Obstetrics was Shakespeare’s favorite branch of the profession, and he has not been at all sparing in reference to it. Under this head will be included many topics which could more properly be placed in the chapter on physiology, but it is thought better to have such intimate subjects classed together. They have been arranged in the order of their natural occurrence.
Capulet. My child is yet a stranger in the world, She hath not seen the change of fourteen years; Let two more summers wither in their pride, Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride. Paris. Younger than she are happy mothers made. Capulet. And too soon marr’d are those so early made. Romeo and Juliet, Act I., Sc. II.
Well, think of marriage now; younger than you, Here in Verona, ladies of esteem, Are made already mothers: by my count, I was your mother much upon these years That you are now a maid. Romeo and Juliet, Act I., Sc. III.
In the old poem Juliet’s age is put down as sixteen; in Paynter’s novel she is said to be eighteen. Shakespeare, however, makes her fourteen, but who ever imagines her of these tender years while enjoying the play? It seems absurd to think of her as being less than twenty or twenty-two until we recollect that she grew and developed into early womanhood under the sun of an Italian clime. The wonderful development of the girls of Italy can easily be seen in the Eternal city. Taking a stroll down to the Spanish staircase which is daily filled with Roman models lazily awaiting the engagements of the artists, or a walk on the Corso, or around the Theatre of Marcellus, convinces one at once that Shakespeare’s Juliet, young as she is, is not overdrawn, and that the Italian girl of fourteen is indeed fully “ripe to be a bride.”
’Tis a sad thing, I can not choose but say, And all the fault of that indecent sun Who can not leave alone our helpless clay, But will keep baking, broiling, burning on, That, howsoever people fast and pray, The flesh is frail and so the soul’s undone: What men call gallantry, and gods adultery, Is much more common where the climate’s sultry. Byron—Don Juan, Canto I., Verse LXIII.
Shakespeare has hinted several times that it was a common occurrence for girls of this “sun-burnt nation” to be mothers at the age of fourteen. Paris assures Juliet’s father that “younger than she are happy mothers made,” and Lady Capulet, in her conversation with her daughter, alludes to the fact that she was her mother when she was but thirteen. She also echoes Paris in saying:
Younger than you Here in Verona, ladies of esteem, Are made already mothers.
Another reference is found in Winter’s Tale:
If this prove true, they’ll pay for it: by mine honour, I’ll geld ’em all; fourteen they shall not see, To bring false generations. Act II., Sc. I.
Perhaps Byron had a better idea of this climatic effect than any other poet. He has frequently written of it; indeed, it forms the foundation of some of his poems.