So despite the age of the Nurse as so frequently portrayed it is likely that at the time the play is set she was probably around 35 to 38. She is unlikely to have been beyond mid thirties. We can assume that she was probably in her twenties but may have been in her late teens at that time. The Nurse became Juliet's wet nurse when her own child died. Paris is described as young and gallant - the latter coding for having been a soldier - so is probably about 20 to 25.

Juliet we know is 13 - two weeks short of 14 - and Romeo is likely to be not that much older (say around 16 or 17). But re-reading the play - uncut and so with all the stuff left in that productions usually cut (such as the second appearance of the Chorus) I was struck by how much attention is paid to the ages of the characters. Of course marrying at thirteen was perfectly normal in the sixteenth century and no one would have even remarked on it when the play was first performed. In fact the BBC Shakespeare production aired in 1978 did have a 14 year old Juliet ( a brilliant performance from a young woman who would eventually quit acting when she married Roger Allam). Talking to the late, great Sir Peter Hall, some years ago he said that he would have loved to have directed a production that had actors of the actual ages of the characters but that he would never be allowed to do it. And the County Paris - what was he up to?

Juliet is 13 and she and Romeo would definitely have been referred to Social Services and Romeo quite possibly locked up - and as for the Capulet mama and papa trying to marry her off - well. One of the scandalous factors in possibly the greatest love story in British literature is, of course, the main age of the protagonists. OK, so this wan't the version I read but I am not going to trawl through the editions to find the edition I have which dates from the 1960s.

Shakespeare romeo and juliet book