It became Christian in the 4th century, till it became the beloved city of Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoth kingdom in the middle of the 5th century, then a Longobardic dukedom and the seat of Pipin, King of Italy under the Carolinian Empire. In the 11th century Verona was joined to the Mark of Bavaria and in 1136 it became a municipality. Having come under the power of Ezzelino da Romano, it came under the dominion of the Scaliger family, whose seigniory lasted from 1277 until 1387, when it fell into the hands of the Viscontis. In 1405 Verona voluntarily offered itself to the Venetians, under whose government it remained until 1796, when the Republic of Venice was invaded by Napoleon. After the short-lived rule of the Kingdom of Italy Verona was occupied by the Austrians in 1814 and returned to the dominion of Italy in 1866.
Verona was the papal seat of Pope Lucius III (Ubaldo Allucignoli di Lucca) from 1181 to 1185, the year when the Conclave which elected Pope Urban III was held in Verona. Pope Lucius III is buried in the choir of the Cathedral, where there is a memorial stone inscribed to him.
This scene in the play is important because all the main characters are in this scene and it shows the importance of love at first sight. This scene sets the storyline for the rest of the play.
Zefferelli has set his play in old fashioned Verona in Italy in the late 1500's and early 1600's.
The characters are typical rich and posh characters they speak a very posh old English and enjoy socializing at their parties and consuming alcohol. They wear old fashioned costumes.
Women's clothing begins with their underwear, which is a chemise or smock. The chemise is nightgown-like undergarment, usually of white linen. It may show slightly above the bodice or through the sleeves, but it is underclothing and therefore normally hidden.. It is typically worn with a partlet -- a garment gathered to a neckband that filled in the part of a woman's chest above the bodice. The common style of chemise with drawstring neck and wrists used in Renn Faires and most SCA activities doesn't resemble anything documented in our time period. Italian women used a smocked style of chemise, where the garment is gathered to a solid band, but the average woman's chemise was very ancient in design, being made tunic-like of square, un gathered pieces. Working women are often depicted without over sleeves or jacket, with their chemise sleeves rolled up. For upper class women, this chemise may be of very fine linen, and beautifully worked with embroidery that no one but the lady, her maids, and her bedfellows saw.
What happens after the chemise is a question of social class. For lower class women, the next garment may be a kirtle, a one-piece, sleeveless dress, and over this a gown, which has a bodice attached to a skirt. The gown opens up the front and is laced together. Sleeves may then be attached by pins (even the poorest women would be expected to have a little "pin money" for those so-necessary pins to keep her clothes together.). The Flemish Working Woman's outfit described by Drea Leed gives excellent instruction on how to make such an ensemble. Although this is a style of the 1560's and 1570's, lower class people's clothing changed much more slowly than upper class fashion. Unlike the one-piece Flemish gown, the market girl at the bottom of this page and has a separate bodice and skirt. She is wearing the fashions of the 1590's, with a pronounced pointy waist, wider sleeves, and wider collar on the partlet. Her bodice must be boned in order to hold this shape.
The gown is the common garment for upper-class women also. The fashionable late 16th century look, which has a long and sharply pointed waistline, requires the skirt to be sewn to the bodice in order to get the correct line. It does not lace up the front. Instead, it is more likely to fasten almost invisibly up the back side. The bodice has "princess seams" shaping its back, and the opening is often along one of these seams. It may be split open down the front of the skirt to show petticoats underneath.
Upper class bodices require a corset underneath in order to fit properly. This is heavily boned in order to give the proper flat-chested, long-waisted look without wrinkles. The boning was done with caning or rushes (modern substitutes are of plastic or metal). You can put some boning directly in the bodice, if required, but most of the shaping is in the foundation corset. Many full-figured women report that period corsets offer great support and are more comfortable than modern "foundation garments," especially if rushes are used. For the most part, the bodices of working women (and the Poulet Gauche poster girl) are not boned, nor do they wear corsets.
Skirts are very full, with multiple petticoats underneath and often padded out at the hips with a bum roll. The skirt may be slit up the front to reveal an under-skirt. The upper skirt may also be hiked up and tucked in the waist to show the petticoats. Working women wore their skirts above their ankles, and often as high as mid-calf. They couldn't afford to be tripping on them around the hearth!
