Page:William Hazlitt - Characters of Shakespear's Plays (1817).djvu/171

Rh sense of pleasure precedes the love of pleasure, but with the sense of pleasure, as soon as it is felt, come thronging infinite desires and hopes of pleasure, and love is mature as soon as born. It withers and it dies almost as soon!

This play presents a beautiful coup-d'æil of the progress of human life. In thought it occupies years, and embraces the circle of the affections from childhood to old age. Juliet has become a great girl, a young woman since we first remember her a little thing in the idle prattle of the nurse, Lady Capulet was about her age when she became a mother, and old Capulet somewhat impatiently tells his younger visitors,

Thus one period of life makes way for the following, and one generation pushes another off the stage. One of the most striking passages to shew the intense feeling of youth in this play is Capulet's invitation to Paris to visit his entertainment.

"At my poor house, look to behold this night Earth-treading stars that make dark heav'n light; Such comfort as do lusty young men feel When well-apparel'd April on the heel