ABSTRACT
In a singularly bold move in his extant work, Shakespeare openly states in the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet that his portrayal of “fair Verona…. Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean” and “[a] pair of starcrossed lovers take their life” will be “the two-hours' traffic of our stage” (2–5, 6–12). Dramatic events are thus made historical, captured within and measured by a definite, circumscribed period of time. Events will be registered—and regulated—by the clock, an instrument that has been traced back to the second-century author Artemidorus of Daldis who writes in his Interpretation of Dreams that “[a] clock signifies occupations and undertakings, movements and the start of transactions. For men keep their eyes on the time in all that they do. And so, if a clock falls apart or is broken, it means bad luck and death” (III.66). At least since that time, Gerhard Dohrn-van Rossum tells us, the clock has symbolized both “business and busyness,” 1 two of Shakespeare's meanings of “traffic,” constituting the action and deliverance of performance. This period of time permits and restricts the characters whose obedience to “the time” as customs—courtship, marriage, shriving, burial—is found in conflict with individual desire and rebellious action. The play is about keeping to societal norms and resisting them. Romeo's initial appearance underscores the point vividly.
