Sources and Inspiration

Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet

In this course, Professor John Roe (University of York) explores Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. We begin in the first module by thinking about the history of the story of Romeo and Juliet and the sources that Shakespeare may have used when writing the play. After that, we consider the influence of Petrarch on the presentation of love and death in the play, before turning in the third module to the famous balcony scene (Act 2, Scene 2) and the character of Juliet more generally. In the fourth module, we think about the importance of sword fighting in the play, before turning in the fifth to the character of Mercutio. In the sixth module, we think about the characters of the Nurse and Friar Laurence, and in the seventh the character of Juliet’s father, Lord Capulet. Finally, in the eighth module, we turn our attention to the final scene in the play and the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.

Note: We used the Arden edition of the play (Third Series, ed. René Weis) unless otherwise specified. Students using a different version of the play may encounter slight differences in both the text and line numbers.

Sources and Inspiration

In this module, we think about the history of the story of Romeo and Juliet, including the sources that Shakespeare may have used when writing the play, as well as some of the more indirect influences on Shakespeare’s presentation of love. In particular, we think about: (i) the several incarnations of the Romeo and Juliet story in Italian, French and English, including the versions of Luigi da Porto, Pierre Boaistuau, Matteo Bandello, William Painter, and Arthur Brooke; (ii) Arthur Brooke’s attitude to the lovers, whom he criticises for their “unhonest desire”, compared to Shakespeare’s more sympathetic treatment; (iii) the portrayal of Mercutio in Brooke’s version of the story, including the strange detail that he has very cold hands; (iv) the influence of Sir Philip Sidney’s sonnet sequence, Astrophel and Stella (1591), on Shakespeare’s presentation of love in the play.