R&J Act 3: Why I'm obsessed wtih Juliet's Soliloquy

3.1
This act opens with Benvolio and Mercutio talking/joking about quarreling and speak of the devil- in comes Tybalt.

A line that particularly struck me is that of Mercutio:

"What, dost thou make us minstrels? And thou make minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords..." 

yikes... I don't really have a comment other than I don't think that line registered with me before as in performance my ear always goes to the next bit about his fiddlestick...

Romeo enters and tries to play nice since he's related to Tybalt now, even with Tybalt saying he is a villain and that he hates him- I'm interested if Tybalt is really just a hot head or if there is some specific injury Romeo has done to him personally aside from just being a Montague? I am so intrigued that we don't really know what this quarrel is about or why it keeps resurfacing.

One of the clear examples of Shakespeare's genius: Romeo is trying to keep peace, Tybalt seems to have the embedded stage direction of actually walking away, and Mercutio eggs him on to fight again even while romeo and Benvolio try to stop it- yet somehow Romeo ends up with the blame of his death and we go with Mercutio on this because damn it for all his misogyny and dirty jokes and jerk-ness (or perhaps because of that) we love the guy and we're pissed he's dying. and the fact that he makes jokes about being a "grave man" while dying just makes it worse!

OH- maybe this is why I'm ok with being mad at Romeo, his friend is dying and what does he say?

"O sweet Juliet, They beauty hath made me effeminate" REALLY?! ugh...

Can anyone tell me why the hell Tybalt comes back again after he's slain Mercutio? I know, i know there's lots of answers to this question but any favorite? Because all my theories still don't hold enough weight to have it really make more sense than generality. And Romeo Kills Tybalt- but really, even if he didn't this play was going to get dark- (what would be the point of How I Met Your Mother if Barney died?!?) 

So suddenly out of NOWHERE everyone is in the streets and immediately knows there's been a fight- where they were before I don't know. If Mercutio was still alive he'd probably make a fantastic joke about this but he is DEAD so we have a bunch of actors who have to figure out how to make their entrances urgent enough that the audience will never question the theatrical magic of them appearing out of nowhere. and they enter rhyming none the less...

VOICE AND SPEECH exercise: Lady Cap has 5 O!s in 5 lines. the  versatility of the O in Shakespeare and the specificity an actor can give each one is an incredible exercise.

On top of all the Os, I find it fascinating that Lady Capulet is the main agitator in this scene instead of her husband. I think Lady C is one of the hardest roles in this show. She is not onstage that much but almost every time she is there is some extreme state or situation with little to no wind up to get there. 

The prince makes everyone STFU by proclaiming he "will be deaf to pleading and excuses" and then banishes Romeo on pain of death.

3.2

OK, never you mind what i said about Shakespeare showing his genius before. It is nothing compared to the prince's somber judgement being followed directly by a most hopeful, beautiful, perfect soliloquy. And luckily my Shakespeare app (yes, full disclosure, that is what I've been using to read back through so i can do it piecemeal between time at coffee shops, on lunch breaks and at home. Unless I have an interest in a specific line or passage- then i go compare and contrast with other editions) has the long version of Juliet's speech in all its glory. Let's break it down:

The speech starts with a bang- a trochaic foot for you scansion nerds, but also with an inherent urgency and drive as she asks the sun to hurry up and set already!

Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
Towards Phoebus' lodging: such a wagoner
As Phaethon would whip you to the west,
And bring in cloudy night immediately.

Voice and speech moment: one of my favorite Linklater exercises is working with “w”. Not only does this letter force your mouth to make the shape of a kiss, it has the effect on my voice of making me feel incredibly vulnerable. (The Linklater exercise has actors ask “will you wait?” This is not to say that every one of the W words should be emphasized but it is certainly something for the actor to be aware of and play with. So I’m going to just keep bolding some them throughout the speech. I also think that actors can gain so much mileage out of the line ending here- the anticipation of what will happen if the sunlight is whipped to the west :breathe: night will come at last!

And now we get into deliciously sensual language that I wish I could even have been comfortable saying as a 13 year old- starting with the first thing she tells the night to do:
Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,
That runaway's eyes may wink and Romeo
Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen.
Lovers can see to do their amorous rites
By their own beauties; or, if love be blind,
It best agrees with night.

OK, first- this girl is just as excited to have sex as Romeo is. And I love that. And she is really thinking through the details of what its going to be like- she is not some wilting flower blushing virgin.

Second- if you’re reading this blog and you’re related to me ignore the next sentence- I am totally going to get Dan on board to start calling sex “our amorous rites”

But back to the text…

                              Come, civil night,
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match,
Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods:
Hood my unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle; till strange love, grown bold,
Think true love acted simple modesty.

