No such language as this is ever given to old Capulet. On the contrary, he is fussy, shallow, and pretentious. Even the Nurse snubs him. In the first act he rushes out frantically calling for his sword, to which Lady Capulet replies—
"'A crutch, a crutch!—why call you for a sword?'
And the Nurse on another occasion says—
"'Go, go, you cot quean, go,
Get you to bed; faith you will be sick to-morrow
For this night's watching.'
The artist has finely distinguished the two men; there is no mistaking them. On the other hand, if we may 'hint a fall' or two, we should say, that the faces of the lovers are too livid and corpse-like. They are but newly dead, and the artist would have been truer to nature and increased the beauty of his picture if he had allowed some of the beauty of life to linger around them. The attitude of the Friar, too, with elevated arms and appalled look, is not in harmony with the grand composure of his demeanour at all other times, the noble motives from which he had acted, and that sanctity of character which induces the Prince to say to him, after his explanatory speech—
"'We still have known thee for a holy man.'
With all drawbacks, however, this is a noble picture; and if our readers will turn to the scene in the play and refresh their memories before going to the Institution, they will, we think, agree with us in ranking it as a successful Shakesperian illustration—high praise, but deserved."
[69] Among the drawings sold by the Fine Art Society in 1897 was a very striking and interesting sketch in water-colour by Steinle. The subject was a peasant confessing to a Cardinal. May be it was the sketch for this picture for which Steinle asked Leighton to help him respecting the cardinal's costume.
[70] Mrs. S. Orr was in India, the Mutiny taking place at that time.