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Time as the Tragic Condition

in Shakespeare(Teenage Time in R&J

Part 2)

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OBSERVATION 2

UNTIMELINESS

Shakespeare tends to depict tragic protagonists exquisitely athwart the time schemes

in which they find themselves

HAMLET The time is out of joint. O cursed spiteThat ever I was born to put it right

(1.2.210-11)

H. BURN, “Hamlet's scull,” 19th c. The image shows the superimposition of scenes 1.5. and 5.1. (“Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer?”) Courtesy of LUNA.

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RICHARD Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,Have no delight to pass away the time,Unless to see my shadow in the sunAnd descant on mine own deformity.And therefore, since I cannot prove a loverTo entertain these fair well-spoken days,I am determinèd to prove a villainAnd hate the idle pleasures of these days.

(RICHARD III, 1.1.24-31)

Robert Mantell as Richard III, courtesy of LUNA.

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MACBETH: If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere wellIt were done quickly. If th' assassinationCould trammel up the consequence,

and catchWith his surcease, success: that but this

blowMight be the be-all and the end-all—

here,But here, upon this bank and shoal of

time,We'd jump the life to come. (1.7.1-7)

Byam Shaw, Illustration for Macbeth (4.1), ca. 1900.

Courtesy of LUNA.

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PERICLES: These untimely claspings with your child …

(on Antiochus, 1.1.134)

James Tingle, “The Remains

of the Palace at Antioch,” 1841.

Courtesy of LUNA.

(The untimely end of untimely

claspings).

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VIOLAO Time, thou must untangle this, not I.It is too hard a knot for me t’ untie. (TWELFTH NIGHT, 2.2.40-1)

Compare to…

Ada Rehan as Viola, 19TH C, courtesy of LUNA

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Along with Richard III, Romeo and Juliet is the most “untimely” of Shakespeare’s plays (4 instances of the term).

OBSERVATION 3

BENVOLIO Supper is done, and we shall come too late.

ROMEO I fear too early, for my mind misgivesSome consequence yet hanging in the

starsShall bitterly begin his fearful dateWith this night’s revels, and expire the

termOf a despisèd life closed in my breastBy some vile forfeit of untimely death.

(1.4.112-18)

BENVOLIO O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio is dead.That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds,Which too untimely here did scorn the

earth. (3.1.121-3)

CAPULET Ha, let me see her! Out, alas, she’s cold.Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff.Life and these lips have long been separated.Death lies on her like an untimely frostUpon the sweetest flower of all the field.

(4.5.30-34)

FRIAR LAWRENCE: I married them, and their stol’n marriage day

Was Tybalt’s doomsday, whose untimely death

Banished the new-made bridegroom from this city,

For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined.

(5.3.252-45)

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Moreover, R & J features more temporal language than any other play.

“The single most distinctive feature of Romeo and Juliet is its treatment of time. Its calendar is the most tightly controlled of any of the plays.”

René Weiss, Arden Shakespeare 3rd edition, 2012.

OBSERVATION 4

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So how does Shakespeare express time in Romeo and

Juliet?

What is the register of this tragedy’s untimeliness?

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Hour, Minute{Most instances [16] / most instances [4]}

PROLOGUE The fearful passage of their death-marked loveAnd the continuance of their parents’ rage,Which, but their children’s end, naught

could remove,Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;

(Prol. 10-12)

ROMEO  Ay me, sad hours seem long. (1.1.166)

ROMEO But come what sorrow can,

It cannot countervail the exchange of joyThat one short minute gives me in her

sight. (2.6.3-5)

JULIET I must hear from thee every day in the hour,For in a minute there are many days.

(3.5.44-45)

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Hour glasses stilled in still lives.

Measuring the Hours and Minutes (or not measuring them, as is often the case)

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Clock{[3] average # of instances}

JULIET  What o’clock tomorrow

Shall I send to thee? (2.2.181-1)

JULIET The clock struck nine when I did send the Nurse.

