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Wherefore that comma?
Daniel Burnett’s eloquent plea on behalf of the humanities (“A Plea on the Bard’s birthday,” April 23) gets off to an odd start: “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo? Sorry, Juliet. He’s hard to find on many college campuses.”
Burnett reproduces two common errors: adding a comma after “thou” to Juliet’s second speech in Act II, Scene 2 and reading “wherefore” as “where.” That makes her seem to be wondering where her beloved is.
But “wherefore” means “why,” not “where” (hence the pleonastic “Can you see the why or wherefore” in “Show Boat”). Juliet is not wondering where Romeo is. She’s wondering why his name has to be Romeo (more to the point, Romeo Montague). The context makes that quite clear:
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
It all anticipates the Hatfields and the McCoys, and anyone who knows the play is aware of that. Surely Burnett is. So he must be checking to see if we’re paying attention, or he’s just having himself a little joke. But I fear that at least a few readers may not realize he’s just messin’ wid us.
Julian Irias
Davis
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