"My bounty
is as boundless as the sea.
My love is deep.
The more I give to thee,
the more I have,
for both are infinite."
When we made
Shakespeare in Love,
an entertaining
and fictional look
at William Shakespeare's life,
myself and the entire cast
learned a great deal
about William Shakespeare
and the magical passionate
world in which he lived.
We are very pleased
to have the opportunity
to bring this world
into your classroom.
We're going to take a look
at the playwright's life
and his works,
and also attempt to unlock
the emotional power
in Shakespeare's words.
By using examples
from his classic play
Romeo and Juliet,
we'll try to show you
just how forcefully
they speak to us today.
But the first question
we need to ask
before we embark
on our journey
is why Shakespeare?
Why out of those thousands
upon thousands of writers
that have come and gone
over the past 400 years
does Shakespeare
continue to be performed
in every corner
of the world?
Why are we still
so fascinated by these plays
that were written
so long ago?
The most likely reason is
probably that Shakespeare,
better than any writer
before or since,
understood exactly
what makes people tick.
And he was able to transform
that understanding
into the most
powerful portrayals
of human relationships
ever written.
But what do we really know
about Shakespeare, the man?
Surely with
all those great plays
and over 4 centuries
of scholarly research,
there must be
enough biographical material
to fill a library, right?
Wrong.
Believe it or not,
every fact we know for sure
about the life
of Shakespeare
can fit
on a tiny piece of paper.
Fact 1.
He was christened
in Stratford-upon-Avon
on April 26, 1564.
Actually we're not even sure
of the day of his birth.
It's traditionally
given as April 23rd,
but that may be
because he died on that date.
Fact 2.
On November 27, 1582,
when he was 18,
a license was issued for
his marriage to Ann Hathaway.
Fact number 3.
May 26, 1583, their daughter
Susanna was christened.
Two years later
on February 2, 1585,
we have a record
of the christening
of two more children, twins
named Judith and Hamnet.
Fact number 4.
1592, Shakespeare's name
first appeared in print
in an attack by a fellow writer
named Robert Greene,
who called Will
an upstart crow
for presuming to write as well
as a university educated man.
And fact number 5,
the final fact
we know for sure
about the life
of William Shakespeare
is that on April 23, 1616
he died in Stratford-upon-Avon,
and was buried in the same
church where he was born.
That's it.
Isn't that incredible
that so little is known
about the world's
greatest playwright?
But, of course, we know
much more about Shakespeare
than any biography
could ever tell us
because we have the wonderful
plays and poems he left us.
And through them
we can enter his imagination.
And
what an imagination it is.
"But soft, what light
through yonder window breaks.
It is the east,
and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun,
and kill the envious moon,
who is already sick
and pale with grief,
that thou, her maid,
art far more fair than she."
Never has there been
an imagination so rich
or so inclusive.
It's easy to forget that
Shakespeare, in his time,
was a very
popular playwright,
who wrote for and about people
at all levels of society.
And in every period
since then,
his universal understanding
of the human condition
has made his work
seem contemporary.
And why not?
When the subjects
he wrote about
are the stuff
of today's headlines--
power, war, violence,
and passion.
In Hamlet you have the ultimate
dysfunctional family.
In Macbeth you have the very
extreme of political ambition.
And in Romeo and Juliet
you have the world's
greatest story of young love.
That's why it's nothing short
of a Shakespearian tragedy
that this great playwright is
so often thought of as boring,
incomprehensible
and inaccessible,
a dusty icon
on a museum shelf.
In one sense, Shakespeare
was just like the rest of us.
And there must have been
a time in his youth
when nobody knew
he was a genius.
That concept
was the inspiration
for the film
Shakespeare in Love.
We imagined Will
as a struggling young actor,
and we tried to have some fun
with what might have been
the sources
of his inspiration.
Now it's comedy they want.
Will, comedy,
like Romeo and Ethel.
Who wrote that?
Nobody.
You were writing it for me.
I gave you
£3 a month since.
Half of what you owe me.
I'm still due for
One Gentlemen of Verona.
