As plan for Noon and plan for Night 1
So differ Life and Death
In positive Prospective－
The Foot upon the Earth
At Distance, and Achievement, strains,5
The Foot upon the Grave
Makes effort at Conclusion
Assisted faint, of Love.
So differ Life and Death
In positive Prospective－
The Foot upon the Earth
At Distance, and Achievement, strains,5
The Foot upon the Grave
Makes effort at Conclusion
Assisted faint, of Love.
(F.1075/J.960)
[1] plan for Noon:: plan of Romeo and Juliet's marriage in Friar Laurence' cell, noon of their love. plan for Noon:: plan of Romeo and Juliet's reunion, night of their love.
[2] differ Life and Death:: Marriage gives life; reunion gives death.
[3, 4] positive Prospective, Foot upon the Earth:: if their plan goes well, they can live together.
[5] At Distance:: far exiled Romeo shows his love.
[6] Foot upon the Grave:: the scene Romeo and Juliet die in the graveyard.
[8] Assisted faint:: Juliet's faint is assisted by Friar Laurence's medicine.
FRIAR LAURENCE.
Take thou this Vial being then in bed,
And this distilling liquor drink thou off, . . .
Shall stiff and stark, and cold appear like death,
And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt continue two and forty hours,
And then awake, as from a pleasant sleep.
─ Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare
Why 42 hours? Forty sounds like faulty; "two and forty" alludes faulty two persons in this plan.
