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A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

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"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" is a commonly quoted part of a dialogue in William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, in which Juliet argues that the names of things do not matter, only what things "are".[1]

Contents
  [hide] 1 Origin
2 In culture
3 See also
4 References
Origin[edit]
In Act II, Scene I of the play, the line is said by Juliet in reference to Romeo's house, Montague which would imply that his name means nothing and they should be together.

Juliet:
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
 Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
 Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
 And I'll no longer be a Capulet.
Romeo:
[Aside] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?
Juliet:
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
 Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
 What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
 Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
 Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
 So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
 Retain that dear perfection which he owes
 Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
 And for that name which is no part of thee
 Take all myself.
Romeo:
I take thee at thy word:
 Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized;
 Henceforth I never will be Romeo.
In culture[edit]
Umberto Eco wrote an essay about translations in The Guardian in 1994 titled A Rose by Any Other Name. [2]
In 1975 country artist Ronnie Milsap released the album A Rose By Any Other Name
A track by Thomas Newman, written for the movie American Beauty is titled Any Other Name.
Gertrude Stein's aphorism Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose has been contrasted with Shakespeare's.[3]
Captain James T. Kirk made reference to the quotation in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "By Any Other Name".
Enoch 'Nucky' Thompson, played by Steve Buscemi, made a reference to the quotation in the first episode of "Boardwalk Empire".
In the TV Series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation season 10, episode 16, used vacuum-packed lingerie is sold under the brand "By Any Other Name".
In the children's science show Bill Nye the Science Guy, Bill Nye quotes, "A kilogram by any other name would weigh as much."
David Tennant used the saying at the end of one of the two Lauren Cooper's sketches during the 2007 edition of Comic Relief, when he turns Lauren into a 5" Rose Tyler action figure, using a sonic screwdriver after Lauren did her "I ain't bovvered" routine in Shakespearean style and recited Sonnet 130.
In the 2010 film DIEner the lead character, an unknown serial killer used the Shakespeare quote in the first scene referring to a waitress name.
In the Diamond and Pearl series of the Pokémon anime, Team Rocket's motto includes this line.
One of the many available description tags for weapons in the game Borderlands 2 is "a Rose by any other name"
'Would a Roshanda by any other name smell as sweet?' is a chapter title in Freakonomics.
"A rose by any other name," is said at the beginning of Now You See Me as a trick unfolds using a white rose.
In The Simpsons episode The Principal and the Pauper, Bart and Homer point out that this would not be true if they were called "Stench Blossoms" or "Crapweeds"[4]
See also[edit]
Law of identity
Rhetorical device
The Importance of Being Earnest
References[edit]
 Wikisource has original text related to this article:
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet

1.Jump up ^ A rose by any other name would smell as sweet The Phrase Finder
2.Jump up ^ A Rose By Any Other Name The Modern World / Umberto Eco
3.Jump up ^ Claire Frederick, Shirley McNeal, Inner strengths
4.Jump up ^ [1]

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Star-crossed

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Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about the phrase. For other uses, see Star-crossed (disambiguation).
"Star-crossed" or "star-crossed lovers" is a phrase describing a pair of lovers whose relationship is often thwarted by outside forces. The term encompasses other meanings, but originally means the pairing is being "thwarted by a malign star" or that the stars are working against the relationship.[1] Astrological in origin, the phrase stems from the belief that the positions of the stars ruled over people's fates, and is best known from the play Romeo and Juliet by the Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare. Such pairings are often but not always said to be doomed from the start.



 The phrase "star-crossed lovers" was coined in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Definitions
2 Famous examples
3 Modern examples
4 See also
5 References
Definitions[edit]
The phrase was coined in the prologue of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet:

"From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,
 A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life" (5–6).[2]
It also refers to destiny and the inevitability of the two characters' paths crossing each other. It usually but not always refers to unlucky outcomes, since Romeo and Juliet's affair ended tragically. Further, it connotes that the lovers entered into their union without sufficient forethought or preparation; that the lovers may not have had adequate knowledge of each other or that they were not thinking rationally.[1]
Famous examples[edit]



Tristan and Isolde


Layla and Majnun
Examples of famous star-crossed lovers vary in written work. Pyramus and Thisbe are usually regarded as the source for Romeo and Juliet, featured in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights are considered one of the greatest love stories in literary works.[3] In Wuthering Heights, the narrative tells the tale of the all-encompassing and passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and many around them.
Lancelot and Guinevere are often remembered for their affair. Guinevere was the queen of Camelot and wife of King Arthur, while Lancelot was a trusted knight of Arthur's Round Table. In some versions of the tale, she is instantly smitten, and when they consummate their adulterous passion, it is an act which paves the way for the fall of Camelot and Arthur's death.
The legend of Tristan and Iseult (also known as Tristan and Isolde) is an influential romance and tragedy, retold in numerous sources with as many variations. The tragic story is of the adulterous love between the lovers. The narrative predates and most likely influenced the Arthurian romance of Lancelot and Guinevere, and has had a substantial impact on Western art and literature since it first appeared in the 12th century. While the details of the story differ from one author to another, the overall plot structure remains much the same.
Hero and Leander is a Greek myth, relating the story of Hero (Greek: Ἡρώ), a priestess of Aphrodite who dwelt in a tower in Sestos, at the edge of the Hellespont, and Leander (Greek: Λέανδρος, Leandros), a young man from Abydos on the other side of the strait. Leander fell in love with Hero and would swim every night across the Hellespont to be with her. Hero would light a lamp at the top of her tower to guide his way.
Pelléas and Mélisande (French: Pelléas et Mélisande) is a Symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck about the forbidden, doomed love of the title characters. A classical myth, was a common subject for art during the Renaissance and Baroque eras.
Troilus and Cressida is a tragedy by Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1602. The play (also described as one of Shakespeare's problem plays) is not a conventional tragedy, since its protagonist (Troilus) does not die.[4] The play ends instead on a very bleak note with the death of the noble Trojan Hector and destruction of the love between Troilus and Cressida.[4] Venus and Adonis is classical myth during the Renaissance. Heer Ranjha is one of the four popular tragic romances of the Punjab.



Hellelil and Hildebrand
Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl refers to a number of mythical and folkloric explanations of the origins of the volcanoes Popocatépetl ("the Smoking Mountain") and Iztaccíhuatl ("white woman" in Nahuatl, sometimes called the Mujer Dormida "sleeping woman" in Spanish)[5] which overlook the Valley of Mexico.
Layla and Majnun ( by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi) is a classical Arabian love story . It is based on the real story of a young man called Qays ibn al-Mulawwah from the northern Arabian Peninsula,[6] in the Umayyad era during the 7th century. There were two Arabic versions of the story at the time.[7] In one version, he spent his youth together with Layla, tending their flocks. In the other version, upon seeing Layla he fell passionately in love with her. In both versions, however, he went mad when her father prevented him from marrying her; for that reason he came to be called Majnun Layla, which means "Driven mad by Layla". To him were attributed a variety of incredibly passionate romantic Arabic poems, considered among the foremost examples of the Udhari school.
The Butterfly Lovers is a Chinese legend about the tragic romance between two lovers, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. The legend is sometimes regarded as the Chinese equivalent to Romeo and Juliet.[8][9]
Fight and Love with a Terracotta Warrior is a Chinese novel about the forbidden love between a general and a girl chosen to be taken to a land now known as Japan, Meng Tianfang and Han Dong-Er. After their relationship was discovered, both were condemned to death, one to be burned and the other to be made a terracotta and burned alive. Dong-Er secretly gives an elixir of immortality to Tianfang and sacrifices herself. Two thousand years later, Tianfang is released from his imprisonment in the terracotta by Zhu Lili, the reincarnation of Dong-Er.
Other classic star-crossed lovers include Devdas and Paro (Parvati) in Devdas, Paris of Troy and Helen of Sparta in The Iliad, Oedipus and Jocasta in Oedipus the King, Mark Antony and Cleopatra during the time of the Roman Empire, Khosrow and Shirin during the time of Sassanid Persia, Heloise and Peter Abelard during the Middle Ages, and Emperor Jahangir and Anarkali, Cyrano and Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac, Hagbard and Signy and Maratha Peshwa (Prime Minister) Bajirao and Mastani during the peak of Maratha Empire.


Modern examples[edit]
In soap opera, modern examples of star-crossed lovers have included couples such as Cliff Warner and Nina Cortlandt, JR Chandler and Babe Carey and Bianca Montgomery and Maggie Stone from All My Children,[10][11][12] etc.
Prime time has had various star-crossed lovers labeled as notable and "unforgettable" love stories. IGN considers Buffy Summers and Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to be one of the genre's most tragic and notable star-crossed pairings.[13] Cole Turner and Phoebe Halliwell from Charmed, Michael and Nikita from La Femme Nikita, Kara Thrace and Lee Adama from Battlestar Galactica, Clark Kent and Lana Lang from Smallville, and Lucas Scott and Peyton Sawyer from One Tree Hill are other star-crossed couples from the genre.[14][15][16][17][18]

  
The Brokeback Mountain poster's layout was fashioned after Titanic's, which similarly used the theme of star-crossed lovers.[19]

With film or within modern novels and books, such star-crossed couples as Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater from Titanic, Landon Carter and Jamie Sullivan from "A Walk to Remember", Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala from the Star Wars saga, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist from Brokeback Mountain, and Jake and Neytiri from Avatar have been included. [20][21][22][23][24] In The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark are often called "The Star Crossed Lovers from District 12" because of their romance while in the Hunger Games, where only one can survive. Animation, such as anime and cartoons, have had their star-crossed couples as well. Gennosuke Kouga and Oboro Iga from Basilisk[25] is one example, along with Brotherhood member Lance Alvers ("Avalanche") and X-Man Kitty Pryde ("Shadowcat") from X-Men: Evolution.
Role-playing video games have particularly featured star-crossed couples. Cloud Strife and Aerith Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII have been called video games' greatest, as well as its most tragic, star-crossed love story.[26][27][28] The couple is one of the most well-known video game couples in the history of video gaming.[26][27][28] Zero and Iris from Mega Man X4 are a well-known example of a star-crossed video game couple.
In 2008, a web-based reality soap opera was created based on the concept of being star-crossed. In Starcrossed, Fox News astrologer Greg Tufaro takes a couple in crisis and separates them for one cycle of the moon. Each is then set up with individuals who are a better match astrologically. The show puts the question "Is love written in the stars?" to the test with the couple deciding on the 28th day of their separation whether they will stay together or remain apart.[29]
In 2011, Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson first became a couple on the FOX drama-comedy, Glee. Since then, the reaction of their relationship has become popular world-wide. Many media sites have fiercely supported their relationship and both actors, Darren Criss and Chris Colfer have implied how they hope to see them together in the future.
See also[edit]
Elopement
Teenage tragedy song
Unrequited love
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b Levenson (ed.), Jill L. (2000). Romeo and Juliet, The Oxford Shakespeare (Oxford World's Classics). Oxford: Oxford University Press. page 142 ISBN 0-19-281496-6.
2.Jump up ^ Full text / script of the play Romeo and Juliet Act I by William Shakespeare
3.Jump up ^ Wainwright, Martin (2007-08-10). "Emily Brontë hits the heights in poll to find greatest love story". London: guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
4.^ Jump up to: a b Oates, Joyce Carol (1966/1967). The Tragedy of Existence: Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida. Originally published as two separate essays, in Philological Quarterly, Spring 1967, and Shakespeare Quarterly, Spring 1966.
5.Jump up ^ Secor, R.J. Mexico's Volcanoes: A Climbing Guide [1]
6.Jump up ^ Sunrise (June/July 2000), Theosophical University Press: "Follow Your Heart: The Story of Layla and Majnun", by J. T. Coker
7.Jump up ^ ArtArena: "The Original Legend in Arabic Literature"
8.Jump up ^ Amazon.com
9.Jump up ^ Guandog News
10.Jump up ^ "Peter Bergman Biography". hollywood.com. Archived from the original on 2013-01-26. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
11.Jump up ^ "All My Children". All My Children. 2006-04-20. 60 minutes in. ABC.
12.Jump up ^ Warn, Sarah (2005-02-24). "The End of a Lesbian Era on All My Children". AfterEllen.com. Archived from the original on 2013-01-01. Retrieved 2007-07-28.
13.Jump up ^ "IGN's Top 10 Favorite TV Couples". IGN. Retrieved 2007-06-12.
14.Jump up ^ "Commentary: The guilty pleasure of 'Charmed'". CNN. 2005-04-08. Retrieved 2010-05-24.
15.Jump up ^ Armstrong, Jennifer (2005-03-15). "La Femme Nikita: The Complete Second Season (2005)". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
16.Jump up ^ Johnston, Andrew. "Final Flight". Time Out NY. Retrieved 2008-12-27.
17.Jump up ^ "Kristin Kreuk as Lana Lang". The CW. Retrieved 2009-02-09.
18.Jump up ^ Armstrong, Jennifer (2009-08-20). "'One Tree Hill' sneak preview: Time jumps, hot new characters, and life without Chad Michael Murray". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
19.Jump up ^ "The Cowboy Way - Posterwire.com".
20.Jump up ^ Glionna, John M. (1998-03-16). "'Titanic' Refuses to Sink, Passes 'Star Wars' as Top Moneymaker". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-05-24.
21.Jump up ^ Leydon, Joe (2002-01-24). "A Walk to Remember Movie Review". Variety.
22.Jump up ^ http://www.natalieportman.com/articles/nparticles_en.php?viewarticle=1&article_number=170
23.Jump up ^ Harris, Dan. "Christian conservatives serve up 'Brokeback' backlash". ABC News. Retrieved 2006-05-27.
24.Jump up ^ Eric Ditzian, with reporting by Josh Horowitz (2010-01-07). "James Cameron Compares His 'Avatar' And 'Titanic' Couples. The director notes the similarities between Sully and Neytiri, and Jack and Rose.". MTV. Retrieved 2010-01-09.
25.Jump up ^ http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/basilisk/dvd-1
26.^ Jump up to: a b Villafania, Alexander. "The most memorable video game love teams".
27.^ Jump up to: a b "10: The 10 Most Important Games". Electronic Gaming Monthly. January 2005.
28.^ Jump up to: a b IGN Staff. "Top 10 Tuesday: Best Videogame Romances". IGN.
29.Jump up ^ Tufaro, Greg (2008-09-15). "Can The Stars Predict Your Perfect Match?". Fox News.

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Ephesian Tale

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 Site of the Temple of Artemis.
The Ephesian Tale of Anthia and Habrocomes by Xenophon of Ephesus is an Ancient Greek novel written in the mid-2nd century CE.
Translator Graham Anderson sees the Ephesiaca as "a specimen of penny dreadful literature in antiquity." Moses Hadas, an earlier translator, takes a slightly different view: "If An Ephesian Tale is an absorbing tale of love and improbable adventure, it is also a tract to prove that Diana of the Ephesians (who was equated with Isis) cares for her loyal devotees."
Due to its shortness and other factors, some scholars maintain that the version we have is merely an epitome of a longer work. The Suda, a 10th-century Medieval Greek historical encyclopedia, describes the novel as having ten books when the version we have is divided into five. But Anderson suggests that "we may well find that our version is one of not two but a multiplicity of retellings of a familiar story, whose relationships to Xenophon are not easily identifiable." Translator Jeffrey Henderson offers another reason for the disparity: "For the number of books, the itacism of έ ("five") ... is a likelier explanation of Suda's ί ("ten") than the supposition that our text is an epitome.[1] The story is very similar to the later story of Apollonius of Tyre.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Book-by-book Synopsis 1.1 Book I
1.2 Book II
1.3 Book III
1.4 Book IV
1.5 Book V
2 References
3 External links
Book-by-book Synopsis[edit]
Book I[edit]
In the city of Ephesus, Habrocomes, an attractive, cultured, and slightly arrogant young man of 16, and Anthia, an attractive and chaste young woman of 14, fall helplessly in love with each other after briefly meeting at the festival of Artemis. But because each is afraid to reveal this love to the other, they suffer miserably. Their families, in the hopes of curing them, consult the shrine of Apollo at Colophon. The soothsayer predicts that Habrocomes and Anthia will undergo travails involving pirates, tombs, fire, and flood, but their condition will improve. In an effort to avert such evils, the parents arrange that the lovers will quickly be married to each other and then sent to Egypt for their safety.
En route to Egypt, Habrocomes and Anthia pledge that if they ever became separated they would remain faithful. When their ship stops at Rhodes, it attracts the attention of a crew of Phoenician pirates, who plunder it, set it aflame, and take Habrocomes and Anthia captive. The pirates convey them to Tyre. Their captain, Corymbos, falls in love with Habrocomes, and his fellow pirate Euxinos falls in love with Anthia. Corymbos and Euxinos agree to each talk persuasively to the love object of the other, encouraging cooperation. Habrocomes and Anthia both say they need more time to think before deciding.
Book II[edit]
Afterwards, in private, Habrocomes and Anthia decide that their only acceptable recourse is to commit suicide together. However, Apsyrtos, the chief of the pirate stronghold, is struck by the beauty of the young couple and concludes that they would bring an excellent price on the slave market. He takes them, along with their loyal slaves Leucon and Rhode, to his house in Tyre and puts them under the care of a trusted slave, then goes to Syria on other business.
While Apsyrtos is absent, his daughter Manto falls in love with Habrocomes and writes him a note expressing her feelings. He spurns her advances. When Apsyrtos returns, bringing with him a young man named Moeris as a husband for his daughter, Manto takes revenge on Habrocomes by telling her father that Habrocomes had raped her. Apsyrtos has Habrocomes whipped and tortured. He then marries Manto to Moeris and gives them a wedding present of three slaves: Anthia, Leucon, and Rhode. Moeris, Manto, and the slaves go to live in Antioch. Manto separates Leucon and Rhode from Anthia by having them sold to an old man living far away in Lycia, and completes her revenge by having Anthia married to another slave of hers, a rural goatherd named Lampo.
Meanwhile, Apsyrtos discovers the love note his daughter had written to Habrocomes. He immediately frees Habrocomes and gives him employment as manager of the house.
Lampo honors Anthia's wish to remain faithful to Habrocomes and doesn't attempt to consummate the relationship. But Moeris falls in love with Anthia and seeks Lampo's help in winning her heart. Instead, Lampo tells Manto of her husband's plan; Manto, seeing that Anthia is still her rival in love, becomes enraged and orders Lampo to take Anthia into the forest and kill her. Lampo promises to do so but takes pity on Anthia and, instead, sells her to Cilician merchants.
These merchants set sail for their country but are shipwrecked en route. The survivors, including Anthia, reach shore only to be captured in the forest by a robber named Hippothoos and his band. During this time, Habrocomes learns that Lampo had sold Anthia to the Cilicians, so he secretly goes to Cilicia in search of her.
When the robber band is about to sacrifice Anthia to the god Ares, a body of troops, led by Perilaos, the chief law enforcement official in Cilicia, suddenly appears. All the robbers are killed or captured save Hippothoos, who escapes; and Anthia is rescued. Perilaos takes Anthia and the captured robbers to Tarsus, falling in love with her on the way. Because he is so insistent in offering to marry Anthia, she finally relents, fearing a worse fate if she rejects him. But she makes him promise to wait thirty days before the wedding.
Meanwhile, Habrocomes reaches Cilicia and encounters Hippothoos. The two immediately become friendly and pledge to travel together.
Book III[edit]
Hippothoos leads Habrocomes away from Cilicia to the city of Mazacos in Cappadocia. There, at an inn, Hippothoos narrates his life story, as follows:
He had been born to a distinguished family in Perinthos, near Thrace. When he was a young man he became involved in a passionate love affair with another young man, Hyperanthes. But then a rich teacher, Aristomachos, visiting from Byzantium, also became smitten by Hyperanthes and convinced the boy’s father to let his son be taken to Byzantium on the pretext of improving his education. Hippothoos eventually went to Byzantium, sneaked into Aristomachos’ house, murdered the man in his sleep, and ran away with Hyperanthes. They were shipwrecked off Lesbos, and Hyperanthes drowned. So Hippothoos buried his lover’s body on the beach, then took up the life of a robber.
Hippothoos then tells Habrocomes of his capture of Anthia in Cilicia and how she was taken in the fight that destroyed his robber band. Habrocomes becomes excited. Appealing to the memory of Hyperanthes, he convinces Hippothoos to return with him to Cilicia to help find Anthia.
When the thirty days are nearly passed and the wedding is near, Anthia falls into despair. Believing that Habrocomes must be dead, and finding marriage to another man intolerable, she conspires with Eudoxos, an Ephesian physician, to give her a poison. In return she will give him enough of Perilaos’ possessions to buy him passage back to Ephesus, and will promise not to use the potion until he has left. Eudoxos agrees to the plan but gives her a hypnotic drug instead of a lethal one, knowing he will be long gone by the time Anthia awakens.
After her wedding, waiting in the bridal chamber, Anthia drinks the potion. Perilaos discovers her body and grieves for her, interring her with great ceremony in a funerary chamber. She awakens some time later, disappointed at the realization that she is alive. So she decides to remain in the tomb and starve herself to death. But a group of robbers have heard of her rich burial and, after waiting for nightfall, break into the vault, take all the silver and gold, and carry her off as prisoner. They set sail for Alexandria, planning to sell her into slavery.
Meanwhile, Habrocomes, with a new band of thieves led by Hippothoos, arrives near Tarsus and hears how Anthia, after being rescued from robbers, had wed her rescuer, killed herself, and been entombed, only to have her body snatched by tomb raiders who escaped to Alexandria. So Habrocomes waits until Hippothoos and his band are drunk and asleep before making his way to a ship bound for Alexandria, hoping to recover Anthia's body.
The robbers sell Anthia to merchants who sell her to Psammis, a prince of India. Anthia plays on the Indian’s superstitions by pretending that she is consecrated to Isis until the proper time for her marriage, which is still a year off. Isis will punish any who force her break her vows. So Psammis agrees to wait a year before bringing her to his bed.
The ship bearing Habrocomes runs aground at Paralion near the mouth of the Nile. A nearby band of thieves called the Shepherds capture the crew, loot the ship, and take everyone across the desert to the Egyptian city of Pelusium. There the crew is sold into slavery. Habrocomes is sold to Araxos, a retired veteran soldier, whose annoying and ugly wife, named Cyno (literally meaning "Bitch"[1]), becomes attracted to Habrocomes. Eventually, Cyno murders Araxos in his sleep so she can marry Habrocomes. This causes Habrocomes to flee in horror. So Cyno announces that it was he who murdered her husband. Habrocomes is quickly arrested and taken to Alexandria to be punished by the governor of Egypt.
Book IV[edit]
Hippothoos, meanwhile, has enlarged his band to five hundred men and traversed Syria, Phoenicia, and Egypt to arrive at Coptos near Ethiopia, where they waylay travelers.
Habrocomes is placed on a cross upon a cliff overlooking the Nile and left to die. He prays for mercy, whereupon a big wind blows the cross into the river. He is carried downstream until he is recaptured and returned to the governor of Egypt. The governor orders Habrocomes to be burned alive. Habrocomes prays for mercy again and is saved, this time by waves from the Nile that douse the flames. The governor views this as a miracle and has Habrocomes imprisoned but well cared for until he can tell his story. Eventually Habrocomes tells his story and is released. The governor helps him sail to Italy to continue his search, and has Cyno crucified in his place.
Meanwhile Anthia travels with Psammis and all his goods to Ethiopia. At Coptos, Hippothoos' band raids the caravan, kills Psammis and captures Anthia. Since Anthia and Hippothoos don't recognize each other, Anthia remains a prisoner. Another robber, Anchialos, lusts after Anthia and assaults her. In self-defense, she kills him with a sword. For this, Hippothoos casts her into a pit with two mastiffs and leaves her under guard to die. But her guard, Amphinomos, takes pity upon her and keeps both Anthia and the dogs fed.
Book V[edit]
Habrocomes, blown off course, lands in Syracuse, Sicily, and lodges with an elderly fisherman, Aigialeus. Aigialeus tells his own story of how, in his native Sparta, his love for Thelxinoe had caused him to elope with her before her father could have her married to another. The two settled in Sicily to live out their lives. Recently Thelxinoe died but Aigialeus mummified her body in the Egyptian manner and now continues to eat, sleep, and talk with her. The steadfastness of this love is an inspiration to Habrocomes.
Hippothoos, assuming Anthia is dead, sets out to sack and conquer the Egyptian village of Areia. Meanwhile, Amphinomos frees Anthia and takes her to Coptos. When the governor of Egypt learns of Hippothoos’ attack on Areia, he sends a large force under the command of Polyidos to destroy his band. The robbers are vanquished but Hippothoos escapes to Sicily. The captured robbers guide Polyidos and his force back to Coptos to root out any remaining members of the band. There he catches Amphinomos and Anthia.
Taking Anthia back to Alexandria, Polyidos falls in love with her. When Polyidos’ wife, Rhenaia, learns of this, she has her slave take Anthia far away and sell her to a brothel keeper in Tarentum, Italy. Hippothoos arrives in Taormina, Sicily, and Habrocomes sails to Italy.
As for Leucon and Rhode, their master in Xanthos has died, leaving them a considerable portion of his estate. So they sail for home, Ephesus, stopping at Rhodes along the way. There they learn that Habrocomes and Anthia had not returned home and that their parents had died of old age and despair. They decide to remain in Rhodes until they can learn more.
Meanwhile Anthia, in order to avoid working as a prostitute, feigns a cataleptic fit and later declares that she suffers from the “sacred disease.” Habrocomes takes up work as a stonecutter in Nuceria, Italy.
Hippothoos, out of poverty, marries a rich old woman to inherit her fortune when she dies. After that, he acquires the love of a younger man, Clisthenes, and sails with him to Italy to purchase slaves and luxuries. In Tarentum he encounters Anthia, whom he recognizes as the woman he’d thrown in the pit with the dogs. He purchases her from the brothel keeper, then takes her home when he learns her story, including that she is the missing wife of Habrocomes.
When Habrocomes can no longer endure stonecutting, he makes his way home to Ephesus, stopping at Syracuse to mourn the recent death of Aigialeus, then continuing on to Rhodes. There, in the temple of the sun, he chances to meet Leucon and Rhode.
Meanwhile, Hippothoos decides to take Anthia home to Ephesus; he and Clisthenes will also move there. The group stops briefly at Rhodes. During the festival of the sun, Anthia encounters Leucon and Rhode at the temple of Isis. Eventually Habrocomes finds them all. Then everyone, including Hippothoos and Clisthenes, shares their stories. Habrocomes and Anthia confirm to each other that they have been faithful all during their travails. The next day they all set sail together for Ephesus. Habrocomes and Anthia make sacrifices to Artemis, raise tombs for their deceased parents, and pass the remainder of their days in Ephesus with Leucon, Rhode, Hippothoos, and Clisthenes.
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b [Jeffrey Henderson, trans. Longus/Daphnis and Chloe. Xenophon of Ephesus/Anthia and Habrocomes. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: Harvard University Press. 2009. ISBN 0-674-99633-X], p. 208, 305
Graham Anderson. "Xenophon of Ephesus: An Ephesian Tale" in Collected Ancient Greek Novels, B. P. Reardon (ed.), University of California Press: Berkeley, Los Angeles, London. 1989. ISBN 0-520-04306-5
Moses Hadas. Three Greek Romances, The Liberal Arts Press, Inc., a division of The Bobbs Merrill Company, Inc.: Indianapolis, Indiana. 1953. ISBN 0-672-60442-6
External links[edit]
Hodoi Elektronikai: Ensembles hypertextes A number of Ancient Greek works (including Ephesian Tale, scroll down to XÉNOPHON D'ÉPHÈSE) with original text and French translation. Université catholique de Louvain.
Anthia and Habrocomes A Latin translation from the original Greek made by Aloys. Emeric. Liber Baro Locella, Vienna, 1796, revised by Gerard Helzel, Hamburg, 2001.