Will, what is money
to you and me?
I, your patron, you,
my wordwright.
When the plague lifts,
Burbage will have a new play
by Christopher Marlowe
for the Curtain.
I will have nothing
for the Rose.
Mr. Henslowe,
will you lend me £50?
Fifty pounds?
What for?
Burbage offers me
a partnership
in the Chamberlain's Men
for £50.
My days
as a hired player are over.
Oh, cut out my heart.
Throw my liver to the dogs.
No then?
( indistinct shouting )
The London of 1593 was
a world of dramatic contrasts,
a town of great palaces
and dark hidden alleyways,
of stately manor houses
and raucous taverns.
It was a world
where violence could flare
at the slightest
provocation,
and where the Black Death
could strike down anyone,
rich or poor,
at any moment.
What have I done,
Mr. Fennyman?
The theaters have all been
closed down by the plague.
Oh, that.
By order
of the Master of the Revels.
Mr. Fennyman,
allow me to explain
about the theater business.
The natural condition is
one of insurmountable obstacles
on the road
to imminent disaster.
Nothing.
Strangely enough,
it all turns out well.
How?
I don't know.
It's a mystery.
It was also
a romantic world of poetry,
passion and the theater.
Playgoing was the great
common denominator
in this unruly society,
a place where
all were welcome
and everyone became equal
for a few hours.
Well, not quite equal.
The groundlings paid a penny
to stand in the open air
in front of the stage
and the rest of the audience
paid tuppence
for a seat under the roof.
And for another penny
they could rent a cushion.
When I began to research
Elizabethan England,
I saw that
all the theaters of the time
were all more or less circular
amphitheaters with many sides.
They were constructed
mainly of wood
and generally had
a large open area,
either paved or just bare earth
in front of the stage,
which usually projected out
in the audience area.
JOSEPH: Performances
were held in the afternoon
for the simple reason
that most of the lighting
had to be
supplied by the sun.
Now you may be
asking yourselves,
what happened
to the groundlings
when it rained?
Well, they go wet,
of course.
You get what you pay for,
I suppose.
Plays generally lasted
several hours,
and there were no restrooms
and no intermissions.
I'll let you draw
your own conclusions
as to how this affected
the general atmosphere.
MARTIN: In 1593,
two of the major theaters
were the Rose
and the Curtain.
Most likely they were
not very clean and neat.
So we decided
to make the Rose
look properly rickety, grubby,
smelly, and rain drenched,
as if it were just
getting by on a wing
and a prayer financially,
which it probably
was much of the time.
In fact, saving money
was the main reason
playhouses didn't use much
in the way of sets.
Instead, they relied
on a more cheap
and cheerful resource
to set the scene, playwrights.
Writers often
found it necessary
to paint pictures with words
at the top of scenes
just to keep the audience
informed as to where they were.
Costumes, on the other hand,
were often quite elegant
and flamboyant
and provided the color
and flash that was lacking
in the minimal scenery.
In Shakespeare's time,
theaters didn't have
the technical capabilities
we have today,
like lighting
and sound effects.
They only had actors
and costumes
performing
in broad daylight.
And since
clothing in those days
invariably reflected
social status,
there was
a striking contrast
between the appearance of
the actors and the groundlings.
The common folk
generally dressed
in plain earth-colored outfits
of homespun wool or linen,
whereas
the upper-classes
tended to wear
richly colored outfits
in exotic fabric such as silk,
satin and velvet.
Even the amount of clothing
one wore indicated prosperity.
So people would wear
several layers of it
to showcase their affluence.
Men would actually
pad their tummies
to create an added
illusion of wealth
showing they could afford
to eat well.
This was called
a peascod belly.
The costumes used
by Elizabethan theaters
were generally gifts
of wealthy benefactors.
They would have been
items of their own clothing
that they have
grown tired off.
They were considered
the greatest asset
a theater company had
because they provided
a dazzling equivalent
of today's special effects.
Here
were all these groundlings
in their grubby,
drab working clothes,
and suddenly
all these extraordinary
colorful apparitions
would appear on stage
in front of them and lift them
out of their everyday world
into some
magical dimension.
