The Apothecary in “Romeo and Juliet”
is a favourite illustration of the scrupulous care which Shakespeare bestowed on the revision of his dramas. The story on which the play is founded is well known to students. It was written by an Italian novelist, Luigi da Porto, of Vicenza, and was entitled “La Giuletta.” This author died in 1529. In Girolamo de la Corte’s “History of Verona,” published at Venice in 1549, it is given and stated to be a true story. An English translation of it in rhyme by Arthur Brooke appeared in 1562, and a prose translation by Painter some time later. The version by Brooke is entitled “The Tragicall Historie of Romeus and Juliet,” and it is from this that Shakespeare took not only the incidents, but, as will be seen, some of his expressions. Brooke describes Romeus in Mantua, resolved to die, and looking for a shop where he may buy poison.
Brooke’s Version, 1562.
And then from street to street he wand’reth up and down
To see if he in any place may find in all the town
A salve meet for his sore, an oil fit for his wound,
And seeking long, alas, too soon, the thing he sought he found,
An apothecary sat unbusied at his door,
Whom by his heavy countenance he guessed to be poor;
And in his shop he saw his boxes were but few,
And in his window of his wares there was so small a shew.
Wherefore our Romeus assuredly hath thought
What by no friendship could be got with money should be bought.
For needy lack is like the poor man to compel
To sell that which the city’s law forbiddeth him to sell.
Then by the hand he drew the needy man apart
And with the sight of glittering gold inflamed well his heart.
“Take fifty crowns of gold (quoth he) I give them thee
So that before I part from hence thou shalt deliver me
Some poison strong that may in less than half an hour
Kill him whose wretched hap shall be the poison to devour.”
The wretch by covetisse is won and doth assent
To sell the thing whose sale ere long too late he doth repent.
In haste he poison sought and closely he it bound
And then began in whisp’ring voice thus in his ear to round:
“Fair Sir (quoth he), be sure this is the speeding gear,
And more there is than you shall need; for half of that is there
Will serve, I undertake, in less than half an hour
To kill the strongest man alive. Such is the poison’s power.”
Shakespeare’s First Rendering.
This is the rendering of the scene from Shakespeare’s first quarto edition, 1597:
As I do remember
Here dwells a pothecarie whom oft I noted
As I past by, whose needie shop is stuft
With beggarly accounts of empty boxes.
And on the same an Aligarta hangs,
Olde ends of packthred, and cakes of roses
Are thinly strewed to make up a show.
Here as I noted thus with myselfe I thought:
Ah, if a man should need a poison now,
(Whose present sale is death in Mantua),
Here he might buy it. This thought of mine
Did but forerune my need; and hereabout he dwells.
Being holiday the beggar’s shop is shut.
What ho! Apothecary! Come forth I say.
Ap. Who calls? What would you, Sir?
Rom. Here’s twenty ducats.
Give me a dram of some such speeding gere
As will despatch the weary taker’s life
As suddenly as powder being fired
From forth a cannon’s mouth.
Ap. Such drugs I have, I must of force confesse,
But yet the law is death to those that sell them.
Rom. Art though so bare and full of poverty,
And dost thou fear to violate the law?
The law is not thy friend nor the law’s friend,
And therefore make no conscience of the law.
Upon thy back hangs ragged misery
And starved famine dwelleth in thy cheeks.
Ap. My poverty but not my will consents.
Rom. I pay thy poverty but not thy will.
Ap. Hold, take you this and put it
In any liquid thing you will, and it will serve,
Had you the lives of twenty men.
Rom. Hold, take this gold, worse poison to men’s souls
Than this which thou hast given me. Go hie thee hence,
Go, buy thee cloathes, and get thee into flesh:
Come cordial and not poison, go with me
To Juliet’s grave, for there must I use thee.
Shakespeare was a busy man in 1597, and in the years before as well as about that date he was preparing novelties for his theatre. Later he had more leisure, and it is interesting to notice how artistically he fills out his original sketch with only just such details as make the ideas more vivid. In the revised version of this scene, published in 1609, there are no new ideas, but scarcely a line is left untouched. A comparison of title-pages in the two editions is amusing and at the same time instructive. In 1597 it reads: “An Excellent Conceited Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet as it hath been often (with great applause) plaid publiquely.” In 1609 this is toned down to “The most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet as it hath been sundri times publiquely Acted.” The omission of the parenthetic (“with great applause”) is significant. The poet knows he no longer needs meretricious advertisement. The scene as we have it in our modern books is very similar to
Shakespeare’s Revised Version (Third Quarto, 1609).
Rom. I do remember an apothecary
And hereabouts he dwells—whom late I noted
In tatter’d weeds, with overwhelming brows,
Culling of simples; meager were his looks,
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones;
And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
An alligator stuff’d, and other skins,
Of ill-shap’d fishes; and about his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes,
Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds,
Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses,
Were thinly scatter’d to make up a show.
Noting this penury, to myself I said—
And if a man did need a poison now,
Whose sale is present death in Mantua,
Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.
O, this same thought did but fore-run my need;
And this same needy man must sell it me.
As I remember this should be the house;
Being holiday, the beggar’s shop is shut—
What ho! Apothecary!
Ap.Who calls so loud?
Rom. Come hither, man. I see that thou art poor;
Hold, there is forty ducats; let me have
A dram of poison; such soon speeding gear
As will disperse itself through all the veins,
That the life-weary taker may fall dead;
And that the trunk may be discharg’d of breath
As violently as hasty powder fired
Doth hurry from the fatal cannon’s womb.
Ap. Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua’s law
Is death to any he that utters them.
Rom. Art thou so bare, and full of wretchedness,
And fear’st to die? famine is in thy cheeks.
Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes,
Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back,
The world is not thy friend, nor the world’s law;
The world affords no law to make thee rich;
Then be not poor, but break it, and take this.
Ap. My poverty but not my will consents.
Rom. I pray thy poverty and not thy will.
Ap. Put this in any liquid thing you will
And drink it off; and if you had the strength
Of twenty men, it would despatch you straight.
Rom. There is thy gold, worse poison to men’s souls
Doing more murders in this loathsome world
Than these poor compounds that thou may’st not sell.
I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none.
Farewell; buy food, and get thyself in flesh.
Come cordial, and not poison; go with me
To Juliet’s grave, for there I must use thee.
The Apothecary.
(Drawn by Miss K. Righton.)
Two lines in the accepted version have been the subject of much controversy, sometimes of an acrimonious character among critics. Both sides quote one or other of the early editions in support of their contentions. One of the lines is “Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes.” It is fiercely held that “starveth” in this expression should be “stareth.” And in the famous line “I pray thy poverty and not thy will” ordinary readers naturally think “pay” should be substituted for “pray.” The defenders of the quoted versions contemptuously reply that it is because we are only commonsense people and not poets that we cannot rise to the height of appreciating the meaning of the more recondite phrases that makes us suggest the emendations.