Romeo and Juliet (Modern Library Classics)

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Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare: The Animated Tales)

by William Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate (Editor), Eric Rasmussen (Goodreads Author) (Editor)

3.73 · rating details · 628,471 ratings · 5,721 reviews

In a society dominated by religion and bound by ties of strict family loyalty, two teenagers are trapped by their secret love. As a dangerous vendetta spills onto the streets, the young lovers are forced to risk all to be together in Shakespeare’s fast-paced tragedy of thwarted love.

Under the editorial supervision of Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen, two of today’s most ac...more

Paperback, 240 pages

Published August 25th 2009 by Modern Library (first published 1597)

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Mar 22, 2010

Madeline rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: shakespeare, assigned-reading

Romeo and Juliet, abridged.

ROMEO: I’m Romeo, and I used to be emo and annoying but now I’m so totally in luuuuurve and it’s AWESOME.

MERCUTIO: Okay, three things: One, there’s only room in this play for one awesome character and it’s me, bitch. Two, you’re still emo and annoying. Three, didn’t you say that exact same stuff yesterday about Rosaline?

ROMEO: Who?

*meanwhile, Juliet prances around her room and draws hearts on things and scribbles “Mrs. ...more

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Feb 14, 2010

Elizabeth rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: in-theater, tam-lin, elizabethan-my-dear, in-by-of-england, 2010, reviewed, in-italy

If there is one thing we can learn from this play, it is that men should not be allowed to walk around with swords; they just get into fights. It’s too easy to draw them at the ~~smallest~~ (forgive me) slightest provocation. In fact, it seems to happen every time a handsome young man appears to provoke them. Hm. Is this whole play really about repressed homosexuality? Where is Oscar Wilde when you need him? Although it probably is not; it is a good justification for the Elizabethan equivalent of gu...moreIf there is one thing we can learn from this play, it is that men should not be allowed to walk around with swords; they just get into fights. It’s too easy to draw them at the ~~smallest~~ (forgive me) slightest provocation. In fact, it seems to happen every time a handsome young man appears to provoke them. Hm. Is this whole play really about repressed homosexuality? Where is Oscar Wilde when you need him? Although it probably is not; it is a good justification for the Elizabethan equivalent of gun control. All these loose swords around and pretty soon there's a body on the ground and someone is in trouble and now it’s going to end badly for everyone.

I’ve always been ambivalent about this play so I’m going to try extra hard not to sound like a bitter old hag as I write about it. It may be hard though, because no matter how wonderful the language is, somehow all I hear is the whining. There’s Juliet weeping on the floor. Then there’s Romeo weeping on the floor, but that’s only after he is first swooning over one girl and then swooning over another. In my head, he sounds like Mark Hamill in the first (the real first) Star Wars film; remember when he said to his uncle that he wanted to go into town, but instead he had to help out at the farm? That voice. It’s really hard to take someone seriously when he sounds like that.

I’m falling into a nasty trap here. Shakespeare even comments on it in this play. We have a cultural belief that true love somehow emasculates a man. Being captivated by a woman makes him reluctant to wield his sword when it comes to a fight, and he is mocked by his posse for his failure. So I’m a bit annoyed with myself for the Mark Hamill voice. Why not Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca) or Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride)? No, somehow it doesn’t work. It’s still more like Ethan Hawke in Hamlet.

And that’s not really fair. The long speeches, beginning with the wonderful one about Queen Mab, all the way through, are familiar and wonderful. The imagery is fantastic. The little bit that it’s not a lark but a nightingale, lovely. Maybe it’s that the play is too familiar? It is something like Casablanca in a way. When you hear certain lines, it’s jarring, because they weren’t clichés when they were said here. It’s only the repetition that has made them so familiar, and so strange. Maybe it’s all the years of badly-acted balcony scenes that makes it ridiculous when reading it now? I’ve actually seen both the ballet and two different opera versions of this story and they don’t bother me this way. The central story is tragic: a love story that works out initially only to fall apart because of societal pressures (banishment is definitely a societal pressure) and familial disapproval. Who hasn’t been through that in their life at some point? Perhaps not at thirteen (seriously icky Shakespeare honey) but at some point, for everyone, it happens. The relationship you thought was going to be wonderful fell apart because of money or travel or religious or cultural differences, before you discovered that it wasn’t going to work because of his snoring or the way his slurped his tea or his tendency to slay your cousins in the street. No relationship is perfect, of course, but the ones that really hurt if they don’t work are the ones in which you didn’t have the chance to build a list of grievances.

