Well, now you can have it - for a price.
The balcony where, according to William Shakespeare, Romeo wooed Juliet, is to be made available for weddings.
The authorities in the Italian city of Verona - setting for the tale of the two lovers - say they want to foster its image as a centre for romance.
The Casa Di Giulietta (house of Juliet) is in the heart of Verona.
Folklore suggests it was once the home of the Cappello family - possibly the model for the Capulets in Shakespeare's fictional play, Romeo and Juliet.
Although some historians say there is scant evidence to back this up, the balcony on the 14th century building is still one of the city's most popular tourist destinations.
From next month, you will be able to hire it as a venue for weddings.
There's just one problem. Remember what happened to Romeo and Juliet? Is that really a good omen for the future of your relationship, if you try to ape their balcony antics?
Peter
(P.S. - Marko has a linguistic bone to pick about Juliet's words from the balcony. See his blog post here for the details.)
On the other hand, Romeo and Juliet wouldn't have died if not from "helpful" interference from the Nurse and the Priest. (Seriously, giving one of them something to fake death, and then not telling the other about it? Seriously?)
ReplyDeleteI even wrote a paper on this, in high school, when our English teacher asked us to do an essay on who was to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
She wasn't thrilled with my answer that I felt that the Priest was to blame, since he was the one who pushed the potion on Juliet, and the one who failed to warn Romeo that Juliet wasn't really dead.
And all these shenanigans after Juliet had already said she was willing to take the risks of leaving her family and being disowned, if she could be openly married to Romeo - there was no need for all that business with potions that simulate death!
So I'd say that the balcony itself is neither a good or bad omen - the couple-to-be just need to make sure they don't have any overly-helpful friends in their lives! ;)
I've never been able to find anything romantic in that play. To me it was always a story about impulsivity, rashness, rebellion, and spite.
ReplyDeleteBut then the beauty of Shakespeare is that there's nearly always more than one way to read it.