.jpeg)
Poster of the 1968 film directed by Franco Zeffirelli
Romeo and Juliet was written by William Shakespeare before he was thirty. As usual with him the story was adapted from an existing one written by an Italian, Matteo Brandello, and translated into English a few years before Shakespeare was born. Again, as usual, after borrowing the plot he expanded it by developing additional characters and converting it into the poetic form of blank verse that ran through his oeuvre. The poetry is bewitching in many places and adds to the dramatic effect. He uses all his resources – sonnets, heroic couplets, striking metaphors, and puns. He adds comedy into the mix to heighten the effect and provide the entertainment that people craved when they came to the Globe Theatre.
Mercutio says, “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man,” introducing a pun on ‘grave’ at a not very comedic moment when Mercutio has just been stabbed and knows that he is about to die.
Many expressions in the play have entered into the common discourse of English-speakers, and remain current four and a half centuries later, such as
What’s in a name?
But Shoba pointed out that P.G. Wodehouse was a constant quoter of Shakespeare, whom he called “brother-pen” in his novels. For instance, he uses Mercutio’s description of his wound:
Mercutio says, “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man,” introducing a pun on ‘grave’ at a not very comedic moment when Mercutio has just been stabbed and knows that he is about to die.
Many expressions in the play have entered into the common discourse of English-speakers, and remain current four and a half centuries later, such as
What’s in a name?
But Shoba pointed out that P.G. Wodehouse was a constant quoter of Shakespeare, whom he called “brother-pen” in his novels. For instance, he uses Mercutio’s description of his wound:
No, ’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as
a church door, but ’tis enough.
a church door, but ’tis enough.
in several of his novels to describe a person’s income; a trap; an oak chest, etc.
And the line from Talitha’s passage in which Abraham asks Sampson (servants of the rival families) about a supposed insult:
And the line from Talitha’s passage in which Abraham asks Sampson (servants of the rival families) about a supposed insult:
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
– even this finds its way into P.G. Wodehouse, who was a veritable repository of Shakespeare quotes, hundreds of which are sprinkled throughout his works. For a complete tracking down of allusions to Shakespeare in P.G. Wodehouse see:
– even this finds its way into P.G. Wodehouse, who was a veritable repository of Shakespeare quotes, hundreds of which are sprinkled throughout his works. For a complete tracking down of allusions to Shakespeare in P.G. Wodehouse see:
%20by%20Zeffirelli.png)
Olivia Hussey in Romeo and Juliet (1968) by Zeffirelli
Perhaps the most sensuous and beautifully filmed version of Romeo and Juliet is the one directed by Franco Zefirelli. The costuming was a stunning recreation of medieval Verona. The actors are as young as the play supposes, and take on their parts with a naturalness that makes everything come alive. The music too (composed by Nino Rota) was hauntingly beautiful with this signature theme song (lyrics by Eugene Walter, voice Glen Weston):
A rose will bloom
It then will fade
So does a youth
So does the fairest maid
Shakespeare being Shakespeare cannot avoid the bawdy in his plays, probably out of the need to relate to the various classes of people attending the theatre, from groundlings to nobles. Take a look at this banter among servants, who draw their sword, itself a figure of speech for the penis:
It then will fade
So does a youth
So does the fairest maid
Shakespeare being Shakespeare cannot avoid the bawdy in his plays, probably out of the need to relate to the various classes of people attending the theatre, from groundlings to nobles. Take a look at this banter among servants, who draw their sword, itself a figure of speech for the penis:
Sampson.
when I have fought with the men I will be cruel with the maids,
I will cut off their heads.
when I have fought with the men I will be cruel with the maids,
I will cut off their heads.
Gregory.
The heads of the maids?
The heads of the maids?
Sampson.
Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads;
take it in what sense thou wilt.
In the classic glossary compiled by Eric Partridge in 1947 titled Shakespeare’s Bawdy, we learn the full reach and extent of the use of erotic imagery prevalent throughout Shakespeare’s works; one can only have an incomplete understanding of his plays without an acquaintance with his enormous vocabulary on the animal spirits of mankind, and how they are clothed in metaphors and images of the male and female bodies.
