Today we looked at the nurse and her opening monologue:

Even or odd, of all days in the year,
Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen.
Susan and she–God rest all Christian souls!–
Were of an age: well, Susan is with God;
She was too good for me: but, as I said,
On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen;
That shall she, marry; I remember it well.
‘Tis since the earthquake now eleven years;
And she was wean’d,–I never shall forget it,–
Of all the days of the year, upon that day:
For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall;
My lord and you were then at Mantua:–
Nay, I do bear a brain:–but, as I said,
When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,
To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug!
Shake quoth the dove-house: ’twas no need, I trow,
To bid me trudge:
And since that time it is eleven years;
For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood,
She could have run and waddled all about;
For even the day before, she broke her brow:
And then my husband–God be with his soul!
A’ was a merry man–took up the child:
‘Yea,’ quoth he, ‘dost thou fall upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit;
Wilt thou not, Jule?’ and, by my holidame,
The pretty wretch left crying and said ‘Ay.’
To see, now, how a jest shall come about!
I warrant, an I should live a thousand years,
I never should forget it: ‘Wilt thou not, Jule?’ quoth he;
And, pretty fool, it stinted and said ‘Ay.’

There is a lot to learn about the nurse from this passage, chief among them that she switches from topic to topic on a virtual whim:

Within these few lines, she covers a number of topics, from the earthquake that killed her own daughter to weaning Juliet and just about everything in between.

From this, students see:

1. She moves from topic to topic freely without any concern as to whether or not her current topic is connected in  any way with her earlier topic;
2. She is a character written in part for the groundlings in the pit due to her crude humor.

We’ll continue with scene 4 tomorrow.

Homework

• English I Honors: 
  • read act 1 scene 4;
  • complete the study guide through 1.4 (students should be through 1.3 already)