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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
The only known source of Romeo and Juliet is Arthur Brooke's poem on Romeus and Iuliet. It is the general opinion that Shakespeare's few deviations from his original concern almost exclusively the minor characters. My purpose is to call attention to four changes in the rôles of important characters, and to compare these changes with the original version of Luigi da Porto.
page 68 note 1 Professor Hardin Craig writes: “… it cannot be shown that Shakespeare had any other source than Brooke.”—Shakespeare, A Historical and Critical Study (Chicago, 1931), p. 111. See Arthur Brooke, Romeus and Iuliet, edited by P. A. Daniel (L., 1875), New Shakespeare Society, Series III, No. 1.—Brooke's poem is a close adaptation of the prose version first published in 1559 by Pierre Boaistuau: XVIII Histoires Extraktes des oeuvres Italiennes de Bandel, et mises en langue Françoise … Les six premieres par Pierre Boisteau, surnommé Launay, natif de Bretaigne. Les douze suivans, par Franc. de Belle Forest, Comingeois. Lyons, 1578, No. 3, folios 37v–77r. The principal source of Boaistuau for the third tale of his collection is the novella published in 1554 by Matteo Bandello: La sfortunata morte di dui infelicissimi amanti che l'uno di veleno e l'altro di dolore morirono, con vari accidenti.—Matteo Bandello, Le Novelle, edited by Gioachino Brognoligo, II, Bari, 1910, Scrittori d'Italia series, pp. 370–408. Boaistuau seems also to draw directly from Luigi da Porto's novella, Giulietta e Romeo, first edition, no date; second edition, 1535; reprinted by Cino Chiarini in his Romeo e Giulietta: La Storia degli amanti veronesi nelle novelle italiane e nella tragedia di Shakespeare (Florence, 1906), 1–42; and from Adrien Sevin, le Philocope de Messire Iehan Boccace Florentin, Paris, 1542, folios III–V. See H. Hauvette, Une variante française de la légende de “Roméo et Juliette,” Revue de littérature comparée, i, 3 (1921), 329–337; and my own article on “le Rôle de Boaistuau dans le développement de la légende de Roméo et Juliette,” Revue de littérature comparée, ix, 4 (1929), 638–642.
page 68 note 2 See especially the excellent discussion by Robert Adger Law, On Shakespeare's Changes of his Source Material in “Romeo and Juliet,” University of Texas Bulletin No. 2926, Studies in English No. 9 (1929), pp. 86–102.
Professor Law observes on p. 87: “So far as I am able to perceive, the only important action by either one of the lovers not found in Brooke is Romeo's slaying of Paris in the final scene. With the minor characters it is generally different.”
page 68 note 3 … in casa di messer Antonio Cappelletti, … molte feste si fecero e di giorno e di notte, ove quasi tutta la città concorreva. Ad una delle quali una notte (com' è degli amanti costume, che le lor donne, siccome col cuore così anco col corpo, purchè possano, ovunque vanno seguono) un giovane de' Montecchi, una sua crudel donna seguendo, si condusse.—C. Chiarini, op. cit., p. 6.
page 69 note 4 Brooke, op. cit., ll. 53–150. Cf. especially ll. 137–148:
Ere long the townishe dames/together will resort:
Some one of bewty, fauour, shape,/and of so louely porte:
With so fast fixed eye,/perhaps thou mayst beholde:
That thou shalt quite forget thy loue,/and passions past of olde.
The yong mans lystning eare/receiude the holesome sounde,
And reasons truth yplanted so,/within his head had grounde:
That now with healthy coole/ytempred is the heate:
And piecemeale weares away the greefe/that erst his heart dyd freate.
