Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet

Shakespeare wrote ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in 1592 but he obtained much of his material form earlier sources. People often wonder whether the story of Romeo and Juliet is true. In thirteenth-century Italy there were two Italian families, the Montecchi and the Capelletti, but the Montecchi lived in Verona and the Capelletti lived in Cremona, sixty miles away. The story of two young lovers from opposing families was very popular in Italian and French myths and folktales. Shakespeare based ‘Romeo and Juliet’ principally on Robert Brooke’s ‘The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet’ (1562) which is a poem that found inspiration in a French translation of a story by the Italian writer Matteo Bandello.
The story of Romeo and Juliet is about two young lovers from opposing families. They are not allowed to be together and in the end their love is so strong that they would rather kill themselves than live their lives apart.
At the time when Shakespeare wrote the play, current even...