Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet by Ford Madox Brown

For other uses, see Romeo and Juliet (disambiguation).

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare concerning the fate of two young "star-cross'd lovers". It is one of the most famous of Shakespeare's plays, one of his earliest theatrical triumphs, and is thought to be the most archetypal love story of the Renaissance and indeed the history of Western culture.

Sources

File:Verona01a.jpg

A bronze statue of Juliet below the famous balcony at Villa Capelletti in Verona, Italy

Romeo and Juliet is a dramatisation of Arthur Brooke's narrative poem The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet (1562). Shakespeare followed Brooke's poem closely but enriched its texture by adding extra detail to both major and minor characters, in particular the Nurse and Mercutio. Shakespeare also knew "The goodly History of the true and constant love of Rhomeo and Julietta", a prose retelling of the story by William Painter.

Brooke's poem was not original either, being a translation and adaptation of Giuletta e Romeo, by Matteo Bandello, included in his Novelle of 1554. This was in turn an adaptation of Luigi da Porto's Giulietta e Romeo, included in his Istoria novellamente ritrovata di due Nobili Amanti (c. 1530). This is the version that gave the story much of its modern form, including the names of the lovers, the rival families of Montecchi and Capuleti, and the location in Verona, in the Veneto. However, the earliest-known version of the tale is the 1476 story of Mariotto and Gianozza of Siena by Masuccio Salernitano, in Il Novellino (Novella XXXIII).

Bandello's story was the most famous and was translated into French (and into English by Brooke). It was also adapted by Italian theatrical troupes, some of whom performed in London at the time that Shakespeare was writing his plays. Although nothing is known of the repertory of these itinerant troupes, it is possible that they performed a version of the story.

This story of ill-fated lovers had obvious parallels with similar tales told throughout history, including those of Hero and Leander, Pyramus and Thisbe, Floris and Blanchefleur, Troilus and Cressida, Antony and Cleopatra, Layla and Majnun, Tristan and Iseult, Shirin and Farhad and Hagbard and Signy. Shakespeare was familiar with these stories, some of which were included in his other plays. The tale of Pyramus and Thisbe appears in comic mode in A Midsummer Night's Dream, while the Trojan War lovers, Troilus and Cressida, were given a history play of their own.

Date and Text

Title page of the Second Quarto of Romeo and Juliet (published 1599)

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was published in two distinct quarto editions prior to the publication of the First Folio of 1623. These are referred to as Q1 and Q2.

Q1, the first printed edition, appeared in 1597, printed by John Danter. Because its text contains numerous differences from the later editions, it is labelled a 'bad quarto': the twentieth century editor T. J .B. Spencer described it as "a detestable text, probably a reconstruction of the play from the imperfect memories of one or two of the actors."

The superior Q2 followed in 1599, published by Cuthbert Burby and printed by Thomas Creede. It is a much more complete and reliable text, and was reprinted in 1609 (Q3), 1622 (Q4) and 1637 (Q5). Its title page describes it as "Newly corrected, augmented and amended". Scholars believe that this text was based on Shakespeare's pre-performance draft, since there are textual oddities such as variable tags for characters and "false starts" for speeches that were presumably struck through by the author but erroneously preserved by the typesetter. Q2 contains 800 lines missing from Q1. Q2 also has an interestingly defective stage direction: it reads "Enter Will Kempe" instead of "Enter Peter" in IV,v,102.

The First Folio text of 1623 seems to be based primarily on Q3, with some clarifications and corrections possibly coming from a theatrical promptbook.

The greater part of Romeo and Juliet is written in iambic pentameter. However, the play is also notable for its copious use of rhymed verse, notably in the sonnet contained in Romeo and Juliet's dialogue in the scene where they first meet (Act I, Scene v, Lines 95-108).

Performance history

Romeo and Juliet was a popular play in Shakespeare's lifetime. Gary Taylor measures it as the sixth most popular of Shakespeare's plays, in the period after the death of Marlowe and Kyd but before the ascendancy of Jonson during which Shakespeare was London's dominant playwright.

