Shakespeare's Time:

Shakespeare lived at a crucial and provocative time. Such famous writers as Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and John Donne were all born within a dozen years of Shakespeare's birth, and were publishing during his lifetime. The drama was just being recognized as a legitimate art form, and the first public theater was erected when Shakespeare was twelve. Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland & Ireland, the source for many of Shakespeare's plots, was published only shortly after that. During Shakespeare's lifetime many events of historical importance occurred. France gave sanction to Protestantism; England made peace with Spain; the colony of Jamestown in Virginia was formed; Puritanism, with its moralistic disapproval of the theater, grew in strength; and the King James Bible appeared. Much was happening in the world of the arts as well. Queen Elizabeth pleasured herself with masques-great costumed festivals held at the country homes of nobles-at which guests were entertained with costume balls, and with much gaiety in the form of singing, impromptu sketches, and spectaculars. The growingly recognized art of the theater provided fertile ground for the efforts and innovations of a young playwright, and the dramatic art was taken up by many and developed at an explosive rate. All this was made secure by King James's sanction of the art.

Shakespeare's plays reflect this spirit of the time. His early plays were histories and comedies. The histories gave expression to the increasing patriotism felt by all Englishmen at this period. The comedies, which were as exuberant and vital as the age, were full of broad farce, slapstick, and romantic love, and revolved around very complicated plots. This involvement in simple humor and youthful passion is expressive of the characteristic delight of a blossoming civilization in all the aspects of life. Romeo and Juliet, the only tragedy Shakespeare wrote during this period, is itself dedicated to the beauty of romantic love. Shakespeare's mind grew, however, in humanity as well as in sophistication. The underlying forces of life, the conflicts between good and evil, between order and chaos in man and his universe, began to take possession of his thoughts. This increasing awareness and perception of the difficulties of living were expressed by Shakespeare in his tragedies. The tragedies in turn are expressive of the darkening awareness, the consciousness of the evanescence of life and of the threat of death, which was also a part of the Elizabethan mentality as it grew in knowledge and sophistication. Shakespeare's tragedies, including Romeo and Juliet, are concerned with the flaws within man's nature, and the struggle he must make in order for good to win over evil within him. While the higher good is triumphant, the cost of the battle is death. These aspects show themselves in Romeo and Juliet, although the conflict is not internal, but external. Shakespeare's later comedies are permeated with this tragic sense almost to the point of bitterness. They deal with nature and society, sin and redemption, death and rebirth. While the plots could well evolve into tragedy, they affirm life and hope, with a deep sense of religion and faith. These comedies are filled with magic and poetry, and are far more complex than the early tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. At the end of Shakespeare's career, natural young love such as these lovers share was impossible without transformations performed by a higher power. The later comedies no longer focus on man; the need for a belief in something greater than man has begun to emerge. That this tendency too, was a part of the age, becomes apparent in the complete involvement with religion of such later writers as Donne and Milton.

Shakespeare's Theater:

During the Middle Ages and on up through Shakespeare's lifetime, dramas were often performed by townsmen in celebration of a church holiday. Along with this, companies of itinerant actors toured the countryside, and, being professional, such companies were welcomed at the towns they visited for the higher quality of their performances. There were no permanent stages, and performances were given on a platform quickly erected from trestles and planks. It became the custom of such companies to perform in closed inn yards, charging admission to those who came. Such inner courts, besides providing standing room around the platform, afforded seats at the windows and balconies of the inn. It was on this arrangement that the Elizabethan theater was modeled. The central courtyard became the "pit," where the groundlings, or poorer, uneducated people stood. Projecting into the pit was the stage, elevated perhaps five feet from the yard itself to afford a good view. Around the central pit were a series of roofed balconies or galleries in tiers, where the wealthier theater-goers sat. The stage, because it projected into the pit, could be seen from three sides. Behind the curtain at the back of the stage was an inner stage, and the curtain could be drawn to show such non-portable stage properties as a bed, or a tableau of the next scene. There was a long balcony stretching around the inner stage from one side to the other, and there were doors at both sides of the stage for entrances and exits. No breaks were taken between scenes. Time and place, when important, are made clear by the dialogue. Uniformed, non-speaking actors, whom the audience ignored, carried the few necessary properties for a scene, perhaps a table and chairs, in and out; these "mutes" were accepted as the servants of the performance, and often during the middle of a scene one could be seen pouring wine or handing some more important actor his cloak.

