Dividing Lines
Much Ado About Numbers by Rob Eastway reminded me that Shakespeare’s language is not solely literary; it can be both mathematical and musical at once. One small but powerful example appears in Romeo and Juliet, when Juliet listens for the bird that will signal dawn, and, therefore, separation for the two lovers:
It is the lark that sings so out of tune,
Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.
Some say the lark makes sweet division;
This doth not so, for she divideth us.
To the modern ear, the word “division” seems abstract or numeric. But to Shakespeare’s audience, it was also a musical term. In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, division commonly referred to a form of musical performance that took a long note or simple melody and then “divided” it into many shorter notes. It was a kind of improvised variation, known for its sweetness and unpredictability.
With this understanding, Juliet’s line becomes a double entendre. On the surface, she hears the lark’s elaborate melody (“sweet division”), but emotionally, that same melody is abruptly cutting her off from Romeo. Here, Shakespeare uses the concept of musical division to describe social and emotional separation. In this way, sound becomes mathematics, and one long night for Juliet is subdivided into many tiny moments of loss.
