The story of two ill-fated lovers from warring clans dying in spite of their love for each other has been done many times in literature, at least twice by Shakespeare himself (don’t forget Pyramus and Thisbe from Act Five of Midsummer!) The story was already well-known in Shakespeare’s day, due to such various versions as Masuccio’s 1476 Il Novellino, Luigi da Porto’s 1530 Due Nobili Amante, and another version by Matteo Bandello (all Italian). This last was translated into French in 1559 by a man with the Polynesian-sounding name “Boiastuau”, which is sometimes rendered “Boisteau”. It’s unlikely Shakespeare was familiar with any of these: we think he had studied Latin in school, but his knowledge of French and Italian was, if anything, rudimentary. However, Boiastuau’s work was later rendered into English in 1567’s Palace of Pleasure by Edward Painter and in verse by Arthur Brooke in The Tragical Historye of Romeus and Juliet in 1562. It was Brooke’s version which Shakespeare used as the foundation for the best-known adaptation, which is now synonymous with the concept of young lovers who “in their triumph die, like fire and powder, which as they kiss consume.”

Like many printings of Shakespeare’s work, some early quarto versions of this play contained many errors and were shorter than normal. This is because they were unauthorized, the so-called “bad quartos”, usually written out from memory by those who acted in the play and sold to the printers for a quick profit. While Shakespeare and his friends later published his own quarto version, this pirate copy is useful in that it indicated that the play had been performed by “Lord Hunsdon(‘s) Servants”. Since Shakespeare’s theater company only bore this name between July 1596 and March 1597, it is possible for us to pinpoint the writing and production of Romeo and Juliet with uncharacteristic accuracy.

As in many Shakespeare plays, as well as the classical theater plays he used as models, several acts begin with a Prologue to set the scene. Since the closing monologue is given by the Prince, that character usually delivers the Prologues as well. The Prologue before Act I and Act II are both in the form of Shakespearean sonnets. So is Romeo’s first speech to Juliet (Act I scene v) from the time he first touches her hand until he kisses her. How’s that for a fast seduction? It only takes him fourteen lines to win her heart!

Nurse’s reference to an earthquake eleven years previously (Act I scene iii) has been taken by some to mean that Shakespeare wrote the play eleven years after a 1580 London earthquake. He may very well have written an early version which he later revised, but most scholars believe that the version we have today dates from around 1595.

Mercutio, whom Romeo describes as one “that loves to hear himself talk,” is given to elaborate rhetorical and literary allusions. For example, several times he taunts Tybalt using a cat motif. This is due to a folk tale in which the cat had the name Tibalt. He also makes an elaborate pun involving fish on Romeo’s name in Act II scene iv: “Romeo without his roe (fish eggs)” leaves only “Me, oh!” — a lover’s sigh.

Upon seeing Romeo dead in Act V scene iii, Montague exclaims “O thou untaught! What manners is in this, to press before thy father to a grave?” Considering that Shakespeare’s only son Hamnet died at approximately this time, these words seem all the more heart-rending.

And now, before we continue, I’d like to engage in a little nit-picking:

• Both Romeo and Juliet are nobility, and both have lived their entire lives in the city of Verona. Benvolio knew of Juliet’s beauty, and he was Romeo’s best friend. Juliet’s father says “Verona brags of (Romeo) to be a virtuous and well-govern’d youth.” How likely is it that they never laid eyes on each other, or heard of each other, until the night of the party?
• Tybalt is a bad man to have as an enemy, and isn’t even much of a friend (witness the tongue-lashing Capulet gives him at the party in Act I scene v.) We don’t observe any kindness or tenderness on his part in the entire play, and indeed he has no interaction with Juliet or the Nurse at all. And yet when he is dead, both Juliet and Nurse are hysterical with grief; Nurse describes him as “the best friend I had” and Juliet calls him “my dearest cousin”.
• Romeo is beside himself at learning that Juliet is in the family of his father’s mortal enemy. And yet, his original love, Rosaline, is a Capulet too (according to the party invitation), therefore Romeo would not have been allowed to marry her anyway, or even talk to her. Yet he never indicates that, only saying that Rosaline rejects his advances because she has resolved to live a life of chastity.
• A man named Mercutio is invited to Capulet’s party. Is it the same Mercutio who fights Tybalt, or just a coincidence? Is it possible that Shakespeare got the characters mixed up?
• How old is Romeo? Most sources call him sixteen; Tybalt twice calls him “boy” (which, admittedly, is an all-purpose pejorative between men jostling for rank). Yet before killing him in Act V, Romeo twice calls Paris “youth” (as well as “boy”, even though Paris’ social status was well above his own). Are we to understand that Paris was younger still?