Imagine Romeo and Juliet performed in such a setting. The action, without scene breaks and with constant activity and motion back and forth across the stage, would move even more quickly than it seems to as we read it, and would indeed be a "two hours' traffic" as is stated in the prologue. The balcony scenes would, of course, be played from the balcony, with the audience imagining the stage below to be Capulet's orchard, and Romeo indeed climbing down to the orchard by a rope ladder. When a quick change to the interior of Juliet's bedroom was called for, the inner stage would be revealed and the locale indicated by the presence of a bed. In the final scene, as Romeo breaks into the Capulet vault, the curtain would again be pulled back. There, on the inner stage, would lie Juliet in her coffin. If the coffin were place where the bed had been, we would have a visual evocation of the imagery of love ending in a marriage of death. The Elizabethan stage was made for such effects. It provided a very flexible area for the action, and surely Shakespeare used this advantage to its utmost when writing a play. A constant demand was made on the imaginations of those who were in the audience, for only the costumes in the play were explicit. All the other trappings of reality, such as an orchard, had to be supplied by the viewer himself. Shakespeare exploited this demand on the imagination to the fullest, and at the same time he made it emphatically clear that this was not real life, but a play, both an artifice and a work of art. Not only did actors carry props back and forth, in Romeo and Juliet there is the added artifice of a chorus. The mere presence of a man on stage who was not a character but was there to speak directly to the audience brought home to every viewer that the actors were men like themselves, with personalities far different from the roles they had to play. Further emphasis on the art of the play, and further demands on the imaginations of the viewers, are inherent in such forms as the soliloquy and in the versification of the speeches. Shakespeare did not feel he needed more than actors and words to persuade the audience of the reality of what they saw.

Shakespeare's Sources:

Shakespeare's early history plays, such as Richard II, were in effect tragedies. In these plays, as was the current dramatic practice, he took his characters from history, choosing his heroes from among people of noble background and political power. Romeo and Juliet breaks with this tradition, for the hero and heroine do not have position and power in the world. They are Italians, a young boy and girl whose only status in life has been earned for them by the position of their families. The basic tale of the young lovers emerged from Greece when the Roman Empire was in power. A sixteenth century Italian novelist named Matteo Bandello had made the couple the subject of a novella. Arthur Brooke, a minor writer whose work was published earlier in the seventeenth century, used Bandello's story as the subject of a long poem entitled The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet. This Shakespeare read, and it became his source for Romeo and Juliet. This use of another man's story was not considered artistic dishonesty by the Elizabethans. Plots were a part of a tradition on which all writers drew, and what mattered was the presentation of the plot, its poetry, themes, and meaning.

Shakespeare changed Brooke's story, not in the actual events depicted, but in their interpretation. He wanted to portray the speed and impetuosity of young love. Instead of Brooke's method of stretching the action over a period of months, he condensed it into four short days and nights, presenting the audience with a continuous rush of events and dire complications. Thus he intensified the excitement of love, and gave greater emphasis to the threat of doom. From a rather ghastly, moralizing story, Shakespeare created a tragedy in which love strives against fate and the feud, and triumphs in death. In Brooke's version, the death of the lovers is the punishment they deserve. Also, Brooke was prejudiced against Catholics, and presents the Friar as a pandering old man whose cell becomes an illicit meeting place for the lovers. Shakespeare has practically reversed this interpretation. He presents the lovers as full of the innocence, ardor, and idealism of youth, and he does homage to the passion and despair they share. He shows no narrow-mindedness toward Catholicism, and while the Friar's drug proves to be disastrous, the Friar himself is simple, pious, and kind. Last, but not least, Brooke's Mercutio is merely a bold, awkward, absurd young man. The Mercutio we know, with his wit, his scorn, and his loyalty to Romeo, is entirely Shakespeare's creation. Shakespeare has taken Brooke's story for his outline, and has transformed it into a vehicle that expresses his meaning to perfection. On the question of sources, the same story has been used recently once again, this time to express twentieth century conflicts, and the result was the musical, West Side Story.

