What Are the Real Origins of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet?”
It’s a tragic tale known throughout most of the world: Two lovers forced apart by family, fate, and death. It is regarded as the most famous of it’s kind- but was this the first of its kind? Was there a real story to the fictional characters? Is the tale more complicated than it seems?
Shakespeare’s Version of Romeo and Juliet: A Synopsis
Although it is unclear when Shakespeare wrote his play, Romeo and Juliet was first performed in 1597 at the Elizabethan stage in London. The opening scene is a prologue told by the chorus in a sonnet in which the ending is revealed mid reading.
“…From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents’ strife…”
The play then switches to Iambic Pentameter, a style of poetry used throughout most of Shakespeare’s plays. Act I Scene I is kicked off with an argument between the servants of the Capulet and the Montague families (rivals in Verona, Italy.) The prince enters after the servants have just drawn their swords and bellows through the streets that he is sick of the feud that has torn the city apart. He remarks that if he hears of another fight between the two families there will be death. As he remarks “Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.”
Lady Montague wonders where her son is after the speech ends and Benvolio, Lord Montague’s nephew and Romeo’s cousin, tells her that he saw Romeo weeping earlier in the day. Romeo, as is his passionate nature, fell in love with Rosaline, a girl he loves that has vowed to remain chaste. He is heartbroken and claims that he will never love again. When Romeo appears, Benvolio tells the youth that he needs to at least try and pursue his other options and Romeo agrees only so he doesn’t have to keep discussing his heartache.
Switching to the Capulet household, Juliet, Lord Capulet’s daughter is a mere thirteen year old girl when Paris, a suitor in his late twenties, asks her father for her hand in marriage. Her father thinks she is too young to marry yet, but if Paris waits two years and takes the time to obtain Juliet’s heart, then he will be pleased with the arrangement. He then invites Paris to a feast and masquerade party that is happening that night and sends his servant (Peter) off with an invitation list. However, unbeknownst to Lord Capulet, Peter can not read, so he stops Romeo and asks for help with the list. Upon seeing Rosaline’s name on the list, he accepts Peter’s invite to the party for his help (although Peter says that he may not come if he is a Montague.) Benvolio is pleased because he thinks Romeo will be able to pursue other options, and Romeo is happy because he will get one last chance be in Rosaline’s presence.
Before the party, Lady Capulet talks to Juliet about the marriage proposal with Juliet’s nurse present, as she is basically the woman who raised her. The nurse acts as a mean for comic relief as Peter had earlier, and lightens the mood as she tells stories of Juliet’s youth. Lady Capulet is pushing Juliet towards the direction of this marriage and remarks that she was younger than Juliet at her age of marriage and that Paris is “a book without a cover,” implying that he needs a wife. The scene ends with Juliet telling her mother she will keep an open mind and a servant telling the women that the feast has begun.
Romeo, Benvolio, and Mercutio (another cousin) make their way into the masquerade and plan to stay for only a little while to ensure they will not, as Montagues, be caught at the Capulet party. Romeo is still weeping and in despair as is shown when Romeo remarks that he can not dance- as if his soul is “made of lead.” Romeo continues and says that he has a bad feeling, he tells his cousins he feels as though he is being led to his death, an example of foreshadowing. However, when Romeo sees Juliet from across the room, they instantly click and Romeo falls in love with her. Meanwhile, Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, has spotted Romeo and is already planning to kill Romeo when Lord Capulet tells Tybalt that his death would only cause a scene and make the prince angry. As long as he is civil, he is doing no harm. Tybalt seethes.
After the party, Romeo feels too elated to go home, so he leaves to find Juliet. On his way, he hears Benvolio and Mercutio talking about him and how silly he is acting because of being in love with Rosaline. They laugh and Benvolio tells Mercutio that they should stop searching because it is obvious that Romeo does not want to be found.