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Troilus and Criseyde

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For the Shakespeare play, see Troilus and Cressida.



 Chaucer reciting Troylus and Criseyde: early 15th-century manuscript of the work at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Troilus and Criseyde is a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer which re-tells in Middle English the tragic story of the lovers Troilus and Criseyde set against a backdrop of war in the Siege of Troy. It was composed using rime royale and probably completed during the mid 1380s. Many Chaucer scholars regard it as the poet's finest work. As a finished long poem it is certainly more self-contained than the better known but ultimately uncompleted Canterbury Tales.
Although Troilus is a character from Ancient Greek literature, the expanded story of him as a lover was of Medieval origin. The first known version is from Benoît de Sainte-Maure's poem Roman de Troie, but Chaucer's principal source appears to have been Boccaccio who re-wrote the tale in his Il Filostrato. Chaucer's version can be said to reflect a less cynical and less misogynistic world-view than Boccaccio's, casting Criseyde as fearful and sincere rather than simply fickle and having been led astray by the eloquent and perfidious Pandarus. It also inflects the sorrow of the story with humour.
The poem had an important legacy for later writers. Robert Henryson's Scots poem The Testament of Cresseid imagined a tragic fate for Cressida not given by Chaucer. In historical editions of the English Troilus and Criseyde, Henryson's distinct and separate work was sometimes included without accreditation as an "epilogue" to Chaucer's tale. Other texts, for example John Metham's Amoryus and Cleopes (c. 1449), adapt language and authorship strategies from the famous predecessor poem.[1] Shakespeare's verse drama Troilus and Cressida, although much blacker in tone, was also based in part on the material.
Troilus and Criseyde is usually considered to be a courtly romance, although the generic classification is an area of significant debate in most Middle English literature. It is part of the cycle the Matter of Rome, a fact which is emphasised by Chaucer.[2]

Contents
  [hide] 1 Characters
2 Synopsis
3 Commentary
4 Notes and references
5 Further reading
6 External links
Characters[edit]
Achilles, warrior who kills Troilus and Hector in battle
Antenor, a soldier held captive by the Greeks, led to the fall of Troy, traded for Criseyde's safety
Calchas, a Trojan prophet who joins the Greeks
Criseyde, Calchas' daughter
Helen, wife to Menelaus, lover of Paris
Pandarus, Criseyde's uncle, advises Troilus in the wooing of Criseyde
Priam, King of Troy
Cassandra, Daughter of Priam, a prophetess at the temple of Apollo
Hector, Prince of Troy, fierce warrior and leader of the Trojan armies
Troilus, Youngest son of Priam, and wooer of Criseyde
Paris, Prince of Troy, lover of Helen
Deiphobus, Prince of Troy, aids Troilus in the wooing of Criseyde
Synopsis[edit]
Calchas, a soothsayer, foresees the fall of Troy and abandons the city in favour of the Greeks; his daughter, Criseyde, receives some ill will on account of her father's betrayal. Troilus, a warrior of Troy, publicly mocks love and is punished by the God of Love by being struck with irreconcilable desire for Criseyde, whom he sees passing through the temple. With the help of sly Pandarus, Criseyde's uncle, Troilus and Criseyde begin to exchange letters. Eventually, Pandarus develops a plan to urge the two into bed together; Troilus swoons when he thinks the plan is going amiss, but Pandarus and Criseyde revive him. Pandarus leaves and Troilus and Criseyde spent a night of bliss together. Calchas eventually persuades the Greeks to release a prisoner of war, Antenor, for his daughter Criseyde. Hector, of Troy, objects; as does Troilus, although he does not voice his concern. Troilus speaks to Criseyde and suggests they elope but she offers a logical argument as to why it would not be practical. Criseyde promises to deceive her father and return to Troy after ten days; Troilus leaves her with a sense of foreboding. Upon arriving with the Greeks, Criseyde realises the unlikeliness of her being able to keep her promise to Troilus. She writes dismissively in response to his letters and on the tenth days accepts a meeting with Diomede, listens to him speak of love, and accepts him as a lover. Pandarus and Troilus wait for Criseyde: Pandarus sees that she will not return and eventually Troilus realises this as well. Troilus curses Fortune, even more so because he still loves her; Pandarus offers some condolences. The narrator, with an apology for giving women a bad name, bids farewell to his book, and briefly recounts Troilus's death in battle and his ascent to the eighth sphere, draws a moral about the transience of earthly joys and the inadequacy of paganism, dedicates his poem to Gower and Strode, asks the protection of the Trinity, and prays that we be worthy of Christ's mercy.[3][4]
Commentary[edit]
The relationship between Chaucer's Troilus and his source material is discussed extensively by C. S. Lewis in The Allegory of Love.
Notes and references[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Richard Utz, "Writing Alternative Worlds: Rituals of Authorship and Authority in Late Medieval Theological and Literary Discourse." In: Creations: Medieval Rituals, the Arts, and the Concept of Creation. Ed. Sven Rune Havsteen, Nils Holger Petersen, Heinrich W. Schwab, and Eyolf Østrem. Turnhout: Brepols, 2007, pp. 121–38.
2.Jump up ^ C. S. Lewis, Selected Literary Essays, pp. 30–1, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1969.
3.Jump up ^ http://karolus.net/tranal.html
4.Jump up ^ http://omacl.org/Troilus/
Further reading[edit]
Boitani, Piero and Jill Mann. The Cambridge Companion to Chaucer. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Brown, Peter, ed. A Companion to Chaucer. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000.
Dinshaw, Carolyn. Chaucer's Sexual Poetics. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989.
Fradenburg, L. O. Aranye. Sacrifice Your Love: Psychoanalysis, Historicism, Chaucer. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002.
Garrison, John, “One Mind, One Heart, One Purse: Integrating Friendship Traditions and the Case of Troilus and Criseyde,” in Medievalia et Humanistica 36 (2010), p. 25–48.
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
Lombardi, Chiara. Troilo e Criseida nella letteratura occidentale. Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2005.
Mann, Jill. Feminizing Chaucer. 2nd ed. Rochester, NY: D.S. Brewer, 2002.
McAlpine, Monica. The Genre of Troilus and Criseyde. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1978.
Patterson, Lee. Chaucer and the Subject of History. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991.
Robinson, Ian. Chaucer and the English Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972.
Robinson, Ian. Chaucer's Prosody: A Study of the Middle English Verse Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971.
Strohm, Paul. Social Chaucer. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989.
Wallace, David. Chaucerian polity: Absolutist Lineages and Associational Forms in England and Italy. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.
External links[edit]
 Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Troilus and Criseyde

Chaucer, Geoffrey. "Troilus and Criseyde." The Online Medieval and Classical Library. Roy Tennant, March 1995. Web. 5 May 2010.
Troilus and Criseyde, UK: BBC.
"Modern Prose Translation of and Other Resources on Troilus and Criseyde", eChaucer, Maine.
Kline, AS, Modern English Version, Poetry in Translation.

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William Painter (author)

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William Painter (or Paynter; 1540? – February, 1595, London [1]) was an English author and translator.
William Painter was a native of Kent. He matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge, in 1554.[2] In 1561 he became clerk of the ordnance in the Tower of London, a position in which he appears to have amassed a fortune out of the public funds. In 1586 he confessed that he owed the government a thousand pounds, and in the next year further charges of peculation were brought against him. In 1591 his son Anthony owned that he and his father had abused their trust, but Painter retained his office until his death. He made an oral will dated 14 February 1594 and died between 19 and 22 February 1595.[3]
The first volume of his The Palace of Pleasure appeared in 1566, and was dedicated to the earl of Warwick. It included sixty tales, and was followed in the next year by a second volume containing thirty-four new ones. A second improved edition in 1575 contained seven new stories. Painter borrows from Herodotus, Boccaccio, Plutarch, Aulus Gellius, Aelian, Livy, Tacitus, Quintus Curtius; from Giovanni Battista Giraldi, Matteo Bandello,[4] Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, Giovanni Francesco Straparola, Queen Marguerite de Navarre and others.
To the vogue of this and similar collections we owe the Italian setting of so large a proportion of the Elizabethan drama. The early tragedies of Appius and Virginia, and Tancred and Gismund were taken from The Palace of Pleasure; and among better-known plays derived from the book are the Shakespearean Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, Edward III, All's Well That Ends Well (from Giletta of Narbonne), Beaumont and Fletcher's Triumph of Death, John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi and James Shirley's Love's Cruelty.
The Palace of Pleasure was edited by Joseph Haslewood in 1813. This edition was collated (1890) with the British Museum copy of 1575 by Mr. Joseph Jacobs, who added further prefatory matter, including an introduction dealing with the importance of Italian novella in Elizabethan drama.
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Encyclopædia Britannica
2.Jump up ^ Venn, J.; Venn, J. A., eds. (1922–1958). "Painter, William". Alumni Cantabrigienses (10 vols) (online ed.). Cambridge University Press.
3.Jump up ^ Kelly, L. G. (2004). "Painter, William (1540?–1595)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/21135. Retrieved 2012-07-06. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
4.Jump up ^ A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature
Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press
 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons. Wikisource


External links[edit]
The Palace of Pleasure, Volume 1 at Project Gutenberg (Google Books)
The Palace of Pleasure, Volume 2 at Project Gutenberg
The Palace of Pleasure, Volume 3 at Project Gutenberg

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Pyramus and Thisbe

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For other uses of both "Pyramus" and "Thisbe", see Pyramus (disambiguation) and Thisbe (disambiguation).
Pyramus and Thisbē are a pair of ill-fated lovers whose story forms part of Ovid's Metamorphoses. The story has since been retold by many authors.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Plot
2 Adaptations 2.1 Shakespeare 2.1.1 A Midsummer Night's Dream
2.1.2 Romeo and Juliet
2.2 Other adaptations
2.3 Allusions
3 See also
4 Notes
5 References 5.1 Primary sources
5.2 Secondary sources
6 External links
Plot[edit]



Thisbe, by John William Waterhouse, 1909.
In the Ovidian version, Pyramus and Thisbe is the story of two lovers in the city of Babylon who occupy connected houses/walls, forbidden by their parents to be wed, because of their parents' rivalry. Through a crack in one of the walls, they whisper their love for each other. They arrange to meet near Ninus' tomb under a mulberry tree and state their feelings for each other. Thisbe arrives first, but upon seeing a lioness with a mouth bloody from a recent kill, she flees, leaving behind her veils. When Pyramus arrives he is horrified at the sight of Thisbe's veil, assuming that a fierce beast had killed her. Pyramus kills himself, falling on his sword in proper Roman fashion, and in turn splashing blood on the white mulberry leaves. Pyramus' blood stains the white mulberry fruits, turning them dark. Thisbe returns, eager to tell Pyramus what had happened to her, but she finds Pyramus' dead body under the shade of the mulberry tree. Thisbe, after a brief period of mourning, stabs herself with the same sword. In the end, the gods listen to Thisbe's lament, and forever change the colour of the mulberry fruits into the stained colour to honour the forbidden love.
Adaptations[edit]



Pyramus and Thisbe by Gregorio Pagani. Uffizi Gallery.
The story of Pyramus and Thisbe appears in Giovanni Boccaccio's On Famous Women as biography number twelve (sometimes thirteen) [1] and in his Decameron, in the fifth story on the seventh day, where a desperate housewife falls in love with her neighbor, and communicates with him through a crack in the wall, attracting his attention by dropping pieces of stone and straw through the crack.
Geoffrey Chaucer was among the first to tell the story in English with his The Legend of Good Women. John Gower also uses the story, with some alteration, as a cautionary tale in his Confessio Amantis, while Amoryus and Cleopes is a 15th-century version.
Shakespeare[edit]
A Midsummer Night's Dream[edit]
In Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act V, sc 1), a group of "mechanicals" enact the story of "Pyramus and Thisbe". Their production is crude and, for the most part, badly done until the final monologues of Nick Bottom, as Pyramus and Francis Flute, as Thisbe. The theme of forbidden love is also present in A Midsummer Night's Dream (albeit a less tragic and dark representation) in that a girl, Hermia, is not able to marry the man she loves, Lysander, because her father Egeus despises him and wishes for her to marry Demetrius, and meanwhile Hermia and Lysander are confident, Helena, is in love with Demetrius.
Romeo and Juliet[edit]
The "Pyramus and Thisbe" plot also appears in Romeo and Juliet, in which the titular characters, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, fall in love at a party the Capulet family hosts, but they cannot be together because the two families hold "an ancient grudge" (which the young lovers' deaths eventually quash), and because Juliet has been engaged by her parents to a man named Paris. Shakespeare drew this aspect of Romeo and Juliet from his main source Arthur Brooke's play The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet [2]
Other adaptations[edit]
Spanish poet Luis de Góngora wrote a Fábula de Píramo y Tisbe in 1618. French poet Théophile de Viau wrote Les amours tragiques de Pyrame et Thisbée, a tragedy in five acts (1621).
François Francoeur and François Rebel composed Pirame et Thisbée, a liric tragedy in 5 acts and a prologue, with libretto by Jean-Louis-Ignace de la Serre; it was played at the Académie royale de musique, on October 17, 1726. The story was adapted by John Frederick Lampe as a "Mock Opera" in 1745, containing a singing "Wall" which was described as "the most musical partition that was ever heard."[3] In 1768 in Vienna, Johann Adolph Hasse composed a serious opera on the tale, titled Piramo e Tisbe.
Edmond Rostand adapted the tale from Romeo and Juliet, making the fathers of the lovers conspire to bring their children together by pretending to forbid their love, in Les Romanesques,[citation needed] whose musical adaptation, Fantasticks, became the world's longest-running musical.
Allusions[edit]
There is a chapter entitled "Pyramus and Thisbe" in Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, alluding to the secret romance between Maximillian Morrel and Valentine de Villefort.
In Geoffrey Chaucer's 'The Merchant's Tale' from The Canterbury Tales, the two illicit lovers Damian and May are likened to Pyramus and Thisbe for their forbidden love.
In Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, during his "nose monologue", Cyrano mocks his "traitorous nose" in "parody of weeping Pyramus".
In Edith Wharton's short story "The House of the Dead Hand", the romance between Sybilla and Count Ottoviano is seen as "a new Pyramus and Thisbe".
In Willa Cather's O Pioneers!, two of the story's lovers are killed under a Mulberry Tree.
In Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote, when Cardenio relates the story of Luscinda and himself, he refers to "that famous Thisbe".
In The Simpsons (23X13/2012) episode "The Daughter Also Rises", Grandpa Simpson talks to Lisa about Pyramus & Thisbe.
In La Celestina by Fernando de Rojas (1499) Calisto talks briefly about the unfortunate Pyramus and Thisbe.
In Gail Carriger's Changeless (novel), Ivy Hisselpenny says that she loves Mr. Tunstell "as Pyramid did Thirsty", a comically inaccurate reference.
See also[edit]
Star-crossed
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Virginia Brown's translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Famous Women, pp. 27-30; Harvard University Press 2001; ISBN 0-674-01130-9
2.Jump up ^ http://www.shakespeare-navigators.com/romeo/BrookeIndex.html
3.Jump up ^ Recorded on Hyperion Records, CDA66759
References[edit]
Primary sources[edit]
Ovid, Metamorphoses iv.55-166
Secondary sources[edit]
Bulfinch, Thomas, The Age of Fable; Or, Stories of Gods and Heroes (2nd ed.), Sanborn, Carter, and Bazin, 1856
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pyramus and Thisbe.
Pyramus and Thisbe performed by The Beatles
Carlos Paraga, Greek Mythology link: Pyramus and Thisbe
pXt A visual novel adaptation of the story from A Midsummer Night's Dream

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The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet

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 Frontispiece of The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet.
The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet is a narrative poem, first published in 1562 by Arthur Brooke, was the key source for William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. He is reported to have translated it from an Italian novella by Matteo Bandello; by another theory, it is mainly derived from a French version, by Pierre Boaistuau, published by Richard Tottell.
Little is known about Arthur Brooke, except that he drowned in 1563 by shipwreck while crossing to help Protestant forces in the French Wars of Religion.
The poem's ending differs significantly from Shakespeare's play—the nurse is banished and the apothecary is hanged for their involvement in the deception, while Friar Lawrence leaves Verona to live in a hermitage until he dies.
References[edit]
Brooke, Arthur, d. 1563, Brooke’s ’Romeus and Juliet,’ being the original of Shakespeare’s ’The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet’ newly edited by J. J. Munro. London, Chatto and Windus; New York, Duffield and company, 1908. Reprinted in 1978.it was played in 1975 chatham ont canada.
External links[edit]
Arthur Brooke's Romeus and Juliet Complete original text, with a glossary and a search engine.
Essay: How Romeus Became Romeo Comparing Brooke's work with Shakespeare's

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Characters in Romeo and Juliet

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 Woodcut of fair Verona, where we lay our scene from the 1847 edition of The Illustrated Shakespeare
The following is a list of characters in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet sorted by family allegiance.

Contents
  [hide] 1 House of Escalus 1.1 Prince Escalus
1.2 Count Paris
1.3 Mercutio
1.4 Page to Mercutio
1.5 Page to Paris
2 House of Capulet 2.1 Capulet
2.2 Capulet's Wife
2.3 Juliet
2.4 Tybalt
2.5 Nurse
2.6 Peter
2.7 Gregory and Sampson
2.8 Anthony, Potpan, unnamed servants
2.9 Servant to Capulet
3 House of Montague 3.1 Montague
3.2 Montague's wife
3.3 Romeo
3.4 Benvolio
3.5 Balthasar
3.6 Abram
4 Other characters 4.1 Friar Lawrence
4.2 Friar John
4.3 Chorus
4.4 Apothecary
4.5 Watchmen
4.6 Musicians
4.7 Citizens of Verona
5 Unseen and ghost characters 5.1 Petruchio
5.2 Rosaline
5.3 Valentine
6 References
House of Escalus[edit]
Prince Escalus[edit]
Prince Escalus, the Prince of Verona, is the Romeo for his offense—Romeo's killing Tybalt—but lightens the sentence to lifetime banishment from Verona, when Benvolio insists that Tybalt started the quarrel by murdering Mercutio, a kinsman to the Prince. Prince Escalus returns in the final scene—V.iii—following the double suicide of Romeo and Juliet, and at last orders the lords of the feuding families to make peace.
Count Paris[edit]
Main article: Count Paris



 Frederic Leighton's 1850's painting depicting Count Paris (right) seeing Juliet apparently dead.
Count Paris is a kinsman of Prince Escalus and seeks to marry Juliet. He is described as handsome, somewhat self-absorbed, and very wealthy.
Paris makes his first appearance in Act I, Scene II, where he expresses his wish to make Juliet his wife and the mother of his children. Capulet demurs, citing his daughter's young age as a reason and telling him to wait until she is more mature. (Paris disagrees, however.) Nevertheless, Capulet invites Paris to attend a family ball being held that evening and grants permission to woo and attract Juliet. Later in the play, however, Juliet refuses to become Paris' "joyful bride" after her cousin Tybalt dies by her new husband Romeo's hand, proclaiming that she now wants nothing to do with Paris. Her parents threaten to disown (or cut ties with) her if she will not agree to the marriage. Then, while at Laurence's cell at the church, Paris tries to woo her by repeatedly saying that she is his wife and that they are to be married on Thursday. He kisses her and then leaves the cell, prompting Juliet to angrily threaten to kill herself with a knife. His final appearance in the play is in the cemetery where Juliet is "laid to rest" in the Capulet family tomb. Believing her to be dead, Count Paris has come to mourn her death in solitude and privacy and sends his manservant away. He professes his love to Juliet, saying he will nightly weep for her (Act V, Scene III). Shortly thereafter, Romeo arrives. Paris sees him and thinks he is trying to vandalize the tomb, so he tries to arrest him. They fight, and Romeo kills Paris. Romeo grants Paris' dying wish to be placed next to Juliet in the tomb.
Mercutio[edit]
Main article: Mercutio
See also: #Valentine
Mercutio the cousin of Prince Escalus and Count Paris, and is a close friend of Romeo and his cousin Benvolio, The invitation to the Capulet's party reveals that he has a brother named Valentine. Mercutio is apt to make long, drawn out speeches (the most famous of which is the Queen Mab speech), and is generally thought to be reckless, a jester, and a free spirit. Due to his reckless and flamboyant personality, Mercutio is one of Shakespeare's most popular characters. Mercutio is the instigator of many fights with his rather mean spirited humor, and often insults Tybalt, a renowned swordsman. It is Tybalt's temper that leads to Mercutio's death, and Romeo's banishment and the tragedy that follows.
After Romeo receives a death threat from Tybalt, Mercutio expects Romeo to engage Tybalt in a duel. However, Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt, as Tybalt is Juliet's cousin and therefore his kinsman. Not knowing this, Mercutio is incensed, and decides to fight Tybalt himself. Romeo, not wanting his best friend or his relative to get hurt, intervenes, causing Mercutio to be killed by Tybalt stabbing under Romeo's arm.
Before he dies, Mercutio casts "a plague o' both your houses!" He makes one final pun before he dies: "Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man". In revenge for the murder of his best friend, Romeo slays Tybalt, thus leading to Romeo's banishment from Verona and the increasingly tragic turn of events that follows.
Page to Mercutio[edit]
A page is present for Mercutio's fight with Tybalt. Before he dies, Mercutio angrily calls for his page to "fetch a surgeon!"
Page to Paris[edit]
Another page accompanies Paris to the Capulet's crypt when he goes to mourn Juliet. He stands guard as Paris enters, ordered to "whistle then to me, / As signal that thou hear'st something approach". When Romeo and Paris break into a brawl, the page runs away to call the Watch. He returns with the Watch too late to stop the fray and later testifies to the Prince of Paris' intentions.
House of Capulet[edit]
The Capulet family (in Italian, the Capuleti) in the play was named after an actual political faction of the 13th century.[1]
Capulet[edit]



 Frederic Leighton's 1854 watercolour The Reconciliation of the Montagues and Capulets
Lord Capulet is the patriarch of the Capulet family, the father of Juliet, and uncle of Tybalt. He is very wealthy. He is sometimes commanding but also convivial, as at the ball: when Tybalt tries to incite a duel with Romeo, Capulet tries to calm him and then threatens to throw him out of the family if he does not control his temper; he does the same to his daughter later in the play.


Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch!
 I tell thee what: get thee to church o' Thursday,
 Or never after look me in the face
 And you be mine, I'll give you to my friend;
 And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets!
Capulet's ultimatum to Juliet Romeo and Juliet[2]
Capulet believes he knows what is best for Juliet. He says that his consent to the marriage depends upon what she wants and tells Count Paris that if he wants to marry Juliet he should wait a while then ask her. Later, however, when Juliet is grieving over Romeo's being sent away, Capulet thinks her sorrow is due to Tybalt's death, and in a misguided attempt to cheer her up, he wants to surprise her by arranging a marriage between her and Count Paris. The catch is that she has to be "ruled" by her father and to accept the proposal. When she refuses to become Paris' "joyful bride", saying that she can "never be proud of what she hates", Capulet becomes furious; threatens to make her a street urchin; calls her a "hilding" (meaning "slut" or "whore"), "unworthy", "young baggage", a "disobedient wretch", a "green-sickness carrion", and "tallow-face"; and says God's giving Juliet to them was a "curse" and he now realizes he and his wife had one child too many when Juliet was born (in The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet). In addition to threatening to turn her out, he threatens to sentence her to rot away in prison if she does not obey her parents' orders. He then storms away, and his wife also rejects Juliet before following him. He fixes the day of the marriage for Thursday and suddenly advances it to Wednesday out of anger and impulse. His actions indicate that his daughter's wants were irrelevant all the way up to the point when he sees her unconscious on her bed (presumably dead) and later, when she is truly dead during the play's final scene.
Capulet's Wife[edit]



 Lady Capulet and the Nurse persuade Juliet to marry Paris
Capulet's wife is the matriarch of the house of Capulet, and Juliet's mother. She plays a larger role than Montague's wife, appearing in several scenes. In Act 1, Scene 3, she refuses to talk to her daughter about marriage, as she feels uncomfortable about it, but in Scene four, she is pleased about Count Paris' "interest" in her daughter. When Tybalt is killed in Act 3, she expresses extreme grief and a strong desire for revenge on Romeo. In Act 3, Scene 5, she becomes very angry with Juliet for refusing to marry Paris and coldly rejects her, saying: "Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word; do as thou wilt, for I am done with thee". By the final act, she is nearly overcome by the tragic events of the play.[3] We know Juliet's mother bore her first child by the time she was 14, Juliet's age, and her husband is many years older than she. Calling her "Lady Capulet" is a modern addition; it is an echo of Juliet's form of address in 3.5.65: "my lady mother".[4] In the first texts the stage direction and speech headings can be "mother", "wife", or even "old lady", but nowhere "Lady Capulet".[4]

Juliet[edit]
Main article: Juliet



Juliet or The Blue Necklace (1898) by John William Waterhouse
As a younger child, she was cared for by a Nurse, who is now her confidante. Juliet is approaching her 14th birthday. She was born on "Lammas Eve at night" (August 1), so Juliet's birthday is July 31 (1.3.19). Her birthday is "a fortnight hence", putting the action of the play in mid-July (1.3.17).[clarification needed] Her father states that she "hath not seen the change of fourteen years" (1.2.9).
Juliet dies at the end of the play, and the sacred lovers are reunited on the same deathbed. Both their families realize what they had done by trying to separate the star crossed lovers with the effect that the Capulets and Montagues are reunited and their fighting ends.
Tybalt[edit]
Main article: Tybalt
Tybalt is Capulet's nephew and Juliet's hot-headed cousin, and is close to Capulet's wife; he is a skilled swordsman who serves as the principal antagonist. Tybalt is angered by the insult of Romeo and Benvolio's uninvited presence at the ball in the Capulets' home. Tybalt shares the same name as the character Tibert/Tybalt the "Prince of Cats" in Reynard the Fox, a point of both mockery and compliment to him in the play. Mercutio repeatedly calls Tybalt "Prince of Cats" referring to Tybalt's expertise with the sword, as he is agile and fast, but also it is an insult as it refers not only to Reynard but to the Italian word cazzo (pr. CAT-so) meaning "penis".
Tybalt is first seen coming to the aid of his servants who are being attacked by the Montagues' servants. He is also present at Capulet's feast in act one, scene five and is the first to recognize Romeo. His last appearance is in act 3 scene 1, wherein Mecurtio insults Tybalt and ends up fighting with him. Tybalt kills Mecurtio and, in retaliation, Romeo rages and kills Tybalt, resulting in Romeo's banishment.
Nurse[edit]
Main article: Nurse (Romeo and Juliet)
The Nurse is a major character in the play, and like the Friar she is a neutral character. There has been speculation about her name, as Capulet refers to as "Angelica", but the line can be addressed to either the nurse or Lady Capulet. She is the personal servant (and former nurse) of Juliet's. As the primary person who raised Juliet, she is Juliet's confidante and effectively more of a mother to the girl than Lady Capulet.[5]
Peter[edit]
Peter is the personal servant of the Nurse's. He appears to be a loyal servant, always quick to obey the Nurse. He is chastised for not fighting Mercutio for the Nurse's honor, but insists that he "saw no man use you a pleasure; if I had, / my weapon should quickly have been out".[6] He appears again in act four, scene five in a brief comic relief scene with a number of musicians.
Gregory and Sampson[edit]



 At the beginning of the play, Gregory and Sampson (right) quarrel with Abram and Balthazar.
Gregory and Sampson are the Capulet servants. Gregory is originally hesitant to start a fight. Sampson, however, bites his thumb at Abram, "Which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it". The Montagues then retaliate in earnest. Benvolio arrives to break up the fight but ends up fighting with Tybalt. Both Gregory and Sampson appear to be friends of their master Tybalt's.[7]
In the opening scene, the two engage in a dialogue full of puns on "coal" and "eye", each intending to outdo the other and get each other ready to fight Montagues. The rhetorical form is called stychomythia, wherein characters participate in a short, quick exchanges of one-upmanship. Their discussion and brawl in this scene set the stage for the rivalry and hatred which fills the rest of the play.[7]
Anthony, Potpan, unnamed servants[edit]
Anthony, Potpan, and two other servants to the Capulet family play out a short comic scene in act one, scene five, arguing over the preparations for Capulet's feast. Capulet's servants are referenced again in act four, scene one; Capulet orders them to begin preparations for another party: the wedding of Juliet and Paris.
Servant to Capulet[edit]



 The hapless servant attempting to find the people named on a list he cannot read
A servant to Capulet is sent to deliver party invitations to a number of nobles and friends to Capulet. While walking, he comes upon Romeo and Benvolio and asks them to read the list for him, as he cannot read. As a thank you, he invites the boys to "come and crush a cup of wine," not realizing that they are Montagues. This character may have been intended to be the same as Peter, and is usually identified in scripts either as Peter or as a Clown.
House of Montague[edit]
The Montague family (in Italian, "Montecchi") was an actual political faction of the 13th century.[1]
Montague[edit]
Old Montague is the patriarch of the house of Montague, and the father of Romeo and uncle to Benvolio. As with Capulet, it would be incorrect to refer to him as "Lord Montague". He worries over Romeo's relationship with Rosaline (with whom Romeo was in love at the beginning of the story), but cannot get through to his son. He later pleads with the Prince to prevent his son from being executed, and gets his wish when the Prince lowers Romeo's punishment to banishment. In the earliest texts his name is actually spelled "Mountague", but Montague now seems well-established.
Montague's wife[edit]
Montague's wife is the matriarch of the house of Montague, and the mother of Romeo and aunt of Benvolio. She appears twice within the play: in act one, scene one she first restrains Montague from entering the quarrel himself, and later speaks with Benvolio about the same quarrel. She returns with her husband and the Prince in act three, scene one to see what the trouble is, and is there informed of Romeo's banishment. She dies of grief offstage soon after (mentioned in act five). She is very protective of her son Romeo and is very happy when Benvolio tells her that Romeo was not involved in the brawl that happened between the Capulets and Montagues. When Romeo was banished his mother was heartbroken and then she died. As with Capulet's wife, calling her "Lady Montague" is a later invention not supported by the earliest texts.
Romeo[edit]
Main article: Romeo



 An 1870 oil painting by Ford Madox Brown depicting Romeo and Juliet's famous balcony scene
In the beginning of the play, Romeo pines for an unrequited love, Rosaline. To cheer him up, his cousin and friend Benvolio and Mercutio take him to the Capulets' celebration in disguise, where he meets and falls in love with the Capulets' only daughter, Juliet. Later that night, he and Juliet meet secretly and pledge to marry, despite their families' long-standing feud. They marry the following day, but their union is soon thrown into chaos by their families; Juliet's cousin Tybalt duels and kills Romeo's friend Mercutio, throwing Romeo into such a rage that he kills Tybalt, and the Prince of Verona subsequently banishes him. Meanwhile, Juliet's father plans to marry her off to Paris, a local aristocrat, within the next few days, threatening to turn her out on the streets if she doesn't follow through. Desperate, Juliet begs Romeo's confidant, Friar Laurence, to help her to escape the forced marriage. Laurence does so by giving her a potion that puts her in a deathlike coma. The plan works, but too soon for Romeo to learn of it; he genuinely believes Juliet to be dead, and so resolves to commit suicide. Romeo's final words were "Thus with a kiss I die".[8] He kills himself at Juliet's grave, moments before she awakes; she kills herself in turn shortly thereafter.
Benvolio[edit]
Main article: Benvolio
He is Montague's nephew and Romeo's cousin. He and Romeo are both friends of Mercutio, a kinsman to Prince Escalus. Benvolio seems to have little sympathy with the feud, trying unsuccessfully to back down from a fight with Tybalt, and the duels that end in Mercutio and Tybalt's death. Benvolio spends most of Act I attempting to distract his cousin from his infatuation with Rosaline, but following the first appearance of Mercutio in I.iv, he and Mercutio become more closely aligned until III.i. In that scene, he drags the fatally wounded Mercutio offstage, before returning to inform Romeo of Mercutio's death and the Prince of the course of Mercutio's and Tybalt's deaths. Benvolio then disappears from the play (though, as a Montague, he may implicitly be included in the stage direction in the final scene "Enter Lord Montague and others", and he is sometimes doubled with Balthasar). Though he ultimately disappears from the play without much notice, he is a crucial character if only in that he is the only child of the new generation from either family to survive the play (as Romeo, Juliet, Paris, Mercutio, and Tybalt are dead).
Balthasar[edit]
Balthasar is Romeo's servant and trusted friend. While he is not directly referenced in the first scene of the play, the directions call for two Montague servants to quarrel with Sampson and Gregory. He then comes back in Act V Scene 1 telling Romeo about Juliet's death. In the last scene (Act 5 Scene 3) in the graveyard, he tries to stop Romeo from entering the vault, but he gives up and lets him go into the tomb. Romeo gives him money saying that he is a good friend, and then he hides in the graveyard despite Romeo telling him not to. Later Friar Laurence runs past Balthasar and asks him where Romeo is. Balthasar tells him that he is inside the tomb. Then the Prince calls him in and asks him questions about why was he there. He gives the Prince the letter that explains why Romeo killed himself.
Abram[edit]
Abram (sometimes referred to as Abraham) is a servant of the Montague household. He appears in Act 1, Scene 1, where he and another servant (possibly Balthazar) are provoked into a fight with Gregory and Sampson when the latter bites his thumb at them.
Other characters[edit]
Friar Lawrence[edit]
Main article: Friar Lawrence



Romeo and Juliet with Friar Laurence by Henry William Bunbury
Friar Laurence plays the part of an advisor and mentor to Romeo, along with aiding in major plot developments.
Alone, the innocent Friar gives us foreshadowing with his soliloquy about plants and their similarities to humans.[9] When Romeo requests that the Friar marry him to Juliet, he is shocked, because only days before, Romeo had been infatuated with Rosaline,[10] a woman who did not return his love. Nevertheless, Friar Laurence decides to marry Romeo and Juliet in the attempt to end the civil feud between the Capulets and the Montagues.[11]
When Romeo is banished[12] and flees to Mantua for murdering Tybalt[13] (who had previously murdered Mercutio), he tries to help the two lovers get back together using a death-emulating potion to fake Juliet's death.[14] The friar's letter to Romeo does not reach him because the people of Mantua suspect the messenger came from a house where the plague reigns,[15] and the Friar is unable to arrive at the Capulet's monument in time. Romeo kills Count Paris,[16] whom he finds weeping near Juliet's corpse, then commits suicide,[17] by drinking poison that he bought from an impoverished apothecary,[18] over what he thinks is Juliet's dead body. Friar Laurence arrives just as Juliet awakes from her chemically-induced slumber.[19] He urges Juliet not to be rash, and to join a society of nuns,[20] but he hears a noise from outside and then flees from the tomb. Juliet then kills herself with Romeo's dagger, completing the tragedy. The Friar is forced to return to the tomb, where he recounts the entire story to Prince Escalus, and all the Montagues and Capulets. As he finishes, the prince proclaims, "We have still known thee for a holy man".
Friar John[edit]
Friar John calls at the door of Friar Laurence's cell, "Holy Franciscan friar! brother, ho!" (5.2.1). Friar Laurence comes out and immediately asks about Romeo: "Welcome from Mantua! What says Romeo? / Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter" (5.2.3-4). Friar John explains that he sought out another friar for company and found him in a house where he was visiting the sick, whereupon the health authorities, fearing there was pestilence in the house, confined both friars in the house so they wouldn't infect others. The authorities wouldn't even allow Friar John to use a messenger to send the letter back to Friar Laurence.
Chorus[edit]



 Woodcut of an actor portraying the Chorus delivering the Prologue for the play
A Chorus gives the opening prologue and one other speech, both in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet.
The Chorus is an omniscient character. It appears at the top of the play to fill the audience in on the ancient quarrel between the, "Two households, both alike in dignity / In fair Verona, where we lay our scene". It returns as a prologue to act two to foreshadow the tragic turn of events about to befall the new romance between the title characters.
The Chorus only appears in the Quarto versions, not in the First Folio.
Apothecary[edit]
The Apothecary is a pharmacist/druggist who reluctantly sells Romeo's poison; he is a poor potion maker of Mantua.
Watchmen[edit]
The Watch of Verona takes the form of three watchmen. The First Watch appears to be the constable, who orders the Second and Third to "search about the churchyard!" Unusual for a Shakespearean watch group, they appear to be a relatively intelligent unit, managing to capture and detain Balthasar and Friar Laurence in the churchyard. They then testify to the Prince to their role in the murder and suicide scene.
Musicians[edit]
Three musicians for Juliet's wedding appear in act four, scene five in a brief comic scene, refusing to play a song called "Heart's ease" for Peter. They are referred to by the names of Simon Catling, Hugh Rebeck, and James Soundpost.[21]
Citizens of Verona[edit]
A number of citizens emerge during Act I, Scene I to break apart the fight between some Capulet and Montague servants. They appear again in Act III, Scene I to discover the slain body of Tybalt, at which point they place Benvolio under citizen's arrest until the Prince's swift entrance.
Unseen and ghost characters[edit]
Petruchio[edit]
Petruchio is a guest at the Capulet feast. He is notable only in that he is the only ghost character confirmed by Shakespeare to be present. When the party ends and Juliet inquires towards Romeo's identity, the Nurse attempts to avoid the subject by answering that Juliet is pointing at "the young Petruchio". Later, he is with Tybalt when he fatally wounds Mercutio, and a few scripts identify a Capulet with one line by that name. Petruchio is also the name of a major character in Shakespeare's earlier work, The Taming of the Shrew.
Rosaline[edit]
Main article: Rosaline



 Rosaline in Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, one of the few films to give her a visible role.
Rosaline is an unseen character and niece of Capulet. Although silent, her role is important: her lover, Romeo, first spots Juliet while trying to catch a glimpse of Rosaline at a Capulet gathering.
Before Juliet, Romeo was deeply intrigued with another woman that didn't return his feelings. Scholars generally compare Romeo's short-lived love of Rosaline with his later love of Juliet. Rosaline means "fair rose". The poetry he writes for Rosaline is much weaker than that for Juliet. Scholars believe his early experience with Rosaline prepares him for his relationship with Juliet. Later performances of Romeo and Juliet have painted different pictures of Romeo and Rosaline's relationship, with filmmakers experimenting by making Rosaline a more visible character.
Valentine[edit]
Valentine is Mercutio's brother, briefly mentioned as a guest at the Capulet feast where Romeo and Juliet meet. He is a ghost character with no speaking parts, and his only possible appearance is at the Capulet feast among the guests. "Valentine" has been taken to mean "lover" or "brother", and is associated with these attributes in several stories and histories. Scholars have pointed out that Valentine is more strongly connected to a major character than other ghosts, as he is given a direct connection to his brother. Although he has a very small role in Shakespeare's play, earlier versions of the story gave him no role or mention at all. In fact, they gave even Mercutio a very minor role. Shakespeare was the first English dramatist to use the name "Valentine" on stage, in his earlier plays, Titus Andronicus and Two Gentlemen of Verona. In Titus, Valentine plays a minor role, but in Two Gentlemen, he is one of the title characters. Incidentally, the Valentine of Two Gentlemen borrows heavily from Arthur Brooke's Romeus in The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, which Shakespeare later used to create Romeo and Juliet. Brooke's version made Mercutio a rival for Juliet's love. Shakespeare's addition of Valentine as Mercutio's brother diffuses this rivalry. Thus, because the first time we hear of Mercutio he is associated with Valentine, rather than Juliet, he is changed from a rival to a friend and brotherly figure of Romeo.[22]
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b Moore, Olin H. (July 1930). "The Origins of the Legend of Romeo and Juliet in Italy". Speculum (Medieval Academy of America) 5 (3): 264–277. doi:10.2307/2848744. JSTOR 2848744.
2.Jump up ^ Act 3 Scene 5
3.Jump up ^ Halio, Jay. Romeo and Juliet. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998. pg. 1 ISBN 0-313-30089-5
4.^ Jump up to: a b Meagher, John C. (2003). "Speech headings and stage directions". Pursuing Shakespeare's dramaturgy: some contexts, resources, and strategies in his playmaking. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 81. ISBN 0-8386-3993-3.
5.Jump up ^ Bevington, David M. How to read a Shakespeare play.
6.Jump up ^ II.iv.157-158
7.^ Jump up to: a b Hager, Alan. Understanding Romeo and Juliet. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1999. pgs. 17-20. ISBN 0-313-29616-2
8.Jump up ^ "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet", Project Gutenberg
9.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 2.3.1-22
10.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 2.3.180-81
11.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 2.3.26-31
12.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 3.1.188-99
13.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 3.1.87-93
14.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 3.5.91-101
15.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 4.5.5-12
16.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 5.2.72-73
17.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 5.2.119-120
18.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 4.5.66-79
19.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 5.2.148-50
20.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 5.2.156-160
21.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 4.5.125-129
22.Jump up ^ Porter, Joseph A. "Mercutio's Brother." South Atlantic Review 49.4 (1984): 31-41.

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Count Paris

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This article is about the Romeo and Juliet character Count Paris. For other uses, see Paris (disambiguation).

Count Paris

Creator
William Shakespeare
Play
Romeo and Juliet
Family
Prince Escalus
Count Paris (or County Paris) is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. He is a suitor of Juliet Capulet. He is handsome, wealthy, and a kinsman to Prince Escalus.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Sources
2 Role in the Play
3 Historical Context
4 Analysis
5 References
6 Bibliography
7 External links
Sources[edit]
Luigi da Porto adapted the story as Giulietta e Romeo and included it in his Historia novellamente ritrovata di due Nobili Amanti published in 1530.[1] Da Porto drew on Pyramus and Thisbe and Boccacio's Decameron. He gave it much of its modern form, including the lovers' names, the rival Montecchi and Capuleti families, and the location in Verona.[2] He also introduces characters corresponding to Shakespeare's Mercutio, Tybalt, and Paris. Da Porto presents his tale as historically true and claims it took place in the days of Bartolomeo II della Scala (a century earlier than Salernitano). Montecchi and Capuleti were actual 13th-century political factions, but the only connection between them is a mention in Dante's Purgatorio as an example of civil dissention.[3]
Role in the Play[edit]
Paris makes his first appearance in Act I, Scene II, wherein he offers to make Juliet his wife and the mother of his children. Juliet's father, Lord Capulet, demurs, telling him to wait until she is older. Capulet invites Paris to attend a family ball being held that evening, and grants permission to woo Juliet. Later in the play, however, Juliet refuses to become Paris' "joyful bride" after her cousin, Tybalt, dies by her new husband Romeo's hand, proclaiming for the first time that she now despises Paris and wants nothing to do with him. Capulet violently threatens to disown disowned and then make Juliet a lowly street urchin if she does not marry Paris, hitting his daughter, shoving her to the ground, and screaming in her face. Juliet's mother, too, turns her back on Juliet shortly after Lord Capulet storms out of the scene ("Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word; do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee"), as does the Nurse. Then, while at Friar Lawrence's cell at the church, Paris tries to woo Juliet by repeatedly saying she is his wife and they are to be married on Thursday. He kisses her and then leaves the cell, prompting Juliet to threaten to kill herself.
Paris' final appearance in the play is in the cemetery where Juliet, who is feigning death, is "laid to rest" in the Capulet family tomb. Believing her to be dead, Paris has come to mourn her in solitude and privacy and sends his manservant away. He professes his love to Juliet, saying he will nightly weep for her. [4] Shortly thereafter, Romeo, deranged by grief himself, also goes to the Capulet's tomb and is confronted by Count Paris, who believes Romeo came to desecrate Juliet's tomb. They duel until Romeo wins and kills Paris. Romeo drags Paris' body inside the Capulet tomb and lays him out on the floor beside Juliet's body, fulfilling Paris' final, dying wish.
Historical Context[edit]
The earliest versions of the text (First Quarto, Second Quarto and First Folio) all call him "Countie Paris". Some versions of the text call him "County Paris".[5] "County" was in common usage at the time of writing,[6] and Shakespeare's choice was dictated by the needs of the metre.[7]
As a father, the chief role Capulet plays in Juliet's life is that of matchmaker. He has raised and cared for Juliet for nearly fourteen years, but he must find a suitable husband who will care for her for the remainder of her life. Juliet, as a young woman and as an aristocrat in general, cannot support herself in the society of her day, her only available career choices are either wife or nun. Thus it falls upon her father and her husband to support her.
Count Paris would be an excellent match for Juliet. He, too, is an aristocrat and of a higher social order. He is a well-established and wealthy business/government person who could support and provide for Juliet rather well. He is also, most probably, well connected politically, making him a good family contact for Lord and Lady Capulet. This probably means that he is quite mature being at least twenty-five years old, while Juliet has not yet turned fourteen. Nevertheless, within the historical context of the play, there is nothing peculiar in their age difference. Though the typical age of marriage for Italian men in this period was 29 and women was about 25, for the higher class, including the aristocracy and wealthy merchant class, arranged marriages were common during the teenage years.[citation needed]
Analysis[edit]
Although Paris is not as developed as other characters in the play, he stands as a complication in the development of Romeo and Juliet's relationship. His love of Juliet stands as a counterpoint to Romeo's impetuous love.[8] In Act V, Scene III, Paris visits the crypt to quietly and privately mourn the loss of his would-be fiancée. Romeo eventually kills him during a swordfight in the same scene, and his dying wish is for Romeo to lay him next to Juliet, which Romeo does. This scene is often omitted from modern stage and screen performances as it complicates what would otherwise be a simple love story between the title characters.
"Rosaline and Paris...are the subtlest reflectors of all...they are cast like a snake's skin by the more robust reality of Romeo and Juliet."
—Ruth Nevo, on the Rosaline-Juliet, Paris-Romeo comparison[8]
Shakespeare also uses sub-plots to offer a clearer view of the main characters' actions. For example, when the play begins, Romeo is in love with Rosaline, who has refused all of his advances. Romeo's infatuation with Rosaline quickly disavowal of her upon seeing Juliet serve to highlight the flightiness of Romeo's romantic interests. In a similar fashion, Paris' love for Juliet serves as a counterpoint to Romeo's love for her. Paris can support her and care for and about her in a mature fashion, while Romeo is but a love struck adolescent with no real job or means of supporting his new wife. Meanwhile, Juliet clearly cares more for Romeo, as shown by the formal language she uses around Paris as well as the way she talks about him to her Nurse. Beyond this, the sub-plot of the Montague–Capulet feud overarches the whole play, providing an atmosphere of hate that is the main contributor to the play's tragic end.[9]
Men often used Petrarchan sonnets to exaggerate the beauty of women who were impossible for them to attain, as in Romeo's situation with Rosaline. Lady Capulet uses this sonnet form to describe Count Paris to Juliet as a handsome man.[10] When Romeo and Juliet meet, the poetic form changes from the Petrarchan (which was becoming archaic in Shakespeare's day) to a then more contemporary sonnet form, using "pilgrims" and "saints" as metaphors.[11] Finally, when the two meet on the balcony, Romeo attempts to use the sonnet form to pledge his love, but Juliet breaks it by saying, "Dost thou love me?"[12] By doing this, she searches for true expression, rather than a poetic exaggeration of their love.[13] Juliet uses monosyllabic words with Romeo, but uses formal language with Paris.[14] Other forms in the play include an epithalamium by Juliet, a rhapsody in Mercutio's Queen Mab speech, and an elegy by Paris.[15]
{Ocn|date=May==Performances== A mock-Victorian revisionist version of Romeo and Juliet's final scene forms part of the 1980 stage-play The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. This version has a happy ending: Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio and Paris are restored to life, and Benvolio reveals he is Paris' love, Benvolia, in disguise. [16]
In Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, the character is named "Dave Paris" and is played by Paul Rudd. His familial relationship with Escalus (called "Captain Escalus Prince") is removed entirely from the film, and Dave Paris is not stated as being a nobleman; he is rather a wealthy business magnate and a governor's son.[citation needed]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Moore (1937: 38–44).
2.Jump up ^ Hosley (1965: 168).
3.Jump up ^ Moore (1930: 264–277)
4.Jump up ^ Act V, Scene III
5.Jump up ^ Grey, Zachary (1754). Critical, historical, and explanatory notes on Shakespeare 2. London: Richard Manby. p. 265. OCLC 3788825. Grey lists ten scenes where "County" is used, but a wordcount using Kindle results in a total of nineteen individual deployments
6.Jump up ^ "county, n2". Oxford English Dictionary (2 ed.). 1989.
7.Jump up ^ de Somogyi, Nick (2001). Twelfth Night. London: Nick Hern Books. p. 160. ISBN 1-85459-622-5. "‘County’, an alternative form of ‘count’, to restore the metre, … as for example in Romeo and Juliet ‘Mercutio’s kinsman, noble County Paris’"
8.^ Jump up to: a b Nevo, Ruth. "Tragic Form in Romeo and Juliet". Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 9.2 (April 1969): 241-258.
9.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 20–30).
10.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 47–48).
11.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 48–49).
12.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, II.ii.90.
13.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 49–50).
14.Jump up ^ Levin (1960: 3–11).
15.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 51–52).
16.Jump up ^ Edgar (1982: 162).
Bibliography[edit]
Edgar, David (1982). The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. New York: Dramatists' Play Service. ISBN 0-8222-0817-2.
Halio, Jay (1998). Romeo and Juliet: A Guide to the Play. Westport: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30089-5.
Hosley, Richard (1965). Romeo and Juliet. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Levin, Harry (1960). "Form and Formality in Romeo and Juliet". Shakespeare Quarterly (Folger Shakespeare Library) 11 (1): 3–11. doi:10.2307/2867423. JSTOR 2867423.
Moore, Olin H. (1930). "The Origins of the Legend of Romeo and Juliet in Italy". Speculum (Medieval Academy of America) 5 (3): 264–277. doi:10.2307/2848744. ISSN 0038-7134. JSTOR 2848744.
Moore, Olin H. (1937). "Bandello and “Clizia”". Modern Language Notes (Johns Hopkins University Press) 52 (1): 38–44. doi:10.2307/2912314. ISSN 0149-6611. JSTOR 2912314.
External links[edit]
The Four Leaves of the Truelove - Rossell Hope Robbins Library, Medieval collection.

