question about romeo and juliet
Tue, 12 Oct 2004, 08:04 amWalter Plinge13 posts in thread
question about romeo and juliet
Tue, 12 Oct 2004, 08:04 amWhat in your words does "star-cross'd lovers" mean?
Re: answers about romeo and juliet
Tue, 12 Oct 2004, 03:40 pmBlake wrote:
>to me "star-crossed lovers" means...
>soulmates whose lives are destined to be romantically intertwined >whether it be in this life or the next... :)
Shannyn wrote:
>
> I would have said "doomed".
> > Out of interest I looked it up - the Oxford Dictionary
> defines "star-crossed" as "thwarted by a malign star".
I wouldn't be surprised if the original etymology of the phrase, before it got in the Oxford, was that it was first invented by Shakespeare..? (Steve Lee, any idea?)
The interesting thing about the prologue of R&J is that it tells you straight away the tragedy that's about to happen..
"A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life,
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parent's strife"
A pair of lovers, fated by the stars (in an Astrological kind of way) to meet (cross paths); and also cursed (crossed) by those same stars, are going to take their own lives...
....their misfortunate and heartbreaking fall, resulting in their death, will end their parent's feud.
Now that we know, in the first two minutes, the unavoidable tragedy that's going to unfold over the rest of the play, we can sympathize even more with the fact that they are doomed to their actions....because nothing any of us can do will alter it.
There's an analysis of the prologue on this webpage:
http://www.clicknotes.com/romeo/SP1.html
but I don't quite agree with the author's last comment...
"If modern actors tried to cram all the words of Romeo and Juliet into two hours, they would have to talk so fast that no one could understand a word, but maybe all the words in the present text weren't delivered in Shakespeare's time either, because the last line of the prologue promises that "What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend" (Prologue 14), which means that if the audience doesn't like something, the actors will try to fix it in a future performance"
My interpretation of the last line is "We've just told you the whole plot in two minutes, but if there were any details here that were missed, our efforts (toil) over the next few hours will try to fill in the gaps...sit back and watch".
..although the point about "two hour's traffic" is an interesting one...perhaps Elizabethan directors were a lot like Claire Hooper (who recently cut Hamlet to 90 min)? Maybe Elizabethan actors DID talk really fast, but people back then COULD understand? Or maybe 'two hour's traffic of our stage" has another meaning..?
Shakespeare buffs, over to you?
Cheers,
Craig
>to me "star-crossed lovers" means...
>soulmates whose lives are destined to be romantically intertwined >whether it be in this life or the next... :)
Shannyn wrote:
>
> I would have said "doomed".
> > Out of interest I looked it up - the Oxford Dictionary
> defines "star-crossed" as "thwarted by a malign star".
I wouldn't be surprised if the original etymology of the phrase, before it got in the Oxford, was that it was first invented by Shakespeare..? (Steve Lee, any idea?)
The interesting thing about the prologue of R&J is that it tells you straight away the tragedy that's about to happen..
"A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life,
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parent's strife"
A pair of lovers, fated by the stars (in an Astrological kind of way) to meet (cross paths); and also cursed (crossed) by those same stars, are going to take their own lives...
....their misfortunate and heartbreaking fall, resulting in their death, will end their parent's feud.
Now that we know, in the first two minutes, the unavoidable tragedy that's going to unfold over the rest of the play, we can sympathize even more with the fact that they are doomed to their actions....because nothing any of us can do will alter it.
There's an analysis of the prologue on this webpage:
http://www.clicknotes.com/romeo/SP1.html
but I don't quite agree with the author's last comment...
"If modern actors tried to cram all the words of Romeo and Juliet into two hours, they would have to talk so fast that no one could understand a word, but maybe all the words in the present text weren't delivered in Shakespeare's time either, because the last line of the prologue promises that "What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend" (Prologue 14), which means that if the audience doesn't like something, the actors will try to fix it in a future performance"
My interpretation of the last line is "We've just told you the whole plot in two minutes, but if there were any details here that were missed, our efforts (toil) over the next few hours will try to fill in the gaps...sit back and watch".
..although the point about "two hour's traffic" is an interesting one...perhaps Elizabethan directors were a lot like Claire Hooper (who recently cut Hamlet to 90 min)? Maybe Elizabethan actors DID talk really fast, but people back then COULD understand? Or maybe 'two hour's traffic of our stage" has another meaning..?
Shakespeare buffs, over to you?
Cheers,
Craig