A tragedy by William Shakespeare about two “star-crossed lovers” whose passionate love for each other ends in death because of the senseless feud between their families. The line “Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?” is well known.

The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, commonly referred to as Romeo and Juliet, is a play by William Shakespeare concerning the fate of two young lovers who would do anything to be together. It is, perhaps, the most famous of his plays and is thought to be the most famous love story in Western history.

The play begins with a 14-line prologue 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 chorus also tells how the tragic suicide of the lovers "[buries] their parents' strife," ending the conflict.  

Useful Links:

• 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
• Romeo and Juliet - plain vanilla text from Project Gutenberg
• Romeo and Juliet - HTML version at MIT
• Slashdoc : Romeo and Juliet - Scholarly essays on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
• The history of the story at OperaWorld.com
• Analysis of Romeo and Juliet at Theatrehistory.com

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