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Fictional counts and countesses
Fictional Italian people in literature
Male Shakespearean characters
Characters in Romeo and Juliet



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Nurse (Romeo and Juliet)

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Nurse

Creator
William Shakespeare
Play
Romeo and Juliet
Other name(s)
Angelica (possible real name)
Family
Unnamed (husband)
 Susan (daughter)
Associates
Juliet (surrogate daughter)
The Nurse is a major character in William Shakespeare's classic drama Romeo and Juliet. It is revealed later in the play by Lord Capulet that the Nurse's real name might be Angelica (as the line could also be addressed to Lady Capulet). She is the personal servant, guardian (and former wet nurse) of Juliet Capulet, and has been since Juliet was born. She had a daughter named Susan who died in infancy, and then became wetnurse to Juliet. As the primary person to like, she is therefore Juliet's foremost confidante. She is one of the few people, along with Friar Laurence, to be made aware of the blossoming romance between Romeo and Juliet. Her personal history outside of the Capulet estate is unknown, other than that she once had a husband and a daughter, Susan, both of whom are deceased. Juliet is considered by many, historians and fans alike, to be her surrogate daughter in many respects because she took care of Juliet as a baby in Lady Capulet's absence.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Origins
2 Role in the play
3 Analysis
4 Performance history
5 Notes
6 References
Origins[edit]
The Nurse is a character in Arthur Brooke's poem The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, as Shakespeare's main source text. She is like family to the Capulets. The Nurse plays a similar role in the poem by Brooke, though she is less critical of Paris and is banished for the events that took place.[1]
Role in the play[edit]



 The Nurse tries to convince Juliet to marry Paris.


 The nurse delivering her "Yet I cannot choose but laugh" line in Act I scene III in an 1847 drawing.
The Nurse is sent by Juliet in act two, scene four to seek out Romeo the night after their first kiss and exchange of vows. The Nurse finds Romeo and soon after returns to Juliet with news of Romeo's continued affection. It is because of the Nurse's approval that Juliet ultimately decides to go through with marrying Romeo.
Later, the Nurse is overcome with grief at the death of Tybalt, and she runs to Juliet and cries, "he's dead, he's dead, he's dead! We are undone, lady, we are undone! Alack the day! he's gone, he's kill'd, he's dead!"[2] The Nurse is the one to deliver the news of Romeo's banishment to Juliet; in spite of Tybalt's murder coming from Romeo's hands, Juliet bids the Nurse to seek out Romeo for her at Friar Lawrence's cell for one final night with him before he flees to Mantua.
When Juliet learns that her parents expect her to marry Paris, the Nurse urges the girl to go ahead with the marriage. Even though Juliet was already married to Romeo, the Nurse felt that Juliet would never see her husband again. Following this, Juliet feels betrayed and decides never to share any more of her secrets with the Nurse.
The Nurse discovers Juliet under the spell of Friar Lawrence's potion in act four, scene five, and the grief of her death as seriously as she mourned Tybalt. She is, finally, present at the real deathbed of Romeo, Juliet, and Paris, though speechless. Indeed, she loses perhaps the dearest friends of anyone, having suffered through the deaths of her husband, Susan, Tybalt, Romeo, and Juliet.
Analysis[edit]
In choosing forms, Shakespeare matches the poetry to the character that uses it. Friar Lawrence, for example, uses sermon and sententiae forms, and the Nurse uses a unique blank verse form that closely matches colloquial speech.[3]
Friar Lawrence agrees to marry Romeo to Juliet in an attempt to mend the dispute between the two families; the Nurse sees their union as one of legitimate romance. The Nurse recognizes that Juliet shows no interest in Paris' courting and is the only member of the older generation to take Juliet's feelings into consideration…that is, until she suddenly betrays Juliet's trust by saying that she should marry Paris. Only to the nurse does Juliet confide her feelings about both Paris and Romeo. The formal language Juliet uses around Paris, as well as the way she talks about him to her Nurse, show that her feelings clearly lie with Romeo.[4]
The Nurse also admits to being something of a fool, proclaiming, "were not I thine [Juliet's] only nurse, I would say thou hadst suck'd wisdom from thy teat."[5] She is implied to be ugly by Mercutio, who urges the Nurse's servant Peter to fetch her fan quickly, "to hide her face; for her fan's the fairer face." Mercutio also mentions her age, calling her an "ancient lady" as he exits from the same scene. Some illustrations even depict her as an obese or big boned woman, because of how Mercutio insults her. He calls "A sail! A sail!" Meaning he thinks that the nurse is as big as a ship.
The Nurse is also a frequent user of malapropisms. Her view of romance is very pragmatic, much like Mercutio's views. When Juliet says that marriage is an honour she did not yet think of, the nurse laughs and exclaims, what an honour it is. The nurse's humour is very crude, which is shown when she makes a rude joke about the way Juliet will 'fall down' when she is older.
The Nurse's given name may be Angelica. In Act 4, scene 4, Lord Capulet, alone with the Nurse and Lady Capulet, tells "good Angelica" to order baked meats for Juliet's upcoming wedding to Count Paris. It is unclear from the text whether he is addressing the Nurse or Lady Capulet.
Performance history[edit]
A short sample of famous Nurses follows:
Miriam Margolyes in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet.
Pat Heywood in Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film.
Edna May Oliver in the 1936 film.
Flora Robson in the 1954 film.
Debbie Rochon in Tromeo & Juliet.
Rita Moreno (as Anita) the Nurse role in "West Side Story (film)"
Karen Olivo (as Anita) the Nurse role in West Side Story (2009 Revival Original Broadway Cast)
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Arthur J. Roberts (February 1902). "The Sources of Romeo and Juliet". Modern Language Notes (Modern Language Notes, Vol. 17, No. 2) 17 (2): 41–44. doi:10.2307/2917639. JSTOR 2917639.
2.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 2
3.Jump up ^ Halio, 48-60.
4.Jump up ^ Halio, 20-30.
5.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet Act 1, Scene 3, Lines 67-68
References[edit]
Halio, Jay (1998). Romeo and Juliet. Westport: Greenwood Press. p. 1. ISBN 0-313-30089-5.

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Fictional Italian people in literature
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Characters in Romeo and Juliet

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Friar Laurence

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Jump to: navigation, search

Friar Laurence

Romeo and Juliet with Friar Laurence by Henry William Bunbury

Creator
William Shakespeare
Play
Romeo and Juliet
Friar Laurence[n 1] is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Role in the play
2 Analysis
3 Notes and references
4 Bibliography
Role in the play[edit]
Friar Laurence is a monk who plays the part of a wise adviser to Romeo and Juliet, along with aiding in major plot developments.
Alone, he foreshadows the later, tragic events of the play with his soliloquy about plants and their similarities to humans.[1] When Romeo requests that the Friar marry him to Juliet, he is shocked, because only days before, Romeo had been infatuated with Rosaline,[2] a woman who did not return his love. Nevertheless, Friar Laurence decides to get Romeo and Juliet married in the attempt to stop the civil feud between the Capulets and the Montagues.[3]
When Romeo is banished for killing Tybalt and flees to Mantua, Friar Laurence tries to help the two lovers get back together using a death-emulating potion[clarification needed] to fake Juliet's death.[4] The friar sends a letter to Romeo explaining the situation, but it does not reach him because the people of Mantua suspect the messenger came from a house infected with the plague,[5] and the Friar is unable to arrive at the Capulet's monument in time. Romeo kills Count Paris,[6] whom he finds weeping near Juliet's corpse, then commits suicide,[7] by drinking poison that he bought from an impoverished apothecary,[8] over what he thinks is Juliet's dead body. Friar Laurence arrives just as Juliet awakes from her chemically-induced slumber.[9] He urges Juliet not to be rash, and to join a society of nuns,[10] but he hears a noise from outside and then flees from the tomb. Juliet then kills herself with Romeo's dagger, completing the tragedy. The Friar is forced to return to the tomb, where he recounts the entire story to Prince Escalus, and all the Montagues and Capulets. As he finishes, the prince proclaims, "We have still known thee for a holy man."
Analysis[edit]
In the later part of the 18th and through the 19th century, criticism centred on debates over the moral message of the play. Actor and playwright David Garrick's 1748 adaptation excluded Rosaline: Romeo abandoning her for Juliet was seen as fickle and reckless. Critics such as Charles Dibdin argued that Rosaline had been purposely included in the play to show how reckless the hero was, and that this was the reason for his tragic end. In the 20th century, these moral arguments were disputed by critics like Richard Green Moulton. He argued that accident, and not some character flaw, led to the lovers' deaths.[11]
Shakespeare uses a variety of poetic forms throughout the play. He begins with a 14-line prologue in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet, spoken by a Chorus. Most of Romeo and Juliet is, however, written in blank verse, and much of it in strict iambic pentameter, with less rhythmic variation than in most of Shakespeare's later plays.[12] In choosing forms, Shakespeare matches the poetry to the character who uses it. Friar Laurence, for example, uses sermon and sententiae forms, and the Nurse uses a unique blank verse form that closely matches colloquial speech.[13]
Notes and references[edit]
Notes
1.Jump up ^ Laurence (not Lawrence) is the name of the character created by Shakespeare
References
1.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 2.3.1-22
2.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 2.3.180-81
3.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 2.3.26-31, 2.3.98-99
4.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 4.1.69-77, 4.1.91-122
5.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 4.5.5-12
6.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 5.2.72-73
7.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 5.2.119-120
8.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 4.5.66-79
9.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 5.2.148-50
10.Jump up ^ Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; 5.3.156-164
11.Jump up ^ Scott (1987: 411–412).
12.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 51).
13.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 51).
Bibliography[edit]
Halio, Jay (1998). Romeo and Juliet: A Guide to the Play. Westport: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30089-5.
Scott, Mark W. (Ed.); Schoenbaum, S. (Ed.) (1987). Shakespearean Criticism 5. Detroit: Gale Research Inc. ISBN 0-8103-6129-9.

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Characters in Romeo and Juliet


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Benvolio

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Benvolio

Creator
William Shakespeare
Play
Romeo and Juliet
Family
Montague (cousin of Romeo)
Benvolio Montague is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's drama Romeo and Juliet. Benvolio is Montague's nephew and Romeo's cousin. Benvolio serves as an unsuccessful peacemaker in the play, attempting to prevent violence between the Capulet and Montague families.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Sources 1.1 Etymology
2 Role in the play
3 Performances
4 References 4.1 Bibliography

Sources[edit]
In 1554, Matteo Bandello published the second volume of his Novelle which included his version of Giuletta e Romeo.[1] Bandello emphasises Romeo's initial depression and the feud between the families, and introduces the Nurse and Benvolio. Bandello's story was translated into French by Pierre Boaistuau in 1559 in the second volume of his Histoires Tragiques. Boaistuau adds much moralizing and sentiment, and the characters indulge in rhetorical outbursts.[2]
Etymology[edit]
The name Benvolio means "good-will" or "well-wisher" or "Peacemaker" which is a role he fills, to some degree, as a peace-maker and Romeo's friend. (For comparison, see the derivation of Malvolio - ill-will - in Twelfth Night.)
Role in the play[edit]

 This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (March 2012) 
Benvolio is Lord Montague's nephew and Romeo's cousin, with a distant relation with Paris on the part of his father's divorced wife. He is a kind and thoughtful person who, most of the time, attempts to look out for his best friend. He and Romeo are both close friends with Mercutio, a kinsman to the Prince. Benvolio seems to have little sympathy with the feud, attempting to prevent the initial brawl (fighting off Tybalt to do so) and the duels that end in Mercutio and Tybalt's death. Benvolio spends most of Act I attempting to distract his cousin from his infatuation with Rosaline as he himself is secretly infatuated with her, but following the first appearance of Mercutio in I.iv, he and Mercutio become more closely aligned until III.i. In that scene, he drags the fatally wounded Mercutio offstage, before returning to inform Romeo of Mercutio's death and the Prince of the course of Mercutio's and Tybalt's deaths. Benvolio then disappears from the play (though, as a Montague, he may implicitly be included in the stage direction in the final scene "Enter Lord Montague and others", and he is sometimes doubled with Balthasar). Though he ultimately disappears from the play without much notice, he is a crucial character in that he is the only child from the new generation of Montagues to survive the play. This is because in Shakespeare's first folio, it was mentioned that Benvolio's character died of unknown circumstances along with Lady Montague. It should be noted however that in some editions, Benvolio was prematurely killed by Paris at Juliet's tomb in V (before Paris himself is killed by Romeo).
Performances[edit]
A mock-Victorian revisionist version of Romeo and Juliet 's final scene (with a happy ending, Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio and Paris restored to life, and Benvolio revealing that he is Paris's love, Benvolia, in disguise) forms part of the 1980 stage-play The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.[3] He also attempts to romance Rosaline in Sharman Macdonald's After Juliet.
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Moore (1937: 38–44).
2.Jump up ^ Gibbons (1980: 35–36).
3.Jump up ^ Edgar (1982: 162).
Bibliography[edit]
Edgar, David (1982). The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. New York: Dramatists' Play Service. ISBN 0-8222-0817-2.
Gibbons, Brian (ed.) (1980). Romeo and Juliet. The Arden Shakespeare Second Series. London: Thomson Learning. ISBN 978-1-903436-41-7.
Moore, Olin H. (1937). "Bandello and “Clizia”". Modern Language Notes (Johns Hopkins University Press) 52 (1): 38–44. doi:10.2307/2912314. ISSN 0149-6611. JSTOR 2912314.

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Characters in Romeo and Juliet



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Tybalt

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Tybalt

Creator
William Shakespeare
Play
Romeo and Juliet
Family
Capulets (cousin)
Role
Short tempered cousin of the Capulets.
Tybalt is a fictional character and a main antagonist in William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. He is Lady Capulet's nephew, Juliet's short-tempered cousin, and Romeo's rival. Tybalt shares the same name as the character Tibert/Tybalt the "Prince of Cats" in Reynard the Fox, a point of mockery in the play. Mercutio repeatedly calls Tybalt "King of Cats" (perhaps referring not only to Reynard but to the Italian word cazzo "penis"[1] as well). Luigi da Porto adapted the story as Giulietta e Romeo and included it in his Historia novellamente ritrovata di due Nobili Amanti published in 1530.[2] Da Porto drew on Pyramus and Thisbe and Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron. He gave it much of its modern form, including the lovers' names, the rival families of Montecchi and Capuleti, and the location in Verona.[3] He also introduces characters corresponding to Shakespeare's Mercutio, Tybalt, and Paris. Da Porto presents his tale as historically true and claims it took place in the days of Bartolomeo II della Scala (a century earlier than Salernitano). Montague and Capulet were actual 13th-century political factions, but the only connection between them is a mention in Dante's Purgatorio as an example of civil dissension.[4]

Contents
  [hide] 1 Role in the play
2 Performers
3 Analysis
4 References 4.1 Bibliography
5 External links
Role in the play[edit]
In Act I, Scene I, Tybalt enters to help his servants, Sampson and Gregory, who are fighting in the streets with servants of the Montagues, Abraham and Balthasar. Seeing Benvolio (Romeo's cousin) trying to stop the fight, Tybalt draws his sword to fight Benvolio, saying:
What, drawn and talk of peace? I hate the wordAs I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.Have at thee, coward.
Later, at the Capulets' ball, Tybalt is the first to recognize Romeo through his disguise, and would kill him if not forbidden by his uncle, Lord Capulet. His lust for revenge unsated, Tybalt sends a challenge letter to Romeo for a duel to the death. He enters looking for Romeo at the beginning of Act III, only to create tensions with Mercutio, who was mocking Tybalt even before he entered the scene. Tybalt initially ignores Mercutio and confronts Romeo, who refuses to fight because of his marriage to Juliet. Tybalt becomes even angrier; he does not know Romeo cannot fight him because they are now relatives.
Mercutio loses his temper and begins fighting Tybalt himself. Romeo tries to stop the combat by rushing between them, and Tybalt then stabs Mercutio under Romeo's arm. Mercutio dies. Enraged, Romeo duels and kills Tybalt in return, leading to his own exile by the prince.
Performers[edit]
Corey Hawkins in the 2013 Broadway revival
Ed Westwick in the 2013 film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet
Michael York in the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli film version
Armand Assante in the 1977 Broadway revival
John Leguizamo in Baz Luhrmann's 1996 modernized film adaption, Romeo + Juliet
Alan Rickman in the 1978 television adaptation within the BBC Television Shakespeare series
George Chakiris performed the role of Bernardo Nunez, the Tybalt character in the 1961 film West Side Story, the musical modernized version of Romeo and Juliet.
Tom Ross in the 2001 French musical Roméo et Juliette
Analysis[edit]
John W. Draper points out the parallels between the Elizabethan belief in the four humors and the main characters of the play (for example, Tybalt is a choleric). Interpreting the text in the light of humours reduces the amount of plot attributed to chance by modern audiences.[5]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Erne (2007: 88)
2.Jump up ^ Moore (1937: 38–44).
3.Jump up ^ Hosley (1965: 168).
4.Jump up ^ Moore (1930: 264–277)
5.Jump up ^ Draper (1939: 16–34).
Bibliography[edit]
Draper, John W. (1939). "Shakespeare's ‘Star-Crossed Lovers’". Review of English Studies. os-XV (57): 16–34. doi:10.1093/res/os-XV.57.16.
Erne, Lukas (2007). The first quarto of Romeo and Juliet. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-82121-6.
Hosley, Richard (1965). Romeo and Juliet. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Moore, Olin H. (1930). "The Origins of the Legend of Romeo and Juliet in Italy". Speculum (Medieval Academy of America) 5 (3): 264–277. doi:10.2307/2848744. ISSN 0038-7134. JSTOR 2848744.
—— (1937). "Bandello and “Clizia”". Modern Language Notes (Johns Hopkins University Press) 52 (1): 38–44. doi:10.2307/2912314. ISSN 0149-6611. JSTOR 2912314.
External links[edit]
Complete listing of Tybalt's lines

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Fictional murderers
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Characters in Romeo and Juliet

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Mercutio

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Mercutio

Romeo and Juliet Act III Scene I The Death of Mercutio Romeo's Friend, Edwin Austin Abbey, 1904.

Creator
William Shakespeare
Play
Romeo and Juliet
Family
Valentine (brother), Count Paris, The Prince
Associates
Romeo, Benvolio
Mercutio (/mərˈkjuːʃioʊ/,[1] mur-KYEW-shee-oh[2]) is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's 1597 tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. He is a close friend to Romeo and Benvolio and a blood relative to Prince Escalus and Count Paris. As such, being neither a Montague nor a Capulet, Mercutio is one of the few in Verona with the ability to freely float around both houses. The invitation to Capulet's party states that he has a brother named Valentine.
Though often fun-loving and witty, the latter demonstrated in his Queen Mab speech in the first act, Mercutio's sense of humor can at times be facetious or even coarse, much to his friends' annoyance. Moreover, he is moody and given to sudden outbursts of temper, one of which sets a key plot development in motion.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Role in the play
2 Name origins
3 Mercutio's death
4 Performers
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
Role in the play[edit]
One of Romeo's closest friends, Mercutio entreats Romeo to forget about his unrequited love for a girl named Rosaline and come with him to a masked ball at Lord Capulet's estate. There, Mercutio and his friends become the life of the party, but Romeo steals away to Juliet, Capulet's daughter, with whom he has fallen in love, and he falls out of love with Rosaline. When Mercutio sees Romeo the next day, he is glad to see that his friend is his old self again, and he encourages Romeo to meet again with Juliet, all the while making bawdy jokes at her Nurse's expense.
After Romeo receives a death threat from Tybalt, Mercutio expects Romeo to engage Tybalt in a duel. However, Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt, as Tybalt is Juliet's cousin and therefore his kinsman. Mercutio is incensed at his friend's "vile submission", and decides to fight Tybalt himself. Romeo, not wanting his friend or his relative to get hurt, intervenes, causing Mercutio to be killed by Tybalt's stabbing Mercutio "under [Romeo's] arm."
Before he dies, Mercutio curses both the Montagues and Capulets, crying "a plague on both your houses!" He makes one final pun before he dies: "Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man...." A grief-stricken and enraged Romeo kills Tybalt, thus leading to Romeo's banishment from Verona and beginning the tragic turn of events that make up the rest of the play.
Name origins[edit]
The name Mercutio was present in Shakespeare's sources for Romeo and Juliet, though his character was not well developed and he was presented as a romantic rival for Juliet.[3] The name is first used in Luigi Da Porto's 1530 "Giulietta e Romeo". Da Porto briefly introduces a character named Marcuccio Guertio, a noble youth "with very cold hands, in July as in January", who makes Giulietta Cappelletti appreciate the warm hands of Romeo Montecchi.[4][5]
Mercutio's name may be related to the word "mercurial"[citation needed], meaning, "having an unpredictable and fast changing mood", an accurate description of Mercutio's personality. The word "mercurial" itself derives from the ancient Roman messenger god Mercury (Greek: Hermes).
Mercutio's death[edit]
Earlier versions of the story described a different chain of events leading to Tybalt's death, omittng Mercutio completely. Arthur Brooke's The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet and William Painter's 1567 versions of the story both left the entire episode solely to Romeo and Tybalt. In both stories, Tybalt attacks the peace-pleading Romeo with such force that Romeo is forced to take up the sword to defend himself. He is then banished rather than executed because the killing was provoked. In 1672, English poet John Dryden wrote, "Shakespeare show'd the best of his skill in his Mercutio, and he said himself, that he was forced to kill him in the third Act, to prevent being killed by him."[6]
The addition of Mercutio into the fray increases the tension, and Tybalt is seen as a slightly more peaceful character than in previous versions, as Mercutio is disgusted by the fact that Tybalt continues to search for a quarrel with Romeo, when Romeo is trying to bring peace between them. Mercutio hurls insults and taunts at Tybalt, and draws the sword first, in reaction to Tybalt's insults, which are directed to Romeo.
Mercutio's death in Act III, scene I is the pivotal point of the play, which up to this point is relatively light-hearted.[7] Mercutio's death is sudden and makes death a dark reality for several characters, causing a domino effect of tragic fate that leads ultimately to the tragic climax.
Performers[edit]
A number of famous actors have played the role of Mercutio. A small sampling follows.
Stage In 1935, Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud alternated the roles of Romeo and Mercutio in a London stage production directed by Gielgud.
In 1945, Ralph Richardson made his Broadway debut as Mercutio opposite the Romeo of Maurice Evans and the Juliet of Katharine Cornell.
In 1947, Paul Scofield memorably played Mercutio in a production directed by Peter Brook.
In 1958, Alec McCowen enjoyed a major success as Mercutio in London.
Keanu Reeves played the character when he was 15.
In 2006, Benjamin Walker portrayed Mercutio during the Williamstown Theater Festival with Emmy Rossum as Juliet and Greg Hildreth as Benvolio.
Mickey Calin portrayed Riff Lorton the Mercutio and Lord Montague character in the stage musical of West Side Story.
Film In 1936, John Barrymore portrayed Mercutio in George Cukor's film Romeo and Juliet opposite Leslie Howard as Romeo.
In 1961, Russ Tamblyn played the Mercutio character, Riff Lorton, in the film adaptation of West Side Story, the musical modernized version of "Romeo and Juliet".
In 1968, John McEnery portrayed Mercutio in Franco Zeffirelli's film Romeo and Juliet.
In 1996, Harold Perrineau Jr. portrayed Mercutio in Baz Luhrmann's modernized version, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet.
In 1998, Ben Affleck portrayed actor Edward Alleyn in the romantic comedy Shakespeare in Love. In the film, Alleyn serves as history's first Mercutio.
In 2007, Tetsuya Kakihara and Christopher Bevins voice Mercutio in the anime series Romeo x Juliet.
In 2011, Hale Appleman portrayed Mercutio in Alan Brown's Private Romeo, a modern-day adaptation set at an all-male military academy.
In 2013, Christian Cooke will play Mercutio in the upcoming film adaption directed by Carlo Carlei, starring Douglas Booth as Romeo Montague and Hailee Steinfeld as Juliet Capulet.

