What were peoples attitudes to marriage and family in elizabethan times?
With parental permission, boys are legal to marry at 14, girls at 12, though it is not recommended so early. One comes of age at 21. Sir Thomas More recommended that girls not marry before 18 and boys not before 22. A marriage contract includes provision both for the bride’s dowry and for a jointure, or settlement, in cash and property by the husband’s family, that guarantees her welfare should her husband die first. It is generally considered foolish to marry for love, although love may occur in marriage. Romeo is a very young man, with only one conventional infatuation (with Rosaline) so far; Juliet is not quite fourteen. The youthfulness of the protagonists goes far to explain how they are swept away by their first deep wave of true love.
