This is a guest post by Patrick Hastings, a specialist in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. It also appears in the September-October issue of the Library of Congress Magazine.
A contemporary production of one of William Shakespeare’s 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. Prince Hamlet says, “How dost thou?” not “Wassup?”
But theater people were not always so precious about Shakespeare. The Rare Book and Special Collections Division holds 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 served as the source text for the 1623 First Folio of “Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies.”
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 and first staged in 1748, this edition eliminates references to Rosaline (Romeo’s initial love interest), reduces the role of Mercutio and, most notably, adds 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 so quick” in Garrick’s version.) The lovers share a melodramatic final conversation, and then Romeo dies in Juliet’s arms. Subsequent 1794, 1814, 1819 and 1874 editions of “Romeo and Juliet” adopt Garrick’s alterations to Shakespeare’s original text.
The prefatory notes to these editions provide context and justification for retaining Garrick’s changes. Some simply prefer Garrick’s version over Shakespeare’s. A few claim that Garrick’s alterations are more faithful to the original 16th-century sources that Shakespeare used for the story of “Romeo and Juliet,” including an Italian novel by Bandello.
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 Romeo dies immediately after taking the poison without the deathbed conversation added by Garrick.
Chasing these changes from edition to edition through time eventually leads us back to where we started; in 1886, a multivolume series of Shakespeare’s plays publishes a facsimile of the 1599 quarto edition of “Romeo and Juliet” along with a scholarly preface that demonstrates a concern for identifying the original text and introduces a practice for noting textual variants.
This focus on representing and honoring the true, authoritative text continues today, and we might be surprised to learn that readers haven’t always regarded a fixed version of Shakespeare’s plays with such “mannerly devotion.”
Rather, an altered version of the text was a “trespass sweetly urged” for over a century.
Comments (10)
So what are those 67 lines? They must be out of copyright now.
They’re now posted above in the comments…
Hi could you please also send me the 67 lines? Thank you!
Hey what are you doing I get on to kottke for linking this post the 67 lines
Would you please send to me also?
Thanks!
They are now posted above in the comments!
Surely you could include the 67 lines in text form, at least in these comments?
Hi,
Here tis:
And death’s pale flag is nor advanced there.
Oh Juliet, why art thou fo fair — here, here Will I fet up my everlafting reft ;
And hake the yoke of inaufpicious flars
From this world weary flefh :
Come bitter conduct, come unfavry guide, Thou defp’rate pilot, now at once run on The dathing rocks my fea-fick weary bark :
No more-here’s to my love I-eyes, look your laft :
[Drinking the Poifor.
Arms, take your laft embrace: and lips, do you The doors of breath feal with a righteous kif Soft —the breathes, and firs !
(Juliet wakes.
Jul. Where am I ? defend me!
Rom. She fpeaks, fhe lives: and we fhall ftill be blefs’d
My kind propitious ftars o’erpay me now For all my forrows paft—-rife, rife, my Juliet, And from this cave of death, this houfe of horrer, Quick let me fnatch thee to thy Romeo’s arms, There breathe a vital fpirit in thy lips, And call thee back to life and love.
(Takes her hand.
Jul. Blefs me! how cold it is! who’s there!
Rom. Thy hufband,
•Tis thy Romeo, Juliet; rais’d from defpair To joys unutterable! quit, quit this place,:
And let us fly together [Brings her from the tomb.
Ful. Why do you force me fo—I’ll ne’er confent—
My frength may fail me, but my will’s unmov’d,–
I’ll not wed Paris,— Romeo is my hufband-Rom. Her fenfes are untettl’d-Heav’n reftore ’em !
Romeo is thy hufband; I am that Romeo, Nor all the oppofing pow’rs of earth or man, Shall break our bonds, or tear thee from my heart Jul. I know that voice-Its magic fweetnefs wakes.
My tranced foul-I now remember well
Each circumftance-Oh My lord, my husband—
[Going to embrace him.
Doft thou avoid me, Romeo? let me touch Thy hand, and touch the cordial of thy lips—
You fright me fpeak-oh let me hear fome voice
Befides my own in this drear vault of death, Or I fhall faint-
—fupport me
Rom. Oh I cannot,
Thave no ftrength, but want thy feeble aid,
• Cruel poifon !
Jul. Poifon! what means my lord; thy trembling
voice !
Pale lips! and fwimming eyes! death’s in thy face!
Rom. It is indeed ——I ftruggle with him now-The tranfports that I felt to hear thee fpeak, And fee thy op’ning eyes, ftopt for a moment His impetuous courfe, and all my mind Was happinefs and thee; but now the poifon Rufhes thro’ my veins—I’ve not time to tell— Fate brought me to this place – to take a laft, Laft farewel of my love, and with thee die.
Jul, Die? was the Friar falfe!
Rom. I know not that—
thought thee dead: diftracted at the fight, (Fatal fpeed) drank poifon, kifs’d thy cold lips, And tound within thy arms a precious: grave But in that moment—-Oh Jul. And did I wake for this!
Rom, My powers are blafted,
‘Twixt death and love l’m torn I am diftracted!
But death’s ftrongeft-and muft I leave thee, Juliet !
Oh cruel curfed fate! in fight of heav’n—
Jul. Thou rav’ft-lean on my breaft.
Rom. Fathers have flinty hearts, no tears can melt ’em.
Nature pleads in vain-Children muft be wretched – Kam. Ohe iy brewing but heartsare wind together – Capulet forbear-—Paris, loofe your hold—
Pull not our heart-frings thus—-they crack—-they break
Oh Juliet! Juliet!
[Dies.
Ful. Stay, ftay, for me, Romeo.
A moment ftay; fate marries us in death, And we are one —no pow’s fhall part us.
(Faints on Romeo’s body.
Can you send me the lines?
I would also like the 67 lines please. Thanks much.