I love this section because it does show some trepidation- that she needs to be taught and she’s not sure how its all going to go, that night is a bit intimidating anthropomorphized as a sober-suited matron, that she needs night to hide her blushing and that she needs a few lines with the harsh sound of the letter B to rally courage before returning to the sensual land of vowels and “w” and “m” and “s” sounds. And I absolutely love the description “true love acted simple modesty” and then we get into the incantation-like repetitive calling- there’s also something incredibly sexual and primitive with all the “uh” and “oh” vowels

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-brow'd night,
Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,

(now is a good time to point out that die in early modern times often punned on the idea that orgasms were a “little death”)
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.

DEAR GOD THIS SPEECH IS SO WONDERFUL! Shakespeare is sexy. That is all. Except it is not because Juliet snaps out of her night imagining and comes back to the present which is anticipation. Her next description hits me triple at this moment in life. I think I thought of this passage every week of my engagement wishing I was just married already. I am thinking this passage every day right now in anticipation of our honeymoon plans. And the idea of buying a mansion but not possessing it I literally think of every day at work since I’m working for a mortgage company right now and am beginning to understand how antsy that makes people. Finally, ironically enough, the lines starting with “So tedious is this day” through “may not wear them” were used as my facebook status the day before Dan got to Arizona winter of 2010- just days before he would propose.

O, I have bought the mansion of a love,
But not possess'd it, and, though I am sold,
Not yet enjoy'd: so tedious is this day
As is the night before some festival
To an impatient child that hath new robes
And may not wear them.

And in the midst of all this anticipation in walks the bearer of bad news:

  

                            O, here comes my nurse,
And she brings news; and every tongue that speaks
But Romeo's name speaks heavenly eloquence.

And of course she is not going to enter with news of heavenly eloquence but with tidings of death. The incredible 180 just kills me. and Juliet's next lines are noticing that the Nurse has entered with the cords (ladder) for Romeo to use to climb into Juliet's room that night. Remember when I told you we'd get back to that? here we are... the Nurse throws the cords down as she says "He's gone, he's kill'd he's dead!" which of course Juliet takes to mean Romeo and the Nurse has no sense of this misunderstanding for quite a few lines until she finally clears up that Romeo killed Tybalt and is now banished.

The exchanges in this scene are full of rehtorical devices that could fill plenty of lessons for English teachers and actors alike.

Juliet gets another epic speech but since I spent so much time and space on the opening speech I will wait until i'm teaching or acting or directing to really break this one down, but if you want a really great monologue the "shall I speak ill of him that is my husband" is fantastic. There are so many turns and such an urgency. So many discoveries at line endings. so we'll just skip to what the line that reminds me of Hamlet:

that one word banished

hath slain ten thousand Tybalts...

...

"romeo is banished"' to speak that word

is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,

All slain, all dead"

Doesn't that remind you of Hamlet's proclamation that he loved Ophelia more than forty thousand brothers?

But poetry aside, will SOMEONE tell me why the hell Juliet doesn't just leave her homeland with Romeo and they can live poor and in love in a new land?? I know they are young but come on- its still a better option than the DEATH the two of them keep looking for?

Anyway Juliet decides that death can come via the rope ladder Romeo was to use. At least, thanks to my dear husband, I believe that is what the embedded stage direction is telling us pretty clearly and if Juliet is actively trying to strangle herself with the rope the nurse has good reason to quickly change her tune and agree to find Romeo instead of cursing him for Tybalt's death. though how the Nurse knows Romeo is with Friar lawrence i'm not sure- maybe just the logical place to look?

3.3

We find at the beginning of this scene that Romeo ran to Friar Lawrence before he knew anything of what the Prince's decree was. the Friar comes in and brings him up to speed. Romeo for some reason thinks banishment is worse than death. He also does not think of bringing Juliet with him since she has already vowed to be his wife and all (again, WHY NOT?!?!?!?) thankfully at least Friar Lawrence is there to give the smack-down- though it takes him a few lines to get Romeo to shut up long enough for him to deliver his talking to ("O then I see that madmen have no ears." ...: in fact it takes the knock at the door to shut romeo up and the news coming in from Juliet.

The nurse tells Romeo to BE A MAN

and his response is to stab himself- this is when Friar Lawrence lets loose- (Dear Katy Mulvaney, if we were making this out of puppets the clouds would open up and a god-like figure would say to Romeo: STOP BEING EMO!!!!! instead we get this):

Thou hast amazed me: by my holy order,
I thought thy disposition better temper'd.
Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself?
And stay thy lady too that lives in thee,
By doing damned hate upon thyself?
Why rail'st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth?
Since birth, and heaven, and earth, all three do meet
In thee at once; which thou at once wouldst lose.
...
Thy dear love sworn but hollow perjury,
Killing that love which thou hast vow'd to cherish;
Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,
Misshapen in the conduct of them both,
...
What, rouse thee, man! thy Juliet is alive,
For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead;
There art thou happy: Tybalt would kill thee,
But thou slew'st Tybalt; there are thou happy too:
The law that threaten'd death becomes thy friend
And turns it to exile; there art thou happy:
A pack of blessings lights up upon thy back;
Happiness courts thee in her best array;
But, like a misbehaved and sullen wench,
Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love:
Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.
Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed,
Ascend her chamber, hence and comfort her:
But look thou stay not till the watch be set,
For then thou canst not pass to Mantua;
Where thou shalt live, till we can find a time
To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends,
Beg pardon of the prince, and call thee back
With twenty hundred thousand times more joy
Than thou went'st forth in lamentation.