In Shakespeare in Love,
you can get
a sense of the effect
this must have had
when you see the shimmering
vision of Gwyneth Paltrow
making her astonishing
entrance as Juliet.
Juliet!
How now, who calls?
Your mother.
Your mother.
JULIET:
Madam, I am here.
What is your will?
This is the matter.
Nurse, give leave awhile.
We must talk in secret.
Nurse, come back again.
I have remembered me.
Thou's hear our counsel.
Although in real life
in the Elizabethan times
Gwyneth's stage costume
as Juliet
would have been
contemporary,
I decided to take
artistic license
and to make the costumes
for our film's version
of Romeo and Juliet
from the Renaissance period.
This was in order
to differentiate between
the characters'
everyday clothes
and their stage costumes.
Of course, not all the color
in Elizabethan playhouses
was on the stage.
There were plenty
of fashionable blue-bloods
up in the audience as well.
And you could pretty much
tell their rank
by the colors they wore.
It was actually
illegal for anyone
below the rank of count
or countess to wear purple.
And they probably
couldn't afford it
even if they wanted to.
Purple dye
was outrageously expensive
because it could
only be extracted
by laboriously crushing
thousands of tiny sea snails.
Of course,
the Queen could wear purple,
crimson, gold, silver,
whatever she liked.
And so after researching
all the portraits I could find,
I decided to let
my imagination run wild
on Elizabeth's costumes,
resulting in this
peacock gown.
After all, Elizabeth was
like the theatrical character
she loved,
several times
larger than life.
Can a play show us the very
truth and nature of love?
I bear witness to the wager
and will be the judge of it
as occasion arises.
This was an exciting time
in the history of theater.
The permanent playhouse
as we know it
was less than
a generation old.
And the theater people
of Shakespeare's time
were literally inventing
modern entertainment.
For the first time
in history
you had writers
writing for real theaters.
You had people like me
who were actually
making a living
doing this kind of work.
And as in any
startup business,
you had a lot of people
looking to get rich
and fierce rivalries
for the best writers,
the best actors
and of course,
for the patronage
of the ticket buyers.
In other words, you had
the beginnings of all the things
we associate
with modern show business.
The character I play,
Philip Henslowe,
actually existed.
He owned and ran
the Rose theater.
And we know
from his diary that
like most of the entrepreneurs
of his time,
he had his hand
in many businesses.
Like many
business people today,
he probably had to stay
diversified to make a living.
The London City officials
hated and feared the theater,
and would often close them
for next to no reason at all.
They thought the theater fell
prey to what they called
moral diseases,
as it attracted pickpockets,
prostitutes
and con artists,
and because it lured
journeyman workers
away from their jobs
in the middle of the day.
They also saw
the theater as a place
where the plague was spread.
And considering
how closely
the groundlings
were packed together,
they might have
had a point there.
But when you compare
theater
to other popular
entertainments of the time,
like public executions
and witch burnings,
the city fathers seemed to
have been over-reacting a bit.
Nevertheless,
there were all kinds of
draconian regulations
for theaters,
such as the law against
women appearing on the stage.
And an official called
the Master of the Revels
was responsible
for enforcing them.
Mr. Tilney, what is this?
Sedition and indecency.
Master of the Revels, sir.
She's over here.
Where, boy?
There.
I saw her bubbies.
So a woman on the stage.
A woman!
I say
this theater is closed!
Why, sir?
For lewdness
and unshamedfacedness!
And for displaying a female
on the public stage!
( screaming )
Not him, her.
That's who I meant.
He's a woman.
This theater is closed.
Notice will be posted!
When a theater
was closed down,
the theater owner could run into
money troubles very quickly.
Aah!
I can pay you.
When?
Two weeks.
Three weeks at the most.
Oh, for pity's sake!
Take them out.
Where will you find...
Sixteen pounds,
five shillings and nine pence.
Including interest,
in 3 weeks.
I have a wonderful new play.
Put them back in.
It's a comedy.
