Juliet’s thoughts on marriage change during the play, so the answer to the question depends on whether we look in Act 1 Scene 3 or Act 2 Scene 2.
Juliet is first mentioned when Paris comes asking her father for Juliet’s hand in marriage. Her father tells Paris that her opinion counts, and that he will not force her to marry someone she does not love:
Capulet. But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,
My will to her consent is but a part;
An she agree, within her scope of choice
Lies my consent and fair according voice.
We next see Juliet with her mother, who is working her from a different angle:
Lady Capulet. Marry, that ‘marry’ is the very theme
I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet,
How stands your disposition to be married?
Juliet. It is an honour that I dream not of.
There is the short answer for anybody just looking to get the homework answer. What does Juliet think about marriage? It is an honour she dreams not of.
Romeo at Juliet’s Balcony. Image via Wikimedia Commons
But wait! She hasn’t met Romeo yet. Act 2, Scene 2, otherwise known as the famous balcony scene:
Juliet. Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed.
If that thy bent of love be honourable,
Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow,
By one that I’ll procure to come to thee,
Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite;
And all my fortunes at thy foot I’ll lay
And follow thee my lord throughout the world.
This is Shakespearean for, “If you like it then you’d better put a ring on it.” Juliet has gone from “I’m not really interested in getting married” to “Just tell me the time and the place and I’ll be there.”
I don’t think I ever blogged about this Shakespeare cookie cutter before Christmas, but I definitely put it on my Facebook page. Well, my mom knew exactly what she getting me this year!
Here’s the cutter itself, both sides:
It makes a very detailed cut.
To give you an idea how big it is, I was getting about 5 cookies per baking sheet. The white stuff is actually powdered sugar that I’d used to coat the rolling pin (a trick I found on Alton Brown’s recipe).
Finished product! Stuck in a snowstorm like we are there’s no real frosting supplies in the house, but that didn’t stop the kids from devouring him as is. I had to rescue this one just to get a picture!
One of the most amusing parts of the experience (to me), was debating which portrait the cookie is based on. My wife swore that it looks just like “the one that everybody knows” (which would be the Droeshout, from the First Folio), but I contended that no, the mustache gives this one away as the Flowers portrait. They had no idea what I was talking about so I had a great time bringing up different portrait images and watching them hold a cookie up to my phone and compare mustaches.
Also on my radar this week is a not-yet-funded project to film Love’s Labour’s Lost. This one will be set at a boarding school:
Ferdinand, the Head Boy of Navarre Academy, leads three of his comrades in making a chastity vow in order to focus on their studies. However, with the arrival of four new girls at their school, including the Princess of Aquitane and her sultry friend Rosaline, the boys can’t help but quickly fall for each of their new classmates. Meanwhile, their eccentric Spanish teacher, Don Armado, falls for Jaquenetta, the sexy school nurse, but is caught in a love triangle with Costard, the janitor.
I like it so far because it sounds like they can actually keep fairly close to character and plot. It’s always a bit disappointing when a modern adaptation finds itself at odds with the script and has to just toss potentially crucial elements of the original out the window.
They do need some help – at the time of this writing they’re at less than $5000 of their $25,000 goal.
Check it out!
Well now, this looks interesting. I’m often sent Kickstarter links for projects that are just getting off the ground, and will take months to see the light of day (if ever). So it was a pleasure to find a new and unusual project that’s already funded and well on it’s way to being complete.
The Merry Maids of Madness is, “a feature length comedy set in a mental ward starring the women of Shakespeare.” Ok, so far I’m interested. Haven’t seen that before.
It’s got an IMDB page, although there’s not much on it other than a cast list (interesting that Kate only merits a minor cast mention). But! Many of these project start out life as stage shows and if you’re not lucky enough to be local to them, you’ll never get to see them. The fact that they’re now in post-production means there’s at least a shot that we’ll all be able to get a look at the video soon.
Intrigued, I clicked on some of the cast’s past work…
…don’t do that. I’m going to pretend I didn’t see any of that, and that this project is going to be good.
Here, go read the Kickstarter page for Merry Maids. It looks like more effort went into that than went into Pizza Girl Massacre.
Surely you’ve heard the story of how the starling was introduced to America? Legend has it that a certain Mr. Eugene Schieffelin of New York was both an avid ornithologist and lover of Shakespeare. So much so, in fact, that he got it into his head to introduce into America all the birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare. In 1890 he started with the starling, which is now considered an invasive species and quite a problem. (He’d actually been introducing a number of other birds since 1860, but most of them did not survive the new environment and are rarely mentioned when telling the story).
The problem is that the story is completely false. Never happened. I have been looking for proof for years, and failed in my mission. I can readily put my hands on the man’s obituary, for Heaven’s sake, and it does not mention Shakespeare. Starlings yes, Shakespeare no. He did release the starlings. There’s just no reason to believe Shakespeare had anything to do with his decision.
I’m well aware, however, that my failure to find proof doesn’t prove anything. I’m not a professional academic, or a researcher. So I turned to those who are.
Reddit has a group called “Ask Historians” which holds for itself a very high degree of proof. Not only do you need to cite sources for everything you state, sometimes people will call into question the validity of your sources. It’s great. I’ve always considered it a “read only” group, because I never thought I could offer anything that would stand up to the rigors of their cross examination.
So I asked them about Shakespeare and the starlings. In that thread you’ll find plenty of reading material on the subject of Mr. Schieffelin, starlings, and Shakespeare. If you think to question their research, feel free to jump in. They’ll defend it. It’s what they do. Nobody there is offering unsubstantiated opinions.
Guess what? They couldn’t find any proof either. The one commenter who offered the most research even said, “I never thought to question the story” but quickly discovered that the story must surely be a post-mortem fabrication because the only time Shakespeare’s name is ever mentioned with Schieffelin is long after his death, even when starlings play a prominent role in the story.
I’m convinced. The burden of proof has shifted. I have numerous documents from the man’s lifetime that never mention him having any obsession with Shakespeare, or that this was his purpose in releasing the starlings. Is it still possible? Technically yes. You’ll notice in the comments of that thread (at the time of this writing), that there was a tenuous connection between an 1889 essay on the “Extinction of Shakespeare” that in theory could have been read by Mr. Schieffelin and given him the idea. But why then did no one, including Mr. Schieffelin, ever write it down?
Until someone finds a document from Mr. Schieffelin’s lifetime, preferably with some direct connection to him, it is our belief that the starling story is false and people should stop telling it.
EDIT : We all know that “authority” to Google means people link to you. If you’ve got a permanent Shakespeare site of any sort (i.e. not just Twitter) and would like to see this story debunked once and for all, please consider linking this post. This will help drive it up in Google’s rankings so people googling for “Shakespeare starlings” will find the truth. Thanks!
