Unlike in other plays (Macbeth, in particular), Shakespeare leaves no doubt that fate is at work in Romeo and Juliet. In the Prologue, the chorus tells the audience that by the end of the play, a pair of "star-cross'd lovers" will take their own lives, their love doomed to disaster. So in a way, every event in Romeo and Juliet leads to this conclusion, and we impose this interpretation on the course of the play. But even without this statement in the prologue, we can still point to several key events in the play to show how fate brings about the demise of the two young lovers. First, Capulet restrains Tybalt from attacking and possibly killing Romeo at the masque, a decision that makes it possible for Romeo to meet Juliet. Then, after Romeo and Juliet are married, Romeo kills Tybalt in the streets, an act that ends in his banishment. Perhaps most poignantly, Friar John fails due to plague to reach Mantua with a letter from Friar Laurence explaining that Juliet's "death" is a ruse, but Balthasar, who believes Juliet dead, does. So from the time Romeo and Juliet first meet, it seems that one thing after another goes wrong. Shakespeare makes it clear from the beginning of the play that this will happen, a dramatic decision that makes this play all the more tragic.
Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
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