‘Romeo and Juliet’ – “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life…”

 ‘Romeo and Juliet’  – “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life…”

When Shakespeare came back from visiting his home in Stratford-upon-Avon in January of 1595, he had a new sense of purpose. The success of Southampton’s patronage of his poetry, along with the success of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men meant that if the Plague did not close the theatres in 1595, Shakespeare would have a big year in front of him.

While 1595 seemed like a tumultuous year for the Ottoman Empire, the Russians, the Swedes and even Henry IV of France (who although he defeated the Spanish, he almost died in the process) in England it was a relatively quiet year. After the Catholic Robert Southwell was hung, drawn and quartered in London in February, nothing much happened except intermittent news arriving about Sir Walter Raleigh’s exploits in South America and Sir Francis Drake’s exploration in Spanish Main (Southern North America and Meso-America). Shakespeare probably put writing a history play on the backburner and probably started the year with writing a comedy.

With success of Love’s Labour’s Lost in 1594, Shakespeare probably started in earnest on the sequel Love’s Labour’s Won. It is probably a play that takes place a year after the original Love’s Labour’s Lost and using the same characters. This play may have been performed as early as late March 1595 with the opening of the Francis Langley’s The Swan theatre in Southwark across the Thames River and near the Paris Garden stairs. It was one of the grandest theatres to be built in London, a huge amphitheatre with a capacity of 3000 spectators. It was built of flint concrete with wooden support beams which were painted to resemble marble.

It is unlikely that Shakespeare thought that he was writing a highly politically charged History play when he put quill to parchment to write Richard II in April or May of 1595. Elizabeth the First was in good health and a force had been sent off to Ireland in what people in London thought would be quick campaign. Shakespeare probably just wanted to bring the ‘Henry IV Part 1’ and ‘Henry IV Part 2’ into a trilogy. Little would he know the furor ‘Richard II’ would cause in 1601 when the Earl of Essex commissioned a performance to stir a riot and a revolt in 1601. It was probably not seen as controversial in late May or June 1595 at the The Swan theatre when it was probably first performed. Later in December 1595, a private performance at Canon Row at Sir Edward Hoby’s house may have been more controversial since Queen Elizabeth I’s health was not so good in December of 1595.

Richard II was a great piece of theatre. It has lyrical rich poetic verse throughout the whole play with hardly any prose. It is cram packed with metaphors, symbolism and allegories yet despite that, it starts in what seems like a confusing way. Of course you have to remember that Elizabethan audiences knew their English history well, so to see history and the lives of nobles acted out with all the grittiness that the stage brings was a voyeuristic fantasy.

When Shakespeare started work on a new play to open the beginning of the summer season of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men at The Swan, he knew he would need a big innovative play to accompany his Love’s Labour’s Won and Richard II to draw in the 3,000 spectators most afternoons. Shakespeare probably thought about a performance he had seen the year before of one of Christopher Marlowe’s earliest plays and one Marlowe probably wrote with Thomas Nashe called Dido, Queen of Carthage. This intense short play was a tragedy but it was an intense tale of love, betrayal and suicide. So it was probably with Marlowe once again on his mind that Shakespeare came back to work on a project he had started on a couple of years prior, an adaptation of Arthur Brooke’s The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet.

Shakespeare probably read Arthur Brooke’s 1562 poem ‘The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet’ late in the 1580’s in Stratford upon Avon or early in the 1590’s in London. The story for Brooke’s poem was not original and he probably took it from an Italian novella based on the true 14^th century story of the feud in Verona between the Guelph and Ghibellines families and the legend that a girl from one family fell in love with someone from the other family and she committed suicide after he was killed by a member of her own family. Brooke in his Preface to the poem is almost apologetic for his poem about “… a couple of unfortunate lovers, thrilling themselves to unhonest desire…” This moral tale as told by Brooke would have died on stage. But still Shakespeare saw the potential in the story, but not as the Brooke’s languid moralistic parable bound by its time, verse and structure, but as a rougher, bawdy, rawer, fast-paced more universal story of fate, love and hate. He shelved away the idea for another day.

The plague had decimated the numbers in many companies but Shakespeare’s new amalgamated troupe had fortuitously acquired a feast of strong actors particularly some fine boy actors to play female roles. So, Shakespeare had the actors to put on a masterpiece and he certainly had this in Romeo and Juliet. Around 1595, Shakespeare’s company lost the use of The Theatre. He had the theatre in either The Curtain (the preserved remains of which were unearthed in June 2012 in Shoreditch) or The Rose (the theatre many argue ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was first performed at and the one so wonderfully presented as the original performance venue in the film ‘Shakespeare in Love’). 

