The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume Ii Part 15

'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 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 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.

A n.o.ble 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 generalized.

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.

Shakspeare 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 circ.u.mstance. It is difficult to understand what effect, whether that of pity or of laughter, Shakspeare meant to produce;--the occasion and the characteristic speeches are so little in harmony! For example, what the Nurse says is excellently suited to the Nurse's character, but grotesquely unsuited to the occasion.

Act. v. sc. 1. Romeo's speech:--

O mischief! thou are swift To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!

I do remember an apothecary, &c.

This famous pa.s.sage is so beautiful as to be self-justified; yet, in addition, what a fine preparation it is for the tomb scene!

'Ib.' sc. 3. Romeo's speech:--

Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man, Fly hence and leave me.

The gentleness of Romeo was shown before, as softened by love; and now it is doubled by love and sorrow and awe of the place where he is.

'Ib.' Romeo's speech:--

How oft when men are at the point of death Have they been merry! which their keepers call A lightning before death. O, how may I Call this a lightning?--O, my love, my wife! &c.

Here, here, is the master example how beauty can at once increase and modify pa.s.sion!

'Ib.' Last scene.

How beautiful is the close! The spring and the winter meet;--winter a.s.sumes the character of spring, and spring the sadness of winter.