See also[edit]
William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
Complete list of Shakespearean characters
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam Webster, Incorporated. 1995. p. 753. ISBN 978-0-87779-042-6. (The pronunciation mər-ˈkyü-shē-ō was transcribed to IPA per Pronunciation respelling for English.)
2.Jump up ^ Sobczak, A. J., ed. (1998) [First Edition published 1963]. Cyclopedia of Literary Characters, Revised Edition 4. Pasadena, California: Salem Press, Inc. p. 1661. ISBN 978-0-89356-438-4.
3.Jump up ^ Draper, John. W. 1939. "Shakespeare's 'Star-Crossed Lovers' ". The Review of English Studies 15 (57).
4.Jump up ^ Harold Bloom, Introduction to Romeo and Juliet, Chelsea House Publishers, 2005, p. 15
5.Jump up ^ Geoffrey Bullough, Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare: Early Comedies, Poems, Romeo and Juliet, Routledge and Kegan Paul Lt, London, 1957, p. 270
6.Jump up ^ Scott, Mark W.; Schoenbaum, S. (1987). Shakespearean Criticism 5. Detroit: Gale Research Inc. p. 415. ISBN 0-8103-6129-9.
7.Jump up ^ Maxwell, Jennifer. The Catalytic Function of Mercutio. (doc)
External links[edit]
Complete listing of all of Mercutio's lines
Mercutio Character Analysis

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Fictional Italian people in literature
Male Shakespearean characters
Characters in Romeo and Juliet



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Romeo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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For other uses, see Romeo (disambiguation).

Romeo

The balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet as depicted by Ford Madox Brown in an 1870 painting

Creator
William Shakespeare
Play
Romeo and Juliet
Family
Juliet (lover/wife)
Lord Montague (father)
Lady Montague (mother)
Benvolio Montague (cousin)

Associates
Mercutio
Friar Laurence

Role
Protagonist
Romeo is one of the title characters in William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet. He serves as the play's male protagonist. Romeo, the son of Montague and his wife, secretly loves and marries Juliet, a member of the rival House of Capulet. Forced into exile by his slaying of Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, in a duel, Romeo commits suicide upon hearing falsely of Juliet's death.
The character's origins can be traced as far back as Pyramus, who appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses, but the first modern incarnation of Romeo is Mariotto in the 33rd of Masuccio Salernitano's Il Novellino (1476). This story was adapted by Luigi da Porto as Giulietta e Romeo (1530), and Shakespeare's main source was an English verse translation of this text by Arthur Brooke.[1] Although both Salernitano and da Porto claimed that their stories had historical basis, there is little evidence that this is the case.
Romeo is one of the most important characters of the play, and has a consistent presence throughout it. His role as an idealistic lover has led the word "Romeo" to become a synonym for a passionate male lover in various languages. Although often treated as such, it is not clear that "Montague" is a surname in the modern sense.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Origins
2 References
3 Bibliography
4 External links
Origins[edit]
The earliest tale bearing a resemblance to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is Xenophon of Ephesus' Ephesiaca, whose hero is a Habrocomes. The character of Romeo is also similar to that of Pyramus in Ovid's Metamorphoses, a youth who is unable to meet the object of his affection due to an ancient family quarrel, and later kills himself due to mistakenly believing her to have died.[2] Although it is unlikely that Shakespeare directly borrowed from Ovid while writing Romeo and Juliet, the story was likely an influence on the Italian writers who the playwright was greatly indebted to.[3] The two sources which Shakespeare most likely consulted are Brookes' translation of de Porta and W. Painter's The goodly historye of the true, and constant Love between Romeo and Juliet.[1]
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b Hunter & Lichfield, p. 11. Missing or empty |title= (help)
2.Jump up ^ Halio 1998, p. 93
3.Jump up ^ Bevington, p. 37
Bibliography[edit]
Bevington, David M. (2006). How to read a Shakespeare play. Westport: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30089-5.
Halio, Jay (1998). Romeo and Juliet: A Guide to the Play. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1-4051-1396-0.
Hunter, Lynette, Lichfield, Peter (2009). Negotiating Shakespeare's language in Romeo and Juliet: reading strategies from criticism, editing and the theatre. Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-5844-3.
Shakespeare, William (1859). Romeo and Juliet:A tragedy. Leipzig: G. Græbner.
External links[edit]
Complete listing of all of Romeo's lines

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Juliet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see Juliet (disambiguation).

Juliet

The balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet as depicted by Ford Madox Brown in an 1870 painting

Creator
William Shakespeare
Play
Romeo and Juliet
Family
Romeo (lover/husband)
Capulet (father)
Lady Capulet (mother)
Tybalt (cousin)

Associates
The Nurse
Role
Protagonist
Juliet is the female protagonist and one of two title characters in William Shakespeare's romantic love tragedy Romeo and Juliet, the other being Romeo. Juliet is the only daughter of Capulet, the patriarch of the Capulet family. The story has a long history that precedes Shakespeare himself.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Relationships 1.1 Character history
2 Juliet's age
3 In today's Verona 3.1 Casa di Giulietta
3.2 Club di Giulietta
4 Performers 4.1 Animation
4.2 Fictional performers
5 Notes
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
Relationships[edit]

 This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. (September 2010) 

 This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (December 2007) 



Juliet by Philip H. Calderon
The play takes place over a time span of four days. Within these few days, Juliet is thrust into adulthood quickly—where she must deal with issues of life, romance, love, passion, and even death. During the play she is courted by a potential husband (Count Paris), strongly falls romantically in love with another (Romeo), marries Romeo secretly, experiences the death of her first cousin Tybalt, has one brief passionate, romantic night with her new husband before he is forced to leave the city, is threatened by her father and nearly disowned by both of her parents for refusing to marry the man they have chosen for her, she is let down emotionally by the nurse who raised her from infancy, spends nearly two days drugged to unconsciousness, is widowed, and ultimately commits suicide near the body of her dead husband.
Shakespeare's Juliet is a headstrong and intelligent character in spite of her young age, though she often seems timid to the audience because of her old age. She is considered by many to be the true hero of the play, acting as a sounding board and a balance against the impulsive Romeo. It is Juliet who sets the boundaries of behavior in her relationship with Romeo: she allows him to kiss her, she pledges her commitment before him, and it is she who suggests their marriage. Juliet's forgiveness of Romeo after he kills Tybalt indicates her mature nature in contrast to his passionate impulsiveness. Furthermore, Juliet lies and clandestinely subverts her family's wishes, a truly rebellious action against traditional Italian society. These actions and the choices they require establish Juliet as a far more complex character than her family, or even Romeo, appreciate.
Character history[edit]
Juliet's wealthy and rich family lived in Verona, headed by old Capulet and his wife. She was their only child and was thought of as a gift from heaven. As a child, she was cared for by her nurse, who is now her confidante, or Juliet's stepmother.
In Juliet's first scene, she demonstrates her obedience and lack of experience in the world, outlining herself as inexperienced and in many ways dependent on her parents and nurse. She does not even give marriage a second thought but she does want to do what her mother asks. It is high time that Juliet go the route Lady Capulet went in her youth, and be married to a rich and powerful gentleman like her father. The Count Paris is a bit of a bystander in the play however, unwittingly mixed up in the drama between the families. The to-be couple only ever met once in the Friar Lawrence's cell, which was very brief. His interest in her is primarily based on her social standing and her family's vast wealth, in contrast to her youthful beauty. He politely and nobly asks Capulet for her hand, and apparently would like her to begin bearing his children as soon as physically possible: "Younger than she are happy mothers made" (1.2.12). Juliet, on the other hand, has no interest in becoming a wife and the mother of Paris's children: "(Marriage) is an honour that I dream not of" (1.3.68). Even her father at first considers her too young to settle down. This may be a reflection on his feelings about his own wife, who might have been happier waiting a few years before marrying him. He tells Paris to let Juliet grow up for a few more years before planning marriage, but he pompously disagrees (1.2.10–11) . Of course, Juliet's mind on the matter changes within a few minutes of meeting Romeo, but when Paris is mentioned to her by her mother in act three she reverts back to an immature, whining, almost infantile state. Romeo's very presence seems to propel her toward maturity however, and her pagal are made quickly but thoughtfully from that point forward.


O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
 Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
 Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
 And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
Juliet's famous lines in the play Romeo and Juliet [1]
Romeo too seems to achieve depth through his intense love with Juliet. When compared to the pining and frustration he exhibited during his crush on Rosaline, his behavior toward Juliet and her family and his attitude in general both show a level of great maturity. The feud that one day had seemed all-encompassing now makes no sense, and he abandons it. Much of Romeo's dialogue with Juliet is an intricate pattern of words. Their rhyming couplets sometimes come together to create a poem. This symbolizes their union, and shows that Juliet can easily match Romeo in wordplay.
It is not clear exactly why Romeo and Juliet love each other, beyond immediate physical attraction. They were married not 24 hours after their first meeting. Fate plays a constant role in the story. Their love is "death-marked" (1.1.9), the lovers are "star-crossed" (1.1.6), and Romeo feels he is being led by the stars as a ship is steered by its pilot. The idea may be that the heirs to these two families were fated to end up together to end the feud, and their deaths may or may not have been part of that fate. The play may be interpreted differently according to the whim of the reader or viewer. The series of disastrous events that leads to their deaths may have been just a part of the destiny, or it may have been what shattered the fate and made the story a true tragedy. Either way, peace comes to the families.
Juliet's age[edit]
One aspect of the story which now seems problematic is Juliet's age. As the story occurs, Juliet is approaching her fourteenth birthday. She was born on "Lammas Eve at night" (August 1), so Juliet's birthday is July 31 (1.3.19). Her birthday is "a fortnight hence", putting the action of the play in mid-July (1.3.17). Her father states that she "hath not seen the change of fourteen years" (1.2.9). In many cultures and time periods, women did and do marry and bear children at an early age. Romeo and Juliet is a play about Italian families. Lady Capulet had given birth to her first child by the time she had reached Juliet's age: "By my count, I was your mother much upon these years that you are now a maid" (1.3.74–75).
Even Capulet tries to encourage Paris to wait a little longer before even thinking of marrying his daughter, feeling that she is still too young; "She hath not seen the change of fourteen years, Let two more summers wither in their pride, Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride". However, in the English poem the story is based from (Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke)[2] Juliet is approaching her sixteenth birthday and Romeo is the same age whereas in the Bandello novella she is nearly eighteen with Romeo about twenty.[3] The common English people of that age were very rarely in their teens when they married and even among the nobility and gentry of the age, brides thirteen years of age were rare, at about one in one thousand brides; in that era, the vast majority of English brides were at least nineteen years of age when they first married, most commonly at about 22–23 years, and most English noblewomen were at least sixteen when they married. That the parts of young women were played by pre-adolescent boys in Shakespeare's day also cannot be overlooked and it is possible that Shakespeare had the physique of a young boy in mind during composition, in addition to the fact that Romeo and Juliet are of wealthy families and would be more likely to marry earlier than commoners.[4] At the time, English noblewomen married on average at 19–21 years (compared to 24–26 years for English noblemen) while the average marriage age in England was 25–26 years for women and 27-28 for men;[5] Sir Thomas More wrote in his Utopia that, in Utopia, women must be at least 18 years of age when they marry and men at least 22 years.[6]
The common belief in Elizabethan England was that motherhood before 16 was dangerous; popular manuals of health, as well as observations of married life, led Elizabethans to believe that early marriage and its consummation permanently damaged a young woman's health, impaired a young man's physical and mental development, and produced sickly or stunted children. Therefore 18 came to be considered the earliest reasonable age for motherhood and 20 and 30 the ideal ages for women and men, respectively, to marry. Shakespeare might also have reduced Juliet's age from sixteen to fourteen to demonstrate the dangers of marriage at too young of an age; that Shakespeare himself married Anne Hathaway when he was just eighteen might hold some significance.[3]
In today's Verona[edit]
Casa di Giulietta[edit]



 Juliet's purported balcony, in Verona. Beneath it, on the walls, there are love letters.


 The entrance wall known as Juliet's wall
In Verona, a house claiming to be the Capulets' has been turned into a tourist attraction. It features the balcony, and in the small courtyard, a bronze statue of Juliet. It is one of the most visited sites in the town. The metal of its chest is worn bare due to a legend that if a person strokes the right breast of the statue, that person will have good fortune.[7]
Many people write their names and the names of their beloved ones on the walls of the entrance, known as Juliet's wall. Many believe that writing on that place will make their love everlasting. After a restoration and cleaning of the building, it was intended that further writing should be on replaceable panels[8] or white sheets[9] placed outside the wall.
It is also a tradition to put small love letters on the walls (which is done by the thousands each year), which are regularly taken down by employees to keep the courtyard clean.[10]
Club di Giulietta[edit]
Since the 1930s, letters addressed to Juliet keep arriving in Verona. As of 2010, more than 5,000 letters are received annually, three quarters of which are from women. The largest single group of senders are American teenagers.[11] The letters are read and replied to by local volunteers, organized since the 1980s in the Club di Giulietta (Juliet Club), which is financed by the City of Verona.[11] The club has been the subject of a book by Lise and Ceil Friedman and is the setting for a 2008 book by Suzanne Harper and a 2010 USA movie, Letters to Juliet.
Performers[edit]
A number of famous actresses have portrayed the role of Juliet:
Mary Saunderson was the first woman to play Juliet professionally. Previous actors had all been males.[12]
Eliza O'Neill won her fame with Juliet at Covent Garden, 1814.
Katharine Cornell had a notable Broadway success as Juliet opposite the Romeo of Basil Rathbone in 1934, and revived the production with Maurice Evans as Romeo and Ralph Richardson as Mercutio the following year.
Peggy Ashcroft was one of the great Juliets in history, most famously in the 1935 London production directed by John Gielgud, in which Gielgud and Laurence Olivier alternated the roles of Romeo and Mercutio.
Norma Shearer in George Cukor's Romeo and Juliet (1936). Leslie Howard was her Romeo.
Judi Dench had a great success as Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli's 1960 London production.
Olivia Hussey portrayed Juliet in Zeffirelli's 1968 film, Romeo and Juliet,; Leonard Whiting was her Romeo.
Niamh Cusack portrayed Juliet in 1986 with The Royal Shakespeare Company. Sean Bean was her Romeo.
Claire Danes was Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's modernized 1996 version, Romeo + Juliet, alongside Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw portrayed Juliet at the Royal Exchange Theatre's 2005 production.
Hailee Steinfeld will portray Juliet in Carlo Carlei's upcoming film adaptation opposite actor Douglas Booth as Romeo.[13]
Animation[edit]
In Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss, Juliet is portrayed as a white seal and is voiced by Patricia Trippett while her brother Daniel did the voicing of the brown seal Romeo.
Fumie Mizusawa voices Juliet in the heroic-fantasy adaptation Romeo x Juliet by the Japanese animation studio GONZO, with Takahiro Mizushima voicing Romeo; Brina Palencia and Chris Burnett portrayed the characters in the English-language version.
In Gnomeo & Juliet, Juliet is a Lawn gnome voiced by Emily Blunt.
Fictional performers[edit]
The Academy Award-winning film Shakespeare in Love depicts history's first Juliet as being illegally played by Viola de Lesseps, a woman (Gwyneth Paltrow).
In her music video Love Story, American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift played the part of Juliet. The plot was transformed to a happy ending, instead of tragic.
In the credits of Toy Story 3, one of the Squeeze Toy Aliens/LGMs play the role of Juliet dressed up in a dress, a wig and a princess hat.
In the climax of "Casting Call" from The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog, after Camille Wallaby who is beautifully dressed solves the mystery with Alfred and Milo, she is chosen to be the perfect Juliet by saying her famous words.
In The Sims 2 Juliet reappears as Juliette Capp.
In the episode "Chem Gems" from Danger Rangers, during the song called "Don't Touch That", the pink cat Kitty portrays Juliet.
In sitcom "Wizards of Waverly Place", actress Bridgit Mendler portrays Juliet (Juliet was a vampire and Romeo was portrayed by Justin Russo. In this episode, their families' feud was a result of rival sub shops). However, after her disappearance in the episodes, she later reappears various times in the series.
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Act 2 Scene 2". OpenSourceShakespeare.org. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
2.Jump up ^ The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, Arthur Brooke.
3.^ Jump up to: a b Franson, J. Karl. 1996. "Too Soon Marr'd": Juliet's Age as Symbol in 'Romeo and Juliet.' Papers on Language & Literature, Vol. 32, No. 3
4.Jump up ^ Laslett, Peter. 1965. The World We Have Lost. New York, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p 82-86
5.Jump up ^ Young, Bruce W. 2008. Family Life in the Age of Shakespeare. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p 41
6.Jump up ^ Uzgalis, William. 1997. Utopia, by Sir Thomas More. New York: Ideal Commonwealths. P.F. Collier & Son. [1]
7.Jump up ^ La casa di Giulietta, Verona – IgoUgo
8.Jump up ^ Veronissima. "Veronissima – Juliet's Wall Graffiti". Veronissima.com. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
9.Jump up ^ "Terna02 – Juliet’s graffiti at the D'Orsay Museum in Paris". PremioTerna.it. 2009-09-04. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
10.Jump up ^ "Desenzano Lake Garda Italy — Verona — Romeo and Juliet". DesenzanoItaly.com. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
11.^ Jump up to: a b Hooper, John (19 May 2010). "Dear Juliet: the fans who write to Shakespeare's heroine". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
12.Jump up ^ Halio, Jay (1998). Romeo and Juliet. Westport: Greenwood Press. p. 100. ISBN 0-313-30089-5.
13.Jump up ^ Sneider, Jeff (2011-06-21). "Douglas Booth, thou art 'Romeo'". Variety. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
References[edit]
Bevington, David, Ed. Romeo and Juliet, The Bantam Shakespeare (New York, 1988)
Levenson, Jill L., Ed. Romeo and Juliet, The Oxford Shakespeare (Oxford, 2000)
Further reading[edit]
"Juliet's Taming of Romeo" Carolyn E. Brown; Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900, Vol. 36, 1996
"A Psychological Profile of Shakespeare's Juliet: Or Was It Merely Hormones?" Nancy Compton Warmbrod The English Journal, Vol. 69, No. 9 (Dec., 1980), p. 29
External links[edit]
The Juliet club in Verona
The fanlisting for Juliet
Juliet Character Analysis

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Rosaline

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about the character in Romeo and Juliet. For the American post-hardcore band, see Rosaline (band). For the character in Love's Labour's Lost, see Love's Labour's Lost.

Rosaline

Rosaline in Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, one of the few films to give her a visible role.

Creator
William Shakespeare
Play
Romeo and Juliet
Rosaline (/ˈrɒzəlɪn/ or /ˈrɒzəliːn/) is an unseen character and niece of Capulet in William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet (1597). Although silent, her role is important. Romeo is at first deeply in love with Rosaline and expresses her cruelty for not loving him back. Romeo first spots Juliet while trying to catch a glimpse of Rosaline at a gathering hosted by the Capulet family.
Scholars generally compare Romeo's short-lived love of Rosaline with his later love of Juliet. The poetry Shakespeare writes for Rosaline is much weaker than that for Juliet. Scholars believe Romeo's early experience with Rosaline prepares him for his relationship with Juliet. Later performances of Romeo and Juliet have painted different pictures of Romeo and Rosaline's relationship, as filmmakers have experimented with making Rosaline a more visible character.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Role in the play
2 Analysis 2.1 Name
2.2 Rosaline as plot device
2.3 Rosaline and Juliet
3 Performances
4 References
Role in the play[edit]
Before Romeo meets Juliet, he loves Rosaline, Capulet's niece. He describes her as wonderfully beautiful: "The all-seeing sun / ne'er saw her match since first the world begun."[1] Rosaline, however, chooses to remain celibate; Romeo says: "She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow / Do I live dead that live to tell it now."[2] This is the source of his depression, and he makes his friends unhappy; Mercutio comments: "That same pale, hard-hearted wench, that Rosaline, torments him so that he will sure run mad."[3] Benvolio urges Romeo to sneak into a Capulet gathering where, he claims, Rosaline will look like "a crow" alongside the other beautiful women.[4] Romeo agrees, but doubts Benvolio's assessment. After Romeo sees Juliet his feelings suddenly change: "Did my heart love 'til now? Forswear it, sight / For I ne'er saw true beauty 'til this night."[5] Because their relationship is sudden and secret, Romeo's friends and Friar Laurence continue to speak of his affection for Rosaline throughout much of the play.
Analysis[edit]
Name[edit]
"...Juliet on the balcony ponders Romeo's name and likens it to that rose that remains itself whatever it is called. Is Juliet that rose, and, thereby, Rosaline renamed?""
—Jonathan Goldberg[6]
Rosaline is a variant of Rosalind,[7] a name of Old French origin: (hros = "horse", lind = "soft, tender"). When it was imported into English it was thought to be from the Latin rosa linda ("lovely rose").[8] Romeo sees Rosaline as the embodiment of the rose because of her name and her apparent perfections.[9][10] The name Rosaline commonly appears in Petrarchan sonnets, a form of poetry Romeo uses to woo Juliet and to describe both Rosaline and Juliet. Since Rosaline is unattainable, she is a perfect subject for this style; but Romeo's attempt at it is forced and weak. By the time he meets Juliet his poetic ability has improved considerably.[9]
Gender studies critics have argued that Rosaline's name suggests that Romeo never really forgets her but rather replaces her with Juliet. Thus, when Juliet cries "What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," she is ironically expressing Romeo's own view of her as a replacement for Rosaline. That is to say, Rosaline, replaced in name only by Juliet, is just as sweet to Romeo.[6] Gender critics also note that the arguments used to dissuade Romeo from pursuing Rosaline are similar to the themes of Shakespeare's procreation sonnets. In these sonnets Shakespeare urges the man (who can be equated with Romeo) to find a woman with whom to procreate—a duty he owes to society. Rosaline, it seems, is distant and unavailable except in the mind, similarly bringing no hope of offspring. As Benvolio argues, she is best replaced by someone who will reciprocate. Rosaline reveals similarities to the subject of the sonnets when she refuses to break her vow of chastity. Her name may be referred to in the first sonnet when the young man is described as "beauties Rose." This line ties the young man to both Rosaline and Romeo in Juliet's "What's in a name?" soliloquy. When Juliet says "...that which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet",[11] she may be raising the question of whether there is any difference between the beauty of a man and the beauty of a woman.[6]
Rosaline is used as a name for only one other Shakespearean character—the one of the main female figures in Love's Labours Lost (1598). Scholars have found similarities between them: both are described as beautiful, with fair, white skin, and both have a way of avoiding men's romantic advances. Rosaline in Love's Labours Lost constantly rebuffs her suitor's advances and Romeo's Rosaline remains distant and chaste in his brief descriptions of her. These similarities have led some to wonder whether they are based on a woman Shakespeare actually knew, possibly the Dark Lady described in his sonnets, but there is no strong evidence of this connection.[12]
Rosaline as plot device[edit]
Analysts note that Rosaline acts as a plot device, by motivating Romeo to sneak into the Capulet party where he will meet Juliet. Without her, their meeting would be unlikely.[13] Rosaline thus acts as the impetus to bring the "star-cross'd lovers" to their deaths—she is crucial in shaping their fate (a common theme of the play). Ironically, she remains oblivious of her role.[14]
Rosaline and Juliet[edit]
"Rosaline and Paris...are the subtlest reflectors of all...they are cast like a snake's skin by the more robust reality of Romeo and Juliet."
—Ruth Nevo, on the Rosaline-Juliet, Paris-Romeo comparison[15]
Literary critics often compare Romeo's love for Rosaline with his feelings for Juliet. Some see Romeo's love for Rosaline as childish as compared with his true love for Juliet. Others argue that the apparent difference in Romeo's feelings shows Shakespeare's improving skill. Since Shakespeare is thought to have written early drafts of the play in 1591, and then picked them up again in 1597 to create the final copy, the change in Romeo's language for Rosaline and Juliet may mirror Shakespeare's increased skill as a playwright: the younger Shakespeare describing Rosaline, and the more experienced describing Juliet. In this view, a careful look at the play reveals that Romeo's love for Rosaline is not as petty as usually imagined.[13]
Critics also note the ways in which Romeo's relationship with Rosaline prepares him for meeting Juliet. Before meeting Rosaline, Romeo despises all Capulets, but afterwards looks upon them more favorably. He experiences the dual feelings of hate and love in the one relationship. This prepares him for the more mature relationship with Juliet—one fraught by the feud between Montagues and Capulets. Romeo expresses the conflict of love and hate in Act 1, Scene 1, comparing his love for Rosaline with the feud between the two houses:[16]

Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.

Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
 O any thing, of nothing first create!
 O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
 Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
 Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
 Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
 This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
 Dost thou not laugh?
Psychoanalytic critics see signs of repressed childhood trauma in Romeo's love for Rosaline. She is of a rival house and is sworn to chastity. Thus he is in an impossible situation, one which will continue his trauma if he remains in it. Although he acknowledges its ridiculous nature, he refuses to stop loving her. Psychoanalysts view this as a re-enactment of his failed relationship with his mother. Rosaline's absence is symbolic of his mother's absence and lack of affection for him. Romeo's love for Juliet is similarly hopeless, for she is a Capulet and Romeo pursues his relationship with her; the difference being that Juliet reciprocates.[17] This does not seem likely seeing as his mother died of grief after his banishment, indicating that she probably loved him deeply.
Performances[edit]
Rosaline has been portrayed in various ways over the centuries. Theophilus Cibber's 1748 version of Romeo and Juliet replaced references to Rosaline with references to Juliet. This, according to critics, took out the "love at first sight" moment at the Capulet feast.[18] In the 1750s, actor and theatre director David Garrick also eliminated references to Rosaline from his performances, as many saw Romeo's quick replacement of her as immoral.[19][20] However, in Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo sees Rosaline (played by Paola Tedesco (it))[21] first at the Capulet feast and then Juliet, of whom he becomes immediately enamored. This scene suggests that love is short and superficial. Rosaline also appears in Renato Castellani's 1954 film version. In a brief non-Shakespearean scene, Rosaline (Dagmar Josipovitch) gives Romeo a mask at Capulet's celebration, and urges him to leave disguised before harm comes to him. Other filmmakers keep Rosaline off-camera in stricter accordance with Shakespeare's script.[22] Robert Nathan's 1966 romantic comedy, Juliet in Mantua, presents Rosaline as a fully developed character. In this sequel, in which Romeo and Juliet did not die, the pair live ten years later in exile in Mantua. When Rosaline shows up in Mantua with her husband County Paris, both couples must confront their disillusionment with their marriages. Another play, After Juliet, written by Scottish playwright Sharman Macdonald, tells the story of Rosaline after Romeo dies. A main character in this play, she struggles with her loss and turns away the advances of Benvolio, who has fallen in love with her. Keira Knightley played her role in the play's 1999 premiere.[23][24] The 2012 young adult novel "When You Were Mine" by Rebecca Serle sets Rosaline's story in a contemporary high school. Rosaline and Romeo (renamed Rob) have been best friends since childhood and are just beginning to fall in love when Rosaline's cousin, Juliet, moves back into town and sets her sights on Rob.[25]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, I.2.99-100.
2.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, I.1.231-232.
3.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, II.4.4-5.
4.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, I.2.365.
5.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, I.5.59-60.
6.^ Jump up to: a b c Goldberg, Jonathan. Queering the Renaissance. Durham: Duke University Press (1994), 221-227. ISBN 0-8223-1385-5
7.Jump up ^ "Rosaline". A Dictionary of First Names. Eds. Patrick Hanks, Kate Hardcastle, and Flavia Hodges. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2006). Oxford Reference Online. Retrieved on 25 June 2007. Oxford Reference (Registration required)
8.Jump up ^ "Rosalind". A Dictionary of First Names. Eds. Patrick Hanks, Kate Hardcastle, and Flavia Hodges. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2006). Oxford Reference Online. Retrieved on 25 June 2007. Oxford Reference (Registration required)
9.^ Jump up to: a b Whittier, Gayle. "The Sonnet's Body and the Body Sonnetized in 'Romeo and Juliet'." Shakespeare Quarterly 40.1 (Apr 1989): 27-41.
10.Jump up ^ Lewis, Alan. "Reading Shakespeare's Cupid." Criticism 47.2 (Apr 2005): 177-213.
11.Jump up ^ Act 2 Scene 2
12.Jump up ^ Clarke, Charles and Mary Clarke. The Shakespeare Key. City: Kessinger Publishing, LLC (2007), 651-652. ISBN 1-4304-6745-2
13.^ Jump up to: a b Gray, Henry David. "Romeo Rosaline, and Juliet". Modern Language Notes 29.7 (Nov 1914): 209-212.
14.Jump up ^ Evans, Bertrand. "The Brevity of Friar Lawrence." PMLA 65.5 (September 1950): 841-865.
15.Jump up ^ Nevo, Ruth. "Tragic Form in Romeo and Juliet". Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 9.2 (April 1969): 241-258.
16.Jump up ^ Bowling, Lawrence Edward. "The Thematic Framework of Romeo and Juliet." PMLA 64.1 (Mar 1949): 208-220.
17.Jump up ^ Krims, Marvin, "Romeo's Childhood Trauma?--'What Fray Was Here?'." PSYART: A Hyperlink Journal for Psychological Study of the Arts. (November 1999) 3 article no. 991022. Reprinted in Shakespearean Criticism, Vol. 76.
18.Jump up ^ Marsden, Jean. The Re-Imagined Text. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, (1995), 87-88. ISBN 0-8131-1901-4
19.Jump up ^ Branam, George C. "The Genesis of David Garrick's Romeo and Juliet." Shakespeare Quarterly 35.2 (July 1984): 170-179.
20.Jump up ^ Stone, George Winchester, Jr. "Romeo and Juliet: The Source of its Modern Stage Career." Shakespeare Quarterly 15.2 (April 1964): 191-206.
21.Jump up ^ "Romeo & Juliet (1968)". Yahoo! Movies. Yahoo!. 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-28.
22.Jump up ^ Martin, Jennifer L. "Tights vs. Tattoos: Filmic Interpretations of 'Romeo and Juliet'." The English Journal 92.1 (Sep 2002): 41-46.
23.Jump up ^ Maxwell, Tom (July 20, 2007). "Keira's helpful prompt". Scotsman.com. Archived from the original on December 1, 2007. Retrieved May 27, 2009.
24.Jump up ^ "After Juliet by Sharman McDonald". Plays. Acquis. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved May 27, 2009.
25.Jump up ^ Serle, Rebecca. When You Were Mine. New York: Simon Pulse, 2012. ISBN 1442433132

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Romeo and Juliet

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For other uses, see Romeo and Juliet (disambiguation).



 An 1870 oil painting by Ford Madox Brown depicting Romeo and Juliet's famous balcony scene


"Romeo and Juliet: Act I"




The opening act of Romeo and Juliet.
 See also: Acts II, III, IV, V
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Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers.
Romeo and Juliet belongs to a tradition of tragic romances stretching back to antiquity. Its plot is based on an Italian tale, translated into verse as The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke in 1562 and retold in prose in Palace of Pleasure by William Painter in 1567. Shakespeare borrowed heavily from both but, to expand the plot, developed supporting characters, particularly Mercutio and Paris. Believed to have been written between 1591 and 1595, the play was first published in a quarto version in 1597. This text was of poor quality, and later editions corrected it, bringing it more in line with Shakespeare's original.
Shakespeare's use of his poetic dramatic structure, especially effects such as switching between comedy and tragedy to heighten tension, his expansion of minor characters, and his use of sub-plots to embellish the story, has been praised as an early sign of his dramatic skill. The play ascribes different poetic forms to different characters, sometimes changing the form as the character develops. Romeo, for example, grows more adept at the sonnet over the course of the play.
Romeo and Juliet has been adapted numerous times for stage, film, musical and opera. During the English Restoration, it was revived and heavily revised by William Davenant. David Garrick's 18th-century version also modified several scenes, removing material then considered indecent, and Georg Benda's operatic adaptation omitted much of the action and added a happy ending. Performances in the 19th century, including Charlotte Cushman's, restored the original text, and focused on greater realism. John Gielgud's 1935 version kept very close to Shakespeare's text, and used Elizabethan costumes and staging to enhance the drama. In the 20th century the play has been adapted in versions as diverse as George Cukor's comparatively faithful 1936 production, Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 version, Baz Luhrmann's 1996 MTV-inspired Romeo + Juliet and Carlo Carlei's 2013 version.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Characters
2 Synopsis
3 Sources
4 Date and text
5 Themes and motifs 5.1 Love
5.2 Fate and chance
5.3 Duality (light and dark)
5.4 Time
6 Criticism and interpretation 6.1 Critical history
6.2 Dramatic structure
6.3 Language
6.4 Psychoanalytic criticism
6.5 Feminist criticism
6.6 Queer theory
7 Legacy 7.1 Shakespeare's day
7.2 Restoration and 18th-century theatre
7.3 19th-century theatre
7.4 20th-century theatre
7.5 Music
7.6 Literature and art
7.7 Screen
7.8 Modern social media and virtual world productions
8 Scene by scene
9 References 9.1 Notes
9.2 Secondary sources
10 External links
Characters[edit]
Main article: Characters in Romeo and Juliet
Ruling house of VeronaPrince Escalus is the ruling Prince of Verona
Count Paris is a kinsman of Escalus who wishes to marry Juliet.
Mercutio is another kinsman of Escalus, and a friend of Romeo.
House of CapuletCapulet is the patriarch of the house of Capulet.
Capulet's wife is the matriarch of the house of Capulet.
Juliet is the 13-year-old daughter of Capulet, and the play's female protagonist.
Tybalt is a cousin of Juliet, and the nephew of Capulet's wife.
The Nurse is Juliet's personal attendant and confidante.
Rosaline is Lord Capulet's niece, and Romeo's love in the beginning of the story.
Peter, Sampson and Gregory are servants of the Capulet household.
 House of MontagueMontague is the patriarch of the house of Montague.
Montague's wife is the matriarch of the house of Montague.
Romeo is the son of Montague, and the play's male protagonist.
Benvolio is Romeo's cousin and best friend.
Abram and Balthasar are servants of the Montague household.

OthersFriar Laurence is a Franciscan friar, and is Romeo's confidant.
Friar John is sent to deliver Friar Laurence's letter to Romeo.
An Apothecary who reluctantly sells Romeo poison.
A Chorus reads a prologue to each of the first two acts.

Synopsis[edit]
 Wikisource has original text related to this article:
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet

The play, set in Verona, begins with a street brawl between Montague and Capulet supporters who are sworn enemies. The Prince of Verona intervenes and declares that further breach of the peace will be punishable by death. Later, Count Paris talks to Capulet about marrying his daughter, but Capulet asks Paris to wait another two years and invites him to attend a planned Capulet ball. Lady Capulet and Juliet's nurse try to persuade Juliet to accept Paris's courtship.
Meanwhile, Benvolio talks with his cousin Romeo, Montague's son, about Romeo's recent depression. Benvolio discovers that it stems from unrequited infatuation for a girl named Rosaline, one of Capulet's nieces. Persuaded by Benvolio and Mercutio, Romeo attends the ball at the Capulet house in hopes of meeting Rosaline. However, Romeo instead meets and falls in love with Juliet. However Romeo is noticed by Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, who intends to kill him for sneaking into a Capulet ball but is only stopped by Juliet's father, who doesn't wish to shed blood in his house. After the ball, in what is now called the "balcony scene", Romeo sneaks into the Capulet orchard and overhears Juliet at her window vowing her love to him in spite of her family's hatred of the Montagues. Romeo makes himself known to her and they agree to be married. With the help of Friar Laurence, who hopes to reconcile the two families through their children's union, they are secretly married the next day.



L’ultimo bacio dato a Giulietta da Romeo by Francesco Hayez. Oil on canvas, 1823.
Tybalt, meanwhile, still incensed that Romeo had sneaked into the Capulet ball, challenges him to a duel. Romeo, now considering Tybalt his kinsman, refuses to fight. Mercutio is offended by Tybalt's insolence, as well as Romeo's "vile submission,"[1] and accepts the duel on Romeo's behalf. Mercutio is fatally wounded when Romeo attempts to break up the fight. Grief-stricken and wracked with guilt, Romeo confronts and slays Tybalt.
Montague argues that Romeo has justly executed Tybalt for the murder of Mercutio. The Prince, now having lost a kinsman in the warring families' feud, exiles Romeo from Verona, with threat of execution upon return. Romeo secretly spends the night in Juliet's chamber, where they consummate their marriage. Capulet, misinterpreting Juliet's grief, agrees to marry her to Count Paris and threatens to disown her when she refuses to become Paris's "joyful bride."[2] When she then pleads for the marriage to be delayed, her mother rejects her.
Juliet visits Friar Laurence for help, and he offers her a drug that will put her into a deathlike coma for "two and forty hours."[3] The Friar promises to send a messenger to inform Romeo of the plan, so that he can rejoin her when she awakens. On the night before the wedding, she takes the drug and, when discovered apparently dead, she is laid in the family crypt.
The messenger, however, does not reach Romeo and, instead, Romeo learns of Juliet's apparent death from his servant Balthasar. Heartbroken, Romeo buys poison from an apothecary and goes to the Capulet crypt. He encounters Paris who has come to mourn Juliet privately. Believing Romeo to be a vandal, Paris confronts him and, in the ensuing battle, Romeo kills Paris. Still believing Juliet to be dead, he drinks the poison. Juliet then awakens and, finding Romeo dead, stabs herself with his dagger. The feuding families and the Prince meet at the tomb to find all three dead. Friar Laurence recounts the story of the two "star-cross'd lovers". The families are reconciled by their children's deaths and agree to end their violent feud. The play ends with the Prince's elegy for the lovers: "For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."[4]
Sources[edit]



 Title page of Arthur Brooke's poem, Romeus and Juliet.
Romeo and Juliet borrows from a tradition of tragic love stories dating back to antiquity. One of these is Pyramus and Thisbe, from Ovid's Metamorphoses, which contains parallels to Shakespeare's story: the lovers' parents despise each other, and Pyramus falsely believes his lover Thisbe is dead.[5] The Ephesiaca of Xenophon of Ephesus, written in the 3rd century, also contains several similarities to the play, including the separation of the lovers, and a potion that induces a deathlike sleep.[6]
One of the earliest references to the names Montague and Capulet is from Dante's Divine Comedy, who mentions the Montecchi (Montagues) and the Cappelletti (Capulets) in canto six of Purgatorio:[7]

Come and see, you who are negligent,
 Montagues and Capulets, Monaldi and Filippeschi
 One lot already grieving, the other in fear.
—Dante, Divine Comedy: Purgatorio, canto VI, ll. 106-8.[8]
However, the reference is part of a polemic against the moral decay of Florence, Lombardy and the Italian Peninsula as a whole; Dante, through his characters, chastises Albert of Hapsburg for neglecting his responsibilities as temporal ruler of Christendom in the continent ("you who are negligent"), and successive Popes for their encroachment from purely spiritual affairs, thus leading to a climate of incessant bickering and warfare between rival political parties in Lombardy. Historicity records the name of the family Montague as being lent to such a political party in Verona, but that of the Capulets as from a Cremonese family, both of whom play out their conflict in Lombardy as a whole rather than within the confines of Verona.[9] Allied to rival political factions, the parties are grieving ("One lot already grieving") because their endless warfare has led to the destruction of both parties,[9] rather than a grief from the loss of their ill-fated offspring as the play sets forth, which appears to be a solely poetic creation within this context.
The earliest known version of the Romeo and Juliet tale akin to Shakespeare's play is the story of Mariotto and Gianozza by Masuccio Salernitano, in the 33rd novel of his Il Novellino published in 1476.[10] Salernitano sets the story in Siena and insists its events took place in his own lifetime. His version of the story includes the secret marriage, the colluding friar, the fray where a prominent citizen is killed, Mariotto's exile, Gianozza's forced marriage, the potion plot, and the crucial message that goes astray. In this version, Mariotto is caught and beheaded and Gianozza dies of grief.[11]
Luigi da Porto adapted the story as Giulietta e Romeo and included it in his Historia novellamente ritrovata di due Nobili Amanti published in 1530.[12] Da Porto drew on Pyramus and Thisbe and Boccacio's Decameron. He gave it much of its modern form, including the names of the lovers, the rival families of Montecchi and Capuleti, and the location in Verona.[10] He also introduces characters corresponding to Shakespeare's Mercutio, Tybalt, and Paris. Da Porto presents his tale as historically true and claims it took place in the days of Bartolomeo II della Scala (a century earlier than Salernitano). In da Porto's version Romeo takes poison and Giulietta stabs herself with his dagger.[13]
In 1554, Matteo Bandello published the second volume of his Novelle, which included his version of Giuletta e Romeo.[12] Bandello emphasises Romeo's initial depression and the feud between the families, and introduces the Nurse and Benvolio. Bandello's story was translated into French by Pierre Boaistuau in 1559 in the first volume of his Histories Tragiques. Boaistuau adds much moralising and sentiment, and the characters indulge in rhetorical outbursts.[14]
In his 1562 narrative poem The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, Arthur Brooke translated Boaistuau faithfully, but adjusted it to reflect parts of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde.[15] There was a trend among writers and playwrights to publish works based on Italian novelles—Italian tales were very popular among theatre-goers—and Shakespeare may well have been familiar with William Painter's 1567 collection of Italian tales titled Palace of Pleasure.[16] This collection included a version in prose of the Romeo and Juliet story named "The goodly History of the true and constant love of Romeo and Juliett". Shakespeare took advantage of this popularity: The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, and Romeo and Juliet are all from Italian novelle. Romeo and Juliet is a dramatisation of Brooke's translation, and Shakespeare follows the poem closely, but adds extra detail to both major and minor characters (in particular the Nurse and Mercutio).[17]
Christopher Marlowe's Hero and Leander and Dido, Queen of Carthage, both similar stories written in Shakespeare's day, are thought to be less of a direct influence, although they may have helped create an atmosphere in which tragic love stories could thrive.[15]
Date and text[edit]



 Title page of the first edition
It is unknown when exactly Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet. Juliet's nurse refers to an earthquake she says occurred 11 years ago.[18] This may refer to the Dover Straits earthquake of 1580, which would date that particular line to 1591. Other earthquakes—both in England and in Verona—have been proposed in support of the different dates.[19] But the play's stylistic similarities with A Midsummer Night's Dream and other plays conventionally dated around 1594–95, place its composition sometime between 1591 and 1595.[20] One conjecture is that Shakespeare may have begun a draft in 1591, which he completed in 1595.[21]
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was published in two quarto editions prior to the publication of the First Folio of 1623. These are referred to as Q1 and Q2. The first printed edition, Q1, appeared in early 1597, printed by John Danter. Because its text contains numerous differences from the later editions, it is labelled a 'bad quarto'; the 20th-century editor T. J. B. Spencer described it as "a detestable text, probably a reconstruction of the play from the imperfect memories of one or two of the actors", suggesting that it had been pirated for publication.[22] An alternative explanation for Q1's shortcomings is that the play (like many others of the time) may have been heavily edited before performance by the playing company.[23] In any event, its appearance in early 1597 makes 1596 the latest possible date for the play's composition.[19]
The superior Q2 called the play The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet. It was printed in 1599 by Thomas Creede and published by Cuthbert Burby. Q2 is about 800 lines longer than Q1.[23] Its title page describes it as "Newly corrected, augmented and amended". Scholars believe that Q2 was based on Shakespeare's pre-performance draft (called his foul papers), since there are textual oddities such as variable tags for characters and "false starts" for speeches that were presumably struck through by the author but erroneously preserved by the typesetter. It is a much more complete and reliable text, and was reprinted in 1609 (Q3), 1622 (Q4) and 1637 (Q5).[22] In effect, all later Quartos and Folios of Romeo and Juliet are based on Q2, as are all modern editions since editors believe that any deviations from Q2 in the later editions (whether good or bad) are likely to arise from editors or compositors, not from Shakespeare.[23]
The First Folio text of 1623 was based primarily on Q3, with clarifications and corrections possibly coming from a theatrical promptbook or Q1.[22][24] Other Folio editions of the play were printed in 1632 (F2), 1664 (F3), and 1685 (F4).[25] Modern versions—that take into account several of the Folios and Quartos—first appeared with Nicholas Rowe's 1709 edition, followed by Alexander Pope's 1723 version. Pope began a tradition of editing the play to add information such as stage directions missing in Q2 by locating them in Q1. This tradition continued late into the Romantic period. Fully annotated editions first appeared in the Victorian period and continue to be produced today, printing the text of the play with footnotes describing the sources and culture behind the play.[26]
Themes and motifs[edit]
Scholars have found it extremely difficult to assign one specific, overarching theme to the play. Proposals for a main theme include a discovery by the characters that human beings are neither wholly good nor wholly evil, but instead are more or less alike,[27] awaking out of a dream and into reality, the danger of hasty action, or the power of tragic fate. None of these have widespread support. However, even if an overall theme cannot be found it is clear that the play is full of several small, thematic elements that intertwine in complex ways. Several of those most often debated by scholars are discussed below.[28]
Love[edit]
"Romeo
 If I profane with my unworthiest hand
 This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
 My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
 To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
Juliet
 Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
 Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
 For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
 And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss."
—Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene V[29]
Romeo and Juliet is sometimes considered to have no unifying theme, save that of young love.[27] Romeo and Juliet have become emblematic of young lovers and doomed love. Since it is such an obvious subject of the play, several scholars have explored the language and historical context behind the romance of the play.[30]
On their first meeting, Romeo and Juliet use a form of communication recommended by many etiquette authors in Shakespeare's day: metaphor. By using metaphors of saints and sins, Romeo was able to test Juliet's feelings for him in a non-threatening way. This method was recommended by Baldassare Castiglione (whose works had been translated into English by this time). He pointed out that if a man used a metaphor as an invitation, the woman could pretend she did not understand him, and he could retreat without losing honour. Juliet, however, participates in the metaphor and expands on it. The religious metaphors of "shrine", "pilgrim" and "saint" were fashionable in the poetry of the time and more likely to be understood as romantic rather than blasphemous, as the concept of sainthood was associated with the Catholicism of an earlier age.[31] Later in the play, Shakespeare removes the more daring allusions to Christ's resurrection in the tomb he found in his source work: Brooke's Romeus and Juliet.[32]
In the later balcony scene, Shakespeare has Romeo overhear Juliet's soliloquy, but in Brooke's version of the story her declaration is done alone. By bringing Romeo into the scene to eavesdrop, Shakespeare breaks from the normal sequence of courtship. Usually a woman was required to be modest and shy to make sure that her suitor was sincere, but breaking this rule serves to speed along the plot. The lovers are able to skip courting, and move on to plain talk about their relationship— agreeing to be married after knowing each other for only one night.[30] In the final suicide scene, there is a contradiction in the message—in the Catholic religion, suicides were often thought to be condemned to hell, whereas people who die to be with their loves under the "Religion of Love" are joined with their loves in paradise. Romeo and Juliet's love seems to be expressing the "Religion of Love" view rather than the Catholic view. Another point is that although their love is passionate, it is only consummated in marriage, which prevents them from losing the audience's sympathy.[33]
The play arguably equates love and sex with death. Throughout the story, both Romeo and Juliet, along with the other characters, fantasise about it as a dark being, often equating it with a lover. Capulet, for example, when he first discovers Juliet's (faked) death, describes it as having deflowered his daughter.[34] Juliet later erotically compares Romeo and death. Right before her suicide she grabs Romeo's dagger, saying "O happy dagger! This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die."[35][36]
Fate and chance[edit]
"O, I am fortune's fool!"
—Romeo, Act III Scene I[37]
Scholars are divided on the role of fate in the play. No consensus exists on whether the characters are truly fated to die together or whether the events take place by a series of unlucky chances. Arguments in favour of fate often refer to the description of the lovers as "star-cross'd". This phrase seems to hint that the stars have predetermined the lovers' future.[38] John W. Draper points out the parallels between the Elizabethan belief in the four humours and the main characters of the play (for example, Tybalt as a choleric). Interpreting the text in the light of humours reduces the amount of plot attributed to chance by modern audiences.[39] Still, other scholars see the play as a series of unlucky chances—many to such a degree that they do not see it as a tragedy at all, but an emotional melodrama.[39] Ruth Nevo believes the high degree to which chance is stressed in the narrative makes Romeo and Juliet a "lesser tragedy" of happenstance, not of character. For example, Romeo's challenging Tybalt is not impulsive; it is, after Mercutio's death, the expected action to take. In this scene, Nevo reads Romeo as being aware of the dangers of flouting social norms, identity and commitments. He makes the choice to kill, not because of a tragic flaw, but because of circumstance.[40]
Duality (light and dark)[edit]
"O brawling love, O loving hate,
 O any thing of nothing first create!
 O heavy lightness, serious vanity,
 Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
 Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,
 Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!"
—Romeo, Act I Scene I[41]
Scholars have long noted Shakespeare's widespread use of light and dark imagery throughout the play. Caroline Spurgeon considers the theme of light as "symbolic of the natural beauty of young love" and later critics have expanded on this interpretation.[40][42] For example, both Romeo and Juliet see the other as light in a surrounding darkness. Romeo describes Juliet as being like the sun,[43] brighter than a torch,[44] a jewel sparkling in the night,[45] and a bright angel among dark clouds.[46] Even when she lies apparently dead in the tomb, he says her "beauty makes This vault a feasting presence full of light."[47] Juliet describes Romeo as "day in night" and "Whiter than snow upon a raven's back."[48][49] This contrast of light and dark can be expanded as symbols—contrasting love and hate, youth and age in a metaphoric way.[40] Sometimes these intertwining metaphors create dramatic irony. For example, Romeo and Juliet's love is a light in the midst of the darkness of the hate around them, but all of their activity together is done in night and darkness, while all of the feuding is done in broad daylight. This paradox of imagery adds atmosphere to the moral dilemma facing the two lovers: loyalty to family or loyalty to love. At the end of the story, when the morning is gloomy and the sun hiding its face for sorrow, light and dark have returned to their proper places, the outward darkness reflecting the true, inner darkness of the family feud out of sorrow for the lovers. All characters now recognise their folly in light of recent events, and things return to the natural order, thanks to the love of Romeo and Juliet.[42] The "light" theme in the play is also heavily connected to the theme of time, since light was a convenient way for Shakespeare to express the passage of time through descriptions of the sun, moon, and stars.[50]
Time[edit]
"These times of woe afford no time to woo."
—Paris, Act III Scene IV[51]
Time plays an important role in the language and plot of the play. Both Romeo and Juliet struggle to maintain an imaginary world void of time in the face of the harsh realities that surround them. For instance, when Romeo swears his love to Juliet by the moon, she protests "O swear not by the moon, th'inconstant moon, / That monthly changes in her circled orb, / Lest that thy love prove likewise variable."[52] From the very beginning, the lovers are designated as "star-cross'd"[53] referring to an astrologic belief associated with time. Stars were thought to control the fates of humanity, and as time passed, stars would move along their course in the sky, also charting the course of human lives below. Romeo speaks of a foreboding he feels in the stars' movements early in the play, and when he learns of Juliet's death, he defies the stars' course for him.[39][54]
Another central theme is haste: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet spans a period of four to six days, in contrast to Brooke's poem's spanning nine months.[50] Scholars such as G. Thomas Tanselle believe that time was "especially important to Shakespeare" in this play, as he used references to "short-time" for the young lovers as opposed to references to "long-time" for the "older generation" to highlight "a headlong rush towards doom".[50] Romeo and Juliet fight time to make their love last forever. In the end, the only way they seem to defeat time is through a death that makes them immortal through art.[55]
Time is also connected to the theme of light and dark. In Shakespeare's day, plays were often performed at noon in broad daylight. This forced the playwright to use words to create the illusion of day and night in his plays. Shakespeare uses references to the night and day, the stars, the moon, and the sun to create this illusion. He also has characters frequently refer to days of the week and specific hours to help the audience understand that time has passed in the story. All in all, no fewer than 103 references to time are found in the play, adding to the illusion of its passage.[56]
Criticism and interpretation[edit]
Critical history[edit]



