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Copywork
About This Passage
After hearing reports and testimony, the Prince reads Romeo’s letter and names both the families’ feud and his own failure to restrain it.
This letter doth make good the Friar’s words, Their course of love, the tidings of her death. And here he writes that he did buy a poison Of a poor ’pothecary, and therewithal Came to this vault to di...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Trace Act V from Balthasar's report to the Prince's judgment. Then identify the moment when the audience has the clearest view of how private actions become a public catastrophe.
Discussion Questions
- How does Shakespeare make Balthasar's truthful report about Juliet's apparent death both understandable and tragically insufficient for Romeo?
- What does the returned letter, followed by Friar Lawrence's solitary trip to the monument, suggest about the play's treatment of intention and consequence?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
In "My dreams presage some joyful news at hand," presage means to suggest that something is about to happen.
Item 2
In "Noting this penury," penury means severe poverty, which Romeo uses to explain why the Apothecary might break the law.
Item 3
In "More fierce and more inexorable far," inexorable means impossible to stop or persuade away from a course.
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Critical Thinking
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