Romeo & Juliet and the Reality of Elizabethan Marriage

Photo by Cynthia Smith on Unsplash

Romeo & Juliet might be the best known of Shakespeare’s plays, especially in terms of how many people know what happened in it. Even without seeing or reading it. West Side Story and an entire slew of books take the story and put it in new places, in new situations.

That doesn’t, though, mean that most people understand it. The worst error is to call it romantic; not…