Cut off his nose.
It's a new comedy
by William Shakespeare.
Yes, a good play,
a popular play,
a palpable hit as it were
could change a theater's
fortunes overnight.
And playwrights
like Shakespeare
were encouraged to write plays
containing all the ingredients
to traditionally made
for commercial success.
A pirate king, a shipwreck,
a smidgen of romance,
and of course
a bit with a dog.
( laughter )
Hey, if the queen laughs,
everybody laughs, right?
So comedy was good
and love was important,
but one mustn't forget
a bit of bloodshed.
It appears there were
lots of discerning critics
who wouldn't even
go to a play
unless it had at least
one good stabbing.
I was in a play.
They cut my head off
in Titus Andronicus.
When I write plays,
they'll be like Titus.
You admire it.
I liked it when they
cut heads off,
and the daughter mutilated
with knives.
What's your name?
John Webster.
( cat meows )
Here, kitty, kitty.
Ah, but the play is not
the only thing, is it?
I ask you, where would
the playwrights be
without great actors
to bring their words to life?
In Elizabethan England,
the stars brought the audiences
into the theaters
even more than the plays.
And my character
in Shakespeare in Love,
Ned Alleyn, was based
on a real superstar,
sort of the Tom Cruise
of his day.
The Admiral's Men
are returned to the house!
( all cheering )
Ned!
Henslowe!
Good to see you.
Who is this?
Silence, you dog!
I am Hieronimo.
I am Tamburlaine.
I am Faustus.
I am Barabbas,
the Jew of Malta.
Oh, yes, Master Will,
I am Henry VI.
What is the play,
and what is my part?
Uh, one moment, sir.
Who are you?
I'm, um, I'm the money.
Then you may remain,
so long as you remain silent.
Pay attention.
You will see how genius
creates a legend.
Thank you, sir.
We are in desperate
want of a Mercutio, Ned.
A young nobleman of Verona.
Mm-hmm.
And the title of this piece?
Mercutio.
Is it?
I will play him.
In 1593, Alleyn was certainly
a bigger name than Shakespeare.
At that time Christopher Marlowe
was the most popular playwright.
You see, Marlowe had
practically invented
the method of building
a part for a star,
which is what he did
with the role
of Tamburlaine the Great,
the performance that really
launched Ned Alleyn's career.
Playwrights like Shakespeare
knew they had to please stars
like Ned Alleyn by offering
them fat, juicy parts
with a lot of flash
and pizzazz.
There.
You have this duel.
A skirmish of words
and swords
such as I never wrote,
nor anyone.
He dies with such passion
and poetry as you ever heard.
"A plague
on both your houses!"
He dies?
Players like Ned Alleyn
were not only important
because they themselves
were so crucial
to the success
of a production,
but because
they were the leaders
of a whole company
of actors.
Alleyn, for example,
was the lead actor
of a troop called
the Admiral's Men.
These were
the true professionals.
Without their participation,
a theater manager
would have to round up
whatever scurvy rogues
he could scrape out
of the bottom of the barrel
to populate his productions.
( whistles )
Ned Alleyn and the Admiral's Men
are out on tour.
I need actors.
( all shouting )
Those of you who are unknown
will have a chance to be known.
What about the money,
Mr. Henslowe?
It won't cost you a penny.
( all laughing )
Auditions in half an hour.
Rehearsal time
was ridiculously short.
Plays were often put up
in less than a week.
And a leading man
might be expected to memorize
hundreds of lines in a day.
Even then the theaters
could only afford
to run the play
for 3 or 4 days.
And while it was running,
the actors might be rehearsing
for the next play.
That is quite remarkable
when you compare it
to today's theater,
where most plays have
rehearsal period of many weeks
and are often performed
for months and months
and sometimes years.
This might tell you
something about
why professionals
like the Admiral's Men
were sought-after
commodities.
Notice that it's
the Admiral's Men, not women.
As you just heard,
the women's parts in those days
were all played by men
because it was
forbidden by law
for women
to appear on the stage.
A thousand times, goodnight.
