Page:Romeo and Juliet (Dowden).djvu/163

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SC. V.

ROMEO AND JULIET

119

Go you to Juliet ere you go to bed,
Prepare her, wife, against this wedding-day.—
Farewell, my lord.—Light to my chamber, ho!
Afore me,^{[E 1]} it is so very very late,
That we may call it early by and by:^{[C 1]}^{[E 2]}—35
Good night.[Exeunt.

SCENE V.—The Same. Capulet's orchard.^{[E 3]}

Enter Romeo and Juliet, above, at the window.^{[C 2]}

Jul.

Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yond^{[C 3]} pomegranate^{[E 4]} tree:

↑ 34, 35. Afore … by and by] Q 1, Afore … so very late … by and by Q, Afore … so late … by and by F.
↑ Enter … above, at the window] Cambridge; Enter … aloft Q, F; Enter … at the window Q 1.
↑ 4. yond] Q, F; yon Q 1.

↑ 34. Afore me] i.e. God before me (Dyce), in the presence of God, as in Pericles, II. i. 84: "Now, afore me, a handsome fellow." Or may it not be corrupted from "Afore my God"? Here it is possible that the words are an instruction to the light-bearer to carry the light before Capulet, or to Paris to take precedence in leaving the room.
↑ 35. by and by] presently, immediately, as in II. ii. 151.
↑ Capulet's orchard] So the Cambridge editors; several editors "Juliet's chamber." Rowe, "Capulet's garden," but Rowe closed the scene with line 59. The division-marks which appear in the later part of Q 1 seem to me to support Rowe. I believe that on the Elizabethan stage the dialogue between Romeo and Juliet took place on the balcony, and that the scene then changed to Juliet's chamber. Q 1 introduces the Nurse before the balcony scene closes; she announces that Lady Capulet is coming to Juliet's chamber, and then "she goeth down from the window"; the curtain, I suppose, was drawn, and the orchard below immediately became Juliet's chamber. But for the inconvenience which attends the disturbing of accepted arrangements, I should follow Rowe in this division of scenes.
↑ 4. pomegranate] The pomegranate had been introduced into England as early as 1548; it grew "plenteously," says Turner, in his Names of Herbes

[2] 34, 35. Afore … by and by] Q 1, Afore … so very late … by and by Q, Afore … so late … by and by F.

[5] Enter … above, at the window] Cambridge; Enter … aloft Q, F; Enter … at the window Q 1.

[6] 4. yond] Q, F; yon Q 1.

[1] 34. Afore me] i.e. God before me (Dyce), in the presence of God, as in Pericles, II. i. 84: "Now, afore me, a handsome fellow." Or may it not be corrupted from "Afore my God"? Here it is possible that the words are an instruction to the light-bearer to carry the light before Capulet, or to Paris to take precedence in leaving the room.

[3] 35. by and by] presently, immediately, as in II. ii. 151.

[4] Capulet's orchard] So the Cambridge editors; several editors "Juliet's chamber." Rowe, "Capulet's garden," but Rowe closed the scene with line 59. The division-marks which appear in the later part of Q 1 seem to me to support Rowe. I believe that on the Elizabethan stage the dialogue between Romeo and Juliet took place on the balcony, and that the scene then changed to Juliet's chamber. Q 1 introduces the Nurse before the balcony scene closes; she announces that Lady Capulet is coming to Juliet's chamber, and then "she goeth down from the window"; the curtain, I suppose, was drawn, and the orchard below immediately became Juliet's chamber. But for the inconvenience which attends the disturbing of accepted arrangements, I should follow Rowe in this division of scenes.

[p163-7] 4. pomegranate] The pomegranate had been introduced into England as early as 1548; it grew "plenteously," says Turner, in his Names of Herbes

[E 1]

[C 1]

[E 2]

[E 3]

[C 2]

[C 3]

[E 4]