Romeo and Juliet

Two teenagers from feuding noble houses in Verona fall in love at first sight and marry in secret, certain their passion can outrun their families’ hatred. Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy moves with terrible speed from a moonlit balcony to a friar’s cell to a tomb, driven by street brawls, a rash duel, and a plan that goes fatally wrong. Around the lovers stand some of the stage’s liveliest figures, the bawdy Nurse and the quicksilver Mercutio among them. Beneath the romance runs a hard question about how young lives are thrown away by the grudges of their elders. Few works have done more to shape how the world imagines love and youth. This free PDF and EPUB edition presents the complete play.