A thousand times
the worse to want thy light.
I cannot move in this dress.
It makes me look like a pig.
All in all, this was
just another example
of the abysmal status
women had in those days.
They couldn't vote.
They had hardly
any legal rights.
And for the most part,
the only education they got
was in piety, chastity
and domestic skills.
Under no circumstances
could they be lawyers
or doctors or teachers.
For women, the number one
job was marriage,
arranged marriage.
Upper class marriages were
used solely to gain property
and forge family alliances.
SIR ROBERT:
She's a beauty, my lord,
as would take a king to church
for the dowry of a nutmeg.
My plantations in Virginia
are not mortgaged for a nutmeg.
I have an ancient name
which will bring you preferment
when your grandson
is a Wessex.
Is she fertile?
She will breed.
If she do not, send her back.
Is she obedient?
As any mule in Christendom.
But if you are the man
to ride her,
there are rubies
in the saddlebag.
I like her.
And that was that.
It made
absolutely no difference
whether or not
love was involved.
In 16th century England,
sons and daughters,
especially daughters,
were expected
to honor their parents
by obeying them.
Do you intend to marry,
my lord?
Your father should
keep you better informed.
He has bought me for you.
He returns from his estates
to see us married
2 weeks from Saturday.
Why me?
It was your eyes.
No, your lips.
Ugh!
Will you defy your father
and your Queen?
The Queen has consented?
She wants to inspect you
at Greenwich, come Sunday.
Be submissive, modest,
grateful and brief.
I will do my duty, my lord.
Isn't it ironic that
the most powerful individual
in this male-dominated society
was a woman?
Queen Elizabeth,
Elizabeth I.
In the name of Her Majesty,
Queen Elizabeth!
Mr. Tilney!
Have a care with my name.
You will wear it out.
In 1593, Elizabeth had been
on the throne for 40 years.
She was a wise and stern ruler
who worked extremely hard
and loved to shed
the cares of her office
by attending
theatrical performances.
Do you love stories
of kings and queens?
Of feats of arms?
Or is it courtly love?
I love theater.
To have stories
acted for me
by a company of fellows
is indeed--
They're not acted for you,
they are acted for me.
Thank goodness Elizabeth
loved the theater.
If she hadn't,
the city fathers
who were all
straight-laced businessmen
would almost certainly
have permanently
shut down the playhouse
just to keep their workers
from sneaking off to the theater
in the middle of the day.
So in a very real sense,
it can be said
we probably wouldn't have had
the great works of Marlowe,
Shakespeare or Ben Jonson today
if the Queen hadn't liked plays.
Elizabeth was a 16th century
version of today's workaholic.
She never married and
was known as the Virgin Queen.
She had no family obligations
to speak of.
So why shouldn't she have had
a bit of entertainment
in her life?
But for Elizabeth,
the theater
was as much a learning
experience as a diversion.
To master the many roles
she was called upon
to play at court,
she needed to be
an actress of sorts.
Still, one would think
that being
such a lover of the theater
Elizabeth must have been
something of a romantic.
So why didn't she marry?
Well, it wasn't because
she had bad dental work.
By the way,
I'd like everyone to know
that those teeth in the film
were not mine.
And it wasn't
because she only bathed
three or four times
a year.
In fact, that was
three or four times
more than
most of her subjects.
The fact is,
that if Elizabeth
had wanted to marry,
she would have had the pick
of any number of courtiers
who were more than ready
to be of service.
Too late, too late.
The reason
Elizabeth didn't marry was
because it served her so well
to remain single,
especially when it came
to foreign policy.
At a crucial stage
in negotiations
with a foreign power,
she could bring out
the possibility of matrimony
and then
take it away again
as soon as
she got what she wanted.
Of course, Elizabeth had
special privileges
far beyond ordinary women
of her time.
But then, she was the queen
for heaven's sake.
She was an extraordinarily
shrewd
and well educated woman.
She'd studied
Greek, Latin, French,
Spanish, Italian,
Flemish, mathematics,
astronomy,
and history,
all by the time
she was 12 years old.