Why is ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Shakespeare’s most popular play? Is it because it is the consummate love story, or because it hits on the universal themes of love and rebellion against family and authority, or because it speaks to a part of us that desperately wants to feel love and passion and throw everything away for that? I think it is a combination of all of these. The play has universal appeal and can be adapted easily. I have directed a production of the play in Iban tribal outfits on the lawns and balcony of the High Commissioner’s Residence in Brunei surrounded by the Borneo Rainforest and overlooking the snaky Brunei River. I have done scenes from the play in the old gritty industrial Police Stables that used to be one of the rehearsals spaces at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) in Melbourne when I was there. For me, I seem to keep coming back to the power of the story, the simple and direct quality of the characterization and the genius of the dramatic action, prose and verse in the play. But, I am sure ‘Romeo and Juliet’ did not start off that way and it took the genius of Shakespeare and the serendipity of the time to bring together the greatest love story of all time. Shakespeare through writing poetry and years of writing plays, now had the skill to pull off ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

Shakespeare begins ‘Romeo and Juliet’ with a Prologue. He wants to give us an overview done in a verse form his audience was used to before he launches into events and characters propelled by prose and given power and velocity in verse. The Prologue’s fourteen-line sonnet, outlines the violent “ancient grudge” of the Capulets and Montagues and gives away that “…a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life…” but that their deaths will mend the strife between their families. We are reminded early that Romeo and Juliet’s fate is already predetermined.

We then move onto the streets of Verona. Sampson and Gregory, two servants of the house of Capulet, stroll through the streets of Verona. With bawdy banter, and a deluge of puns and sexual innuendo, we are launched into a whole new world of male bravado and a tension between two families that is set to “… break to new mutiny…” As they walk pass two Montagues in the street, Sampson bits his thumb at the Montagues, insulting them. A brawl breaks out. Benvolio (a Montague) tries to break up the fight but things turn nasty when Tybalt (another Capulet) arrives. Even though these two are noblemen, they speak in prose like those already embroiled in the fight. Tybalt hates peace as much as he hates Montagues:

“ … peace! I hate the word,

As I hate hell, all Montagues and thee.”

The fight turns to a mêlée and the thirst for blood even boils up in the elder Montague and Capulet whose wives prevent them from entering the fray. Enter Prince Escalus whose authority and high verse stops the fight and threatens “…pain of death” “… if ever you disturb our streets again…”

As the crowd disperses and people leave the stage, Benvolio converses with Montague and Lady Montague (his uncle and aunt) about how the brawl was started. Conversation soon turns to Romeo, who “… was not at this fray.”

Benvolio describes to Montague how the brawl started. Lady Montague then asks whether Benvolio has seen her son, Romeo. Benvolio reveals he has seen Romeo rising early and wandering in a melancholic manner through a sycamore grove. He then sees Romeo entering and takes on the task of finding out what is the cause of Romeo’s state. Romeo’s parents depart.

Romeo is not such a likeable character initially. He mopes around, sprouts melancholic verse pegged down in oxymorons such as “cold fire”, “sick health”, “brawling love”, “loving hate” and “heavy lightness”. This is all because he is in love with a woman, Rosaline, who does not love him and she has “… sworn that she will live chaste…” As they depart, Benvolio advocates the cure to Romeo’s woe is for Romeo to “…examine other beauties…”

Meanwhile, on another street, in another part of Verona, Capulet walks with Paris, a noble kinsman of the Prince, Paris expresses his desire to marry Capulet’s almost 14 year old daughter, Juliet. A conversation ensues about whether she is too young to marry, Paris, like Juliet’s mother later expresses, uses the argument that: “Younger than she are happy mother’s made.” To which Capulet replies: “ And too soon marred are those so early made…” In Shakespeare’s time, a girl could be married at 12 and with his own daughter Susanna turning 12 around this time, Shakespeare maybe had considered this question much himself. Capulet then invites Paris to a party that he is holding and then gives a guest list to the servant Peter, who unfortunately (or fortunately for us, Romeo and the plot) can’t read. Dramatic serendipity perhaps?

It is Peter’s illiteracy which leads to Romeo reading out the guest list to Peter, which leads to Romeo and his Montague mates going to the ball. Benvolio wants Romeo to go so that with “unattainted eye” he can compare Rosaline with all “…the admired beauties of Verona…” Romeo will go to the ball to “… rejoice in the splendour of…” Rosaline who will attend the ball. But when the boundless metaphors of this scene’s end, it is fate, the stars and Shakespeare himself who will show Romeo that there is more in store for him than unrequited love and melancholic madness.