New vocabulary:

• amerce – to punish
• bride – could mean either bride or groom
• cockatrice – mythical creature that could kill with its eyes
• crow – iron crowbar
• demesne (pr. de-MAIN or de-MEAN)- lands, possessions
• dump – mournful tune
• God-den – good evening
• man of wax – a man so handsome, he might have been a wax doll
• marchpane – marzipan
• my life is my foe’s debt – my life is in the hands of my enemy (in this case, Romeo’s chance for happiness with Juliet is controlled by her father)
• nice – unimportant
• (so deep an) O – groaning
• prorogued – postponed
• rosemary – A herb used in funerals. (As Ophelia says in Hamlet [Act IV scene v]”There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray you, love, remember.”)
• shrift – confession (in the Catholic religion, one may confess one’s sins to the priest, who has the authority from Jesus to forgive them)
• walk a bout – to do a dance
• weraday – alas!

The insults fly fast and furious in this play of feuds and rivalry, so I’ve created a special section just covering the profanity and sexual innuendo in this play:

• beshrew (beshrow) – to curse. Also, to blame.
• bite one’s thumb – insulting gesture, similar to holding up the middle finger today
• by the rood – by the cross (on which Jesus died); a mild oath
• cot-quean – derisive term for a man doing household chores
• fleer – to sneer
• God’s bread – like “God’s blood” and “God’s wounds”, a blasphemy, because it suggested that God had a physical body that needs food. It could also conceivably be a corruption of “God’s breath”, blasphemous for suggesting that God needs to breathe in and out.
• goodman – rank lower than nobleman. To a nobleman like Tybalt, this would be a deadly insult.
• hare – slang for prostitute
• Have at thee – “Defend yourself, because I’m attacking you!”
• heartless – “hart” is a stag (male deer) and hind a female. When Tybalt calls the Montagues “heartless hinds”, there is a double meaning; he is belittling them as a herd of female deer with no stag to lead them.
• hoar – stale or mouldy, but with a double meaning (whore)
• maidenhead – virginity
• open-arse/pop’rin pear – two fruits, one resembling female genitalia, the other phallic
• runagate – renegade
• sirrah – form of address from a superior to an inferior
• take the wall – in a time when animals wandered freely in the road and residents emptied their own pots of human waste into the street, the cleanest place to walk was against the wall of the house, furthest from the dirty street. Thus, to insist that those around you walk in the filth while you remain next to the wall was insulting.

Shakespeare was fond of animal metaphors, and in this play he seems fixated on falconry. (Many scholars have suggested that a commoner from Stratford could not possibly have had such expertise with a hobby only the nobility could afford, and argue from this that the plays were actually written by a nobleman under an assumed name.) Starting in Act II scene ii, there are several references to this sport:

• bating – (the falcon) attempting to fly away from the falconer’s fist
• gyves – leather straps to keep the hawk from flying away
• hist – how the falconer calls his bird
• hood – before and after the hunt, a mask is placed over the falcon’s eyes so it won’t fly away
• niesse – nestling
• tassel-gentle – male hawk

Like Mistress Quickly in Henry IV and Henry V, the Nurse is prone to malapropisms, which means accidentally using a word similar to the intended word, but with a different, sometimes humorous meaning.

Here are some that the Nurse employs, and what she meant to say:

• confidence – conference
• ropery – roguery
• sententious – sentences

Mocking her, Benvolio also employs “indite” for “invite”

And don’t forget: “Wherefore” means “Why” — NOT “WHERE”!!

ACT I

Prologue

Leaving no room for surprises, the Chorus reveals that the “star-cross’d lovers” will not survive their parents’ feud, but their deaths will put an end to it.

scene 1

Two servants of the Capulets get into a fight in the street with servants of the Montagues, and soon even the nobles themselves are joining in. The Prince, having already forbidden such feuds, loses his temper and threatens that the next one to start a fight will be put to death.

Romeo’s mother is worried about him, so she asks Benvolio to find out what’s occupying his mind. Romeo comes right to the point: he’s in love with Rosaline, a woman who gives him no love in return.

scene 2

Count Paris asks Capulet for Juliet’s hand in marriage, but Capulet says she’s too young. He sends an illiterate servant into town to invite guests to his party. The servant asks Romeo to read him the guest list, and so Benvolio finds out that Rosaline will be at the party. He persuades Romeo to go to the party himself, with a promise that he will see an even more beautiful woman there who will make him forget Rosaline.

scene 3

Juliet’s mother asks her to observe Paris at the party to see if she could love him, and Juliet, ever the obedient daughter, agrees.

scene 4

Romeo and his friends prepare to crash Capulet’s party in disguise. With him is his friend Mercutio, who enjoys making grand speeches, or, as Romeo tells him, “Thou talk’st of nothing.”

scene 5

Really a continuation of the previous scene. The Capulets come out and start the party as Romeo and his friends put on their masks. Romeo is, as promised, struck by Juliet’s beauty. Juliet’s cousin Tybalt overhears Romeo and offers to fight with him, but Capulet orders him not to. When Tybalt threatens to kill Romeo anyway, Capulet lectures and yells at him for his impudence, forcing him to back down, but he secretly swears to fight Romeo later.

Romeo approaches Juliet and swears his love to her, and she instantly succumbs, kissing him mere seconds later. Only later do they both find out that their families are bitter enemies.