After the theatres re-opened in the Restoration, Sir William Davenant staged a 1662 production in which Henry Harris played Romeo, Thomas Betterton was Mercutio, and Betterton's wife Mary Saunderson played Juliet. Thomas Otway's adaptation The History and Fall of Caius Marius, one of the more extreme of the Restoration versions of Shakespeare, debuted in 1679. The scene is shifted from Renaissance Verona to ancient Rome; Romeo is Marius, Juliet is Lavinia, the feud is between patricians and plebians; Juliet/Lavina wakes from her potion before Romeo/Marius dies. Otway's version was a hit, and was acted for the next seventy years. Theophilus Cibber mounted his own adaptation in 1744, followed by David Garrick's in 1748. Both Cibber and Garrick used variations on Otway's innovation in the tomb scene.

In 1750 came the so-called "Battle of the Romeos," with Spranger Barry and Susannah Maria Arne (Mrs. Theophilus Cibber) at Covent Garden versus David Garrick and George Anne Bellamy at Drury Lane. Shakespeare's original returned to the stage in 1845 in the United States (with the sisters Charlotte and Susan Cushman as Romeo and Juliet), and in 1847 in Britain (Samuel Phelps at Sadler's Wells).

Henry Irving's 1882 production at the Lyceum Theatre is considered an archetype of his "pictorial" style, placing the action on elaborate sets. Irving hmself played Romeo, and Ellen Terry played Juliet.

In one of the most notable twentieth century performances, staged by John Gielgud at the New Theatre in 1934, Gielgud and Laurence Olivier played the roles of Romeo and Mercutio, exchanging roles six weeks into the run, with Peggy Ashcroft as Juliet.

Characters

The Reconciliation of the Montagues and Capulets (1854) by Frederic Leighton

Ruling house of Verona

• Prince Escalus: Prince of Verona

• Count Paris: Kin of Prince Escalus; desires to marry Juliet.
• Mercutio: Another kinsman of Prince Escalus and friend of Romeo. His name derives from Mercury.

Capulets

• Lord Capulet: Head of the house of Capulet.
• Lady Capulet: Wife of Lord Capulet; wishes Juliet to marry Paris.
• Juliet: Thirteen-year-old daughter of the Capulets; the female protagonist.
• Tybalt: Cousin of Juliet; angry and pugnacious. His nickname of "the Prince of Cats" may refer to the quarrelsome and vicious character of Tybalt the Cat in the fable cycle Reynard the Fox, which would have been well-known to Shakespeare's audience.

Capulet Servants

• Nurse: Juliet's personal attendant and confidante: a comic figure who took care of little Juliet ever since she was an infant.
• Peter: Capulet servant, assistant of the nurse.
• Sampson: Capulet servant; eager to fight the Montagues.
• Gregory: Capulet servant.

Montagues

• Montague: Head of the house of Montague.
• Lady Montague: Wife of Lord Montague
• Romeo: Son of the Montagues; the male protagonist.
• Benvolio: Cousin of Romeo. His name means "good-will".

Montague Servants

• Abram: Montague servant.
• Balthasar: Romeo's personal servant.

Others

• Friar Lawrence: a Franciscan friar and Romeo's confidant; he marries Romeo and Juliet. He makes potions from herbs.
• Friar John: Another friar sent by Friar Lawrence to tell Romeo that Juliet awaits him; fails in this mission.
• Apothecary: Druggist who reluctantly sells Romeo the poison.
• Chorus, who gives the opening prologue and one other speech, both in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet.

Synopsis

Romeo and Juliet by Francesco Hayez

The play begins with a 14-line prologue by a Chorus in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet. The Chorus explains to the audience that the story concerns two noble families of Verona, the Capulets and the Montagues, that have feuded for generations. The prologue also explains that the lovers' tragic suicides "bury their parents' strife."

