Sunday, May 1, 2011

Promus - 22 Romeo and Juliet

Part 2 - Parallels between Bacon's Promus and Romeo and Juliet
(with special emphasis on Promus Folio 112)

Part 2P

R&J  Act 2.5.29-36

(The Nurse gets back but teases Juliet by being slow to tell her that the marriage has been arranged):

Nurse:   Jesu, what haste. Can you not stay awhile?
              Do you not see that I am out of breath?
Juliet:    How art thou out of breath when thou hast breath
             to say to me that thou art out of breath?
             The excuse that thou dost make in this delay
             Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse.
             Is thy news good or bad? Answer to that,
             Say either, and I'll stay the circumstance.

Bacon's Promus entry 277 (Folio 89):

"If you stay there"

Comment: This entry appears among other little turns of speech. I think Bacon meant by it "Please pause a moment".

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R&J  Act 2.6.9-15

(Romeo, awaiting Juliet's arrival for their marriage, is ecstatic. but Friar Lawrence cautions):

"These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss consume. The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness,
And in the taste confound the appetite.
Therefore love moderately; long love doth so.
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow".

Bacon's Promus entry 1089 (Folio 105B):

'Nescia mens hominum fatj sortisque futur[ae]. Et servare modum rebus sublata secund[is]" ["The mind of men is ignorant of fate and future destiny. And how to preserve moderation when elated by good fortune"]

and from Promus entry 959 (Folio 102):

"Love me little love me long"

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R&J  Act 2.6.30-1

(Romeo asks Juliet to speak their mutual joy, since she is more eloquent than he):

Juliet:   Conceit [thought] more rich in matter than in words
            Brags of his substance, not of ornament.

Bacon's Promus entry 1365 (Folio 124):

"Matter of circumstance, not of substance"


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