Did William Shakespeare writed Romeo and Juliet?

Answer 1

We do not have solid evidence that he did write it. All we have is his name on the title-page of his play when it was published several times during his lifetime, the testimony of his known friends and associates that he wrote it and numerous contemporary or near-contemporary statements that the play was his (as compared to the complete absence of any statement that it had been written by anyone else). This is much more solid evidence than we have for believing that St. Paul wrote any of his epistles, or that Julius Caesar wrote his Gallic War, neither of which is ever seriously doubted. The "solid evidence" some people are looking for is a handwritten document, attested by numerous people to have been in Shakespeare's own handwriting saying "Romeo and Juliet was really written by me William Shakespeare gent. of Stratford-upon-Avon and not by any other person called William Shakespeare and certainly not by the Earl of Oxford". It is a mystery to such people who William Shakespeare really was and if he was the writer of all those great plays, such as Romeo and Juliet. Such people may also wonder whether Agatha Christie's books were really written by Winston Churchill.

Of course, although there is no sane reason to doubt that Shakespeare wrote the play Romeo and Juliet, the story is not original to him. He borrowed it from a poem by Arthur Brooke, who borrowed it from a French translation of an Italian rewriting of an earlier Italian story possibly partly based on the story of Pyramus and Thisbe.

Answer 2

Most people would say so, but some claim that we do not have solid evidence that he did write it. All we have is his name on the title-page of his play when it was published several times during his lifetime, the testimony of his known friends and associates that he wrote it and numerous contemporary or near-contemporary statements that the play was his (compared to the complete absence of any statement that it had been written by anyone else). This is much more solid evidence than we have for believing that St. Paul wrote any of his epistles, or that Julius Caesar wrote his Gallic War, neither of which is ever seriously doubted. The "solid evidence" some people are looking for is a handwritten document, attested by numerous people to have been in Shakespeare's own handwriting saying "Romeo and Juliet was really written by me William Shakespeare gent. of Stratford-upon-Avon and not by any other person called William Shakespeare and certainly not by the Earl of Oxford". It is a mystery to such people who William Shakespeare really was and if he was the writer of all those great plays, such as Romeo and Juliet. Such people may also wonder whether Agatha Christie's books were really written by Winston Churchill. Of course, although there is no sane reason to doubt that Shakespeare wrote the play Romeo and Juliet, the story is not original to him. He borrowed it from a poem by Arthur Brooke, who borrowed it from a French translation of an Italian rewriting of an earlier Italian story possibly partly based on the story of Pyramus and Thisbe.

Answer 3

Shakespeare wrote a play called Romeo and Juliet, yes.