Romeo and Juliet (1917) Yale/Appendix A
APPENDIX A
Sources of the Play
Although the credulous visitor to Verona may still see the 'tomb of Juliet' and the 'home of Juliet's parents, there is little doubt that the tragic story of the two lovers is not based upon historical fact. The essential elements of the tale have been traced as far back as a fifth century Greek romance, but the story as we know it took shape in Italy, where it was told by more than one author of the sixteenth century. Of these versions the one most directly connected with Shakespeare's play is Bandello's Giulietta e Romeo (1554). This, with some alterations and additions, was translated into French by Boaistuau, who made it the third of his Histoires Tragiques (1559). On this Arthur Brooke based an English poem, The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet (1562), and Painter a prose version published in his Palace of Pleasure (1567). There is also good reason to believe that an English play, now lost, presented the story shortly before 1562. A Dutch play, which has been thought to be an adaptation of this, was made by one Jacob Struijs in 1630. This has come down to us and may give some notion of the lost English original.
Shakespeare, when writing his tragedy, knew and used Painter's prose version, Brooke's poem, and probably the earlier English play. Of the three the poem is the most important source. The alterations which Shakespeare made are profound, affecting the whole tone and structure of the narrative as well as the characterization of individuals; but not infrequently he follows closely the suggestions of the poem, as may be seen by comparing IV. iii. 15–58 with the following passage:
What doe I knowe (quoth she) if that this powder shall
Sooner or later then it should or els not woorke at all?
And then my craft descride as open as the day,
The peoples tale and laughing stocke shall I remayne for aye.
And what know I (quoth she) if serpentes odious,
And other beastes and wormes that are of nature venemous,
That wonted are to lurke in dark caues vnder grounde,
And commonly, as I haue heard, in dead mens tombes are found,
Shall harme me, yea or nay, where I shall lye as ded?
Or how shall I that alway haue in so freshe ayre been bred,
Endure the lothsome stinke of such an heaped store
Of carkases, not yet consumde, and bones that long before
Intombed were, where I my sleping place shall haue,
Where all my auncesters doe rest, my kindreds common graue?
Shall not the fryer and my Romeus, when they come,
Fynd me (if I awake before) ystifled in the tombe?
And whilst she in these thoughtes doth dwell somwhat to long,
The force of her ymagining anon dyd waxe so strong,
That she surmysde she saw, out of the hollow vaulte,
(A griesly thing to looke vpon) the carkas of Tybalt;
Right in the selfe same sort that she few dayes before
Had seene him in his blood embrewde, to death eke wounded sore.
And then when she agayne within her selfe had wayde
That quicke she should be buried there, and by his side be layde,
All comfortles, for she shall liuing feere haue none,
But many a rotten carkas, and full many a naked bone;
Her dainty tender partes gan sheuer all for dred,
Her golden heares did stand vpright vpon her chillish hed.
Then pressed with the feare that she there liued in,
A sweat as colde as mountaine yse pearst through her tender skin,
That with the moysture hath wet euery part of hers:
And more besides, she vainely thinkes, whilst vainely thus she feares,
A thousand bodies dead haue compast her about,
Ano. they will dismember her she greatly standes in dout.
But when she felt her strength began to weare away,
By little and little, and in her hart her feare increased ay,
Dreading that weakenes might, or foolish cowardise,
Hinder the execution of the purposde enterprise,
As she had frantike been, in hast the glasse she cought,
And vp she dranke the mixture quite, withouten farther thought.
Then on her breast she crost her armes long and small,
And so, her senses fayling her, into a traunce did fall.
(The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Iuliet, ed. Daniel, 2361–2402.)