Context Flashcards
All 11 cards in this deck
When was Romeo and Juliet probably written?
About 1595.
Who was on the throne when Romeo and Juliet was written?
Elizabeth I.
What was Shakespeare’s main source for the play?
Arthur Brooke’s poem The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet (1562).
In which country is the play set?
Italy: Verona, and Mantua in Act 5.
What was Shakespeare’s acting company called in the 1590s?
The Lord Chamberlain’s Men.
Who played Juliet in Shakespeare’s time?
A boy actor: women did not act on the public stage.
Who usually chose a husband for a wealthy Elizabethan daughter?
Her father, in an arranged marriage.
What is a society where men hold power over women called?
A patriarchal society.
Which Italian poet’s love sonnets does Mercutio mock Romeo with?
Petrarch’s (Act 2 Scene 4).
What was the belief that the stars shape a person’s fate called?
Astrology.
Which disease, still feared in Shakespeare’s England, delays Friar John?
Plague.