What year was Romeo and Juliet set?

Answer 1

The play Romeo and Juliet was written by William Shakespeare between 1591 and 1595 in the English Elizabethan Age. The action takes place in Verona in Italy in the early 1500's. William Shakespeare was born in 1564

Answer 2

Romeo and Juliet was not set in any century. You can play it in any period you want, although the swordfighting in the marketplace could be anachronistic if it is very modern. One contemporary production had them fighting with knives.

Answer 3

Like most of Shakespeare's plays Romeo and Juliet is set 'long, long ago, in a land far, far away'.

Romeo and Juliet was first performed in the 1590's, but the story was borrowed from a book that was popular when Shakespeare was a little boy (Arthur Brooke's 'Romeus and Juliet' - first published in 1562). Even in Brooke's version of the story we are not given any date.

Most of the plays written in the early years of the theatre were set in a fantasy world. Shakespeare says that Romeo and Juliet is set in Verona, but there is very little in the play to make this 'Verona' any different from the 'Vienna' or 'Venice' or 'Athens' where some of his other plays are set.

The idea that plays should be set in a real time and a real place really only comes along after Shakespeare. In fact one of the important playwrights to introduce such 'Citizen Comedies' was Thomas Middleton - who took over Shakespeare's writing role with the Kings Men (Shakespeare's company) after Shakespeare retired.

Answer 4

The play does not say. Basically you can convincingly set it any time when people were likely to duel with swords in the streets. That can work pretty much up to the present day, if you think of the swords as knives.

Answer 5

The exact date is not mentioned in the play but some details in the script seem to indicate it was on or about 1595.

Answer 6

Romeo and Juliet was written in the 1590s, probably around 1595.

Answer 7

Romeo and Juliet takes place in Verona, Italy in the 1500's. It was written by William Shakespeare in 1594 or 1595.

Answer 8

16th century

Answer 9

In the 1590s = 16th century.