And thank god b/c the audience is dying for a laugh the nurse answers at the end of this speech:

Nurse

O Lord, I could have stay'd here all the night
To hear good counsel: O, what learning is!
My lord, I'll tell my lady you will come.

3.4

A short little scene which opens with the Capulets and Paris. Lord C. has the line "we were born to die" which very much echos the earth as womb/tomb sentiment friar lawrence talked about earlier. I think this scene is incredibly important because if lord Capulet did not essentially give his word that he would win Juliet then I don't think he would lose it so much in the coming scenes when she tells him no. I think this is not about his father's right to choose her husband because we saw earlier he wasn't going to force it, but about his word, his pride, his honor due to what he says in this scene. I also think the way Paris says the line "I would that Thursday were tomorrow" can win the audience's sympathy to the possibility of him marrying Juliet, which makes the tragedy that much more painful later. If Paris is truly moved by the possibility of marrying Juliet and not just as a pawn for whatever ties he wants with Capulet that line is just- amazing. especially considering that we all know juliet is upstairs waiting to get it on with Romeo. We are also all hoping they aren't doing it yet since Lord Capulet just asked Lady Capulet to check on her before bed- or maybe we are supposed to assume she forgets in her grief over Tybalt?

3.5

After the shot 3.4 we have the epic roller coaster of 3.5.

The R&J exchange that starts this scene is not only stunningly beautiful, it is also one of my favorite scenes. When Dan and I saw the ASC production of this show our first year in grad school, just as we were falling in love- the beginning of this scene set us into a fit of giggles because the I have to go yeah you have to go no wait don't go!!! progression was a little too familiar.

Plus there's this:

that's your R&J cultural noise moment for the day- if you haven't watched Shakespeare in Love recently do. and if you dont have time to watch the whole thing just skip to the part where she discovers there is something better than a play and they essentially do the it was the lark scene. It is beautiful. (I'm sure you are all smart enough to know this, but PLEASE don't take the movie as historically accurate. Tom Stoppard is a play/screen writer, not a biographer/historian.)

So... then we have even MORE foreshadowing and the hit you over the head bit from Juliet:

O God, I have an ill-divining soul!

methinks I see thee now, thou art so low,

As one dead in the bottom of a tomb...

DUN DUN DUN!

So Romeo leaves just in time for Juliet's mom to walk in the door- maybe this is the whole playing with time thing and the timelines with R&Js conversation overlap with the Capulet conversation with Paris we already saw? Anyway.. 

Going back to the love in a culture of violence theme... Juliet has this incredibly beautiful line after her mother assumes she is upset Romeo is alive after killing Tybalt, the response is "Would none but I might venge my cousin's death!" and of course we know that "vengeance" would actually be forgiveness of her husband. That gives me chills.

Lady capulet then talks about killing Romeo with poison (THE HAMMER OF HERE'S WHATS GOING TO HAPPEN STRIKES AGAIN!!)

Then there's this golden exchange:

Lady Cap. The County Paris, at Saint Peter’s Church,

Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.

JUL.

Now, by Saint Peter’s Church and Peter too,

He shall not make me there a joyful bride.

Then Capulet joins the scene and things get really ugly really fast. I think this is one of the saddest, harshest scenes in the play, especially if you have seen an affectionate, fun, joyful Capulet in the first half, and especially if you see Juliet struggle with the idea of telling her father the truth of her marriage/hiding it in her riddled language about not marrying Paris.  This scene upsets me so much I don't even want to break apart some of the more beautiful moments, aside from what an awesome swear Capulet has when he says "God's bread, it makes me mad!"  and also to say that those of you who know me know I'm obsessed with the RSC production of Nicholas Nickleby and one of the most genius pieces in that performance is the way they blend this scene with Kate Nickleby's distress. Perhaps that's why I get doubly upset at this scene. IN a good way. It's supposed to make you feel, right?
The scene ends with Juliet and her Nurse, the Nurse encouraging her to marry Paris (WHY DOES NO ONE ENCOURAGE HER TO RUN TO MANTUA?!?!??!!) and then Juliet alone on stage saying that the nurse will no longer know her heart. UGH. Well now that we're all extremely depressed... here's one more additional absurd piece of cultural baggage that goes with this play in lieu of a picture. It is a clip from Romeo and Juliet Sealed with a Kiss. This movie is AWFUL. And creepy. the characters of Tybalt, the Prince, and Paris are all conflated into a creepy blobby green guy.... anyway, the akward/frustration displaces some of the sadness at least: