Act 5

In our play’s final Act, an ancient, alchemic potion is found as counterpoison to the sophistic “music” of a corrupt Rome personified by Paris. The figure of the apothecary appears on stage as representing all spirits persecuted “from ancient grudge” for pursuing a good transcending all worldly demands. The apothecary’s art counters the nominalist impulse that kills the poetic author in the respect that it alienates readers from his spirit. Thanks to the apothecary, Romeo can turn the nominalist into the service of a Rome centered upon a poetic “O” (ring/alliance), countering the rise of a Rome utterly alienated from poetry. Death itself is exposed as a blessing in disguise, or in a poetic context, against those who see it merely relatively to bodies/corpses. Romeo’s dagger is itself a poetic instrument of purgation used to dig spirits out of bodies, rather than bury them within them. Romeo dies in the sense that he comes to hide in Juliet’s spiritual bosom; in hiding, Romeo finds his renewal. Yet, insofar as truth must be dressed in our fallen world, RJ closes with a conventional religiouslike “solution” that can keep the detractors of Shakespeare’s art at bay.