The action proper starts with a street-battle between the two families' servants. The Prince of Verona, Escalus, finally intervenes with his men. The Prince declares that the heads of the two families will be held personally accountable for any further breach of the peace, and disperses the crowd.

Count Paris, a young nobleman, talks to Capulet about marrying his thirteen-year-old daughter, Juliet. Capulet demurs, citing the girl's tender age, and invites him to attract the attention of Juliet during a ball that the family is to hold that night. Meanwhile Juliet's mother tries to persuade her young daughter to accept Paris' wooing during their coming ball. Young Juliet admits to not having considered marriage, but accedes to her mother's wishes as a dutiful daughter. This scene also introduces Juliet's nurse, the comic relief of the play.

Meantime, Benvolio queries his cousin Romeo, Montague's son, to find out the source of his melancholy. He discovers that it stems from an unrequited love of a girl named Rosaline, (an unseen character). Despite the playful taunts of nobleman and friend Mercutio, Romeo decides to attend the masquerade at the Capulet house, in hope of meeting Rosaline.

Alongside his masked friends, Romeo attends the ball as planned, but falls instead for Juliet, and she with him. In the famous balcony scene, the two eloquently declare their love for each other. This scene contains arguably the most famous line of Romeo and Juliet, "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" spoken by Juliet to the darkness ("wherefore" means "why" not "where" — Juliet is lamenting that Romeo is a Montague, and thus her enemy). The young lovers decide to marry without informing their parents, with the Nurse as an intermediary.

With the help of the Franciscan Friar Lawrence, who hoped to reconcile the two families through their children's union, the two are married that next day.

Events take a darker turn in Act Three. Tybalt, Juliet's hot-blooded cousin, challenges Romeo to a duel for appearing in the Capulets' ball disguised. Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt as they are now kinsmen by marriage, but Mercutio, Romeo's companion, who is also unaware of the marriage, is incensed by Tybalt's insolence and accepts instead. In the ensuing duel, Mercutio is fatally wounded when Romeo tries to intervene. Romeo, angered by his friend's death, pursues and slays Tybalt, then flees.

A grieving Prince proclaims his judgement: he fines the head of each house heavily, and exiles Romeo from Verona, in recognition that Tybalt had first killed Mercutio, who had not only been Romeo's friend but a kinsman of the Prince.

Meanwhile the Capulets had engaged their unwilling daughter to marry Paris in three days' time, threatening to disown her if she does not. The Nurse, once her confidante, tells Juliet she should discard the exiled Romeo and comply.

Romeo at Juliet's Deathbed, by Johann Heinrich Füssli

Juliet visits Friar Lawrence, who comes up with a plan: he hands her a drug which will put her into a death-like coma for "two and forty hours" (Act IV. Scene I); she is to take it and when discovered apparently dead, she will be laid in the family crypt. Meanwhile, the Friar will send a messenger to inform Romeo, so that she can rejoin him when she awakes. The enforced messenge does not reach Romeo, however, due to a plague quarantine. Romeo learns of Juliet's supposed "death" from his servant Balthasar. Grief-stricken, he buys strong poison from an apothecary, returns to Verona in secret, and visits the Capulets' crypt, encountering Paris, who has come to mourn Juliet privately. Paris confronts Romeo, believing him to be a vandal. In the ensuing battle, Romeo kills Paris in the darkness. After burying Paris within the Capulet monument, Romeo says his final words to the comatose Juliet and drinks the poison in suicide.

At this point Juliet awakes. Friar Lawrence arrives, and aware of the tragedies which have ensued from misunderstanding, tries to convince Juliet to leave, but she refuses. Discovering her lover's dead body, she stabs herself fatally with Romeo's dagger.

The two feuding families and the Prince meet at the tomb and are horrified to find three new casualties. A captured Friar Lawrence then recounts the love and secret marriage of Romeo and Juliet, and how the tragedies occurred. It is revealed by Montague that his wife has died of grief after hearing of her son's exile, thus completing the cycle of two family members from each house being lost. The families are reconciled by their children's deaths and agree to end their violent feud, as foretold by the prologue. The play ends with the Prince's brief elegy for the lovers.