And you think
you've got homework.
But just because
she got all these privileges
and all this power,
don't think for a minute
that Elizabeth's life
was a bed of roses.
I know something of a woman
in a man's profession.
Yes, by God,
I do know about that.
No wonder she enjoyed seeing
the odd play now and again.
She most certainly
would have sympathized
with those female characters
in Shakespeare's plays
who put on men's clothing
and took on male identities
to get what they wanted.
She would understand
better than anyone
that cross-dressing
was not only a useful,
delightful
and dramatic device,
it was Shakespeare's way
of commenting
on the lowly status of women
in society.
Passing as a man
was the only way
these characters would
gain the kind of rights,
power and freedom
they could never have
as a woman.
Oh, yes,
Elizabeth would surely
understand Portia
in the Merchant of Venice,
Julia in Two Gentlemen
of Verona,
Rosalind in As You Like It,
and Viola in Twelfth Night.
And she would understand
our Viola,
created by writers
Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard
for Shakespeare in Love,
who must disguise herself
as Sir Thomas Kent
in order to have the freedom
to pursue her dream
of becoming an actor.
May I begin, sir?
Your name?
Thomas Kent.
I would like to do a speech
by a writer
who commands
the heart of every player.
What light is light
if Silvia be not seen?
What joy is joy
if Silvia be not by?
Unless it be to think
that she is by
and feed upon the shadow
of perfection.
Except I be by Silvia
in the night,
there is no music
in the nightingale.
Unless I look on Silvia
in the day,
there is no day for me
to look upon.
She is my essence,
and I leave to be
if I be not--
Take off your hat.
My hat?
Where'd you learn
how to do that?
Let me see you.
Take off your hat.
Are you Master Shakespeare?
Wait there.
Wait there!
Did you hear a kind of echo
of the balcony scene
from Romeo and Juliet
in those lines about Silvia?
What light is light
if Silvia is not seen?
What joy is joy
if Silvia be not by?
Well, if you did,
there's a good reason for it.
Those lines are from
the Two Gentlemen of Verona,
an earlier play
by Shakespeare.
In that play
he was already investigating
the very truth
and nature of love.
And in Romeo and Juliet,
he found
just the right characters
and situation
to achieve the seemingly
impossible task
of expressing it.
And the way he does it
is through language,
extraordinary
and beautiful language.
The interesting thing
about Shakespeare,
not just Shakespeare,
but it's particularly
pertinent to Shakespeare,
is that the way
that each play is interpreted
and re-interpreted
each time it's performed is
what in a way keeps him alive
on the stage
rather than just on the page.
He's always going to be
a good read
if you know how to read him.
Romeo and Juliet
is really what set Shakespeare
apart from the other writers
of his time, you know.
You can argue
before Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare is not Shakespeare,
he's just a man writing plays.
He's promising.
He's not doing much more
than anybody else is doing.
With Romeo and Juliet,
he breaks the mold.
Other playwrights of his time
believed that comedies
were comedies
and tragedies were tragedies,
and you didn't mix them.
Comedies
were about young lovers,
they ended with marriage.
Tragedies
were about important people,
it ended with death.
He starts out Romeo and Juliet
as a comedy.
Romeo is walking
around the stage
saying,
"Rosalind doesn't love me."
Kind of silly.
It ends with...
the two young lovers
committing suicide.
I think in terms of feeling
what the impact was
for Shakespeare's audience,
you have to think
about the book
or movie
that's most impacted your life
and multiply it by 10.
It was just something
nobody had ever seen before.
It's the greatest love story
ever told, it still is.
Two households,
both alike in dignity,
in fair Verona,
where we lay our scene.
From ancient grudge
break to new mutiny,
where civil blood
makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins
of these two foes,
a pair of star-crossed lovers
take their life
whose misadventured
piteous overthrows
doth with their death
bury their parents' strife.
You see?
Shakespeare tells us
everything really.
He tells us we're in Verona
in Italy,
where an ancient feud
between two old families,
the Montagues
and the Capulets,
has escalated
into bloody violence.