So this play should get more from me than ambivalence. It does say something important, even in the whiny Luke Skywalker voice, and it’s my own fault if I fail to take note or to appreciate it. It’s beautiful in its sorrow and that should be respected. But I’m still going to giggle about the swords.
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Feb 26, 2010

Kelly rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: poets, and young, angsty people

Shelves: theatre, brit-lit, shakespeare, 1500-1700, mawwiageiswhatbringsustogethertoday, grand-opera

"Hey! I'm eatin' here!"

So you're at a nice outdoor cafe one day, eating your lunch, and all of a sudden some damn fool kids come running through the square with their swords out (apparently they've got some strong Second Amendment advocates in Verona) and insist on skewering each other right there in front of you in the square! And seriously all you want to do is just eat your (damn fine, not that anyone asked you) pasta and get back to work before your lord finds some excu...more

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Aug 27, 2008

Nate rated it

· review of another edition

I'm not sure what annoys me more - the play that elevated a story about two teenagers meeting at a ball and instantly "falling in love" then deciding to get married after knowing each other for one night into the most well-known love story of all time, or the middle schools that feed this to kids of the same age group as the main characters to support their angst-filled heads with the idea that yes, they really are in love with that guy/girl they met five minutes ago, and no one can st...moreI'm not sure what annoys me more - the play that elevated a story about two teenagers meeting at a ball and instantly "falling in love" then deciding to get married after knowing each other for one night into the most well-known love story of all time, or the middle schools that feed this to kids of the same age group as the main characters to support their angst-filled heads with the idea that yes, they really are in love with that guy/girl they met five minutes ago, and no one can stop them, especially not their meddling parents!

Keep in mind that Juliet was THIRTEEN YEARS OLD. (Her father states she "hath not yet seen the change of fourteen years" in 1.2.9). Even in Shakespeare's England, most women were at least 21 before they married and had children. It's not clear how old Romeo is, but either he's also a stupid little kid who needs to be slapped, or he's a child molester, and neither one is a good thing.

When I was in middle school or high school, around the time we read this book, I remember a classmate saying in class that when her and her boyfriends' eyes met across the quad, they just knew they were meant to be together forever. How convenient that her soulmate happened to be an immensely popular and good-looking football player, and his soulmate happened to be a gorgeous cheerleader! That's not love at first sight, that's lust at first sight. If they were really lucky, maybe as time went on they would also happen to "click" very well, that lust would develop into love (it didn't), and they would end up together forever (they didn't). But if they saw each other at a school dance, decided they were "like, totally in love," and then the next day decided to run off and get married, we shouldn't encourage that as a romantic love story, we should slap the hell out of them both to wake them up to reality.

For what it's worth, my cynicism doesn't come from any bitterness towards life or love. I met my wife when we were 17, and we've now been together almost 10 years, married for a little over 2. Fortunately for me, she turned out to be awesome. If we had decided the day after meeting each other that we were hopelessly in love and needed to get married immediately, we would have been idiots, and I hope someone who I trusted and respected would have slapped me, hard. If we were 13 at the time, that would be even worse. Enlightened adults injecting this into our youth as a classic love story for the generations, providing further support for their angst-filled false ideas of love and marriage, is probably worst of all.(less)

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Mar 02, 2007

Matt rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Honestly, who doesn't like a love story?

How someone can go and get two degrees in English and not read Romeo and Juliet, I have absolutely no idea. Why I would take it upon myself to read Shakespeare when I’m under no obligation, I’m afraid only fellow writers and lit geeks will understand.

It’s among the best-known stories in history, even for people who’ve never come within a mile of the Bard’s plays. Two lovers are kept apart by their feuding families. They must thus pursue their love in secret. But it’s not called The T...more

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May 30, 2011

Kira rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: People who get Shakespeare

Recommended to Kira by: My good friend Stephenie Meyer

The original whiny love story gets ~~screwed over~~ the Twilight treatment. Who knew?

