Did Shakespeare Write Romeo and Juliet?

One of William Shakespeare's most famous and most celebrated plays was Romeo and Juliet. Despite its apparent originality and its amazing heart-wrenching injustice, the play Romeo and Juliet actually has deep roots in Italy, where Shakespeare set his version. The original story of Romeo and Juliet has roots in Ovid's Metamorphoses.

A Roman poet named Ovid wrote the Metamorphoses, which was completed in 8 A. D. This book catalogued stories of change in various mythological tales. Much of these changes explained how animals and plants came to be or gained certain characteristics. For example, the eye-like patterns on a peacock's tale are the result of the many eyes of a giant keeping watch over a heifer.

One of Ovid's stories in Book 4 of the Metamorphoses is a tale of Pyramus and Thisbe. These two star-crossed lovers lived in a connect house together but were not permitted by their parents to marry. Through a crack in a wall, they agree to meet under a mulberry tree. Thisbe gets to the tree first and sees a lion with fresh blood on its mouth from a recent kill. Thisbe runs from the lion, but manages to lose her veil. The lion gets blood on the veil and leaves. When Pyramus comes to the tree, he sees Thisbe's bloody veil and assumes her dead. He commits suicide due to extreme grief. When Thisbe returns to the tree, she finds Pyramus's lifeless body and also commits suicide. The blood of the lovers stain the once-white berries of the mulberry tree red.

Sound familiar?

In 1476, a writer by the name of Masuccio Salernitano published a collection of short stories that included a tale about Mariotto and Gianozza. This story includes several of the more familiar characteristics of Shakespeare's beloved play including the friar and potion plot that leads to the oh-so-tragic end.

Several other writers, including Luigi De Porto, who gave the star characters their more modern names, as well as Matteo Bandello added their signature marks before it finally reached the ears (and pen) of the Bard himself.

So, in the end, Shakespeare did not write one of mankind's greatest plays and most depressing tragedies. Instead, he stood on the shoulders of could-be-giants, if they were given the proper chance and credit. Instead, Shakespeare's ability to make these characters come alive on the stage and to bring their story to the largely illiterate masses ensured his fame for the ages.