Amorous Death: Act V, Scene III

The division of any of Shakespeare’s plays into acts and scenes often misleads readers into neglecting the seamless flow and pacing that are possible on a stage uncluttered by excessive scenery. In this particular instance we must bear in mind that on the sort of stage that is commonly conjectured for Elizabethan productions of the play Juliet’s mock death at the end of Act IV would have led in an unbroken sequence to the events of Act V. On a functional level the comic exchanges by the musicians that end Act IV would have occupied the foreground, while Juliet’s bed was hidden behind a curtain in the upstage alcove that was probably part of the standard Elizabethan stage design. Romeo’s entrance at the beginning of the next act would then have taken place directly in front of the curtained alcove that contained Juliet’s drugged body; the same space would be in turn transformed into the tomb for the final scene. Given appropriate staging the text therefore is richly ironic, as it fuses the tragi-comic grief over Juliet’s ‘dead’ body with the increasingly tragic claustrophobia of the final scenes. Capulet’s description perfectly captures the confusion of moods: All things that we ordained festival Turn from their office to black funeral: Our instruments to melancholy bells, Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast; Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change, Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse; And all things change them to the contrary. (IV v 84–90)