Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

 

By love, who first did prompt me to inquire;

He lent me counsel, and I lent him eyes.

  

-Romeo

 Romeo and Juliet           Act II, Scene i, Line 122

 

Love lent him counsel. That’s really not much of an answer to Juliet’s very reasonable question,

By whose direction found’st thou out this place? 

This is the very, very famous balcony scene. Juliet was just  talking to herself (the even more famous O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?), and now she has just realized that Romeo is there in the dark, below her window. How the heck does he know where I live?, she's thinking.

Now, if you were to stop ten people randomly on the street and ask them to describe one scene from a Shakespeare play, this is probably the scene that nine of them would describe. Heck, it’s probably the only scene that nine of them would know. Sure, most of them would know the lines ‘To be, or not to be…’, but they wouldn’t know what that scene is. It is this scene that is probably the most famous, well-known scene in Shakespeare, perhaps in all of drama. And what is it a scene of? If written in modern times, this might be called a scene about a peeping tom or a stalker. No, really. He ran into the girl at a dance earlier that evening, became infatuated with her, and now he’s outside her bedroom window in the middle of the night. Right?

Of course, that’s not the way it’s playing out here. She’s as in love with him as he of her, and pretty happy that he’s there. Go figure.

I have found that the plot lines of Will’s plays do, sometimes, seem to stretch the limits credibility. And yet, every time I say that, I end up finding a credible example in real life of the supposedly incredible story that he painted. No, I don’t have one of those examples for you this morning. And yet, I know it will eventually come to me.

Therefore and ergo - Romeo is not a stalker.

Ok, what the heck is that a picture of? Well, this is the spot on the drainpipe next to my desk here in the cellar where I turned to see a pic of Juliet's balcony. Unfortunately, the pic is not there, and I'm not sure where it is. And that's too bad, because it would have been a really appropriate pic. Oh well, if I find it I'll let you know and then I'll give you a better description of it. In the meantime, be a little bit careful about hanging around outside girls' bedroom windows. In most cases, it's probably not a really great idea.