Dec 18, 2009

Romeo and Juliet | The Nurse

In the first excerpt, Granville-Barker praises the Nurse as a well-conceived, rich, and natural character and compares her with Falstaff, one of Shakespeare's greatest comic creations. Martin Stevens, in the second selection, examines the Nurse's role as a messenger who acts as a go-between for the young lovers in Romeo and Juliet.

Harley Granville-Barker
[Granville-Barker praises the Nurse as a well-conceived, rich, and natural character and compares her with Falstaff (in 1 and 2 Henry IV and The Merry Wives of Windsor), one of Shakespeare's greatest comic creations. Remarking on the consistency of the Nurse's portrait the critic notes that all facets of her personality fall into perspective at III. v. 212-17 when she advises Juliet to marry Paris and forget Romeo.]

The Nurse ... is a triumphant and complete achievement. She stands four-square, and lives and breathes in her own right...