I have no idea what set this in motion this morning. Well I do actually. I tuned into WKAR, my Michigan State radio station(s) and Tchaikovky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture was playing. The movie, Shakespeare in Love is a favorite of course as is the real deal play. I wish some time I could stumble on stage and do the Prologue or be the Prince at the end with the epilogue...whichever.
I've put the end of the ballet version in between these "wannabe an actor lines". Somehow it seems right. 400+ years this play has been around and prompted all manner of interpretations and inspirations. Perhaps it will get you through the day.
Prologue:
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
Prince: (epilogue)
A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
I've put the end of the ballet version in between these "wannabe an actor lines". Somehow it seems right. 400+ years this play has been around and prompted all manner of interpretations and inspirations. Perhaps it will get you through the day.
Prologue:
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
Prince: (epilogue)
A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.