100 Fun Facts About Romeo and Juliet

Which Shakespeare play, also set in the lovers' city, shares its setting with Romeo and Juliet?

The Taming of the Shrew is also set in Verona; it is unknown whether Shakespeare ever visited Italy.

Which two feuding families do the lovers belong to?

Romeo is a Montague and Juliet a Capulet.

Before he meets Juliet, Romeo is lovesick over which unseen Capulet niece?

He goes to the Capulet ball hoping to see her, and never mentions her again after meeting Juliet.

Who marries Romeo and Juliet in secret, hoping to reconcile the families?

He later gives Juliet the potion that mimics death for 'two and forty hours'.

Who kills Mercutio?

Mercutio is wounded as Romeo tries to break up the fight, and dies cursing both houses.

Complete Mercutio's dying curse: 'A plague o' both your...'

Friar Laurence recounts at the end that the curse has been fulfilled.

What punishment does the Prince impose on Romeo for slaying Juliet's cousin?

He is banished under penalty of death if he ever returns; he flees to Mantua.

Whom do Juliet's parents insist she marry, triggering the potion plot?

Capulet threatens to disown her when she refuses to be Paris's 'joyful bride'.

For how long is the friar's potion supposed to keep Juliet in a deathlike sleep?

He plans to send Friar John to tell Romeo, but plague quarantine stops the message.

Why does the messenger friar fail to deliver the crucial letter to Romeo in Mantua?

Romeo instead hears from his servant Balthasar that Juliet is dead.

From whom does Romeo buy his poison?

He then kills Paris at the tomb before drinking it.

How does Juliet die?

In da Porto's earlier version she simply held her breath until she died.

The play's final couplet begins 'For never was a story of more woe...'. How does it end?

The Prince speaks the elegy over the three bodies at the tomb.

The play's prologue, spoken by a Chorus, takes which poetic form?

It introduces the 'star-cross'd lovers'; most of the play is in blank verse.

Shakespeare's main direct source was a 1562 English narrative poem by whom?

Brooke translated a French version of Bandello's Italian tale.

Which Ovid myth of lovers kept apart by feuding parents, with a false death report, is an ancestor of Romeo and Juliet?

The mechanicals perform it in A Midsummer Night's Dream, written around the same time.

Which Italian writer's 1524 version first named Romeo and Juliet and introduced Mercutio?

He may have drawn on his own thwarted love for Lucina Savorgnan after a 1511 ball in Udine.

The names Montecchi and Cappelletti appear in canto six of Purgatorio by which poet?

Dante was scolding Italy's warring factions, not telling a love story.

Which character did Bandello add to the story in 1554?

Da Porto had already supplied Mercutio, Tybalt, Paris and the nurse.

The first printed edition of the play, Q1 of 1597, is known as what?

Its garbled text is thought to be a memorial reconstruction by one or two actors.

The Nurse's 'eleven years' earthquake reference dates the play to 1591 via which quake?

Stylistic links to A Midsummer Night's Dream suggest 1594-95 instead.

Roughly how many references to time does the play contain, sustaining its illusion of speed?

Characters constantly cite days of the week and hours of the day.

Which diarist called the play 'the worst that I ever heard in my life' in 1662?

Dryden, ten years later, praised Mercutio and claimed Shakespeare had to kill him off in Act 3 'to prevent being killed by him'.

Which 18th-century actor-manager's cleaned-up version of the play held the stage for nearly a century?

Shakespeare's original text did not return to the American stage until 1845.

In 1845, which actress played Romeo opposite her own sister as Juliet?

The Times called her Romeo genius, and she ran for eighty-four performances.

In Gielgud's 1935 production, Gielgud and which actor swapped Romeo and Mercutio six weeks into the run?

Peggy Ashcroft was Juliet, and the Elizabethan staging set a fashion for historical realism.

Which character has the third-largest number of lines in the play, after the two title roles?