Romeo sneaks over a wall protecting the home of the Capulet’s and creeps into the orchard where he finds Juliet expressing her love for Romeo not realizing that he is there. The famous lines are spoken, “Oh Romeo, Romeo, where art thou Romeo,” in this scene commonly referred to as The Balcony Scene. Juliet continues her speech and says that if Romeo told her that he loved her, she would get rid of her Capulet name. Romeo speaks now, realizing what she is implying is a marriage proposal. He startles Juliet because she believed she was alone and scolds him for listening to her private words. Romeo asks if she means what she says, and she says she does, but is worried about the pace of their relationship (as they have known each other less than 24 hours.) Romeo reassures her that he has never felt like this and that he wants to marry her. Their conversation is cut short by the nurse calling to Juliet for her to come inside. The scene ends with them setting a time to meet and professing their love once more before saying goodnight.
On the morning of Romeo and Juliet’s wedding, Romeo approaches Friar Lawrence and asks him to preform the ceremony. Although the friar believes that it is strange that Romeo has moved on so quickly from Rosaline and believes that their marriage will be a disaster, he agrees to wed them because he is also tired of the feud between the Montagues and Capulets. The prospect of each in their community is surreal.
Benvolio and Mercutio ask where Romeo had snuck off to last night, but he manages to avoid the question and they move to discuss other matters. Juliet’s nurse appears and asks where she could find Romeo. Mercutio insults the nurse for some time until Romeo finally quiets him and the nurse delivers the message that holds some of the wedding details. The nurse returns to Juliet and teases her before telling her the good news and continues to say she’ll have a ladder ready for Romeo to climb into her bedchamber the night of their wedding. Later, Romeo and Juliet get married and they start their new life.
Following the secret marriage, it has turns out that Tybalt, still seething from the uninvited guests crashing their party has sent a letter to Romeo. Mercutio and Benvolio talk about the proposal Tybalt sent that says he wants to duel the young Montague. Mercutio and Tybalt end up in a duel and Mercutio is killed. Romeo, overcome with rage, kills Tybalt, which then causes the prince to exile him.
Juliet’s nurse informs her of the tragic recent events and how Romeo is banished. They are conflicted about what she should do. Now that Romeo has killed her cousin, will she be loyal to Tybalt, or the man she loves? Juliet chooses Romeo and asks her nurse to find him and give him his wedding band.
The Nurse finds Romeo and gives him the ring and the friar, the nurse, and Romeo discuss his banishment. The elders try to comfort him, but he only cries that there is nothing beyond the walls of Verona because Juliet is inside them.
The Capulets grieve Tybalt’s death and Lord Capulet declares that a wedding would help to ease tension and that they could reuse most of the funeral food for the wedding. Paris and Lord Capulet discuss the matter and it is settled that the wedding will be Thursday.
The nurse and friar had arranged for Juliet and Romeo’s wedding night together before he leaves for Mantua, the land he was exiled to, the next day. The scene opens to Romeo and Juliet saying their goodbyes and Romeo discreetly leaving before her parents walk into Juliet’s bedchamber.
Once Romeo leaves and Juliet’s mother and father enter the room, her parents announce that she will marry Paris on Thursday out of duty to quell the sadness that has taken over the family because of Tybalt’s death. Juliet refuses to marry Paris which causes an uproar and her father insults her before exiting, telling her that she will marry Paris.
Later, Paris meets with Friar Lawrence to discuss his wedding. Juliet also happens to be on a trip to visit the friar where she greets Paris very coldly. After he leaves, Juliet discusses her options with the friar and they concoct a plan. Juliet will drink a poison that will mimic signs of death, and when her family finds her, be put in the crypt. The friar will send a letter to Romeo informing him of this and he will meet Juliet after she wakes up where they will run away together.
Juliet returns and talks with her parents about her meeting with Paris and the wedding. Lord Capulet is overjoyed that his daughter is finally complying. Later, Juliet asks her nurse to let her sleep tonight without watch because she wants time to think. Her nurse agrees and lets her be. Shortly after her nurse exits, Juliet ingests the poison.
In the morning, the Capulets are chaotic. Preparations are being made for the wedding and Lady Capulet is busy putting her final touches on everything. A little while before the ceremony is planned to occur, the nurse goes into Juliet’s room to find her appearing dead.
Balthasar, Romeo’s servant, brings him the news the Juliet is dead while he is getting settled in Mantua. Not knowing that this was all a ploy to be with Romeo because the letter from Friar Lawrence has not arrived yet, Romeo is in deep despair and leaves to see his Juliet.
