IAMBIC PENTAMETER
Before we start, let's briefly examine Shakespeare's language.
IAMBIC PENTAMETER:
Penta means 5
Meter: means rhythm
IAMB: (the sound of the human heart) two syllables which fall into an unstressed/stressed rhythm.
BLANK VERSE: UNRHYMED VERSE IN IAMBIC PENTAMETER.
SHAKESPEARE WROTE MOSTLY IN BLANK VERSE.
Shakespeare’s verse did not always rhyme, but he did frequently use iambic pentameter – or blank verse. If you count how many syllables Shakespeare used in each line, it was usually ten syllables or five iambs.
Shakespeare sometimes used accent marks over the last syllable of words (such as banished) to preserve the ten syllable rule, and he removed letters, contracting the words so that the lines would not run long, past ten syllables, to preserve the iambic pentameter rule.
Example: E'en. The word is supposed to be "even" but by taking out the "v", the word contracts to one syllable, allowing the line to be in iambic pentameter.
The well born characters or lovers in Shakespeare’s plays frequently used blank verse, or rhymed verse, particularly when they were speaking of love or other rarified topics. The following is an example of blank verse. Romeo speaks this when he sees Juliet standing on her balcony. Notice that it has ten syllables or five iambs per line, or groupings of two syllables, the first one unstressed followed by the second one which is stressed. Notice that the following soliloquy DOES NOT RHYME:
(But, soft!) (what light) (through yon) (der win) (dow breaks?)
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou her maid art far more fair than she:
Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
It is my lady, O, it is my love!
O, that she knew she were!
The above is an example of blank verse or unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Well-born or aristocratic depressants (Romeo, Hamlet, etc) were thought to have more elevated, rarified sensibilities. They were considered to be more artistic, poetic, to be more intelligent and to have more highly developed sensibilities; therefore, they spoke in blank verse or rhymed verse.
RHYMED VERSE is always easy to identify for it is rhymed and in iambic pentameter. It has ten syllables, or five iambs per line, and each iamb has an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The following soliloquy by Romeo when he first sees Juliet is in rhymed verse - if you look at the last word on each line you will notice that it rhymes with the next line, forming a couplet.
(O, she) (doth teach) (the tor) (ches to) (burn bright!)
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
PROSE: The comic characters, such as servants, used prose. Prose is NOT verse; it is laid out differently on the page and looks like it is in paragraph form. It is not in iambic pentameter; it is not in stressed/ unstressed formation, and it is not rhymed. The following lines are spoken by Sampson, one of the Capulets' servants, in Act 1, Scene 1, telling Gregory, the other Capulet servant, what he intends to do to the Montagues. Notice that the lines do not have ten syllables or five iambs, they do not rhyme, and they are spoken by a servant; therefore, they are prose:
True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels,
are ever thrust to the wall: therefore I will push
Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids
to the wall.
Shakespeare used accent marks over the last syllable of “ed” words to maintain the iambic pentameter of a line.
ROMEO and JULIET
ACT ONE; SCENE 1
The setting is a hot, steamy day (Sunday) in Verona in July.
Puns: a pun is a play on words, or a joke using words that might have similar sounds but different meanings. In the opening scene there are a lot of jokes and puns where Gregory and Sampson are insulting each other good naturedly about their courage, their fighting skills and their skill with the ladies.
Coals
Colliers: people who carry coals.
When you carry coals you get all dirty.
Choler: (collar) a fever
Draw your neck out of the collar: take your neck out of the hangman’s noose!
Maidenhead: virginity
Maid is a young unmarried woman.
Valiant: Brave, courageous
To move: to be moved with passion or emotion; but this has a double meaning: in this case, to run away in fear!
A lot of Romeo and Juliet is NAUGHTY!!!!!
SAMPSON and GREGORY are servants of the house of Capulet. They are full of bluster and brag about what great fighters they are and what they are going to do if they run into the servants of the Montagues. And of course, their jokes quickly become naughty and sexual.
And of course, they do run into the servants of the rival house of the Montagues and both sides engage in cowardly bluster.
Sampson: "My naked weapon is out; quarrel, I will back thee!"
Sampson's line has a rather naughty subtext which you can probably figure out. But consider what Sampson is saying to Gregory - start the fight and I will back you! These are two bumbling guys. Would you trust either of them to back you in a fight?
Sampson counsels: "Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin."
Gregory brags: " I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as they list."
Sampson counters with: "Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; / Which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it."
