submission. To be sure, marriage had been spoken of with Paris, but nothing had yet been committed.
However, Romeo may well have recognized the romanticism of the young girl who feels the thrill of loving the family enemy; who loves the risk and danger and sadness of it; and perhaps he would not dream of throwing cold water on that feeling. So he makes himself known and dramatically denounces his name, saying:
I take thee at thy word.
Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized;
Henceforth I never will be Romeo.
- Act II, scene ii, lines 49-51
Thus he commits himself to the full gamut of romantic folderol as seen through the eyes of a dramatic fourteen-year-old, and the catastrophe is under way.
... the place death...
Juliet is astonished at Romeo's sudden presence and makes the most of it in terms of the romantic version of the feud. She berates Romeo for having taken chances, saying:
The orchard walls are high and hard to climb,
And the place death, considering who thou art, //
any of my kinsmen find thee here.
- Act II, scene ii, lines 63-65
Exaggeration, we might easily guess. To be sure, if Tybalt had made his appearance at this moment there would have been trouble. We can suspect, however, that if anyone but Tybalt had appeared, Romeo would have gotten away with nothing but some hard words. In fact, the subject of marriage might have been broached.
Is it possible that even Juliet considered the feud and its consequences only as an afterthought? Her first fear was that he might have hurt himself falling off the wall.
Romeo accepts Juliet's insistence on the danger of death, perhaps recognizing that it is part of his appeal to her and glad to take advantage of that. Still, he doesn't really seem to take it seriously, for he says:
Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye
Than twenty of their swords!
- Act II, scene ii, lines 71-72
With all that done, the two get down to the serious business of expressing their love.
Thy purpose marriage ...
From words of love, they pass quickly to the thought of marriage. Juliet says:
// that thy bent of love be honorable,
Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow,
By one that I'll procure to come to thee,
- Act II, scene ii, lines 143-45
If Romeo had had the rational plan of trying to work a marriage settlement in an aboveboard fashion to the advantage of everyone, he abandons it. If romantic little Juliet wants secret messages, and clandestine word, and even an exciting forbidden marriage-then she shall have them.
The meeting comes to an end with Monday's dawn nearly upon the two. Romeo, thoroughly happy, says:
Hence will I to my ghostly [spiritual] friar's close cell,
His help to crave and my dear hap [good luck] to tell.
- Act II, scene ii, lines 188-89
With luck, the friar can arrange the secret marriage that Juliet longs for.
... the powerful grace ...
The scene shifts at once to the cell of Friar Laurence ("Fra Lorenzo" in Da Porto's version) early Monday morning. He is an alchemist as well as a friar and is gathering herbs in order to extract their juices for his experiments, saying:
O, mickle [much] is the powerful grace that lies
In plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities;
For naught so vile that on the earth doth live
But to the earth some special good doth give;
- Act II, scene iii, lines 15-18
Here is expressed the medieval view that all creation is made for the express good of man; that everything on earth has some property that makes it valuable to man.
... your households' rancor. ..
Romeo comes to the friar with his tale of love and Friar Laurence is more than a little confused at this sudden change from Rosaline to Juliet and clucks disapprovingly over the whole matter. He decides, however, to go along with the secret marriage for a clearly expressed reason; saying:
In one respect I'll thy assistant be;
For this alliance may so happy prove
To turn your households' rancor to pure love.
- Act II, scene iii, lines 90-92
Friar Laurence obviously considers the feud to be dying and a marital alliance, he judges, will end it altogether. He seems, however, to prefer the indirect and hidden approach to the direct one; he is as romantic as Juliet.
... Prince of Cats. ..
It is broad day now and Benvolio and Mercutio have still not found Romeo. Meanwhile Tybalt, angered over the incident at the feast, has sent a formal challenge to Romeo. The two friends aren't worried, sure that Romeo can take care of himself. Mercutio