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No Fear Translations of Shakespeare’s plays (along with audio!) and other classic works
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Come Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen.
Susan and she, God rest all Christian souls
Were of an age
In a gathering of Juliet, her mother (Lady Capulet), and her surrogate mother (the Nurse) in Act 1, Scene 3, the Nurse makes a sad reference to her own daughter, who was the same age as Juliet, but who has died. Read more about this quote and how it foreshadows Juliet’s inevitable death in Quotes by Theme: The Tragedy of Dying Young (the second quote). Read more about what it tells us about the Nurse’s relationship with Juliet in Quotes by Character: The Nurse (the first quote).
“Yea,” quoth he, “dost thou fall upon thy face?”
Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit,
Wilt thou not, Jule?”
After having been given a glimpse of the Nurse’s tenderness in the previous quote in Act 1, Scene 3, here we see her unpolished side as she recounts an off-color joke at Juliet’s expense. The embarrassed Lady Capulet is unable to quiet the Nurse’s rambling, but Juliet successfully does so. Read more about this quote in Quotes by Character: The Nurse (the second quote).
It is an honour that I dream not of
Juliet gives this nuanced response to Lady Capulet in Act 1, Scene 3 when her mother asks her how she feels about the prospect of getting married. On the surface, her answer may sound like the idea excites her, but we’ve already learned enough about Juliet to know that it probably means that marriage is not something she’s really thinking about at this point in her young life.
I’ll look to like, if looking liking move,
But no more deep will I endart mine eye
Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.
Later in Act 1, Scene 3, as Lady Capulet presses her unready daughter to acquiesce to Capulet’s plan for Juliet to marry Paris, Juliet makes this much analyzed comment. In essence, Juliet is saying that if Paris proves to be likable, she will try to like him, and she pledges to not like him more than her mother wants her to. The now archaic verb endart (like throwing a dart) is used here in the sense of shooting a loving look—similar to how Cupid shoots an arrow of love. As with her response to her mother in the previous quote, Juliet uses careful phrasing that can be read as her submitting to her parents’ wishes, but it can also be interpreted as Juliet gently pushing back and asserting herself.