 Portrait of the earliest recorded critic of the play, Samuel Pepys, by John Hayls. Oil on canvas, 1666.
The earliest known critic of the play was diarist Samuel Pepys, who wrote in 1662: "it is a play of itself the worst that I ever heard in my life."[57] Poet John Dryden wrote 10 years later in praise of the play and its comic character Mercutio: "Shakespear show'd the best of his skill in his Mercutio, and he said himself, that he was forc'd to kill him in the third Act, to prevent being killed by him."[57] Criticism of the play in the 18th century was less sparse, but no less divided. Publisher Nicholas Rowe was the first critic to ponder the theme of the play, which he saw as the just punishment of the two feuding families. In mid-century, writer Charles Gildon and philosopher Lord Kames argued that the play was a failure in that it did not follow the classical rules of drama: the tragedy must occur because of some character flaw, not an accident of fate. Writer and critic Samuel Johnson, however, considered it one of Shakespeare's "most pleasing" plays.[58]
In the later part of the 18th and through the 19th century, criticism centred on debates over the moral message of the play. Actor and playwright David Garrick's 1748 adaptation excluded Rosaline: Romeo abandoning her for Juliet was seen as fickle and reckless. Critics such as Charles Dibdin argued that Rosaline had been purposely included in the play to show how reckless the hero was, and that this was the reason for his tragic end. Others argued that Friar Laurence might be Shakespeare's spokesman in his warnings against undue haste. With the advent of the 20th century, these moral arguments were disputed by critics such as Richard Green Moulton: he argued that accident, and not some character flaw, led to the lovers' deaths.[59]
Dramatic structure[edit]
In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare employs several dramatic techniques that have garnered praise from critics; most notably the abrupt shifts from comedy to tragedy (an example is the punning exchange between Benvolio and Mercutio just before Tybalt arrives). Before Mercutio's death in Act three, the play is largely a comedy.[60] After his accidental demise, the play suddenly becomes serious and takes on a tragic tone. When Romeo is banished, rather than executed, and Friar Laurence offers Juliet a plan to reunite her with Romeo, the audience can still hope that all will end well. They are in a "breathless state of suspense" by the opening of the last scene in the tomb: If Romeo is delayed long enough for the Friar to arrive, he and Juliet may yet be saved.[61] These shifts from hope to despair, reprieve, and new hope, serve to emphasise the tragedy when the final hope fails and both the lovers die at the end.[62]
Shakespeare also uses sub-plots to offer a clearer view of the actions of the main characters. For example, when the play begins, Romeo is in love with Rosaline, who has refused all of his advances. Romeo's infatuation with her stands in obvious contrast to his later love for Juliet. This provides a comparison through which the audience can see the seriousness of Romeo and Juliet's love and marriage. Paris' love for Juliet also sets up a contrast between Juliet's feelings for him and her feelings for Romeo. The formal language she uses around Paris, as well as the way she talks about him to her Nurse, show that her feelings clearly lie with Romeo. Beyond this, the sub-plot of the Montague–Capulet feud overarches the whole play, providing an atmosphere of hate that is the main contributor to the play's tragic end.[62]
Language[edit]
Shakespeare uses a variety of poetic forms throughout the play. He begins with a 14-line prologue in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet, spoken by a Chorus. Most of Romeo and Juliet is, however, written in blank verse, and much of it in strict iambic pentameter, with less rhythmic variation than in most of Shakespeare's later plays.[63] In choosing forms, Shakespeare matches the poetry to the character who uses it. Friar Laurence, for example, uses sermon and sententiae forms, and the Nurse uses a unique blank verse form that closely matches colloquial speech.[63] Each of these forms is also moulded and matched to the emotion of the scene the character occupies. For example, when Romeo talks about Rosaline earlier in the play, he attempts to use the Petrarchan sonnet form. Petrarchan sonnets were often used by men to exaggerate the beauty of women who were impossible for them to attain, as in Romeo's situation with Rosaline. This sonnet form is used by Lady Capulet to describe Count Paris to Juliet as a handsome man.[64] When Romeo and Juliet meet, the poetic form changes from the Petrarchan (which was becoming archaic in Shakespeare's day) to a then more contemporary sonnet form, using "pilgrims" and "saints" as metaphors.[65] Finally, when the two meet on the balcony, Romeo attempts to use the sonnet form to pledge his love, but Juliet breaks it by saying "Dost thou love me?"[66] By doing this, she searches for true expression, rather than a poetic exaggeration of their love.[67] Juliet uses monosyllabic words with Romeo, but uses formal language with Paris.[68] Other forms in the play include an epithalamium by Juliet, a rhapsody in Mercutio's Queen Mab speech, and an elegy by Paris.[69] Shakespeare saves his prose style most often for the common people in the play, though at times he uses it for other characters, such as Mercutio.[70] Humour, also, is important: scholar Molly Mahood identifies at least 175 puns and wordplays in the text.[71] Many of these jokes are sexual in nature, especially those involving Mercutio and the Nurse.[72]
Psychoanalytic criticism[edit]
Early psychoanalytic critics saw the problem of Romeo and Juliet in terms of Romeo's impulsiveness, deriving from "ill-controlled, partially disguised aggression", which leads both to Mercutio's death and to the double suicide.[73] Romeo and Juliet is not considered to be exceedingly psychologically complex, and sympathetic psychoanalytic readings of the play make the tragic male experience equivalent with sicknesses.[74] Norman Holland, writing in 1966, considers Romeo's dream[75] as a realistic "wish fulfilling fantasy both in terms of Romeo's adult world and his hypothetical childhood at stages oral, phallic and oedipal" – while acknowledging that a dramatic character is not a human being with mental processes separate from those of the author.[76] Critics such as Julia Kristeva focus on the hatred between the families, arguing that this hatred is the cause of Romeo and Juliet's passion for each other. That hatred manifests itself directly in the lovers' language: Juliet, for example, speaks of "my only love sprung from my only hate"[77] and often expresses her passion through an anticipation of Romeo's death.[78] This leads on to speculation as to the playwright's psychology, in particular to a consideration of Shakespeare's grief for the death of his son, Hamnet.[79]
Feminist criticism[edit]
Feminist literary critics argue that the blame for the family feud lies in Verona's patriarchal society. For Coppélia Kahn, for example, the strict, masculine code of violence imposed on Romeo is the main force driving the tragedy to its end. When Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo shifts into this violent mode, regretting that Juliet has made him so "effeminate".[80] In this view, the younger males "become men" by engaging in violence on behalf of their fathers, or in the case of the servants, their masters. The feud is also linked to male virility, as the numerous jokes about maidenheads aptly demonstrate.[81] Juliet also submits to a female code of docility by allowing others, such as the Friar, to solve her problems for her. Other critics, such as Dympna Callaghan, look at the play's feminism from a historicist angle, stressing that when the play was written the feudal order was being challenged by increasingly centralised government and the advent of capitalism. At the same time, emerging Puritan ideas about marriage were less concerned with the "evils of female sexuality" than those of earlier eras, and more sympathetic towards love-matches: when Juliet dodges her father's attempt to force her to marry a man she has no feeling for, she is challenging the patriarchal order in a way that would not have been possible at an earlier time.[82]
Queer theory[edit]
A number of critics have found the character of Mercutio to have unacknowledged homoerotic desire for Romeo.[83] Jonathan Goldberg examined the sexuality of Mercutio and Romeo utilising "queer theory" in Queering the Renaissance, comparing their friendship with sexual love. Mercutio, in friendly conversation, mentions Romeo's phallus, suggesting traces of homoeroticism.[84] An example is his joking wish "To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle ... letting it there stand / Till she had laid it and conjured it down."[85][86] Romeo's homoeroticism can also be found in his attitude to Rosaline, a woman who is distant and unavailable and brings no hope of offspring. As Benvolio argues, she is best replaced by someone who will reciprocate. Shakespeare's procreation sonnets describe another young man who, like Romeo, is having trouble creating offspring and who may be seen as being a homosexual. Goldberg believes that Shakespeare may have used Rosaline as a way to express homosexual problems of procreation in an acceptable way. In this view, when Juliet says "...that which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet",[87] she may be raising the question of whether there is any difference between the beauty of a man and the beauty of a woman.[88]
Legacy[edit]
Shakespeare's day[edit]



Richard Burbage, probably the first actor to portray Romeo[89]
Romeo and Juliet ranks with Hamlet as one of Shakespeare's most-performed plays.[90] Its many adaptations have made it one of his most enduring and famous stories.[90] Even in Shakespeare's lifetime it was extremely popular. Scholar Gary Taylor measures it as the sixth most popular of Shakespeare's plays, in the period after the death of Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd but before the ascendancy of Ben Jonson during which Shakespeare was London's dominant playwright.[91] The date of the first performance is unknown. The First Quarto, printed in 1597, says that "it hath been often (and with great applause) plaid publiquely", setting the first performance before that date. The Lord Chamberlain's Men were certainly the first to perform it. Besides their strong connections with Shakespeare, the Second Quarto actually names one of its actors, Will Kemp, instead of Peter in a line in Act five. Richard Burbage was probably the first Romeo, being the company's actor, and Master Robert Goffe (a boy) the first Juliet.[89] The premiere is likely to have been at "The Theatre", with other early productions at "The Curtain".[92] Romeo and Juliet is one of the first Shakespearean plays to have been performed outside England: a shortened and simplified version was performed in Nördlingen in 1604.[93]
Restoration and 18th-century theatre[edit]
All theatres were closed down by the puritan government on September 6, 1642. Upon the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, two patent companies (the King's Company and the Duke's Company) were established, and the existing theatrical repertoire divided between them.[94]



Mary Saunderson, probably the first woman to play Juliet professionally
Sir William Davenant of the Duke's Company staged a 1662 adaptation in which Henry Harris played Romeo, Thomas Betterton Mercutio, and Betterton's wife Mary Saunderson Juliet: she was probably the first woman to play the role professionally.[95][96] Another version closely followed Davenant's adaptation and was also regularly performed by the Duke's Company. This was a tragicomedy by James Howard, in which the two lovers survive.[97]
Thomas Otway's The History and Fall of Caius Marius, one of the more extreme of the Restoration adaptations of Shakespeare, debuted in 1680. The scene is shifted from Renaissance Verona to ancient Rome; Romeo is Marius, Juliet is Lavinia, the feud is between patricians and plebeians; Juliet/Lavinia wakes from her potion before Romeo/Marius dies. Otway's version was a hit, and was acted for the next seventy years.[96] His innovation in the closing scene was even more enduring, and was used in adaptations throughout the next 200 years: Theophilus Cibber's adaptation of 1744, and David Garrick's of 1748 both used variations on it.[98] These versions also eliminated elements deemed inappropriate at the time. For example, Garrick's version transferred all language describing Rosaline to Juliet, to heighten the idea of faithfulness and downplay the love-at-first-sight theme.[99] In 1750 a "Battle of the Romeos" began, with Spranger Barry and Susannah Maria Arne (Mrs. Theophilus Cibber) at Covent Garden versus David Garrick and George Anne Bellamy at Drury Lane.[100]
The earliest known production in North America was an amateur one: on 23 March 1730, a physician named Joachimus Bertrand placed an advertisement in the Gazette newspaper in New York, promoting a production in which he would play the apothecary.[101] The first professional performances of the play in North America were those of the Hallam Company.[102]
19th-century theatre[edit]



 The American Cushman sisters, Charlotte and Susan, as Romeo and Juliet in 1846
Garrick's altered version of the play was very popular, and ran for nearly a century.[96] Not until 1845 did Shakespeare's original return to the stage in the United States with the sisters Susan and Charlotte Cushman as Juliet and Romeo, respectively,[103] and then in 1847 in Britain with Samuel Phelps at Sadler's Wells Theatre.[104] Cushman adhered to Shakespeare's version, beginning a string of eighty-four performances. Her portrayal of Romeo was considered genius by many. The Times wrote: "For a long time Romeo has been a convention. Miss Cushman's Romeo is a creative, a living, breathing, animated, ardent human being."[105] Queen Victoria wrote in her journal that "no-one would ever have imagined she was a woman".[106] Cushman's success broke the Garrick tradition and paved the way for later performances to return to the original storyline.[96]
Professional performances of Shakespeare in the mid-19th century had two particular features: firstly, they were generally star vehicles, with supporting roles cut or marginalised to give greater prominence to the central characters. Secondly, they were "pictorial", placing the action on spectacular and elaborate sets (requiring lengthy pauses for scene changes) and with the frequent use of tableaux.[107] Henry Irving's 1882 production at the Lyceum Theatre (with himself as Romeo and Ellen Terry as Juliet) is considered an archetype of the pictorial style.[108] In 1895, Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson took over from Irving, and laid the groundwork for a more natural portrayal of Shakespeare that remains popular today. Forbes-Robertson avoided the showiness of Irving and instead portrayed a down-to-earth Romeo, expressing the poetic dialogue as realistic prose and avoiding melodramatic flourish.[109]
American actors began to rival their British counterparts. Edwin Booth (brother to John Wilkes Booth) and Mary McVicker (soon to be Edwin's wife) opened as Romeo and Juliet at the sumptuous Booth's Theatre (with its European-style stage machinery, and an air conditioning system unique in New York) on 3 February 1869. Some reports said it was one of the most elaborate productions of Romeo and Juliet ever seen in America; it was certainly the most popular, running for over six weeks and earning over $60,000[110] (equal to about $1,052,000 today).[111] The programme noted that: "The tragedy will be produced in strict accordance with historical propriety, in every respect, following closely the text of Shakespeare."[112]
The first professional performance of the play in Japan may have been George Crichton Miln's company's production, which toured to Yokohama in 1890.[113] Throughout the 19th century, Romeo and Juliet had been Shakespeare's most popular play, measured by the number of professional performances. In the 20th century it would become the second most popular, behind Hamlet.[114]
20th-century theatre[edit]
In 1933, the play was revived by actress Katharine Cornell and her director husband Guthrie McClintic and was taken on a seven-month nationwide tour throughout the United States. It starred Orson Welles, Brian Aherne and Basil Rathbone. The production was a modest success, and so upon the return to New York, Cornell and McClintic revised it and for the first time, the play was presented with almost all the scenes intact, including the Prologue. The new production opened in December 1934 with Ralph Richardson as Mercutio and Maurice Evans as Romeo. Critics wrote that Cornell was "the finest Juliet of her time," "endlessly haunting," and "the most lovely and enchanting Juliet our present-day theatre has seen."[115]



John Gielgud, who was among the more famous 20th-century actors to play Romeo, Friar Laurence and Mercutio on stage
John Gielgud's New Theatre production in 1935 featured Gielgud and Laurence Olivier as Romeo and Mercutio, exchanging roles six weeks into the run, with Peggy Ashcroft as Juliet.[116] Gielgud used a scholarly combination of Q1 and Q2 texts, and organised the set and costumes to match as closely as possible to the Elizabethan period. His efforts were a huge success at the box office, and set the stage for increased historical realism in later productions.[117] Olivier later compared his performance and Gielgud's: "John, all spiritual, all spirituality, all beauty, all abstract things; and myself as all earth, blood, humanity ... I've always felt that John missed the lower half and that made me go for the other ... But whatever it was, when I was playing Romeo I was carrying a torch, I was trying to sell realism in Shakespeare."[118]
Peter Brook's 1947 version was the beginning of a different style of Romeo and Juliet performances. Brook was less concerned with realism, and more concerned with translating the play into a form that could communicate with the modern world. He argued, "A production is only correct at the moment of its correctness, and only good at the moment of its success."[119] Brook excluded the final reconciliation of the families from his performance text.[120]
Throughout the century, audiences, influenced by the cinema, became less willing to accept actors distinctly older than the teenage characters they were playing.[121] A significant example of more youthful casting was in Franco Zeffirelli's Old Vic production in 1960, with John Stride and Judi Dench, which would serve as the basis for his 1968 film.[120] Zeffirelli borrowed from Brook's ideas, altogether removing around a third of the play's text to make it more accessible. In an interview with The Times, he stated that the play's "twin themes of love and the total breakdown of understanding between two generations" had contemporary relevance.[122]
Recent performances often set the play in the contemporary world. For example, in 1986 the Royal Shakespeare Company set the play in modern Verona. Switchblades replaced swords, feasts and balls became drug-laden rock parties, and Romeo committed suicide by hypodermic needle.[123] In 1997, the Folger Shakespeare Theatre produced a version set in a typical suburban world. Romeo sneaks into the Capulet barbecue to meet Juliet, and Juliet discovers Tybalt's death while in class at school.[124]
The play is sometimes given a historical setting, enabling audiences to reflect on the underlying conflicts. For example, adaptations have been set in the midst of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,[125] in the apartheid era in South Africa,[126] and in the aftermath of the Pueblo Revolt.[127] Similarly, Peter Ustinov's 1956 comic adaptation, Romanoff and Juliet, is set in a fictional mid-European country in the depths of the Cold War.[128] A mock-Victorian revisionist version of Romeo and Juliet's final scene (with a happy ending, Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio and Paris restored to life, and Benvolio revealing that he is Paris's love, Benvolia, in disguise) forms part of the 1980 stage-play The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.[129] Shakespeare’s R&J, by Joe Calarco, spins the classic in a modern tale of gay teenage awakening.[130] A recent comedic musical adaptation was The Second City's The Second City's Romeo and Juliet Musical: The People vs. Friar Laurence, the Man Who Killed Romeo and Juliet, set in modern times.[131]
In the 19th and 20th century, Romeo and Juliet has often been the choice of Shakespeare plays to open a classical theatre company, beginning with Edwin Booth's inaugural production of that play in his theatre in 1869, the newly reformed company of the Old Vic in 1929 with John Gielgud, Martita Hunt and Margaret Webster,[132] as well as the Riverside Shakespeare Company in its founding production in New York City in 1977, which used the 1968 film of Franco Zeffirelli's production as its inspiration.[133]
Music[edit]
"Romeo loved Juliet
 Juliet felt the same
 When he put his arms around her
 He said Juliet, baby, you're my flame
 Thou givest fever..."
—Peggy Lee's rendition of "Fever".[134]
At least 27 operas have been based on Romeo and Juliet.[135] The earliest, Romeo und Julie in 1776, a Singspiel by Georg Benda, omits much of the action of the play and most of its characters, and has a happy ending. It is occasionally revived. The best-known is Gounod's 1867 Roméo et Juliette (libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré), a critical triumph when first performed and frequently revived today.[136] Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi is also revived from time to time, but has sometimes been judged unfavourably because of its perceived liberties with Shakespeare; however, Bellini and his librettist, Felice Romani, worked from Italian sources—principally Romani's libretto for an opera by Nicola Vaccai—rather than directly adapting Shakespeare's play.[137] Among later operas there is Heinrich Sutermeister's 1940 work Romeo und Julia.
Roméo et Juliette by Berlioz is a "symphonie dramatique", a large scale work in three parts for mixed voices, chorus and orchestra, which premiered in 1839.[138] Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture (1869, revised 1870 and 1880) is a 15 minute symphonic poem, containing the famous melody known as the "love theme".[139] Tchaikovsky's device of repeating the same musical theme at the ball, in the balcony scene, in Juliet's bedroom and in the tomb[140] has been used by subsequent directors: for example Nino Rota's love theme is used in a similar way in the 1968 film of the play, as is Des'ree's Kissing You in the 1996 film.[141] Other classical composers influenced by the play include Henry Hugh Pearson (Romeo and Juliet, overture for orchestra, Op. 86), Svendsen (Romeo og Julie, 1876), Delius (A Village Romeo and Juliet, 1899–1901), Stenhammar (Romeo och Julia, 1922), and Kabalevsky (Incidental Music to Romeo and Juliet, Op. 56, 1956).[142]
The best-known ballet version is Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.[143] Originally commissioned by the Kirov Ballet, it was rejected by them when Prokofiev attempted a happy ending, and was rejected again for the experimental nature of its music. It has subsequently attained an "immense" reputation, and has been choreographed by John Cranko (1962) and Kenneth MacMillan (1965) among others.[144]
The play influenced several jazz works, including Peggy Lee's "Fever".[145] Duke Ellington's Such Sweet Thunder contains a piece entitled "The Star-Crossed Lovers"[146] in which the pair are represented by tenor and alto saxophones: critics noted that Juliet's sax dominates the piece, rather than offering an image of equality.[147] The play has frequently influenced popular music, including works by The Supremes, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Lou Reed,[148] and Taylor Swift.[149] The most famous such track is Dire Straits' "Romeo and Juliet".[150]
The most famous musical theatre adaptation is West Side Story with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. It débuted on Broadway in 1957 and in the West End in 1958, and became a popular film in 1961. This version updated the setting to mid-20th century New York City, and the warring families to ethnic gangs.[151] Other musical adaptations include Terrence Mann's 1999 rock musical William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, co-written with Jerome Korman,[152] Gérard Presgurvic's 2001 Roméo et Juliette, de la Haine à l'Amour and Riccardo Cocciante's 2007 Giulietta & Romeo.[153]
Literature and art[edit]



