ROMEO Y

JULIETA
An attempt to relate
the drama of
Shakespeare and
other derivatives
from the same
source, that of Lope
de Vega (Castelvines
and Monteses) and
Adriana (1578) by
Luigi Groto,
containing phrases
and images that are
also found in
Shakespeare's
drama, but that they
are only the
Petrarchan
commonplaces in
addition, both
dramas are
The Montagues and the
Capulets, the two main
families of Verona, are
enemies. Romeo
Montecchi old son
attends a masked party
at the Capulets and,
once thought love with
Rosaline, now finds his
true passion is Juliet.
After the party, young
people are inflamed in
mutual love. And, being
under the window of
Juliet, Romeo hears the
night to confess her
love for him, and
obtained his consent to
a secret marriage.
With the help of Friar
Laurence married the
next day. Mercutio,
friend of Romeo,
Tybalt lies, grandson
of Mrs. Capulet,
furious at having
discovered the
presence of Romeo at
the party, Mercurio
and Tybalt quarrel.
Romeo intervenes,
and the challenge of
Tybalt responds with
words that hide the
new family
relationship, and
refuses to fight.
Mercutio is indignant
at such submission
and drew his sword.
Romeo tries in vain to
separate the
contenders, so getting
time to give only to
He was condemned to
exile and the next day,
after having spent the
night with Juliet, Verona
leaves to go to Mantua,
being urged by Brother
Lorenzo, who
understands that that
is the right time to
make their marriage
public. Juliet, forced by
her father to marry
Count Paris and
advised to do so even
by his nurse, who had
previously favored
union with Romeo, be
convinced by that Friar
Laurence agrees, but
drinking the night
before the wedding a
narcotic to make it
seem dead for forty
hours. The monk will
take care of itself tell
Juliet puts into practice the
advice. But the message
does not reach Romeo
because the monk to be
delivered is arrested on
suspicion of infection, but
instead he received news of
the death of Juliet. Buy from
a chemist a powerful poison
and goes to the tomb to see
his beloved for the last time
the entry is to Paris and kills
him in a duel. Then, Romeo,
after kissing Juliet one last
time, drink the poison. Juliet
regains consciousness and
finds Romeo dead, with the
cup still in hand. He realizes
what happened and stabs.
This tragic death is told by
the priest (which came too
late to stop) and the page to
Ha sido advertido muchas
veces por los críticos que
ésta no es una tragedia
en el sentido que lo serán
las grandes tragedias de
Shakespeare, ya que no
brota de los caracteres,
sino que es debida a una
fortuita combinación de
circunstancias externas,
hasta tal punto que en el
siglo XVIII se pudo alterar
el desenlace del drama
haciéndolo feliz. No
obstante, la concepción
de Shakespeare resulta
trágica por las mismas
imágenes con que opera,
ya que en ellas muestra
su visión de la historia de
los dos enamorados en su
rápida y fatal belleza, casi
This view is projected on a
background of artificial
"Italianate" which is the same
as the first plays of
Shakespeare (Two Gentlemen
of Verona, Love's Labor Lost).
Of all the Shakespearean
drama, Romeo and Juliet is the
most rich in metaphors, in the
words of Romeo, even more
than in Shakespeare's sonnets,
we find the influence of
conventional notions of the
forerunners of the Baroque.
But the artificiality, rather than
being just a pleasant
decoration, as in the plays of
John Lyly and Robert Greene,
makes a tone most pathetic
human history that surrounds
them, and anguish and death
are no less real and moving to
A love story without end