What was Big Willy Shakes going for?
Not so fast, Shmoopers. The Nurse has another agenda, too. She wants to warn Romeo that he better not mess around with Juliet. Basically, she tells him that if he thinks he can lead Juliet into a fool's paradise where things are not really what they seem, then he's got another think comin'.
Why's this so important? Well, remember that at this point, no one else knows that Romeo and Juliet are up to some serious romantic shenanigans. Their families hate one another, and the young lovebirds are petrified to tell their 'rents because then things would really hit the fan. So the Nurse has to shift into mother mode and act protect her charge from any possible bad intentions. She cares about Juliet and doesn't want to see her get hurt. Aw.
But before you go around singing the Nurse's praises, let's stop and ask the big question: If she's such a great mother figure, why does the Nurse help Juliet hook up with Romeo in the first place?
Think about it. Before this scene, we've seen Romeo and Juliet on the balcony and heard the Nurse calling her in. Then we see Romeo with Friar Laurence. And then we cut straight to this scene where the Nurse shows up as Juliet's messenger. We're not exactly swimming in details and motivations here. So we're going to have to shake out some possibilities as to what exactly the Nurse intends.
Is she just playing the role of "bawd"—a woman who pimps out a young girl? It's possible. Is she genuinely trying to do what's best for her swoony charge? Maybe. Or is she somehow trying to angle personal gain for herself? The truth is we don't know for sure. All we can do is speculate.
What we do know is that the Nurse's line is a bigger deal than she might think. Sure, she's warning Romeo to back off if he's not going to do right by Juliet, but she's also talking about the young lovers' entire relationship. Let's get real, Shmoopers: Romeo and Juliet are in a fool's paradise.
They want to believe that they can be together even though their families are fighting in the streets. But the truth is they don't ever think through what will happen next, or how things could possible work out. How will they get their families on board with the fact that they're tying the knot? Where will they live? Who will support them once their families inevitably disown them? Who's gonna pay their electricity bill? Fool's paradise, indeed.
Shakespeare might have found the perfect phrase for this play, but he certainly didn't invent it. You might have noticed that the Nurse says "as they say" after she says "a fool's paradise." That's because this phrase was already around by the time Shakespeare got to it. The first recording of this phrase was in 1462 in a family's letters to one another called the Paston Letters. We guess it stuck because 150 years later, Shakespeare was tossing around like old hat.