| Five phrases in ROMEO & JULIET |
I have nit-picking questions about certain phrases in ROMEO AND JULIET. What I'm really seeking is the etymology of a word or a phrase, some background story that might indicate why Shakespeare chose a particular word or phrase (aside from matters of cadence).
Here are my five questions (with the words/phrases in questions indicated by ALL-CAPS) in order of their appearance in the play:
1.) Act I, Sc.1: Prince Escalus complains: "What, ho! you men, you beasts/ That quench the fire of your pernicious rage/ With PURPLE FOUNTAINS issuing from your veins..." Why "purple" and not "red"? Did people in Shakespeare's time commonly refer to the color of blood as purple? Or does Prince Escalus mean that the blood belongs to the members of the nobility (since the color purple was associated with the upper classes)?
2.) Act I, Sc.1: Prince Escalus refers to his court of law as Freetown: "...come you this afternoon/ To know our further pleasure in this case/ To old FREETOWN, our common judgment-place." Why's it called Freetown? Is it because it was a place where all free men (ie: not serfs or slaves) could be assured of equal protection under the law?
3.) Act II, Sc.1: While referring to the medlar fruit, Mercutio teases: "O, Romeo, that she were.../ An OPEN ARSE, thou a pop'rin pear!" The sexual implication between the medlar and the pear is obvious. But does "arse" refer to the ass or the vulva? I find it hard to believe there would be references to anal intercourse in Shakespeare's work.
4.) Act II, Sc.4: Mercutio says of his lovesick friend: "Alas poor Romeo! he is already dead;/ stabbed with a white wench's BLACK EYE..." Okay, I know the ideal beauty of Shakespeare's time had skin as white as snow, and I suppose the word "wench" indicates Mercutio's poor opinion of romantic relationships with females. But "black eye"? Does Mercutio mean that Romeo has been whammied by the Evil Eye of Love? Or is he suggesting that any woman with eyes might turn Romeo's head? Did women try to make their eyes as black as possible in Elizabethan times? Was the phrase "black eye" used in other Elizabethan adages?
5.) Act III, Sc.5: Lord Capulet is angry with the Nurse: "Peace, you mumbling fool!/ Utter your gravity o'er a GOSSIP'S BOWL..." Okay, the gossips are the Nurse's silly, chattering, gossiping, low-class friends. But what's a gossip's bowl? Is it something shared by all the gossiping friends? Like a cup o' tea? A pint of ale? A bowl of soup from the soup kitchen? Or does the word "bowl" refer just to the chat session itself? Does the phrase "gossip's bowl" appear in any other Elizabethan adages?
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posted by V. Star (Vanishing Star) on 2004-07-11 18:38:15
last updated 2004-07-11 18:38:15 |
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| Phrases |
I'm not a scholar - so I'm making a few educated guesses here.
Despite your wish to evade "cadence" or metre, the word "purple" fits the verse. "Red" would not. Shakespeare uses purple to describe blood and wounds on several occasions. It may be that he is thinking of the colour of the bruising that surrounds a wound. It may be he is making reference to the nobility of the person bleeding. (Purple being a rare dye and often reserved for the aristocracy). Elsewhere he also refers to blood as crimson or red.
I don't think you'll get any definitive answers regarding "Freetown". "Villa Franca" is mentioned in some source or other - one of Capulet's properties. Our "common judgement place" may be alluding to Verona's republican roots. It may be that the Prince is trying to get the feuding families to participate in a peace rather than just imposing a judgement (which he does anyway).
"Arse" is a late emendation. I believe the folio has (unusefully) "open or". One of the quartos has "open et cetera". Various quartos have various choices. No solution is definitive. If one wants to stay with "arse" - some positions require the rump to be in the air. I don't think anal intercourse is implied just because one is...er...approaching from behind.
I can't find another reference to "black eyes" in Shakespeare's plays. It may be that Mercutio is playing on the image of a target - a black centre surrounded by white. Though it is the arrow that does the stabbing, not the target. I suspect Rosalind is simply being attributed very dark eyes. There are, I think, references to black and dark eyes in folk songs. The melodrama "Black Eye'd Susan" springs to mind.
MSND is useful in describing a gossip's bowl.
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab,
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob
And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.
In this instance, Puck is describing himself as appearing as a roasted crab apple floating in a bowl of ale. In general, I believe Elizabethan's refered to cups, bowls, stoups when drinking wine or beer or ale. Never glasses, to my knowledge. They seemed to have warmed wine and ale sometimes, and to have added fruits.
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posted by David Wallace on 2004-07-12 15:44:24
last updated 2004-07-12 15:44:24 |
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| Additional research done, a couple more questions about gossip bowls |
Thank you, David, for your considerations. I'll admit some of my questions must seem silly. "OPEN ARSE" is obviously vulgar, while "PURPLE FOUNTAINS" is obviously an instance of poetic license; but I feel a true student does not allow himself to rest on assumption, but will continue to ask questions, to himself and to others, until he finds the answers that are beyond all doubt.
Incidentally, the phrase "gore-red" could be used instead of "purple" and still fit the metre perfectly.
