Romeo and Juliet

[Illustration]




  SHAKESPEARE'S

  TRAGEDY OF

  ROMEO AND JULIET


  EDITED, WITH NOTES

  BY

  WILLIAM J. ROLFE, LITT.D.

  FORMERLY HEAD MASTER OF THE HIGH SCHOOL
  CAMBRIDGE, MASS.


  _ILLUSTRATED_


  NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO

  AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY

  COPYRIGHT, 1879 AND 1898, BY
  HARPER & BROTHERS.

  COPYRIGHT, 1904 AND 1907, BY
  WILLIAM J. ROLFE.

  ROMEO AND JULIET.

  W.P. 8




PREFACE


This edition of _Romeo and Juliet_, first published in 1879, is now
thoroughly revised on the same general plan as its predecessors in the
new series.

While I have omitted most of the notes on textual variations, I have
retained a sufficient number to illustrate the curious and significant
differences between the first and second quartos. Among the many new
notes are some calling attention to portions of the early draft of the
play--some of them very bad--which Shakespeare left unchanged when he
revised it.

The references to Dowden in the notes are to his recent and valuable
edition of the play, which I did not see until this of mine was on the
point of going to the printer. The quotation on page 288 of the Appendix
is from his _Shakspere: His Mind and Art_, which, by the way, was
reprinted in this country at my suggestion.




CONTENTS


                                                            PAGE

    INTRODUCTION TO ROMEO AND JULIET                           9

    The History of the Play                                    9

    The Sources of the Plot                                   14

    General Comments on the Play                              17


    ROMEO AND JULIET                                          27

    Act I                                                     29

    Act II                                                    58

    Act III                                                   85

    Act IV                                                   118

    Act V                                                    136


    NOTES                                                    157


    APPENDIX

    Concerning Arthur Brooke                                 275

    Comments on Some of the Characters                       278

    The Time-Analysis of the Play                            290

    List of Characters in the Play                           291


    INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES EXPLAINED                     293

[Illustration: FUNERAL OF JULIET]

[Illustration: Verona]




INTRODUCTION TO ROMEO AND JULIET

THE HISTORY OF THE PLAY


The earliest edition of _Romeo and Juliet_, so far as we know, was a
quarto printed in 1597, the title-page of which asserts that "it hath
been often (with great applause) plaid publiquely." A second quarto
appeared in 1599, declared to be "newly corrected, augmented, and
amended."

Two other quartos appeared before the folio of 1623, one in 1609 and the
other undated; and it is doubtful which was the earlier. The undated
quarto is the first that bears the name of the author ("Written by W.
_Shake-speare_"), but this does not occur in some copies of the edition.
A fifth quarto was published in 1637.

The first quarto is much shorter than the second, the former having only
2232 lines, including the prologue, while the latter has 3007 lines
(Daniel). Some editors believe that the first quarto gives the author's
first draft of the play, and the second the form it took after he had
revised and enlarged it; but the majority of the best critics agree
substantially in the opinion that the first quarto was a pirated
edition, and represents in an abbreviated and imperfect form the play
subsequently printed in full in the second. The former was "made up
partly from copies of portions of the original play, partly from
recollection and from notes taken during the performance;" the latter
was from an authentic copy, and a careful comparison of the text with
the earlier one shows that in the meantime the play "underwent revision,
received some slight augmentation, and in some few places must have been
entirely rewritten." A marked instance of this rewriting--the only one
of considerable length--is in ii. 6. 6-37, where the first quarto reads
thus (spelling and pointing being modernized):--

  _Jul._ Romeo.

  _Rom._ My Juliet, welcome. As do waking eyes
  Closed in Night's mists attend the frolick Day,
  So Romeo hath expected Juliet,
  And thou art come.

  _Jul._                I am, if I be Day,
  Come to my Sun: shine forth and make me fair.

  _Rom._ All beauteous fairness dwelleth in thine eyes.

  _Jul._ Romeo, from thine all brightness doth arise.

  _Fri._ Come, wantons, come, the stealing hours do pass,
  Defer embracements till some fitter time.
  Part for a while, you shall not be alone
  Till holy Church have joined ye both in one.

  _Rom._ Lead, holy Father, all