Romeo and Juliet: The Original Edition

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CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Mar 29, 2017 - Fiction - 158 pages
Romeo and Juliet is a play written by William Shakespeare. It is set in Italy and is about the love between two young people from noble families that are enemies. Romeo and Juliet has always been one of Shakespeare's most popular plays. It has been adapted to opera, ballet, television productions, and movies.The noble families of the Montagues and the Capulets live in the city of Verona. They had an argument, and were enemies. Their servants were enemies as well. The young men who work for the Montagues and the Capulets get into gangs and fight each other in the street. Because it is fashionable to carry a sword, sometimes they get badly injured.Verona is ruled by Prince Escalus. He tells the Montagues and the Capulets that they have to stop fighting or they will be punished. It is very difficult to control the young men. Montague has only one child, a teenage boy called Romeo. Capulet also has only one child, a beautiful 14-year-old daughter called Juliet. They do not know each other, because Juliet never goes anywhere without her nursemaid. Romeo and his friends go to a masked ball at the home of Juliet's parents. Romeo and Juliet meet at a party and fall in love.Because they think they will get into trouble with their parents, they tried to hide their love by not talking about it at home. Juliet knows that her parents wanted her to marry a cousin of the prince. Romeo and Juliet get married in secret. Because of their secret marriage, a lot of things happen which bring about many deaths, including, finally, Romeo and Juliet kill themselves.

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About the author (2017)

William Shakespeare, 1564 - 1616 Although there are many myths and mysteries surrounding William Shakespeare, a great deal is actually known about his life. He was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon, son of John Shakespeare, a prosperous merchant and local politician and Mary Arden, who had the wealth to send their oldest son to Stratford Grammar School. At 18, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, the 27-year-old daughter of a local farmer, and they had their first daughter six months later. He probably developed an interest in theatre by watching plays performed by traveling players in Stratford while still in his youth. Some time before 1592, he left his family to take up residence in London, where he began acting and writing plays and poetry. By 1594 Shakespeare had become a member and part owner of an acting company called The Lord Chamberlain's Men, where he soon became the company's principal playwright. His plays enjoyed great popularity and high critical acclaim in the newly built Globe Theatre. It was through his popularity that the troupe gained the attention of the new king, James I, who appointed them the King's Players in 1603. Before retiring to Stratford in 1613, after the Globe burned down, he wrote more than three dozen plays (that we are sure of) and more than 150 sonnets. He was celebrated by Ben Jonson, one of the leading playwrights of the day, as a writer who would be "not for an age, but for all time," a prediction that has proved to be true. Today, Shakespeare towers over all other English writers and has few rivals in any language. His genius and creativity continue to astound scholars, and his plays continue to delight audiences. Many have served as the basis for operas, ballets, musical compositions, and films. While Jonson and other writers labored over their plays, Shakespeare seems to have had the ability to turn out work of exceptionally high caliber at an amazing speed. At the height of his career, he wrote an average of two plays a year as well as dozens of poems, songs, and possibly even verses for tombstones and heraldic shields, all while he continued to act in the plays performed by the Lord Chamberlain's Men. This staggering output is even more impressive when one considers its variety. Except for the English history plays, he never wrote the same kind of play twice. He seems to have had a good deal of fun in trying his hand at every kind of play. Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, all published on 1609, most of which were dedicated to his patron Henry Wriothsley, The Earl of Southhampton. He also wrote 13 comedies, 13 histories, 6 tragedies, and 4 tragecomedies. He died at Stratford-upon-Avon April 23, 1616, and was buried two days later on the grounds of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. His cause of death was unknown, but it is surmised that he knew he was dying.

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