The 1590's saw the arrival of the drum farthingale, which looks like a platter around the woman's hips, with the skirt falling straight to the floor from the edge of it. Often a flounce was pinned around the edge of the "platter" (this flounce seems more English than French). How this was constructed is debatable, but it may have been an overgrown bumroll. The more traditional cone-like farthingale was still worn in Spanish-influenced territories (including the Imperial states) but it was out of fashion in France. For an extreme version of a truly royal gown with a drum farthingale, see the portrait of Queen Elizabeth. For a much more modest, middle-class version of the same general type of gown, see this memorial brass. This woman is clearly wearing a bumroll, not an elaborate contraption.
Women also sometimes wore loose overgowns, rather like a long robe, with no waist or belt. This would have been a rather comfortable and warm style in the winter (men also wore the same type of overgown, usually at home or as a magisterial robe).
A working woman wore an apron. This might be nothing more than a piece of cloth tucked into the waistband of her skirt -- maybe with the upper piece of it pinned to her bodice. Like her brothers, a working woman's wardrobe was not much subject to change.
In the Zefferelli version Juliet is wearing a costume of an angel which pursues an image of virginity and angelic nature.
Therefore in the Luhrmann version Juliet is wearing a velvet burgundy dress which creates an image of a hard to get, flirtatious Juliet.
In the Zefferelli version the music changes to a man singing about love whilst Romeo and Juliet steal their kiss in the courtyard.
In the Luhrmann version the love song is sang by a black woman and Romeo and Juliet steal their kiss in a lift, Juliet is a lot less innocent and more flirtatious is this version and she is the one that does the chasing.
The director interprets the situation in the Zefferelli version as being first calming, relaxing and spiritual with the romantic talk and the speech of their sins and doing wrong.
In the Luhrmann version the director interprets the situation as being calming and relaxing with the water, fish and untold love at first sight, as this scene continues and Juliet plays hard to get. The nurse interrupts and Romeo follows Juliet and when they enter the lift they steal there kiss .
Their feelings are interpreted by the way the director makes the music slow at some situations and faster in others. For example in the Luhrmann version the music is fast at the party and it slows down to a love song by the time of the kiss this was a good way of showing affection without speech.
The directors show their characters emotions by body language and facial expressions.
Romeo's lust and love is shown in his speech about his love and sins, this shows deep emotions for Juliet.
In the Zefferelli version Juliet is very stuck up and plays hard to get, therefore in the Luhrmann version Juliet is very playful with Romeo and she teases him.
Romeo has just broken up with Rosaline and is very distraught so his friends decided that he would fin a new love at the party. When he sees Juliet for the first time you can tell he feels love and that he has forgotten about Rosaline.
Romeo shows his emotions for Mercutio in the Luhrmann version by acting fatherly and being cautious.
Tybalt is Romeo's "Arch Enemy" in the play. Tybalt's anger is interpreted by scornful looks and language and the wanting to kill him. Tybalt's anger is run by pure hatred.
In the Zefferelli version Tybalt notices Romeo by the sound of his voice therefore in the Luhrmann version Tybalt recognises him by his face. Tybalt automatically runs to Capulet to tell him that there is a Montague amongst them. In the Zefferelli version Capulet's speech to Tybalt is shortened, most of his speech is given to Lady Capulet so the bulk of Capulet's speech is "Let him alone". Capulet is very fatherly to Tybalt and he is sometimes scornful.
In the Luhrmann version Capulet is drunk and he does not appreciate it when Tybalt disturbs his fun by complaining about a Montague at his party. Capulet is furious and he hits Tybalt and says "he will be endured!" Tybalt replies and Capulet is fuming and he goes on to a speech about he will not start a mutiny between his guests.
In the Zefferelli version Lady Capulet is posh and snobby but she acted her role as mother to Juliet and Tybalt and wife to Capulet.
Lady Capulet says the lines that belong to Capulet to Capulet himself telling him off for raising his voice to Tybalt. Lady Capulet sticks up for Tybalt and is very close to him.
In the Zefferelli version of the play Lady Capulet is extremely protective of Tybalt and take his side of the argument between Tybalt and Capulet, she is very motherly towards Tybalt.
