Romeo and Juliet

Thought to have been written between 1591 and 1595, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was first published in 1597. The story of two "star-crossed" lovers, the play is based on an English translation of an Italian version of the tale by Arthur Brooke. The tragedy is now one of the playwright's most popular and frequently performed plays and the famous lines uttered at the balcony scene ("But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?) are among the most remembered lines in Shakespeare's canon. Interestingly, despite its unbelievable success, the play's first critic, Samuel Pepys, wrote in 1662: "It is a play of itself the worst that I ever heard in my life."