= Romeo_and_Juliet =

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= Romeo_and_Juliet =
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Introduction
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'The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet', often shortened to 'Romeo and
Juliet', is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his
career about the romance between two young Italians from feuding
families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his
lifetime and, along with 'Hamlet', is one of his most frequently
performed. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal
young lovers.

'Romeo and Juliet' belongs to a tradition of tragic romances
stretching back to antiquity. The plot is based on an Italian tale
written by Matteo Bandello and 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 expanded the plot by developing a
number of supporting characters, in particular Mercutio and Paris.
Believed to have been written between 1591 and 1595, the play was
first published in a quarto version in 1597. The text of the first
quarto version was of poor quality, however, and later editions
corrected the text to conform more closely with Shakespeare's
original.

Shakespeare's use of poetic dramatic structure (including effects such
as switching between comedy and tragedy to heighten tension, the
expansion of minor characters, and numerous 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 venues. 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 'Romeo und Julie' omitted
much of the action and used 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 and into the 21st century, the play
has been adapted to film in versions as diverse as George Cukor's
'Romeo and Juliet' (1936), Franco Zeffirelli's 'Romeo and Juliet'
(1968), Baz Luhrmann's 'Romeo + Juliet' (1996), and Carlo Carlei's
'Romeo and Juliet' (2013).

Characters
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;Ruling house of Verona
* Prince 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, a friend of Romeo.

;House of Capulet
* Capulet is the patriarch of the house of Capulet.
* Lady Capulet is the matriarch of the house of Capulet.
* Juliet Capulet, the 13-year-old daughter of Capulet, is the play's
female protagonist.
* Tybalt is a cousin of Juliet, the nephew of Lady Capulet.
* The Nurse is Juliet's personal attendant and confidante.
* Rosaline is Lord Capulet's niece, Romeo's love in the beginning of
the story.
* Peter, Sampson, and Gregory are servants of the Capulet household.

;House of Montague
* Montague is the patriarch of the house of Montague.
* Lady Montague is the matriarch of the house of Montague.
* Romeo Montague, the son of Montague, is the play's male protagonist.
* Benvolio is Romeo's cousin and best friend.
* Abram and Balthasar are servants of the Montague household.

;Others
* Friar Laurence is a Franciscan friar and 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
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The play, set in Verona, Italy, begins with a street brawl between
Montague and Capulet servants who, like the masters they serve, are
sworn enemies. Prince Escalus 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 Juliet, 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. Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, is
enraged at Romeo for sneaking into the ball but is stopped from
killing Romeo by Juliet's father, who does not wish to shed blood in
his house. After the ball, in what is now famously known as 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.

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", and accepts the duel
on Romeo's behalf. Mercutio is fatally wounded when Romeo attempts to
break up the fight, and declares a curse upon both households before
he dies. ("A plague on both your houses!") Grief-stricken and racked
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, under penalty of death if he
ever returns. 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". 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 potion that
will put her into a deathlike coma or catalepsy for "two and forty
hours". The Friar promises to send a messenger, Friar John, 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.

Friar John, however, is unable to deliver the message about Juliet to
Romeo because the onset of a plague makes travel impossible. 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, discovering that
Romeo is dead, stabs herself with his dagger and joins him in death.
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", fulfilling the curse that Mercutio swore. 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."

Sources
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'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. 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.

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':

However, the reference is part of a polemic against what Dante saw as
moral decay of Florence, Lombardy, and the Italian states in general;
through his characters, Dante aimed to chastise Albert I of Germany
for neglecting what Dante felt were his responsibilities towards Italy
("you who are negligent") as "King of the Romans", as well as
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. History 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. 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, 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 Ganozza by Masuccio
Salernitano, in the 33rd novel of his 'Il Novellino' published in
1476. 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, Ganozza's forced marriage, the
potion plot, and the crucial message that goes astray. In this
version, Mariotto is caught and beheaded and Ganozza dies of grief.