Adaptations and cultural references

Plays

Romeo and Juliet statue in Central Park in New York City.

Adaptations of Romeo and Juliet have used modern settings. For instance, a version of the play which had Romeo as a Palestinian and Juliet as a Jew in Israel and the Palestinian territories were made, which criticizes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Similarly, versions have also been devised dealing with apartheid in South Africa, in which Romeo is black and Juliet is white.

A Native American version called "Kino and Teresa" was first produced in 2005 by Native Voices at the Autry in Los Angeles. Written by James Lujan, the historical play was set in 17th Century Santa Fe, seventeen years after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and revolved around the conflict between the Pueblo Indians and Spanish colonists.

Opera

The story was converted into the opera Roméo et Juliette by Charles Gounod in 1867 with a libretto written by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré.

The Romeo and Juliet story was also the subject of Vincenzo Bellini's opera I Capuleti e i Montecchi, although Bellini and his librettist, Felice Romani, worked from Italian sources, and these were only distantly related to Shakespeare's work.

In 2004 American composer Lee Hoiby also adapted Romeo and Juliet to write an opera of the same name.

"Butterfly Lovers", a Chinese Opera, is commonly known as the Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet.

Ballet

Several ballet adaptations of the story have been made, the first written in the 18th century. The best known feature music by Sergei Prokofiev, and a variety of choreographers have used this music. The first version featuring Prokofiev's music was performed in 1938. See: Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev)

Musical

Romeo and Juliet has been adapted in many ways over the years quite subtly. It is the basis for many famous musicals, most famously West Side Story.

The "Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture" (1869, revised 1870, 1880), by Peter Tchaikovsky, contains one of the world's most famous melodies. The tremendously famous love theme in the middle of this long symphonic poem has been used countless times in commercials and movies.

In 1957, the musical West Side Story debuted on Broadway, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. This version of "Romeo and Juliet" updated the setting to mid-20th century New York City and the warring families to ethnic gangs. West Side Story opened on the West End in London in 1958 and then was released as a film in 1961.

In 1999, Terrence Mann's rock musical William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, co-written with Jerome Korman, premiered at the Ordway Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was not a critical success.

Roméo et Juliette, de la Haine à l'Amour, a musical by Gérard Presgurvic, premiered on January 19, 2001 in the Palais de Congrès in Paris, France. By 2005, it had already attracted some six million people.

"Once on This Island" is another musical adaptation that takes on the Romeo and Juliet theme. These star crossed lovers, Ti Moune and Daniel, were fated to love one another even with the pressures of their class and ethnic backgrounds upon them. However, it was only through death that they could be together.

Film

See also Shakespeare on screen (Romeo and Juliet)

Film performances

There have been over forty movie versions of the tale, with the first made in France in 1900. Some of the more notable adaptations include:

1908 - Romeo and Juliet, a silent film made by Vitagraph Studios.

The first American production, it was directed by J. Stuart Blackton, the film starred Paul Panzer as Romeo and Florence Lawrence as Juliet.

1936 - Romeo and Juliet, produced by Irving Thalberg and directed by George Cukor

The 1936 screen version was one of the more notable of Classical Hollywood. Thalberg spared no expense, and showcased his wife, Norma Shearer, in the lead role. Romeo was played by Leslie Howard, John Barrymore was Mercutio, and Andy Devine was Peter, the servant to Juliet's nurse. However, the film was criticized because Howard and Shearer were both considerably older than the scripted roles.

Academy Awards nominations:

• Best Picture - Irving Thalberg, producer
• Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Basil Rathbone - as Tybalt
• Best Actress - Norma Shearer
• Best Art Direction - Cedric Gibbons, Fredric Hope and Edwin B. Willis

1954 - Romeo and Juliet directed by Renato Castellani.

