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Part II Roedy of Romeo And Juliet

In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare dramatized a love tale that ell known andpeople before his ti lovers unnecessarily dying for love through , is not a very difficult thing to invent, and examples date back to ancient times

The tale of Pyramus and Thisbe, for instance, which Shakespeare burlesques in A Midsue I-48), has such a plot Indeed, both Roht's Dream ritten at about the saest that in the version of the Pyraend presented by the Athenian laborers, Shakespeare was deliberately satirizing his own just-completed Romeo and Juliet (For myself, I find this difficult to believe)

The first version of a plot which is specifically that of Romeo and Juliet appeared in a collection of romances, Il Novellino published in Italian in 1476 by Masuccio Salernitano It was adapted and, in the process,considerably closer to the Shakespearean version (down to the nai da Porto in or about 1530

The first ilish version of the story was in the forical History of Rolish translator Arthur Brooke It was Brooke's poe it quite closely, but adding (needless to say) master touches of his own

In fair Verona

The play opens with a "Chorus," who explains the subject :

Two households, both alike in dignity,

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

Froe break to new mutiny,

- Prologue, lines 1-3

Verona (see page I-451) isof the Shrew and is the place in which The Two Gentlemen of Verona opens The city first appears as the scene of the Romeo and Juliet story in Da Porto's version The earlier Salernitano version placed the tale in Siena, 150 miles south of Verona

The actual scene does not matter, of course The play is not historical and it is not confined to any particular city It could just as easily, with very land, and in the contemporary musical West Side Story it is transferred, fairly intact, to the New York of today

Nevertheless, if we consider Verona, we find that in the play it is treated as an independent principality, so which it was in history only between 1260 and 1387

That period would well fit the vision of an Italian city split by the rivalry of internal factions led by cohting with private armies of retainers and sympathizers

Most Italian cities of the ti and centralized secular government under the Gereries of independent city-states under the moral leadership of the Pope (Guelphs) Families lined up on this side or that and feuded in consequence, or sometimes they had feuds for other reasons and lined up on opposite sides in consequence

In Florence, for instance, the most famous city of Renaissance Italy, there arose about 1300 a deadly feud between the two faan over soradually each side drew to itself others, so that the Cerchi headed the "Bianca" (White) faction, which was Ghibelline, while the Donati headed the "Nera" (Black) faction, which was Guelf The whole city was torn in two by them and for nearly half a century its history was deterun as a family feud

Shakespeare does not give the nature of the feud between the Veronese households, and there is no indication that it is political in nature

the house of Montague

The play opens on a Sunday (from internal evidence), with two retainers of the Capulet faction colish servingmen (as are all Shakespeare's coardless of the supposed nationality of the upper-class ones) and are given the ory

They boast to each other of their desperate bravery and Sampson says:

A dog of the house of Montague moves me

- Act I, scene i, line 8

The Montagues are one of the feuding families, and the Capulets the other In Da Porto's version, the two quarreling households of Verona are given the nalish audiences the very sienial to the ear

Put up your swords

The two Capulet retainers deliberately provoke two others of the Montague faction who enter later The Montague retainers are ready to be provoked and there is suddenly swordplay

One of the leaders of the Montagues, Benvolio, enters now and runs forward, anxious to stop the proceedings He cries out:

Part, fools!

Put up your swords You know not what you do

- Act I, scene i, lines 66-67

Throughout, Benvolio endeavors to make peace, to end the feud or at least to keep it blanketed This is evident in his very name, which is Shakespeare's invention since the equivalent character in Brooke's poeood will"

Benvolio's attempt at conciliation is only one of several indications in the play that the faue that it could easily be ended altogether by some sensible and decisive act of placation on one side or the other The fact that this does not happen adds to the eventual tragedy

Turn thee, Benvolio

Indeed, the chief reason that the feud is not ended appears ienius of the play, Tybalt, of the house of Capulet Furiously, he cries out to the peace Benvolio:

What, art thou drawn a these heartless [cowardly] hinds?