To his approued frend,/a solemne othe he plight:
At euery feast ykept by day,/and banquet made by night:
At pardons in the churche,/at games in open streate:
And euery where he would resort/where Ladies wont to meete.
page 69 note 5 Romeo and Juliet, iii. ii. 87–89.
page 69 note 6 Ibid., ll. 105–106.
page 69 note 7 Romeo and Juliet, iii. i.
page 69 note 8 … ove combattendo Romeo, e alla sua donna rispetto avendo, di percuotere alcuno della sua casa si guardava. Pure alla fine essendo molti de' suoi feriti, e quasi tutti della strada cacciati, vinto dall' ira, sopra Tebaldo Cappelletti corso, che il più fiero de' suoi nemici parea, d'un solo colpo in terra morto lo distese;… —C. Chiarini, op. cit., p. 14.
page 69 note 9 Bandello, op. cit., ii, p. 382; Boaistuau, op. cit., fo. 51v.
page 69 note 10 And then at Romeus hed,/a blow he strake so hard,
That might haue cloue him to the brayne/but for his cunning ward.—Brooke, op. cit., ll. 1019–20. Cf. ll. 1022–34.
In l. 1030 Brooke says: “When he him shope, of wrong receaude/tauenge himself e by fight.” Here the idea, however, is personal vengeance, amounting to self-defence; not vengeance for fallen comrades, as in Luigi da Porto's novella.
page 70 note 11 Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. Scene i, l. 133.—Professor Law observes that this change of motive accords with the “rule” of Senecan tragedy. (Op. cit., in a discussion of Shakespeare's changes in the character of Mercutio.) It should not be forgotten, however, that a good case has never been established for the direct influence of Seneca on Shakespeare. See John W. Cunliffe, The Influence of Seneca on Elizabethan Tragedy (London and New York, 1893), reprinted (New York, 1907), 66–67; F. L. Lucas, Seneca and Elizabethan Tragedy (Cambridge, 1922), 122, etc.
page 70 note 12 Cf. R. A. Law, op. cit., pp. 93–94, who discusses this change in connection with his analysis of the character of the Nurse.
Critics have generally overlooked the alteration made by Shakespeare in the Nurse's part in the scene where Juliet, learning of the death of her kinsman Tybalt at the hand of Romeo, flames into fury against her husband, then relents. Her sudden transition from an abusive to a sympathetic attitude remains unexplained in Brooke's poem. (Brooke, op. cit., ll. 1113–40; Boaistuau, op. cit., folios 54r–54v).
Shakespeare applies better psychology than Brooke, and at the same time amplifies the rôle of the Nurse. At first his Juliet rails against Romeo (iii. ii. 73–74). Presently the Nurse interrupts, criticizing all men in general, and Romeo in particular. She concludes: “Shame come to Romeo!” (l. 89) Immediately Juliet rushes to her lover's defence, replying: “Blister'd be thy tongue/For such a wish! he was not born to shame”: (ll. 90–91).
In this manner, what in Brooke's poem is merely a soliloquy of Juliet with a capricious change of mood, becomes in Shakespeare's play the natural reaction of the heroine to the criticism of the Nurse.
In Brooke's poem there is an earlier soliloquy of Iuliet which occurs shortly after her first meeting with Romeus. First she fears that he does not really love her. Then she changes her mind because of his handsome looks:
/in no wise can it bee,
That where such perfet shape/with pleasant bewty restes,
There crooked craft and trayson blacke/should be appointed gestes.—ll. 406–408. Shakespeare seems to have had this earlier scene in mind when he has Juliet say to the Nurse: “Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit”; (iii. ii. 92).
page 70 note 13 Ed essendo la quadragesima, la giovane un giorno fingendo di volersi confessare, al monisterio di Santo Francesco andata, … —C. Chiarini, op. cit., p. 13.
page 70 note 14 Onde lieta oltra modo con la madre
Dopo 'l prandio la Giulia entra in cammino, … —
Clizia: L'infelice Amore dei due felicissimi amanti scritto in ottava rima da Clizia, nobile veronese ad Andréo Suo, ii, stanza 9. The poem was published by Alessandro Torri in his Giulietta e Romeo (Pisa, 1831), pp. 149–193.