Biting one's thumb at someone was a vulgar sign of disrespect and would definitely start a fight.
Abraham and Balthasar from the House of Montague enter, and Sampson, full of bravado, bites his thumb at them.
Abraham bristles and demands: "Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?"
Sampson, playing the lawyer, answers: "I do bite my thumb, sir."
Abraham:" Do you bite your thumb at
us, sir?"
Sampson, now not so certain, turns to his buddy and asks, " Is the law of (on) our side, if I say ay (yes)?"
Gregory gives an unequivocal "No!"
Sampson immediately backpedals and answers: "No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir."
The tension quickly escalates, the four fools draw their swords - Sampson to Gregory, "Gregory, remember thy swashing blow!" - and the servants fall into fighting. Benvolio, Romeo's cousin and close friend, appears and when he sees yet another street brawl is going on, immediately begs the men to put up their swords, but then Tybalt, from the House of Capulet, shows up and pulls out his sword and wades into the fight with gusto! This, in an instant, reveals the personalities of the two men.
A Little Historical Detour on Renaissance Medical Theory:
Lily livered: coward
In the 1600’s the medical community believed humors, which were basically four fluids that were exuded from the organs, caused or affected personalities. The four bodily humors were part of the Shakespearean cosmology inherited from the ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle, Hippocrates and Galen. The human personality contained one of the basic elements of earth, water, fire and air; the qualities of hot, cold, moist and dry; and a predominance of one of the four humors: black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood. Together, each component created a person's personality and governed her or his behavior.
An angry person was one whose spleen produced too much yellow bile (think acid reflux) which caused him or her to be irritable and out of sorts. This person was said to be choleric, which is a term used to this day to describe someone who is irritable and grouchy.
A melancholic person (or depressed person we would say today) would have too much black bile produced by the spleen, making her or him sad or melancholic in nature.
A person whose blood produced a great quantity of fluids was easy going and pleasant – or sanguine, which comes from the Latin word for blood. The sanguine person was also marked by a healthy ruddy (reddish) complexion. In Spanish the word for blood is sangre and in French, it is sang. Both French and Spanish are Latin based languages.
Lily livered: coward
It was believed that courage came from a really healthy red liver. If your liver was pale or white, that meant you were a coward; hence the term “lily livered” or yellow bellied.
Back to Story:
Shakespeare named the character Benvolio to let us know that he is a good or beneficial character in the play.
Benvolio: Ben means good so Benvolio is a good and peace loving guy. He is Romeo’s best friend. The prefix “bene” or “ben” means good or having good effects.
Examples:
Benevolent: the giving of alms or sustenance to another.
Beneficial: something good
Tybalt: is the name of a cat in a story. In Shakespeare’s time, many people named their cats “Tybalt”. So when Tybalt's name was pronounced on the stage in the 1500's, it probably got a few chuckles from the audience.
Tyrant: a despotic ruler
The brawl is getting more and more out of control as more boys and young men climb into the fray and more people gather to watch.
An elderly man and his much younger wife appear. They are Lord and Lady Capulet, Juliet's parents. He asks for a sword but she says he should have a crutch instead!
Why does Lady Capulet say to her husband: “Give him a crutch!”
Pair up with a partner, go over the Prince’s speech and translated it into modern, contemporary speech.
Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel,--
Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts,
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins,
On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
Throw your mistemper'd weapons to the ground,
And hear the sentence of your moved prince.
Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets,
And made Verona's ancient citizens
Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments,
To wield old partisans, in hands as old,
Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate:
If ever you disturb our streets again,
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
For this time, all the rest depart away:
You Capulet; shall go along with me:
And, Montague, come you this afternoon,
To know our further pleasure in this case,
To old Free-town, our common judgment-place.
Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.
Pernicious: a disease that devours and consumes; evil and destructive; a disease that is long standing and resistant to treatment or modification; behavior that is resistant to modification or discipline.
Imagery/metaphor:
Purple fountains issuing from your veins: injuries resulting in tremendous blood loss from sword fights.
Vocabulary:
Civil: domestic; at home
Brawl: fights; melees; free for alls.
Moved: angry; moved to anger
Airy word: some words spoken to provoke another
Thrice: three times
Prince:
If ever you disturb our streets again,
Your lives will pay the forfeit of the peace.
If you ever start another fight in the streets you will pay for it with your lives (the state will execute you for starting a riot.)
Fray: a brawl; a fight
Oxymoron: a rhetorical figure is created by the placing of two contradictory words or ideas together producing a new idea or concept. One example would be “freezer burn”, or “Microsoft Works” (j/k).