Aside from the cover butchery, this is a good solid book, but not one of Shakespeare's best. I grew up with Macbeth (I've been in the damn thing three times and read it five) and it remains my everlasting favorite. Romeo and Juliet? Not so much.

Why?

Because it's one of the most gravely misunderstood stories in the history of ever. Over the years it's been warped more than Hercules ...more

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May 21, 2010

Bird Brian rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: literature-other

Background Info (you can skip this part)

Shakespeare according to "RedBook"
A magazine at the dentist's office says romantic relationships can be broken into three categories, based on progressive levels of emotional maturity:
The least mature are founded on 1) mutual physical attraction ...basically high school "puppy love". If that's all the relationship has going for it, it is fated to fail.

The next step up are relations based on 2)shared intere

...more

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Apr 12, 2011

Michael rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: graphic-novels, review

Quite a more happy marriage of Shakespeare's text and Manga visuals than the titular couple enjoy. This sort of venture is excellent for intriguing young minds to the bard's plays. It isn't the full text mind you, but what does appear is pretty much untampered with. Although the visuals represent a Japanese cast of characters playing out a modern day Tokyo Yakuza rivalry it doesn't distract too much from the power of Shakespeare's wordplay. Manga visuals are an excellent medium for representing ...more

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Jun 14, 2007

Sarah rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classics, plays

The first time I read Romeo and Juliet (my freshman year of high school), I hated it. I had always heard it built up as a great love story, a great romance- and I didn't see it at all. To me, it seemed a pretty pointless story about a couple of idiotic teenagers in lust. The ridiculous essays I was forced to compose about it certainly didn't help.

My senior year of high school, however, my drama teacher selected it as our spring play. I was stage manager, and I was horrified when ...more

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Oct 23, 2011

Judith rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: give-me-the-flamethrower, unpredictable, fail

I was thinking the other day and decided, "Hey! Why don't I write up a review for the world's possibly most effed up play ever. Why not?" So I'm going to. As you can probably tell this will not be eloquently written and in fact, I do not give a flying purple monkey about the romanticism behind the idiocy that went down that one week in Verona, (It all happened in on week!), because this play has bothered me since forever and it isn't about to change now! On with the review!

...more

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Aug 27, 2011

Simona Bartolotta rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classici

Ahimé, perché Amore, di aspetto così gentile è poi, alla prova, così aspro e tiranno?

Giulietta e Romeo, Romeo e Giulietta. Chi non li conosce? Chi non conosce la loro struggente storia d'amore e di morte?
Tutti li conoscono, ma quasi tutti con superficialità.

Oh Romeo, Romeo, perché sei tu Romeo?

E la storiella finisce là. Si amano, le famiglie non approvano, si uccidono pur di stare insieme.
Eh no, signori!
Ci sono dietro vicende di famiglie che si odiano, profondame...more

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Feb 14, 2011

Cinnamon rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classics, historical-fiction, own, 2011, read-for-school, reviewed, 3★-fairly-intriguing

This review may also be found on A Thousand Little Pages.

Two words: Epic. Fail.

Seriously, I was expecting so much. This is Romeo and Juliet we're talking about here. It's only the best known romance in the history of English lit, right?

OK, I digress. The next generation might just consider Twilight to be the best known romance of all time. Shame on them. Such poor, misguided souls...

I thought R&J's ages caused all their interactions to take on an almost la...more

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Oct 25, 2007

Colva rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: romantics of every description

I was told I could learn everything I needed to know about life from "Romeo and Juliet". The play doesn't stand out in my mind in terms of plot or motivation, however the whole thing is worth paying a great deal of attention to because of a handful of speeches. Most notably, Mercutio's "queen mab" speech,

O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an...more

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May 25, 2008

Sally Linford rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: all

Recommended to Sally by: Stepheine Meyer!