page 71 note 15 Venuto il venerdí, come dato era l'ordine, madonna Giovanna che era madre di Giulietta, presa la figliuola e le sue donne, andò a San Francesco.—Bandello, op. cit., ii, 381.
page 71 note 16 Boaistuau, op. cit., folios 49v to 50r.
page 71 note 17 Brooke, op. cit., ll. 721–722.
page 71 note 18 I'll to dinner; hie you to the cell.—Romeo and Juliet, ii. v. 78.
page 71 note 19 Romeo and Juliet, ii. ii. 33–53.
page 71 note 20 when euery shining starre
Had payd his borrowed light,/and Phebus spred in skies
His golden rayes, which seemd to say,/now time it is to rise.
And Romeus had by this/forsaken his wery bed.—Brooke,
op. cit., ll. 434–437.
page 71 note 21 /by Iuliets house he past,
And vpward to her windowes high/his gredy eyes did cast:
His loue that looked for him/there gan he straight espie.
With pleasant cheere eche greeted is;/she followeth with her eye
His parting steppes, and he/oft looketh backe againe,—ibid., ll. 439–443.
page 71 note 22 Impacient of her woe,/she hapt to leane one night
Within her window, and anon/the Moone did shine so bright
That she espyde her loue,/her hart reuiued, sprang;—Ibid., ll. 467–469.
Note also the following divergences in language between Shakespeare and Brooke:
Jul. If they do see thee, they will murder thee.
Rom. Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye
Than twenty of their swords: look thou but sweet
And I am proof against their enmity.—ii. ii. 70–73.
Brooke accords with Shakespeare here only for Iuliet's speech:
What if your dedly foes/my kynsmen, saw you here?
Lyke Lyons wylde, your tender partes/asonder would they teare. —ll. 493–494.
Romeus replies (ll. 499–516) merely that he is willing to lay down his life for his lady. There is no hint that his chief danger lies in unrequited love, or that, once freed from this danger, he need no longer fear his enemies. Luigi da Porto, who is again much closer to Shakespeare than Brooke, seems clear on these points:
E se voi ci foste colto, disse la donna, non potreste voi morirci di leggieri? Madonna, rispose Romeo, sì bene che io qui potrei agevolmente morire; e ci morrò di certo una notte, se voi non mi aiutate. … Voi potete credere, che più non si possa bramar cosa, di quel ch'io voi di continuo bramo; e perciò, quando a voi sola piaccia d'esser così mia, com'io d'esser vostro desidero, io il farò volentieri; nè temo che alcuno mi vi tolga giammai. … —C. Chiarini, op. cit., p. 10.
page 72 note 23 Ed egli massimamente sì de' vaghi costumi di lei acceso si era, che quasi tutta la notte con grandissimo pericolo della sua vita, se stato vi fosse trovato, dinanzi alla casa dell' amata donna solo si stava; ed ora sopra la finestra della sua camera per forza tiratosi, ivi, senza ch'ella o altri il sapesse, ad udirla parlare si sedea, ed ora sopra la strada giaceva.—Ibid., p. 9. In Bandello's novella, it is not clear whether Giulietta sees Romeo or not:… stando per ¡scontro a la finestra sentiva pur talora la sua innamorata parlare.—Bandello, op. cit., ii, 377.
page 72 note 24 Events which in earlier versions were relegated to the middle or end of the story are often foreshadowed in the first act of Shakespeare's play, with a corresponding development of minor rôles. For instance, the character of Tybalt appears in Brooke's poem only once—at the time of his last and fatal battle. Shakespeare introduces him in the first act, giving us a foretaste of the young man's prowess by his duel with Benvolio, and by his threatened brawl with Romeo at the Capulet ball. The projected marriage of Juliet to Court Paris, which in earlier versions is discussed only towards the end of the story, is forecast by Shakespeare in two scenes of the first act. Here are introduced also the elder Capulets and Montagues. In earlier versions, the Montagues appear for the first time after the death of Romeo, while the Capulets can scarcely be said to be introduced before the time of Juliet's marriage. Count Paris himself, whom Brooke mentions by name only late in the narrative, has a speaking rôle in the first act of Shakespeare's play. (i. ii. 1–37.)
