Shakespeare, Year 10: the 1590s, language and stagecraft (Romeo and Juliet option)

Brooke

HintAn English writer who retold a continental tale in verse.

The whyArthur Brooke's The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet is the main source. Shakespeare changed it in many ways, including shrinking the story from months to days.

In the early to mid 1590s

HintElizabeth I was on the throne.

The whyScholars cannot give an exact date. The earliest printed edition came out in 1597.

A boy, as women were not allowed to act on the professional stage

HintThe actor was young, but not a girl.

The whyFemale parts were played by adolescent boys in women's costume. This helps explain why the love scenes rely on language rather than touch.

About nine months

HintMuch slower, and so less breathless.

The whyThe play covers about four to six days. The change makes haste a major theme and turns a slow tale into a headlong rush towards doom.

Ruled by men, with fathers holding the authority

HintThink of the word for a father.

The whyIn the play fathers decide marriages, and young men prove themselves by fighting for the family. Some critics see the feud, and Juliet's defiance of her father, as linked to this.

metaphor

HintHe says she is the sun, not that she is like it.

The whyThe speech is full of light imagery: the window is the east, and she outshines the moon. Light and dark run through the whole play.

blank verse

HintNot rhymed, but still in a regular pattern.

The whyShakespeare matches the verse to the speaker: the lovers often slip into rhyme, while the Nurse and the servants speak more like everyday talk.

Grave means both serious and a place of burial

HintHe jokes about the same word in two senses.

The whyIt is a dying wit: he uses humour right to the last, which makes his death hit harder. Many of his jokes are plays on words.

That their love is a bright secret set against a world of daytime violence

HintThink of where and when they meet, and of what the feud does by day.

The whyThey meet at a feast and by night in a garden, and their wedding night is the last they spend together. The audience feels the brightness of their love against the darkness that will end it.

That the actors will do their best to mend whatever has been left out

HintA modest request to the audience.

The whyThe Chorus speaks directly to the audience, as if they were in a theatre together. It is stagecraft as well as poetry.