In half an hour she promised to return. (2.5.1-2)

CAPULET  Come, stir, stir, stir! The second cock hath crowed.

The curfew bell hath rung. ’Tis three o’clock.—

Look to the baked meats, good Angelica.

Spare not for cost. (2.5.3-6)

Notice the number of

time-keeping practices

mentioned here

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Dial [1]

MERCUTIO  ’Tis no less, I tell you, for the bawdy hand ofthe dial is now upon the prick of

noon. (2.4.114-5)

Holbein, detail from The Ambassadors,Saint Mary’s Church,

Putney

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Bell [2](note the difference between striking

the hour or tolling the knell)

CAPULET  All things that we ordainèd festivalTurn from their office to black funeral:Our instruments to melancholy bells,Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast,

(4.5.90-3)

LADY CAPULET O me, this sight of death is as a bellThat warns my old age to a

sepulcher. (5.3.214-5)

 FOOL Primo, secundo, tertio is a good play, and the oldsaying is, the third pays for all. The

triplex, sir, is agood tripping measure, or the bells of

Saint Bennet,sir, may put you in mind—one, two,

three.

(TWELFTH NIGHT 5.1.33-36)

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Day, Night{2nd most instances [33] /most instances by a mile [47]}

Monday: [4] most instancesWednesday : [3] most instancesThursday: [12] most instances (by 10!)

CAPULET Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin Capulet,For you and I are past our dancing days.

(1.5.35-6)

ROMEO O blessèd, blessèd night! I am afeard,Being in night, all this is but a dream,Too flattering sweet to be substantial. (2.2.146-

8)

CAPULET But soft, what day is this?PARIS  Monday, my lord.CAPULET  Monday, ha ha! Well, Wednesday is too soon. (3.5.20-22)

CAPULET But what say you to Thursday?PARIS  My lord, I would that Thursday were tomorrow. (3.5.31-32)

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Time is a relentless presence in Romeo and Juliet, and the play’s lead characters struggle futilely against it, but unlike the untimely protagonists of the ‘Mature Tragedies,’ the register of time is relentlessly ordinary (i.e. mundane, unexalted).

OBSERVATION 5

“The play is unusually full, perhaps more so than any other Shakespearean play, of words like time, day, night, today, tomorrow, years, hours, minutes and specific days of the week, giving us a sense of events moving steadily and inexorably in a taut temporal framework.”

G. Blakemore Evans, editor, Cambridge Romeo and Juliet, 1984

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Romeo and Juliet is an expression of

Teenage Untimelinessand thus aptly named

‘Junior Tragedy’

Hypothesis:

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Thus, instead of grappling unsuccessfully with a metaphysical, temporal dilemma (e.g. how to “jump

the time to come”), Romeo and Juliet suffer the “misadventured piteous overthrows” of bad timing.

From this vantage, the unlucky coincidence of Romeo and Tybalt’s post-nuptial encounter, the precipitous marriage brokered with Paris, the delay of the Friar’s letter, and the hastiness of Romeo’s suicide (or the lag of Juliet’s re-awakening) are all signs of a star-crossed temporality.

Hours, Minutes, Days, Clocks, Dials and Bells mark the beat of a pace through life that these characters just can’t follow.

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• Romeo hides in his room all day and “makes himself an artificial night” (1.1.143)

• Juliet is slow to heed her Nurse’s call (“What, lamb! What, ladybird! / God forbid. Where’s this girl?” [1.3.3-4])

• Juliet’s mother is too brief with her, apparently reluctant to engage in ‘the sex talk’ (“Thus then in brief / The Valiant Paris seeks you for his love [1.3.79-80] ; “Speak briefly, can you like of Paris’s love?” [102])

• Tybalt does not want to “endure” the Montague boys; Capulet chides him, calling him a “saucy boy” (1.5.85, 94)

• The love between Romeo and Juliet is “too unadvised, too sudden / Too like the lightening, which doth cease to be before it lightens.” (2.2.125-7)

• The lovers moan about every minute they spend apart (“so tedious is this day” [3.2.30])

• And of course, they proceed with too much haste (“Jesu, what haste! Can you not stay awhile? / Do you not see that I am out of breath?” [2.5.31-2])

Evidence of this temporal arrhythmia paints a familiar picture of the American teenager.

