The two quartos of "Romeo and Juliet": A performance comparison.
Item
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Title
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The two quartos of "Romeo and Juliet": A performance comparison.
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Identifier
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AAI9431350
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identifier
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9431350
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Creator
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Basile, Michael.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Steven Urkowitz
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Date
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1994
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, English | Theater | Language, Linguistics
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Abstract
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Performance Variations between the First Quarto (1597) and the Second Quarto (1599) of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet are considered with the intention of establishing both as viable theatrical versions of the play. Linguistic analyses of Shakespeare's texts are coupled with semiotic analyses of previously unrecognized performance texts--the intonational and gestural programs which direct actors' performance choices.;A discussion of stage conventions in operation in London during the 1590s--e.g., "rolling repertory" and the close physical and emotional proximity of actor and audience--suggests that these performance texts were the products of the direct artistic collaboration of Shakespeare and his fellow actors.;Will Kemp, the resident clown of the Chamberlain's Men, was the most renowned member of Shakespeare's acting company. The effect of Kemp's "celebrity text" on the two quartos of Romeo and Juliet is traced, with particular attention given to those scenes during which his name appears in the texts: 4.4 and 4.5.;Past bibliographical discussions (1920-1980) concerning the relative authority of each quarto version are reviewed in the light of recent theories of polyvocal authorship and compositional recursion processes. Subsequently, a general reassessment of the traditionally accepted pattern of textual transmission between the two quartos--and between their supposed source texts--is proposed.;Finally, modern performances of Romeo and Juliet are semiotically explicated in order to expose interpretive patterns likely to have been originally fashioned by Shakespeare and the Chamberlain's Men.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