Friar Lawrence is in his cell when he is informed that a plague has hit Verona. Since the city is on lockdown, no one is allowed in or out, which means the letter that he had sent has been handed back to him and Romeo still believes Juliet is dead. The friar, knowing what Romeo will do, rushes to Juliet’s “grave.”
Paris, and his servant Page, go to Juliet’s grave to pay their respects. Not long after they arrive, Romeo and Balthasar show up. Paris becomes angry at Romeo for killing Tybalt and refusing to leave his almost-wife’s grave. They duel and Romeo kills Paris. Once Paris is dead, Romeo uncovers Juliet and admires her beauty. He drinks poison he bought from an apothecary on his trip back to her, causing him to die in her arms moments before Juliet awakens and the friar reaches the young lovers. When she sees Romeo dead, she immediately starts to panic. The friar explains the chain of events and how there was nothing he could do. Juliet asks him to leave and he obliges. After he is out of sight, she kisses Romeo to try and sip any residue the poison might have left behind but ultimately resorts to stabbing herself with a dagger. When the friar returns, he takes in the horrible destruction and leaves to tell each family what has happened. When the prince, Capulets, and Montagues arrive, it is revealed that Lady Capulet has also died. She was in such shock of her daughter dying, that she just dropped dead. In the end, the families end their feud out of respect for their dead children and the curtain closes with the remark of the prince:
“For never was a story of more woe. Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”
It’s a beautiful story and is still very influential even centuries after it was written, but the question is, where did such a powerful story come from? Did it come from the heart of Shakespeare, or was there an inspiration that gave him the means to write? Below are common theories on where the story came from (including my own.)
1. Pyramus and Thisbe
~Summary~
In 8 AD, Roman poet Ovid wrote in his collection of stories called Metamorphoses a tragic tale that has a startling resemblance to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Pyramus and Thisbe were two lovers that had neighboring houses. Their fathers has an ongoing feud and they denied their children a wedding, so they started to talk to each other through the wall. One night, they agreed to meet and express their love for one another near Ninus’ tomb under a mulberry tree. When Thisbe enters the woods, she spots a lion with a bloody mouth presumably from its most recent kill. She flees to avoid confrontation but her cloak is left behind. Later, when Pyramus attempts to enter the woods, he is heartbroken when he sees the bloody cape all torn up, assuming that something has killed Thisbe. He falls on his sword, a common way and commits suicide in Babylon at the time, and sprays blood over the white mulberry leaves. When Thisbe returns to the woods and finds a bloody Pyramus, she stabs herself with the same sword and dies beside him. She also sprays blood on the mulberry leaves, and as tribute to the young lovers, the gods permanently changed the leaves to a blood color.
~Theory~
In a nutshell, the dynamic, as well as the plot is almost identical to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Wikipedia and other sources have led me to believe that Shakespeare drew his inspiration from the old tale and that this is the original end that has turned into a trope. Obviously written thousands of years before Shakespeare was even born and being the most popular Ovid story, the tale was not only written before Romeo and Juliet, but was loved for millenniums and it would make perfect sense to put a spin off a story that had already fared well.
2. Dante’s “Divine Comedy” Epic Poem
Dante was an Italian poet who was born in Florence, Italy. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is likely to have been born in the year 1265 and died on Sep 14, 1321. Dante was a poetry and prose writer, literary theorist, and moral philosopher, but is best known for his Divine Comedy epic poem, which took more than ten years to write. Wikipedia and MentalFloss also state in their sources that 250 years before Shakespeare was even born, a tale of two rivaling families in Italy, the Montagues and Capulets, were already being spoken of. In Dante’s epic poem, he writes:
“Come and see, you who are negligent, /Montagues and Capulets, Monaldi and Filippeschi: / One lot already grieving, the other in fear. / Come, you who are cruel, come and see the distress / Of your noble families, and cleanse their rottenness.”
Although it is unknown whether Shakespeare knew that this famous Italian poet had already coined Romeo and Juliet’s story in his own poems, because of the level of prestige that Dante held in the literary world, it is very unlikely that Shakespeare had not read this famous work of art and decided to use his poems for a muse.