Turn thee, Benvolio; look upon thy death

- Act I, scene i, lines 68-69

Benvolio protests that he is ht and keep the peace, but Tybalt will have none of it:

What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word

As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee

- Act I, scene i, lines 72-73

This is the clearest expression in the play of the irrational psychology of all that is " It is almost the only expression It is Tybalt, the only irrational hater a the leaders of the factions, who prevents the triumph of reason

In Da Porto's tale, the corresponding character is Thebaldo, but it is a happy stroke to change it to Tybalt It brings on thoughts of the folk tale of "Reynard the Fox" (see page I-153), in which Tibert was the name of the cat A common version of this was Tybalt, so that to the Elizabethan audience, the very use of the nas up the picture of this particular Capulet as a quarrelsome and vicious tomcat

Your lives shall pay

The fight, forced on Benvolio by Tybalt, continues to expand Othereven Capulet and Montague theed heads of the faht), until finally the Prince of Verona himself appears on the scene

He is, quite understandably, exasperated at this disorder in the streets There have been three such incidents and his patience is at an end He says, angrily:

// ever you disturb our streets again,

Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace

- Act I, scene i, lines 99-100

The naiven as Escalus No Veronese prince of that nah, Verona was ruled from 1227 to 1259 by Ezzelino da Romano That may be no more than coincidence

Dian's wit

When the streets are cleared, Lady Montague expresses her relief that her son, Romeo, was not involved It turns out that Ro sadly about in a fashion which, to Elizabethan audiences, marks the conventional symptoms of unrequited love Rouise of the romantic lover

The older Montagues are puzzled by Romeo's behavior and Benvolio volunteers to discover the cause The task is easy, for Roirl he loves:

She'll not be hit With Cupid's arrow

She hath Dian's wit,

- Act I, scene i, lines 211-12

Romeo does not name her at this point and, indeed, she never appears in the play

Roirl he loves insists on chastity She has "Dian's wit" and Diana is the Roous to the Greek Arteoddess sworn to chastity)

Benvolio therefore gives Romeo the very sensible advice to find someone else, but Romeo rejects that advice scornfully (It is the sad fact that whereas Benvolio is always sensible, Ro on the catastrophe)

to keep the peace

On the other side, Capulet is talking with Count Paris, a kinsman of Prince Escalus Their talk at first is of the feud and here it see it alive Capulet says:

'tis not hard, I think,

For ue] to keep the peace

- Act I, scene ii, lines 2-3

Paris agrees and says:

Of honorable reckoning are you both,

And pity 'tis you lived at odds so long

- Act I, scene ii, lines 4-5

Whatforladly abandoned

fourteen years

But Capulet has more on his mind than the peace, and so has Paris Capulet has a lovely daughter and Paris would like to er for it He is held back by only one thought Perhaps the girl is too young He says:

My child is yet a stranger in the world,

She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;

- Act I, scene ii, lines 8-9

He is speaking of Juliet, the heroine of the play, and as is stated and emphasized on several occasions, she is not quite fourteen! Her very name is a diminutive, for Juliet means "little Julia" (There was a Julia in The Two Gentleirl of that city, though she could scarcely have been as young as Juliet)

In Elizabethan tieable more quickly, were made mothers more quickly, and diedShakespeare does not bother giving the ages of any of the heroines of his other early plays; only in this one does he make an exception, and for no obvious reason, he emphasizes it strenuously -Perhaps there is a reason

My fair niece Rosaline

Circuin to co to Paris, he is ives the list of invited guests to a servant and tells hih Verona and invite them all

But as the fates would have it, the servant who receives this order is illiterate and has no chance to explain that fact to the hasty Capulet

And, as the fates would further have it, in co the former's romantic love affair, and it is to Ro off the naes and, included on the list are:

Mercutio and his brother Valentine;

Mine uncle Capulet, his wife and daughters;

My fair niece Rosaline; Livia;

Signior Valentio and his cousin Tybalt;

- Act I, scene ii, lines 69-72

It is Rosaline hom Romeo is in love, and this means that Rosaline, as the niece of Capulet, is shown to be afaction

Yet this does not seem to bother anybody at all To be sure, Romeo has not mentioned her name; to do so would ill fit his mood of romantic melancholy Yet he doesn't keep it entirely secret, either, for he has apparently imparted the identity of his loved one to Benvolio since the close of the first scene Thus, Benvolio says to Romeo:

