in order of appearance
Old Capulet
Written for an old master of the stage.
…………………………………………………………………………….. James Burbage (*1531-35 ; 49 – 54)
The most outstanding actor of the company’s older generation.
Countie Paris ……………………………………………………… 5 scenes (66 / 10 lines) = age ca. 13
……………………………………………………………………………………………. Thomas Belte (*ca. 1581)
Paris, of course, is for his ‘youthful years’ (Brooke) younger than Romeo. And during the play his youth shows in the beginner’s mistake of consistently courting the father (textbook diplomacy) rather than the bride herself (as experience prescribes). A mistake that old Capulet already anticipates at the first negotiations in scene 1 ; 2, and tries to prevent with some sound advice. When Paris finally meets Juliet on stage (in scene 4 ; 1), he behaves in consequence as if he never wooed a woman in his life. And that with being exactly told by Old Capulet how to proceed. Don’t think less of his love for Juliet though ; her death genuinely strikes Paris down, but, mourning at the Capulet tomb, he does not so much behave like a grieving lover, than like a teenager’s perception of a grieving lover. Seconds later he apprehends an armed murderer with all a swordsman’s courage, and a fatal blindness to danger. Which flaw accounts for ignoring his opposer’s warning signs while he displays the moral superiority that the situation prescribes, with a pomp that would enrage a much less volatile character than Romeo.
Clowne ……………………………………………………………. William Kempe (*unknown ; past 30)
The 1623 Folio marks at one occasion the entrance of the nurse’s man (Peter) with ‘Enter Kempe’. Kempe was Burbage’s regular clown, therefore Peter is the play’s clown.