After the fighting has cleared away, the Montagues, Romeo's parents, speak to Benvolio who recounts the events of the brawl to them:
Here were the servants of your adversary,
And yours, close fighting ere I did approach:
I drew to part them: in the instant came
The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepared,
Which, as he breathed defiance to my ears,
He swung about his head and cut the winds,
Who nothing hurt withal hiss'd him in scorn:
While we were interchanging thrusts and blows,
Came more and more and fought on part and part,
Till the prince came, who parted either part.
Vocabulary:
Adversary: foe, enemy
Drew: to pull his sword from its sheath
Fiery: having the quality of fire; passionate, enraged, quick to anger
Withal: with
Benvolio is making fun of Tybalt when he says:
"The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepared,
Which, as he breathed defiance to my ears.
He swung about his head and cut the winds,
Who nothing hurt withal hissed him in scorn...."
Although Tybalt was shouting insults to Benvolio and swinging his sword around his head, cutting the air, he hurt no one and the wind hissed him in scorn. He was making a big show of being tough, but despite all the noise he was making - the insults, the fancy swordplay - he didn't hurt any one and the air mocked him with hissing.
However, the parents are more interested - and worried - about their son, Romeo, and ask Benvolio to tell them if he knows what is bothering him. Benvolio tells his parents that one morning when his mind was troubled, he went for a walk through town an hour before dawn, and there he saw Romeo by the grove of sycamore trees that grow on the west side of the city. When Romeo saw him he ducked into the grove, obviously not wanting to socialize. Benvolio, judging Romeo's behavior by how he (Benvolio) was feeling - Benvolio also wanted to be alone - didn't pursue him. Benvolio says to Lady Capulet:
Benvolio says to Lady Capulet:
Madam, an hour before the worshiped sun
Peered forth the golden window of the East
A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad
Where, underneath the grove of sycamore
That westward rooteth from the city's side,
So early walking did I see your son:
Towards him I made, but he was ware of me
And stole into the covert of the wood;
I, measuring his affections by my own,
That most are busied when they're most alone
Pursued my humor not pursuing his,
And gladly shunned who gladly fled from me."
Because Benvolio, a well born youth, is discussing a delicate, rarified subject - another well born youth's depression - to his mother, the language is in blank verse (unrhymed verse in iambic pentameter). It was believed well into the twentieth century, that the well born, or those of an intellectual, artistic sensibility, were more prone to moods of depression. The language used in this scene is refined, reflecting that belief that only those of refined temperament could be depressed or melancholic; therefore, Benvolio uses figurative language - allusion, personification and imagery - and blank verse to speak with this aristocratic lady about her depressed son.
Benvolio's monologues is rich with imagery for Shakespeare's word choice (diction) creates vivid images in the readers' mind that she sees the golden sunrise, the early dawn, the grove of sycamore trees.
Figurative Language:
"An hour before the worshipped sun
Peered forth the golden window of the East..."
Personification: giving human qualities to inanimate objects. The sun is peering through the golden window of the east - or in other words, it's rising.
Vocabulary:
Drave: old fashioned word for drove
Grove: a small group of trees
Sycamore: a type of tree
Romeo's parents are very worried about their son. He's totally emo! He walks alone all night and when the sun rises, he goes home, locks himself in his room, and draws the curtain. Montague tells Benvolio, his nephew:
Many a morning hath he there been seen,
With tears augmenting the fresh morning dew.
Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs;
But all so soon as the all-cheering sun
Should in the furthest east begin to draw
The shady curtains from Aurora's bed,
Away from the light steals home my heavy son,
And private in his chamber pens himself,
Shuts up his windows, locks far daylight out
And makes himself an artificial night:
Black and portentous must this humour prove,
Unless good counsel may the cause remove.
Vocabulary:
Augmenting: to add to
Aurora: Roman goddess of the dawn
Sounding: sounded out for what is troubling him. The depths of the water are “sounded out” to determine how deep the water is.
Montague's monologue is also filled with rich imagery, allusion and personification:
"Many a morning hath he there been seen,
With tears augmenting the fresh morning dew (Romeo is crying.)
Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs: (Like all depressed people he sighs a lot.)
But all so soon as the all cheering sun
Should in the furthest east begin to draw
The shady curtains from Aurora's bed (The Roman goddess Aurora pulls the curtains from her bed)
Away from the light steals home my heavy son (Heavy means depressed.)
