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Asimov’s Guide To Shakespear. Volume 1Lady Capulet wishes to broach the subject of marriage to her, but with her also is Juliet's garrulous old Nurse, who had a daughter Juliet's age, for she says, referring to Juliet: Susan and she (God rest all Christian souls!) Were of an age. —Act I, scene iii, lines 18-19 If the Nurse were to serve as surrogate breast feeder for Juliet, she would have to have had a child of her own shortly before. More important, this leads to talk of Juliet's age once more. The Nurse says: I'll lay fourteen of my teeth- And yet to my teen [sorrow] be it spoken, I have but four- She's not fourteen. —Act I, scene iii, lines 12-14 The Nurse then launches into an irrelevant tale of Juliet's childhood that begins … of all days in the year, Come Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen. —Act I, scene iii, lines 16-17 Lammas Day is August 1. In early English times it was the day of a harvest festival, and the fruits of the field, symbolized by half loaves of bread, were consecrated at mass. The Anglo-Saxon term for half loaf was "hlaf-maesse" and this was distorted to "Lammas." Earlier the Nurse had asked Lady Capulet how long it was to Lammas-tide and had been answered: A fortnight and odd days. —Act I, scene iii, line 15 We can therefore place the beginning of the play at about July 13 ...» |
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