romeo and juliet - cambridge university...

Ro

meo

and

Juliet

Edited by Rex Gibson

Series Editor: Rex GibsonDirector, Shakespeare and Schools Project

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org

Cambridge University Press0521618703 - Romeo and JulietEdited by Rex GibsonFrontmatterMore information

http://www.cambridge.org/0521618703

http://www.cambridge.org


cambr idge univers ity press

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Cambridge University PressThe Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK

www.cambridge.orgInformation on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521618700

Commentary and notes c© Cambridge University Press 1992, 2005Text c© Cambridge University Press 1984, 2005

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exceptionand to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,no reproduction of any part may take place withoutthe written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 1992Second edition 1998Third edition 2005

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

ISBN-13 978-0-521-61870-0 paperbackISBN-10 0-521-61870-3 paperback

acknowledgements

Thanks are due to the following for permission to reproduce illustrations:

Cover, v, vit, vii, viii, ix, x, xib, xiit, 24, 38, 47, 58, 64, 82, 89, 139, 174, 190, 201, 205,206, 220, 221, 223, 224, Donald Cooper/Photostage; vib, xit, 140, 225, 20th CenturyFox/The Kobal Collection/Merrick Morton; xiib, 204, Paramount/The Kobal Collec-tion; 6, MGM/The Kobal Collection; 16, V & A Images; 22, 50, Mansell/Time LifePictures/Getty Images; 60, Mary Evans Picture Library; 70 Giacomo Di Grassi his trueArte of Defence, Englished by I.G. gentleman, Printed at London 1594 (SSS.24.31(2)),reproduced by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; 90l, Romeoand Juliet C© Paramount Pictures all rights reserved; 90r, Joe Cocks Studio Collection C©Shakespeare Birthplace Trust; 100, 124r, 148, John Haynes; 108, Ivan Kyncl; 110,Topham Picturepoint; 124l, 169, 222, The Harvard Theater Collection, HoughtonLibrary.






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List of characters 1

Romeo and Juliet 3

The story of Romeo and Juliet 202

Characters 204

The oppositions of Romeoand Juliet 209

Why did Romeo and Juliet die? 212

The language of Romeo and Juliet 214

Romeo and Juliet in performance 220

William Shakespeare 228






This edition of Romeo and Juliet is part of the Cambridge SchoolShakespeare series. Like every other play in the series, it has beenspecially prepared to help all students in schools and colleges.

This Romeo and Juliet aims to be different from other editions of theplay. It invites you to bring the play to life in your classroom, hall or dramastudio through enjoyable activities that will increase your understanding.Actors have created their different interpretations of the play over thecenturies. Similarly, you are encouraged to make up your own mind aboutRomeo and Juliet, rather than having someone else’s interpretationhanded down to you.

Cambridge School Shakespeare does not offer you a cut-down orsimplified version of the play. This is Shakespeare’s language, filled withimaginative possibilities. You will find on every left-hand page: a summaryof the action, an explanation of unfamiliar words, a choice of activities onShakespeare’s language, characters and stories.

Between each act and in the pages at the end of the play, you will findnotes, illustrations and activities. These will help to increase yourunderstanding of the whole play.

There are a large number of activities to give you the widest choice tosuit your own particular needs. Please don’t think you have to do everyone. Choose the activities that will help you most.

This edition will be of value to you whether you are studying for anexamination, reading for pleasure, or thinking of putting on the play toentertain others. You can work on the activities on your own or in groups.Many of the activities suggest a particular group size, but don’t be afraid tomake up larger or smaller groups to suit your own purposes.

Although you are invited to treat Romeo and Juliet as a play, you don’tneed special dramatic or theatrical skills to do the activities. By choosingyour activities, and by exploring and experimenting, you can make yourown interpretations of Shakespeare’s language, characters and stories.Whatever you do, remember that Shakespeare wrote his plays to be acted,watched and enjoyed.

Rex Gibson

This edition of Romeo and Juliet uses the text of the play established by G. Blakemore Evansin the New Cambridge Shakespeare edition.

iv






‘Star-crossed lovers’. Romeo and Juliet dramatises the story of two youngpeople who fall deeply in love. But their families are locked in an age-old bitterfeud. As Romeo and Juliet seek happiness, the hatred of the Montagues andCapulets, together with chance and accident, makes everything go wrong.They kill themselves rather than be parted.

v






‘Foot it, girls’. Capulet orders dancing at his lavish party. Lady Capulet, theNurse and Juliet take him at his word.

‘If I profane with my unworthiest hand’. Romeo has gatecrashed Capulet’sparty. He falls in love at first sight with Juliet. He takes her hand and begs akiss.

vi






‘What light through yonderwindow breaks?’ After theparty, Romeo catches sight ofJuliet as she thinks of him.Shakespeare never mentions abalcony, but all productionsstrive to find an inventive wayof staging Act 2 Scene 2, andit has become known as the‘balcony’ scene.

‘Parting is such sweetsorrow’. Juliet has agreed tomarry Romeo tomorrow,and bids him a reluctantfarewell. Some stagings ofthe ‘balcony’ scene use anon-realistic set, as in thisRoyal ShakespeareCompany production in2000.

vii






‘Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk?’ Mercutio (right), disgusted byRomeo’s refusal to fight Tybalt, challenges Tybalt to a duel.

‘Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio!’ Romeo tries to stop the duel, but as herestrains Mercutio, Tybalt (right) thrusts in his sword, and fatally woundsMercutio. Romeo, furious at Mercutio’s death, will shortly kill Tybalt and bebanished from Verona.

viii






‘Good father, I beseech you onmy knees’. Juliet, alreadymarried to Romeo, refuses tomarry Paris, her father’s choice.She pleads for her father tolisten to her, but he is deaf toher entreaty.

‘God’s bread, it makes memad!’ Capulet is enraged byJuliet’s refusal to marry Paris,and subjects her to a tirade ofabuse. His fury will lead toJuliet agreeing to FriarLawrence’s hazardous plan inwhich she will drink a potionthat makes her appear as dead.

ix






‘What if this mixture do not work at all?’ Juliet fears that the Friar’s ‘poison’may not act, and she will be married to Paris. But in spite of her misgivings,and her dread of the horrors that may await her in the Capulets’ tomb, shefinally drinks the potion. She hopes that, seeming dead, she will be placed inthe tomb and Romeo will rescue her when she wakes.

x






‘Her beauty makes / This vault a feasting presence full of light’. In his 1996film William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, Baz Luhrmann makes Romeo’simage very visual. The ‘dead’ Juliet lies in a cathedral, radiantly lit byhundreds of encircling candles.

‘O happy dagger, / This is thy sheath’. Juliet prepares to stab herself,unwilling to live without Romeo. In Shakespeare’s play, Romeo is already dead,having poisoned himself. But in Gounod’s opera Romeo et Juliette, he liveslong enough to bid farewell to Juliet. The lovers die together praying for God’sforgiveness.

xi






‘Poor sacrifices of our enmity!’ Capulet takes Montague’s hand as they look onthe bodies of their children, tragic victims of their families’ feud. Thetraumatised Lady Capulet gazes on the dead Paris.

‘For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo’.Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film set the play in Renaissance Italy and used outdoorlocations in Tuscany and Umbria (but not in Verona). The film ended with thefuneral procession of Romeo and Juliet.

xii






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