[LMB] Mercutio and Tybalt OT:

[Pouncer]

John Lennard replies to Pouncer and Margaret.

P>>: Now do Mercutio. <snip interesting speculation>

M>>: [Mrs] Capulet being attracted to the younger fire-eater Tybalt is
certainly plausible.

John> : Could be, surely, but yu're both being a bit purely
 >intradiegetic/Watsonian for me.

Speaking only for myself, thank you very much!

J>Take the Queen Mab speech, frex, which could be all sorts of things
 >but is partly and critically there because of the evident connection
 >with *Midsummer Night's Dream*, probably a season-pair with Rom & Jules
 >in the winter of 1595-96 ; as also witness the presence in Dream of the
 >lamentable tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe -- which has the same plot as
 >Rom & Jules.

So for nearly 60 years I've been noticing the R&J and MSND parallels
without being instructed in the business side of the theatrical
"release" ... Education in my country *sucks*, y'know?

ANYHOW, so with the extradigetic/Doylist knowledge of which of
the King's Men originally played the role, and assuming he played
the character close to his own age* -- how old was Mercutio? And
is it fair to guess that Tybalt is, for various reasons,
significantly older than Romeo -- and relatively close in age to
Mercutio?


*  How good is the assumption that the character is near the
player's age?  Given that half the time the character is not
the player's SEX, I mean.  There is a funny scene in the
BBC comedy "Upstart Crow" where Burbage and Condell are
playing R & J -- WAY too late in life.

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