Meanwhile, Lady Capulet, who does not even seem to know her daughter’s own age and birthday, informs Juliet that Paris wishes to marry her. She tries to convince Juliet that young marriage is a desirable and honorable thing. This scene is undercut by the endless and sometimes sexually explicit ramblings of Juliet’s Nurse, the major comic relief of the play and Juliet's most trusted servant and friend.

Early in the evening, Romeo, Benvolio, Mercutio and other kinsmen and Montagues gather in their masks on their way to Capulet's ball. Romeo is still melancholic and Mercutio puns and mocks Romeo with sexual innuendo and banter. Romeo begins to tell of a dream and feeling he has about this ball. And Mercutio launches into his Queen Mab speech which starts in a light fanciful tone but ends in dark subconscious bitter torment. Romeo calms Mercutio and Mercutio seems to dismiss his own fantastical rant as “… the children of an idle brain…”  We know it is much darker than this.

We know the ball will bring us what we have anticipated. 
At the ball, Romeo forgets Rosaline completely because he meets Juliet and they fall in love at first sight. Their first exchange of words is poetically pitched.  Fourteen lines of shared synchronized sonnet is the foreplay to before their first kiss. Romeo’s initial words are bound in religious imagery but they are quickly uncloaked to reveal extended metaphors. They seek a kiss and Juliet holds Romeo’s desires at bay through continuing the religious imagery and in her reply points out that pilgrims meet through touching hands. Romeo is able to twist and extend this metaphor to encourage them to join lips and “… let lips do what hands do…” The poetic stylization of this moment of meeting is brilliant and beautiful. Of course, Tybalt has already seen Romeo at the ball and wants to take revenge there and then but he is calmed down by Capulet, but he avenges that he will convert this all to “bitter gall”. At the end of the scene and act, Fate has once again rears its ugly head. Romeo and Juliet find they are from rival families. Romeo leaves melodramatically exclaiming:

“My life is my foe’s debt.”

While Juliet with resignation claims:

“My only love sprung from my only hate!”

Romeo and Juliet Act 2 – “But soft, what light from yonder window breaks? It is the east and Juliet is the sun…”

It is easy to forget that Act 2 of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ does not start with Romeo hiding, or Mercutio calling out to Romeo or with the famous balcony itself. It starts with a Chorus and while Shakespeare had used Choruses, commentaries, prologues and epilogues before, this is the first time he uses it as an interlude commentary in between acts of a play. As a device, this style of commentary was not uncommon during Shakespeare’s time. In terms of narrative, it has no function but it certainly has a dramatic function since it re-introduces the major themes, gives a quick summary of the action, describes Romeo and Juliet’s new love, reminds us of the hatred of the families and how it is difficult for Romeo and Juliet to meet, it suggests fate is controlling the action and it beautifully and poetically infers that the power of their love will overcome all of these obstacles:

“But passion lends them power, time means, to meet,

Temp’ring extremities with extreme sweet.”

The Act 2 Chorus may have had a more functional purpose for Shakespeare’s initial performances of the play. Whether the play was first performed at The Curtain at Shoreditch or The Rose at Newington Butts, both were not easy to get to and many audience members would have come in late whether it was due to taking too much time meandering through the winding streets, turning up late after visiting the market, the bear garden or Henslowe’s brothel first. With no watches, time was also more flexible as a concept in Shakespeare’s time. On the day of a play, a person would see a flag flying above the theatre to indicate whether a play would be on or cancelled by things like a new outbreak of the plague. Being a tragedy, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ presumably had a black flag flying (although because the play also is a love story, the white flag might have flown beside the black one). A hawker or crier or bell ringer would have roamed the street about 2 hours before the play so people knew it was on. People would also eat, drink and talk during performances. So with no many distractions, so much talking, much of the action of the play would have been missed by the audience. Another reason for this Chorus may have been that although huge sets were not a regular feature of Elizabethan plays, a larger area or more elaborate set may have been used for the Capulet party scene or it may have taken a while for the young boy playing Juliet to change garments and climb the ladder up to the false balcony for the next scene.

So where were we. Romeo can’t just simply go home now. Climbing walls, he enters the Capulet orchard. His friends enter and they call for Romeo. But he remains hidden. Mercutio summons Romeo and mocks him with rude references about his love for Rosaline. They leave and Romeo dismisses Mercutio’s crude taunts by telling himself that: “He jests at scars that never felt a wound.”

It is interesting that in a play performed during the day, this scene set at night with Romeo in the depths of enemy territory, has so much hope and light. Then a person (and perhaps a burning torch light) suddenly appears at a window above Romeo.

“But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,

Who is already sick and pale with grief,

That thou her maid art far more fair than she:

Be not her maid, since she is envious;

Her vestal livery is but sick and green

And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.

