Preparing to read Romeo and Juliet

by William Shakespeare

“But, it’s like reading a different language…”

When trying to un-pack Shakespeare’s language, it is helpful to remember some of these language tricks he used.

1. Scene Setters (Italian Renaissance): Some words seem strange because Shakespeare is using them in order to set the scene to a specific culture and time period. In Romeo and Juliet he is using his language to build the world of the Italian Renaissance.

2. Out of Date (not as many as you think.): Some words are unfamiliar because we no longer use them. For example, in Romeo and Juliet you will see the word “misadventured,” which means “unlucky. Other words may still exist but have changed in meaning. For example, Shakespeare uses the word “happy” to mean “fortunate.” Do you see the connections?

3. Inverted Word Order (you learned this in grammar last year): Shakespeare often reorders the structure of his sentences to create a certain beat or rhythm.

4. Descriptive Interruptions: Shakespeare sometimes interrupts a phrase with a description. For example, we may say “Troubled thoughts led me to take a walk where I did see your son under the sycamore tree this morning.” Shakespeare says: “A troubled mind did drive me to walk abroad, / where underneath the grove of sycamore, / so early walking did I see your son.” (1.1.122)

5. Puns and Metaphors: Shakespeare loves these guys. Watch out for them!

IT’S OKAY. It’s not as bad as you think; I will help you.

It’s not all as crazy as it looks.• CIRCLE THREE PHRASES BELOW THAT YOU ARE SURPRISED WERE

INVENTED BY SHAKESPEARE.

Some more reasons people think he was impressiveCIRCLE YOUR FAVORITE FACT BELOW.

Shakespeare’s life and times• Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. His father

was a glover, and eventually became the mayor of Stratford.• Shakespeare married Ann Hathaway in 1582. She was 24 years

old, and he was 18. They had three children. The eldest was named Susanna, and then they had twins – Judith and Hamnet.

• He left his family in 1587 to go to London. Here he became a leading member of Lord Chamberlain's Men, an acting company that later became known as the King’s Men.

• He wrote narrative poems in his early career because the theaters were closed due to the plague.

• Shakespeare died in 1616, supposedly on his birthday!

Left: Shakespeare’s birthplace

Right: This title-page from Shakespeare's First Folio of playsnames the actors of his company, the King's Men

(not this one)

England at the time of Shakespeare

Shakespeare wrote during the most exciting years in English history.

Intellectually – Discovery, translation, and printing of Greek and Roman classics resulted in a questioning that provided energy for the period’s dramatic and literary output and led directly to Shakespeare’s plays.

London – became an exciting metropolis, filled with wealthy aristocrats. It also was overcrowded and troubled with poverty and recurring epidemics of the plague.

Geographical and Cosmological – New worlds (North and South America) were explored, introducing to Europeans a very different way of living. Galileo invented a telescope that confirmed that Copernicus was correct and the earth was not the center of the universe.

The Theater• Shakespeare’s company built their own theater called The Globe in

1599.• The theaters were built in Bankside, a bad neighborhood where

activities like bear-fighting were popular. • What do you notice about the theater from the illustration below?

Romeo and Juliet• A short version of Romeo and Juliet first

appeared in 1597, three years after the playhouses reopened. It was also included in the first collection of Shakespeare’s plays, the First Folio of 1623.

• This play’s genre is tragedy. • There was much quarreling between

powerful families during the Italian Renaissance. The actual love between two children of these families, Romeo and Giulietta, was recorded by Arthur Brooke in a poem he wrote in 1562. Both Brooke and Shakespeare used their writing to challenge society where arranged marriages were common. Shakespeare clearly demonstrates in this play his sense that marriage must value happiness.

Juliet• Shakespeare allows both Romeo and Juliet to be the

heroes of the play. In many plays written during this time, female characters were passive and uninteresting, but not Juliet! Her life is very limited—she is a typical well-born Renaissance girl, so she can’t even come and go as she pleases, much less roam the streets at night like Romeo and his friends. Despite all of this, she is presented as a strong and assertive character (for example, she is the first to propose marriage, not Romeo).

• Two facts are important to remember. First, Juliet is only 13 in the play. In Elizabethan England, a girl could legally marry at age 12, and a boy at 14. Most Elizabethans didn’t think it was a good idea to marry that young, though. Also, Juliet was always played by a young boy until 1662 when she was first played by a woman named Mary Saunderson. Since that time, it has almost always been played by a woman.