The English Renaissance in Context: Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet – Introduction For most people, the mention of Romeo and Juliet evokes a memory of a striking scene and some lines of famous love poetry. Such a response marks the play's dual reputation as a work of both great poetry and memorable stage action. But how, in fact, do the poetic language and stage business work together? In her book Romeo and Juliet: Shakespeare in Performance, Jill Levenson argues that “in production during its own era, Romeo and Juliet focused attention not only on passion but also on style: the poetic style which Shakespeare manipulated to serve characterization and wit, and the performance style which his Company practiced to exercise their acting skills. But time has obscured the original stylistic components of the tragedy while transforming the well-known story according to theatrical conventions of later eras”. Then Levenson shows how, through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the play became more a series of tableaux or staged scenes featuring the "stars" and less a play of poetic language (and certainly less a story of a culture torn apart by rivalry and violence). By focusing on changes made by directors and actors over three centuries, the following exercises explore both the play's poetic form and the reshaping of its scenic action. We will examine revisions in the balcony scene, exploring the play’s poetry, and the ending, with its increasing focus on the suffering of Romeo and Juliet. University of Pennsylvania Libraries - 1 - Furness Shakespeare Collection The English Renaissance in Context: Romeo and Juliet The Balcony Scene The "balcony scene" begins with Romeo's extended speech describing Juliet, whom he and the audience see, but she does not know that she is being observed. http://sceti.library.upenn.edu/sceti/printedbooksNew/index.cfm?TextID=rj_f1&PagePositi on=7 ? What is the audience meant to learn and feel from this speech? About Juliet? About Romeo? As many scholars have noted, in writing Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare used the language and style of the love sonnets of his time. Shakespeare himself, of course, wrote his own sonnet sequence. You can link here to a version of his Poems of that was edited in 1640. University of Pennsylvania Libraries - 2 - Furness Shakespeare Collection The English Renaissance in Context: Romeo and Juliet ? What are the main features of the kind of love poetry Romeo delivers in this speech? One of the most important features is the language of comparison. In particular, this kind of poetry compares the beloved and lover to things and events in nature (as well as imagining that the beloved influences nature). Shakespeare himself wrote two sonnets commenting on the practice of comparison. ? What perspective do these poems give you on Romeo's language here? ? How does Romeo's language paint his character? As sensitive? As excessive? University of Pennsylvania Libraries - 3 - Furness Shakespeare Collection The English Renaissance in Context: Romeo and Juliet You might want to compare the poetry he uses earlier to describe his love for Rosaline with the poetry he uses to describe his love for Juliet. As with so many of Shakespeare's plays, however, in its post-Shakespearean afterlife Romeo and Juliet was rewritten and cut to suit the ears, eyes, and hearts of new audiences, who had very different theatrical tastes. The version that had the greatest impact was David Garrick's rewriting of the play in 1750. David Garrick (1717-79) was one of the most influential actors and theater managers of England in the eighteenth century. He revolutionized both the acting and staging of theater in his time (for example, by introducing stage lighting). He also revived Shakespeare on the London stage, while significantly altering the texts of many of the plays. His acting used a natural style that was new in its day. Garrick's Romeo and Juliet was first performed in 1747, and University of Pennsylvania Libraries - 4 - Furness Shakespeare Collection The English Renaissance in Context: Romeo and Juliet he published his first version of the play in 1748. In this edition, he cut out several of the comic passages of the play, and more significantly, he rewrote the ending to allow Juliet to wake before Romeo dies. In a later version of 1750, however, Garrick made more drastic alterations, including removing any mention of Rosaline since, as he explains, "it was generally thought that a sudden change of Romeo's love from Rosaline to Juliet was a blemish in this character." He also removed many of the words that he found too vulgar and cut much of the rhyming text and puns. It was this version of Romeo and Juliet that ruled the English and American stages (with some additional changes made by John Phlip Kemble) until the middle of the nineteenth century. In his preface, Garrick