AustLit

'In this text, the plot of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has been recrafted as a poem incorporating the advice given to Italian princes by Niccolò Machiavelli, the most infamous political theorist of the 16th century. Shakespeare’s 1597 Romeo and Juliet play was based on an Italian tale, told and retold by Italian writers, the most important of whom were Masuccio Salernitano (born in 1410), Luigi da Porto (born in 1485) and Matteo Bandello (born in 1480). Bandello’s novellas were translated into French by Pierre Boaistuau (born in 1517) and François de Belleforest (born in 1530). These French translations, in turn, were translated into English by William Painter (born 1540) and Arthur Brooke (born 1563). Literary critics agree that the primary source of inspiration for Shakespeare’s play was Brooke’s narrative poem, titled The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet, which condemns the young lovers for neglecting the authority of their parents. By taking a poetic leap, using fragments, insights and variations of the original Italian novellas and their translations, the poem will attempt to unveil the Italian flavour of the plot, lost behind all those rewritings, reinterpretations and well-intended but nefarious distortions which embellished the tale beyond recognition. Adding a layer of realpolitik inspired by the writings of Machiavelli, the raw political moral of the story will become apparent, almost.'

Source: Abstract.