It is my lady, O, it is my love! “

Romeo continues his metaphorical description of Juliet happy to hide behind the objectivity and distance of extended poetic metaphors (remembering that in the previous scenes and about two hours ago in stage time that he was in love with love and a girl who was going to become a nun). Now, Juliet is the sun, and the night has already dissipated for Romeo.

Juliet lays her cheek upon her hand and speaks from her own love-cushioned world. She too is attached to the notion of idealized love. Shakespeare plays with the way that language, names and labels are boundaries. But while Romeo hides himself in the abstraction of metaphors, Juliet cloaks herself in the fanciful conversations and imaginings indicative of her youth:

“… 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…

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;

Thou art thyself, though not a Montague…

What's in a name? that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet…

Romeo, doff thy name,

And for that name which is no part of thee

Take all myself.”

Unable to control himself, Romeo responds and it is crunch time for Juliet. Does she really want to see the person she has fantasized about and talked to in the comfort and confines of her own imagination. Too late. Romeo is there. He has climbed up to her balcony, and physical and poetic distance are no longer a boundary. Juliet grows up very quickly in the space of a 100 lines of verse. Her initial concern for Romeo’s safety turns to her then voicing her concern that he is toying with her and her emotions. Romeo quickly goes to swear using his poetic crutches. Juliet stops him. They then in the simplest way, declare their love for one another. The Nurse calls for Juliet. Once again external forces seem to be a barrier to their love. Juliet returns again and maturely demands a bit of commitment from Romeo:

“… If that thy bent of love be honourable,

Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow…”

Juliet takes control of the arrangements of time for the next day. As a new day dawns, Romeo and Juliet finally end the encounter with a set of famous rhyming couplets:

“Juliet: Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow,

That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

Romeo: Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast!

Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest!

Hence will I to my ghostly father's cell,

His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell.”

The scene shifts to morning and we meet Friar Lawrence for the first time. He contemplates the irony of the good and evil that exists in nature.

“…For nought so vile that on the earth doth live

But to the earth some special good doth give,

Nor aught so good but strain'd from that fair use

Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse…”

Romeo enters and Friar Lawrence eventually finds out that Romeo’s

“… heart's dear love is set

On the fair daughter of rich Capulet:

As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine;

And all combined, save what thou must combine

By holy marriage: when and where and how

We met, we woo'd and made exchange of vow,

I'll tell thee as we pass; but this I pray,

That thou consent to marry us to-day.”

After then chastising Romeo for being so fickle in his affections, Friar Lawrence agrees to marry Romeo to Juliet in secret and thus becomes the servant of Fate as his naïve and well-intentioned interference sets the tragic events in motion.

“…In one respect I'll thy assistant be;

For this alliance may so happy prove,

To turn your households' rancour to pure love.”

We shift to another part of Verona, a number of hours later, where Mercutio and Benvolio wait for Romeo and it is mentioned that Tybalt has challenged Romeo to duel. Mercutio makes comments about how Romeo is already struck by Cupid’s arrow and Mercution also puts down Tybalt for his stylized sword skills. When Romeo arrives, Mercutio’s mockery still continues and he and Romeo joust with sexual puns.

Juliet’s Nurse soon arrives with her servant Peter. The Nurse is teased and even taunted by Mercutio. When Romeo finally identifies himself, Mercutio and Benvolio leave and Romeo and the Nurse speak alone. The Nurse warns Romeo not to be dealing double with Juliet. Romeo claims sincerity and tells the Nurse to inform Juliet to come to Friar Lawrence’s so that they can marry. The Nurse is over the moon and even agrees to make a ladder out of cloth for Romeo’s wedding night.

Soon after this, we cross to Juliet who is waiting back at the orchard outside the Capulet house for the Nurse to return. After teasing Juliet by claiming she is too tired to tell Juliet about her meeting with Romeo, the Nurse reveals that Juliet will be married and Romeo is waiting for Juliet at Friar Lawrence’s cell.

Meanwhile, Romeo waits with Friar Lawrence, impatient for Juliet’s arrival. Friar Lawrence chastises Romeo for his passion, “… These violent delights have violent ends….” And preaches moderation in everything including love. Then Juliet arrives. We see their love is without bounds and momentarily forget, like Romeo does, Friar Lawrence’s words about moderation. Romeo and Juliet exit with Friar Lawrence to embrace their love in the bonds of marriage. 

Romeo and Juliet Act 3 – “A plague on both your houses!”

The pace and Romantic comic style of the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ changes in Act 3 when we move to a Public Place (presumably a piazza or town square) at around midday. It is hot and the setting and time of day act as a metaphor for the edgy atmosphere surrounding the young males of Verona. Benvolio wants to retire indoors and points out to Mercutio that in:

“ … these hot days, is the mad blood stirring…”

Tybalt enters looking for Romeo and a fight. Mercutio and Tybalt stir one another up and are about to come to blows when Romeo enters.  Tybalt’s attention turns to him but Romeo refuses to fight claiming that he loves Tybalt “…better than thou canst devise…” But Mercutio will not have this “…calm, vile submission” and he draws on Tybalt.  When Romeo tries to stop the fight and protect Mercutio, Tybalt stabs Mercutio under Romeo's arm fleeing the scene with other Capulets immediately. And so the dark clouds of tragedy start to dominate the play. Mercutio’s fourteen lines towards his inevitable death are a powerful mixture of accusatory verse and pain packed prose interspersed with odd humorous interludes, imagery, metaphors and allegory mostly centred on the allusions dropped earlier that Tybalt (or at least his fighting style) is cat-like. His final words as he is helped offstage, resonate as both the dying words of a pained man and a curse which will cast a shadow over the rest of the play:

“…A plague on both your houses!

They have made worm’s meat of me… your houses…”

Benvolio returns to deliver the tragic news that Mercutio is dead and then we see for the first time in Romeo the reason why he is friends with these other young male filled with bravado and violence. Romeo demands “… fire-eyed fury be my conduct now…” and on Tybalt’s return, he fights with Tybalt. Romeo’s desire to have Tybalt’s soul join Mercutio’s which “Is but a little way above our heads…” is fulfilled when he kills Tybalt.   Romeo realizes where his passion for revenge has led him and declaims before he flees:

“O, I am fortune’s fool!”

A crowd arrives to view the carnage - citizens, the Montague's, the Capulet's and finally the Prince.  Anger, demands and accusations fly as Benvolio relays the events.  The Prince puts his foot down and resolves that the punishment for Romeo will not be death but exile.

Shakespeare often plays with the characters knowing less than the audience and the tension and dramatic power of this play will later depend on this. But for the moment, we feel sorrow for Juliet as she prepares for her wedding night and the consummation of her marriage oblivious to events that unfolded outside the walls of her own world. Shakespeare goes back to the words and sexual imagery of Brooke’s original poem concentrating on Juliet’s anticipation of:

“The hastiness of Phoebus’ steeds in great despite their blame…” Juliet’s anticipation is ironic for an audience because it is overshadowed by our knowledge of Romeo’s sentence of banishment. Then the Nurse, who will help to drive the action of this scene and the one that follows, enters with the news of a death. Juliet initially thinks that Romeo is dead but realizes that Tybalt, her cousin, has been killed by Romeo. Juliet hears that the Prince has banished Romeo as a punishment. Upset with Tybalt’s death, Juliet must choose her allegiances to her cousin and family or to her husband, Romeo. She chooses her husband. While upset at hearing about Tybalt’s death, the fact that Romeo is banished upsets Juliet more. The Nurse eventually reveals that Romeo is temporarily at Friar Laurence’s cell and Juliet asks the Nurse to find Romeo, give him a ring from her and help them to meet again.

Meanwhile, Romeo is at Friar Laurence’s, inconsolable with despair at his impending banishment. His language mirrors that of Juliet in the previous scene helping to create a sense of connectedness bewteen the two even when they are apart. Soon the Nurse enters revealing to Romeo the grieving state of Juliet.  The Nurse derides Romeo for his lack of manliness. Clearly attacking his masculinity doesn’t work because Romeo attempts to kill his own “hateful mansion” until Friar Laurence offers him a plan and hope that he will return, “To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends…” It is decided that Romeo will see Juliet before he goes the next day to Mantua. The Nurse gives Romeo the ring that Juliet gave her to give to Romeo. We end this scene feeling there is hope for Romeo and Juliet but the wheels of fortune still grind on.

Paris’ timing does seem a bit opportunistic or downright rude when we find him pressing the matter of a marriage to Juliet so soon after the family has suffered Tybalt’s death. Although even Capulet's sees that a celebration of marriage so soon after a death would be distasteful, he decides that the marriage should take place in three day’s time, next Thursday. With the one rash decision, Fate turns once a gain towards the inevitable death of Romeo and Juliet that we were told about in the Prologue. News is sent to Juliet. 

While Brooke’s original poem describes Romeo and Juliet’s actual consummation of their love in rough marital terms, Shakespeare gives us the beautiful and wonderfully tender scene of the morning after their love-making. The scene has light poetic touches such as the insistence that the morning bird call is in fact a night lark suggesting Juliet’s desire to have the night of love continue. Their unity is reinforced by the use of multiple rhyming couplets, many of which they complete for one another like a love duet. Juliet soon realizes her mistake and the Nurse’s dulcet tones confirm the arrival of the new day. Romeo leaves, insisting on “…One kiss , and I’ll descend.”