And he tells us that
a pair of star-crossed lovers
from these two warring clans
will take their lives,
and with their death
bury their parents' strife.
In other words,
their deaths will serve
to put an end to the feud.
Now, you'd think by telling us
how the story ends
right at the beginning
he'd ruin it for us,
but just the opposite happens.
When we meet
Romeo and Juliet,
we instantly
fall in love with them
as they fall in love
with each other.
As they yearn
for each other
across this chasm
of hate and violence,
as they surmount every obstacle
to be in each other's arms,
this brilliant playwright
makes us root for them
to beat the odds
with all our hearts.
Knowing that
they will die in the end
just makes it all that much more
intense and heartbreaking.
Now that's wonderful
playwriting.
This story
and the emotions
it conjures
are incredibly compelling
in and of themselves.
But the more you understand
the language
and unlock
the power of the poetry,
the deeper
the experience gets.
As an example, let's take
that famous balcony scene
from Romeo and Juliet.
We begin with Juliet
speaking into the night
as Romeo hides unseen
under her balcony.
Oh, Romeo, Romeo.
Wherefore art thou, Romeo?
Deny thy father
and refuse thy name.
Juliet's not saying,
"Where are you, Romeo?"
She's asking,
"Why of all things
do you have to be
a Montague?
Please say you're not
one of my family's enemies."
Or if thou wilt not,
be but sworn my love,
and I'll no longer be a Capulet.
Shall I hear more,
or shall I speak at this?
'Tis but thy name
that is my enemy.
Thou art thyself,
though not a Montague.
What's Montague?
It is not hand, nor foot,
nor arm, nor face,
nor any other part
belonging to a man.
Oh, be some other name.
What's in a name?
That which we call a rose
by any other name
would smell as sweet.
So Romeo would,
were he not Romeo called,
retain that dear perfection
which he owes
without that title.
Romeo, doff thy name,
and for that name,
which is no part of thee
take all myself.
I think what Gwen's
trying to say there is,
it's only your name
that's a problem, it's not you.
What's in a name?
If a rose were called
by some other name,
wouldn't it still smell
as sweet?
It's the same with you.
Give up your name
and I'm yours.
Romeo, unable to contain
himself a moment longer,
finally breaks his silence.
I take thee at thy word.
Call me but love,
and I'll be new baptized.
Henceforth
I never will be Romeo.
Just tell me you love me,
and I'll take on a new name.
Lovers can see
to do their amorous
rites by their own beauties,
or if love be blind,
it best agrees with night.
Come, civil night,
thou sober-suited matron,
all in black, and learn me
how to lose a winning match
played for a pair
of stainless maidenhoods.
Hood my unmanned blood
bating in my cheeks,
with thy black mantle
till strange love grow bold,
think true love
acted simple modesty.
Come, night.
Come, Romeo.
Come, thou day in night,
for thou wilt lie
upon the wings of night
whiter than new snow
on a raven's back.
Come, gentle night, come,
loving, black-browed night,
give me my Romeo.
And when he shall die,
take him and cut him out
in little stars,
and he will make
the face of heaven so fine
that all the world
will be in love with night
and pay no worship
to the garish sun.
That was a monologue
from Juliet,
a role that Judi once played
at the Old Vic
for a Franco
Zeffirelli production.
In the speech,
Juliet is anxiously awaiting
the arrival of Romeo
and lamenting the fact
that her love has been confessed
but not consummated.
She's saying that
if Romeo were a star,
he would put the sun
to shame
and everyone would surely
be in love with night.
You see, you didn't need
much help at all
to understand those scenes.
It's the color Shakespeare
puts into the words
that raises them
above ordinary conversations.
Now let's end our fun here
with a look at the final scene
of Romeo and Juliet
in two different forms.
We'll begin with the scene
from Shakespeare in Love,
which dramatizes how Will
might have told the cast
in sort of plain English
how the story of Romeo
and Juliet will play out.
Then we'll show you
what the same sequence
looks like on opening night,
when all the elements
come together,
language, character,
plot, sets,
costumes and that all-important
ingredient, the audience.