3. Arthur Brooke’s “The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet”
In 1562, Arthur Brooke, an English poet, also wrote about the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Because the story was written before Shakespeare’s version, and the stories are practically identical except for wording, this is known as evidence that The Bard was not the brilliant mastermind behind the famous tale. And because Arthur Brooke wrote his own version only thirty-five years prior to when Shakespeare wrote his, it is very likely that he used this modern piece of work to put his own spin on the tale of Romeo and Juliet. In Shakespearian times however, it was very common to change and even steal other works of art or literature to one’s liking, so it was not seen as a crime that he changed the story around. It is my theory, as well as Wikipedia and many scholars such as Charles Hall Grandgent, that Shakespeare was very much aware of Brooke’s work.
4. Marriotto and Gianozza
Romeo and Juliet is said to be based on a true story. Some say that it was based on the Guelphs and Ghibellines, but another poet- Masaccio Saleritano- claims that the story, all but the death scene, happened in his own town of Siena, Italy. In the 33rd section of II Novelino, Masaccio’s poetry masterpiece, he claims to have recorded a love affair that ended tragically prior to his story. The plot is the same as Shakespeare’s, all but the ending, where Marriotto is executed for murdering a socialite, and his lover, Gianozza, dies from sadness and despair afterward. Masaccio is said to have written the original story, but whether there was a real-life Romeo and Juliet will forever be buried in history.
~My Personal Theory~
Cleopatra and Mark Antony were the first inspirations for the story beloved throughout history.
In 69 BC, Cleopatra was born to the Egyptian ruler Ptolemy XII Auletes and his wife Cleopatra V. Cleopatra was studious as a young child and was exceptionally bright. In 51 B.C, after her father was killed, Cleopatra (18), and her brother, Ptolemy XIII (10), took the throne. During her time of reign, she made alliances with many important rulers and men that were placed at the top of the social hierarchy. Using her wit and beauty, she seduced many of these important figures including Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Tensions were high as queen, and all her siblings were also trying to take the throne from her hands, including her husband and brother, Ptolemy XIII. She was soon run out of her empire by many different factors under the fear of her murder and execution. Octavian, a leading cause in Cleopatra’s “exile” was closing in on her, but she knew that if she helped Octavian, then he just might let her children live. So, as the strategic ruler she was, she then sent word to Antony, addressing her fake suicide, knowing that Antony would follow in her lead. Antony’s last words were the following:
“O Cleopatra, I am not distressed to have lost you, for I shall straightaway join you; but I am grieved that a commander as great as I should be found to be inferior to a woman in courage.”
While he was dying, Cleopatra sent for him to be brought to her. She saw what she had done, and tried to reason with Octavian, but there was no hope. Later, she committed suicide via a poisonous snake. She had snuck the snake past Octavian’s guards and had been dead for minutes by the time he realized what had happened.
Overall, the story is very similar to the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet, but could very likely have been the original muse and story. Look to the following to read three characteristics that fill holes in the other theories of where the famous lovers might have come from.
- The story was famous and well known by the prominent, and even some of the poor because of the wealth and power that Cleopatra had possessed. Unlike some of the other tales that did not gain traction until long after they were written, the deaths of the young lovers and rulers was heard of worldwide and the news spread as quickly as it could have in 30 BC.
- It would have happened long before any of the written tales of Romeo and Juliet had been written. No other version is accounted to be told even close to the time of Cleopatra and Antony’s deaths.
- The ending scene, the most famous and distinct scene is told almost exactly the way it is told in every other Romeo and Juliet story down to the fact that Cleopatra faked her suicide. However, unlike in Pyramus and Thisbe, Thisbe is just assumed to be dead, but the way that Cleopatra faked her suicide should be noted.
- Even if the love between the two was not forbidden by their parents, they were forced apart by almost everything and everyone they encountered. It was very unique for its time, especially since marrying for love was very rare. Dying for love was almost nonexistent.
You can also see this theory in the links below:
Whatever the origins of Romeo and Juliet may be, it still does not diminish Shakespeare’s version in the least. Not only is his tale the most well-known, but he brought something to Britain and the western world that might have remained imbedded in European history forever. We must remember that the Bard was not the original poet that tried to emulate the downfall of two lovers, but that he played a major role in distributing the story to a larger group of people and gave a new perspective to the tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet.
