Whereas Otway‘s play could be considered an appropriation of Shakespeare‘s Romeo and Juliet, the children‘s book Tales from Shakespeare (1807), contains clear adaptations, since every tale keeps the title of the source text. The book adapts twenty of the thirty-eight plays William Shakespeare – such as Hamlet, Othello, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream – wrote in a way that they become accessible to children. In this section, I will explore the content of the book, its structure, the changes that were made having children as the audience, and the taming of Juliet. The siblings‘ adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, contrary to Otway‘s The History and Fall of Caius Marius, keeps Shakespeare‘s storyline, characters‘ names, as well as direct quotes. Although fidelity is not necessary to make an adaptation successful, it is found, in terms of plotline, in this work.
Concerning the structure of the book, it is divided into chapters that represent each of the twenty plays being adapted. Shakespeare‘s sophisticated verse, often in iambic pentameter, is translated to an accessible prose, which facilitates the reading experience, but lacks the impact of Shakespeare‘s poetry. The famous mantra that many authors follow of
―show, don‘t tell‖ is not applied here. Instead, the story is told by the narrator in a straightforward manner, with rare moments of direct dialogue. The structure of Charles and Mary Lamb‘s book resembles that of fairy tales or even that of Bible storybooks for kids. The content is more important than the writing style, which may make young readers less intimidated and overwhelmed.
Oftentimes the structure aids the reader by giving context or an explanation that was not present in Shakespeare‘s work. For instance, when the young Shakespearean couple is proclaiming their love for each other in the balcony scene, they have the following dialogue:
JULIET What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?
ROMEO Th‘exchange of thy love‘s faithful vow for mine.
JULIET I gave thee mine before thou didst request it;
And yet I would it were to give again.
(R&J, 2.2.126-129)
In Charles and Mary Lamb‘s version, the narrator explains the verse ―I gave thee mine before thou didst request it‖ (R&J, 2.2.128) thus: ―she said that she already had given him hers before he requested it; meaning, when he overheard her confession.‖ (LAMB, 1807, p.
266). Another example lies in the same paragraph, in which the reason why the Nurse is calling Juliet is contextualized: ―she was called away by her Nurse, who slept with her, and thought it time for her to be in bed.‖ (LAMB, 1807, p. 266). Yet another example of this strategy happens at the beginning of the fatal fight scene between Tybalt and Mercutio, in which the narrator reminds the readers who Tybalt is: ―This was the same angry Tybalt who would have fought with Romeo at old lord Capulet‘s feast.‖ (LAMB, 1807, p. 268). For a young reader who is still getting used to complex stories with multiple characters, these details can be very helpful.
The act of adapting a work means one must ―translate‖ the content to their target genre or audience. Hence, Shakespeare‘s play, which is full of violence and references to sex, is bound to suffer changes when being adapted to a younger audience. Interestingly, the violence, the homicides, and the suicides remained in Lamb‘s adaptation, but the references to sex vanished completely. It is curious to reflect on what society at the time chose to hide from children: while sex was off limits, suicide was acceptable. In the twenty-first century, the opposite is true. The worldwide Netflix phenomenon 13 Reasons Why (2017-2020) deals with the suicide of a high school student. When its inaugural season first aired, there were scenes of sex, rape, and even the protagonist‘s suicide. After the complaints of many mental health activists, the graphic suicide scene was removed. Nevertheless, the sex and rape scenes remained untouched. In our contemporary society, when dealing with a younger audience, sex is tolerable, but suicide is unacceptable – which reflects on adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, as will be explored in the last chapter of this dissertation.
Nonetheless, the violence too is often omitted, such as the scene which starts the play portraying the fight between members of the two houses. Additionally, when it is explored, it is not graphic nor extended. The remarkable fight scene between Mercutio and Tybalt, and later Romeo and Tybalt happen fast and lack details: ―Tybalt and Mercutio fought, till Mercutio fell, receiving his death‘s wound while Romeo and Benvolio were vainly endeavouring to part the combatants.‖ (LAMB, 1807, p. 269) and ―Mercutio being dead, Romeo kept his temper no longer, but returned the scornful appellation of villain which
Tybalt had given him; and they fought till Tybalt was slain by Romeo.‖ (LAMB, 1807, p.
269).
The young couple‘s suicide is also less majestic. Shakespeare‘s Romeo‘s beautifully dramatic verses – such as the following – are omitted, for example:
Eyes, look your last!
Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss A dateless bargain to engrossing Death!
(R&J, 5.1.112-115)
Instead, his suicide scene in Lamb‘s adaptation happens as quickly as the effect of the true apothecary‘s drugs:
Here Romeo took his last leave of his lady‘s lips, kissing them; and here he shook the burden of his cross stars from his weary body, swallowing that poison which the apothecary had sold him, whose operation was fatal and real, not like that dissembling potion which Juliet had swallowed. (LAMB, 1807, p. 278).
Another characteristic of stories aimed at children is a moral at the end. Usually, the readers learn a valuable lesson as they reach the final pages, and the villains are punished while the heroes and heroines find their happy ever after. Charles and Mary Lamb‘s Romeo and Juliet, however, has no happy ending nor does it teach kids a moral. Their adaptation is no fairy tale, but rather a shortened prose version with simplified language, milder violence, and absence of sex.