Now, before this point
in the story,
several critical incidents
have occurred
that have led
to an extremely tense situation.
A sympathetic friar
has secretly joined Romeo
and Juliet in marriage.
Then, one of Juliet's cousins,
Tybalt,
engages Romeo's good friend
Mercutio
in a duel and kills him.
This sends Romeo
into a violent rage
and he in turn
kills Tybalt.
Then--
Well, I'll let Will tell you.
For killing
Juliet's kinsman Tybalt,
the one who killed
Romeo's friend Mercutio,
Romeo is banished.
But the friar
who married Romeo and Juliet--
Is that me, Will?
You, Edward,
the friar who married them
gives Juliet a potion
to drink.
It is a secret potion.
It makes her seeming dead.
She is placed
in the tomb of the Capulets.
She will awake to life
and love
when Romeo
comes to her side again.
I've not said all.
By maligned fate,
the message goes astray
which would tell Romeo
of the friar's plan.
He hears only
that Juliet is dead.
And thus he goes
to the apothecary.
That's me.
And buys
a deadly poison.
He enters the tomb
to say farewell to Juliet
who lies there cold
as death.
He drinks the poison.
He dies by her side,
and then she wakes
and sees him dead.
And so Juliet
takes his dagger...
and kills herself.
Well, that will have them
rolling in the aisles.
Sad and wonderful.
Now let's dress the story up
in poetry
as we journey
with our star-crossed lovers
to their heartbreaking destiny.
Just be aware
as you're watching
that this sequence
is much more compressed
than it is in the play.
Nevertheless, it will give you
a wonderful taste of the story
and the effect
it has on the audience.
And hopefully,
it will spark your enthusiasm
to see how Shakespeare
plays out his tale
in the full version
of the text.
Art thou gone so?
Love, lord,
aye, husband, friend?
I must hear from thee every day
in the hour,
for in a minute
there are many days.
Oh, by this count
I shall be much in years
there again
I behold my Romeo.
Farewell.
Oh, think'st thou
we shall ever meet again?
Methinks I see thee,
now thou art so low,
as one dead
at the bottom of a tomb.
Either my eyesight fails
or thou look'st pale.
Then trust me, love,
in my eyes, so do you.
Dry sorrow
drinks our blood.
Adieu.
Adieu.
Take thou this vial,
being then in bed,
and this distilling liquor
drink thou off.
No warmth, no breath
shall testify thou livest.
And in this borrowed
likeness of shrunk death
thou shalt continue
two and forty hours,
and then awake
as from a pleasant sleep.
What ho!
Apothecary!
Come hither, man.
I see that
thou art poor.
Hold,
there is 40 ducats.
Let me have a dram of poison.
Such mortal drugs I have,
but Mantua's law is death
to any he that utters them.
Art thou so--
My poverty,
but not my will, consents.
I pay thy poverty
and not thy will.
Arms,
take your last embrace.
And, lips, oh, you,
the doors of breath,
seal with a righteous kiss...
a dateless bargain
to engrossing death.
Come, bitter conduct.
Come, unsavory guide.
Thou, desperate pilot,
now at once
run on the dashing rocks,
thy seasick weary bark.
Here's to my love!
( gasps )
Oh, true apothecary!
Thy drugs are quick.
Thus with a kiss...
I die.
( sobbing )
( gasping )
( exhales deeply )
Where is my lord?
I do remember well
where I should be,
and there I am.
Where is my Romeo?
Dead!
( whimpering )
What's this?
A cup, closed
in my true love's hand?
Poison, I see,
hath been his timeless end.
( audience gasps )
Oh, happy dagger,
this is thy sheath.
( audience gasps )
There rest
and let me die.
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 punished,
for never was a story
of more woe
than this of Juliet
and her Romeo.
( applause )
Bravo!
On behalf of all of us,
I would like to thank you
for inviting us
into your classroom.
Over the years,
if you continue to read
and watch
Shakespeare's works,
I promise that your interest
will grow into a passion
that will reward you
the rest of your lives.
