Arthur Brooke

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See Arthur Brooke (entrepreneur) for the entrepreneur.

Arthur Brooke (also Arthur Broke; d. circa 1563) was an English poet, best known for writing The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet (1562).

The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet was William Shakespeare's chief source for the famous play Romeo and Juliet. Though professedly a translation from the Italian of Bandello through a French version, this poem by Arthur Brooke is a free paraphrase.

In 1565, a prose version of Romeo and Juliet (1567) was printed in The Palace of Pleasure, a collection of tales, of which a previous volume had appeared in 1565, the editor being William Paynter, clerck of the armoury to Queen Elizabeth shortly after she came to the throne. Although alas for Paynter, his novel is considered greatly inferior to Brooke's poem by many critics.

Unfortunately, nothing is known of Arthur Brooke's life excepting that he died by shipwreck while passing to Newhaven in or before the year 1563.

[edit] References

• Dr. Chambers, Robert (1880), Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature, New York; American Book Exchange.
• Munro, J.J. (1908), Brooke’s ’Romeus and Juliet,’ being the original of Shakespeare’s ’Romeo and Juliet", London, Chatto and Windus; New York, Duffield and Company.
• This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J.M. Dent & sons; New York, E.P. Dutton.