During the 18th century there were several adaptations
to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Although much of the original
version was altered, not always for the better, one change has been noted
as a major success. In the final scene at the Capulet tomb between
Romeo
and Juliet,
Shakespeare intended Romeo to die before Juliet awakens. Several
of these adaptations included adding dialogue between the two lovers, allowing
Juliet to awaken before Romeo dies. This change adds intensity and
passion to the scene because Romeo is permitted to glimpse the fatal outcome
of his hasty decision. The lovers realize together the irony of the
situation and are allowed one last taste of their marriage and hoped for
life together.
The first playwright to envision this change was
Thomas Otway. His play, entitled Caius Marius, retained much
of Shakespeare’s original dialogue. "Otway, clearly and perhaps
rightly thinking that Shakespeare had missed a good opportunity for
an affecting passage of dialogue, conceived the notion of causing his heroine
to wake before her love expired, and gave them a touching dialogue" (Wells
2). Theophilus Cibber and David Garrick were two other adaptors
who drew on Otway’s idea. Of the three adaptations, Garrick remained
more closely to the original text of Shakespeare. Some scholars believe
that this addition provides a more emotional death scene than Shakespeare’s
version, especially on the part of Romeo.
During the 1700’s Shakespeare’s plays were not very
popular. Audiences objected to Shakespeare’s language which was thought
to contain “excessive rhyme and wordplay” (Branam
173). Shakespeare’s original text was also lacking in spectacle
which audiences sought after at this time. David Garrick was writing
for these audiences when he attempted to revive Shakespeare’s Romeo and
Juliet. "He wanted to propogate Shakespeare in his theatre
and to fill that theatre with paying , applauding customers" (Branam
179). In the 18th century Romeo and Juliet was softened for
the stage. Its moral was less harsh and it became a love story that
fit into the audience’s taste for sentimentality.
In 1747 Garrick became manager of his own theatre,
Drury Lane. It was here that the first production of his revival
of Romeo and Juliet was staged in 1748. His text included
cuts of Shakespeare’s original language and a change in the final scene
which added dialogue between Romeo and Juliet after Juliet awakens.
His version became the most frequently performed Shakespearean play and
tragedy after 1750. It remained this way until the 1845-46 season.
In 1750 Garrick revised his original revision of 1748 in order to successfully
compete with rival companies. Due to popular demand he removed the
character of Rosaline because she was thought to point out a character
flaw in Romeo and added an elaborate funeral procession. The idea
for the procession came from a performance on September 28, 1750 at Covent
Garden with John Rich’s Company. Drury Lane and Covent Garden were
showing Garrick’s Romeo and Juliet at the same time so Garrick felt
it necessary to secede to popular demand. Even with these added changes
which further detract from Shakespeare’s original text, Garrick still succeeded
in several areas. He was able to revive Romeo and Juliet for
18th century audiences at the time when the play was not popular and many
objected to its revival. He also popularized Otway’s final scene
in Caius Marius. Although Garrick’s actual dialogue has not
been used since the mid 19th century, many productions of Romeo and
Juliet have referred to his death scene for inspiration. "No modern
director would be likely to interpolate Garrick’s words into Shakespeare’s
text, but in more than one production the terrible irony of the situation
had been pointed by Juliet’s showing signs of life as Romeo dies which
are visible to the audience though not to him" (Wells
2).