1439800 1623 Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet. Eight Leaves Plus Final Page.

 

 

Probably the most interesting thing about the first page of Romeo and Juliet in the First Folio is that it lacks the prologue spoken by Chorus which is the familiar and lovely sonnet that begins:

 

 

Scholarly conjecture on the omission has to do with the final lines using the phrase “the two hours’ traffic of our stage,” and by cutting the prologue the finished performance comes a bit closer to that goal. Whether this is true or not the action of the play picks up immediately at the outset as two serving men of the house of Montague rail on about what they would do if they met their opposite numbers of the Capulet’s.  Naturally they do, and a very dramatic scene unfolds in which the two draw swords.  They are separated by Benvolio of the Montague faction who then is confronted by Tybalt the cousin of Juliet.  Lord and Lady Capulet arrive followed immediately by Lord and Lady Montague who intervene and call for peace. They are followed immediately by Prince Escalus who declares that the next weapon drawn in anger will be the death of its owner.

 

Romeo enters looking very down in the mouth and tells Benvolio that he is very much distracted by thoughts of a fair lady but that his love is unrequited.

 

In the next scene, we learn Juliet Capulet is being pursued by Paris but that she is not particularly fond of him. Lady Capulet reminds her that there will be a masked ball that night that Paris will be attending and that her parents urge her to keep an open mind. We subsequently learn that Romeo’s unrequited love, Rosaline, will also be at the party but that no one from the house of Montague will dare show his face.

 

Benvolio tells Romeo that Rosaline will be at the ball and Romeo decides that he will attend the ball at the Capulet’s house and since it is a masked ball he will be able to pass among the guests. Thus very early on in the play we learn that both Romeo and Juliet are either pursued by or pursuing other potential loves.

 

Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio then arrive in full disguise at the Capulet’s house and the stage is set for the tragic consequences that will ensue.

 

The first fragment, comprising twelve pages, picks up immediately following the balcony scene after Romeo and Juliet have parted.  Early the next morning Romeo visits Friar Lawrence to whom its apparent that Romeo has not slept all night. Romeo tells the Friar he needs to be married in a hurry.  The Friar thinks he’s finally hooking up with Rosaline but is shocked to learn that no, it is a Capulet that Romeo pursues.  The Friar assures Romeo that he will inform Juliet of his whereabouts and tell Juliet tomeet up with him later.  But things go astray and Juliet winds up confronting her mother and dashing out. Romeo in the meantime becomes embroiled in a dual with Tybalt, a very close cousin of Juliet.  He kills Tybalt because Tybalt has just slain Mercutio, Romeo’s best friend.   On learning of the death of Tybalt, lady Capulet urges the Prince to kill a Montague. The Prince instead demands that Romeo be banished from Verona.

 

Not knowing of these skirmishes and particularly not knowing Romeo’s part in them Juliet delivers one of the most beautiful speeches in  the entire Shakespeare canon beginning “Gallup apace you fiery footed steeds” as she longs to once again be united with Romeo. She wishes that Romeo could be cut into “little stars” so that he “will make the face of heaven so fine/K that all the world will be in love with night/and pay no worship to the garish sun”.

 

The nurse rushes breathlessly into Juliet’s chamber crying only that “he is dead he is dead.”. Juliet is horrified thinking the Nurse is referring to Romeo when actually the she is speaking of Romeo’s killing  of Tybalt. The nurse then says that because of this Romeo has been banished but tells Juliet that he is currently in Friar Lawrence’s cell.

 

In the friar’s cell the two reunite briefly in a passage of poignant, haunting beauty.

In the friar’s cell tells the friar that unless he can somehow prevail against her wedding to Paris she will kill herself.  The Friar gives her a potion that will give her the appearance of death but that the spell will last only “two and forty hours”.

 

A message from Juliet does not reach Romeo, so that when he discovers Juliet’s apparently lifeless body, he assumes she has killed herself.  Romeo drinks a potion supplied by his own apothecary and gives Juliet a parting kiss before he succumbs.  When Juliet wakes from her spell, sees Romeo’s body then stabs herself and dies.

 

 

The second fragment is the final page of the tragedy with its beautiful haunting speech by the Prince at the very end: “where be these enemies.  Capulet.  Montague.  See what a scourge is laid upon your hates that heaven finds means to kill your joys with love” and  a little bit later “a glooming piece this morning with it brings/the sun for sorrow will not show his head…for never was a story of more woe/ than this of Juliet and her Romeo”.