/lit/ - Literature

>In act 1, scene 2 of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Lord Capulet, Juliet's father, tells Paris, one of Juliet's suitors, that Juliet "hath not seen the change of fourteen years" (1.2.9). In fact, according to Juliet's mother and Nurse in act 1, scene 3, Juliet is a little more than two weeks shy of her fourteenth birthday. Lady Capulet states, "She's not yet fourteen" (1.3.14), and Juliet's nurse, who's been intimately involved with Juliet since the day she was born, states definitively that in a little more than two weeks, "Come Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen" (1.3.21).

>There is no such direct evidence of Romeo's age anywhere in the play. It seems odd that Shakespeare makes an effort to clearly establish Juliet's age—an age which is notably younger than the average age for a woman to get married in Shakespeare's time—but Shakespeare never mentions Romeo's age.

Why didn't he mention Romeo's age?