Count Paris

Count Paris
Creator	William Shakespeare
Play	Romeo and Juliet
Family	Prince Escalus, Mercutio

Count Paris 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.

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. Da Porto drew on Pyramus and Thisbe and Boccacio'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. He also introduces characters corresponding to Shakespeare's Mercutio, Tybalt, and Paris. 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 dissention.

Paris makes his first appearance in Act I, Scene II, where he offers to make Juliet his wife and the mother of his child. Juliet's father, Capulet, demurs, telling him to wait until she is older, in which they sneak off later in the scene together. Capulet invites Paris to attend a family ball being held that evening, and grants permission to woo Juliet, only to fall while dancing with Juliet. Later in the play, however, Juliet refuses to become Paris' "joyful bride" because of her affair with her cousin, Tybalt, later to die by Romeo's hand, proclaiming for the first time that she now despises Paris and wants nothing to do with him, despite her earlier feelings. Capulet violently threatens to disown and then make Juliet a lowly street urchin if she does not marry Paris, threatening to slap his daughter, and screaming in her face. 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, while at Friar Lawrence's cell at the church, Paris tries to woo Juliet by repeatedly saying she is his wife and they are to be married on Thursday. He kisses her and then leaves the cell, prompting Juliet to threaten to kill herself if Friar Lawrence doesn't help her escape this second marriage.

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