At this same ancient feast of Capulet's

Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so lov'st;

- Act I, scene ii, lines 85-86

Can it be that Rosaline has turned down Romeo because of the feud between their fa Romeo has stated that Rosaline has sworn herself to indiscriminate chastity

Is there any sign of danger at all in this love affair of Romeo's that crosses the lines of the feud? No one makes any mention of it Even the cautious Benvolio does not seeer in it In fact, Benvolio, still anxious to wean Romeo away from a useless love that :

Go thither, and with unattainted eye

Compare her face with some that I shall show,

And I will make thee think thy swan a crow

- Act I, scene ii, lines 88-90

So unimportant is the feud, in other words, that even the cautious Benvolio sees no danger in walking right into the center and hotbed of the Capulet faction

Lammas Eve

It is time to introduce Juliet now Lady Capulet wishes to broach the subject of arrulous old Nurse, who had a daughter Juliet's age, for she says, referring to Juliet:

Susan and she (God rest all Christian souls!)

Were of an age

- Act I, scene iii, lines 18-19

If the Nurse were to serve as surrogate breast feeder for Juliet, she would have to have had a child of her own shortly before More ie once more The Nurse says:

I'll lay fourteen of my teeth-

And yet to my teen [sorrow] be it spoken, I have but four-

She's not fourteen

- Act I, scene iii, lines 12-14

The Nurse then launches into an irrelevant tale of Juliet's childhood that begins

of all days in the year,

Coht shall she be fourteen

- Act I, scene iii, lines 16-17

Lalish times it was the day of a harvest festival, and the fruits of the field, symbolized by half loaves of bread, were consecrated at lo-Saxon term for half loaf was "hlaf-maesse" and this was distorted to "Lammas"

Earlier the Nurse had asked Lady Capulet how long it was to Lammas-tide and had been answered:

A fortnight and odd days

- Act I, scene iii, line 15

We can therefore place the beginning of the play at about July 13 It is summer and the hot weather is referred to later in the play

There e

since the earthquake

The Nurse has another way of dating Juliet's age, too, for she re She says:

'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years;

And she eaned

- Act I, scene iii, lines 23-24

This verse has sonificance, for in 1580 there was a notable earthquake felt in London The argument is therefore presented that this was referred to at this point and that the play was consequently written in 1591 This seems awfully thin, however, andat all

The garrulous Nurse is finally persuaded to be silent and Lady Capulet begins to talk Juliet into e She takes the opportunity at once to sty:

By my count,

I was your mother much upon these years

That you are now a maid

- Act I, scene iii, lines 71-73

Apparently, then, Lady Capulet is herself soht years old Juliet, however, seee and Lady Capulet tells her that Paris will be at the banquet that night and she can look him over and decide whether she can love him

'tis no wit

In the next scene it is later in the day and the Capulet feast will soon begin In the street outside come Romeo and Benvolio, who plan to attend in masks

This seeues to invade the Capulet feast, but the presence ofat feasts was coe II-761) and Love's Labor's Lost (see page I-440), for instance Masks afforded young men and ladies a chance to flirt in semiconcealment

To weaken the case for danger, Rouise his voice, for instance, and is, in point of fact, readily recognized at the feast, as will soon be apparent

To be sure, Ro He says:

weto this masque,

But 'tis no wit to go

- Act I, scene iv, lines 48-49

But when asked why, he can only say:

/ dreaht]

- Act I, scene iv, line 50

If the feud were really alive and deadly, he could easily have said that it was "no wit to go" because discovery would mean death To fall back on a dream, a mere presentiment of evil, sho little importance Romeo attaches to the feud

Queen Mab

With Romeo and Benvolio is a friend, Mercutio, who is of neither faction and is friendly with both, for he has been invited to the feast He is, it appears, a relative of Prince Escalus

Mercutio is, in essence, Shakespeare's invention Da Porto had a minor character named Marcuccio, but Shakespeare took that and touched it with his own special gold even down to the sed h the air with superhu wit that never leaves him

Mercutio does not see either He , as he er Rather, he is intent on rallying Romeo out of his melancholy and is so anxious to have hierly turns drea his own theory on the origin of dreams as the product of a tricky elf He says:

