o'clock." On Wednesday morning Juliet is found in seeming death; the Friar arrives at the hour prefixed for marriage; all is turned from a wedding to a funeral; Juliet is laid in the tomb of her ancestors. At a later hour of what seems to be the same day (Wednesday), Balthasar informs Romeo of his wife's death; Romeo obtains the poison, sets out for Verona, at night enters the monument by torch-light, and dies beside his beloved. Friar Laurence "at the prefixed hour of her waking" arrives to take Juliet from the vault; she stabs herself and dies; the Prince, called from his morning's rest, enters, and on Thursday at an early hour the action closes.[1]
The rapidity of the whole conduct of the action is surprising; yet, up to the night on which Juliet swallows the Friar's potion, there can be no question as to the dating of days and hours. At this point Shakespeare creates a difficulty that seems to be insuperable. He had probably noticed in Painter's version of the tale a statement of the Friar that the opiate effects of the drug were to continue for "the space of forty hours at the least." As if to be more precise Shakespeare names the period as "two and forty hours." From what time of the night of Tuesday will forty-two succeeding hours bring us to a very early morning hour (the month is July) of either Thursday or Friday? The period is too short to suit Friday morning, too long for Thursday. We should not trouble ourselves about what might be
- ↑ See, together with Daniel's "Time-Analysis of the Plots of Shakespeare's Plays" (New Sh. Society's Transactions, 1879), the notes on p. 202 and p. 219 of Mr. Rolfe's edition of Romeo and Juliet.