And private in his chamber pens himself (Locks himself alone in his room.)
Shuts up his window, locks far daylight out (Draws the curtains.)
And makes himself an artificial night: (Sits in darkness.)
If he were a student today, he'd probably wear black nail polish and dress in black.
The parents ask Benvolio, his cousin and best friend, to find out what is bothering their son.
Lord Capulet is worried that Romeo may be destroyed by his depression before he can grow to full manhood. He says about his son:
"As is the bud bit with an envious worm
Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to air
Or dedicate his beauty to the sun."
This is a simile for two things are compared using "as". Romeo is compared to a flower bud and his depression is compared to an envious worm which will destroy him before he can spread his sweet leaves to the sun.
Ere: (pronounced like "air) Before
The parents ask Benvolio, his cousin and best friend, to find out what is bothering their son.
Romeo is seen walking towards them, and the parents, wanting Benvolio to speak to him, withdraw before he sees them.
When Romeo sees that fighting has occurred he says that the fighting…”Has more to do with love than hate….
They hate each other but they love something else more…they love to FIGHT.
He then launches into a series of OXYMORONS, which is a figure of speech that juxtaposes (places two contrasting words next to each other ) that are contradictory. Some examples are: "old news", "jumbo shrimp", "open secret", etc.
Shakespeare uses oxymorons to reveal a character's ambivalence and/or moral ambiguity about a situation or another character. Romeo says when he notices the remnants of the fight:
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O any thing, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire,
sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Romeo has no love for this street fighting. Romeo confesses to Benvolio that the reason he is depressed is that he is in love with a girl named Rosaline but the love is unrequited (she doesn't love him back).
Well, in that hit you miss: she'll not be hit
With Cupid's arrow; she hath Dian's wit;
And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd,
From love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd.
She will not stay the siege of loving terms,
Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes,
Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold:
O, she is rich in beauty, only poor,
That when she dies with beauty dies her store.
Like many people who suffer from unrequited love, Romeo implies that his beloved is a follower of Diana (she doesn’t like guys) rather than she just doesn’t like HIM.
Romeo's monologue uses an extended hunting metaphor, which incorporates Cupid, the tiny god of love, who hunts humans with his bow and arrow and once he shoots a human the man or woman falls in love. In contrast to the tiny god of terror, Cupid, there is Diana, the goddess of the moon, the hunt the stag, and chastity. Chastity means purity; virginal; abstinence (not having sex). Her followers were women who rejected the love of men. Romeo is saying that Rosaline has wrapped herself in Diana's armor of chastity, and from the weak childish arrows from Cupid's bow, she is protected.
"That when she dies with beauty dies her story."
This line refers to the concept of Carpe diem, which is Latin for "seize the day". Until the twentieth century, people did not, as a rule, live very long. Many children died before their second birthday and the few adults who made it to forty were worn out and to our eyes, prematurely aged. Therefore, poets and lovers of the 1600's urged their reluctant lovers to enjoy life, for all too soon life will be over, and without children, they will take their gifts to the grave and leave nothing of themselves - their beauty, for example, behind.
Benvolio suggests that the best way to get over an old love is to find a new love (“By giving liberty unto thine eyes, Examine other beauties…”) but Romeo disagrees…
“Show me a mistress that is passing fair; What doth her beauty serve but as a note / Where I may read who passed that passing fair? Romeo takes his leave of Benvolio, but his friend swears he will cure Romeo of his love sickness or die trying.
ROMEO and JULIET; Act 1, Scene 2
The scene begins in "media res", which means the scene starts in the middle of an action or a conversation between characters. Capulet, Juliet's father, and Paris, a young up-and-coming man about town are returning from Capulet's command appearance before the Prince for his role in the street riot earlier that day. Paris expresses an interest in marrying the young Juliet but Capulet argues that his daughter is too young yet to consider marriage; however, he is throwing a party that night and invites Paris to come and take a look and compare the other ladies with Juliet.
At that time, marriage was not based on love but on very pragmatic socio-economic needs of the families involved. It was rare for a young woman to have any say in whom she married, and it was the family who decided whom she married. If the parents, particularly the father, thought that marrying their fifteen year old daughter to a much older man (even fifty or older) made good financial sense, then the girl had very little recourse if she was distressed by the match. Unfortunately, in many parts of the world today, child brides as young as five are sold into marriages to much, much older men. Capulet seems to be a particularly sensitive and thoughtful father:
"My child is yet a stranger in the world;
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years,
Let two more summers wither in their pride,
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride."