Luigi da Porto (1485-1529) adapted the story as 'Giulietta e Romeo'
and included it in his 'Historia novellamente ritrovata di due nobili
amanti' '(A Newly-Discovered History of two Noble Lovers'), written in
1524 and published posthumously in 1531 in Venice. Da Porto drew on
'Pyramus and Thisbe', Boccaccio's 'Decameron', and Salernitano's
'Mariotto e Ganozza', but it is likely that his story is also
autobiographical: He was a soldier present at a ball on 26 February
1511, at a residence of the pro-Venice Savorgnan clan in Udine,
following a peace ceremony attended by the opposing pro-Imperial
Strumieri clan. There, Da Porto fell in love with Lucina, a Savorgnan
daughter, but the family feud frustrated their courtship. The next
morning, the Savorgnans led an attack on the city, and many members of
the Strumieri were murdered. Years later, still half-paralyzed from a
battle-wound, Luigi wrote 'Giulietta e Romeo' in Montorso Vicentino
(from which he could see the "castles" of Verona), dedicating the
'novella' to the 'bellisima e leggiadra' (the beautiful and graceful)
Lucina Savorgnan. Da Porto presented his tale as historically factual
and claimed it took place at least a century earlier than Salernitano
had it, in the days Verona was ruled by Bartolomeo della Scala
(anglicized as Prince Escalus).
Da Porto presented the narrative in close to its modern form,
including the names of the lovers, the rival families of Montecchi and
Capuleti (Cappelletti) and the location in Verona. He named the friar
Laurence ('frate Lorenzo') and introduced the characters Mercutio
('Marcuccio Guertio'), Tybalt ('Tebaldo Cappelletti'), Count Paris
('conte (Paride) di Lodrone'), the faithful servant, and Giulietta's
nurse. Da Porto originated the remaining basic elements of the story:
the feuding families, Romeo--left by his mistress--meeting Giulietta
at a dance at her house, the love scenes (including the balcony
scene), the periods of despair, Romeo killing Giulietta's cousin
(Tebaldo), and the families' reconciliation after the lovers'
suicides. In da Porto's version, Romeo takes poison and Giulietta
keeps her breath until she dies.

In 1554, Matteo Bandello published the second volume of his 'Novelle',
which included his version of 'Giulietta e Romeo', probably written
between 1531 and 1545. Bandello lengthened and weighed down the plot
while leaving the storyline basically unchanged (though he did
introduce Benvolio). Bandello's story was translated into French by
Pierre Boaistuau in 1559 in the first volume of his 'Histoires
Tragiques'. Boaistuau adds much moralising and sentiment, and the
characters indulge in rhetorical outbursts.

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'. There was a
trend among writers and playwrights to publish works based on Italian
'novelle'--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'. 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 dramatization of Brooke's
translation, and Shakespeare follows the poem closely but adds detail
to several major and minor characters (the Nurse and Mercutio in
particular).

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.

Date and text
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It is unknown when exactly Shakespeare wrote 'Romeo and Juliet'.
Juliet's Nurse refers to an earthquake she says occurred 11 years ago.
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.
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. One conjecture is that
Shakespeare may have begun a draft in 1591, which he completed in
1595.

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 so-called '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. 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.
However, "the theory, formulated by [Alfred] Pollard," that the 'bad
quarto' was reconstructed from memory by some of the actors is now
under attack. Alternative theories are that some or all of 'the bad
quartos' are early versions by Shakespeare or abbreviations made
either for Shakespeare's company or for other companies." In any
event, its appearance in early 1597 makes 1596 the latest possible
date for the play's composition.

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.
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). 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 have arisen from editors or compositors, not from
Shakespeare.

The First Folio text of 1623 was based primarily on Q3, with
clarifications and corrections possibly coming from a theatrical
prompt book or Q1. Other Folio editions of the play were printed in
1632 (F2), 1664 (F3), and 1685 (F4). 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.

Themes and motifs
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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, 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.

Love
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'Romeo and Juliet' is sometimes considered to have no unifying theme,
save that of young love. 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.

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. 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'.

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. 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 keeps
them from losing the audience's sympathy.

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. 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."

Fate and chance
=================
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. 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. 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. 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.

Duality (light and dark)
==========================
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. For example, both
Romeo and Juliet see the other as light in a surrounding darkness.
Romeo describes Juliet as being like the sun, brighter than a torch, a
jewel sparkling in the night, and a bright angel among dark clouds.
Even when she lies apparently dead in the tomb, he says her "beauty
makes / This vault a feasting presence full of light." Juliet
describes Romeo as "day in night" and "Whiter than snow upon a raven's
back." This contrast of light and dark can be expanded as
symbols--contrasting love and hate, youth and age in a metaphoric way.
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 and death of Romeo and Juliet.
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.

Time
======
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." From the very beginning, the lovers are designated as
"star-cross'd" 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.