page 72 note 25 Brooke, op. cit., ll. 597–600.
page 73 note 26 Romeo and Juliet, ii. iii. Brooke's “fryer” finally comes to the conclusion that “both the householdes wrath/this marriage might apease.” (l. 609) The conclusion is reached, however, only after a long argument and much “earnest sute,” (l. 607) and is not spontaneous as in Shakespeare's play.
page 73 note 27 Il padre di ciò contento fu, sì perchè a Romeo niuna cosa avrebbe senza suo gran danno potuta negare, sì anco perchè pensava, che forse per mezzo suo sarebbe questa cosa succeduta a bene: il che a lui di molto onore sarebbe stato presso il signore ed ogni altro, che avesse desiderato queste due case veder in pace.—C. Chiarini, op. cit., pp. 12–13.
page 73 note 28 Maurice Jonas is convinced that Shakespeare was totally unacquainted with the novella of Luigi da Porto. He promises: “In a subsequent volume I intend analysing these two versions, and then it will be clearly shown that Shakespeare followed this poem (= Arthur Brooke) and this poem only.”—Maurice Jonas, Romeo and Juliet: A photographic reproduction of Luigi da Porto's prose version of Romeo and Giulietta dated 1535 (London, 1921), p. xxxii. (Cf. pp. xxvii–xxxi). So far as I have been able to discover, the projected volume of proof has never appeared.
page 73 note 29 I leave out of account the shortening of time which Shakespeare introduces for dramatic effect.
page 73 note 30 E. K. Chambers, Shakespeare: A Survey (London, 1925), p. 72. The phrase is taken from Coleridge.
page 73 note 31 Harley Granville-Barker, Prefaces to Shakespeare, Second Series (London, 1930), p. 14.
page 74 note 32 “Though I saw the same argument lately set foorth on stage with more commendation, than I can looke for:…”—Arthur Brooke, op. cit., p. 4.
page 74 note 33 Cf. Ludgwig Fränkel, Untersuchungen zur Stoff = und Quellenkunde von Shakespeares “Romeo and Juliet,” Leipzig dissertation (Berlin, 1889), p. 14, note; G. Lanson, Études sur les origines de la tragédie classique en France, Revue d'histoire littéraire de la France, x (1903), 199 and 206; J. H. White, An Early Performance of “Romeo and Juliette,” Notes and Queries, cliv (1928), 95–96.
The real name of Châteauvieux was Côme la Gambe, and he was “valet de chambre du Roi et de Monsieur le duc de Nemours.” The argument of his play was apparently taken from Bandello, and the last authenticated performances occurred, with musical accompaniment, at Neufchâtel-en-Bray, “les lundy et mardy gras de ladite année 1581,” before a daily audience of more than 3000, who were permitted to enter or leave whenever they liked. An account of these performances is given by Adrien Miton, citizen of Neufchâtel, in his Mémoire, a bad eighteenth century copy of which was edited by F. Bouquet in 1884 for the Société de l'Histoire de Normandie: Documents concernant l'Histoire de Neufchatelen-Bray et des environs.
In 1578 Luigi Groto published his Hadriana. (La Hadriana Tragedia Nova di Luig Groto Cieco d'Hadria, Venice, 1586. On fo. 5r the dedication is dated Nov. 29, 1578). Groto's play is based not only on the novella of Luigi da Porto, but also on the versions of Bandello and others. La Hadriana has sometimes been proposed seriously as a source for certain scenes in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, but the difference in style furnishes an almost insurmountable obstacle to this theory.
page 74 note 34 We need not necessarily side with those unorthodox investigators who contend that Shakespeare traveled in Italy some time during the period 1592–94.
page 74 note 35 I quote from E. K. Chambers, William Shakespeare, A Study of Facts and Problems (Oxford, 1930), 61.