Paris persists in pursuing the topic of marrying his daughter:
"Younger than she are happy mothers made."
Capulet answers (perhaps thinking of his own troubled marriage to a much, much younger wife):
"And too soon marred (scarred) are those so early made.
The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she,
She is the hopeful lady of my earth:
But woo her gentle Paris, get her heart,
My will to her consent is but a part;
An (if) she agree, with in her scope of choice
Lies my consent and fair according voice."
This is remarkably progressive on the part of Capulet - he will consent to the marriage if Juliet agrees to it; however, bear in mind that Paris is a count, which is an aristocratic title just below that of a duke, and he comes from a very powerful and moneyed family. It would be quite a coup (a really really good thing) for Capulet's daughter to marry Paris. Perhaps Capulet is being a good businessman who knows how to negotiate a deal - he doesn't want to seem too eager and knows that playing "hard to get" might make Paris want to marry Juliet even more.
He invites Paris to a party at his house tonight:
"This night I hold an old accustom'd 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;
Such comfort as do lusty young men feel
When well-appareled April on the heel
Of limping winter treads, even such delight
Among fresh female buds shall you this night
Inherit at my house; hear all, all see,
And like her most whose merit most shall be:
Which on more view, of many mine being one
May stand in number, though in reckoning none.
Personification:
Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light
Vocabulary:
Treading: walking
Beautiful young women, like stars descended from the sky, will walk the earth tonight at his party.
Adjective Clause:
At my poor house look to behold this night
Earth-treading stars (Earth-treading: adjective; epithet)(Stars: noun)
Relative Pronoun: that
Adjective Clause: Make dark heaven light;
Personification:
Such comfort as do lusty young men feel
When
well-appareled April on the heel
Of limping winter treads,,,,"
Capulet is comparing the feelings these young women will arise in the young men to the same feelings they have in the spring when young men's thoughts turn to love.
April is a beautifully dressed young woman stepping on the heels of old Winter as she limps out.
Capulet is telling Paris to look at the other beautiful young women at the party to see if he still thinks Juliet is the one for him.
Capulet then gives the guest list to his servant who happens to be illiterate.
After Capulet and Paris are out of earshot, the servant complains that giving him, an illiterate servant, a guest list to read is like giving a shoe maker a tape measure, a tailor a shoe mold, a fisherman a pencil, and a painter fishing nets. In other words, people should do what they are suited and trained for.
Benvolio and Romeo arrive a few moments later, also “in media res”, which means the scene starts in the middle of an action or a conversation between the characters. Benvolio is giving love advice to Romeo.
One fire burns out another’s burning is a metaphor for “a cure for one love is a new love”.
Turn giddy means be drunk with happiness. By acting happy he will eventually feel happier.
“Be holp by backward turning”: be helped by turning in the opposite direction.
Holp is the old fashioned, archaic word for helped.
When Romeo reads the list he finds out that Rosaline is an invited guest.
But the party is a Capulet party. That’s a problem.
Benvolio encourages Romeo to go to the Capulet’s party.
Benvolio tells Romeo to check out other ladies because when Romeo saw Rosaline she was not with other women “….You saw her fair, none else being by…”so Romeo couldn’t compare her to other ladies.
“Herself poised with herself in either eye; / But in that crystal scales let there be weighed / Your lady’s love against some other maid.”
The crystal scale would be the two eyes. So Benvolio tells Romeo to put Rosaline on one side of the crystal scale (eye) and a beautiful lady on the other side of the crystal scale (the other eye) and see which one is more beautiful.
Benvolio says to him,”…Your lady’s love against some other maid / That I will show you shining at this feast, / And she shall scant (scarcely) show well that now seems best.”
This means that when Romeo sees the other ladies at the Capulet party, Rosaline will not look good at all even though Romeo now thinks she’s the best.
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.
ROMEO and JULIET; 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. But remember, it is a masked ball and everyone will be wearing masks to disguise their identity. Masked balls were a very popular past time for the aristocracy, particularly in Florence, Italy, who spent half the year wearing masks, attending balls and gambling. Wearing masks gives the wearer a freedom or license to do what he or she would not normally do.
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 (coach) 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 supposed 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
When Mercutio becomes overwrought, Romeo seeks to calm him by saying, "Thou speak of nothing", which Mercutio uses to bring the argument around to his original point which is,"True, I speak of dreams."
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! Notice that the servants speak in prose.
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.