Your comment about the arse and "approaching from behind" is a ... uh, point I had not considered at all. I guess I just don't have a dirty mind. :-)
I appreciated the suggestions and information you provided about the phrases "FREETOWN", "GOSSIP'S BOWL" and "BLACK EYES", especially with the last, very useful comments indeed. I still felt there was more to each story, however.
Before posting, I did find various sources indicating Shakespeare borrowed the name "FREETOWN" from Arthur Brooke's original manuscript, where it is the name of a Capulet property. Other sources link "Freetown" with "lingua franca," or a common language—specifically a primitive pidgin—shared among merchants and shipmates of the various countries (and languages) of Europe. Still, that doesn't explain much. "Freetown" must have meant something to the Londoners of Shakespeare's time.
At first, online searches at Google for "freetown" and "etymology" yielded nothing; however, after doing another search using a hyphenated "free-town" (I did this after reading your post), I finally received results.
One etymology site (www.etymonline.com) indicates that "free town" is a translation of the Latin "municipalis", a town associated with another country but governed by its own laws. The website www.websters-online-dictionary.org provides a definition of "free town" itself: "A city or town independent in its government and franchises, as formerly those of the Hanseatic league." Next, I used my MICROSOFT ENCARTA CD-ROM to learn about the Hanseatic League. This was a medieval association of German merchants and cities that, as it extended its range over northern Europe, established independent territories, or cities, called "kontors" that were self-ruled. There was even a German kontor in England that negotiated contracts with the local authorities (such as which tax duties the German merchants could reasonably be expected to pay, like those for canal and road repairs, although the Germans did have much leeway in such negotiations, they being an important supplier of much-needed products). The kontor would have been called a freetown by the English. (Incidentally, England revoked its Hanseatic treaty in 1611 as its own growing resources in America made dealings with the Germans unnecessary.) ENCARTA's entry on Verona indicates that the city was once its own independent territory, self-ruled...although by the time ROMEO AND JULIET takes place, the city had already been assimilated into the Venetian Republic. Throughout history, Verona has always been, and remains today, an important market center.
It's so simple, it's unbelievable. The phrase "old Freetown" just means that Verona was once an independent merchant-city, a fact several in Shakespeare's audience would have recognized. In Prince Escalus's speech to Montague, it can be inferred that the prince's court is located in the oldest part of the city.
As for black eyes, since you listed several other sources that mention the Elizabethan desire for beautiful black eyes, I finally recalled that European women, at certain points in history, were inclined to put droplets (of something) in their eyes to dilate the pupils as greatly as possible. Searches at Google yielded several online articles about Elizabethan beauty techniques. I found out it was the belladonna plant used to dilate the pupils.
This enhancement was not without its negative side-effects. As reported at http://nasw.org/users/robinhenig/price_of_perfection.htm
"Women unwittingly courted blindness, in their beauty quest. In the 16th and 17th centuries, women used eyedrops made of belladonna (also known as deadly nightshade) to dilate their pupils. But while it had the desired effect of making their eyes look dewy, interested, and excited, the drops also robbed these women of the normal pupil-shrinking reflex that keeps bright light away from the delicate retina. Modern experts believe that by continuously dilating their pupils, these women might have predisposed themselves to the potentially blinding eye condition of glaucoma."
This article is reprinted from CIVILIZATION MAGAZINE. It provides much commentary on the damage certain Elizabethan women did to themselves (along with humorous comments about Queen Elizabeth I), although this article and other websites do mention that contemporary doctors of the time did advise women to avoid several, if not all, of these beauty techniques.
Now I know what Mercutio means when he says "stabbed with a white wench's black eye". He's referring to the gaze of a very beautiful Elizabethan woman (although you'd think if Rosaline is smart enough to avoid bedtime romps, she'd also be smart enough to avoid vainglorious pursuits).
As for GOSSIP'S BOWL, I found (after reading your post) other websites providing information about this drink. A "gossip's bowl" is a nice heated beverage of spiced ale or cider, with bits of apples (chunky?) or other fruits and also pieces of toasted bread mixed in. Sounds pleasant.
But how did such a drink come to be called a "gossip's bowl"? Was it perhaps because the drink had become familiar and ubiquitous throughout England? I'm theorizing here. A gossip is a familiar, a friend; and the spiced drink was also known as a "good brown bowl."
A friend is a good comfort, indeed; but by Shakespeare's time, the term "gossip" had come to mean "one who talks idly," perhaps even referring to a person who talks too freely or slanderously about another.
I want to know why such a pleasant-sounding phrase as "gossip's bowl" could somehow come to be used as an insult.
Moments earlier in Act III, Sc.5, Capulet derides the Nurse and tells her "smatter with your gossips, go." Perhaps Capulet mentions a "gossip's bowl" because it gives him another chance, by allusion, to insult the Nurse's low-class status (or at least her propensity for mindless chatter).
I guess I could settle for that interpretation, but if you or anybody else can throw additional light on the term "Gossip's Bowl" and why it would be used as an insult, I'll appreciate it. |
posted by V. Star (Vanishing Star) on 2004-07-16 16:25:10
last updated 2004-07-16 16:25:10 |
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