Act 5, Scene 1 - Video Note: Word Nerd: "post"

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Word Nerd: "post"

Context and Language Videos

Act 5,

Scene 1

Lines 15-21

An explanation of the word "post" in Act 5, Scene 1 of myShakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

myShakespeare | Romeo and Juliet 5.1 Word Nerd: "post"

How doth my Juliet? That I ask again,

For nothing can be ill if she be well.

Then she is well, and nothing can be ill.

Her body sleeps in Capel's monument,

And her immortal part with angels lives.

I saw her laid low in her kindred's vault,

And presently took post to tell it you.

Video Transcript:

SARAH: Post derives from the latin word, posta, a stop or station along a travel route.

RALPH: By Shakespeare's time it had come to mean more specifically the stations, men, carriages, and horses used to carry messages.

SARAH: Only later did post come to refer to the messages themselves, and thus the post office was the location for handling them.

RALPH: When Balthasar says he took post, he means that he came rapidly by horse with news.