Romeo says when he sees Juliet for the first time:
"O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
The measure (the dance) done, I'll watch her place of stand,
And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
Notice how Romeo now uses many references to light:
"She doth teach the torches to burn bright!"
and:
"It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear..."
His monologue is also filled with rich imagery or words or phrases which create strong images in our minds or strong sensory reactions, such as sound, or touch (cold or heat) as we read.
Imagery:
"Torches to burn bright!"
"Cheek of night"
"Rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear
Tybalt overhears Romeo asking the serving man who Juliet is, and recognizing his voice, 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.
Romeo moves to Juliet and using the lovers' convention at the time, of invoking religious symbolism to describe romantic love, says to her:
"If I do profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."
Vocabulary:
Profane: to dirty, to sully, to besmirch, to make less holy
Holy shrine: Juliet
Fine: punishment
Pilgrims: religiously devout Christians who journey to places of spiritual importance to show reverence.
He is comparing his lips to two shy pilgrims which will smooth his rough touch with a kiss. Romeo is a little forward.
Juliet, very much up to the task of bantering with Romeo, counters with:
"Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion is this:
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands to touch
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
The exchange between the two create a sort of sonnet, a fourteen line poem, which shows their flirtation, in which Romeo urges Juliet to let her lips do what pilgrims' hands do in prayer - touch!
Romeo:
"O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do:
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
Juliet:
"Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake."
Romeo:
"Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged."
He kisses her!
Vocabulary:
Purge: to be purified by burning away the dross or the impurities.
Juliet:
"Then have my lips the sin that they have took."
Romeo:
"Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again.
And he kisses her again, to take away the sin he has placed on her lips.
As the partiers dance and swirl around them, Romeo and Juliet are enfolded in their own world, unheeding of others outside their sphere of youth, beauty and love....until the Nurse arrives to tell Juliet that her mother "craves a word with you". Perhaps Lady Capulet wishes to introduce her to Paris or perhaps the Nurse is concerned that Juliet is kissing a young man, but while Juliet is away, the Nurse reveals to Romeo that her mother is "the lady of the house", which means she is a Capulet. The Nurse continues, "he that can lay hold of her / Shall have the chinks..."which means that the guy lucky enough to land her will be rewarded with a lot of dough (chinks is money).
However, Romeo is devastated by the news! He says:
"Is she a Capulet?
O dear account! my life is my foe's debt.
His foe (enemy) now holds his life in her hands.
Benvolio sprints past and exhorts his buddies to leave - "the sport is at the best!" - the games are just getting started!
Capulet is trying to convince his guests to stay for a "trifling foolish banquet"or a small post dance dinner but it is late and the guests file out despite Capulet's offer of food:
Capulet:
"It it e'en so? (E'en is even; the "v" is removed to preserve the iambic pentameter or ten syllables per line)
Why, then, I thank you all.....
Good night.....
More torches here! Come on then, let's to bed.
Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late:
I'll to my rest."
Romeo makes his way to the door as Juliet returns to the Nurse. Juliet, trying to play it cool so that the Nurse won't catch who she is really asking about, first inquires about that "yond gentleman?" To which the Nurse answers that it is the son and heir of Old Tiberio. Juliet then asks, "What's he that now is going out of door?" The Nurse replies, "...that, I think, be young Petrucio." Juliet, a little more desperate seeing Romeo leaving, asks, "What's he that follows there, that would not dance?" The Nurse doesn't know and while she goes to find out, Juliet says to herself with a tragic lack of knowledge how true her words will be, "If he be married. / My grave is like to be my wedding bed."
The Nurse returns with the fateful words:
"His name is Romeo and a Montague;
The only son of your great enemy."
Juliet:
"My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early see unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy."
Her first and only love is from the hated family of the Montagues - the one boy she is not supposed to love! - too soon seen without knowing he who is. Prodigious refers to monstrous omens which could surround a birth or a wedding which may portend of a family's bad fortune. Juliet is fretting her ill luck - again, a reference to fate and fortune, and a belief that one's fate is not decided by oneself but is in the hands of supernatural forces. She foresees with deadly irony that the fortune spooled out from tonight's events may be lead to her destruction.
The Nurse asks her what does she mean by that and Juliet replies simply and perhaps despairingly:
"A rhyme I learn'd even now
Of one I dance withal."
She learned a "rhyme", a simple, crushing little rhyme that will destroy her from the boy she just danced with.
And thus, the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet is now set upon its deadly course.
Please break into groups and act out the following scenes:
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,
