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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by

HENRY N. HUDSON

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington

COPYRIGHT, 1908

BY KATE W. HUDSON

810.2

The Athenæum Press
GINN & COMPANY. PRO-
PRIETORS BOSTON. U.S.A.

INTRODUCTION.

Borrowed Matter.

THE STORY W ROMEO AND was

HE story which furnished the ground-work of THE

TRAGEDY OF ROMEO AND JULIET was exceedingly popular in Shakespeare's time. The original author of the tale as then received was Luigi da Porto, whose novel, La Giulietta, was first published in 1535. From him the matter was borrowed and improved by Bandello, who published it in 1554. Bandello represents the incidents to have occurred when Bartholomew Scaliger was lord of Verona; and the Veronese, who believe the tale to be historically true, fix its date in 1303, when the family of Scaliger held the government of the city.

The story is next met with in the French version of Belleforest, and makes the third in his collection of Tragical Histories. These were avowedly taken from Bandello. Some of them however vary considerably from the Italian; as, for example, in this piece Bandello brings Juliet out of her trance in time to hear Romeo speak and see him die; and then, instead of using his dagger against herself, she dies of a broken heart; whereas the French orders this matter the same as we have it in the play.

The earliest English version of the tale that has come down to us is a poem entitled The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, written by Arthur Brooke, and published in 1562. This purports to be from the Italian of

Bandello; but it agrees with the French version in making the heroine's trance continue till after the death of her lover. In some respects, however, the poem has the character of an original work; the author not tying himself strictly to any known authority, but drawing somewhat on his own invention. I say known authority, because in his introduction to the poem Brooke informs us that the tale had already been put to work on the English stage. As the play to which he refers has not survived, we have no means of knowing how the matter was there handled.

In 1567, five years after the date of Brooke's poem, a prose version of the same tale was published by William Paynter in his Palace of Pleasure, a collection of stories made up from divers sources, ancient and modern. This is merely a literal translation from the French of Belleforest, and by no means skilfully done, at that; though the interest of the tale is such as to triumph over the bungling workmanship of the translator.

These two are the only English forms of an earlier date than the tragedy, in which the story has reached us. But the contemporary notices of it are such and so many as to infer that it must have been a popular favourite. This popularity was doubtless owing in a large measure to the use of the story in dramatic form. We have seen that the matter had been set forth on the stage before the publication of Brooke's poem. That so great and general a favourite should have been suffered to leave the stage after having tried its strength there, is not probable; so that we may presume it to have been kept up on the boards in one form or another, till Shakespeare took it in hand, and so far eclipsed all who had touched it before, that their labours were left to perish.

Whether the Poet availed himself of any earlier drama on the subject, is not known. Nor, in fact, can we trace a connection between the tragedy and any other work, except Brooke's poem. That he made considerable use of this, is abundantly certain from divers verbal resemblances, as well as from a general likeness in the matter and the ordering of the incidents. Perhaps I ought to add, that in sentiment, imagery, and versification the poem has very considerable merit, and, on the whole, may take rank among the best specimens we have of the popular English literature of that period. It is written in rhyme, the lines consisting alternately of twelve and fourteen syllables.

History of the Play.

The tragedy was first printed in 1597, and copies of that date are still extant. It is evident from certain internal marks, that this edition was surreptitious, or at least unauthorized. The authorship is not stated in the title-page; but we have the words, "As it hath been often, with great applause, publicly played." The next issue of the play was in a quarto pamphlet dated 1599, with the following on its title-page: "The most excellent and lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, newly corrected, augmented, and amended. As it hath been sundry times publicly acted by the Right-Honourable the Lord Chamberlain's Servants." The same text was reprinted in the same form in 1609, and again at a later period, which however cannot be ascertained, the edition being undated. The play reappeared in the folio of 1623.

Of course the Poet would hardly have undertaken to rewrite the play, had he not supposed he could make impor

tant changes for the better. Accordingly the second issue is a decided improvement on the first. How much the play was augmented is shown in that the text of 1597 is not quite three-fourths as long as that of 1599. And the difference of the two copies in respect of quality is still greater; while the changes are such as hardly to consist with the old notion of the Poet having been a careless or a hasty writer. For instance, the speech of Juliet on taking the sleeping-draught, and also that of Romeo just before he swallows the poison, are mere trifles in the first copy as compared with what they are in the second. The improvement in these cases and in many others is such as may well cause us to regret that the Poet did not carry his older and riper hand into some parts of the play which he left unchanged.

The date more commonly assigned for the writing of the tragedy in its original form is 1596. This allows only a space of about two years between the writing and rewriting of the play; and I fully agree with Knight and Verplanck that the second issue shows such a measure of progress in judgment, in the cast of thought, and in dramatic power, as would naturally infer a much longer interval. And there is one item of internal evidence which would seem to throw the original composition as far back as the year 1591. This is in what the Nurse says when prattling of Juliet's age: "'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years; and she was wean'd"; which has been often quoted as a probable allusion to the earthquake that happened in England in the Spring of 1580, and "caused such amazedness among the people as was wonderful for the time." But arguments of this sort are very apt to pass for more than they are worth; and the most that I should affirm, with much confidence, is

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