Royal Mail and the Inappropriate Shakespeare Play

To celebrate the birthday of Mr William Shakespeare, the Royal Mail decided to dedicate some postboxes to the bard. They wrote quotes from his famous play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ on postboxes across the country but failed to notice the irony of their mistake.

Anyone who has read or seen the tragedy would know that the plight of the poor youngsters may have been prevented if a letter had arrived on time. Their deaths were at the hands of a late delivery! Perhaps Royal Mail had neglected to remember that fact when they chose this play over LITERALLY ANY OTHER.

Twitter became awash with snarky comments from ‘um actually’ types who couldn’t wait to let Royal Mail know their mistake.

It’s Shakespeare’s birthday today, so to mark the occasion we’ve decorated a postbox! Lead actors from ‘Romeo & Juliet’ are here next to the postbox, which features quotes from some of Shakespeare's most famous work #Shakespearesbirthday #postbox cc @TheRSC pic.twitter.com/IocmUutc4V
— Royal Mail (@RoyalMail) April 23, 2018

Did anybody there actually read the play? The entire point of the last two acts is that the letter is too late. The whole tragedy is a bloody advertisement for texting.
— Jeanthejust (@Jeanthejust) April 23, 2018

Maybe Shakespeare wrote R&J primarily as a cautionary tale about substandard mail delivery. Authorial intent is so notoriously hard to determine.
— Eric Johnson (@OSShakespeare) April 23, 2018

Or maybe the point is R&J didn’t use Royal Mail & look where they ended up 😧
— Spokes(wo)man (@Spokes_wo_man) April 24, 2018

Prithee doth not leaveth mine own parcels outside, lest I receiveth not. Thanketh thee.
— WanksyWarhol (@uniquedvdsleeve) April 23, 2018

um...

R&J is probably *not* the play you want to go with if you’re advertising a service that _delivers_ letters. https://t.co/NUxRCbeeLs
— claire m. l. bourne (@roaringgirle) April 23, 2018