SOURCE: Levin, Harry. “Form and Formality in Romeo and Juliet.” Shakespeare Quarterly 11, no. 1 (Winter 1960): 3-11.

In the essay below, Levin examines the style and form of Romeo and Juliet, and contends that the play is an elaborate and innovative experiment in romantic comedy.

“Fain would I dwell on form—”, says Juliet from her window to Romeo in the moonlit orchard below,

Fain would I dwell on form—fain, fain deny What I have spoke; but farewell compliment! 

(II. ii. 88-89)¹

Romeo has just violated convention, dramatic and otherwise, by overhearing what Juliet intended to be a soliloquy. Her cousin, Tybalt, had already committed a similar breach of social and theatrical decorum in the scene at the Capulets' feast, where he had also recognized Romeo's voice to be that of a Montague. There, when the lovers first met, the dialogue of their meeting had been formalized into a sonnet...