says that it was his "chief design.... to clear the Original, as- much as possible, from the Jingle and Quibble, which were always the great Objections to reviving it. What he means here by "jingle" is rhyme and a "quibble" is a pun. In his time, rhyme was considered "untragic, and puns, which Shakespeare liked so much, were considered confusing." Garrick also substituted more dignified words where he wished to elevate the tone. Evidence of these changes can be seen in his version of the "balcony scene. Compare their two versions of the scene and identify where Garrick made changes. University of Pennsylvania Libraries - 5 - Furness Shakespeare Collection The English Renaissance in Context: Romeo and Juliet ? Where did he remove or change a rhyme? ? Where has he made word substitutions? ? What kind of lines has he eliminated? ? How do these alterations change the image of the lovers? The pace of the scene? ? Has the elimination of Romeo's infatuation for Rosaline changed the representation of his love for Juliet? University of Pennsylvania Libraries - 6 - Furness Shakespeare Collection The English Renaissance in Context: Romeo and Juliet A major twentieth-century critic, Robert Penn Warren, has argued that Mercutio's satiric comments about Romeo as romantic lover and about love poetry itself actually strengthen Shakespeare's celebration of romantic love in Romeo and Juliet. ? What do you think? In considering your answer, you might want to consider the fact that when Mercutio satirizes Romeo's love-sick behavior, he believes that the object of Romeo's affections is still Rosaline. You can see why Garrick didn't like rhyme and "low" words in tragedy by looking at an early nineteenth-century "travesty" or parody of Romeo and Juliet, written by Richard Gurney in 1812. (Travesties of Shakespeare were common in this time period.) ? What does the parody do to the idea of rewriting Shakespeare? ? What is the effect of the constant rhyme? University of Pennsylvania Libraries - 7 - Furness Shakespeare Collection The English Renaissance in Context: Romeo and Juliet ? What changes in word choice are made here? ? Do you think it's funny? Why or why not? We can end this exploration of the balcony scene by looking at how it was crystallized, in turn, in stage performance, making an indelible impression on stage history. You can look at some images from texts and performances from the 18th and 19th centuries. ? What features are repeated in the scenes? How are they different? ? How do they frame the relationship between Romeo and Juliet? University of Pennsylvania Libraries - 8 - Furness Shakespeare Collection The English Renaissance in Context: Romeo and Juliet Rewriting the Ending As is clear from other revisions of Shakespeare's plays, including that of King Lear, the pressure for a happy ending is powerful (perhaps even more so in the movies and television of our own time). If a play is not going to have a happy ending, how can it be pleasurable or satisfying for an audience? In the changes made in Romeo and Juliet over the centuries, we can see different ideas about what makes a "good" tragic ending. In its version in Shakespeare's time, the ending of Romeo and Juliet brings together almost all the living characters and even some of the dead (e.g. Tybalt's corpse) at the Capulets' tomb. The last scene joins Paris and Romeo in a final confrontation, then has Romeo kill himself upon seeing the dead Juliet. After his death, Friar Laurence arrives, awakening Juliet, who then stabs herself on finding Romeo dead. At this point, the Prince, the Capulets and Old Montague enter. The play ends with a full explanation of events, the parents’ reconciliation, and the final words of the Prince. University of Pennsylvania Libraries - 9 - Furness Shakespeare Collection The English Renaissance in Context: Romeo and Juliet ? What difference does it make that the Prince gets the last word? ? Does the reconciliation of the remaining adults offer sufficient satisfaction at the end? Later performers and directors of Romeo and Juliet have felt that the ending of the play could have been more moving. The first significant change was written by David Garrick. When Garrick revised the play in 1750, he explained that he rewrote the ending by borrowing from a play written by Thomas Otway. Otway set the plot of Romeo and Juliet in Roman times; there, in the final scene, his "Juliet' character awakes before the "Romeo" character dies. Garrick argues in his "Advertisement" that this ending was indeed available in an old version of the story; and that Shakespeare surely would have used it if he had known it. University of Pennsylvania Libraries - 10 - Furness Shakespeare Collection The English Renaissance in Context: Romeo and Juliet So, in his version of Romeo and Juliet, Garrick wrote in new dialogue for the lovers after Juliet wakes, so that they can have one last heartrending scene together.