ROMEO AND JULIET, A TRAGEDY IN FIVE ACTS, BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, AS ARRANGED FOR THE STAGE BY HENRY IRVING, AND PRESENTED AT THE LYCEUM THEATRE, ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8TH, 1882. BIBLIOTHER . SEP 1882 BODLEIANA LONDON: PRINTED AT THE CHISWICK PRESS. 1882. N producing this tragedy, I have availed myself of every resource at my command to illustrate without intrusion the Italian warmth, life, and romance of this enthralling love-story. Such changes as have been made from the ordinary manner and presentation are, I think, justified by the fuller development of our present stage, of whose advantages the Poet would, doubtless, have freely availed himself had his own opportunities been brought up to the level of our time. In the arrangement of the text I have endeavoured to retain all that was compatible with the presentation of the play within a reasonable limit of time. The Variorum of Furness, and the editions of Dyce and Singer, have afforded me much aid. Among the restorations will be found that of Romeo's unrequited love for Rosaline, omitted amongst other things in Garrick's Georgian version. Its value can hardly be over-appreciated, since Shakespeare has carefully worked out this first baseless love of Romeo as a palpable evidence of the subjective nature of the man and his passion. In securing for the production of this play the cooperation and assistance of some of the distinguished representatives of our time of the various Arts I have been most fortunate; and although the art of the actor must ever fail to realize the ideal of the Poet, still we hope that suggestions in the interpretation of the play may be offered on which the mind may dwell with pleasure and profit, and which may justify our attempt. HENRY IRVING. |