How To Honor The Body In Romeo And Juliet
The Sonnet's Body and the Body
Sonnetizedin Romeo and Juliet
GAYLE WHITTIER
HEN MERCUTIO NAMES ROMEO'S INHERITED MALADY-"Now is he for the numbersthatPetrarchflow'd in . . " (2.4.38-39)1-he places of thedynastic
Petrarchas Romeo's literary"father," thepoetic counterpart fatherwhose verbal legacy Julietsees as dangerous:"Deny thyfatherand
refuse thyname. . ..
" (2.2.34).
In Mercutio's allusion, renewal remembers
inheritance;thereis no escape, familialor poetic, fromthe influenceof a preexistingword.This was trueforShakespeareas forRomeo, since he wrote at or near Petrarch'sEnglish zenith, thoughafterthe time of Petrarch's greatestContinentalinfluence.That realizingPetrarchanconventionscan be fatalis a familiarargument,butin Romeo and JuliettheinheritedPetrarchan …show more content…
The blason therefore removesthe womanfromthehumanrealm,whichis, afterall, the
Platoniclover's aim. (AgainstthisdehumanizationShakespearewrote"My
13
For a persuasivedefinition of theepithalamion's"runnawayeseyes" as Cupid's, and fora more detailed analysis of the poem itself,see Gary M. McCown, " 'RunnawayesEyes' and
Juliet's Epithalamium" in Shakespeare Quarterly,27 (1976), 150-70. His reading of the transmutations in theclassical imagery,attitudes,and situationsof theepithalamionenlargesand augmentswhatEarl notes in "Romeo and Julietand the ElizabethanSonnets."
14 See Linda Bamber,Comic Women,Tragic Men (Stanford:Stanford
Univ. Press, 1982), pp.
7-8.
15 See Nancy Vickers, "Diana Described: ScatteredWoman and ScatteredRhyme," Critical
Inquiry,VIII, 12 (1981), 265-79.
34
SHAKESPEARE QUARTERLY
mistress'eyes are nothinglike the sun. .. ." The aestheticjoke, however, is on him: in orderto dismiss "false compare," he had to include it.)
In Romeo and Juliettheblason does occur but neverin referenceto …show more content…
An open-arse,
(2.1.37-38)
Nor has he wornout theparodicpossibilitiesof courtlydescription,animalized in his commenton the NurseAn old harehoar,
Andan old harehoar,
Is verygoodmeatin Lent;
Buta harethatis hoar
Is too muchfora score
When it hoars ere it be spent . . .
(2.4.134-39)
-vulgarity he underscoreswiththe satiricrefrainof "lady, lady, lady" (1.
144). The Nurse, in turn,plays offher uneroticbodily ailmentsagainst the verbal news of Romeo's weddingplans, thenundercutsthe blason's hyperboles witha variationinprose: "Romeo! no, nothe. Thoughhis facebe better thanany man's, yethis leg excels all men's, and fora hand and a footand a body, though they be not to be talk'd on, yet they are past compare"
(2.5.39-43).
Julietherselfnegativelyblazons Romeo in herfamous"What's Montague?
It is norhand norfoot,/Nor armnorface, nor any otherpart/Belongingto a man" (2.2.40-42). In dismissinghis name, she scattershis body, even as starsforheaven(3.2.22). For she latersees his corpsecutintocomplimentary
It supersedeswords, as she words. not idealized is the through
Juliet, body herselfbothis and symbolizesembodimentin thetragicarena. (We mightsee theplay as Romeo's [thepoem's] searchforJuliet[theflesh].)
Sonnetizedin Romeo and Juliet
GAYLE WHITTIER
HEN MERCUTIO NAMES ROMEO'S INHERITED MALADY-"Now is he for the numbersthatPetrarchflow'd in . . " (2.4.38-39)1-he places of thedynastic
Petrarchas Romeo's literary"father," thepoetic counterpart fatherwhose verbal legacy Julietsees as dangerous:"Deny thyfatherand
refuse thyname. . ..
" (2.2.34).
In Mercutio's allusion, renewal remembers
inheritance;thereis no escape, familialor poetic, fromthe influenceof a preexistingword.This was trueforShakespeareas forRomeo, since he wrote at or near Petrarch'sEnglish zenith, thoughafterthe time of Petrarch's greatestContinentalinfluence.That realizingPetrarchanconventionscan be fatalis a familiarargument,butin Romeo and JuliettheinheritedPetrarchan …show more content…
The blason therefore removesthe womanfromthehumanrealm,whichis, afterall, the
Platoniclover's aim. (AgainstthisdehumanizationShakespearewrote"My
13
For a persuasivedefinition of theepithalamion's"runnawayeseyes" as Cupid's, and fora more detailed analysis of the poem itself,see Gary M. McCown, " 'RunnawayesEyes' and
Juliet's Epithalamium" in Shakespeare Quarterly,27 (1976), 150-70. His reading of the transmutations in theclassical imagery,attitudes,and situationsof theepithalamionenlargesand augmentswhatEarl notes in "Romeo and Julietand the ElizabethanSonnets."
14 See Linda Bamber,Comic Women,Tragic Men (Stanford:Stanford
Univ. Press, 1982), pp.
7-8.
15 See Nancy Vickers, "Diana Described: ScatteredWoman and ScatteredRhyme," Critical
Inquiry,VIII, 12 (1981), 265-79.
34
SHAKESPEARE QUARTERLY
mistress'eyes are nothinglike the sun. .. ." The aestheticjoke, however, is on him: in orderto dismiss "false compare," he had to include it.)
In Romeo and Juliettheblason does occur but neverin referenceto …show more content…
An open-arse,
(2.1.37-38)
Nor has he wornout theparodicpossibilitiesof courtlydescription,animalized in his commenton the NurseAn old harehoar,
Andan old harehoar,
Is verygoodmeatin Lent;
Buta harethatis hoar
Is too muchfora score
When it hoars ere it be spent . . .
(2.4.134-39)
-vulgarity he underscoreswiththe satiricrefrainof "lady, lady, lady" (1.
144). The Nurse, in turn,plays offher uneroticbodily ailmentsagainst the verbal news of Romeo's weddingplans, thenundercutsthe blason's hyperboles witha variationinprose: "Romeo! no, nothe. Thoughhis facebe better thanany man's, yethis leg excels all men's, and fora hand and a footand a body, though they be not to be talk'd on, yet they are past compare"
(2.5.39-43).
Julietherselfnegativelyblazons Romeo in herfamous"What's Montague?
It is norhand norfoot,/Nor armnorface, nor any otherpart/Belongingto a man" (2.2.40-42). In dismissinghis name, she scattershis body, even as starsforheaven(3.2.22). For she latersees his corpsecutintocomplimentary
It supersedeswords, as she words. not idealized is the through
Juliet, body herselfbothis and symbolizesembodimentin thetragicarena. (We mightsee theplay as Romeo's [thepoem's] searchforJuliet[theflesh].)