Romeo and Juliet

A photo of the Capulet and Montague crests

The Montecchi and Capuleti were real, rival families in 13th and 14th-century Italy, who were written about in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy as examples of feuding factions during a time of political conflict between the Guelphs and Ghibellines. The Guelphs were those in support of the papacy and the Ghibellines were people in support of the Holy Roman Emperor during the circular power struggle. 

A photo of Thisbe listening through the wall

The play also originated from the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, from Ovid's Metamorphoses. The story involves two young lovers from Babylon whose families opposed their relationship, and who communicated through a crack in a shared wall. They planned to elope, but a series of tragic misunderstandings led to their separate suicides beneath a mulberry tree. This story bears plenty of resemblance to the famous one by Shakespeare. 

A cover of The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet

Another inspiration that Shakespeare took was with the The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet, which was a poem by Arthur Brooke published in 1562. It shares many of the plot points of Shakespeare's later work, but there are notable differences. Brooke's story also unfolds over several months, while Shakespeare makes the story much shorter, fitting it into an audience friendly time of four days. Also, in the poem's ending, the nurse is banished, the apothecary is hanged, and Friar Laurence leaves Verona while Shakespeare's play focuses solely on the families' reconciliation and doesn't bother with the extra details.

A photo of a performance of Romeo and Juliet by Long Beach Playhouse

Romeo and Juliet itself was first published in three quartos ranging from 1597-1623. The scene is set in Verona, Italy, where Romeo and Juliet fall in love instantly during a masked ball. The couple, forbidden to be together by their rivaling families, try to live out their love story in secrecy, only for it to end in tragedy and their respective suicides. The story is a look at the tragedy and quick passion of teenage love, spawning the famous literary trope "star-crossed lovers," which is explicitly mentioned in the beginning. This trope describes a relationship that is doomed to fail due to circumstances beyond the lovers' control, often involving external forces like feuding families, societal barriers, or fate itself. The play is also the inspiration for other famous works, such as Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, which is a ballet by Prokofiev.