O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you

She is the fairies' midwife, and she conies

In shape no bigger than an agate stone

- Act I, scene iv, lines 53-55

Queen Mab is out of Celtic oddess naroup of the "little people" This may have contributed to the notion of Queen Mab

Queen Mab need not be considered a fairy queen in the sense that Titania was in A Midsue I-26) She is the fairies' "ive birth to dreams, and this is no task for a queen

Here, in all likelihood, "Queen" is used in its original sense of "wo like speaking of "Dame Mab" or "Mistress Mab" The word "queen" early split into two forraded woman, a harlot; the other, "queen," rose to"Queen," in its ordinary original sense, neither depressed nor elevated, vanished altogether

Mercutio's speech about Queen Mab presents the view that dreaes of fate but the product of the routine thoughts of the day Lovers dream of love, courtiers of curtsies, lawyers of fees; soldiers of war and drink, and so on This is one ofrationalism

Thus, when Romeo tries to stem the flow of Mercutio's brilliance and says:

Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!

Thou talk'st of nothing

- Act I, scene iv, lines 95-96

Mercutio answers at once, with stabbing relevance:

True, I talk of dreams

- Act I, scene iv, line 96

a Montague, our foe

Within the ress Thethemselves and Romeo sees Juliet for the first time He falls immediately and hopelessly in love and completely vindicates Benvolio's proet Rosaline Romeo says:

Did my heart love till now:

Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night

- Act I, scene v, lines 54-55

But his voice is overheard and instantly recognized-and by Tybalt, the only person of consequence in either faction who takes the feud seriously He flares into e at once and is prepared to kill He says:

This, by his voice, should be a Montague

Fetch me my rapier, boy

- Act I, scene v, lines 56-57

Capulet is at once aware that Tybalt is in a passion and demands the reason Tybalt says:

Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe,

A villain

- Act I, scene v, lines 63-64

Capulet is not nizes Romeo at once and says to Tybalt:

let him alone

'A bears hientleman,

And, to say truth, Verona brags of him

To be a virtuous and well-governed youth

- Act I, scene v, lines 67-70

Surely the feud is as good as dead when the leader of one side can speak so of the son and heir of the leader of the other side Capulet speaks so highly of Roine that a prospective hter would be a capital way of ending the feud

Then, when Tybalt objects to Capulet's taue, the old er stand On the contrary, he turns savagely on Tybalt, crying:

You are a saucy boy Is't so, indeed?

This trick may chance to scathe [harm] you

-Act I, scene v, lines 85-86

Tybalt, tree, is forced to withdraw

my only hate

Meanwhile, Romeo has made his way to Juliet, who is as instantly struck with hie of kissing her He must leave soon after and Juliet inquires his naue, and says at once, dramatically:

My only love, sprung from my only hate!

- Act I, scene v, line 140

It turns out later in the play that she was particularly close to her cousin Tybalt We can i with awe and adhts with the Montagues, of their disgraceful defeats and treacherous victories Tybalt would surely have poured into her ears all the sick preoccupation with the feud that filled his orathful heart

And she would have absorbed it all ThatJuliet's extreh to absorb the feud in its full romanticism without any admixture of disillusionment that would have come with experience

King Cophetua

Although Romeo has left the feast, he cannot really leave Heaway fro the Capulet estate and finds himself in the orchard

Benvolio and Mercutio co him, and Mercutio in mockery calls after hi Ron of his whereabouts, defining Cupid, ironically, as:

he that shot so true

When King Cophetua loved the beggar maid!

- Act II, scene i, lines 13-14

This is another reference (see page I-431) to the famous tale of the happy love of a socially ill-assorted couple

But Ro and leave Surely if the feud were alive and dangerous, they would never have left Romeo alone in the very center of enemy territory Instead, they seem not a bit concerned

refuse thy name

Romeo's patience is rewarded, for Juliet (as lovesick as he) coh romantically

Ro soliloquy in which he praises her beauty in the ant terms, but never once mentions the fact that she is a Capulet It does not see faction any more than it concerned him that Rosaline was But then, Roh to know the feud is really on its last legs

Not so Juliet She speaks at last and all her talk is of the feud She says:

O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?