By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Two households, both alike in dignity’: so begins the Prologue to William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. What is less well-known is the very specific poetic form Shakespeare chooses for the Prologue: a form he goes on to use later in Romeo and Juliet. (We have analysed the play as a whole here.)
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle analyses the meaning of a strange Shakespearean quotation
Let’s start with two correctives to common misconceptions about Romeo and Juliet.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?’ is a speech made by Romeo at the beginning of Act II Scene 2 in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The whole of the speech beginning ‘But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?’ represents the consolidation and confirmation of Romeo’s love for Juliet, as he echoes his initial paean to her beauty (from Act I Scene 5), but the intensity of his feeling is seen to develop.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright’ is a famous speech spoken by Romeo in Act I Scene 5 of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. But what does he mean by this speech? Although the meaning may appear to be straightforward, when viewed in the context of the play Romeo’s words shed some considerable light on his character.
Before we analyse the ‘O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright’ speech, though, here’s a reminder of what Romeo says:
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Although it was first performed in the 1590s, the first documented performance of Romeo and Juliet is from 1662. The diarist Samuel Pepys was in the audience, and recorded that he ‘saw “Romeo and Juliet,” the first time it was ever acted; but it is a play of itself the worst that ever I heard in my life, and the worst acted that ever I saw these people do.’