Juliet's Worte an Romeo in A. 2. Sc. 2. erinnern an folgende Worte, die sie bei Brooke spricht:

For if you doe intende my honor to defile,

In error shall you wander still, as you have done this whyle:
But if your thought be chaste, and have on vertue ground,

If wedlocke be the ende and marke which your desire hath found,
Obedience set aside, unto my parentes dewe,

The quarell cke that long agoe betwene our housholdes grewe,
Both me and myne I will all whole to you betake,

And following you where so you goe, my fathers house forsake.
But if by wanton love and by unlawfull sute

You thinke in ripest yeres to plucke my maydenhods dainty frute,

You are begylde; and now your Juliet you bestekes

To cease your sute, and suffer her to live emong her likes.

Romeo's Antwort führt den Mönch zuerst ein:

Since, lady, that you like to honor me so much

As to accept me for your spouse, I yeld my selfe for such.

In true witnes wherof, because I must depart,

Till that my deede do prove my woord, I leave in pawne my hart.

Tomorrow eke bestimes, before the sunne arise,

To Fryer Lawrence will I wende, to learne his sage advise.

He is my gostly syre, and oft he hath me taught

What I should doe in things of wayght, when I his ayde have sought

And at this selfe same houre, I plyte you here my fayth,

I will be here (if you think good) to tell you what he sayth.

She was contented well; els favour found he none

That night, at lady Juliets hand, save pleasant woordes alone.

This barefoote fryer gyrt with cord his grayish weede,

For he of Frauncis order was, a fryer as I reede.

Not as the most was he, a grosse unlearned foole,

But doctor of divinitie proceded he in schoole.

By magiks arte most men supposd that he could wonders woorke.

Auch im Gedicht schreibt Juliet's Mutter die Thränen der Tochter dem

Schmerz um Tybalt zu. (Vgl. A. 3. Sc. 5.)

In absence of her knight the lady no way could

Kepe trewse betwene her greefes and her, though nere so faine she would;

And though with greater payne she cloked sorowes smart,

Yet did her paled face disclose the passions of her hart.

Her sighing every houre, her weping every where,

Her recheles heede of mente, of slepe, and wearing of her geare,

The carefull mother markes; then of her helth afrayde;
Because the greefes increased still, thus to her child she sayde:
Deere daughter, if you shoulde long languishe in this sort,

I stand in doute that over soone your sorowes will make short
Your loving fathers life and myne, that love you more
Than our owne propre breth and lyfe. Brydel henceforth therfore

Your greefe and payne, yourselfe on joy your thought to set,
For time it is that now you should our Tybalts death forget.
Of whom since God hath claymd the lyfe that was but lent,
He is in blisse, ne is there cause why you should thus lament?
You can not call him backe with teares and shrikinges shrill:
It is a falt thus still to grudge at Gods appoynted will.

Der Rath des Mönches (A. 4. Sc. 1.) lautet bei Brooke so:

Receive this vyoll small and keepe it as thine eye;

And on the mariage day, before the sunne doe cleare the skye,

Fill it with water full up to the very brim,

Then drinke it of, and thou shalt feele throughout eche vayne and lim

A pleasant slumber slide, and quite dispred at length

On all thy partes, from every part reve all thy kindly strength;

Withouten moving thus thy ydle parts shall rest,

No pulse shall goe, ne hart once beate within thy hollow brest,

But thou shalt lye as she that dyeth in a traunce:

Thy kinsmen and thy trusty frendes shall wayle the sodain chaunce:

The corps then will they bring to grave in this churchyarde,

Where thy forefathers long agoe a costly tombe preparde,

Both for himselfe and eke for those that should come after,

Both deepe it is, and long and large, where thou shall rest, my daughter,

Till I to Mantua sende for Romeus, thy knight;

Out of the tombe both he and I will take thee forth that night.

And when out of thy slepe thou shalt awake agayne,

Then mayst thou goe with him from hence.

