SC III.]
ROMEO AND JULIET
25
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And yet, to my teen[E 1] be it spoken, I have but four,— |
| Lady Cap. | A fortnight and odd days. 15 |
| Nurse. | [C 2]Even or odd, of all days in the year, Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen. Susan and she—God rest all Christian souls!— Were of an age: well, Susan is with God; She was too good for me:—but, as I said, 20 On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen; That shall she, marry; I remember it well. 'Tis since the earthquake[E 3] now eleven years; And she was wean'd—I never shall forget it— Of all the days of the year, upon that day: 25 For I had then laid wormwood[E 4] to my dug, Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall; My lord and you were then at Mantua:— Nay, I do bear a brain[E 5]:—but, as I said, |
- ↑ 13. teen] sorrow, as in Tempest, I. ii. 64. Ff 2–4 here read teeth, which spoils the play on fourteen.
- ↑ 15. Lammas-tide] The first of August, loaf-mass or wheat-harvest. Lady Capulet's reply fixes the dramatic season of the year.
- ↑ 23. the earthquake] Tyrwhitt conjectured a reference here to the earthquake felt in England, April 6, 1580, and he inferred that the play, or this part of it, was written in 1591. Malone pointed out that if we suppose that Juliet was weaned at a year old, she would be only twelve; but she is just fourteen. An earthquake happened at Verona 1348 (Knight), and at Verona 1570 (Hunter); an account of the Italian earthquakes of 1570 was printed in London (Staunton). "In the whole speech of the Nurse there are such discrepancies as render it impossible to arrive at any definite conclusion" (Collier). See [[../../Introduction/]].
- ↑ 26. wormwood] Halliwell quotes from Cawdray's Treasurie (1600) an allusion to mothers putting "worme-wood or mustard" on the breast at weaning time.
- ↑ 29. bear a brain] have a headpiece, have sound memory. The earliest example in New Eng. Dict. is from Skelton's Magnificence, 1526, the latest from Scott's Marmion.