Juliet‘s slight taming in this story is connected to her sexuality, since she does play the role of proposing marriage to Romeo:
[…] but hastily returning, she said three or four words more to Romeo, the purport of which was, that if his love was indeed honourable, and his purpose marriage, she would send a messenger to him to-morrow, to appoint a time for their marriage, when she would lay all her fortunes and his feet, and follow him as her lord throughout the world. (LAMB, 1807, p. 266).
The prose version of the proposal resembles Shakespeare‘s Juliet‘s version:
Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed.
If that thy bent of love be honourable,
Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow, By one that I‘ll procure to come to thee,
Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite, And all my fortunes at thy foot I‘ll lay,
And follow thee my lord throughout the world.
(R&J, 2.2.142-148)
The young Capulet in Lamb‘s adaptation is also brave enough to deny Paris‘ marriage proposal amidst the turmoil of Tybalt‘s recent death: ―[…] she pleaded every reason against
the match, but the true one, namely, that she was married already.‖ (LAMB, 1807, p. 273).
However, she does not suffer the same harsh threats from her father as Shakespeare‘s Juliet does:
And you be mine, I‘ll give you to my friend;
And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets, For by my soul, I‘ll ne‘er acknowledge thee, Nor what is mine shall never do thee good.
(R&J, 2.2.191-194)
Denying the marriage proposal on its own requires strength, but being threatened to lose all the stability that she has known her entire life requires unconditional love and braveness. Hence, this detail robs Lamb‘s Juliet of a great character development as an empowered woman.
This absence of sex and active sexuality may seem like a mere detail, perhaps imposed by the sexual repression of the nineteenth century, but it also does change the way Juliet Capulet can be perceived. In Shakespeare‘s play, the young girl is introduced as shy and obedient, but it is in the presence of Romeo, when they first meet, that her true personality shines. In a time when women did not benefit from the privilege of authorship, Juliet shares with Romeo the composition of a sonnet about a pilgrim leaving his house in search of a saint, which is omitted from Lamb‘s book. The two kisses the couple share are also absent from the adaptation.
Shakespeare‘s Juliet‘s greatest moment of sexual liberation is her soliloquy from Act III Scene II, in which she yearns for nightfall, when she will finally lose her virginity to Romeo:
Come, civil Night,
Thou sober-suited matron all in black, And learn me how to lose a winning match, Played for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.
(R&J, 3.2.10-13)
Juliet is not ashamed to confess to herself that she is thrilled about the idea of having sex with her husband. This freedom, however, is not present in Lamb‘s adaptation. Instead, the couple simply spends the night together with no trace of sexual activity:
That night Romeo passed with his dear wife, gaining secret admission to her chamber, from the orchard in which he had heard her confession of love the night before. That had been a night of unmixed joy and rapture; but the pleasures of this night, and the delight which these lovers took in each other‘s society, were sadly allayed with the prospect of parting, and the fatal adventures of the past day. (LAMB, 1807, p. 272).
Although it is comprehensible that sex is a delicate topic for a children‘s book, its absence nonetheless is a form of taming Juliet since her great acts of liberty and power are erased from the narrative.
Charles and Mary Lamb‘s chapter ―Romeo and Juliet‖ can serve the purpose of being an introduction to this beloved play. By existing on its own, the book is a great source of entertainment and quality reading material for young learners embarking in the world of literature. By existing in comparison to Shakespeare‘s play, the book provides a great support to those who fear the Bard‘s writing. Lamb‘s style is direct and easily understood, and its content is to the best of its ability faithful to the source text. Nonetheless, to read Shakespeare is not merely to be entertained by his plays‘ plots, but rather by his outstanding use of language and majestic poetry. Shakespeare‘s and Lamb‘s works serve different purposes and should not be seen as a substitution of the other.
As mentioned in the introduction to this section, the Lamb siblings wrote Tales from Shakespeare in a time in which the Bard‘s works were gaining enormous acclaim.
Adaptations and appropriations were also valued during this time, as pointed out by Julie Sanders: ―[…] appropriations return again and again to the scene of the mid-nineteenth century for characters, plotlines, generic conventions, and narrative idiom and style.‖
(SANDERS, 2006, p. 121). Furthermore, Lambs‘ adaptation also aided in building Shakespeare‘s popularity since it was a best-seller in the nineteenth century. Perhaps the forced prudish sentiment of Victorian Era society saw in Lamb‘s adaptation an improved version of Shakespeare‘s play, filled with references to sex and sexuality.
Lastly in this chapter, I will explore one of the tales, entitled ―Juliet, The White Dove of Verona‖, from the book by Mary Cowden Clark (1809-1898) – The Girlhood of Shakespeare’s Heroines (1850), in which she imagines, with the help of information from Shakespeare‘s play, how the childhood of his female characters was. In Juliet‘s tale, the reader dives into her mother‘s history from the moment she met Lord Capulet until the time her daughter was almost fourteen years old, which is the beginning of Shakespeare‘s play.
Furthermore, we also get insights on various other character‘ backgrounds, such as Tybalt, Rosaline, and the Nurse.