In _Romeo and Juliet_, inward foreboding
takes the place of outward prophecy. I have quoted above Romeo's
prevision of "Some consequence yet hanging in the stars"; and beside it
may be placed Juliet's--
"I have no joy of this contract to-night;
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,
Too like the lightning which doth cease to be
Ere one can say it lightens."
In _Othello,_ on the other hand, the most modern of all his plays,
Shakespeare had recourse neither to outward boding, nor to inward
foreboding, but planted a plain finger-post in the soil of human nature,
when he made Brabantio say--
"Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:
She has deceived her father, and may thee."
Mr. Stephen Phillips, in the first act of _Paolo and Francesca,_ outdoes
all his predecessors, ancient or modern, in his daring use of sibylline
prophecy. He makes Giovanni's blind foster-mother, Angela, foretell the
tragedy in almost every detail, save that, in her vision, she cannot see
the face of Francesca's lover.
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