What is the orgin for Romeo and Juliet?

Question

i need to find the origin for this play

thanks in advance!

i will vote for best anwers

Answer 1

Shakespeare's primary source for Romeo and Juliet was a poem by Arthur Brooke called The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Iuliet, written in 1562. He also could have known the popular tale of Romeo and Juliet from a collection by William Painter, entitled The Palace of Pleasure, which was written sometime before 1580. Shakespeare also likely read the three sources on which Brooke's poem and Painter's story were based -- namely, Giulietta e Romeo, a novella by the Italian author Matteo Bandello, written in 1554; a story in a collection called Il Novellio, by the widely-popular fifteenth-century writer Masuccio Salernitano; and the Historia Novellamente Ritrovata di Due Nobili Amanti or A Story Newly Found of two Noble Lovers, written by Luigi Da Porto and published in 1530. For specific information about Shakespeare's sources I will cite excerpts from Brian Gibbon's edition of the play: "In da Porto the lovers are named Romeo and Giulietta and the two families of Montecchi and Capelletti are at feud. There is a Friar Lorenz, and da Porto invents Marcuccio, Thebaldo, and the Conte di Lodrone (Shakespeare's Paris). Romeo goes disguised as a nymph to a carnival ball at his enemy's house in the hope of seeing a lady who scorns his love....The lovers meet often in due course at Giulietta's balcony until one night when it is snowing Romeo begs admittance to her room." (The Arden Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet. London: Methuen, 1980, [24]). Da Porto's version follows Shakespeare's very closely after this point.

"Bandello gives more emphasis to Romeo's initial love-melancholy, and the feud between the families is active. Romeo attends the ball, not disguised as a nymph, but in a masque with several other young gentlemen; he removes his visard and is recognized, but is so young and handsome that no one insults him. Mercutio is said to be 'audacious among maidens as a lion among lambs'...Bandello introduces the Nurse and a character corresponding to Shakespeare's Benvolio; the Conte Lodrone is called Paris. Romeo only learns Julietta's identity from a friend as he leaves the ball, and Julietta finds out who he is from the Nurse. ... In the tomb, when Julietta awakes she is at first alarmed at Romeo's disguised figure and fears the Friar has betrayed her; but then she recognizes him, the lovers mutually lament their misfortune, and Romeo regrets killing Tibaldo and urges Julietta to live on after his own death" (35-6). Julietta will not listen to Romeo, and she kills herself by holding her breath.

"Brooke's translation, 3020 lines in length, is a faithful version of [Bandello], though Brooke also makes additions to the story in his turn, under the influence of the greatest romance narrative in his own language, Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. Brooke's chief contribution is his emphasis on the power of the 'blyndfold goddesse' 'fierce 'Fortune' throughout the story, providing a perspective which distinctly recalls Chaucer, and without which the verbal borrowings or echoes would have little significance. Brooke's Preface speaks of unhonest desire, of the neglect of authority and parental advice, the shame of stolen contracts, the moral to be drawn by the pious reader, but his poem itself shows a warmer understanding of youth, which keeps the reader half-conscious of the spirit of Chaucer for much of the time"

Answer 2

Oh, that's easy, Shakespeare copped pretty much the entire thing from an earlier Italian epic poem, "Romeus and Juliet".  You can find that poem reprinted in several of the paperback editions of the play.