The Beginnings of Romeo and Juliet

Chapter 2: The Beginnings of Romeo and Juliet This chapter explores the beginnings of the tale of Romeo and Juliet, by focussing on its two journeys across Europe (from Italy to England and back to Italy), from its origins up to the mid-nineteenth century. The first section analyses the Italian sources of the story and describes the way through which it reached Shakespeare. The second part of the chapter investigates the early reception of Shakespeare in Italy, while the third section concentrates on how Romeo and Juliet initially reached Italy, and how the play was approached by critics and translators. 1. The Native Italian Tradition of Romeo and Juliet The tale of Romeo and Juliet was originally an Italian story which had appeared in many forms, such as prose narratives, novelle, poems, plays, and circulated throughout the continent before it reached Shakespeare through translations and rewritings. The story first appeared in Italian in print in the fifteenth century and it underwent a process of rewriting, generated imitations and references in literature, also becoming popular in England during Shakespeare’s time. As Brian Gibbons (1998: 32) points out, “the story was well established in the 1580s and Shakespeare may have known it for a number of years before 1591, in more than one version, before he decided to dramatize it.” (see also Levenson/Shakespeare 2000: 15). Two English versions were particularly popular at the time: Arthur Brooke’s poem of 3020 lines entitled The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet written first in Italian by Bandell, and nowe in Englishe by Ar. Br. (1562) and William Painter’s prose story The goodly Hystory of the true, and constant Love between Rhomeo and Julietta, contained in his collection The Palace of Pleasure (1567). In order to construct his plays Shakespeare often used stories from diverse literary traditions along with familiar motifs that were known by his contemporaries.1 He then reinterpreted and rewrote such tales, shaping them to his own ends, taste and public. As Leah Scragg points out, it was contemporary practice in Shakespeare’s time to adapt the works of other writers, as “the creative process during the Renaissance was rooted in the concept of imitation” (2003: 373). Michele Marrapodi also stresses that the theatrical practices of the early modern stage were marked by the recycling of established narratives, genres and dramatic forms. Each Shakespearean text can be sited within a matrix of intertexts, revealing traces of authorial selection, transformation and transcodification of previous material (2000: 16). Reclaiming Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet was thus a form of rewriting and appropriation. As Levenson points out, “the novella changed as it crossed national borders, […] and modifications to the narrative’s content or style locate the Romeo and Juliet story at different cultural sites” (Levenson/Shakespeare 2000: 7). According to various studies (see, for instance, Bullough 1957; Prunster 2000; the English and Italian editions of the play, Mullini 1986) the first extant written version of the story appeared in 1476 by Masuccio Salernitano in his Novellino, a series of short stories or novella (Salernitano 1993, 2000). The main source is Novella XXXIII, which is set in Siena and has Mariotto and Ganozza as protagonists. Despite minor differences, the outline of the plot as we know it is already there. The two lovers are secretly married by a Friar, Mariotto is exiled for killing another man and is sent to Alexandria in Egypt. In the meantime, Ganozza’s father wants to marry her to another man. The girl goes to the Friar, who gives her a potion which will make her seem dead. Ganozza writes to Mariotto, telling him about her plan, then she drinks the potion and is found dead. After her burial, the Friar helps her out of the tomb and they go together to Alexandria, to meet her husband. Unfortunately, because of an attack by pirates the letter never reaches Mariotto, who believes she is dead and decides to go back to Siena, despite the danger of being caught and killed. Once in Siena, he tries to enter Ganozza’s tomb, but he is captured and executed. When Ganozza arrives in Siena and finds out about her husband’s death, she enters a convent and soon dies of grief. Furthermore, it seems that Masuccio Salernitano had already elaborated most of the motifs that are present in Romeo and Juliet. As demonstrated by Roberta Mullini (1986: 54-55), other novelle in the Novellino (especially XXXI, XXXV, XXXVII) contain elements that are fundamental in the story of the lovers as we know it. In particular, novella XXXI about Martina and Loisi includes themes such as the hatred between the families of two lovers; the presence of a servant helping them; the suicide of a girl beside her lover’s dead body, using the sword that killed him; the reconciliation of the families who bury the lovers in the same tomb. In novella XXXVII we find the element of two young men in love with the same woman, who are all buried together. Mullini (1986) argues that these novelle should also be considered as possible intertexts and sources of the various versions of the story of Romeo and Juliet, as this is created through the assembling of topoi and motifs that were popular in Italian Renaissance literature. The tale was later rewritten by Luigi Da Porto in 1530, in his Istoria novellamente ritrovata di due nobili amanti con la loro pietosa morte, intervenuta già nella città di Verona nel tempo del Signor Bartolomeo della Scala (Da Porto 1993, 2000).2 According to Mullini (1986: 54) Da Porto had read Masuccio Salernitano’s novella and inserted their elements into his new version. Levenson points out that Da Porto used Masuccio’s works and 54 .

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