A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Broke, or Brooke, Arthur
Broke, or Brooke, Arthur (d. 1563).—Translator, was the author of The Tragicall Historie of Romeus and Juliett, from which Shakespeare probably took the story of his Romeo and Juliet. Though indirectly translated, through a French version, from the Italian of Bandello, it is so much altered and amplified as almost to rank as an original work. The only fact known regarding him is his death by shipwreck when crossing to France.