Romeo and Juliet: Original text and facing-pages translation into contemporary English

Book Description
The world's favorite love story deals with the great universals of love and hate, youth and age, life and death, order and disorder. THE TRAGEDY OF ROMEO AND JULIET has the action, the color, the music, the wit, the splendor, and the heartbreaking pathos of no other Shakespeare play.


From the Publisher
Are you frustrated by obscure words and unidiomatic phrases in Shakespeare's plays? The new "Access to Shakespeare" series removes the mystery, not the magic, from ROMEO AND JULIET, and makes reading or studying a breeze. This translation of ROMEO AND JULIET into contemporary English -- alongside the original text -- has modernized the difficult passages and expressions which used to make Shakespeare's language such heavy weather. This unique translation is NOT a literal-minded prose version. It retains the feel and the rhythm of the original, letting you experience the play in the same enjoyable way an Elizabethan audience did. The text is immediately clear to today's readers, making those tedious footnotes unnecessary. You'll find easy-to-follow line numbering, and a glossary of place names and mythological references. Are you a high school or junior-college student working on an assignment? Do you wish to preview the play before a performance, or are you perhaps learning English as a Second Language? This translation is ideal for you. You will never again hesitate to read ROMEO AND JULIET because you're mystified by lines such as, "Thou art uproused with some distemperature." The facing page of this edition of ROMEO AND JULIET makes clear what Shakespeare meant, "You are upset about something you want cured." The translation reads like a modern book and it's fascinating.


About the Author
Jonnie Patricia Mobley, Ph.D., editor and translator of the "Access to Shakespeare" series, has taught theatre and drama at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, California, and has directed the community theater there. Because of her extensive theatrical experience, Dr. Mobley is familiar with the hesitation of modern readers to "tackle" Shakespeare. She recognized a great need to make it easier for students and adults alike to understand obscure words and phrases in ROMEO AND JULIET. This, in turn, gave rise to the creation of the translation into contemporary English. Jonnie Patricia Mobley is also the author of "MANUAL for Romeo and Juliet: Original text and facing-pages translation into contemporary English" (ISBN 1885564031), "Play Production Today" ( ISBN 0844257753), and "The Dictionary of Theatre and Drama Terms" ( ISBN 0844253332).


Excerpted from Romeo and Juliet: Original text and facing-pages translation into contemporary English by Jonnie Patricia Mobley, William Shakespeare. Copyright © 1999. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Act One, Scene 1 Original Version BENVOLIO: Alas that love so gentle in his view, Should be to tyrannous and rough in proof! ROMEO: Alas that love, whose view is muffled still, Should without eyes see pathways to his will. Contemporary Translation (on the facing page in the book) BENVOLIO: It's sad that love, so gentle in appearance, Should prove so merciless and cruel in experience. ROMEO: It's sad that love, and blind love still, Should without eyes find ways to force its will.


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The world's favorite love story deals with the great universals of love and hate, youth and age, life and death, order and disorder. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet has the action, the color, the music, the wit, the splendor, and the heartbreaking pathos of no other Shakespeare play.


Buy from Barnes & Noble     Compare Prices