Romeo&Juliet

There is the tale of Hero and Leander in classic myth, there is Tristan and Yseult in medieval lore, but the most famous pair of lovers in world literature is Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (first performed in 1594, published in 1597).

Shakespeare based his story on a narrative poem »The Tragical Historye of Romeus and Juliet«(1562) by Arthur Brooke. This English poet, in his turn, drew on Italian sources. As early as the XV century, Italian Renaissance short story writers several times retold the sad story of »star-crossed lovers«. From the realm of fiction it soon passed into the realm of fact: Girolamo della Corta presented it as a fact in his »History of Verona«(1596), and the Veronians hurried to build »the tomb of Romeo and Juliet«, still a tourist attraction. From Italy the story spread all around Europe. Lope de Vega used it in his 1600 play, Pierre Boitaux — in 1566.

But after Shakespeare, his version of the plot firmly dominated the authors of next generations. It is easily recognizable in Heinrich von Kleist's tragedy »Die Familie Schroffenstein« (1803), in Gottfried Keller's story »The peasant Romeo and Juliet« (1856). An opera by Charles Gounod (1865), a symphony by Hestor Berlioz (1851), a ballet by Sergey Prokofiev (1936) are the major musical works inspired by Shakespeare, and there is a number of outstanding filmed versions of »Romeo and Juliet«.

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The feuding houses of Montague and Capulet in old Verona are alike in privilege and station, each have but one child. At the opening of the play Romeo is in love with Rosaline who is an off-stage character. To distract him, his friend Mercutio and cousin Benvolio take him, masked, to a feast in Capulet's house, and he falls in love with Juliet at first sight. When they learn each others' names, love already rules their hearts. The night after the ball Romeo enters Capulet's orchard and overhears Juliet's soliloquy at the balcony; they get engaged to marry. They are secretly married by Friar Laurence who thus hopes to stop the enmity between the two households, but immediately after their secret wedding Tybalt kills Mercutio in a street brawl, Romeo stabs Tybalt to death, and is exiled to Mantua. Meanwhile Juliet's parents set the date for her wedding to Count Paris. Friar Laurence comes to help her, devising a trick with sleeping potion. Juliet is taken for dead and brought to a family vault, but by mischance Friar Laurence's plan fails: his letter doesn't reach Romeo, who instead learns the news of Juliet's death, comes back to Verona, fights Paris and poisons himself. When Juliet awakens and sees him dead, she stabs herself with Romeo's dagger. Over their corpses the two houses are reconciled.