Endlich folge hier, was dem Monologe Juliet's (A. 4. Sc. 3.) entspricht:

I must devoure the mixed drinke that by me here I have,
Whose woorking and whose force as yet I doe not know.
And of this piteous plaint began another doute to growe:
What doe I knowe (quoth she) if that this powder shall
Sooner or later then it should or els not woorke at all?

And then my craft descride as open as the day,

The peoples tale and laughing stocke shall I remayn for aye.
And what know I (quoth she) if serpentes odious,

And other beastes and wormes that are of nature venomous,

That wonted are to lurke in darke caves under grounde,
And commonly, as I have heard, in dead mens tombes are found,
Shall harme me, yea or nay, where I shall lye as ded?
Or how shall I that alway have in so freshe ayre been bred,
Endure the loathsome stinke of such an heaped store
Of carkases, not yet consumde, and bones that long before

Intombed were, where I my sleping place shall have,

Where all my auncesters doe rest, my kindreds common grave?
Shall not the fryer and my Romeus, when they come,

Fynd me (if I awake before) ystifled in the tombe?

And whilst she in these thoughtes doth dwell somwhat to long,
The force of her ymagining anon dyd waxe so strong,

That she surmysde she saw, out of the hollow vaulte,
(A griesly thing to looke upon) the carkas of Tybalt;
Right in the selfe same sort that she few dayes before

Had seene him in his blood embrewde, to death eke wounded sore.
And then when she agayne within her selfe had wayde

That quicke she should be buried there, and by his side be layde,

All comfortles, for she shall living feere have none,

But many a rotten carkas, and full many a naked bone;

Her dainty tender partes gan shever all for dred,

Her golden heares did stand upright upon her chillish hed.

Then pressed with the feare that she there lived in,

A sweat as colde as mountaine yse pearst through her slender skin,
That with the moysture hath wet every part of hers:

And more besides, she vainely thinkes, whilst vainly thus she feares,

A thousand bodies dead have compast her about,

And lest they will dismember her she greatly standes in dout.

But when she felt her strength began to weare away,

By little and little, and in her hart her feare increased ay,
Dreading that weakenes might, or foolish cowardise,

Hinder the execution of the purposde enterprise,

As she had frantike been, in hast the glasse she cought,

And up she dranke the mixture quite, withouten farther thought.

Then on her brest she crost her armes long and small,

And so, her senses fayling her, into a traunce did fall.

Die entsprechende Stelle bei Paynter lautet, um doch auch eine Probe seines Styls zu geben, so:

Julietta beinge within hir chambre having an eawer ful of water standing uppon the table filled the viole which the frier gave her: and after she had made the mixture, she set it by hir bed side, and went to bed. And being layde, new thoughtes began to assaile hir, with a conceipt of grievous death, which brought hir into sutch case as she could not tell what to doe, but playning incessantly sayd: „Am not I the most unhappy and desperat creature, that ever was borne of woman? For mee there is nothing left in this wretched worlde but mishap, misery, and mortall woe, my distresse hath brought me to sutch extremity, as to save mine honor and conscience, I am forced to devoure the drynke whereof I know not the vertue: but what know I (sayd she) whether the operatyon of thys pouder will be to soone or to late, or not correspondent to the due tyme, and that my fault being discovered, I shall remayne a fable to the people? What know I moreover, if the serpents and other venomous and crauling wormes, whych commonly frequent the graves and pittes of the earth wyll hurt me, thynkyng that I am deade. But howe shall I indure the stynche of so many carions and bones of myne auncestors whych rest in the grave, yf by fortune I do awake before Rhomeo and fryer Laurence doe come to help me?“ And as shee was thus plunged in the deepe contemplatyon of thynges, she thought that she saw a certayn vision or fansie of her cousin Thibault, in the very same sort as shee save him wounded and imbrued wyth bloud, and musing how that she must be buried quick amongs so many dead carcases and deadly naked bones, hir tender and delycate body began to shake and tremble and hir yellowe lockes to stare for feare, in sutch wyse as fryghtened with a terroure a cold sweate beganne to pierce hir heart and bedewe the rest of al her membres, in sutch wise as she thought that

an hundred thousand deathes did stande about hir, hating her on every side, and plucking her in pieces, and feelyng that hir forces diminyshed by lyttle and lyttle, fearing that through to great debilyty she was not able to do hir enterpryse, like a furious and insensate woman, with out further care, gulped up the water wythin the voyal, then crossing hir armes upon hir stomacke, she lost at that instante all the powers of hir body, resting in a traunce.

