The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - Israel Gollancz William Shakespeare [2869]
Ib.—
“Jul. Well, do not swear; although I joy in thee,
I have no joy in this contract to-night:
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,” &c.
With love, pure love, there is always an anxiety for the safety of the object, a disinterestedness, by which it is distinguished from the counterfeits of its name. Compare this scene with Act iii. sc. 1 of the Tempest. I do not know a more wonderful instance of Shakespeare's mastery in playing a distinctly rememberable variety on the same remembered air, than in the transporting love confessions of Romeo and Juliet and Ferdinand and Miranda. There seems more passion in the one, and more dignity in the other; yet you feel that the sweet girlish lingering and busy movement of Juliet, and the calmer and more maidenly fondness of Miranda, might easily pass into each other.
Ib. sc. 3. The Friar's speech.
The reverend character of the Friar, like all Shakespeare's representations of the great professions, is very delightful and tranquillising, yet it is no digression, but immediately necessary to the carrying on of the plot.
Ib. sc. 4.—
“Rom. Good morrow to you both. What counterfeit did I give you?” &c.
Compare again Romeo's half-exerted, and half real, ease of mind with his first manner when in love with Rosaline! His will had come to the clenching point.
Ib. sc. 6.—
“Rom. Do thou but close our hands with holy words,
Then love-devouring death do what he dare,
It is enough I may but call her mine.”
The precipitancy, which is the character of the play, is well marked in this short scene of waiting for Juliet's arrival.
Act iii. sc. 1.—
“Mer. No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but 'tis enough: 'twill serve: ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man,” &c.
How fine an effect the wit and raillery habitual to Mercutio, even struggling with his pain, give to Romeo's following speech, and at the same time so completely justifying his passionate revenge on Tybalt!
Ib. Benvolio's speech:—
... “But that he tilts
With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast.”
This small portion of untruth in Benvolio's narrative is finely conceived.
Ib. sc. 2. Juliet's speech:—
“For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
Whiter than new snow on a raven's back.”
Indeed the whole of this speech is imagination strained to the highest; and observe the blessed effect on the purity of the mind. What would Dryden have made of it?
Ib.—
“Nurse. Shame come to Romeo.
Jul. Blister'd be thy tongue
For such a wish!”
Note the Nurse's mistake of the mind's audible struggles with itself for its decision in toto.
Ib. sc. 3. Romeo's speech:—
“'Tis torture, and not mercy: heaven's here,
Where Juliet lives,” &c.
All deep passions are a sort of atheists, that believe no future.
Ib. sc. 5.—
“Cap. Soft! take me with you, take me with you, wife—How!
will she none?” &c.
A noble scene! Don't I see it with my own eyes?—Yes! but not with Juliet's. And observe in Capulet's last speech in this scene his mistake, as if love's causes were capable of being generalised.
Act iv. sc. 3. Juliet's speech.:—
“O, look! methinks I see my cousin's ghost
Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body
Upon a rapier's point:—Stay, Tybalt, stay!—
Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee.”
Shakespeare provides for the finest decencies. It would have been too bold a thing for a girl of fifteen;—but she swallows the draught in a fit of fright.
Ib. sc. 5.—
As the audience know that Juliet is not dead, this scene is, perhaps, excusable. But it is a strong warning to minor dramatists not to introduce at one time many separate characters agitated by one and the same circumstance. It is difficult to understand what effect, whether that of pity or of laughter, Shakespeare meant to produce;—the occasion and the characteristic speeches are so little in harmony! For example, what the