ACT II

Prologue

The Chorus teases Romeo for abandoning Rosaline so quickly for Juliet, and ponders how he will get the chance to woo her since their families are feuding.

scene 1

Romeo climbs over the garden wall to get closer to Juliet. Benvolio and Mercutio mockingly try to call him back, but finally give up and go home.

scene 2

Really a continuation of the previous scene. In the most famous love scene of all time, Romeo sees Juliet on her balcony. He compares her to the sun and moon, and wishes he could be a glove on her hand as she lays it across her cheek. She speaks, and he eavesdrops, as she wishes that either she were not a Capulet, or Romeo not a Montague, since “a rose by any other word would smell as sweet”, and it is only their names that are enemies. When he reveals his presence, they exchanges promises of true love, and make plans to be secretly wed the next day.

scene 3

Friar Lawrence, a priest whose hobby is experimenting with illegal potions, meets with Romeo in the early morning. He knew about Romeo’s infatuation with Rosaline, so he’s shocked that he suddenly wants to get married to someone else.

scene 4

Mercutio and Benvolio tease Romeo for running out on them the previous night. Juliet’s Nurse asks Romeo if he’s prepared to make an honest woman of her; he tells her to go to Friar Lawrence’s cell that afternoon, and arranges for a rope ladder to Juliet’s window, so that they can consummate the marriage that night without her parents finding out.

scene 5

Nurse teases Juliet by continually changing the subject, not giving her the news she is frantic to get. Finally she tells her the plans for the wedding and impromptu “honeymoon”, and Juliet is overjoyed.

scene 6

Romeo and Juliet arrive at the monastery, and Friar Lawrence unites them in marriage. He also counsels them, prophetically, that “violent delights have violent ends”, and encourages them to “love moderately”.

As we all know, they didn’t take his advice.

ACT III

scene 1

Tybalt provokes Romeo on the street, but Romeo answers him with gentle words, since he is Juliet’s cousin. Mercutio thinks Romeo is being cowardly, and attacks Tybalt. Romeo tries to separate them, and in the process, Tybalt stabs Mercutio. Enraged, Romeo kills Tybalt. The Prince realizes that Tybalt provoked the fight, so he exiles Romeo from Verona rather than sentencing him to death.

scene 2

Juliet hears Nurse crying about the death, but naturally thinks it is Romeo who died. When she learns the truth she still can’t bring herself to hate Romeo for killing her cousin.scene 3

Romeo is more upset to learn that he has been banished than if he had been sentenced to death. Both Friar Lawrence and Nurse persuade him to go live in Mantua until they can get the banishment reversed.

scene 4

On the spur of the moment, Capulet promises Paris that he can marry Juliet in three days.

scene 5

After spending the night together, Romeo and Juliet say their tearful goodbyes.

Juliet’s parents tell her that she has been promised to Paris. She tries to dissuade them, but they threaten to force her, or kick her out of the house. When even the Nurse recommends Paris, Juliet runs away to Friar Lawrence for his advice.

ACT IV

scene 1

Juliet runs into Paris at Friar Lawrence’s cell, and tries to avoid his flirtation.

She threatens to kill herself rather than be married to Paris, but Friar Lawrence comes up with a desperate plan: with a potion he has, she will fake her own death. Then he will rescue her from the mausoleum once the potion wears off, and reunite her with Romeo.

scene 2

Capulet prepares for the wedding. Juliet comes home, pretending to beg her father’s forgiveness and pretending to be looking forward to the marriage. The father is so happy to hear this he moves the marriage up to the next day.

scene 3

Juliet takes the potion and soon falls into a deep sleep.

scene 4

After working on the wedding preparations all night, Capulet hears Paris approaching with his wedding party, and calls for Juliet to be woken up.

scene 5

Juliet is discovered motionless and cold, to all appearances dead. Friar Lawrence does a good job of pretending to be surprised, and makes plans for the “funeral”. The musicians provide some comic relief.

ACT V

scene 1

Romeo is waiting in Mantua for word from Friar Lawrence when he meets Balthasar, who believes like the rest of Verona that Juliet is dead, and tells Romeo. He immediately returns to Verona, stopping only at an apothecary shop where he buys a deadly poison.

scene 2

Friar Lawrence learns that his message to Romeo, telling him that Juliet is still alive, never got to him. He goes immediately to the crypt to get Juliet out when she wakes up.

scene 3

Paris secretly visits Juliet’s mausoleum, and when Romeo opens up the crypt, he fights him, and dies. Then Romeo, seeing Juliet’s lifeless body, lies down beside her, takes his poison, and dies.

Friar Lawrence arrives just minutes too late, and finds the bodies of Romeo and Paris.

Then Juliet wakes up. Friar Lawrence tries to persuade her to leave with him, but instead she stays to die with Romeo. Finding none of his poison left, she pulls his dagger and stabs herself.

On seeing the carnage, the Prince forces Capulet and Montague to give up their feud.