For Thursday, read Act One of Romeo and Juliet, though feel free to read more if you like. During our next class, I'm going to play a few scenes from a recent Globe Theater production of the play so we can compare the page to the stage. As you read (or re-read) Act I, keep in mind questions you have: lines that don't make sense, stage business you don't understand, and passages that seem to have little to do with the plot. Remember that Shakespeare rarely invented his plots, usually preferring to borrow them wholesale from other poems, stories, or plays.
Here are some other things to look for and consider:
* Pay close attention to characters that speak in PROSE and those that speak in POETRY (sometimes characters switch, as well). Prose is normal speech, without meter, whereas poetry has a strict rhythm and often rhymes (though many characters speak in blank verse--unrhymed lines). Who speaks prose and why? When does it shift? Does anyone speak both?
* What do you make of Mercutio's "Queen Mab" speech in Scene 4? It has arguably nothing to do with the plot, and even Romeo interrupts him at the end, saying, "peace./Thou talk'st of nothing."
* Can you find the hidden sonnets in this play? That is, where does Shakespeare use actual sonnets (poems in iambic pentameter following an ABAB CDCD EFEF rhyme scheme)?
* As we learned from Wells, boys rarely played female roles beyond age 20, which would make acting as an old woman relatively difficult. This play has three older women: Lady Montague, Lady Capulet, and Juliet's Nurse. Would any of these roles be difficult for a teenaged boy to pull off? Does Shakespeare try to capture a realistic sense of a mature woman's personality and ethos? Or is it all played for laughs?
* Though Romeo and Juliet is technically a "tragedy," Act One might make you question that distinction. What about this act is more overtly comedic than tragic? Why might Shakespeare willingly mislead his audience? Also, are there any clues to the tragedy to come?
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