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soon [11], haste [11], impatient [1], fast [3], quick [2], swift [3], early [15], sudden [7]

Shakespeare frequent expressions of time’s impressional register—that is, how time is felt to proceed—make the play emphatic on the prematurity / impetuosity of its protagonists:

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Moreover, in the play’s ping-pong between aubade and serenade, Shakespeare makes Romeo and Juliet the temporal analogues of Viola when she shows up at Olivia’s door: in “standing water,” in the sense that they are neither in the night or in the day, but always off the dial (the one ‘clock’ that keeps good time). Temporally, they occupy a liminal space.

MONTAGUE Many a morning hath he there been seen,With tears augmenting the fresh

morning’s dew,Adding to clouds more clouds with his

deep sighs.But all so soon as the all-cheering sunShould in the farthest east begin to drawThe shady curtains from Aurora’s bed,Away from light steals home my heavy

sonAnd private in his chamber pens himself

(1.1.134-141)

ROMEO Tis almost morning (2.2.190)

FRIAR LAWRENCE The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,Check’ring the eastern clouds with

streaks of light,And fleckled darkness like a drunkard

reelsFrom forth day’s path and Titan’s fiery

wheels. (2.3.1-4)(note: this is Q1; Q2 & Folio give these lines to Romeo at the end of 2.2)

JULIET Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,Towards Phoebus’ lodging. Such a

wagonerAs Phaëton would whip you to the

westAnd bring in cloudy night immediately.Spread thy close curtain, love-

performing night,That runaways’ eyes may wink, and

RomeoLeap to these arms, untalked of and

unseen. (3.2.1-7)

ROMEO Look, love, what envious streaksDo lace the severing clouds in

yonder east.Night’s candles are burnt out, and

jocund dayStands tiptoe on the misty

mountain-tops.I must be gone and live, or stay

and die. (3.5.7-11)

NURSE O woe, O woeful, woeful, woeful day!

Most lamentable day, most woeful day

That ever, ever I did yet behold!

O day, O day, O day, O hateful day!

Never was seen so black a day as this!

O woeful day, O woeful day! (4.5.55-60)

PRINCE A glooming peace this morning with it brings.

The sun for sorrow will not show his head.

Go hence to have more talk of these sad things.

Some shall be pardoned, and some punishèd. (5.3.316-9)

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They are, we might say, twilight figures, out of sync with the

realities of everyday life

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But while I think this reading is readily available to us (except perhaps that Twilight® part), I want to propose there is a second Teenage Time that runs athwart this one, and that gives the play an exceptional purchase on the experience of adolescence.

I will bring out this temporal phenomenology of teenagerhood in 6 instances from the play text. (we’re almost done!)

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1. Ripe/Unripe

CAPULET: Let two more summers wither in their prideEre we may think her ripe to be a bride.

PARIS  Younger than she are happy mothers made.CAPULET  And too soon marred are those so early made. (1.2.13-16)

48 hours later…

CAPULETMistress minion you,

Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds,

But fettle your fine joints ’gainst Thursday next

To go with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church,Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.Out, you green-sickness carrion! Out, you

baggage!You tallow face! (3.5.156-62)

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JULIET  My only love sprung from my only hate!Too early seen unknown, and known too late!Prodigious birth of love it is to meThat I must love a loathèd enemy.

NURSE  What’s this? What’s this?JULIET  A rhyme I learned even now

Of one I danced withal.[One calls within “Juliet.”]

