Romeo and Juliet As previously mentioned, Romeo and Juliet was written around 1595 and it was one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays. Nevertheless, there is little standarisation with regard to the date when the author finished this play, on the grounds that some critics argue that it was on 1597 whereas others claim that it was, in fact, on 1595. To the best of my knowledge, I am inclined to believe that the latter is more accurate, due to the fact that the similarities that this tragedy has with the aforementioned play are remarkable. Contrary to popular belief, Shakespeare’s most famous play is by no means original, although the theme of tragic and forbidden love is almost always associated with the British playwright. Apart from Pyramus and Thisbe, it is often alleged that Shakespeare’s most important source for this play was The tragicall Historye of Romeus and Iuliet, a poem written by Arthur Brooke. Nevertheless, Shakespeare also found inspiration in The Palace of Pleasure, a book that gathers Italian short stories written by William Painter. Yet the aforementioned works have something in common, which is the fact that both of them are based on Matteo Bandello’s Giulietta e Romeo. (Mabillard) As a consequence of the Italian origin of this play (from both Bandello and Ovid) Shakespeare decided that his story should be settled on Verone, a city in the north of Italy. To a certain extent, Shakespeare is truth to his sources, because although he added