She was Juliet's wet nurse and had a daughter of her own, Susan, who died in infancy.

Mercutio's famous fantastical speech in Act 1 is about which fairy?

He is a kinsman of the Prince, able to mingle with both feuding families.

Scholar Molly Mahood counted at least how many puns and wordplays in the text?

Many are sexual, especially those involving Mercutio.

What was the combined age of Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard, the teenage lovers in the 1936 MGM film?

Audiences found it too 'arty', and Hollywood abandoned Shakespeare for over a decade.

Who directed the 1968 film starring teenagers Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey?

It won Oscars for cinematography and costume design and was the last Shakespeare film nominated for Best Picture.

Who spoke the prologue and epilogue of the 1968 film, uncredited?

He also dubbed the voice of the actor playing Lord Montague.

Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Romeo + Juliet is set in a fictional place called what?

Swords become guns with brand names like 'Sword' and 'Rapier', and the Prince becomes police chief Captain Prince.

Where was most of Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet actually filmed?

The Capulet mansion was Chapultepec Castle; parts were shot in Miami and Veracruz.

Which award did Leonardo DiCaprio win at the 1997 Berlin Film Festival for Romeo + Juliet?

The film grossed over $147 million on a $14.5 million budget.

In West Side Story, which gang corresponds to the Capulets?

The Sharks are recent Puerto Rican migrants; the white Jets stand in for the Montagues.

Who wrote the lyrics for West Side Story, his Broadway debut, in 1957?

Leonard Bernstein wrote the music and Jerome Robbins directed and choreographed.

How many Oscars did the 1961 film of West Side Story win?

Steven Spielberg's 2021 remake was also nominated for Best Picture.

Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet was originally rejected partly because the composer had written what?

The full ballet finally premiered not in Russia but in Brno, Czechoslovakia, in December 1938.

Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet is a 20-minute symphonic poem best known for which melody?

Nino Rota's 1968 film theme and Des'ree's 'Kissing You' were later reused across scenes in the same way.

Which French composer's 1867 opera Roméo et Juliette features the waltz song 'Je veux vivre'?

Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi drew on Italian sources rather than Shakespeare.

Taylor Swift's 'Love Story', based on the play, changes the ending to what?

She wrote it on her bedroom floor in about 20 minutes and it sold over 18 million copies.

Dire Straits' song 'Romeo and Juliet' first appeared on which 1980 album?

Mark Knopfler wrote it and later played it live with Emmylou Harris.

With which fictional noblewoman does the playwright have an affair in Shakespeare in Love (1998)?

Gwyneth Paltrow won Best Actress and the film took Best Picture.

Which 2011 animated film retold the story with garden gnomes and songs by Elton John?

James McAvoy and Emily Blunt voiced the leads; a sequel, Sherlock Gnomes, followed in 2018.

Warm Bodies (2013) reworks the story with a zombie named R and a girl named Julie. Who plays R?

It is based on Isaac Marion's 2010 novel.

Romeo Must Die (2000), starring Jet Li, transplants the feud to which US city?

It was Aaliyah's only film released in her lifetime.

A 2017 English GCSE exam question on the play drew derision for what mistake?

Ofqual called the error, sat by about 14,000 students, unacceptable.

Which 2013 Bollywood hit starring Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone is a modern take on the play?

Sanjay Leela Bhansali directed it to commercial and critical success.

Which Restoration playwright reset Romeo and Juliet in ancient Rome as The History and Fall of Caius Marius?

The feud became patricians versus plebeians, and the balcony stayed.

In Juliet's cry 'wherefore art thou Romeo?', spoken alone at her window, what does 'wherefore' mean?

'Wherefore' means 'why': Juliet is lamenting that the man she loves is a Montague, not asking where he is. Romeo is hiding in the orchard below, hearing every word.

Which insulting gesture by the servant Sampson sparks the street brawl that opens Romeo and Juliet?