Another central theme is haste: Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' spans
a period of four to six days, in contrast to Brooke's poems spanning
nine months. 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". 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.

Time is also connected to the theme of light and dark. In
Shakespeare's day, plays were most often performed at noon or in the
afternoon 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.

Critical history
==================
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." 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." 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.

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 included in the
play in order 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. At the
beginning 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.

Dramatic structure
====================
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 III, the play is largely a comedy. 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. 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.

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.

Language
==========
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. 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. 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. 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.
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?" By doing this, she searches for true expression, rather
than a poetic exaggeration of their love. Juliet uses monosyllabic
words with Romeo but uses formal language with Paris. Other forms in
the play include an epithalamium by Juliet, a rhapsody in Mercutio's
Queen Mab speech, and an elegy by Paris. 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. Humour, also, is
important: scholar Molly Mahood identifies at least 175 puns and
wordplays in the text. Many of these jokes are sexual in nature,
especially those involving Mercutio and the Nurse.

Psychoanalytic criticism
==========================
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. '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. Norman Holland, writing in 1966, considers Romeo's dream
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.
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" and often expresses her passion through an
anticipation of Romeo's death. 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.

Feminist criticism
====================
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 a violent mode, regretting that Juliet has made him
so "effeminate". 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. 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.

Queer theory
==============
A number of critics have found the character of Mercutio to have
unacknowledged homoerotic desire for Romeo. Jonathan Goldberg examined
the sexuality of Mercutio and Romeo utilising queer theory in
'Queering the Renaissance' (1994), comparing their friendship with
sexual love. Mercutio, in friendly conversation, mentions Romeo's
phallus, suggesting traces of homoeroticism. 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." 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", she may be raising
the question of whether there is any difference between the beauty of
a man and the beauty of a woman.

The balcony scene
===================
The balcony scene was introduced by Da Porto in 1524. He had Romeo
walk frequently by her house, "sometimes climbing to her chamber
window", and wrote, "It happened one night, as love ordained, when the
moon shone unusually bright, that whilst Romeo was climbing the
balcony, the young lady ... opened the window, and looking out saw
him". After this they have a conversation in which they declare
eternal love to each other. A few decades later, Bandello greatly
expanded this scene, diverging from the familiar one: Julia has her
nurse deliver a letter asking Romeo to come to her window with a rope
ladder, and he climbs the balcony with the help of his servant, Julia
and the nurse (the servants discreetly withdraw after this).

Nevertheless, in October 2014, Lois Leveen pointed out in 'The
Atlantic' that the original Shakespeare play did not contain a
balcony; it just says that Juliet appears at a window. The word
'balcone' is not known to have existed in the English language until
two years after Shakespeare's death. The balcony was certainly used in
Thomas Otway's 1679 play, 'The History and Fall of Caius Marius',
which had borrowed much of its story from 'Romeo and Juliet' and
placed the two lovers in a balcony reciting a speech similar to that
between Romeo and Juliet. Leveen suggested that during the 18th
century, David Garrick chose to use a balcony in his adaptation and
revival of 'Romeo and Juliet' and modern adaptations have continued
this tradition.

Shakespeare's day
===================
'Romeo and Juliet' ranks with 'Hamlet' as one of Shakespeare's most
performed plays. Its many adaptations have made it one of his most
enduring and famous stories. 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. The
date of the first performance is unknown. The First Quarto, printed in
1597, reads "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 names one
of its actors, Will Kemp, instead of Peter, in a line in Act V.
Richard Burbage was probably the first Romeo, being the company's
chief tragedian; and Master Robert Goffe (a boy), the first Juliet.
The premiere is likely to have been at The Theatre, with other early
productions at the Curtain. 'Romeo and Juliet' is one of the first
Shakespeare plays to have been performed outside England: a shortened
and simplified version was performed in Nördlingen in 1604.

Restoration and 18th-century theatre
======================================
All theatres were closed down by the puritan government on 6 September
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 was divided
between them.

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. 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.

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. 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. 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. 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.

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. The first
professional performances of the play in North America were those of
the Hallam Company.

19th-century theatre
======================
Garrick's altered version of the play was very popular, and ran for
nearly a century. 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, and then in 1847 in Britain
with Samuel Phelps at Sadler's Wells Theatre. Charlotte 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." Queen Victoria wrote in her journal that "no-one would
ever have imagined she was a woman". Cushman's success broke the
Garrick tradition and paved the way for later performances to return
to the original storyline.

