Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher Part 12

and, far more strikingly, the following speech of old Montague:-

"Many a morning hath he there been seen With tears augmenting the fresh morning dew"-

prove that Shakespeare meant the _Romeo and Juliet_ to approach to a poem, which, and indeed its early date, may be also inferred from the mult.i.tude of rhyming couplets throughout. And if we are right, from the internal evidence, in p.r.o.nouncing this one of Shakespeare's early dramas, it affords a strong instance of the fineness of his insight into the nature of the pa.s.sions, that Romeo is introduced already love-bewildered. The necessity of loving creates an object for itself in man and woman; and yet there is a difference in this respect between the s.e.xes, though only to be known by a perception of it. It would have displeased us if Juliet had been represented as already in love, or as fancying herself so;-but no one, I believe, ever experiences any shock at Romeo's forgetting his Rosaline, who had been a mere name for the yearning of his youthful imagination, and rus.h.i.+ng into his pa.s.sion for Juliet. Rosaline was a mere creation of his fancy; and we should remark the boastful positiveness of Romeo in a love of his own making, which is never shown where love is really near the heart.

"When the devout religion of mine eye Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires!

One fairer than my love! the all-seeing sun Ne'er saw her match, since first the world begun."

The character of the Nurse is the nearest of any thing in Shakespeare to a direct borrowing from mere observation; and the reason is, that as in infancy and childhood the individual in nature is a representative of a cla.s.s,-just as in describing one larch tree, you generalise a grove of them,-so it is nearly as much so in old age. The generalisation is done to the poet's hand. Here you have the garrulity of age strengthened by the feelings of a long-trusted servant, whose sympathy with the mother's affections gives her privileges and rank in the household; and observe the mode of connection by accidents of time and place, and the childlike fondness of repet.i.tion in a second childhood, and also that happy humble, ducking under, yet constant resurgence against, the check of her superiors!-

"Yes, madam!-Yet I cannot choose but laugh," &c.

In the fourth scene we have Mercutio introduced to us. O! how shall I describe that exquisite ebullience and overflow of youthful life, wafted on over the laughing waves of pleasure and prosperity, as a wanton beauty that distorts the face on which she knows her lover is gazing enraptured, and wrinkles her forehead in the triumph of its smoothness! Wit ever wakeful, fancy busy and procreative as an insect, courage, an easy mind that, without cares of its own, is at once disposed to laugh away those of others, and yet to be interested in them,-these and all congenial qualities, melting into the common _copula_ of them all, the man of rank and the gentleman, with all its excellencies and all its weaknesses, const.i.tute the character of Mercutio!

Act i. sc. 5.-

"_Tyb._ It fits when such a villain is a guest; I'll not endure him.

_Cap._ He shall be endur'd.

What, goodman boy!-I say, he shall:-Go to;- Am I the master here, or you?-Go to.

You'll not endure him!-G.o.d shall mend my soul- You'll make a mutiny among my guests!

You will set c.o.c.k-a-hoop! you'll be the man!

_Tyb._ Why, uncle, 'tis a shame.

_Cap._ Go to, go to, You are a saucy boy!" &c.

How admirable is the old man's impetuosity at once contrasting, yet harmonised, 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!"

Act ii. sc. 2. The garden scene.

Take notice in this enchanting scene of the contrast of Romeo's love with his former fancy; and weigh the skill shown in justifying him from his inconstancy by making us feel the difference of his pa.s.sion. Yet this, too, is a love in, although not merely of, the imagination.

_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 pa.s.sion 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 pa.s.s 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 pa.s.sionate 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 wis.h.!.+"

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 pa.s.sions 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.