ROMEO & JULIET

By William Shakespeare

The Tragedy of

BIG WILL

QUEEN ELIZABETH I (ONE OF WILL’S FANS)

THE GLOBE

SHAKESPEARE RULES

1) Shakespeare was a genius and he is considered one of the greatest writers in the history of storytelling. He was incredibly smart, and no one wants to have to be as smart as Shakespeare. Therefore, we accept that we will not understand every single thing we read in his plays, but we will be able to understand more than enough to appreciate what he’s written.  

SHAKESPEARE RULES

2) Shakespeare wrote about 500 years ago, so we will make mistakes pronouncing some of the words he put in his plays (and that’s OK!).

SHAKESPEARE RULES

3) Scholars have been studying Shakespeare for hundreds of years and they are still learning things from his plays. We will NOT learn everything there is to learn, but we will learn enough to understand why Shakespeare is such a big deal.

PROLOGUE

Two households, both alike in dignity,In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.From forth the fatal loins of these two foesA pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;Whose misadventured piteous overthrowsDo with their death bury their parents' strife.The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,And the continuance of their parents' rage,Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;The which if you with patient ears attend,What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

WHAT DO YOU NOTICE?

In other words….

We’re going to SPITT on

Shakespeare!

PROLOGUE

Two households, both alike in dignity,In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.From forth the fatal loins of these two foesA pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;Whose misadventured piteous overthrowsDo with their death bury their parents' strife.The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,And the continuance of their parents' rage,Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;The which if you with patient ears attend,What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

GEOGRAPHY OF R&J

VERONA

VERONA CONT.

GEOGRAPHY CONT.

GEOGRAPHY CONT.

“ANNOTATIONS”

You don’t really need to do full-on annotations,

but try and take note when you see:

References to fate

Celestial references

Strong figurative language

You could just put check marks next to it. Your

primary focus should be on understanding the

text.

HOMEWORK 1

By the end of the week, please take the virtual tour

of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. The link is

on the wiki. Email me three things you found

particularly interesting after the tour.

Read through Act 1, scenes 1 & 2. In our next class,

I’ll be assigning reading roles. It will be obvious if

you haven’t done this assignment. You don’t have to

understand it, just familiarize yourself with it.