NURSE  Anon, anon. Come, let’s away. The strangers all are gone. (1.5.152-60)

JULIET: Dear love, adieu.—

Anon, good nurse.—Sweet Montague, be true.Stay but a little; I will come again. (2.2.143-5)

NURSE  Peter.PETER  Anon.NURSE  My fan, Peter. (2.4.107)

2. Anon [7]Second only to Henry IV Part 1

PRINCE But, Ned, to drive away the time till Falstaff come, I prithee, do

thou stand in some by-room while I question my

puny drawer to what end he gave me the sugar, and

do thou never leave calling “Francis,” that his tale

to me may be nothing but “Anon.” Step aside, and

I’ll show thee a precedent. [Poins exits.]POINS [within] Francis!PRINCE Thou art perfect.POINS [within] Francis!FRANCIS Anon, anon, sir.—Look down into the Pomgarnet,

Ralph.PRINCE Come hither, Francis.FRANCIS My lord?PRINCE How long hast thou to serve, Francis?FRANCIS Forsooth, five years, and as much as to—POINS [within] Francis!FRANCIS Anon, anon, sir. (HIV Part 1, 2.4.28-45)

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3. Sententia

FRIAR Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow. (2.6.15)

No it doesn’t. If you arrive too swiftly you do not arrive too slowly, you idiot. Moreover, this is wisdom the Friar does not take, if we recur its first, less garbled articulation:

FRIAR Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.

(2.3.101)

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4. Thursday / Wednesday

JULIET  Nurse, will you go with me into my closet

To help me sort such needful ornaments

As you think fit to furnish me tomorrow?LADY CAPULET  No, not till Thursday. There is time enough.CAPULET  Go, nurse. Go with her. We’ll to church tomorrow.

[Juliet and the Nurse exit.]LADY CAPULET  We shall be short in our provision.

’Tis now near night.CAPULET  Tush, I will stir about,

And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, wife.

(4.2.34-42)

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FRIAR Each part, deprived of supple government,Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like

death,And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk deathThou shalt continue two and forty hoursAnd then awake as from a pleasant sleep.

(4.1.104-8)

5. Forty-two hours, or something like that

Later the next day, about 28 hours after the potion’s consumption…

JULIET O comfortable friar, where is my lord?I do remember well where I should be,

And there I am. Where is my Romeo? (5.3.151-3)

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6. Two Hours’ Traffic?

CHORUS: The fearful passage of their death-marked loveAnd the continuance of their parents’ rage,Which, but their children’s end, naught could

remove,Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;The which, if you with patient ears attend,What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

(Prologue, 9-14)And yet our reading lasted about 2 hours and 25 minutes, without any time set aside for the fights, dance, etc. Conclusion: this calculation is at least 25% off the mark.

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Example Origin Implication

1. Ripe/unripe Capulet Readiness for marriage is an arbitrary judgment or misdiagnosis

2. Anon Nurse Juliet is always being dragged away from where she wants to be, or made to be in two places at once; the upshot is that her time feels like that of an abused servant.

3. Sententia Friar The moral guide to time’s proper management makes no sense/can’t uphold his own philosophy

4. Thurs/Weds Capulet Haste and impetuosity are flaws that work upon Romeo and Juliet from the top down

5. 42 hours Friar All bets are off when even science cannot measure time accurately

6. 2 hours’ traffic Shakespeare Time is a construct that serves some and snags others.

The Upshot:R& J conveys the experience of being held captive to inconsistent and irrational temporalities, precisely as

teenagers are

Note that the audience has no way of understanding the dilation and contraction of

time either (with the possible exception of ripe/unripe).

Effectively, we are all in the position of Romeo and Juliet:

beholden to decisions/expressions of

temporal control that disjoin the time.

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Perhaps from this vantage, the stilled life of Juliet—a hiatus from adult time—

is not just an object lesson in teenage haste and impetuosity, but also a refuge from misshapen chaos

Samuel Begg, Three Scenes from Romeo and Juliet (detail), ca. 1886-1916. Courtesy of LUNA.