A notable British/Italian production with a colourful setting. The cast includes Laurence Harvey as Romeo, Susan Shentall as Juliet, Flora Robson as the Nurse and Mervyn Johns as Friar Laurence.

1968 - Romeo and Juliet, directed by Franco Zeffirelli

Filmed in Italy, the performance of the young Olivia Hussey as Juliet is a defining feature. It won Oscars for best cinematography and best costume design, and was nominated for Best Director and Best Picture. It also starred Leonard Whiting as Romeo - he was seen as 'the next big thing' in film at the time, but his career did not match up to expectations.

1978 - Romeo and Juliet, directed by Alvin Rakoff

for the BBC Television Shakespeare series. This production is generally unregarded due to its inexperienced stars and low production values, although Alan Rickman's Tybalt is notable.

1983 - Romeo and Juliet, directed by William Woodman

This film features an excellent set of costumes. The cast includes Alex Hyde-White, Blanche Baker, Esther Rolle, Dan Hamilton, and Frederic Hehne.

1996 - Romeo + Juliet, directed by Baz Luhrmann

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the title roles, Luhrmann gave the famous tale a modern setting. The production uses Luhrmann's signature flamboyant color and stylization. Besides the modernization it is notable for significantly tweaking the ending, so that Romeo and Juliet get a final scene alive together.

At the Berlin International Film Festival 1997, it won:

• Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio)
• Alfred Bauer Prize

Academy Awards 1996 nominations:

• Best Art Direction and Set Decoration (Catherine Martin and Brigitte Broch)

1996 - Tromeo and Juliet, directed by Lloyd Kaufman

The Troma team put their own inimitable spin on the story, setting it in Manhattan in a punk milieu. Lemmy from Motörhead narrates.

2000 - Romeo Must Die, directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak

With Jet Li as Han Ling (the Romeo of the story) who is out to avenge his brother's murder. He meets and eventually falls in love with Trish O'Day (the Juliet of the story, played by Aaliyah) who is the daughter of a rival American mob boss. Apart from the main characters being the son and daughter of bitter rivals, the plot has practically nothing to do with Romeo and Juliet the play.

2005 - Romeo & Juliet directed by Dave LaChapelle

Featuring Tamyra Gray as Juliet, Gus Carr as Romeo, and Mary J. Blige, this is a 10-minute promotional advertisement for the H&M clothing company. Released in September 2005, this commercial was shown online (H&M website) and during the trailers of certain theatrical films, and featured the new "&denim" selection. In this musical remake which features background music provided by Tamyra Gray and Mary J. Blige (both songs are from the musical Dreamgirls), Romeo is gunned down in a drive-by shooting and Juliet sings over his body while he bleeds to death on the street. Due to complaints that the commercial glamorized gang violence and was H&M's attempt to use gun culture to sell their jeans to teenagers, H&M subsequently withdrew the ad from Canadian & U.S. markets and issued an apology.

2005 - O Casamento de Romeu e Julieta, directed by Bruno Barreto.

This is a Brazilian adaptation of the text that is actually a romantic comedy set amid a bitter soccer rivalry. It is about two rival soccer clubs, the Palmeiras and the Corinthians. It is set in Sao Paulo with various twists and divergences from the original Romeo and Juliet story. Directed by Bruno Barreto and staring Brazilian actress/model Luana Piovani and Marco Ricca.

2006 - Romeo and Juliet, directed by Yves Desgagnés.

This is a Canadian, québecois adaptation. The two principal roles are played by the newly discovered actors Thomas Lalonde and Charlotte Aubin, who were both chosen during auditions. It was due for release on 15 December 2006.

