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Friday, April 10, 2026

Romeo On the Rebound.

In Arthur Brooke's 1562 rendition of “The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet” we are informed of Romeo that:

To her he writeth oft, oft messengers are sent,

At length, in hope of better speed, himself the lover went,

Present to plead for grace, which absent was not found :

And to discover to her eye his new received wound.

But she that from her youth was fostered evermore

With virtue's food, and taught in school of wisdom's skilful lore;

By answer did cut off th' affections of his love,

That he no more occasion had so vain a suit to move.

So stern she was of cheer, for all the pain he took,

That, in reward of toil, she would not give a friendly look.

And yet how much she did with constant mind retire;

So much the more his fervent mind was pricked forth by desire.

The her to whom he wrote was not Juliet. He'd been smitten with another young woman, at the beginning of the tale, since the main characters first began to go by the names of Romeo and Juliet.

Romeo's love object, at the beginning of the tale, would not take the name Rosaline until Shakespeare provided it as evidenced by the first quarto printing of his play Romeo and Juliet. I've given my reasons for dating the first version of the play to around 1587, in my Capulet, Capulet & Parolles, regardless that it was not published until 1597.1 And, of course, not all of the first quarto of the text needs have been original from the earlier date. There are signs of revision from a version earlier than 1587. Later minor revisions may have been incorporated by stage managers, scribes, etc., or even by Shakespeare himself.

The story began as a 1530 novella by Luigi Da Porto, Di Due Nobili Amanti. He probably had it from earlier variations on the theme of star-crossed lovers from contentious factions, with other character-names, some rumored to have existed as early as the 13th century. Before that, similar tales had appeared as Greek novels from early in the first millennium of the Common Era.

Romeo's first infatuation, unrequited, does not appear in the prose tale by Porto whose more austere approach to story-telling was stripped of all but essential details. He merely attends the festivities following his girlfriend who he reflects is much too stingy with her favors and therefore decides to pursue Juliet instead.2

By the next version of the story of which we are aware — Clizia's L'infelice Amore Dei Due Fedelissimi Amanti Giulia E Romeo Scritto In Ottava Rima3, of 1553 — Romeo is described, in the context of a late chivalric society, as tried in battle and tournament. We are made aware that he has pledged his love to a beautiful lady who is tyrannizing over him.

By the end of the masquerade, however,

He changed the ruler of his heart, bestowing then
Scepter and crown upon a second love,
By whose aid he cast the first one out —
Who once had once reigned there as a tyrant.4

By Matteo Bandello's La Sfortunata Morte Di Dui Infelicissimi Amanti (1554), generally the source of further French and English versions of the story, Porto's minimalist and Clizia's chivalric romances are transformed into an early modern tale.

A matter of some amusement still, Marcuccio Guertio would make a cameo appearance by name in Porto, and as Marcuccio Verzio, in Clizia, and plain Marcuccio, in Bandello, because, as in Brooke, where he became known as Mercutio, Juliet shivered to recall “la sua fredda man”5 (“his cold hand”) when he touched hers. This was thought a funny enough joke to live at least 100 years (six known versions) before Shakespeare repurposed Mercutio to be slain by Tybalt provoking Romeo to kill the latter.

Romeo had no back story — no excessive previous infatuation from which the story would begin — in Porto. He is described as “very young,” as more beautiful than any woman in the hall and following along behind his girlfriend. Nor does it appear at length in the long ottava rima poem by Gherardo Boldieri, who just once went by the pen-name Clizia. Instead, it is fair to say he is described as being trapped in the waning pattern of the medieval knight and the chaste, aloof Lady of his devotion.

It would seem to have first grown to be a back story in La Sfortunata Morte (1554) of Bandello — a particular favorite novelist of Shakespeare. In Bandello, a “21 or 22 year old” Romeo is still frustrated but not because of the unmatched virtues of his Lady. He's frustrated because of the very modern reason, that, for all his attentions, he isn't gettin' any. Setting aside medieval euphemism, he considers traveling to try to tame “his unbridled appetite” (“suo sfrenato appetito”), but changes his mind.

At length, his friend, who “loves him like a brother,” and who, some 50 years later, Shakespeare will give the name Benvolio, pleads with him to escape his years-long unrequited obsession and recognize his value. It is he who should be breaking young women's hearts, not vice-versa.

You are a young man—perhaps the handsomest to be found in this our city. You are (if I may be permitted to speak the truth to your face) courteous, virtuous, and amiable; and—what also adorns youth—you are well-versed in letters. Furthermore, you are the sole son of your father, whose vast wealth is known to all...6

His friend encourages him to get out and party more (va a tutte le feste). He takes the advice and begins

going to the parties, yet whenever he caught sight of the aloof lady, he never once turned his gaze toward her, but went about observing and appraising the others, in order to choose the one most to his liking — as if he had gone to a market to buy horses or loaves of bread.7

At the big party of the year, a Christmas masque at the hall of Antonio, head of the Capulet family, he spies the hosts daughter, the most beautiful young woman in all of Verona.

With Shakespeare, Romeo's friend who loves him like a brother is given the name Benvolio, and Romeo's cold lady, Rosaline.

Benvolio. At this same ancient feast of Capulet's

Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so lov'st,

With all the admired beauties of Verona.

Go thither, and with unattainted eye

Compare her face with some that I shall show,

And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.8

Stage plays requiring less discursion than novellas, Benvolio's advice is reduced to a few lines of iambic pentameter and the partying he suggests (and Romeo attends) is reduced to a single party: a masque at the home of the Capulets.



1 Purdy, Gilbert Wesley. Capulet, Capulet & Parolles: Edward de Vere’s Biography in the Works of Shakespeare (2020). https://www.amazon.com/Capulet-Parolles-Shakespeare-Shakespeare-Progress-book/dp/B08LLDM91P/

2 Porto. Of Two Noble Lovers. “tornalo Romeo alla sua casa, considerata la crudeltà della prima a sua donna, che di multo languire poca mercede gli dava, diliberò, quando a lei fosse a grado, i costei, quantunque de’suoi nemici fosse, tutto donarsi.” “returning home Romeo considered the cruelty of his first lady, who offered him scant reward despite all he gave her, he resolved to give himself entirely to this woman, should it please her, even though she belonged to the ranks of his enemies.”

3 Clizia. The Unhappy Love of Two Faithful Lovers, Juliet and Romeo, written in Ottava Rima.

4 Clizia, St. 21. 1-4. Cangiò regno nel cuor, dandone allora

Sceltro e corona alla seconda amata.

Poi, ch’ aitato da lei, la prima fuora

Che tiranna ne fu, n’ebbe scacciata.

5 Clizia. St. 31. 6-7. “Con la sua fredda man, del corpo fuore / Mi traea l’alma”. With his cold hand, he drew the soul out of my body.

6 Bandello. The Unfortunate Death of Two Most Unhappy Lovers. “Tu sei giovine, forsè il piu bello che in questa nostra Citta si truovi; Tu sei (siami lecito su gli occhi dirti il vero) cortere, vertuoso, amabile e (che assaì la gioventù adorna) di buone lettere ornato. Poi unico al Padre tuo figliuolo ti ritruovì, le cui grandi ricchezze a tutti sono notissime...”

7 Ibid. “cominciò andar su le feste, e dove vedeva la ritrosa Donna, mai non volgeva la vista, ma andava mirando e considerando l'altre, per scieglier quella che più gli fosse a grado, come se fosse andato ad un mercato per comprar cavali o pani.”

8 Furness. A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet (1899). I.ii.79-84.



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