Why Is Romeo & Juliet Set In Verona?
Good question! The answer is that Shakespeare borrowed the plot from a poem called “The Tragicall History of Romeus and Juliet” by Arthur Brooke. This poem, in turn, was based on an Italian story, which was based on another Italian story, and so on … and the Italian story was set in Verona, an old and important Italian city at that time. Luigi da Porto wrote the first version where the plot was set in Verona. He lived in Vicenza near Verona, so it’s not so strange that he picked Verona. This is from Wikipedia: “In fact, his play is a dramatisation of Arthur Brooke’s narrative poem The Tragicall History of Romeus and Juliet (1562). Shakespeare followed Brooke’s poem fairly closely but enriched its texture by adding extra detail to both major and minor characters, in particular the Nurse and Mercutio. Brooke’s poem was not original either, being a translation and adaptation of Giuletta e Romeo, by Matteo Bandello, included in his Novelle of 1554. This was in turn an adaptation of Luigi
