Romeo and Juliet (By William Shakespeare, 1596)

In Verona, Italy.

Lord Capulet’s servants and lord Montague’s servants are fighting and shouting because they hate each other.
Tybalt (from the Capulets) and Benvolio (from the Montagues) fight with their swords, but Prince Escalus enters
and stops them under the threat of executing them if they fight.

Lord Montage (Romeo’s father) is worried about Romeo being quiet lately, so he asks Benvolio to talk to him.
Romeo explains Benvolio that he is in love with Rosaline, however he remains sad because she is never going to
marry.

Meanwhile, Paris openly declares his love towards Juliet to Lord Capulet, asking the Lord to let him marry Juliet,
his daughter. Lord Capulet says that he must wait for at least a year or two because Juliet is only thirteen and
she doesn’t really know him yet. Anyway, Lord Capulet invites him to come to a party in his house that evening,
to see if she likes him.

Then, Lord Capulet gives his servant a list of people with the names of the persons invited to the party, for him
to ask them to come, too. As the servant doesn’t know how to read, he shows the list to Romeo, asking him to
read those names for him. At that moment, Romeo realises that Rosaline is going to the party and he wants to
go too, despite not being invited because Lord Capulet and his father are enemies.

On that night, Romeo with his friends Benvolio and Mercutio, attend to the party at Lord Capulet’s house
wearing masks. Then Romeo sees Juliet dancing with Paris and he thinks she is very beautiful and he must meet
her. Later he asks to hold her hand, and once their hands are held, he says their lips can touch too, so he kisses
her.

Later, the nurse finds Juliet with Romeo and explains them that their fathers are enemies. Benvolio and
Mercutio leave the house and Romeo comes out to the garden, declaring his love to Juliet when she opens the
window. She loves him too, so she says she will send her nurse with a message to tell him when and where to
meet.

Romeo goes early in the morning to ask father Lawrence (the priest) to marry him with Juliet in secret.

Father Lawrence accepts to do it thinking that perhaps the arguments within both families will finish.

The Nurse comes to talk to Romeo about Juliet, and Romeo explains her that Father Lawrence is going to marry
them in the afternoon, and he asks the nurse to tell this to Juliet, but to keep the secret within the family.

After the marriage, Tybalt finds Romeo and his friends, and starts fighting them because they went to the party
uninvited. Although Romeo tries to explain him that from now on both families are going to be friends,
Mercutio doesn’t understand and starts fighting with Tybalt. Mercutio dies in the fight, and Romeo is so angry
that he kills Tybalt when some people are watching.

Benvolio recommends Romeo to run away because there will be trouble when the Prince will know what
happened. Lady Capulet wants Romeo to die because he killed her nephew Tybalt, but the Prince Escalus
recognizes that Tybalt was a murderer too, and decides not to execute Romeo, but he must leave the city of
Verona and never come back, or he will die.

The nurse explains Juliet what happened and the resolution of the Prince, telling her that Romeo is hidden in
Father Lawrence’s house.

Juliet gives the nurse a ring for her to give it to Romeo and tell him that she still loves him.
Father Lawrence allows Romeo to go to see Juliet secretly in the night, and later leave Verona, going to Mantua.
He asks Romeo to stay in Mantua until he hears news for him, because first he has to tell everybody that Romeo
and Juliet are married and then ask the Prince to think again.

Paris goes to Lord Capulet’s house to talk to Juliet, but Lord Capulet says she is very sad and wants Paris to
marry her as soon as possible, in three days.

Romeo visits Juliet secretly to say good-bye. Then, he leaves to Mantua. Lady Capulet tells her daughter Juliet
that the family has arranged the wedding between Juliet and Paris in three days, and she must accept even if
she doesn’t like that.

Juliet goes to visit father Lawrence and she asks him to stop the wedding with Paris or she will kill herself with a
knife.

Father Lawrence gives her a bottle with a special drink that will keep her asleep for two days, so she won’t be
able to marry Paris and he will send a message to Romeo telling him to come back when it’s dark, to open the
tomb so that both can run to Mantua. Juliet leaves with the bottle and Father Lawrence gives Father John the
message for him to give it to Romeo in Mantua.

Juliet accepts to marry Paris, but her family decides to celebrate the wedding one day in advance, just on the
following day, so Juliet takes the potion to drink on that night.

In the early morning, her family finds her on the bed, thinking that she is dead, so instead of a wedding they
prepare a funeral for her.

In Mantua, Romeo finds one of Lord Montage’s servants and he tells him that Juliet is dead, so Romeo decides
to go back to Verona immediately, because if she is dead, he wants to die too.

He buys poison paying with all the gold he has, and leaves Mantua. Then Father John arrives with the message,
looking for Romeo, but he doesn’t find him.

Paris is putting flowers on the Capulet’s tomb, missing Juliet, when Romeo enters, and they fight. Romeo kills
Paris, and then he takes the poison after giving a kiss to Juliet on her tomb.

Father Lawrence enters and Juliet awakes. They see Romeo lying dead next to her, and she wishes to die too.

She Kisses Romeo and kills herself with a knife.

Some people enter and see Paris dead, and Romeo dead, too. Later, Prince Escalus, the Capulets and the
Montagues enter. Father Lawrence explains them about the secret marriage and the special medicine that he
gave to Juliet for her to sleep while Romeo had to receive a message from him that he didn’t get.

Prince Escalus said that Romeo, Juliet, Paris, Mercutio and Tybalt are all dead because the two families are
enemies, so the two Lords agree to finish their arguments, shaking hands and deciding they will never fight
again.

So that no-one will never forget Romeo and Juliet, the families will build a statue of them made of gold.

The end