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Plays › The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet › Prin

Prin

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet · 5 speeches across 2 scenes

The Prince of Verona, authority figure who enforces law and order amid feuding families.

Who they are

Escalus, the Prince, is the ruling authority in Verona, tasked with maintaining peace between the Montagues and Capulets. He appears at the play's beginning to quell the first brawl and returns after the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt to deliver judgment, exiling Romeo. His role is to represent civic order and the consequences of unchecked hatred.

Playing them

Deliver lines with regal authority and controlled fury, especially in the opening speech. Use a commanding, resonant vocal quality and still, upright physicality to project power. In Act 3, shift to weary exasperation and grief—his judgment of Romeo is colored by personal loss (his kinsman Mercutio).

Appearance

Typically costumed in princely robes or regal attire, often wearing a crown or coronet. A visual symbol of order and law, he may carry a scepter or sword to underscore his authority.

Worth knowing

Based on the historical figure Bartolomeo della Scala (Scaliger), a 13th-century ruler of Verona, though Shakespeare takes liberties for dramatic purposes.

Where they appear

Play Prin

Take the part and Yorick reads every other role aloud, following you line by line as you speak.

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Shakespeare the way it was meant to be had — out loud

These plays were written to be performed, not silently read. Yorick is a rehearsal app that lets you perform them: you take a part in any of Shakespeare’s 38 plays, and Yorick reads every other role aloud, listens while you speak your lines, keeps your place, and prompts you the moment you dry.

It is built for the person who has to be off book by tech week — school and college productions, community theatre, festivals, drama students and classical auditions — and for anyone who wants to hear a scene rather than skim it. Alongside the performance you get a plain-English translation of every speech, scene context, performance notes, and the ability to ask about any line and get an answer that already knows the play, the scene and who is speaking.

The text is the public-domain Cambridge/Globe edition. Translations and notes are AI-generated rehearsal aids for actors and students, not a scholarly apparatus. Yorick runs in a browser with nothing to install, and on iPhone and Android.