Romeo and Juliet

In Our Time: Culture

BBC

History

4.6 • 978 Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Shakespeare's famous tragedy, written in the early 1590s after a series of histories and comedies. His audience already knew the story of the feuding Capulets and Montagues in Verona and the fate of the young lovers from their rival houses, but not how Shakespeare would tell it and, with his poetry and plotting, he created a work so powerful and timeless that his play has shaped the way we talk of love, especially young love, ever since.

The image above is of Mrs Patrick Campbell ('Mrs Pat') as Juliet and Johnson Forbes-Robinson as Romeo in a scene from the 1895 production at the Lyceum Theatre, London

With

Helen Hackett Professor of English Literature at University College London

Paul Prescott Professor of English and Theatre at the University of California Merced

And

Emma Smith Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, University of Oxford

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Transcript

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0:44.0	Hello Romeo and Juliet marked a turning point in Shakespeare's career, a move from history
0:49.6	and comedy towards tragedy although it contains all three. His audience knew the
0:55.3	story and how it would end though not how he would tell it and it proceeds almost as
1:00.2	a comedy might right up to the deaths of the two star-crossed lovers and with
1:05.6	his poetry and plotting Shakespeare created a work so powerful and timeless that his
1:09.6	players shaped the way we talk of love, especially young love ever since.
1:13.8	With me to discuss Romeo and Juliet,
1:15.9	I Helen Hackett, professor of English
1:18.4	at University College London.
1:20.2	Paul Prescott, professor of English and theatre at the University of California, Merced,
1:25.0	and Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespearean Studies at Hartford College University of Oxford.
1:30.0	Emma Smith, what did Shakespeare written up to this point that might have prepared him for this?
	...

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