Romeo & Juliet - Act 1 Scene 3
A room in Capulet's house.
Enter LADY CAPULET and Nurse
Lady Capulet and the Nurse’s lines suggest that Juliet has kept them waiting for some time, and that they’re agitated about this. When Juliet arrives, her first line is demure and polite, but her late arrival hints at the independent spirit that she will later manifest.
LADY CAPULET
Nurse, where's my daughter? Call her forth to me.
Nurse
Now, by my maidenhead at twelve year old,
I bade her come. What, lamb! What, ladybird!
God forbid! Where's this girl? What, Juliet!
Enter JULIET
JULIET
How now! who calls?
Nurse
Your mother.
JULIET
Madam, I am here. What is your will?
Lady Capulet seems to have some difficulty talking to her daughter, so that she sends the Nurse away, then immediately calls her back.
LADY CAPULET
This is the matter – Nurse, give leave awhile,
We must talk in secret – Nurse, come back again;
I have remembered me, thou's hear our counsel.
Thou know'st my daughter's of a pretty age.
Nurse
Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.
LADY CAPULET
She's not fourteen.
Nurse
I'll lay fourteen of my teeth –
And yet, to my teeth be it spoken, I have but four –
She is not fourteen. How long is it now
To Lammas-tide?
LADY CAPULET
A fortnight and odd days.
This is a conventional comic speech, but it also mentions the Nurse's dead daughter and husband, and hints at the powerful emotional connection that she has to Juliet.
This speech also introduces the Nurse's tendency to make inappropriate sexual comments to and about Juliet. This one is especially embarrassing: it references Juliet's breastfeeding days, jokes about her sexual innocence, and is told in front of her mother.
Nurse
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,
On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen;
That shall she, marry; I remember it well.
'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years;
And she was weaned – I never shall forget it –
Of all the days of the year, upon that day;
For I had then laid wormwood 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 – but, as I said,
When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,
To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug!
Shake quoth the dove-house! 'Twas no need, I trow,
To bid me trudge!
And since that time it is eleven years,
For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood,
She could have run and waddled all about;
For even the day before, she broke her brow;:
And then my husband – God be with his soul!
A' was a merry man – took up the child;
'Yea,' quoth he, 'dost thou fall upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit,
Wilt thou not, Jule?' and, by my holidame,
The pretty wretch left crying and said 'Ay.'
To see, now, how a jest shall come about!
I warrant, an I should live a thousand years,
I never should forget it: 'Wilt thou not, Jule?' quoth he;
And, pretty fool, it stinted and said 'Ay.'
LADY CAPULET
Enough of this; I pray thee, hold thy peace.
Nurse
Yes, madam; yet I cannot choose but laugh,
To think it should leave crying and say 'Ay.'
And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow
A bump as big as a young cockerel's stone;
A parlous knock; and it cried bitterly.
'Yea,' quoth my husband,'fall'st upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age;
Wilt thou not, Jule?' It stinted and said 'Ay.'
Juliet has very few lines in this scene, making her role here reactive rather than active. How does she take the Nurse's story? Is she amused by it, embarrassed by it, angered by it? Is her attempt to silence the Nurse a polite one, or a plaintive one, or is she 'pulling rank'?
JULIET
And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse, say I.
Nurse
Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace!
Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nursed:
An I might live to see thee married once,
I have my wish.
LADY CAPULET
Marry, that 'marry' is the very theme
I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet,
How stands your disposition to be married?
If we take Juliet at her word here, she approaches romance as a blank slate. It's possible that she does have stronger feelings, and that this is a polite statement more for her mother's benefit.
The delivery of this line can say a lot about the Capulets' marriage: does Lady Capulet remember her wedding with fondness or with anxiety? Does she recall Juliet’s birth with regret or with joy or with mixed feelings? This may well bear on Lady Capulet's relationship to her daughter as well.
JULIET
It is an honour that I dream not of.
Nurse
An honour! Were not I thine only nurse,
I would say thou hadst sucked wisdom from thy teat.
LADY CAPULET
Well, think of marriage now; younger than you,
Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,
Are made already mothers: by my count,
I was your mother much upon these years
That you are now a maid. Thus then in brief:
The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.
Nurse
A man, young lady! Lady, such a man
As all the world – why, he's a man of wax.
LADY CAPULET
Verona's summer hath not such a flower.
Nurse
Nay, he's a flower; in faith, a very flower.
Like her husband, Lady Capulet seems primarily concerned with Juliet's happiness, and is eager that her daughter like Paris before choosing to marry him. Also like her husband, Lady Capulet suggests that Juliet observe Paris' appearance, though unlike her husband, she describes the suitor in very enthusiastic terms.
LADY CAPULET
What say you? Can you love the gentleman?
This night you shall behold him at our feast;
Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face,
And find delight writ there with beauty's pen;
Examine every married lineament,
And see how one another lends content
And what obscured in this fair volume lies
Find written in the margent of his eyes.
This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
To beautify him, only lacks a cover:
The fish lives in the sea, and 'tis much pride
For fair without the fair within to hide;
That book in many's eyes doth share the glory,
That in gold clasps locks in the golden story;
So shall you share all that he doth possess,
By having him, making yourself no less.
Nurse
No less! Nay, bigger; women grow by men.
LADY CAPULET
Speak briefly, can you like of Paris' love?
This is a very politic and noncommittal reply. If we take it at face value, Juliet appears to have neither excitement nor revulsion about marriage (or Paris), but is more concerned with her parents' approval.
JULIET
I'll look to like, if looking liking move;
But no more deep will I endart mine eye
Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.
Enter a Servant
Servant
Madam, the guests are come, supper served up,
you called, my young lady asked for, the Nurse
cursed in the pantry, and every thing in extremity.
I must hence to wait; I beseech you, follow straight.
These two last lines perfectly delineate the difference between Juliet's two mother-figures: Lady Capulet is concerned for decorum and etiquette, while the Nurse hints at sexual pleasure.
LADY CAPULET
We follow thee.
Exit Servant
Juliet, the County stays.
Nurse
Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.
Exeunt