The legend of Romeo and Juliet predates Shakespeare’s version by almost a century. The first known written version was by Masuccio Salernitano in 1476, followed by Luigi da Porto and Mateo Bandello. Shakespeare likely used these works to create his famous play.
While Shakespeare’s tale of Romeo and Juliet is the best known version of this story, it is by no means the original. The legend of these two star-crossed lovers is actually nearly a century older than Shakespeare’s work. Like many playwrights of his day, Shakespeare used bits of older legends and tales to create his version of Romeo and Juliet. While the original source of this tale is uncertain, the novelist Masuccio Salernitano is remembered as the first author to put this story into words around 1476. He was followed by several other Italian authors, who changed names and characters, gradually evolving the plot and story that Shakespeare played for Queen Elizabeth I.
Masuccio Saleritano published the earliest known story of Romeo and Juliet as the 33rd section of his work Il Novelino. In his story Romeo and Juliet were called Marriotto and Gianozza. The basic plot of the story is the same as Shakespeare’s except for the death scene at the end. Marriotto is executed for killing a member of the noble class and Gianozza, his secret love, dies of desolation and sadness. Saleritano claimed that this same story occurred in Siena, Italy, not long before he described it in words. Whether that’s true or not remains a mystery.
The next person to take up the tale was Luigi da Porto, who published his version of the story around 1530. Da Porto changed the names of the characters to Romeus and Juliet and incorporated such characters as Mercutio, Tybalt and the two feuding families. Not long after the publication of Da Porto’s story, Mateo Bandello wrote another version of the story. Historians say that many of Shakespeare’s plays were based on Bandello’s writing, and Romeo and Juliet are no exception to this pattern. Shakespeare also never visited Italy, so the source of this story could not come from Shakespeare’s experiences, unless he changed the time and place where the story occurred.
There were many other authors to revive the tale of Romeo and Juliet before Shakespeare undertook to make it immortal. Arthur Brooke, an English poet, published the Tragic Tale of Two Lovers in 1562, and it was the first recorded version of the story to be set in English. William Painter renewed the story again in 1582, closely followed by Lopa de Vega, who published a Spanish version of the story eight years later. Shakespeare came across the tale in the early 1590s, finishing and producing the play by the mid-1590s. It is probable that he used the works of Brooke and Painter, together with Banadello, to enrich the tale and create his famous play of him.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