A Synopsis of Romeo and Juliet

For years the peace of Verona has been periodically disturbed by the feuding of two families, the Montagues and the Capulets, who bear an ancient grudge. At the start of the play, this feud is revived by some troublesome servants. That very evening the Capulets are holding a traditional family party. Romeo, a Montague, accidentally learns of the party, and decides to crash it with some of his friends. At the party, he sees and falls instantly in love with Juliet, Lord Capulet's daughter. She returns his love and, after the party, the young couple woo each other in Capulet's orchard. It is a short courtship, for they agree to be secretly married the next day. Romeo then goes joyfully to see his priest, Friar Laurence, to arrange for the ceremony. He informs Juliet of the time and plact by giving a message to her Nurse, and the couple meet and are married that very afternoon. It is arranged that Romeo shall come to Juliet's bedroom at nightfall.

Romeo impatiently passes the intervening hours with his friends, among them the swift-witted Mercutio. As they walk, Tybalt Capulet appears. Tybalt had seen Romeo at the Capulet party and, feeling this to be insulting, he challenges Romeo to a duel. But Romeo, in the transports of love, is unwilling to fight his new cousin. Mercutio fights in Romeo's place, and is killed. This death is too much for Romeo. He begins to duel with Tybalt, kills him in turn, and flees to the safety of the Friar's cell. Verona's Prince declares Romeo's punishment to be exile. Both the lovers are beside themselves with misery at this new turn of events. They spend their first and last night together and part sadly. No sooner has Romeo left than grave news comes to Juliet. Her oarents have arranged for her to marry a young gentleman named Paris, on the very next day. Unwilling to reveal her secret marriage and unable to dishonor herself and her love by agreeing to a second marriage, Juliet causes a huge family quarrel by refusing. Her father threatens to throw her out of the house if she does not change her mind, and Juliet hurries to the Friar for advice.

The plan decided on is a desperate one. Juliet will pretend to consent to the marriage, but the night before the wedding she is to swallow a sleeping potion which will make her seem to beadead. Her parents and Paris will mourn for her and put her in the family vault. The Friar will inform Romeo, who will be beside Juliet, when she awakens, to take her away with him. Juliet then goes home to her parents, carries off the deception, and takes the potion. The next morning, her official wedding day, she is discovered, believed dead, and mourned pitifully. So far, so good. But as chance would have it, the Friar's message to Romeo never reaches him. When Romeo hears the news that his bride is dead, he determines to join her in death. He will go to her tomb and kill himself there. For this purpose he brings poison. At the last minute the Friar discovers that his message has not been delivered, and decides to go to the tomb and fetch Juliet.

Arriving at the tomb, Romeo meets Paris, who has come to mourn Juliet. Paris wishes to arrest Romeo for breaking his exile, and a fight ensues, in which Paris is killed. Romeo now enters the tomb, says his farewell to the sleeping Juliet, and takes the poison. Seconds after his death the Friar arrives and Juliet awakes. The Friar cannot persuade the girl to leave her newly-dead lover. He flees, and Juliet kills herself with Romeo's dagger. Again in a matter of seconds the watchmen arrive, find the three corpses and sound the alarm. When the two feuding families and the Prince of Verona are assembled, the Friar comes forward and explains what has happened. His story is corroborated by a farewell letter Romeo has sent to his father. Seeing how the feud has brought such tragedy to the secret love of the two young people, the Capulets and the Montagues decide to call an end to their feud, and peace is restored to Verona.