Biting his thumb is Sampson's insult to the Montague men. Asked if it is aimed at them, he first checks whether the law would be on his side, then dodges a straight answer.

In Romeo and Juliet, which flower does Juliet say 'by any other name would smell as sweet'?

A rose is Juliet's proof that names do not matter: Romeo, she argues, would keep all his perfection if he were not called a Montague, since only his name is her enemy.

During the orchard scene of Romeo and Juliet, what does Juliet beg Romeo not to swear his love by?

The moon is too fickle for Juliet, who calls it inconstant because it changes every month. She tells Romeo to swear by his own gracious self, or better, not to swear at all.

How old is Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, with her next birthday about two weeks away?

Thirteen is Juliet's age: her nurse recalls that she turns fourteen on Lammas Eve, and her father at first asks her suitor to let two more summers pass before a wedding.

In Shakespeare's own theatre in the 1590s, what kind of performer first played Juliet?

A boy actor took the part, probably Master Robert Goffe. The first woman thought to have played Juliet professionally, Mary Saunderson, did not do so until 1662.

Voyager 2 found Juliet, a satellite named for Shakespeare's heroine, orbiting which planet in 1986?

Uranus is circled by Juliet alongside fellow Shakespeare heroines Portia and Rosalind, and astronomers think she may collide with her neighbour Desdemona within 100 million years.

In Romeo and Juliet, what favour does a Capulet servant ask of Romeo when they meet in the street?

The servant needs someone to read a guest list, because he cannot read the names he has been sent to invite. Romeo reads them aloud and so learns of the feast he then gatecrashes.

At dawn after their wedding night, which bird does Juliet insist she and Romeo have just heard?

The nightingale, a singer of the night, is Juliet's hopeful claim. Romeo answers that it was the lark, the herald of the morn, and that he must be gone and live, or stay and die.

Complete the friar's pre-wedding warning in Romeo and Juliet: 'These violent delights have violent…'?

The line closes on 'ends', and goes on to liken reckless passion to fire and gunpowder, which destroy each other as they kiss. HBO's Westworld borrowed the line for its first episode.

In Romeo and Juliet, what penalty does the Prince set for street fighting after the opening brawl?

Death is the price: 'your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace', the Prince warns both family heads, after three brawls bred of an airy word have disturbed his streets.

Meeting Juliet at the feast, Romeo likens his lips to two blushing what, ready to kiss her hand?

Pilgrims is Romeo's image: he calls Juliet's hand a holy shrine, she answers him as 'good pilgrim', and the witty exchange closes with their first kiss.

Complete Juliet's line on learning Romeo's family name: 'My only love sprung from my only…'?

'Hate' completes the line, rhyming with 'known too late': Juliet has just heard from her nurse that the stranger she kissed is a Montague, the only son of her family's great enemy.

After the Act 3 duels in Romeo and Juliet, who accuses the Montague eyewitness of lying to the Prince?

Lady Capulet makes the charge, saying affection makes the witness false because he is a kinsman to the Montague. She begs the Prince for justice against Romeo.

Why does Romeo at first refuse to fight when challenged to a duel in Act 3 of Romeo and Juliet?

His secret marriage has made the challenger his kinsman for barely an hour, so Romeo answers insults with talk of love. A disgusted friend calls it 'calm, dishonourable, vile submission'.

Complete dying Mercutio's pun in Romeo and Juliet: 'Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me…'?

'A grave man' is the joke: serious for once, and in his grave. Mercutio shrugs off the wound as not so deep as a well nor so wide as a church door, but enough.

In Romeo and Juliet, what does Romeo call himself moments after killing his new wife's cousin?

'Fortune's fool' is Romeo's cry as he blames fate for the killing, which comes barely an hour after his wedding. His cousin has to hurry him away before the citizens arrive.

What does Juliet's nurse fetch so that Romeo can climb to Juliet's room on the wedding night?

