Literature Romeo and Juliet

1 Read the two sections below: About the author and About this play. Then match the dates in the table with what happened in that year.

William Shakespeare is believed to be the greatest English writer of all time. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, in England, in April 1564. His father was an important man in the town. In December 1582, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a farmer, and they had three children. We know very little about Shakespeare's early life. Some people believe that he worked as a teacher. Other people think that he became a member of a travelling group of actors. But we do know that by 1592, Shakespeare was living in London. By then, he had already become quite well known as an actor and a playwright¹.

At that time, in the early ⁦1590s⁩, the first theatres were just opening in England. In 1594, Shakespeare joined a new group of actors, and they became very successful. In 1598, they built their own theatre, The Globe, which was unusual because it had a round shape. Theatres at that time were very different to modern theatres. There was very little scenery and no curtain, and there were no breaks between scenes, so watching a play was a very different experience from today. Women were not allowed to act, so female characters were acted by boys. Most of the theatres did not have roofs, so plays were only shown in good weather and in daylight. Rich, educated people sat in the high parts of the theatre, and poorer people stood in the area in front of the stage. It was important that a lot of people enjoyed the plays because writing and acting plays was a business and needed to make money. This is why the plays mix together poetry and simple jokes.

In about 1607, Shakespeare stopped acting. After that time, he lived mostly in Stratford. He had become quite rich, and was a very important person in Stratford. He died there on his birthday, in 1616. During his life, Shakespeare wrote about ⁦37 plays⁩ and many poems. Many of them were only published as books after his death. In Shakespeare's time, people used to write plays very quickly. The actors performed them a few times, and then they threw them away. No one really thought of keeping plays for people to read. Because of this, the plays of Shakespeare that we read today are probably not exactly the same as the ones that he first wrote. These plays are still performed² all over the world today, and people in schools, colleges and universities have been studying his work for many years.

¹ playwright: writer of plays

² performed: acted in public

Romeo and Juliet is a very famous play about two young people who fall in love with each other. They both come from very important and rich families in the Italian city of Verona, where most of the story happens. However, their families, the Montagues and the Capulets, had an argument many years before. The play is about how Romeo and Juliet continue to love each other although their families are enemies.

Shakespeare wrote many tragedies (sad plays in which people die), and Romeo and Juliet is one of these. The play is about the difficulty of being idealistic (believing in something which is good, but very difficult to make happen) in the real world. The love between Romeo and Juliet is very strong, but it is also impossible because of the argument between their families. The play is very famous because it has such an interesting but sad story, and such beautiful love poetry.

Romeo and Juliet was probably written and performed for the first time in 1595. We cannot be sure of the exact year. The story of the lovers was already quite well known in England before Shakespeare wrote his play because there were several other plays about Romeo and Juliet at that time, and a poem called The Tragical Historie of Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare followed this poem closely when he wrote his play, using the story and many of the characters. Some of the lines and speeches are even very like ones from the poem.

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was first published³ in 1597, but this edition⁴ of the play was not actually written by Shakespeare. It was probably put together from the actors' lines, and from what people wrote down or remembered about the play. The second edition of the play, published in 1599, was actually written by Shakespeare.

³ published: printed as a book

⁴ edition: single printing

The Capulet family

Lord and Lady Capulet

Juliet, their daughter

Tybalt, Juliet's cousin

The Montague family

Lord and Lady Montague

Romeo, their son

Benvolio, Romeo's cousin

Other characters

Nurse, who looks after Juliet

Paris, who wants to marry Juliet

Friar Laurence, a religious man

Balthasar, Romeo's servant

Mercutio, Romeo's friend

Prince Escalus, the ruler of Verona

2 Answer the questions.

1. Why do people disagree about what Shakespeare did before he moved to London?
2. What was strange about The Globe theatre?
3. In what ways were theatres and plays in Shakespeare's time different from modern ones? (There are four ways.)
4. Why couldn't people read Shakespeare's plays while he was alive?
5. Why are the Capulet and Montague families enemies?
6. Where did Shakespeare get the story of Romeo and Juliet from?
7. Why is the second edition of Romeo and Juliet more important than the first?

3 Read Extract ⁦1 on⁩ pages 46-47. Then complete the table.