Monday, February 12, 2018

Megan on Shakespeare's Sources


Where did Shakespeare get his inspiration? (Megan Howard)


Romeo and Juliet is a tragic love story written in beautiful verse and prose with memorable characters. However, the origin is not Shakespeares’ imagination.
In 1562, an English poet, by the name Arthur Brooke, published a poem titled, The Tragicall Historie of Romeus and Juliet. In his poem, Brooke tells the story of the strar-crossed lovers, much as Shakespeare, for it was this poem which inspired Shakespeare to develop and write Romeo and Juliet. A significant difference between the two forms of storytelling is the style of language being used. Brooke has a much drier storytelling than Shakespeare. It is in comparison of these two literary documents which one can truly appreciate Shakespeares’ wit and sense of humor.
And again, Arthur Brooke did not originate this story. In his address to the reader before his poem, Brooke gives credit to a Matteo Bandello, an Italian writer, work Novelle. It is here which the story is first written down. Bandello wrote novellas in his spare time, as throughout his life he held the positions of a monk, solider, diplomat, and bishop. He in fact led the way in changing the structure of the 16th century narrative literature. He lived a large portion of his life in Milan, before an attack on the city led to Bandello to flee to France. It is here which his reputation spread.
A brief description of a novella such as Bandello’s works. Novellas were short, well-structured narratives which often were realistic and satiric in tone. They were based on local events that were humorous, political, or amorous in nature. Bandello developed the novella into a psychologically subtle and highly structured short tale.
This is important as I hypothesize when Shakespeare is claimed to be a great Italian, it is because of his terrific sense of maintaining the spirit and nature of old Italian tales which he used for inspiration.
Citation:
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Matteo Bandello Italian Monk and Writer, Britannica Encyclopaedia. 2018. Web. Feb. 2018.
Brooke’s Romeus and Juliet. British Library. Web. Feb. 2018. 

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