Wie Sh. ausserdem hie und da einzelne Wörter und Wendungen aus Brooke entlehnt, ist in den Anmerkungen mehrfach nachgewiesen. Ob er aber ausser diesen beiden Quellen noch andere benutzt hat, ist mindestens zweifelhaft. Die Geschichte von Romeo and Juliet war in England, wie aus vielen Anspielungen der Zeitgenossen Sh.'s hervorgeht, allgemein bekannt, und sogar auf die Bühne soll sie lange vor Sh. gebracht sein, nach der Deutung wenigstens, welche u. A. Collier einer Stelle in der Vorrede von Arthur Brooke gibt. Es heisst dort nämlich: Though I saw the same argument lately set forth on stage with more commendation than I can look for (there being much better set forth, than I have, or can do) yet the same matter, penned as it is, may serve the like good effect. Dass von einem solchen, und noch dazu von Brooke mit so grossem Lobe bedachten Drama, welches also vor dem Jahre 1562 aufgeführt worden wäre, sich weiter keine Notiz oder Spur finden sollte, ist so auffallend, dass man versucht wird, Brooke's Worte nicht im wörtlichen Sinne zu nehmen, sondern im figürlichen, so dass er unter set forth on stage nur das „zur Schau stellen", das Veröffentlichen einer Schrift verstanden haben mag. Jedenfalls ist es nicht wahrscheinlich, dass Sh. ein Drama aus so früher Zeit, dessen sonst nirgendwo Erwähnung geschicht, dreissig Jahre später benutzt haben sollte; um so weniger wahrscheinlich, da für seinen Zweck Brooke's Gedicht und Paynter's Novelle vollkommen ausreichten. Auch auf Dramen ausserhalb Englands, die Sh. benutzt haben sollte, hat man hingewiesen; u. A. auf eine italienische Tragödie gleiches Inhalts von Luigi Groto, betitelt Hadriana, gedruckt im Jahre 1578. Von den Einzelnheiten, welche Sh. vor Augen gehabt haben soll, wird namentlich der Abschied der Liebenden (A. 3, Sc. 5 in Romeo and Juliet) hervorgehoben. Die betreffende Stelle lautet so:

Latino. S' io non erro, è presso il far del giorno.
Udite il rossignuol che con noi desto,

Con noi geme fra i spini e la rugiada

Col pianto nostro bagna l'herbe.

Rivolgete la faccia all' oriente.

Ah lasso,

Ecco incomincia a spuntar l'alba fuori,

Portando un altro sol sopra la terra.

Hadriana. Ahimè ch' io gelo. Ahimè ch' io tremo tutta.
Questa è quell' hora ch' ogni mia dolcezza

Affatto stempra. Ahimè, quest' è quell' hora

Che m' insegna a saper che cosa è affanno .

O del mio ben amica, avara notte,

Perchè si ratto corri, fuggi, voli,

A sommerger te stessa e me nel mare?

Man sieht, die ganze Aehnlichkeit läuft darauf hinaus, dass in beiden Dialogen eine Nachtigall erwähnt wird, bei Groto beiläufig in dem Munde des Liebhabers, bei Sh. in innigem Zusammenhange mit dem Uebrigen und im Gegensatze zur Lerche in dem Munde der Geliebten; bei Groto mahnt die Nachtigall mit zum Aufbruch, bei Sh. lässt sie die Liebenden noch länger bei einander verweilen. Die Uebereinstimmung ist also sehr ge

ring, und ebenso mag es sich auch mit andern Aehnlichkeiten verhalten, die man zwischen Sh. und sonstigen Dramatikern in Bezug auf Romeo and Juliet hat finden wollen.