patience perforce (enforced patience) with willful choler (strong willed anger) meeting / Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.” Have you ever been so angry, yet not able to act on it, that you are trembling from the effort to restrain yourself? You haven’t? That’s a good thing, but as we can see, Tybalt IS that angry and vows revenge. “…but this intrusion shall, / Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt’rest gall.” Romeo’s intrusion, tolerated now, will result in a most bitter consequence.
This sets the stage for what follows next.
Lines 93 – 119
Romeo, Juliet, and the Nurse
Lines 120 – 127
Benvolio
Lines 93 – 119
Romeo, Juliet, and the Nurse
Lines 120 – 127
Benvolio, Romeo and Capulet
Lines 128 – 146
Juliet, Nurse, son of old Tiberio, Petruchio,
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