In the Luhrmann version Lady Capulet is very flirtatious and is having an affair with him behind Capulet's back, the scene opens with Lady Capulet and Tybalt kissing.
In the Zefferelli version the nurse is more cruel and shocked that Romeo is a Montague, she definitely does not want Romeo and Juliet to fall in love.
In the Luhrmann's version the nurse is more motherly towards Juliet and she is a lot more interfering, she says "Madame, your mother calls".
The nurse already knows that Romeo is a Montague and she is very cautious about Romeos and Juliet's love.
The languages is altered in both the versions so the script is not true to the text. In The Zefferelli version the opening speech is shortened to, "A whispering tale in a lady's ear".
This is said to a woman while he is drunk.
Tybalt's speech is shortened to,
'This by his voice should be a Montague.
Uncle, this is a Montague our foe:
A villain that is hither come in spite
To scorn at our solemnity this night'
The two speeches are merged together as Tybalt interrupts Capulet's speech.
The lines that belonged to Capulet in Shakespeare's script are said by Lady Capulet, these lines are;
'Well said my hearts, (this is aimed at Capulet) you are a princox, go
Be quiet, or more light, more light for shame.
I'll make you quiet.' (I'll make you quiet is aimed at Tybalt)
In the Zefferelli version Tybalt is the person that informs the nurse that Romeo is indeed a Montague.
He says;
'His name is Romeo, he is a Montague'
This in not mentioned in the Shakespeare's original text.
The alterations to the text in the Luhrmann version are;
The scene opens with Lady Capulet and Tybalt kissing, there is no mention of Lady Capulet's and Tybalt's affair in Shakespeare's original text.
The first line spoken is Romeo's as he says;
'The drugs are quick'
This in not in the true text.
Capulet's speech is shortened to.
'That I have worn a visor, and could tell
A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear.'
The dialogue stops and the angles of the camera help show what is going on a Romeo and Juliet first meet.
The dialogue is brought back with the nurse interrupting their actions with;
'Madame your mother calls.'
Then Juliet is introduced to Paris.
Then Tybalt spots Romeo and informs Capulet of his presence, the speech is true to the text.
Capulet's reaction is true to the text except in the scene Capulet strikes Tybalt for his insolence, there is no mention to this in the text.
Romeo's next speech is true to the text as he speaks;
'Did my heart love 'till now...'
Then Juliet accepts an offer to dance from Paris, this is not referred to in the text.
The love speech between Romeo and Juliet is true to the text but this leads on to them kissing inside a lift, this is not true to the text.
Mercutio drags Romeo away from Juliet as he says;
'Away be gone, the sport is at the best.'
Originally to the text Benvolio would speak this line but there is no mention of him.
The Luhrmann scene then ends with Tybalt saying;
'I will withdraw, but this shall
Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt'rest gall'
This shows the hatred Tybalt feels for Romeo.
In both the plays the quotes that make the language so romantic and extravagant are;
"Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun
Peer'd forth the golden window of the east,
A troubled mind drive me to walk abroad,
Where, underneath the grove of sycamore
That westward rooteth from this city side,
So early walking did I see your son.
Towards him I made, but he was ware of me,
And stole into the covert of the wood.
I, measuring his affections by my own,
Which then most sought where most moght not be found,
Being one too many by weary self,
Pursued my humor not pursuing his,
And gladly shunn'd who gladly fled from me."
- Benvolio from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
· "Many a morning hath he there been seen,
With tears augumenting the fresh morning's dew,
Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs,
But all so soon as the all-cheering sun
Should in the farthest east begin to draw
The shady curtains from Aurora's bed,
Away from the light steals home my heavy son,
And private in his chamber pens himself,
And makes himself an artificial night.
Black and portendous must htis humor prove,
Unless good council may the cause remove."
·
"If love be rough with you, be rough with love;
Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down."
·
"I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle bran,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,
Which is as thin of substance as the air,
And more inconstant than the wind, who woos
Even now thy frozen bosom of the north,
And, being anger'd, puffs away thence,
Turning his side to the dew-dropping south."
·
"O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of the night
As a rich jewel in Ethiop's ear-
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
And touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? Foreswear it, sight!
For I never saw a true beauty till this night."
·
Romeo:"If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this,
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."
Juliet:"Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion is this:
For saints have hands that pilgrims hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss."
