It seems I have been caught out by the grammar police. “Wherefore” does not mean “where”. Does everyone else know this? It means why. And so the title of my just-published blog post is nonsensical. But so, it seems to me, is “Romeo, Romeo, WHY art thou Romeo?”
Jeez, who knew? I’ve always assumed that “wherefore” was just a lovely, poetic way of saying “where”.
Yikes. So I looked it up and found this explanation:
“Since what kept the lovers apart was their feuding families, they could be together without impediments if he had a different name. Why was he Romeo? (Indeed, a few lines later, Juliet asks, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet.”)
Hi Paula, I liked your March-in-January post, and where would we writers be without a little poetic license? I don’t know what “Wherefore” means. Maybe I’m a grammar jaywalker!
I was not aware of this and my class when I read Romeo and Juliet happened decades ago. But when I search for this online, it does appear to mean “why” instead of “where”. Apparently Juliet is lamenting “Why are you a Montague?” and the next line is “Deny thy father and refuse thy name”.