A contemporary production of one of William Shakespeare plays might cut lines for a snappier performance, and some directors will even eliminate characters or combine scenes for expediency. The plays might be set in Miami or Mantua, costumed in 60s Mod or Medieval tunics. We are taught early on that we can cut and paste Shakespeare’s text, and we can put Richard III in a World War I uniform, but we do not change Shakespeare’s language. Hamlet says, “How dost thou?” not “Wassup?”.
But theater people were not always so precious about Shakespeare. Within our collections, we have no fewer than seven printings of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet that include an added deathbed conversation between Romeo and Juliet in the play’s final scene. The editorial introductions to these editions reveal changing attitudes toward the fixed nature of the text; they challenge our contemporary reverence for Shakespeare as an untouchable genius.
The first authorized, complete edition of Romeo and Juliet was published in 1599 and was only the fourth of Shakespeare’s plays to be put into print. It sold for 6 pence and replaced the unauthorized 1597 edition of the play, which contained errors, omissions, and duplications of passages. The 1599 edition became the “True Original Copy” used as the source text for the 1623 First Folio of Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies, the authoritative text of Shakespeare’s collected plays that we celebrate today.
By 1769, a new version of Romeo and Juliet – “as it is performed at the Theatre-Royal in Drury Lane” – had become popular. Published with alterations to the text made by an actor/director named David Garrick, this edition eliminates references to Rosaline (Romeo’s initial love interest), reduces the role of Mercutio, and, most notably, includes the addition of a 67-line final conversation between Romeo and Juliet. In Garrick’s version of Act 5, scene 3, Juliet wakes up after Romeo takes the poison but before he dies. (O true apothecary, thy drugs are not quite as quick in Garrick’s version.)
The lovers share a final, tragically impassioned conversation, and then Romeo dies in Juliet’s arms. In the 1769 edition, Garrick’s editorial “Advertisement” acknowledges and explains his reasons for making these changes.
Subsequent 1794, 1814, 1819, and 1874 editions of Romeo and Juliet adopt Garrick’s alterations to Shakespeare’s original text. Three of these editions provide introductions that offer context and justification for retaining Garrick’s changes; below, I’ve provided PDFs of these interesting primary sources.
Some people simply thought that Garrick’s version was better than Shakespeare’s. A few of these introductory notes claim that Garrick’s alterations are more faithful to the original sources that Shakespeare used for the story of Romeo and Juliet, including a French tragedy by Pierre Boisteau that was translated into English (1557), an English poem by Arthur Brooke (1562), and Italian novels by Luigi da Porto (1535) and Bandello (1554).
After more than a century of preference for printing Garrick’s altered version of Romeo and Juliet, attitudes begin to shift back toward Shakespeare’s original text in the late 1800s. An 1882 edition reprises the figure of Rosaline and has Romeo die immediately after taking the poison without Garrick’s final melodramatic conversation with Juliet.
Chasing these changes from edition to edition through time eventually leads us back to where we started, the 1599 quarto. By 1886, primacy returns to Shakespeare’s original text. A multivolume series of Shakespeare’s plays publishes a facsimile of the 1599 quarto edition of Romeo and Juliet. This edition includes an introduction written by an Oxford scholar that demonstrates an interest in textual variants that feels familiar to what we encounter today when opening a paperback copy of a Shakespeare play. He notes that “this facsimile has been compared with the folio, and the lines differing from it have been marked” with the various brackets, carets, and other symbols that we find in our classroom copies today.
This concern for identifying, representing, and honoring the true, authoritative, original text continues from the late 19th century to the present, but teachers and students might be surprised to learn that such rigid respect for a fixed version of Shakespeare’s plays wasn’t always en vogue.
Primary Source Materials:
If you’re interested in exploring this topic further, here are some downloadable primary sources taken from copies of Romeo and Juliet found in our collections.
- Garrick’s Addition to 5.3 (the inserted deathbed scene)
- 1769 Advertisement
- Garrick’s editorial “Advertisement” acknowledges and explains his reasons for making changes to Shakespeare’s text.
- 1794 Introduction
- Criticizes Shakespeare’s writing, asserting that “in his original play, there are many superfluities, and breaches of irregularity, which Mr. Garrick has, with a masterly hand, corrected.”
- 1819 Remarks
- Presents Garrick’s changes metaphorically, suggesting that “the play of Romeo and Juliet may be compared to a spreading rose-tree: Garrick has pruned and trimmed it.”
- 1874 Editorial Introduction
- Explains the alterations in relation to the source texts and with regard for theatrical benefits.
- 1882 Preface
- Garrick’s version of the text seems to have become the expected standard, compelling the editor of this edition to explain in his “Preface” that “changes have been made from the ordinary manner” and defends his decision not to use Garrick’s alterations.
- 1886 Quarto Facsimile Introduction
- Familiar to our current era’s concern for the authoritative text.
For my teacher friends:
I fully appreciate that you may not have the flexibility in your course schedule to add time to your Shakespeare unit, but, if you do, here are a few teaching ideas and resources that I hope you find useful:
Class Discussion/Writing Prompts:
- How does Garrick’s addition to Act 5, scene 3 impact your experience at the climax of this tragedy? What is gained? What is lost?
- Directors often cut and move language when staging Shakespeare today, but could someone add a scene to a Shakespeare play today? Should they? Why or why not?
- What does the continued printing of Garrick’s added scene for over a century say about attitudes in different eras toward authors/artists generally and reverence for Shakespeare specifically?
- Why might some people today view Shakespeare’s text as untouchable? Are certain works of literature beyond revision or improvement? Is perfection possible in art?
- How does the elimination of Rosaline change your understanding of Romeo? What is lost? What is gained?
- What changes to existing works of art do we see today? In film? In music? In adaptation? Provide specific examples and offer your opinion about whether those changes are improvements.
- Are Shakespeare’s plays primarily written texts for scholarly analysis and interpretation? Or are they scripts for creative performances on stage/screen?
- Who owns a story? Who has the power to decide what details belong in a story and what gets left out? Why?
Research Questions:
- Who was David Garrick, and why did he revise Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet?
- What was Thomas Otway’s The History and Fall of Caius Marius? How does it relate to Romeo and Juliet?
- What sources influenced Shakespeare’s creation of Romeo and Juliet? Did he come up with the story himself, or was he borrowing from other writers? What specific decisions did Shakespeare make in relation to the source texts, and do you agree with those choices? Why or Why not?
- Using the editorial introductions provided for these altered versions of Romeo and Juliet, evaluate the intentions and arguments presented for performance of Garrick’s version of the play. How do these justifications change over time? Why?
- Identify three specific opinions expressed in the 1874 Introduction and argue in support or disagreement with them.
Creative Writing Activity:
- Select another moment in the play that you think could be improved by the addition of new text. Your insertion may be further dialogue between characters who are already speaking, a new exchange between characters who do not directly address each other in the scene, or an aside spoken by one character to the audience or to him/herself.
- Compose a brief editorial introduction that explains and justifies the inclusion of your addition to the scene.
- How does your addition intend to enhance, alter, or complicate the character dynamics, themes, and/or plot?
- Compose a brief editorial introduction that explains and justifies the inclusion of your addition to the scene.
If I can be of further help in your lesson planning, or if you’d like to schedule a virtual visit with these or other materials, don’t hesitate to reach out!
If you are local to Washington DC, some of our Shakespeare materials are on display in the Rare Book Reading Room through Memorial Day. Come visit!
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