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. 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. 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.

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 (). The programme noted that: "The
tragedy will be produced in strict accordance with historical
propriety, in every respect, following closely the text of
Shakespeare."

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. 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'.

20th-century theatre
======================
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 on
Broadway in December 1934. Critics wrote that Cornell was "the
greatest Juliet of her time", "endlessly haunting", and "the most
lovely and enchanting Juliet our present-day theatre has seen".

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. Gielgud used a scholarly
combination of Q1 and Q2 texts and organised the set and costumes to
match as closely as possible the Elizabethan period. His efforts were
a huge success at the box office, and set the stage for increased
historical realism in later productions. 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."

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." Brook excluded the final reconciliation of the
families from his performance text.

Throughout the century, audiences, influenced by the cinema, became
less willing to accept actors distinctly older than the teenage
characters they were playing. 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. 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.

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 killed himself by hypodermic
needle.
Neil Bartlett's production of Romeo and Juliet themed the play very
contemporary with a cinematic look which started its life at the Lyric
Hammersmith, London then went to West Yorkshire Playhouse for an
exclusive run in 1995. The cast included Emily Woof as Juliet, Stuart
Bunce as Romeo, Sebastian Harcombe as Mercutio, Ashley Artus as
Tybalt, Souad Faress as Lady Capulet and Silas Carson as Paris. 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.

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, in the
apartheid era in South Africa, and in the aftermath of the Pueblo
Revolt. 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. A mock-Victorian revisionist version of 'Romeo and
Juliet' 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'. 'Shakespeare's R&J', by
Joe Calarco, spins the classic in a modern tale of gay teenage
awakening. A recent comedic musical adaptation was 'The Second City's
Romeo and Juliet Musical: The People vs. Friar Laurence, the Man Who
Killed Romeo and Juliet', set in modern times.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, '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 re-formed company of the Old Vic in 1929
with John Gielgud, Martita Hunt, and Margaret Webster, 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.

21st-century theatre
======================
In 2009, Shakespeare's Globe ran a production of 'Romeo and Juliet'
which was directed by Dominic Dromgoole, and starred Adetomiwa Edun as
Romeo and Ellie Kendrick as Juliet.

In 2013, 'Romeo and Juliet' ran on Broadway at Richard Rodgers Theatre
from 19 September to 8 December for 93 regular performances after 27
previews starting on 24 August with Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad
in the starring roles.

A production of the play starring Tom Holland and Francesca
Amewudah-Rivers ran at Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End
from 11 May 2024 for a 12-week limited run. The production was
directed by Jamie Lloyd.

A production of the play starring Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler opened
on Broadway in Fall 2024. The production featured music by Jack
Antonoff, direction by Sam Gold, and movement by Sonya Tayeh. The
production achieved the youngest ticket buying audience in Broadway
history and received a Drama League Award nomination for Best Revival
of a Play, along with Connor receiving a nomination for Distinguished
Performance. It also received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination
for Best Revival of a Play, along with Connor receiving a nomination
for Outstanding Lead Performer in a Broadway Play. The play received a
Tony Awards nomination for Best Revival of a Play, the first Tony
nomination for a revival of this play in history.

Ballet
========
The best-known ballet version is Prokofiev's 'Romeo and Juliet'.
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.

In 1977, Michael Smuin's production of one of the play's most dramatic
and impassioned dance interpretations was debuted in its entirety by
San Francisco Ballet. This production was the first full-length ballet
to be broadcast by the PBS series "Great Performances: Dance in
America"; it aired in 1978.

Dada Masilo, a South African dancer and choreographer, reinterpreted
Romeo and Juliet in a new modern light. She introduced changes to the
story, notably that of presenting the two families as multiracial.

Music
=======
At least 24 operas have been based on 'Romeo and Juliet'. 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.
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 'Giulietta e Romeo' by Nicola Vaccai--rather
than directly adapting Shakespeare's play. Among later operas, there
is Heinrich Sutermeister's 1940 work 'Romeo und Julia' and Pascal
Dusapin's first opera on a libretto by Olivier Cadiot (1988).

'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. Tchaikovsky's 'Romeo and Juliet'
Fantasy-Overture (1869, revised 1870 and 1880) is a 20-minute
symphonic poem, containing the famous melody known as the "love
theme". Tchaikovsky's device of repeating the same musical theme at
the ball, in the balcony scene, in Juliet's bedroom and in the tomb
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. 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).

The play influenced several jazz works, including Peggy Lee's "Fever".
Duke Ellington's 'Such Sweet Thunder' contains a piece entitled "The
Star-Crossed Lovers" 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. The play has frequently
influenced popular music, including works by The Supremes, Bruce
Springsteen, Tom Waits, Lou Reed, and Taylor Swift. The most famous
such track is Dire Straits' "Romeo and Juliet".

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 was twice adapted
as popular films in 1961 and in 2021. This version updated the setting
to mid-20th-century New York City and the warring families to ethnic
gangs. Other musical adaptations include Terrence Mann's 1999 rock
musical 'William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet', co-written with
Jerome Korman; Gérard Presgurvic's 2001 'Roméo et Juliette, de la
Haine à l'Amour'; Riccardo Cocciante's 2007 'Giulietta & Romeo'
and Johan Christher Schütz; and Johan Petterssons's 2013 adaptation
'Carnival Tale (Tivolisaga)', which takes place at a travelling
carnival.

Literature and art
====================
'Romeo and Juliet' had a profound influence on subsequent literature.
Before then, romance had not even been viewed as a worthy topic for
tragedy. In Harold Bloom's words, Shakespeare "invented the formula
that the sexual becomes the erotic when crossed by the shadow of
death". 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. The word "Romeo" has even become synonymous
with "male lover" in English.

'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. The play directly
influenced later literary works. For example, the preparations for a
performance form a major plot in Charles Dickens' 'Nicholas Nickleby'.

'Romeo and Juliet' is one of Shakespeare's most-illustrated works. The
first known illustration was a woodcut of the tomb scene, thought to
be created by Elisha Kirkall, which appeared in Nicholas Rowe's 1709
edition of Shakespeare's plays. 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. Early in
the 19th century, Henry Thomson painted 'Juliet after the Masquerade',
an of which was published in The Literary Souvenir, 1828, with an
accompanying poem by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. 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. In the 20th century, the
play's most iconic visual images have derived from its popular film
versions.

David Blixt's 2007 novel 'The Master Of Verona' imagines the origins
of the famous Capulet-Montague feud, combining the characters from
Shakespeare's Italian plays with the historical figures of Dante's
time. Blixt's subsequent novels 'Voice Of The Falconer' (2010),
'Fortune's Fool' (2012), and 'The Prince's Doom' (2014) continue to
explore the world, following the life of Mercutio as he comes of age.
More tales from Blixt's 'Star-Cross'd' series appear in 'Varnished
Faces: Star-Cross'd Short Stories' (2015) and the plague anthology,
'We All Fall Down' (2020). Blixt also authored 'Shakespeare's Secrets:
Romeo & Juliet' (2018), a collection of essays on the history of
Shakespeare's play in performance, in which Blixt asserts the play is
structurally not a Tragedy, but a Comedy-Gone-Wrong. In 2014 Blixt and
his wife, stage director Janice L Blixt, were guests of the city of
Verona, Italy for the launch of the Italian language edition of 'The
Master Of Verona', staying with Dante's descendants and filmmaker Anna
Lerario, with whom Blixt collaborated on a film about the life of
Veronese prince Cangrande della Scala.

Lois Leveen's 2014 novel 'Juliet's Nurse' imagined the fourteen years
leading up to the events in the play from the point of view of the
nurse. The nurse has the third largest number of lines in the original
play; only the eponymous characters have more lines.

The play was the subject of a 2017 General Certificate of Secondary
Education (GCSE) question by the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA
Examinations board that was administered to students. The board
attracted widespread media criticism and derision after the question
appeared to confuse the Capulets and the Montagues, with exams
regulator Ofqual describing the error as unacceptable.

'Romeo and Juliet' was adapted into manga format by publisher UDON
Entertainment's Manga Classics imprint and was released in May 2018.

Screen
========
'Romeo and Juliet' may be the most-filmed play of all time. 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. 'Romeo and Juliet'
was first filmed in the silent era, by Georges Méliès, although his
film is now lost. The play was first heard on film in 'The Hollywood
Revue of 1929', in which John Gilbert recited the balcony scene
opposite Norma Shearer.

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. Cinema-goers
considered the film too "arty", staying away as they had from Warner's
'A Midsummer Night's Dream' a year before: leading to Hollywood
abandoning the Bard for over a decade. Renato Castellani won the
'Grand Prix' at the Venice Film Festival for his 1954 film of 'Romeo
and Juliet'. His Romeo, Laurence Harvey, was already an experienced
screen actor. 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".

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".
Zeffirelli's teenage leads, Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, had
virtually no previous acting experience but performed capably and with
great maturity. Zeffirelli has been particularly praised for his
presentation of the duel scene as bravado getting out-of-control. The
film courted controversy by including a nude wedding-night scene while
Olivia Hussey was only fifteen.

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. Far darker than Zeffirelli's
version, the film is set in the "crass, violent and superficial
society" of Verona Beach and Sycamore Grove. 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. The
1961 film '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. In 2006,
Disney's 'High School Musical' made use of 'Romeo and Juliet' plot,
placing the two young lovers in different high-school cliques instead
of feuding families. Film-makers have frequently featured characters
performing scenes from 'Romeo and Juliet'. The conceit of dramatising
Shakespeare writing 'Romeo and Juliet' has been used several times,
including John Madden's 1998 'Shakespeare in Love', in which
Shakespeare writes the play against the backdrop of his own doomed
love affair. 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 English-language film based on the play. In 2013, Sanjay
Leela Bhansali directed the Bollywood film 'Goliyon Ki Raasleela
Ram-Leela', a contemporary version of the play which starred Ranveer
Singh and Deepika Padukone in leading roles. The film was a commercial
and critical success. In February 2014, BroadwayHD released a filmed
version of the 2013 Broadway Revival of 'Romeo and Juliet'. The
production starred Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad.

Modern social media and virtual world productions
===================================================
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.

Architecture
==============
A Juliet balcony (or Juliette balcony) is a balustrade connected to
the façade of a building.

Astronomy
===========
Two of Uranus’s moons, Juliet and Mab, are named for the play.

Video games
=============
'The Sims 2' features a neighborhood called Veronaville that features
the Capps (Capulet) and the Monty (Montague) families as playable
families. The game features the patriarchs of the Capps and Monty
families as hating each other, with a love triangle throughout the
neighborhood.

Scene by scene
======================================================================
Image:Romeo and Juliet Q2 Title Page-2.jpg|Title page of the Second
Quarto of 'Romeo and Juliet' published in 1599
Image:Prologue.jpg|Act I prologue
Image:Scene-1.jpg|Act I scene 1: Quarrel between Capulets and
Montagues
Image:Scene 2.jpg|Act I scene 2
Image:Scene 3.jpg|Act I scene 3
Image:Scene 4.jpg|Act I scene 4
Image:Act I scene 5.jpg|Act I scene 5
Image:Miller-RomeoJulietAct1.jpg|Act I scene 5: Romeo's first
interview with Juliet
Image:Act 2 prologue.jpg|Act II prologue
Image:Act II Scene III.jpg|Act II scene 3
Image:Smirke-JulietNurse.jpg|Act II scene 5: Juliet intreats her nurse
Image:Act II Scene VI.jpg|Act II scene 6
Image:Rigaud-RomeoJuliet.jpg|Act III scene 5: Romeo takes leave of
Juliet
Image:Opie-JulietsDeath.jpg|Act IV scene 5: Juliet's fake death
Image:Romeo and Juliet (Act IV, scene V).jpg|Act IV scene 5: Another
depiction
Image:Northcote-JulietAwakes.jpg|Act V scene 3: Juliet awakes to find
Romeo dead

See also
======================================================================
* Pyramus and Thisbe
*Lovers of Cluj-Napoca
*Lovers of Teruel
*'Antony and Cleopatra'
*Tristan and Iseult
* 'Mem and Zin'
* List of idioms attributed to Shakespeare

References
============
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. 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.

External links
======================================================================
*
*
* [http://www.bl.uk/works/romeo-and-juliet 'Romeo and Juliet'] at the
British Library
* [http://shakespeare.mit.edu/romeo_juliet/ 'Romeo and Juliet'] HTML
version at MIT
* [http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/romeoscenes.html 'Romeo and
Juliet'] HTML Annotated Play
*
[https://web.archive.org/web/20140301182936/http://www.kiwipublications.co.uk/easy-read-shakespeare/romeo-and-juliet/
'Easy Read Romeo and Juliet'] Full text with portraits and location
drawings to make the play easy to follow from the printed page.
*

License
=========
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_and_Juliet