Lady Capulet arrives just as Romeo descends. She mistakes Juliet’s distraught behaviour as grief for Tybalt and thinks that mentioning the marriage to Paris which her father has arranged will cheer her up. Juliet strongly objects and ironically says that she would rather marry Romeo, the family’s sworn enemy rather than Paris. Juliet’s father enters and upon hearing Juliet’s rejection of Paris, he flies into a rage threatening to cast his only daughter, Juliet, out into the street unless she marries Paris. He storms out. Juliet’s mother dismisses Juliet and also leaves. Juliet appeals to the Nurse who is pragmatic about Juliet’s prospects. The Nurse even praises Paris’ physique (ironically in the same terms that she previously praised Romeo’s). Juliet riles at the betrayal of the Nurse and plans to go to the Friar to see if he has a remedy or:

“If all else fail, myself have the power to die.” 

‘Romeo and Juliet’ Act 4 – “ No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou lives.”

Brooke’s poem was not the only source that Shakespeare used for ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The twists and turns that navigate the final two acts of the play are influenced by an older legend and story that Shakespeare probably read if he did attend Grammar school in Stratford upon Avon or else encountered in someone’s private library if he did work as a tutor to a rich family sometime during the 1580’s. An ancient Greek romance written by Xenophon of Ephesus in the mid-second century BC entitled ‘The Ephesian Tale of Anthia and Habrocome’ is a tale of two young people who fall in love, marry, try to sail away to Egypt together and are taken by pirates and separated. Anthia, the heroine of the tale, takes poison later in the story to avoid being forced into another marriage. Unfortunately, the drug is a sleeping potion that makes her appear dead when she is asleep, and when she wakes up in a tomb, she is discovered by grave-robbers who take her and sell her into slavery.

Shakespeare’s use of aspects of this story help to propel the only act of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ where Romeo is absent and Juliet is central. Juliet must drive the plot and blossom as young woman and a character, that, although initially played by what must have been one hell of a young male actor, is such a zenith of acting prowess that Mary Saunderson, the first actress to play Juliet in around 1665, continued to play the part of 14 year old Juliet when she was almost 30 years old.

We start this act with Friar Lawrence speaking to Paris about his intended marriage to Juliet. Friar Laurence expresses his belief that the marriage should be delayed. Paris points out that although Juliet still seems to be weeping “immoderately” for Tybalt’s death, Old Capulet wants the marriage to proceed quickly because he thinks it dangerous that Juliet, “ … doth give her sorrow so much sway…”

Enter Juliet, who the arrogant Paris speaks to with as much love as one so self-assured and self-centred can muster from such superficial depths. Juliet speaks with a distance that Paris takes for naïve youth. He gives her a kiss before he leaves Juliet supposedly to have Friar Laurence hear her confession prior to her marriage to Paris. After Paris leaves, the scene changes. Juliet brandishes a knife and hyperboles and says she has the resolution to kill herself unless the Friar can help her. Friar Laurence, whether because he has been prepared for this moment or because he sees Juliet’s resolve, reveals a strong potion and proposes a plan where Juliet will consent to marry Paris, but on the night before her wedding, she will take a strong sleeping potion the Friar shows her. Then she will be laid in a tomb as if she is dead and then via a message from the Friar, Romeo will come to take her away. Juliet agrees and takes the potion home with her.

Juliet arrives home to frenetic preparations for her wedding. Juliet shows such suitable obedience and seems to have learnt to “… repent the sin of disobedient opposition..” that her father moves the wedding forward to the next day, Wednesday. Juliet asks to be alone in her room while her father and mother prepare to spend all night in preparations for the now imminent wedding.

In her own room, Juliet dismisses the Nurse and her mother to be alone.

“My dismal scene I needs must act alone…”

Shakespeare now gives us one of the most emotionally charged and emotionally meandering speeches of any of his earlier plays. It starts with fear, then Juliet allows logic to dominate before her imagination brings wild imaginings and childish nightmares to the fore. She starts with wanting to call her mother and the Nurse back again because

“…a faint cold fear thrills through my veins,

That almost freezes up the heat of life.”