Let's talk for a minute about why I would give 5 stars to this awful story. I just need to step back 25 years. I first read this when I was in junior high (just the age of our star-crossed lovers), and I absolutely loathed it. Unfortunately, I didn't just simmer quietly about it--I loathed this LOUDLY, openly in my English class. Everyone got to hear about just how stupid these people were.

Being their age, I would never have behaved so badly--meet, marry, suicide in a weekend? P...more

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Mar 28, 2011

Dana rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: for-school

Let me just say, I had to read this for school. This changes my opinion a lot. (I mean, why do we have to take READING CHECKS on it?! And learn terms like "soliloquy" and "aside"?? That just totally ruined it.)

Well, the whole story was cute and sweet and yada yada yada. But, it's SO ANNOYING how there's "miscommunication" throughout the entire book. Yeah yeah, I Know that that's one of the problems, but it REALLY bugs me. I just wanted to go "OMG, W...more

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Apr 05, 2011

Malak Alrashed rated it

· review of another edition

Since I was a young girl my mother used to tell me about Qays and Layla, Romeo and Juliet and all these kinds of tragic love stories that show how can people be completely out of their minds when it comes to love. They would hurt themselves, or even kill themselves for reasons that might seem entirely nonsense, but it's love! The mystery that changes everything and everyone.

Romeo and Juliet is doubtlessly the most famous love story of all the times and I'm aware of this, but there ar...more

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May 09, 2009

Xi rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 9th-grade-advisory

A familar title, Romeo and Juliet is a heart-breaking story about a pair of "star-crossed" lovers. This is an inspiring literature written in Elizathen age. Because of the ancient grudge, two households, capulet and montague are separated from the world with the hatred sword, otherwise blood. Until Romeo Montague and Juliet capulet's love becomes the key to open up the peace.
Receiving also requires giving, Romeo and Juliet give out their lives to persuit their forbi...more

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Apr 21, 2008

Michele rated it

· review of another edition

If you haven't read this yet...I just don't understand why not!

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May 28, 2008

Brian rated it

· review of another edition

How does one critique Shakespear? I can't therefore I won't.

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Aug 13, 2011

Serena rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2007

Growing up, I often heard of this Romeo and Juliet others spoke so fondly of. I grew curious and wondered what kind of love this couple could have possibly experienced in order to become such fixtures for others to idolize and fawn upon. I read it for the first time in grade 8 for fun and it was a sleepy experience. I was rather impatient with Shakespeare's rhymes and prose so I escaped with the general outline of the story.

Grade 10 was when my class read it and it was also when my ...more

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Mar 26, 2009

Emily rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Emily by: For School

Shelves: plays, school

Romeo and Juliet the classic and revered romance book by many a generation and many people, it is a household book that pretty much anyone can tell you at least part of the plot. There are books and several movies based on this book, people still preform this play and it's author is one of histories best. Everyone who reads it love the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet the star crossed lovers. All this leads to the thought, well this must be and AMAZING book. I beg to differ. Romeo was a spi...more

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May 21, 2009

Carly rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: EVERYONE

Shelves: 2008, 2009

Some people think Shakespeare is too old, outdated and overrated. However, when I can read something for the 14th time, and STILL find new things in it? Obviously that means the author did something right.

The themes that appear in this play: love, suicide, hate, and revenge being some of them are very relevant to the youth of today. The feud between the Capulets and the Montagues is one that mirrors that of gangs in modern times. And it's interesting that I can lead students thro...more

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Mar 25, 2008

Megan rated it

· review of another edition

I had to think a bit about Laura's question regarding whether I like this story because it's Shakespeare or if there was more to it.

This was my introduction to Shakespeare, so that is surely part of it. But I also love the stories that stick with me and, although I'm not one for suicide over lost love - I've never been that melodramatic, even in my most melodramatic of heart wrenching teenage years - I definitely remember what it was like to have hormones intensifying every emotio...more

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Feb 10, 2008

♥Apollo-s.Dark.Eden_. rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: to poetry wrighters and any one willing to take there time to understand the languge

Recommended to ♥Apollo-s.Dark.Eden_. by: Own choise and school

rushing into thing is never does any good. Think things thru. Listen to your gut !and when u have a philosophy on life u should fallow it! Life is like ying-&-yang there is balancey . Dont love hard or too soft.(5th time reading the play and NOW I'm starting to understand!)

