From Romeus to Romeo Shakespeare’s primary source for Romeo and Juliet was Arthur Brooke’s poem, The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet. But Brooke’s adaptation was by no means the only version of this timeless tale that Shakespeare may have encountered. The earliest roots of Romeo and Juliet probably lie in the story of Pyramus and Thisbe from Ovid’s narrative poem, Metamorphoses, written in Latin in 8AD. Besides the basic story of forbidden love, Pyramus and Thisbe displays numerous similarities to Romeo and Juliet: lovers pulled apart by family hatred, a garden wall as a meeting place (a barrier between the lovers much like Juliet’s balcony), and a tragic double-suicide finale. Shakespeare may also have come into contact with the story in several novelle italiane (collected Italian short novels). Luigi da Porta’s 1530 version, A Story Newly Found of Two Noble Lovers, includes feuding families—Montecchi and Capelletti; is set in Verona; has a masked ball; and has characters named Marcuccio, Friar Lorenzo, and Thebaldo. There is, however, one surprising difference: da Porta’s Guilietta wakes before Romeo dies in the tomb, and she has time to speak to her lover before she commits suicide by holding her breath. In 1554, another Italian author, Matteo Bandello, published a version of the story, which includes the details that Romeo only learns his Julietta’s name as he leaves the ball and a Nurse who reveals Romeo’s identity to Julietta. In da Porta’s version, Guilietta asks the Friar for poison, for which he substitutes a sleeping potion; in Bandello, Julietta hopes to disguise herself as a boy and run away with Romeo, but the Friar suggests the sleeping potion instead. Bandello’s novelle was translated into French by Pierre Boaistuau, and from here the first version in English, Brooke’s Romeus and Juliet, appears in 1562. While Brooke’s differs little from Boaistuau’s, there are some additions, most obviously the allusion to Chaucer’s famous Troilus and Criseyde, as well as the emphasis on the morality in the story: in Brooke, it is Romeo and Juliet’s tempestuous behavior and lack of respect for their parents that lead to their deaths. –KATE ATTWELL, ASSISTANT DRAMATURG A 1535 WOODCUT OF ROMEO MONTECCHI AND GIULIETTA CAPELLETTI FROM LUIGI DA PORTO’S NOVELLE, A STORY NEWLY FOUND OF TWO NOBLE LOVERS.
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