A rope ladder, 'cords made like a tackled stair', is Romeo's way up. When news of the duel reaches Juliet first, she mourns that the poor ropes have been cheated, as she has.

In Romeo and Juliet, what excuse lets Juliet leave home on the afternoon she marries Romeo?

Going to confession, or 'shrift', is the cover story. Her nurse asks whether she has leave to go to shrift that day, then sends her to the friar's cell, where a husband is waiting.

After the fatal duel in Romeo and Juliet, which token does Juliet send to Romeo by her nurse?

A ring is her token for her 'true knight', sent with a plea that he come to take his last farewell. When it reaches him in hiding, Romeo says his comfort is revived.

On which day of the week does Lord Capulet originally plan to hold Juliet's arranged wedding?

Thursday is the plan, made on a Monday because Wednesday seemed too soon. Pleased by Juliet's apparent change of heart, he later pulls the wedding forward a day, wrecking the friar's timing.

How does Lord Capulet respond in Romeo and Juliet when Juliet refuses the husband he has chosen?

Lord Capulet threatens to disown her, saying she may hang, beg, starve and die in the streets. Earlier he had told her suitor that his own will was only a part of her consent.

At the end of Romeo and Juliet, what does each grieving father promise to raise to the other's child?

A golden statue of Juliet is Montague's promise, and Capulet pledges one as rich of Romeo to lie beside it, calling the dead pair 'poor sacrifices of our enmity'.

Which character in Romeo and Juliet is reported dead of grief when the families gather at the tomb?

Lady Montague has died that very night: her husband tells the Prince that grief over their son stopped her breath, adding one more loss to the feud's toll.

In Mantua, how does Romeo hear that Juliet has been laid in the Capulet family tomb?

Romeo hears it from his manservant Balthasar, who saw Juliet laid in the vault and rode straight to tell him. The friar's letter explaining the trick never arrives.

Just before bad news reaches him in Mantua, Romeo dreams that Juliet's kisses revive him as what?

An emperor is what the dream makes him, after Juliet finds him dead and breathes life into his lips. Minutes later he learns she lies in the tomb, the dream turned upside down.

What does Juliet's bereaved suitor come to scatter at the Capulet tomb on the night Romeo breaks in?

Flowers are his tribute, with sweet water to sprinkle there each night. His page whistles a warning that someone is coming, and the mourner stays to confront the intruder.

What is the friar of Romeo and Juliet doing at dawn when Romeo arrives asking to be married?

Gathering herbs into a wicker basket, he reflects that one small plant can hold both poison and medicine, a quiet forecast of the potion to come.

Complete Romeo's last words in the tomb in Romeo and Juliet: 'Thus with a kiss I…'?

'Die' is his last word. Moments earlier Romeo marvels that Juliet's lips and cheeks are still crimson, never guessing that she is alive and about to wake.

Which idiom for a hopeless pursuit appears in Mercutio's banter in Romeo and Juliet, among its earliest recorded uses?

'Wild-goose chase' was the name of a follow-the-leader horse race, which is what Mercutio alludes to, not a hunt for birds. The hopeless-quest sense grew out of it.

How do Romeo and his Montague friends get into the Capulet feast uninvited in Romeo and Juliet?

Wearing masks, they pass as masquers come to dance. The disguise is thin: Juliet's cousin knows Romeo by his voice at once and sends a boy to fetch his rapier.

Complete Juliet's farewell to Romeo at her window: 'Parting is such sweet…'?

'Sorrow' completes it, and the couplet runs on: she could say good night till it be morrow. Moments earlier Juliet likens Romeo to a pet bird she might kill with too much cherishing.

In West Side Story, the musical modelled on Romeo and Juliet, what are the two young lovers called?

Tony and Maria are the lovers, kept apart by rival New York street gangs rather than feuding families. They first see each other across the floor at a dance in a gym.

Complete the Prince's verdict over the dead lovers in Romeo and Juliet: 'All are…'?

'All are punished', the Prince declares, and he counts himself in: for winking at the families' discords, he says, he has lost a brace of kinsmen.

Which 1976 rock hit tells listeners that Romeo and Juliet 'are together in eternity'?

(Don't Fear) The Reaper holds up the lovers as a couple reunited in the afterlife. Songwriter Buck Dharma was appalled that some listeners heard the Blue Öyster Cult song as encouraging suicide.

In Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio mocks Juliet's fiery cousin as 'prince' and 'king' of which animals?

Cats: the cousin shares his name with the 'prince of cats' in the Reynard the Fox stories, so Mercutio taunts him by asking for one of his nine lives.

Seeing Juliet for the first time at the feast, Romeo says she teaches what to burn bright?

The torches, he says, could learn from her: she hangs upon the cheek of night like a rich jewel, a snowy dove trooping with crows.

Which future Dame played Juliet with the Old Vic company in 1960, three years after her stage debut?

Judi Dench was the Old Vic's Juliet in 1960. Decades later she won an Oscar as Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love, a film about the writing of the play.

The friar who marries Romeo and Juliet belongs to which religious order, whose founder he swears by?

Franciscans: he cries 'Holy Saint Francis!' at Romeo's sudden change of heart, and a brother friar later greets him at his cell as 'Holy Franciscan friar'.

Shakespeare cut the story of Romeo and Juliet, nine months long in his source poem, to about how long?

Under a week: the play spans just four to six days, and critics count that headlong haste among its central themes.

In Romeo and Juliet, which Italian poet does Mercutio joke that lovesick Romeo is now writing like?

Petrarch is the name Mercutio drops, sneering that the poet's adored Laura was a kitchen-wench beside Romeo's lady, though she had the better love to write rhymes about her.

Which clown of Shakespeare's company does the 1599 text of Romeo and Juliet name in place of Peter?

Will Kemp's own name slipped into the printed text where the servant's should be. Peter and Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing are the only two parts he is known for certain to have played.

Which leading tragedian of Shakespeare's company is thought to have been the first to play Romeo?

Richard Burbage probably created the part as the company's chief tragic player. He was also the first Hamlet, and took the title roles in Othello and King Lear.

Which French composer dedicated his 1839 choral symphony Roméo et Juliette to the violinist Paganini?

Hector Berlioz was first inspired by an 1827 Paris performance of the play whose cast included Harriet Smithson, the actress who later became his wife.

The 1599 edition of Romeo and Juliet is titled 'The Most Excellent and' what kind of 'Tragedie'?

'Lamentable' is the word on the 1599 title page, which also boasts that the text is newly corrected, augmented and amended. It runs about 800 lines longer than the first printing.

In Romeo and Juliet, what was the name of the nurse's dead daughter, born the same year as Juliet?

Susan 'is with God', the nurse says. Having lost a baby of Juliet's age, she breastfed Juliet herself and never forgot the day she weaned her.

Which star actress played Juliet opposite Henry Irving's Romeo at London's Lyceum Theatre in 1882?

Ellen Terry was Irving's Juliet in a lavish production now seen as the archetype of the Victorian pictorial style, with spectacular sets and elaborate stage pictures.

When Romeo and Juliet marry in secret, roughly how long have the two known each other?

Less than a day: they meet at the feast one night, and at dawn Romeo is already begging the friar to marry them 'today'. The wedding takes place that afternoon.

When Juliet wakes in the tomb in Romeo and Juliet, where does the panicking friar offer to hide her?

In a convent, 'among a sisterhood of holy nuns', is his hurried offer. Then, hearing the watch coming, he says he dare stay no longer and leaves her alone with Romeo's body.

In Romeo and Juliet, why does the dying Mercutio blame Romeo for the wound he takes in the duel?

He stepped between them to stop the fight, and the fatal thrust came in under his arm. 'I thought all for the best' is all the stricken Romeo can answer.