Lammas rituals

Lammas Day, 1 August, was an important day in the calendar, but for Shakespeare-lovers Lammas Eve, 31 July, is the more significant because it was the day of Juliet’s birth.

Juliet is one of the few Shakespearean characters whose age and date of birth we know exactly, and Shakespeare tells us this before we know anything else about her.

Act 1 Scene 3 of Romeo and Juliet is the first of a series of beautifully-written scenes in which the love of the two main characters develops. After the violence of the opening of the play with its brawl, the mood changes with Capulet’s exchange with Paris about his daughter and Benvolio and Romeo’s talk about gate-crashing the feast.

Then we move backstage to this little gem of a scene in which a servant, the nurse, is put centre-stage. With its affectionate ramblings and bawdiness it is the warmest of speeches.

On Lammas-Eve at night shall she be fourteen;
That shall she, marry; I reme