CAPULET: I have an idea – let’s make solid gold statues of our dead children to commemorate their love and serve as a constant reminder of the fact that our only children killed themselves because we were such uncaring parents. Booth's Romeo and Juliet was rivalled in popularity only by his own "hundred night Hamlet" at The Winter Garden of four years before. Taylor, Gary (2002). "Shakespeare plays on Renaissance Stages". In Wells, Stanley; Stanton, Sarah (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–20. ISBN 978-0-521-79711-5. A kinsman to the Prince, and Romeo’s close friend. One of the most extraordinary characters in all of Shakespeare’s plays, Mercutio overflows with imagination, wit, and, at times, a strange, biting satire and brooding fervor. Mercutio loves wordplay, especially sexual double entendres. He can be quite hotheaded, and hates people who are affected, pretentious, or obsessed with the latest fashions. He finds Romeo’s romanticized ideas about love tiresome and tries to convince Romeo to view love as a simple matter of sexual appetite. ROMEO: I’m Romeo, and I used to be emo and annoying but now I’m so totally in luuuuurve and it’s AWESOME.

And how old is Romeo? Well, he's old enough to kill Juliet's cousin in a sword fight, so...yeah. Probably not 13. Buhler, Stephen M. (2007). "Musical Shakespeares: attending to Ophelia, Juliet, and Desdemona". In Shaughnessy, Robert (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Popular Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 150–74. ISBN 978-0-521-60580-9. Groves, Beatrice (2007). Texts and Traditions: Religion in Shakespeare, 1592–1604. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-920898-2.Morrison, Michael A. (2007). "Shakespeare in North America". In Shaughnessy, Robert (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Popular Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 230–58. ISBN 978-0-521-60580-9. One lot already grieving, the other in fear. [8] Masuccio Salernitano, author of Mariotto & Ganozza (1476), the earliest known version of Romeo & Juliet tale

An apothecary in Mantua. Had he been wealthier, he might have been able to afford to value his morals more than money, and refused to sell poison to Romeo. PeterMontague’s nephew, Romeo’s cousin and thoughtful friend. Benvoliomakes a genuine effort to defuse violent scenes in public places, though Mercutio accuses him of having a nasty temper in private. He spends most of the play trying to help Romeo get his mind off Rosaline, even after Romeo has fallen in love with Juliet. People note exceptional verbal wit, psychological depth, and emotional range of English playwright and poet William Shakespeare, who included such historical works as Richard II, comedies like Much Ado about Nothing, and such tragedies as Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear and also composed 154 sonnets before people published posthumously First Folio, which collected and contained edition of 36 plays in 1623. The best-known ballet version is Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. [150] Originally commissioned by the Kirov Ballet, it was rejected by them when Prokofiev attempted a happy ending and was rejected again for the experimental nature of its music. It has subsequently attained an "immense" reputation, and has been choreographed by John Cranko (1962) and Kenneth MacMillan (1965) among others. [151] The earliest known production in North America was an amateur one: on 23 March 1730, a physician named Joachimus Bertrand placed an advertisement in the Gazette newspaper in New York, promoting a production in which he would play the apothecary. [118] The first professional performances of the play in North America were those of the Hallam Company. [119] 19th-century theatre The American Cushman sisters, Charlotte and Susan, as Romeo and Juliet in 1846

Enter ROMEO, MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, with five or six Maskers, Torch-bearers, and others ROMEO What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse? And a pretty funny one at that! I originally gave it 3 stars, but I had to bump it up for making me giggle so much. Between Romeo & Juliet both crying, moping, and twirling around like tweenage girls and the rest of the cast flailing around to accommodate these idiots, this was waaaaaay better than I remembered it.Romeo’s dedicated servant, who brings Romeo the news of Juliet’s death, unaware that her death is a ruse. Sampson & Gregory Shapiro, Stephen A. (1964). "Romeo and Juliet: Reversals, Contraries, Transformations, and Ambivalence". College English. National Council of Teachers of English. 25 (7): 498–501. doi: 10.2307/373235. JSTOR 373235. Scarci, Manuela (1993–1994). "From Mariotto and Ganozza to Romeo and Giulietta: Metamorphoses of a Renaissance Tale". Scripta Mediterranea. Canadian Institute for Mediterranean Studies. 14–15.

Exeunt CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, PARIS, and FRIAR LAURENCE First Musician Faith, we may put up our pipes, and be gone. Nevo, Ruth (1972). Tragic Form in Shakespeare. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-06217-X. Sabur, Rozina (26 May 2017). "Exam board apologises after error in English GCSE paper which confused characters in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 26 May 2017. The earliest known version of the Romeo and Juliet tale akin to Shakespeare's play is the story of Mariotto and Ganozza by Masuccio Salernitano, in the 33rd novel of his Il Novellino published in 1476. [10] Salernitano sets the story in Siena and insists its events took place in his own lifetime. His version of the story includes the secret marriage, the colluding friar, the fray where a prominent citizen is killed, Mariotto's exile, Ganozza's forced marriage, the potion plot, and the crucial message that goes astray. In this version, Mariotto is caught and beheaded and Ganozza dies of grief. [11] [12] Frontispiece of Giulietta e Romeo by Luigi da Porto, 1530

Introduction to the play

The First Folio text of 1623 was based primarily on Q3, with clarifications and corrections possibly coming from a theatrical prompt book or Q1. [30] [33] Other Folio editions of the play were printed in 1632 (F2), 1664 (F3), and 1685 (F4). [34] Modern versions—that take into account several of the Folios and Quartos—first appeared with Nicholas Rowe's 1709 edition, followed by Alexander Pope's 1723 version. Pope began a tradition of editing the play to add information such as stage directions missing in Q2 by locating them in Q1. This tradition continued late into the Romantic period. Fully annotated editions first appeared in the Victorian period and continue to be produced today, printing the text of the play with footnotes describing the sources and culture behind the play. [35] Themes and motifs