ignore the rest(paper for zkool)
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Their deadly love
by: yazmin m. cora
dummer 2nd hour
02~04~08

...morerushing into thing is never does any good. Think things thru. Listen to your gut !and when u have a philosophy on life u should fallow it! Life is like ying-&-yang there is balancey . Dont love hard or too soft.(5th time reading the play and NOW I'm starting to understand!)

ignore the rest(paper for zkool)
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Their deadly love
by: yazmin m. cora
dummer 2nd hour
02~04~08

There are 32,622 young adults that commit suicides every year, these young adults or teens think that killing themselves is the only way to solve their problems, when they haven’t thought things through, much like Romeo and Juliet. This paper will be about how things are fickle or preventable, if someone would have changed something or wouldn’t have done one thing, because even the smallest thing could have saved Romeo and Juliet, things could have been different. In the play The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, the main characters are Romeo and Juliet. This play is about how their deaths are preventable. The play is set around Romeo and Juliet and how they fall in love, and that their love leads them to their deaths. After a series of unfortunate events that lead to their deaths, not only their choice affects the play but other characters choices and their own fate.
This paragraph is about some of Romeo's and Juliet's choices that lead to their own deaths. If they would have thought things through the play wouldn't have ended the way it did. For example, if Romeo would have listed to himself and didn’t go to the party, the play wouldn't carry on like it did, he had like a sixth sense about something bad starting to happen at that party, "And my mind misgives some consequnce yet hanging in the stars shall bitterly begin this fearful date...And expire the term of a dispised life."
Another example would be that Romeo's and Juliet's families where enemies, if they would completely realized and understood that, the play wouldn't have end in death. Juliet partly realized this and said, "My only love sprung from my only hate." Romeo also said, “My life is my foe's debt." Romeo’s and Juliet’s impetuous decisions affected the play a great deal; Juliet said this by telling Romeo, “Too rash, too unadvised, too sudden… it’s too like lightening that ceases to exist ere you can say it lightens.” Making better disions would have allowed Romeo and Juliet not to die the way they did, but other people choices still affects their life and this play.
Romeo and Juliet are not the only ones who do things that cause their own down fall. Other characters also contributed to the events that cause the play to end in the suicide-deaths. If Friar Lawrence didn’t marry Romeo and Juliet, things wouldn’t have gone down like they did. The only reason the Friar married them both was because he thought he could fix the feud between the two families with Romeo’s and Juliet’s love, to show this Friar Lawrence says “In one respect I’ll they assistant be; For this alliance may so happy prove to turn your households’ rancor to pure love.” Another person that effects the play is Tybalt, if Tybalt grew up and takes responsibility then he isn’t looking for Romeo and doesn’t get killed , but Tybalt holds it in vain and says “ I will withdraw but this intrusion now seeing sweet shall turn to bitterest gale." And Tybalt still blames Romeo, for his own embarrassment at Lord Capulet's party and says again "Boy this shall not excuse the injuries thou hast done me; therefore turn and draw.", after Romeo tries to make up and say sorry to Tybalt. My last example is if Lord Capulet would have married off Juliet off to Paris earlier, Juliet would have more of a chance she wouldn’t have meet Romeo, and things would have been different. These characters also are responsible for the play's ending the way it does. However there is one more element that the plays a part: fate. The prologue tells us these are "star-crossed" lovers and Juliet’s begs fortune to be fickled, unfortunately fate is too fickle and changes for the worse.
There are three dispoining signs that fate isn’t on Romeo's and Juliet's side, one is when Friar John couldn’t deliver the letter to Romeo saying that Juliet’s death is staged. The reason Friar John couldn’t deliver the letter, was because health officials of Verona wouldn’t let him Friar John leave Verona because they thought he was carrying a deadly desises. Friar John tells this to Friar Lawrence," I could not send it. Here it is again." The second example is when Balthasar see's Juliet "lied low" but Balthasar doesn’t know Juliet is faking her death for 42 hours to run away with Romeo, "Then she is well and nothing can be ill. Her body sleeps in Capels' Monumenty and her immortal part with the angels lives. I saw her laid low in her Kindrd's vault." the last example is: timing. If Romeo would have listened to Balthasar and waited till fore there notice, he wouldn’t have bought the poison and later drank it so quickly! Or even if he was a couple minutes or seconds late he would have more of a chance not killing himself. Or when he noticed that Juliet looked alive with her lips and cheeks"(quote)" But nothing worked, Romeo drank the poison seconds before Juliet woke up.
In this paper we talked about how the suicides of Romeo and Juliet was fickle and it their fate and their own and others action to cause it all, and that it all was fickle or preventable. If Romeo listed to his gut and didn’t go to the party then he wouldn’t have meet Juliet and Friar Lawrence wouldn’t have married them both and Romeo wouldn’t have bought the poison to kill himself moments before Juliet wakes to then kill herself. One can tell that suicides can be prevented and that if someone did something, this all wouldn’t have happened. Not doing or doing something in ones life is all the matter. Prevent at least one of those 32,622 teens that commits suicide every year.

