I never enjoy productions of Romeo & Juliet that play the Tragedy from the beginning. In fact, I think the famous Prologue is tacked on – it doesn’t appear in the First Folio! In the earliest texts we have, the show begins with two guys walking down the street talking about sex and violence – "I’ll push Montague’s men from the wall and thrust his maids to the wall!"
No, I think if the Prologue was in fact written by Shakespeare, it was as a disclaimer – "Don’t laugh too much, folks, because they’re gonna die." Shakespeare didn’t think much of Prologues. The only other times I can think of that he used them was in Troilus & Cressida, where he was aping the Greek style, and in Henry V, where he was making a political statement at the top of each act.
Why use it in R&J, then? Because this show could have gotten him lynched. Imagine if the disclaimer wasn’t there. The audience is laughing at the nurse, smiling at the familiar banter of the lovers, enjoying the light-hearted swordplay. Then, snap, someone’s dead. Then another person is dead. Then weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then, oh, look, "they’re going to be fine – what, they’re dead?!"
So, it’s a warning to the audience. One that the author felt the need to repeat, because just before the balcony scene the Prologue returns to remind them, as if to say, "Glad you’re enjoying the show, folks, but they’re still gonna buy it! See you at the Epilogue!"
I’ve said it before, but Romeo & Juliet really was the Snow White of its day. Just as in 1937, no one had ever seen anything like it. Snow White revolutionized film-making and animation, comedy and music. R&J revolutionized the world of theatre, shook up the idea of formula and stock character.
More R&J thoughts soon.
DB
