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Title: Literary junk food for the masses
Review: Plain and simple - Shakespeare sold out.*R&J* is simply sensationalist trash. It contains a good portion of Shakespeares worst verse and insipid characterizations. It's unchallenging, crude, and simply melodrama for the most part. It's the Shakespearean equivalent of "Party of Five" and the Spice Girls.The only saving grace of this "play" (why not call it a "B-play?") is the beautiful soliloquy by Mercutio about Queen Mab.The rest is absolute garbage.Read a real play. "Hamlet," although dreadfully overplayed, is a fine work. So is "Caesar."And forget Shakespeare. There are other fine Elizabethan writers who have been forced to exist in the "Bard's" shadow. Had Marlowe lived, we wouldn't have even known about Shakespeare. And Donne finally been recognized for the genius that he is.
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