The Feigned Death of Juliet
bedchamber, Capulet, characters, Count Paris, domestic interior, Frederic Leighton (1830-1896), Friar Laurence, Juliet, Lady Capulet, medieval dress, music, musical instruments, musicians, nurse, play, Romeo and Juliet, SA, Shakespearean characters, South Australia, tragedy, William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
This oil on canvas painting by nineteenth-century artist Frederic Leighton was acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia with funds from the Elder Bequest in 1899. Titled ‘The Feigned Death of Juliet’ it depicts a scene from William Shakespeare’s tragedy 'Romeo and Juliet'. In Act IV Scene V of the play, Count Paris arrives at the Capulet house with Friar Laurence to claim Juliet as his bride. However, instead of finding her ready to proceed to the church to be wed, he discovers Juliet seemingly lifeless in her chamber. In Leighton’s painting, Juliet is shown lying on a bed surrounded by her mother, her nurse, her father and Count Paris. Friar Laurence hovers in the corner and a band of musicians congregate by the open door with their instruments. Although the play was written in the 1590s, it is set in Verona in an earlier (but unspecified) period. The characters in the painting are all depicted wearing styles of dress typical of the High Middle Ages.
Leighton, Frederic
Art Gallery of South Australia
Art Gallery of South Australia
1856 - 1858
Art Gallery of South Australia
Oil on Canvas, 113.6 x 175.2cm;
Hyperlink
"Men Call Me a Fool"
Adonis, book, book review, books, court, duchess, fool, Francis I (1494-1547), hunchback, king, literature, medieval France, nobles, professional fool, review, tragedy, troubadour
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">This article provides a short review of Dan Totheroh’s historical novel “Men Call me Fool”, published by Selwyn and Blount in 1929. Set in fourteenth-century France at the court of King Francis I, the plot centres on a professional fool and a youthful duchess who falls in love with him. Although professional fools were common in medieval courtly circles, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span><span lang="EN">the reviewer tells the reader, “mostly they were hunchbacks or deformed, but this one</span><span> was an Adonis</span>”, and also a troubadour. Summing up, the reviewer concludes that “There is a good deal of the atmosphere of the times and much that is realistic in the lives of these professional fools” and “the characterisation of the sensual king and his nobles is convincing”.</span></span></span></p>
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">To access a copy of this novel, see <a href="http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b312683" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000ff;">http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b312683</span></a>. </span>
Anon.
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">National Library of Australia, </span><span lang="EN"><a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58388271" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Calibri; color: #0000ff; font-size: small;">http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58388271</span></a></span>
The Sunday Times
13 October 1929, p. 29.
The Sunday Times
Digital Newspaper Article
English