Film adaptations

• The film West Side Story was released in 1961 following the success of the musical on stage in New York and London. It was set in a 1960s New York City gang culture and was loosely based on the story of Romeo and Juliet, with the Montagues becoming the Jets and the Capulets becoming the Sharks.
• The film West Bank Story set, unsurprisingly, in the contemporary West Bank is a musical comedy parody based on West Side Story. West Bank Story won the 2006 best Live Action Short at the Academy Awards (Oscars).
• The film Shakespeare in Love is a fictional account of how Shakespeare writes the play against the clock inspired by his love for a noble woman. The movie also describes the start of Twelfth Night, inspired by the same woman's ultimate fate.
• Love Is All There Is, starring Angelina Jolie and Lannie Kazan, is a comedic take on the tragic story. It takes place in the Bronx, New York and involves two Italian immigrant families who own opposing restaurants. The two families hate each other and have tried to run each other out of business for years. When their children secretly fall in love, the families are forced to deal with it. Instead of the tragic Shakespearean ending, the movie makes the story a bit more light-hearted.

Television

The Canadian-produced animated television special Romie-0 and Julie-8 (1979) is a science fiction adaptation of the play, recasting the lead characters as robots.

The 2005 television movie "Pizza My Heart" is also based on Romeo and Juliet. This story takes place in Verona, New Jersey and is centered around the lives of two feuding pizzeria owners, the Prestolanis and the Montebellos.

The Japanese animation studio Gonzo has adapted Romeo and Juliet into an anime television series entitled Romeo x Juliet, the very first of its kind. Set in a dystopian world on a supernatural, aerial city known as Neo Verona, the series premiered from April 2007.

Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo - Though the “story” does not bear much resemblance to that of the original Shakespearean play, the characters and outcome are quite similar. The characters in both the play and the film (Romeo and Juliet and Admira and Boško) simply want to live their lives and be allowed to love one another, yet are tragically prevented from doing so, instead succumbing to an untimely death.

