Romeu e Julieta – Amor e tragédia

A propósito do Dia de S. Valentim, mais conhecido como Dia dos Namorados, que se aproxima, a Bauman Rare Books dos USA fez algumas sugestões com Romantic Gifts for Valentine's Day.

S. Valentim

Uma das obras proposta é Romeu e Julieta (no original em inglês Romeo and Juliet) a tragédia escrita entre 1591 e 1595, nos primórdios da carreira literária de William Shakespeare, sobre dois adolescentes cuja morte acaba por unir as suas famílias desavindas e em pé de guerra há muitos anos.

Pintura a óleo de 1870 por Ford Madox Brown

retratando a famosa cena do terraço de Romeu e Julieta.

A peça ficou entre as mais populares na época de William Shakespeare e, ao lado de Hamlet, é uma das suas obras mais levadas aos palcos em todo o mundo.

O Último Beijo de Romeu em Julieta por Francesco Hayez.

Óleo sobre tela, 1823.

Romeu e Julieta pertence a uma tradição de romances trágicos que remonta à antiguidade. O seu enredo é baseado num conto italiano, traduzido em versos como A Trágica História de Romeu e Julieta por Arthur Brooke em 1562, e retomado em prosa como Palácio do Prazer por William Painter em 1582.

Frontíspicio do poema Romeu e Julieta de Arthur Brooke

Hoje, o relacionamento dos dois jovens é considerado como o arquétipo do amor juvenil.

Vejamos então a obra proposta:

"FOR NEVER WAS A STORY OF MORE WOE THAN THIS OF JULIET AND HER ROMEO": SHAKESPEARE'S IMMORTAL TRAGEDY ROMEO AND JULIET, EXTRACTED FROM THE SECOND FOLIO, 1632, SPLENDIDLY BOUND

SHAKESPEARE, William – The Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet. [London: Tho. Cotes for Robert Allot, 1632]. Folio (9 by 12-3/4 inches), period-style full red morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spine and covers, raised bands, black morocco spine label, marbled endpapers; pp. 82-106.

$15,000.

The complete text of Shakespeare's first tragedy and one of his greatest plays, Romeo and Juliet, from the rare and important Second Folio, on 13 original leaves. Splendidly bound in elaborately gilt-decorated period-style morocco.

The four folios of Shakespeare are the first four editions of Shakespeare's collected plays. These were the only collected editions printed in the 17th century (a 1619 attempt at a collected edition in quarto form was never completed). The Second Folio, like the First Folio of 1623, contains 36 plays, all the plays that are considered to be wholly or in part by Shakespeare (with the exception of Pericles, which was added to the Third Folio edition of 1663). "The folios are incomparably the most important work in the English language" (W.A. Jackson, Pforzheimer Catalogue). A new group of investors published the Second Folio collection of Shakespeare's plays, which, with some changes (intentional and otherwise), largely reprinted the First Folio (1623) page for page. It is estimated that no more than 1000 copies of the Second Folio were printed. Leaves [gg5]-[ii5] contain the play Romeo and Juliet. "The Shakespearean exuberance or gusto is part of what breaks through linguistic and cultural barriers… Shakespeare is to the world's literature what Hamlet is to the imaginary domain of literary character: a spirit that permeates everywhere, that simply cannot be confined" (Bloom, The Western Canon, 52).

"To more effective account did Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet (his first tragedy) turn a tragic romance of Italian origin, which was already popular in the English versions of Arthur Broke in verse (1562) and William Painter in prose (in his 'Palace of Pleasure,' 1567). Shakespeare made little change in the plot, but he impregnated it with poetic fervor, and relieved the tragic intensity by developing the humor of Mercutio, and by grafting on the story the new comic character of the Nurse. The fineness of insight which Shakespeare here brought to the portrayal of youthful emotion is as noticeable as the lyric beauty and exuberance of the language" (DNB). The facsimile title page exactly reproduces the title page of the Second Folio copy from which this play came. See STC 22274; Jaggard, 496.

A splendidly bound volume in fine condition.

Espero que esta história de amor, ainda que com um final trágico, nos faça perceber a beleza deste sentimento tão profundo e tão belo.

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