Hark! What Pentameter?

Michael Phillips critiques Sir Peter Hall’s current production of “Romeo and Juliet” as “rhythmically steady to a fault” (“A Star-Crossed Staging,” Feb. 6). He illustrates the Bard’s famous iambic apentameter as “dum-de-DUM-ade-DUM.” A normal iambic line would not have the stress on the first syllable.

If Phillips does not like the iambic meter in which the play is written, perhaps he should suffer the hubris to attribute the fault to Shakespeare instead of to Sir Peter.

NEAL GOLDMAN

Van Nuys