Trivia

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• Romeo and Juliet in music
  • The 1956 song Fever contains the lyrics "Romeo loved Juliet/Juliet, she felt the same/When he put his arms around her/He said, "Julie baby, you're my flame."
  • Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo is the name of a song from Eric Bogle's 1997 album Small Miracles, presumably inspired by the above documentary.
  • The disco group Festival had a minor hit with a song called "Romeo and Juliet" which used as its lyrics the text of the prologue.
  • Arctic Monkeys' song 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor contains the lyrics 'Oh there ain't no love no, Montagues or Capulets/Just banging tunes in DJ sets'
  • Madonna's 1989 album Like a Prayer's third single, Cherish, a song about appreciation towards a lover, has a line that says "Romeo and Juliet, they never felt this way, I bet."
  • Dire Straits' 1980 album Making Movies had a popular song "Romeo and Juliet", in which the singer looks back on a failed relationship. It was inspired by Mark Knopfler's broken romance with Holly Vincent. The Indigo Girls covered this song on their album Rites of Passage.
  • The album Romeo Unchained by Tonio K includes a song called "Romeo Loves Jane", describing a romance between well-known fictional characters (perhaps as a satire of celebrity relationships). Another song, "Impressed", includes Romeo and Juliet in a long list of what the singer considers bad examples of how love should work.
  • The Lou Reed song, "Romeo had Juliette" was included on the 1989 album New York.
  • The 2003 musical remake of Reefer Madness featured a song "Romeo and Juliet" in which a pair of young lovers compare themselves to Romeo and Juliet, having only read the first half of the play, and mistakenly assume the ending to be happy.
  • The Radiohead song "Exit Music (For a Film)" was written for the closing credits of the Baz Luhrmann version. The lyrics describe a Romeo-like character entreating his sleeping lover to run away, inspired by Act III.
  • The Delta Goodrem song "I Don't Care" contains the lyrics "they tried to keep Romeo and Juliet apart..."
  • The Blue Öyster Cult song "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" mentions Romeo and Juliet as being "Together in eternity".
  • The song Ampersand by The Dresden Dolls, in which the singer rebuffs her former lover, features the lines "and I may be romantic, and I may risk my life for it/but I ain't gonna die for you/you know I ain't no Juliet."
  • The band Genesis uses the names Romeo and Juliet for characters in the song 'The Cinema Show' from their album Selling England by the Pound
  • The Big Audio Dynamite 1985 album This is Big Audio Dynamite has in the song "The Bottom Line" a reference to Romeo (as well as a reference to the famous soliloquy in Hamlet).
  • The Ash song "Starcrossed" is a reference to Romeo and Juliet.
  • The Bob Dylan song "Desolation Row", from the 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited, contains the lyric "And in comes Romeo, he's moaning..."
  • The American band The Reflections reference the play in their song called "(Just Like) Romeo & Juliet" which has been covered by Sha Na Na and the Australian band Mental As Anything.
  • HIM frontman Ville Valo has stated their song "Join Me in Death" was inspired by Romeo and Juliet.
  • The Bon Jovi song "I'd Die For You" contains the lyrics "In a world that don't know Romeo and Juliet".
  • Danish musician Sebastian has a song on the album Dejavu, entitled Romeo. The first line goes (translated from Danish): "There's something about this scene reminding me of Romeo and Juliet."
  • The My Chemical Romance song Our Lady of Sorrows off their debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, contains the line "...and die like star-crossed lovers when we fight...". Their song The Sharpest Lives also mentions the two in the line "Juliet loves the beat and the lust it commands, drop the dagger and lather the blood on your hands, Romeo."
  • The Sponge Cola song Gemini from their debut album Palabas is the theme song of the Metropolitan Guild Theater's Romeo & Juliet, as seen in its music video.
  • The Semisonic song "Singing in my Sleep" alludes to the infamous balcony scene in the lines "I've been living in your cassette / It's the modern equivalent / Singing up to a Capulet on a balcony in your mind."
  • The A Change of Pace song "Prepare the Masses" from the album of the same name is about Romeo and Juliet. "Sing me to sleep tonight/sweet Juliet/two star-crossed lovers marry looking for regrets/by daybreak I'll be gone and searching for your kiss/leave me a drop of poison waiting on your lips."
  • The Reflections reached #6 on the pop charts in the summer of 1964 with the song "(Just Like) Romeo & Juliet".
  • An Escape the Fate song called "Not Good Enough for Truth in Cliché" where the chorus reads: "...finger in the trigger to my dear Juliet. / Out from the window see her back drop silhouette, / This blood on my hands is something I cannot forget..."
• In games
  • The game The Sims 2 includes a neighborhood, Veronaville (a parody of Verona) in which two characters named Romeo Monty and Juliette Capp fall in love. The neighborhood's story is a parody of the play itself, including the feud between the Monty (Montague) and the Capp (Capulet) families.
  • In the card game Magic: The Gathering, a card called Dark Banishing displays a quote from Romeo and Juliet:

Ha, banishment? Be merciful, say 'death,'

For exile hath more terror in his look,

Much more than death.

• • The Konami game Silent Hill 3 contains a puzzle with excerpts from five tragedies, including Romeo and Juliet. The player must identify which tragedy each quote is from and thereby arrange books in a particular order.
  • In the MMORPG World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, in a dungeon named Karazhan, one of the three possible play based boss encounters features two bosses with names slightly altered from Romeo & Juliet's.
  • In the popular online game RuneScape, one of the non-member quests is based on the story of Romeo and Juliet.
• In film and television
  • Sea Prince and the Fire Child (1981), an anime movie by Sanrio (based on a story by Sanrio founder, Shintaro Tsuji), was inspired by Romeo & Juliet (the main scharacters are from different races, sea spirits and fire spirits).
  • Romeo x Juliet is a 2007 anime based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juiliet.
  • In the anime Shakugan no Shana, Shana, the main female character recites two lines from Romeo and Juliet in English. The lines were That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet.
  • Immediately following the end credits in certain episodes of Tiny Toon Adventures, Plucky Duck would say "Parting is such sweet sorrow!"
  • There was an episode of DuckTales entitled Bubbeo and Juliet.
  • Mario and Joliet, an episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!.
  • One of Ranma 1/2 episodes was about a school play "Romeo and Juliet"
  • In the "School Play" episode of Hey Arnold!, Arnold's class puts on the play Romeo and Juliet, with Arnold as Romeo and Helga as Juliet.
  • A brief mention of the play is made in a Histeria! song about the works of Shakespeare, with Toast and Pepper Mills portraying the title characters.
  • In the musical adaptation of the manga and anime Air Gear, two members of the rival team Bacchus are named Romeo and Juliet. Because of the all male cast, both roles were portrayed by men.
• In literature
  • John "the Savage" quotes Romeo and Juliet to Helmholtz Watson in Aldous Huxley's famous novel Brave New World.
  • In the Harry Potter series, there is a minor Dark wizard with the surname "Montague."
  • A book details the inter-racial difficulties of a teen-age couple and their community controversies, entitled "Romiette and Julio", by Sharon M. Draper.
• Products
  • Two cigar brands exist that bear the Spanish version of the play's title, Romeo y Julieta.
  • Car maker Alfa Romeo one produced a model called the Giulietta (Italian for Juliet)
• Other
  • The NATO phonetic alphabet for J and R are Juliet and Romeo, respectively.

