Romeo and Juliet

From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change

Romeo and Juliet is the name of a play written by William Shakespeare, and first published in an incomplete form in 1597. It is a tragedy or sad play. It is one of Shakespeare's most famous and popular plays, being performed on stage very often, and also being made into movies. Shakespeare did not make the story up himself. It had already been written by an Italian writer called Luigi de Porto, and then made into a poem in English by a writer called Arthur Brooke. Shakespeare must have read Brooke's poem and thought it was a good story to make into a play. Historians think that perhaps the families in the original story were not really families at all, but two gangs called the Montercchi and the Capiletti from San Bonifacio.

Contents 1 The story 2 About the play 3 The most famous scene 4 Movies 5 Adaptations 6 Music 7 References 8 Other websites

[change] The story

The play is about two noble families that live in the old Italian city of Verona. The families are called the Montagues and the Capulets. Unfortunately, the fathers of the two noble houses have had an argument, and are enemies, so all their young servants are enemies as well. The young men who work for the Montagues and the Capulets get into gangs and fight each other in the street. Because it is fashionable to carry a sword, sometimes they get badly injured.

Verona is ruled by Prince Escalus. He tells the Montagues and the Capulets that there must be no more fighting or they will have to pay, but it is very hard to control the young men.

Montague has only one child, a teenage boy called Romeo. Capulet also has only one child, a beautiful 14-year-old daughter called Juliet. They do not know each other, because Juliet never goes anywhere without her nursemaid. However, Romeo and Juliet meet at a party and fall in love.

Their love should heal all the problems between their families, but because they are only teenagers, they think they will get into trouble from their parents, so they marry in secret. Because of their secret marriage, a series of things happen which brings about many deaths. The unhappy families of Montague and Capulet are finally brought together in grief.

[change] About the play

Because this play was written in the 1500s, the English language that it uses is not exactly like the English that is used today. One example is that in modern English we say "you" for one person and also "you" for more than one person. But in Shakespeare's English, he writes "thee" and "thou" when it means just one person.

Juliet says "If they do see thee, they will murder thee!"

Many words are used a little bit differently to the way they are used today, and other words are used that are now only used sometimes in poetry.

Romeo and Juliet, like many of Shakespeare's plays, is written is several different forms.

Some of it is prose, which is like normal speaking. The servants in the play usually talk in prose.

For example, two Capulet servants are planning to cause trouble with two Montague servants who are walking down the street.

Sampson: "Let us take the law of our side! Let them begin!"

Gregory: "I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as they list!" (however they like)

Sampson: "I will bite my thumb at them, which is a disgrace to them, if they bare it!"

Some of the play is written in poetry which rhymes on the ends of the lines.

For example, when Friar Laurence goes out to tend his garden in the early morning, he says:

"The grey eyed Morn smiles on the frowning Night

Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light."

("Morn" is used to mean morning in poetry)

A lot of poetry has rhyme and rhythm. But most of this play is written in a type of poetry called blank verse. This means that although it doesn't usually rhyme, it has strong rhythm. The rhythm is exactly the same in most of the play, and in many of Shakespeare's other plays. The rhythm goes:

de-dah de-dah de-dah de-dah de-dah,

de-dah de-dah de-dah de-dah de-dah.

For example, Juliet, who is anxious to get a message from Romeo says:

"The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse!

In half an hour, she promised to return!"

The play finishes with two lines that rhyme. This is called a rhyming couplet.

The Prince says to Montague and Capulet:

"A glooming peace this morning with it brings;

The sun for sorrow will not show his head.

Go hence to have more talk of these sad things;

Some shall be pardoned and some punish-ed:

For never was a story of more woe

Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."

In simple English^[1]

[change] The most famous scene

Of all the scenes that have ever been written in plays, one of the most famous is in Romeo and Juliet.

After Romeo and Juliet have met at a party and fallen in love, Juliet goes up to bed. But she cannot sleep so she stands at her window and pretends she is talking with Romeo.

Romeo is going past and says "But soft, what light from yonder window breaks? ...It is my Lady! O, it is my Love!"

Juliet, not knowing he is there, says "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" (Romeo, Romeo, why do you have to be who you are?) She wishes he was not called Romeo Montague but had some different name, so he was not an enemy.

Romeo climbs up onto the balcony. Juliet tells Romeo that her love for him is as deep and endless as the sea. They part from each other with the famous words:

"Good night! Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow,

That I shall say Good night till it be morrow." (tomorrow)

This romantic scene has been acted and copied many times, sometimes seriously and sometimes for fun. One well-known scene that took its idea from this, is from West Side Story, a musical by Leonard Bernstein, which takes place on a fire-escape landing with the lovers, Tony and Maria, singing the lovesong, Tonight.

[change] Movies

Romeo and Juliet has been performed on stage many times. There have also been forty different films

• 1908 - Romeo and Juliet, a silent film was made by Vitagraph Studios in the US. Directed by J. Stuart Blackton, the film starred Paul Panzer as Romeo and Florence Lawrence as Juliet.
• 1936 - Romeo and Juliet, produced by Irving Thalberg and directed by George Cukor of Classical Hollywood with Norma Shearer as Juliet and Leslie Howard as Romeo, but many critics said that the actors were too old.
• 1968 - Romeo and Juliet, directed by Franco Zeffirelli. This film was made in Italy, with Olivia Hussey, who was 15, as Juliet and Leonard Whiting, who was 17, as Romeo. The costumes won an Oscar.
• 1996 - Romeo + Juliet, directed by Baz Luhrmann, with Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo and Claire Danes as Juliet. This very colourful version has a modern setting.

[change] Adaptations

• 1950s - West Side Story, by Leonard Bernstein, is a musical set in a modern city in the US. It is about two rival street gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. The Sharks are migrants from Porto Rico. Some of the famous songs are Tonight, America, One Hand, One Heart and I feel Pretty. As a stage show, it was popular in the America, the UK and Australia. In 1961, West Side Story was made into a movie.

• 1999 - Shakespeare in Love, is the movie of a fictional (imaginary) story about how Shakespeare came to write Romeo and Juliet and some of his other famous plays. very powerful movie

[change] Music

• 1839 - Berlioz wrote a symphony called Romeo and Juliet.
• 1867 - Gunod wrote an opera of Romeo and Juliet.
• 1869 - Tchaikovsky wrote a symphonic poem called Romeo and Juliet.
• 1936 - the first performance of Prokofiev's ballet, Romeo and Juliet.
• 1978 - Alec R. Costandinos, a French composer, wrote a disco opera titled Romeo & Juliet, which was released as a double album.

[change] References

[change] Other websites

• Full text of the play