Romeo at Juliet's Deathbed, Henry Fuseli, 1809
Romeo and Juliet had a profound influence on subsequent literature. Before then, romance had not even been viewed as a worthy topic for tragedy.[154] In Harold Bloom's words, Shakespeare "invented the formula that the sexual becomes the erotic when crossed by the shadow of death."[155] Of Shakespeare's works, Romeo and Juliet has generated the most—and the most varied—adaptations, including prose and verse narratives, drama, opera, orchestral and choral music, ballet, film, television and painting.[156] The word "Romeo" has even become synonymous with "male lover" in English.[157]
Romeo and Juliet was parodied in Shakespeare's own lifetime: Henry Porter's Two Angry Women of Abingdon (1598) and Thomas Dekker's Blurt, Master Constable (1607) both contain balcony scenes in which a virginal heroine engages in bawdy wordplay.[158] The play directly influenced later literary works. For example the preparations for a performance form a major plot arc in Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby.[159]
Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's most-illustrated works.[160] The first known illustration was a woodcut of the tomb scene,[161] thought to be by Elisha Kirkall, which appeared in Nicholas Rowe's 1709 edition of Shakespeare's plays.[162] Five paintings of the play were commissioned for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in the late 18th century, one representing each of the five acts of the play.[163] The 19th century fashion for "pictorial" performances led to directors drawing on paintings for their inspiration, which in turn influenced painters to depict actors and scenes from the theatre.[164] In the 20th century, the play's most iconic visual images have derived from its popular film versions.[165]
Screen[edit]
Main article: Romeo and Juliet on screen
Romeo and Juliet may be the most-filmed play of all time.[166] The most notable theatrical releases were George Cukor's multi-Oscar-nominated 1936 production, Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 version, and Baz Luhrmann's 1996 MTV-inspired Romeo + Juliet. The latter two were both, in their time, the highest-grossing Shakespeare film ever.[167] Romeo and Juliet was first filmed in the silent era, by Georges Méliès, although his film is now lost.[166] The play was first heard on film in The Hollywood Revue of 1929, in which John Gilbert recited the balcony scene opposite Norma Shearer.[168]
Shearer and Leslie Howard, with a combined age over 75, played the teenage lovers in George Cukor's MGM 1936 film version. Neither critics nor the public responded enthusiastically. Cinemagoers considered the film too "arty", staying away as they had from Warner's A Midsummer Night Dream a year before: leading to Hollywood abandoning the Bard for over a decade.[169] Renato Castellani won the Grand Prix at the Venice Film Festival for his 1954 film of Romeo and Juliet.[170] his Romeo, Laurence Harvey, was already an experienced screen actor.[171] By contrast, Susan Shentall, as Juliet, was a secretarial student who was discovered by the director in a London pub, and was cast for her "pale sweet skin and honey-blonde hair".[172]
Stephen Orgel describes Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 Romeo and Juliet as being "full of beautiful young people, and the camera, and the lush technicolour, make the most of their sexual energy and good looks."[173] Zeffirelli's teenage leads, Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, had virtually no previous acting experience, but performed capably and with great maturity.[174] Zeffirelli has been particularly praised,[175] for his presentation of the duel scene as bravado getting out-of-control.[176] The film courted controversy by including a nude wedding-night scene[177] while Olivia Hussey was only fifteen.[178]
Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Romeo + Juliet and its accompanying soundtrack successfully targeted the "MTV Generation": a young audience of similar age to the story's characters.[179] Far darker than Zeffirelli's version, the film is set in the "crass, violent and superficial society" of Verona Beach and Sycamore Grove.[180] Leonardo DiCaprio was Romeo and Claire Danes was Juliet.
The play has been widely adapted for TV and film. In 1960, Peter Ustinov's cold-war stage parody, Romanoff and Juliet was filmed.[128] The 1961 film of West Side Story—set among New York gangs–featured the Jets as white youths, equivalent to Shakespeare's Montagues, while the Sharks, equivalent to the Capulets, are Puerto Rican.[181] The 1994 film The Punk uses both the rough plot outline of Romeo and Juliet and names many of the characters in ways that reflect the characters in the play. In 2006, Disney's High School Musical made use of Romeo and Juliet's plot, placing the two young lovers in rival high school cliques instead of feuding families.[182] Film-makers have frequently featured characters performing scenes from Romeo and Juliet.[183] The conceit of dramatising Shakespeare writing Romeo and Juliet has been used several times,[184] including John Madden's 1998 Shakespeare in Love, in which Shakespeare writes the play against the backdrop of his own doomed love affair.[185] An anime series produced by Gonzo and SKY Perfect Well Think, called Romeo x Juliet, was made in 2007 and the 2013 version is the latest film based on the play.
Modern social media and virtual world productions[edit]
In April and May 2010 the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Mudlark Production Company presented a version of the play, entitled Such Tweet Sorrow, as an improvised, real-time series of tweets on Twitter. The production used RSC actors who engaged with the audience as well each other, performing not from a traditional script but a "Grid" developed by the Mudlark production team and writers Tim Wright and Bethan Marlow. The performers also make use of other media sites such as YouTube for pictures and video.[186]
In February 2013, two avatars residing in the virtual world Second Life, Canary Beck and Harvey Crabsticks adapted the play as a musical and began staging weekly performances. The two-hour production involved 8 avatars performing the play simultaneously from the UK, Canada, Germany, Holland, Belgium and the United States in a playhouse designed for the purpose. The production company built renaissance-inspired sets and used costumes from the 1940s. The producers and performers used motion-capture animations, streamed contemporary music and voice-overs, and edited lines from the play read over a text-reader to share the story to virtual audiences from around the world.[187] Also, the first inter-racial Romeo and Juliet has been cast ina Broadway production, starring Orlando Bloom as Romeo, and Condola Rashad as Juliet.
Scene by scene[edit]



Title page of the Second Quarto of Romeo and Juliet published in 1599



Act I prologue



Act I scene 1: Quarrel between Capulets and Montagues



Act I scene 2



Act I scene 3



Act I scene 4



Act I scene 5



Act I scene 5: Romeo's first interview with Juliet



Act II prologue



Act II scene 3



Act II scene 5: Juliet intreats her nurse



Act II scene 6



Act III scene 5: Romeo takes leave of Juliet



Act IV scene 5: Juliet's fake death



Act IV scene 5: Another depiction



Act V scene 3: Juliet awakes to find Romeo dead

References[edit]

Portal icon Shakespeare portal
Notes[edit]

All references to Romeo and Juliet, unless otherwise specified, are taken from the Arden Shakespeare second edition (Gibbons, 1980) based on the Q2 text of 1599, with elements from Q1 of 1597.[188] Under its referencing system, which uses Roman numerals, II.ii.33 means act 2, scene 2, line 33, and a 0 in place of a scene number refers to the prologue to the act.
1.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1, Line 73.
2.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5, Line 115.
3.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 1, Line 105.
4.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene 3, Lines 308–309.
5.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 93).
6.Jump up ^ Gibbons (1980: 33).
7.Jump up ^ Moore (1930: 264–277).
8.Jump up ^ Higgins (1998: 223).
9.^ Jump up to: a b Higgins (1998: 585)
10.^ Jump up to: a b Hosley (1965: 168).
11.Jump up ^ Gibbons (1980: 33–34); Levenson (2000: 4).
12.^ Jump up to: a b Moore (1937: 38–44).
13.Jump up ^ Gibbons (1980: 34–35).
14.Jump up ^ Gibbons (1980: 35–36).
15.^ Jump up to: a b Gibbons (1980: 37).
16.Jump up ^ Keeble (1980: 18).
17.Jump up ^ Roberts (1902: 41–44); Gibbons (1980: 32, 36–37); Levenson (2000: 8–14).
18.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet: I.iii.23.
19.^ Jump up to: a b Gibbons (1980: 26–27).
20.Jump up ^ Gibbons (1980: 29–31). As well as A Midsummer Night's Dream, Gibbons draws parallels with Love's Labour's Lost and Richard II.
21.Jump up ^ Gibbons (1980: 29).
22.^ Jump up to: a b c Spencer (1967: 284).
23.^ Jump up to: a b c Halio (1998: 1–2).
24.Jump up ^ Gibbons (1980: 21).
25.Jump up ^ Gibbons (1980: ix).
26.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 8–9).
27.^ Jump up to: a b Bowling (1949: 208–220).
28.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 65).
29.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, I.v.92–99.
30.^ Jump up to: a b Honegger (2006: 73–88).
31.Jump up ^ Groves (2007: 68–69).
32.Jump up ^ Groves (2007: 61)
33.Jump up ^ Siegel (1961: 371–392).
34.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, II.v.38–42.
35.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, V.iii.169–170.
36.Jump up ^ MacKenzie (2007: 22–42).
37.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, III.i.138.
38.Jump up ^ Evans (1950: 841–865).
39.^ Jump up to: a b c Draper (1939: 16–34).
40.^ Jump up to: a b c Nevo (1969: 241–258).
41.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, I.i.167–171.
42.^ Jump up to: a b Parker (1968: 663–674).
43.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, II.ii.
44.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, I.v.42.
45.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, I.v.44–45.
46.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, II.ii.26–32.
47.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, I.v.85–86.
48.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, III.ii.17–19.
49.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 55–56).
50.^ Jump up to: a b c Tanselle (1964: 349–361).
51.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, III.iv.8–9.
52.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, II.ii.109–111
53.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, I.0.6. Levenson (2000: 142) defines "star-cross'd" as "thwarted by a malign star".
54.Jump up ^ Muir (2005: 34–41).
55.Jump up ^ Lucking (2001: 115–126).
56.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 55–58); Driver (1964: 363–370).
57.^ Jump up to: a b Scott (1987: 415).
58.Jump up ^ Scott (1987: 410).
59.Jump up ^ Scott (1987: 411–412).
60.Jump up ^ Shapiro (1964: 498–501).
61.Jump up ^ Bonnard (1951: 319–327).
62.^ Jump up to: a b Halio (1998: 20–30).
63.^ Jump up to: a b Halio (1998: 51).
64.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 47–48).
65.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 48–49).
66.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, II.ii.90.
67.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 49–50).
68.Jump up ^ Levin (1960: 3–11).
69.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 51–52).
70.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 52–55).
71.Jump up ^ Bloom (1998: 92–93).
72.Jump up ^ Wells (2004: 11–13).
73.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 82) quoting Karl A. Meninger's 1938 Man Against Himself.
74.Jump up ^ Appelbaum (1997: 251–272).
75.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet V.i.1–11.
76.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 83, 81).
77.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet I.v.137.
78.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 84–85).
79.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 85).
80.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, III.i.112.
81.Jump up ^ Kahn (1977: 5–22); Halio (1998: 87–88).
82.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 89–90).
83.Jump up ^ Levenson (2000: 25–26)
84.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 85–86).
85.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, II.i.24–26
86.Jump up ^ Rubinstein (1989: 54)
87.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, II.ii.43–44.
88.Jump up ^ Goldberg (1994: 221–227).
89.^ Jump up to: a b Halio (1998: 97).
90.^ Jump up to: a b Halio (1998: ix).
91.Jump up ^ Taylor (2002: 18). The five more popular plays, in descending order, are Henry VI, Part 1, Richard III, Pericles, Hamlet and Richard II.
92.Jump up ^ Levenson (2000: 62).
93.Jump up ^ Dawson (2002: 176)
94.Jump up ^ Marsden (2002: 21).
95.Jump up ^ Van Lennep (1965).
96.^ Jump up to: a b c d Halio (1998: 100–102).
97.Jump up ^ Levenson (2000: 71).
98.Jump up ^ Marsden (2002: 26–27).
99.Jump up ^ Branam (1984: 170–179); Stone (1964: 191–206).
100.Jump up ^ Pedicord (1954: 14).
101.Jump up ^ Morrison (2007: 231).
102.Jump up ^ Morrison (2007: 232).
103.Jump up ^ Gay (2002: 162).
104.Jump up ^ Halliday (1964: 125, 365, 420).
105.Jump up ^ The Times 30 December 1845, cited by Gay (2002: 162).
106.Jump up ^ Potter (2001: 194–195).
107.Jump up ^ Levenson (2000: 84)
108.Jump up ^ Schoch (2002: 62–63).
109.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 104–105).
110.Jump up ^ Winter (1893: 46–47, 57). Booth's Romeo and Juliet was rivalled in popularity only by his own "hundred night Hamlet" at The Winter Garden of four years before.
111.Jump up ^ Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2013. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved March 31, 2013.
112.Jump up ^ First page of the program for the opening night performance of Romeo and Juliet at Booth's Theatre, 3 February 1869.
113.Jump up ^ Holland (2002: 202–203)
114.Jump up ^ Levenson (2000: 69–70).
115.Jump up ^ Tad Mosel, "Leading Lady: The World and Theatre of Katharine Cornell," Little, Brown & Co., Boston (1978)
116.Jump up ^ Smallwood (2002: 102).
117.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 105–107).
118.Jump up ^ Smallwood (2002: 110).
119.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 107–109).
120.^ Jump up to: a b Levenson (2000: 87).
121.Jump up ^ Holland (2001: 207).
122.Jump up ^ The Times 19 September 1960, cited by Levenson (2000: 87).
123.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 110).
124.Jump up ^ Halio (1998: 110–112).
125.Jump up ^ Pape (1997: 69).
126.Jump up ^ Quince (2000: 121–125).
127.Jump up ^ Lujan (2005).
128.^ Jump up to: a b Howard (2000: 297).
129.Jump up ^ Edgar (1982: 162).
130.Jump up ^ Marks (1997).
131.Jump up ^ Houlihan Mary, "Wherefore Art Thou, Romeo? To Make Us Laugh at Navy Pier", Chicago Sun-Times (16 May 2004)
132.Jump up ^ Barranger (2004: 47).
133.Jump up ^ New York Times (1977).
134.Jump up ^ Buhler (2007: 156); Sanders (2007: 187).
135.Jump up ^ Meyer (1962: 34–37).
136.Jump up ^ Sadie (1996: 31); Holden (1993: 393).
137.Jump up ^ Collins (1982: 532–538).
138.Jump up ^ Sanders (2007: 43–45).
139.Jump up ^ Stites (1995: 5).
140.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet I.v, II.ii, III.v, V.iii.
141.Jump up ^ Sanders (2007: 42–43).
142.Jump up ^ Sanders (2007: 42).
143.Jump up ^ Nestyev (1960: 261).
144.Jump up ^ Sanders (2007: 66–67)
145.Jump up ^ Sanders (2007: 187).
146.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet I.0.6.
147.Jump up ^ Sanders (2007: 20).
148.Jump up ^ Sanders (2007: 187-8)
149.Jump up ^ "Interview with Taylor Swift". Time. Time Warner. 23 April 2009. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
150.Jump up ^ Buhler (2007: 157)
151.Jump up ^ Sanders (2007: 75–76).
152.Jump up ^ Ehren (1999).
153.Jump up ^ Arafay (2005: 186).
154.Jump up ^ Levenson (2000: 49–50).
155.Jump up ^ Bloom (1998: 89).
156.Jump up ^ Levenson (2000: 91), crediting this list of genres to Stanley Wells.
157.Jump up ^ "Romeo", Merriam-Webster Online.
158.Jump up ^ Bly (2001: 52)
159.Jump up ^ Muir (2005: 352–362).
160.Jump up ^ Fowler (1996: 111)
161.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet V.iii.
162.Jump up ^ Fowler (1996:112–113).
163.Jump up ^ Fowler (1996: 120).
164.Jump up ^ Fowler (1996: 126–127)
165.Jump up ^ Orgel (2007: 91).
166.^ Jump up to: a b Brode (2001: 42).
167.Jump up ^ Rosenthal (2007: 225).
168.Jump up ^ Brode (2001: 43).
169.Jump up ^ Brode (2001: 48).
170.Jump up ^ Tatspaugh (2000: 138).
171.Jump up ^ Brode (2001: 48–9)
172.Jump up ^ Brode (2001: 51) quoting Renato Castellani.
173.Jump up ^ Orgel (2007: 91).
174.Jump up ^ Brode (2001: 51–52); Rosenthal (2007: 218).
175.Jump up ^ For example, by Anthony West of Vogue and Mollie Panter-Downes of The New Yorker, cited by Brode (2001: 51–53).
176.Jump up ^ Brode (2001: 53).
177.Jump up ^ Romeo and Juliet, III.v.
178.Jump up ^ Rosenthal (2007: 218–220).
179.Jump up ^ Tatspaugh (2000: 140).
180.Jump up ^ Tatspaugh (2000: 142).
181.Jump up ^ Rosenthal (2007: 215–216).
182.Jump up ^ Daily Mail "Disney's teenage musical 'phenomenon' premieres in London". Daily Mail. 11 September 2006. Retrieved 19 August 2007.
183.Jump up ^ McKernan and Terris (1994: 141–156) list 39 instances of uses of Romeo and Juliet, not including films of the play itself.
184.Jump up ^ Lanier (2007: 96); McKernan and Terris (1994: 146).
185.Jump up ^ Howard (2000: 310); Rosenthal (2007: 228).
186.Jump up ^ "Modern take for Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet". BBC News. 12 April 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
187.Jump up ^ "Romeo + Juliet: A new poster, new dates, and new players!". Canary Beck. 11 June 2013. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
188.Jump up ^ Gibbons (1980: vii).
Secondary sources[edit]
Appelbaum, Robert (1997). ""Standing to the Wall": The Pressures of Masculinity in Romeo and Juliet". Shakespeare Quarterly (Folger Shakespeare Library) 48 (38): 251–272. doi:10.2307/2871016. ISSN 0037-3222. JSTOR 2871016.
Arafay, Mireia (2005). Books in Motion: Adaptation, Adaptability, Authorship. Editions Rodopi BV. ISBN 978-90-420-1957-7.
Barranger, Milly S. (2004). Margaret Webster: A Life in the Theatre. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-11390-3.
Bauch, Marc A. (2007). Friar Lawrence's Plan in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet And His Function as A Counsellor. Munich: Grin. ISBN 978-3-638-77449-9.
Bloom, Harold (1998). Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. New York: Riverhead Books. ISBN 1-57322-120-1.
Bly, Mary (2001). "The Legacy of Juliet's Desire in Comedies of the Early 1600s". In Margaret M. S. Alexander; Wells, Stanley. Shakespeare and Sexuality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 52–71. ISBN 0-521-80475-2.
Bonnard, Georges A. (1951). "Romeo and Juliet: A Possible Significance?". Review of English Studies II (5): 319–327. doi:10.1093/res/II.5.319.
Bowling, Lawrence Edward (1949). "The Thematic Framework of Romeo and Juliet". PMLA (Modern Language Association of America) 64 (1): 208–220. doi:10.2307/459678. JSTOR 459678.
Branam, George C. (1984). "The Genesis of David Garrick's Romeo and Juliet". Shakespeare Quarterly (Folger Shakespeare Library) 35 (2): 170–179. doi:10.2307/2869925. JSTOR 2869925.
Brode, Douglas (2001). Shakespeare in the Movies: From the Silent Era to Today. New York: Berkley Boulevard Books. ISBN 0-425-18176-6.
Buchanan, Judith (2009). Shakespeare on Silent Film: An Excellent Dumb Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-87199-0.
Buhler, Stephen M. (2007). "Musical Shakespeares: attending to Ophelia, Juliet, and Desdemona". In Shaughnessy, Robert (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Popular Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 150–174. ISBN 978-0-521-60580-9.
Collins, Michael (1982). "The Literary Background of Bellini's 'I Capuleti ed i Montecchi'". Journal of the American Musicological Society 35 (3): 532–538. doi:10.1525/jams.1982.35.3.03a00050.
Dawson, Anthony B. (2002). "International Shakespeare". In Wells, Stanley; Stanton, Sarah. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 174–193. ISBN 978-0-521-79711-5.
Draper, John W. (1939). "Shakespeare's 'Star-Crossed Lovers'". Review of English Studies. os-XV (57): 16–34. doi:10.1093/res/os-XV.57.16.
Driver, Tom F. (1964). "The Shakespearian Clock: Time and the Vision of Reality in Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest". Shakespeare Quarterly (Folger Shakespeare Library) 15 (4): 363–370. doi:10.2307/2868094. JSTOR 2868094.
Edgar, David (1982). The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. New York: Dramatists' Play Service. ISBN 0-8222-0817-2.
Ehren, Christine (3 September 1999). "Sweet Sorrow: Mann-Korman's Romeo and Juliet Closes Sept. 5 at MN's Ordway". Playbill. Retrieved 13 August 2008.
Evans, Bertrand (1950). "The Brevity of Friar Laurence". PMLA (Modern Language Association) 65 (5): 841–865. doi:10.2307/459577. JSTOR 459577.
Fowler, James (1996). "Picturing Romeo and Juliet". In Stanley Wells. Shakespeare Survey. Shakespeare Survey (Cambridge University Press) 49: 111–129. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521570476.009. ISBN 0-521-57047-6.
Gay, Penny (2002). "Women and Shakespearean Performance". In Wells, Stanley; Stanton, Sarah. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 155–173. ISBN 978-0-521-79711-5.
Gibbons, Brian (ed.) (1980). Romeo and Juliet. The Arden Shakespeare Second Series. London: Thomson Learning. ISBN 978-1-903436-41-7.
Goldberg, Jonathan (1994). Queering the Renaissance. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-1385-5.
Groves, Beatrice (2007). Texts and Traditions: Religion in Shakespeare, 1592–1604. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-920898-0.
Halio, Jay (1998). Romeo and Juliet: A Guide to the Play. Westport: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30089-5.
Halliday, F.E. (1964). A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964. Baltimore: Penguin.
Higgins, David H., ed. (1998). The Divine Comedy. Oxford World Classics. translated by C. H. Sisson. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-283502-5.
Holden, Amanda (Ed.) (1993). The Viking Opera Guide. London: Viking. ISBN 0-670-81292-7.
Holland, Peter (2001). "Shakespeare in the Twentieth-Century Theatre". In Wells, Stanley; deGrazia Margreta. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 199–215. ISBN 0-521-65881-0.
Holland, Peter (2002). "Touring Shakespeare". In Wells, Stanley; Stanton, Sarah. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 194–211. ISBN 978-0-521-79711-5.
Honegger, Thomas (2006). "'Wouldst thou withdraw love's faithful vow?': The negotiation of love in the orchard scene (Romeo and Juliet Act II)". Journal of Historical Pragmatics 7 (1): 73–88. doi:10.1075/jhp.7.1.04hon.
Hosley, Richard (1965). Romeo and Juliet. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Howard, Tony (2000). "Shakespeare's Cinematic Offshoots". In Jackson, Russell (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 295–313. ISBN 0-521-63975-1.
Kahn, Coppélia (1977). "Coming of Age in Verona". Modern Language Studies (The Northeast Modern Language Association) 8 (1): 5–22. doi:10.2307/3194631. ISSN 0047-7729. JSTOR 3194631.
Keeble, N.H. (1980). Romeo and Juliet: Study Notes. York Notes. Longman. ISBN 0-582-78101-9.
Lanier, Douglas (2007). "Shakespeare: myth and biographical fiction". In Shaughnessy, Robert (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Popular Culture. Cambridge University Press. pp. 93–113. ISBN 978-0-521-60580-9.
Lanzara, Joseph (2010). William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Uncensored. New Arts Library. ISBN 978-0-9639621-2-6.
Levenson (ed.), Jill L. (2000). Romeo and Juliet. The Oxford Shakespeare (Oxford World's Classics). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-281496-6.
Levin, Harry (1960). "Form and Formality in Romeo and Juliet". Shakespeare Quarterly (Folger Shakespeare Library) 11 (1): 3–11. doi:10.2307/2867423. JSTOR 2867423.
Lucking, David (2001). "Uncomfortable Time In Romeo And Juliet". English Studies 82 (2): 115–126. doi:10.1076/enst.82.2.115.9595.
Lujan, James (2005). "A Museum of the Indian, Not for the Indian". The American Indian Quarterly 29 (3–4): 510–516. doi:10.1353/aiq.2005.0098. ISSN 0095-182X.
MacKenzie, Clayton G. (2007). "Love, sex and death in Romeo and Juliet". English Studies 88 (1): 22–42. doi:10.1080/00138380601042675.
McKernan, Luke; Terris, Olwen (1994). Walking Shadows: Shakespeare in the National Film and Television Archive. London: British Film Institute. ISBN 0-85170-486-7.
Marks, Peter (29 September 1997). "Juliet of the Five O'Clock Shadow, and Other Wonders". New York Times. Retrieved 10 November 2008.
Marsden, Jean I. (2002). "Shakespeare from the Restoration to Garrick". In Wells, Stanley; Stanton, Sarah. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 21–36. ISBN 978-0-521-79711-5.
Meyer, Eve R. (1968). "Measure for Measure: Shakespeare and Music". Music Educators Journal (The National Association for Music Education) 54 (7): 36–38, 139–143. doi:10.2307/3391243. ISSN 0027-4321. JSTOR 3391243.
Moore, Olin H. (1930). "The Origins of the Legend of Romeo and Juliet in Italy". Speculum (Medieval Academy of America) 5 (3): 264–277. doi:10.2307/2848744. ISSN 0038-7134. JSTOR 2848744.
Moore, Olin H. (1937). "Bandello and "Clizia"". Modern Language Notes (Johns Hopkins University Press) 52 (1): 38–44. doi:10.2307/2912314. ISSN 0149-6611. JSTOR 2912314.
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Roberts, Arthur J. (1902). "The Sources of Romeo and Juliet". Modern Language Notes (Johns Hopkins University Press) 17 (2): 41–44. doi:10.2307/2917639. ISSN 0149-6611. JSTOR 2917639.
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Shapiro, Stephen A. (1964). "Romeo and Juliet: Reversals, Contraries, Transformations, and Ambivalence". College English (National Council of Teachers of English) 25 (7): 498–501. doi:10.2307/373235. JSTOR 373235.
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Spencer (ed.), T.J.B. (1967). Romeo and Juliet. The New Penguin Shakespeare. London: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-070701-4.
Stites, Richard (Ed.) (1995). Culture and Entertainment in Wartime Russia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-20949-8.
Stone, George Winchester Jr (1964). "Romeo and Juliet: The Source of its Modern Stage Career". Shakespeare Quarterly (Folger Shakespeare Library) 15 (2): 191–206. doi:10.2307/2867891. JSTOR 2867891.
Tanselle, G. Thomas (1964). "Time in Romeo and Juliet". Shakespeare Quarterly (Folger Shakespeare Library) 15 (4): 349–361. doi:10.2307/2868092. JSTOR 2868092.
Tatspaugh, Patricia (2000). "The tragedies of love on film". In Jackson, Russell. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 135–159. ISBN 0-521-63975-1.
Taylor, Gary (2002). "Shakespeare plays on Renaissance Stages". In Wells, Stanley; Stanton, Sarah. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–20. ISBN 978-0-521-79711-5.
Van Lennep, William (Ed.); Avery, Emmett L.; Scouten, Arthur H. (1965). The London Stage, 1660–1800. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. Retrieved August 2008.
Wells, Stanley (2004). Looking for Sex in Shakespeare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-54039-9.
Winter, William (1893). The Life and Art of Edwin Booth. London: MacMillan and Co. Retrieved August 2008.
External links[edit]
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Categories: Romeo and Juliet
1590s plays
English Renaissance plays
Fictional duos
Plays adapted into films
Suicide in fiction
Shakespearean tragedies




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