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Count Paris

Count Paris (Italian: il Conte Paride) or County Paris is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. He is a suitor of Juliet. He is handsome, wealthy, and a kinsman to Prince Escalus.

This article is about the Romeo and Juliet character Count Paris. For other uses, see Paris (disambiguation).

Count Paris

His name comes from the Prince of Troy, Paris, in Homer's Illiad.

Sources[edit]

Luigi da Porto adapted the story as Giulietta e Romeo and included it in his Historia novellamente ritrovata di due Nobili Amanti published in 1530.[1] Da Porto drew on Pyramus and Thisbe and Boccaccio's Decameron. He gave it much of its modern form, including the lovers' names, the rival Montecchi and Capuleti families, and the location in Verona.[2] He also introduces characters corresponding to Shakespeare's Mercutio, Tybalt, and Paris, though the latter is only referred to as il conte di Lodrone. Da Porto presents his tale as historically true and claims it took place in the days of Bartolomeo II della Scala (a century earlier than Salernitano). Montecchi and Capuleti were actual 13th-century political factions, but the only connection between them is a mention in Dante's Purgatorio as an example of civil dissension.[3] The name Paris was first given to il conte di Lodrone by Matteo Bandello, whose novella on the tragedy was first published in Lucca in 1554. Paris, or Paride, was the name of several of the historical Counts of Lodron, a minor noble family from Trentino.

Role in the play[edit]

Paris makes his first appearance in Act I, Scene II, where he offers to make Juliet his wife and the mother of his children. Juliet's father, Capulet, demurs, telling him to wait until she is older. Capulet invites Paris to attend a family ball being held that evening, and grants him permission to woo Juliet. Later in the play, however, after her cousin, Tybalt, dies by Romeo's hand, Juliet refuses to become Paris's "joyful bride". Capulet threatens to disown Juliet and turn her out of his house if she does not marry Paris. Juliet's mother, too, turns her back on Juliet shortly after Capulet storms out of the scene ("Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word; do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee"), as does the Nurse. Then, at Friar Lawrence's cell at the church, Paris tries to woo Juliet by addressing her as his wife and saying they are to be married on Thursday. As he leaves at the Friar's request, he kisses her. When he has gone, Juliet threatens to kill herself if the Friar cannot help her avoid this impending marriage.


Paris's final appearance in the play is in the cemetery where Juliet, who has taken something to put her in a deathlike state, has been laid to rest in the Capulet family tomb. Believing her to be dead, Paris has come to mourn her in solitude and privacy and sends his manservant away. He professes his love to Juliet, saying he will weep for her nightly.[4] Shortly thereafter, Romeo, deranged by grief himself, also goes to the Capulet's tomb and is confronted by Count Paris, who believes Romeo came to desecrate Juliet's tomb. A duel ensues and Paris is killed. Romeo drags Paris's body inside the Capulet tomb and lays him out on the floor beside Juliet's body, fulfilling Paris's dying wish.

Historical context[edit]

The earliest versions of the text (First Quarto, Second Quarto and First Folio) all call him "Countie Paris". Some versions of the text call him "County Paris".[5] "County" was in common usage at the time of writing,[6] and Shakespeare's choice was dictated by the needs of the metre.[7]


As a father, the chief role Capulet plays in Juliet's life is that of a matchmaker. He has raised and cared for Juliet for nearly fourteen years, but he must find a suitable husband who will care for her for the remainder of her life. Juliet, as a young woman and as an aristocrat in general, cannot support herself in the society of her day, her only available career choices are either wife or nun. Thus it falls upon her father and her husband to support her.

A scene of Romeo killing Paris (played by ) was filmed for Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, but it was cut from the final print as Zeffirelli felt it unnecessarily made Romeo less sympathetic.[15] Paris is not seen in the film after Juliet's first funeral, that could suggest he is alive. However, at the end of the film, Prince Escalus mentions he lost two relatives due to the feud between Montagues and Capulets, referring to Mercutio and Paris. Therefore, due to the cut scene of the fight between Romeo and Paris, it is implied that Paris may had died in mourn due to Juliet's death.

Roberto Bisacco

A mock- revisionist version of Romeo and Juliet's final scene forms part of the 1980 stage-play The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. This version has a happy ending: Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio and Paris are restored to life, and Benvolio reveals he is Paris' love, Benvolia, in disguise.[16]

Victorian

In 's Romeo + Juliet, the character is named "Dave Paris" and is played by Paul Rudd. His familial relationship with Escalus (called "Captain Escalus Prince") is removed entirely from the film, and Dave Paris is not characterised as a nobleman; he is, rather, a wealthy business magnate and a governor's son. However, whilst neither the death of this incarnation of Paris nor his kinship with Captain Prince is ever made explicit, the latter yet laments at the close of the film that he has "lost a brace of kinsmen".

Baz Luhrmann

In the 2011 film , there is a Red Gnome named Paris who is arranged to court Juliet by her father Lord Redbrick, though she does not love him and is instead in love with a Blue Gnome named Gnomeo. Juliet distracts him with her frog sprinkler friend Nanette who is in love with Paris and the two later start a relationship. The character reappears in the film's 2018 sequel Sherlock Gnomes. He is voiced by Stephen Merchant.

Gnomeo & Juliet

In the 2017 TV series , Paris survives.

Still Star-Crossed

In Paris appears Played by Steve Gibbons, reinterpreted as wealthy meat tycoon London Arbuckle. Arbuckle meets his end when he jumps out of a window after seeing Juliet transformed into a hideous cow monster by Friar Laurence’s potion.

Tromeo and Juliet

(1982). The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. New York: Dramatists' Play Service. ISBN 0-8222-0817-2.

Edgar, David

Halio, Jay (1998). . Westport: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30089-5.

Romeo and Juliet: A Guide to the Play

Hosley, Richard (1965). Romeo and Juliet. New Haven: .

Yale University Press

Levin, Harry (1960). "Form and Formality in Romeo and Juliet". Shakespeare Quarterly. 11 (1). Folger Shakespeare Library: 3–11. :10.2307/2867423. JSTOR 2867423.

doi

Moore, Olin H. (1930). "The Origins of the Legend of Romeo and Juliet in Italy". . 5 (3). Medieval Academy of America: 264–277. doi:10.2307/2848744. ISSN 0038-7134. JSTOR 2848744. S2CID 154947146.

Speculum

Moore, Olin H. (1937). "Bandello and "Clizia"". Modern Language Notes. 52 (1). Johns Hopkins University Press: 38–44. :10.2307/2912314. ISSN 0149-6611. JSTOR 2912314.

doi

- Rossell Hope Robbins Library, Medieval collection.

The Four Leaves of the Truelove