A&C was the second Shakespeare play I read, back in the ninth grade. Still one of my favorites. It's also, technically, a sequel, since Antony's a major character in Julius Caesar before this.
I wonder if Shakespeare alternated between putting up a tragedy and performing a comedy so that those Londoners could catch a break from feeling emotional about the deaths. Or did he put up successive tragedies so as to milk his audiences’ reactions for what it’s worth?
There's actually a lot of debate about the chronology of his plays, because not every performance was recorded (we know Romeo and Juliet was performed in his lifetime, but there's no record of a specific performance until after his death), and plays were published after they were performed, often years later.
That said, the chronology most often cited suggests that he did write a bunch of them back-to-back, but when they were performed is more uncertain.
Thank you for the background context. I wonder how Shakespeare felt when he watched Romeo and Juliet
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