Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)

For works with similar titles, see Romeo and Juliet.

Versions of
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, a drama by William Shakespeare, written sometime between 1591 and 1596, first published in 1597. The legend upon which it is founded first appeared in Naples in 1476. It appeared in English in 1562 in The Tragicall Historye of Romeo and Juliet by Arthur Brooke, which furnished the main foundation for this drama. The legend has often been chosen for operatic purposes. The best opera based upon it is that by Gounod, which first appeared in 1867. —"Romeo and Juliet," in The New Student's Reference Work, Chicago: F.E. Compton and Co. (1914)

Versions of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet include:

An 1870 oil painting by Ford Madox Brown depicting the play's famous balcony scene

Scholarly editionsEdit

Romeo and Juliet, from The Plays of William Shakespeare, in eight volumes, vol. VIII, with notes by Samuel Johnson (1765) (external scan)
"Romeo and Juliet" in The Illustrated Shakespeare (1847)
Romeo and Juliet, edited by Francis Bernard Dicksee (1884) (transcription project)
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, edited by Edward Dowden, The Works of Shakespeare, The Arden Shakespeare, 1st ser. (1900)
Romeo and Juliet, published by the University Society (1901) (transcription project)
Romeo and Juliet, in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Vol. VII, Oxford edition (1911)
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, edited by Robert Adger Law (1913) IA
The most excellent and lamentable tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, edited by Willard Higley Durham, The Yale Shakespeare (1917)

FoliosEdit

The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet, from a facsimile copy of the First Folio (1623)

QuartosEdit

Q4 (1623) The Most Excellent And Lamentable Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet (transcription project)

Other editionsEdit

Abridgements and retellings include:

Lamb, Charles; Lamb, Mary (1809), "Romeo and Juliet" in Tales from Shakspeare.