Instead, she lays a dagger down as her insurance policy (interesting that this is not found latter unless directors or actors playing this Act have the prying Nurse remove it or Friar Laurence remove this evidence when he advises them t make funeral preparations). Juliet clutches the vial of strong sleeping draught given to her by Friar Laurence and wonders whether she is wise in taking it. She thinks initially that the Friar might have given her poison to kill her since his reputation might be tarnished by having married. She dismisses this because the Friar is a “holy man”. Then her imagination overtakes her reason and imagery and symbolism shift her at lightning pace from fear to despair. She thinks that she will suffocate:

“Shall I not, then, be stifled in the vault,

To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,

And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?”

Then, in one of the longest and most lavishly poetically packed sentences or thoughts of early Shakespeare, which is thirteen lines long, she imagines that madness shall be her fate:

“The horrible conceit of death and night,

Together with the terror of the place…

And shrieks like mandrakes' torn out of the earth,

That living mortals, hearing them, run mad…”

She then sees that even if madness and spirits do not overtake her that her distraught feelings might turn her to madly playing with her “forefather’s joints” until she eventually cracks and using the power of the bones and alliteration, “… with a club, dash out my desperate brains?” Finally, as she thinks that Tytbalt’s ghost is seeking out revenge on Romeo, she finds strength in loyalty and love and drinks Friar Laurence’s potion for Romeo.

Although it is now the early morning, we know that the Capulets and their entire household have been up all night preparing for the wedding. The Nurse is sent to wake Juliet. The Nurse once again makes crass suggestions that Juliet will get little sleep on her wedding night as Shakespeare allows humour to undercut the gravity of the powerfully dramatic moment when Juliet is found and presumed to be dead. The Nurse’s lament and shock is wailed out across the household. Lady Capulet and Capulet shows genuine shock, sorrow and grief when they see:

“Death lies on her like an untimely frost

Upon the sweetest flower of all the field…”

Paris and Friar Laurence (and the musicians) enter and join in the general grief. Friar Laurence in the lamentations. The friar reminds them all that Juliet has gone heaven and suggests that they:

“Dry up your tears… and, as the custom is,

In all her best array bear her to church:

For though fond nature bids us an lament,

Yet nature's tears are reason's merriment…”

And so all that were prepared for a wedding, now prepare, ironically for a funeral.

The stage is left with the musicians and the servant Peter. Often this comic interlude is cut so we must ask ourselves what function does it perform? Firstly, the reason may be seen in terms of the mechanics of the mise en scene in the next act, Act V. This comic distraction may give time for costumes and simple set to be changed to that of the split settings of the four places used in Act V of Mantua, Friar Laurence’s cell, the Churchyard and the tomb where Juliet has been laid. Secondly, it’s function could be dramatic, undercutting the emotion of the previous few scenes and giving the audience a breather or some relief from the emotional onslaughts they have endured and those they are about to endure. Thirdly, it gives us an insight into another class of people and how a death instead of a wedding may mean they go without bread and payment unless they are able to turn a loss into an opportunity. The fourth reason may be less obvious. Shakespeare as a writer wrote for the actors of his company and their strengths. He worked quickly and maybe semi-collaboratively with these actors or wrote in some ways for his actors. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that a team of experienced clowns and comic actors were not pleased with how little they had to do in the second half of the play and without the possibility of a comic dance and song at the end, they demanded that Shakespeare write them another sequence or scene and he complied while also finding a way for this sequence to fit into the unique emotional journey he believed he was taking his audience on.

Romeo and Juliet Act 5 – “For never was a story of more woe/ Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”

The space in which a play is originally written for or staged can often have subtle influences on the way a play is written. The Rose and The Curtain theatres, which ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was probably first performed at, had similar stages. Neither had a thrust stage but had open rectangular stages that opened up further at the back. Act 5 of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ starts with the emotionally charged but intimate scene where Romeo finds out about Juliet’s alleged death and ends with a more open scene outside the tomb in Verona and a funeral procession. This creation of dramatic depth through opening up scenic or staging depth is wonderfully powerful staging convention that probably was influenced by these spaces.

In a street in Mantua, Romeo tells of a dream he had (which he doesn't quite realise foreshadows his death) which ends with Juliet waking him up with a kiss. If only Romeo had some dream analysis insight he might have prevented forthcoming events. Balthasar arrives and brings the news of Juliet’s death (once again the dramatic device of audience objectivity means that we know more than the characters do). Romeo is devastated at the news and in the style of an Ancient Greek tragedy tempts and defies Fate or Fortune itself when he decries, “Then, I defy you, stars.” But like many tragic heroes before him, it is Romeo’s attempt to defy his destiny that actually brings him closer to it. 

Balthasar enters, and Romeo greets him happily, saying that Balthasar must have come from Verona with news of Juliet and his father. Bathasar reveals that Juliet is dead. Romeo, a man initially of inaction, becomes decisive. He tells Balthasar to get pen, paper and horses and prepare for them to return to Verona. He dismisses Balthasar and makes one more decisive but fateful decision to visit an Apothecary, a seller of drugs. 