(^:! The End !:^)

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Apr 19, 2007

Kelly rated it

· review of another edition

Problem D
Romeo & Juliet !
Input: Standard Input
Output: Standard Output
Time Limit: 2 seconds

In this problem we will discuss the problems of a modern Romeo and a modern Juliet. You are asked to solve their problems so that they don’t have to be a tragic pair like that of Shakespeare’s. As usual the family of Romeo and Juliet have hostile relationships and so they are locked up in two different places M and N. Two cannons are placed in location A and ...more

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May 21, 2008

Stephanie rated it

· review of another edition

Like most people, I read it in junior high school and pretty much hated it. Ugh, what horrid memories it brings back - having to listen to other adolescents who really have no background knowledge or interest read aloud from the text with no cadence or feeling (other than "thank God that's over" when the teacher calls on someone else) But it is really fun to go back to these pieces now and have the time and experience and understanding to look at all the wonderful layers Shakespeare wo...more

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Nov 21, 2009

Kelly rated it

· review of another edition

If Romeo and Juliet was a piece of modern literature, it would have been an epic fail in my book (sad to say that there are books that sound like this published last year! Eeek!). But the timeless language of Shakespeare can only be condoned by a brave reader, which was not I, but this novel/play encouraged me to read the romance I was afraid of. Not the swooning maiden on the cover wrapped in the arms of a buffish, half-naked man kind of romance though, true romance that comes from the heart ...more

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Jan 01, 2011

Terence rated it

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Shelves: shakespeare-stuff, the-plays-the-thing

I'd probably have a higher opinion of Romeo and Juliet if I hadn't had to teach it every semester to my Freshman English classes for 3 years.

But even second-rate Shakespeare is first rate English prose.

____________________

Having just finished reviewing Stanley Wells' Shakespeare, Sex, and Love and rereading Romeo and Juliet, I have to reassign this play to the Bard's first tier. Like any good crit-lit, Shakespeare, Sex, and Love exposes a "tired old warho...more

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Dec 01, 2008

Amy rated it

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Shelves: shakespeare, plays

As a high school student, I hated Romeo and Juliet. I thought their actions too melodramatic, and because I didn't believe in love at first sight, I found the entire play deficient. The entire tragedy, in my teenage eyes, occurred because of their parent's feud. Now I realize that the play wasn't lacking, I was. The headstrong passions of youth contributed to their demise as much as the family enmity. The plot derives strength from this, and story joined with beautiful language--Shakespeare perf...more

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Apr 11, 2011

Melanie Monnier rated it

· review of another edition

I think Romeo and Juliet could have been more meaningful. It might seem for awhile that getting married that quickly is romantic, but they don't even know each other. I also don't like all of the death and bloody suicide that happens during the play. It had some good parts. The language was very beautiful, and the loyalty was refreshing.

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About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. Hi...moreWilliam Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and in 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.
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Trivia About Romeo and Juliet

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Quotes from Romeo and Juliet

“My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.” — 995 people liked it

“These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triump die, like fire and powder
Which, as they kiss, consume” — 729 people liked it

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