Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

Hold, take this letter; early in the morning

See thou deliver it to my lord and father.

Romeo 

Romeo and Juliet   Act V, Scene iii, Line 23

This is Romeo talking to Balthazar. They are in the cemetery and Romeo is about to open Juliet’s tomb. We're near the beginning of the last scene of the play. Paris has already arrived and is watching Romeo from the shadows. Remember Paris? He’s the guy who also loved Juliet and was supposed to marry her per Juliet’s parent’s plans. So whilst Paris watches, Romeo has arrived with Balthazar, and Romeo gives Balthazar a letter which is used later in the scene to verify Friar Knucklehead’s account of what has taken place previously in the play. Curiously, Romeo also talks about taking a ring from Juliet’s finger.

Here's the rest of Romeo’s lines after Today’s Lines above.

Give me the light: upon thy life, I charge thee,
Whate’er thou hear’st or see'st, stand all aloof,
And do not interrupt me in my course.
Why I descend into this bed of death,
Is partly to behold my lady’s face;
But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger
A precious ring,— a ring that I must use
In dear employment: therefore hence, be gone:—
But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry
In what I further shall intend to do,
By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint,
And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs:
The time and my intents are savage-wild;
More fierce and more inexorable far
Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.

Okay, first off, what’s with this ring thing? Do I need to go back and read the whole play. Did he give Juliet his ring? And even if he did, how does he intend to use in dear employment this ring? And further, what’s with all these threats to Balthazar if he comes back to see what Romeo’s doing?  And what makes Romeo’s time and intents more savage-wild than empty tigers or the roaring sea?

It’s all a bit confusing as far as I’m concerned. I guess I don’t know this play perhaps as well as I should. What do you think Mojo?

 

Perhaps if you hadn't been gallivanting all over New Zealand and the Southern Ocean for the past month, leaving me here to fend for myself, you wouldn't be so confused and out of touch with Today's Lines. That's what I think, Mr. Shakespeare-Is-So-Great.