Faculty of English

Romeo and Juliet, dir. Tom Littler, presented by the Marlowe Society, Cambridge Arts Theatre, 27 January 2018 Not a review, but some thoughts and observations in response. This is at least the fourth student production of Romeo and Juliet that I’ve seen in Cambridge (the first was also the Marlowe in 2001, with a near-unknown […]

ROMEO           Well, in that hit you miss: she’ll not be hit                         With Cupid’s arrow, she hath Dian’s wit;                         And in strong proof of chastity well armed,                         From Love’s weak childish bow she lives uncharmed.                         She will not stay the siege of loving terms,                         Nor bide th’encounter of assailing eyes,                         […]

BENVOLIO      Tell me in sadness, who is that you love? ROMEO           What, shall I groan and tell thee? BENVOLIO                                                      Groan? why, no;                         But sadly tell me, who? ROMEO           Bid a sick man in sadness make his will –                         A word ill urged to one that is so ill:                         In sadness, cousin, I […]

ROMEO           Farewell, my coz. BENVOLIO                                          Soft, I will go along;                         And if you leave me so, you do me wrong. ROMEO           Tut, I have lost myself, I am not here,                         This is not Romeo, he’s some other where. (1.1.186-189)   Lovely, loyal Benvolio, the one character in the play who is entirely true […]

ROMEO           Dost thou not laugh? BENVOLIO                                          No, coz, I rather weep. ROMEO           Good heart, at what? BENVOLIO                                          At thy good heart’s oppression. ROMEO           Why, such is love’s transgression:                         Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,                         Which thou wilt propagate to have it pressed                         With more of thine; this love that […]

ROMEO           Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate,                         O any thing of nothing first create!                         O heavy lightness, serious vanity,                         Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,                         Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,                         Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!                         This love feel I, that feel […]

ROMEO                                               O me! what fray was here?                         Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all:                         Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love… (1.1.164-166) How Romeo finally notices that there’s been a fray is unclear (and there is comic potential in the length of time it takes him to […]

BENVOLIO      Alas that Love, so gentle in his view, Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof! ROMEO           Alas that Love, whose view is muffled still, Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will! Where shall we dine? (1.1.160-164)   Benvolio is gently mocking of both his friend and the kind of love, its language […]

BENVOLIO      Good morrow, cousin. ROMEO                                               Is the day so young? BENVOLIO      But new struck nine. ROMEO                                               Ay me, sad hours seem long. Was that my father that went hence so fast? BENVOLIO      It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo’s hours? ROMEO           Not having that, which, having, makes them short. BENVOLIO      In love? ROMEO           Out— BENVOLIO      Of […]

Enter ROMEO BENVOLIO      See where he comes. So please you step aside, I’ll know his grievance or be much denied. MONTAGUE   I would thou wert so happy by thy stay To hear true shrift. Come, madam, let’s away. Exeunt [Montague and Lady Montague] (1.1.147-150SD)   It seems a sign of Benvolio’s essential niceness, and his […]