Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare The title page of Romeo & Juliet from the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays, published in 1623. Handsome bound facsimiles of Romeo & Juliet , published in the Globe Folios series in association with the British Library, are available from the shop, price £9.99. Each volume includes an introduction by the foremost First Folio scholar, Anthony James West. Sources, early Performance and Publication Shakespeare’s principal sources for Romeo & Romeo & Juliet was almost certainly first Juliet were a long narrative poem called The performed by Shakespeare’s company, the Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Chamberlain’s Men, in or around 1596 – a Brooke, first published in 1562 and, to a lesser ‘lyrical’ period of Shakespeare’s writing career degree, the prose romance Rhomeo and Julietta which also includes A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Painter. Both sources were based Richard II and many of the Sonnets . No records on a French version of the Italian story Giulietta exist to tell us where it was first seen, but it e Romeo first published in about 1530. Such is likely to have been either the Theatre or the The Curtain Theatre, Shoreditch (to the right), where Italian ‘novelles’ were popular reading in Curtain playhouse in Shoreditch. It has been Romeo & Juliet was probably first performed in or around Shakespeare’s time and Painter’s collection, suggested that Richard Burbage, the company’s 1596. A detail from Abram Booth’s ‘View of London from The Palace of Pleasure , was singled out by the leading man, took the role of Romeo (he would the North’. Shakespeare’s Globe Picture Library playwright-turned-puritan Stephen Gosson then have been about 28) and that the part of as the kind of book ‘ransackt to furnish the Juliet was taken by Master Robert Gough, who Play houses in London’. seems to have been allocated leading female roles in Shakespeare’s earlier plays. Better records exist for the early performance The text of Romeo & Juliet is complicated. of Romeo & Juliet on the Continent. A German It first appeared in the short – or ‘bad’ – Quarto version of the play formed a staple part of the of 1597. This version, though traditionally repertory of English companies that toured maligned as an unauthoritative reconstruction The Duke’s Theatre, Dorset Gardens, where Pepys saw northern Europe in the last years of the 16th of the plays by actors in the company, may Romeo & Juliet in 1662. Topfoto and the first half of the 17th centuries. Versions nevertheless give a good idea of what was first of the play were performed at Nördlingen in performed on the stage. The First Quarto was Bavaria in 1604 and at Dresden in 1626. The succeeded by a second ‘good’ version of the text first recorded performance in England was not in 1599. This Second Quarto is one-third as until the Restoration period, when it was long again as the first, and traditionally assumed presented at the Duke’s Theatre in December to have been derived in large part from 1660. Samuel Pepys saw the first night of its Shakespeare’s ‘foul papers’ or original draft revival on 1 March 1662. He was not impressed: of the play. All subsequent early editions …and thence to the Opera and there saw – including the version that appears in the Romeo and Julett [sic], the first time it was 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays – derive ever acted. But it is the play of itself the worst more or less directly from the Second Quarto, that ever I heard in my life, and the worst which is also the basis of all modern editions acted that ever I saw these people do; and I of the play. am resolved to go no more to see the first time of acting, for they were all of them out more or less [i.e. had not learned their lines] The title page of Arthur Brooke’s The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet , Shakespeare’s chief source for Romeo & Juliet . © All Rights Reserved. The British Library Board. 2 3 Contexts No marriage without parental Love’s madness consent Lovers lose themselves, their wits, and make Youth for the most part is grown into such shipwreck of their fortunes all together: a pass that forgetting all childlike affection and madness, to make away themselves and others, dutiful obedience unto father and mother in the violent death… if this passion continue it makes highest point of subjection, the which they the blood hot, thick and black, and if the owe unto them in this life, and whereupon inflammation get in to the brain with continual View of Verona from John Speed’s A Prospect of the Most Fencers from Vincentio Saviolo, His Practice , 1595. The dependeth their making or marring… together meditation and waiting, it so dries it up that Famous Parts of the World . squares on the floor indicate the number of paces between with the continual joy or sorrow of their parents madness follows, or else they make away combatants and suggest the kind of ‘mathematical’ they wholly follow their own will and let out themselves. Verona swordfighting technique derided by Mercutio. the reins unto their own unbridled and Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, This most fair city is built in the form of a lute, unsettled lusts, making matches according to 1620 the neck whereof lies towards the West, on their own fickle fantasies, and choosing unto which side the River Athesis (running towards themselves yokefellows after the outward the east) doth not only compass the city, but Offence taken deceivable direction of the eye, nothing A sleeping potion runs almost through the centre of the body of Nothing so long of memories as a dog; these regarding the sound advice of a mind guided Take juice of henbane, lettuce, plantain, poppy, this lute… It is not built with the houses cast Italians are old dogs and will carry an injury with the knowledge and fear of God. mandrake leaves, ivy and mulberry leaves, out towards the streets and supported with a whole year in memory. I have heard of a box hemlock, opium, ivy berries in powder, of each John Stockwood, A Bartholomew Fairing for arches to avoid rain, as other cities are in those on the ear that hath been revenged thirty a like quantity, mix them well together, and Parents, 1589 parts: but the building of the houses is stately… years after. then put a sponge into them, and let them It hath a pure air, and is ennobled by the civility drink them all up, dry the sponge in the sun, Thomas Nashe, The Unfortunate Traveller, and ancient nobility of the citizens, who are A ripe age for marriage and when you would have any body sleep lay 1594 endowed with a cheerful countenance, A man so soon as he hath accomplished the age the sponge at his nose, and he will quickly sleep, magnificent minds, and much inclined of fourteen years, and a woman as soon as she and when you would have him wake, dip to all good literature. The Italian gentleman hath accomplished the age of twelve years, another sponge in vinegar and hold to his nose, These Italian gentlemen generally profess three may contract true and lawful and individual and he will wake as soon. Fynes Moryson , His Ten Year Travel, 1611 things: the first is arms, to maintain withal his matrimony… at these years the man and woman Nicholas Culpeper, The London Dispensatory, honour; the second is love, to show himself are not only presumed to be of discretion, and 1654 Italian Manners gentle and not cruel of nature; and the third able to discern between good and evil and what Time was, when Italy and Rome have been is learning, to be able to know, to understand, is for their profit and disprofit, but also to have to the great good of us that now live, the best and to utter his opinion in matters of weight. natural and corporal ability to perform the duty Star-crossed? breeders and bringers up of the worthiest men, of marriage, and in that respect are termed As for astrology, it is so full of superstition, William Thomas, The History of Italy, 1549 not only for wise speaking, but also for well puberes, as it were plants, now sending forth that scarce anything can be discovered in it. being, in all civil affairs, that ever was in the buds and flowers, apparent testimonies of inward Notwithstanding, I would rather have it purified world. But now that time is gone, and though Take him for an enemy sap and immediate messengers of approaching than altogether rejected... There is no fatal the place remain, yet the old and present When you see one with weapons in his hand fruit. necessity in the stars but that they rather incline manners do differ as far as black and white, that will needs fight with you, although he were than compel. Henry Swinburne, A Treatise of Spousals, 1686 as virtue and vice… For sin, by lust and vanity, your friend or kinsman, take him for an enemy Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, hath and doth breed everywhere common and trust him not, how great a fiend of how 1605 contempt of God’s word, private contention nigh of kin soever he be… in many families, open factions in every city… Passages taken from Romeo and Juliet: Texts and Vincentio Saviolo, His Practice, (a treatise Contexts , edited by Dympna Callaghan and Roger Ascham, The Schoolmaster, 1570 on combat), 1595 published by Bedford/St Martin’s.