In the poverty of the Apothecary, Romeo finds tragic opportunity to buy the drug he needs to kill himself. The Apothecary does not want to sell Romeo the fatal drug initially but Romeo’s money and the Apothecary’s poverty make him concede. Romeo uses wonderfully poetic irony when he refers to the money he gives the Apothecary as the true poison in the transaction. Poverty drives the Apothecary to sell his poison while Fate drives Romeo to make his fateful purchase. 

We switch, to Friar Lawrence’s cell as he speaks with Friar John who was supposed to deliver a message to Romeo about Friar Laurence’s plan but who has been held up in a house suspected of being plague-ridden. Friar Lawrence starts to realize the consequences of Romeo not knowing the entire plan and he knows that he must travel quickly to the tomb to retrieve Juliet. 

“Now must I to the monument alone.

Within these three hours will fair Juliet wake

She will beshrew me much that Romeo

Hath had no notice of these accidents;

…Poor living corse, closed in a dead man’s tomb!”

Friar Laurence also sends another letter to Romeo. 

The stage opens up and we see Paris with a servant enter to scatter flowers on Juliet’s grave. They see a light approaching and they hide. Romeo enters with a crowbar and Balthasar. Balthasar is ordered to leave and he will fall asleep as tragic events unfold. 

 

Paris sees Romeo and knowing that Romeo killed Tybalt and thinking that grief for Tybalt killed Juliet, he reveals himself. He fights with Romeo and as he is killed by Romeo, requests that he be laid near Juliet’s tomb. Romeo grants this request. With Paris’ body in his arms, Romeo enters the Capulat family tomb, places down Paris’ body and goes to Juliet’s side. He ironically comments on the fact that she looks as if she were not dead and that her beauty still lives even in death. And then he decides he must depart:

“…the yoke of inauspicious stars

From this world-wearied flesh…” 

Romeo then kisses Juliet. He then takes the poison, drinks it, kisses Juliet once more and then he dies.

 

Often cinematic versions have Juliet wake up at this moment just missing Romeo by seconds. On stage however, an audience needs more emotional time to process what has just happened: the death of the male protagonist of the piece. So on stage, we have a longer lead up to Juliet’s discovery of Romeo’s dead body. 

 

Friar Laurence enters the Churchyard, our focus is shifted away from the tomb to downstage. He finds Bathasar, and Friar Laurence finds out that Romeo has arrived and perhaps there was a fight but perhaps Balthasar dreamed all this. Friar Laurence’s fears are growing. Friar Laurence enters the tomb to find the bloody scene and Romeo’s body. He does not reveal any of this to Juliet as she awakes. 

 

Juliet asks for Romeo. The Friar wants Juliet to flee the tomb with him and he reveals that Paris and Romeo are both dead. When Juliet refuses to leave the fatal scene with him, he flies hearing the noises of others approaching. Juliet takes in the dead body of Romeo next to her and hopes that there is enough poison left: 

“To help me after? I will kiss thy lips

Haply some poison yet doth hang on them

To make me die with a restorative.

Thy lips are warm!”

But she finds only dramatic irony and the footprints of Fate. Her kiss fails to revive Romeo (although in one Victorian production of the play, this kiss actually does revive the dead Romeo). Noises are heard off and Juliet unsheathes Romeo’s dagger. Her final words are short, dramatically ironic since her body will become the new sheath for Romeo’s knife:

“… O happy dagger, 

This is thy sheath.” 

From such intimate tragic events where Juliet enacts her “dismal scene” alone, the stage becomes chaotically filled with events and people. Paris’ servant has brought guards and the whole town seems to arrive as Friar Laurence and Balthasar are captured and all is revealed before The Prince. Capulet enters and Montague arrives, declaring that Lady Montague has died of grief or Romeo’s exile (obviously this adds to the tragedy but it also frees up another young actor to add to the finale’s size and impact on stage). Friar Laurence tells the story of the events and the secret marriage. The Nurse can confirm these details. The Friar’s cowardly escape earlier seals our sense that he is more to blame than anyone else. Balthasar shows the letter that Romeo wrote to his father before his death. The Capulets and Montagues, are primarily blamed by the Prince for all this tragedy. Montague declares says he will build a golden statue to the Capulet Juliet, while Capulet will build Montague Romeo’s gold statue beside her. Hence, we feel that Romeo and Juliet’s tragic love is made into a monument to look up to, forged in gold. Romeo and Juliet died to preserve the notion that love is tragic and immortal and resonates in the final words of The Prince who declares:

“For never was a story of more woe

Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”