You can read here some of the risqué double entendres that are sprinkled throughout the otherwise dewy romantic play – from Mercutio’s “the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon” (Act 2, Scene 4) to the Nurse’s “your love / Must climb a bird's nest soon when it is dark” (Act 2, Scene 5). In Shakespeare’s case it extends even to French – in Act 3, Scene 4 of Henry V , Princess Katherine receives a memorable language lesson almost entirely in French from Alice, her maid-in-waiting, on the English names for parts of the body, which in Katherine’s French for ‘foot’ and ‘gown’, are easy to confuse with French vulgarisms.
One reader raised the agonised question why Shakespeare had turned the wonderful account he gives of youthful passion into a dark tragic ending. As in Hamlet numerous deaths pile on toward the ending. It is not any fatal flaw of Romeo that results in tragedy, but a combination of two circumstances:
take it in what sense thou wilt.
In the classic glossary compiled by Eric Partridge in 1947 titled Shakespeare’s Bawdy, we learn the full reach and extent of the use of erotic imagery prevalent throughout Shakespeare’s works; one can only have an incomplete understanding of his plays without an acquaintance with his enormous vocabulary on the animal spirits of mankind, and how they are clothed in metaphors and images of the male and female bodies.
You can read here some of the risqué double entendres that are sprinkled throughout the otherwise dewy romantic play – from Mercutio’s “the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon” (Act 2, Scene 4) to the Nurse’s “your love / Must climb a bird's nest soon when it is dark” (Act 2, Scene 5). In Shakespeare’s case it extends even to French – in Act 3, Scene 4 of Henry V , Princess Katherine receives a memorable language lesson almost entirely in French from Alice, her maid-in-waiting, on the English names for parts of the body, which in Katherine’s French for ‘foot’ and ‘gown’, are easy to confuse with French vulgarisms.
One reader raised the agonised question why Shakespeare had turned the wonderful account he gives of youthful passion into a dark tragic ending. As in Hamlet numerous deaths pile on toward the ending. It is not any fatal flaw of Romeo that results in tragedy, but a combination of two circumstances:
1. He reluctantly fights and kills Tybalt of the house of Capulets and is banished, and
2. Fate decrees he should not receive the message sent by Friar Lawrence about Juliet being under the influence of a potion that fakes death, while not actually being dead.
The greatest tales of love that survive in world literature are either cases of unrequited love, of separated lovers, or those that end in the death of the lovers.
The greatest tales of love that survive in world literature are either cases of unrequited love, of separated lovers, or those that end in the death of the lovers.
Orpheus glances back at Eurydice, 1806 oil painting by Christian Stub
Take Orpheus and Eurydice, the ancient Greek myth, narrated by the Latin poets Virgil and Ovid. Eurydice once dead, could be revived by the music of Orpheus who goes in search of her with his lyre, but she is sundered forever by a fateful backward glance as he brings her back from Hades.
The account of the actual potent love of Héloïse for her teacher Abelard a thousand years ago in France, survives in the wondrous letters he is forced to address to a woman who is now beyond his reach in a cloister.
In the Celtic legend of Tristan and Isolde the two mistakenly drink a love potion, but are nevertheless separated in life until Tristan’s death.
Laila and her obsessed lover Majnun, is a story of Arab origin made epic by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi. Laila dies of heartbreak from not being able to see her beloved. Majnun was later found dead in the wilderness in near Layla's grave. He had carved three verses of poetry on a rock near the grave, which are the last three verses attributed to him.
The account of the actual potent love of Héloïse for her teacher Abelard a thousand years ago in France, survives in the wondrous letters he is forced to address to a woman who is now beyond his reach in a cloister.
In the Celtic legend of Tristan and Isolde the two mistakenly drink a love potion, but are nevertheless separated in life until Tristan’s death.
Laila and her obsessed lover Majnun, is a story of Arab origin made epic by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi. Laila dies of heartbreak from not being able to see her beloved. Majnun was later found dead in the wilderness in near Layla's grave. He had carved three verses of poetry on a rock near the grave, which are the last three verses attributed to him.
Dante meets Beatrice at a bridge in Florence
Dante, after meeting Beatrice and being greeted by her on a bridge over the river Arno in Florence, forever remembered her in his Vita Nuova and later in the classic The Divine Comedy Beatrice assumes the role of his guide to the next world.