Romeo:"Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?"
Juliet:"Ay pilgrim, lips that they must use in pray'r."
Romeo:"Oh then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do,
They pray- grant thou, lest faith turn to dispair."
Juliet:"Saints do not move, though grant for prayer's sake."
Romeo:"Then move not while my prayer's effect I take.
Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purg'd."
Juliet:"Then have my lips the sin they have took."
Romeo:"Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urg'd!
Give me my sin again."
Juliet:"You kiss by thy' book."
·
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-cross'd lovers take their life,
Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
The tearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall mend."
·
"My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me
That I must love a loathed enemy."
·
"Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie,
And young affection gapes to be his heir;
That fair for which love groan'd and would die,
With tender Juliet match'd is not fair.
Now Romeo is belov'd and loves again,
Alike bewitched by the charmot looks;
But to his foe suppos'd he must complain,
And she steal love's sweet bait from fearful hooks.
Being held a foe, he may not have access
To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear,
And she as much in love, her means much less
To meet her new beloved any where.
But passion lends them power, time means, to meet,
Temp'ring extremities with extreme sweet."
·
"What 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.
Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
It is my lady, O, it is my love!
O that she knew she were!
She speaks, yet she says nothing; what of that?
Her eye discourses, I will answer it.
I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks.
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy regions stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
See how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O that I were a glove on that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!"
·
"O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer by a Capulet....
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? It is nor hand nor foot
Nor arm nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for thy name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself."
·
"A plague 'a both houses!"
·
"Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,
That th' runaway's eyes may wink, and Romeo
Leap to these arms untalk's of and unseen!
Lovers can soon 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,
Play's for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.
House my unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle, till strange love grow bold,
Think true love added simple modesty
Come, night, come, Romeo, and, when I 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-
O, I have bought the mansion of love,
But not yet possess'd it, and though I am sold,
Not yet enjoy'd."
·
"O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!
Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish ravening lamb!
Despised substance of divinist snow!
Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st,
A damned saint, an honourable villain!
O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell
When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?
Was ever book containing such vile matter
So fairly bound? O that deceit should dwell
In such a gorgeous palace!"
·
"Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew-
O, woe, thy canopy is dust and stones!-
Which with sweet water nightly I will dew,
Or wanting that, with tears distill'd by moans.
The obsequies that I for thee will keep
Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep."
·
"O my love, my wife,
Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty;
Thou art not conquer'd, beauty's ensign yet
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy and thy cheeks,
And death's pale flag is not advanced there....
Ah, dear Juliet,
Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe
That unsubstantial Death is amorous,
And that lean abhorred monster keeps
Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
For fear of that, I still will stay with thee,
And never from this palace of dim night
Depart again. Here, here will I remain
With worms that are thy chambermaids; O, here
Will I set up my everlasting rest,
And shake the yoke of inauspicious flesh. Eyes, look your last!
Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!
Here's to my love! O true apothecary!
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die."
·
"What's here? A cup clos'd in my true love's hand?
Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end.
O churl, drunk all, and left no friendly drop
To help me after? I will kiss thy lips,
Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,
To make me die with a restorative."
·
"A glooming peace this morning with it brings,
The sun, for sorrow, will not show it's head.
Go hence to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon'd, and some punish'd:
For there never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
·
"O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
Her wagon-spokes made of long spiders' legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
The traces of the smallest spider's web,
The collars of the moonshine's watery beams,
Her whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film,
Her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat,
Not so big as a round little worm
Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid;
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers.
And in this state she gallops night by night
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love;
O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight,
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees,
O'er ladies ' lips, who straight on kisses dream,
Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are:
Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;
And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail
Tickling a parson's nose as a' lies asleep,
Then dreams, he of another benefice:
Sometime she drive th o'er a soldier's neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
Of healths five-fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,
And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two
And sleeps again. This is that very Mab
That plats the manes of horses in the night,
And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,
Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes:
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
That presses them and learns them first to bear,
Making them women of good carriage."
·
I conclude that the better production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is Luhrmann's version in 1991 because it is set in the 1990's and it is easier to understand.
It also has great special effects and Luhrmann makes the play a lot more interesting by using different angles to reflect the true emotions of the characters. The costumes for Luhrmann's version are more extravagant because the colours fly out at you and catch your eye.
