SARAH:   Ralph, Lady Capulet has constructed a rather elaborate metaphor here, where Paris is a “book of love” and Juliet is its cover of “gold clasps.” But there’s a lot more clever word play then first meets the eye, so perhaps we should spend some time piecing it together? 

RALPH:  Sounds good, Sarah. First, Juliet’s mother advises her to, “Read over the volume of Paris’s face.” In other words, she should read him like a book.

SARAH:   But volume also means shape or dimensions; so she’s saying that Juliet should also check out his nice features.

RALPH:  She should “examine every married lineament,” the connected lines of his face.

SARAH:   During the Middle Ages, expensive hand copied manuscripts were sometimes decorated with elaborate lettering and borders. These drawings, or “lineaments”, were attractive and in harmony with each other, or well married.   

RALPH:  So what she sees will make Juliet content, or happy.

SARAH:   And what is obscured, or hidden, in this book of Paris’s face, she can see by reading his eyes, which Lady Capulet calls the “margent”, or the “margin” of his face.

RALPH:   The passages in a book that are obscure, difficult to understand, are often explained in the footnotes at the bottom of the page. But in Shakespeare’s time these explanatory notes were printed in the margins of the book. 

SARAH: So Lady Capulet is saying, whatever you find obscure in Paris’s face, will be cleared up if you read what’s in the margin, that is, what’s in his eyes.

RALPH:  Then she continues: this unbound book only lacks a cover to make it beautiful.

SARAH: This precious book of love, this unbound lover, To beautify him, only lacks a cover.

RALPH:   To fully appreciate this line we need to go back to the year 1066.

SARAH: Oh dear.

RALPH:  This will only take a second.  1066 is the year when William, Duke of Normandy, conquered England and brought in a new ruling class of French speaking nobles. 

SARAH:   Over the generations, they switched to speaking English, but 550 years later when Shakespeare was writing Romeo and Juliet, French was still the official language in the English court system. 

RALPH:  And in that court system, the legal term for a single woman was “femme solo”, and the legal term for a married woman was “femme covert.”  This is because she was covered, or protected, by the legal rights of her husband. 

SARAH:   Paris, this precious book of love as Lady Capulet is describing him, is not yet “bound” in marriage, like a book that isn’t bound. He only lacks a cover—a legal wife.

RALPH: Whew.  This is a complicated metaphor!

SARAH: We’re almost there, Ralph.  Then Lady Capulet says “The fish lives in the sea.”

RALPH:  “The fish lives in the sea” was an expression that means, everything has its appropriate place, which is fitting to it. 

SARAH:   Just as fish should live in the sea, it’s appropriate that eloquent writing, in a book, should have a beautiful cover.

RALPH:   Very expensive and lavish books might even have gold clasps to fasten their valuable contents.

SARAH:  In many’s eyes, or according to many people, a book’s glory, or its value, are shared between its contents and its beautiful cover.

RALPH:   So by becoming Paris’s wife, just like the cover of a book, Juliet will not become something less, but share in his wealth and status.

SARAH: Wow.  Do you think Juliet got all that?