INTRODUCTION TO ROMEO AND JULIET

THE HISTORY OF THE PLAY

The earliest edition of Romeo and Juliet was a quarto printed in 1597, followed by another quarto in 1599. Two more quartos were published before the folio of 1623, with a fifth quarto released in 1637. The first quarto is shorter than the second, leading to debates among editors about whether it represents an earlier draft or a pirated version.

While the second quarto is considered the more reliable source for the play's text, it was not printed from the author's manuscript but from a careless transcript. The first quarto, despite its imperfections, is sometimes valuable in correcting errors in the later editions.

The text in the various editions shows evidence of revision and augmentation by Shakespeare, with notable differences in specific scenes. The earliest editions of Romeo and Juliet have provided ample material for scholarly analysis and comparison to understand the evolution of the play.The date of the first draft of the play has been much discussed, but cannot be said to have been settled. The majority of the editors believe that it was begun as early as 1561, but I think that most of them lay too much stress on the Nurse's reference (i. 3. 22, 35) to the "earthquake," which occurred "eleven years" earlier, and which these critics suppose to have been the one felt in England in 1580. Aside from this and other attempts to fix the date by external evidence of a doubtful character, the internal evidence confirms the opinion that the tragedy was an early work of the poet, and that it was subsequently "corrected, augmented, and amended." There is a good deal of rhyme, and much of it in the form of alternate rhyme. The alliteration, the frequent playing upon words, and the lyrical character of many passages also lead to the same conclusion. The latest editors agree substantially with this view. Herford says: "The evidence points to 1594-1595 as the time at which the play was substantially composed, though it is tolerably certain that some parts of our present text were written as late as 1596-1598, and possibly that others are as early as 1591." Dowden sums up the matter thus: "On the whole, we might place Romeo and Juliet, on grounds of internal evidence, near The Rape of Lucrece; portions may be earlier in date; certain passages of the revised version are certainly later; but I think that 1595 may serve as an approximation to a central date, and cannot be far astray." For myself, while agreeing substantially with these authorities, I think that a careful comparison of what are evidently the earliest 

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