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Romeo and Juliet

• Romeo and Juliet - plain vanilla text from Project Gutenberg
• Romeo and Juliet - Free downloadable audio reading of the play from LibriVox
• Romeo and Juliet summary - Free wiki of scene summaries, character profiles and study questions.
• Romeo and Juliet - HTML version at MIT
• Il Novellino, Novella XXXIII, by Masuccio Salernitano - The electronic text in Italian of the original story (requires free registration)
• Arthur Brooke's Romeus and Juliet
• A history of the Italian sources of Romeo and Juliet
• Essay: How Romeus Became Romeo Comparing Brooke's work with Shakespeare's
• Analysis of Romeo and Juliet at Theatrehistory.com
• Lesson plans for teaching Romeo and Juliet at Web English Teacher

	William Shakespeare and his works
General information	Biography | Style | influence | Reputation | Religion | Sexuality | Shakespearean Authorship Question
Tragedies	Antony and Cleopatra | Coriolanus | Hamlet | Julius Caesar | King Lear | Macbeth | Othello | Romeo and Juliet | Timon of Athens | Titus Andronicus | Troilus and Cressida
Comedies	All's Well That Ends Well | As You Like It | The Comedy of Errors | Cymbeline | Love's Labour's Lost | Measure for Measure | The Merchant of Venice | The Merry Wives of Windsor | A Midsummer Night's Dream | Much Ado About Nothing | Pericles, Prince of Tyre | The Taming of the Shrew | The Tempest | Twelfth Night, or What You Will | The Two Gentlemen of Verona | The Two Noble Kinsmen | The Winter's Tale
Histories	King John | Richard II | Henry IV, Part 1 | Henry IV, Part 2 | Henry V | Henry VI, part 1 | Henry VI, part 2 | Henry VI, part 3 | Richard III | Henry VIII
Poems	Sonnets | Venus and Adonis | The Rape of Lucrece | The Passionate Pilgrim | The Phoenix and the Turtle | A Lover's Complaint
Apocrypha and Lost Plays	Edward III | Sir Thomas More | Cardenio (lost) | Love's Labour's Won (lost) | The Birth of Merlin | Locrine | The London Prodigal | The Puritan | The Second Maiden's Tragedy | Richard II, Part I: Thomas of Woodstock | Sir John Oldcastle | Thomas Lord Cromwell | A Yorkshire Tragedy | Fair Em | Mucedorus | The Merry Devil of Edmonton | Arden of Faversham | Edmund Ironside | Vortigern and Rowena
Other play information	Shakespeare's plays | Shakespeare in performance | Chronology of Shakespeare plays | Oxfordian chronology | Shakespeare on screen | BBC Television Shakespeare | Titles based on Shakespeare | List of characters | Problem Plays | List of historical characters | Ghost characters

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