"
Romeo replies that there is none fairer than his love, and Benvolio
retorts:
"Tut! You saw her fair, none else being by."
This bantering is most pointed if we assume that Rosaline was dark
rather than fair.
In the second act Mercutio comes upon the scene, and, mocking Romeo's
melancholy and passion, cries:
"I conjure thee, by Rosaline's bright eyes,
By her high forehead and her scarlet lip...."
This description surprises me. Shakespeare rarely uses such physical
portraiture of his personages, and Mercutio is a side of Shakespeare
himself; a character all compact of wit and talkativeness, a character
wholly invented by the poet.
A little later my suspicion is confirmed. In the fourth scene of the
second act Mercutio talks to Benvolio about Romeo; they both wonder
where he is, and Mercutio says:
"Ah, that same pale-hearted wench, that Rosaline,
Torments him so that he will sure run mad."
And again, a moment later, Mercutio laughs at Romeo as already dead,
"stabbed with a white wench's black eye.
Pages:
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312