Romeo and Juliet

The Folger Library offers the definitive, updated edition of Shakespeare’s work, with newly edited text, explanatory notes, scene summaries, and more. From the Folger Shakespeare Library comes a new edition of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The Folger's world-class team of scholars, theater makers, and researchers offer a new generation of readers contemporary perspectives on the timeless provocations and questions of this tragic love story. Shakespeare may have died in 1616, but the English playwright and actor is everywhere in our world today. His plays and poems pop up in sitcoms, song lyrics, comedy sketches, and commercials. His words have been quoted, performed, adapted, transformed, interrogated, hated, and loved. Shakespeare opens a dynamic field of play that ignites creativity and curiosity. And the Folger Shakespeare Library wants you to know that Shakespeare’s many possibilities are for you. That’s why we’re bringing you a brand-new edition of Romeo and Juliet—Shakespeare’s most famous love story. The Folger Shakespeare Library Romeo and Juliet will have all the features that our readers expect and trust from our best-selling editions. You’ll still find the beloved facing-page format with helpful notes on the left and Shakespeare’s text on the right to support a seamless reading experience. You’ll still find illustrations from the Folger’s extensive collection—that includes more materials related to Shakespeare than anywhere else in the world—and you’ll still find the best Shakespeare scholars editing our editions. But we're giving you a new introduction to Romeo and Juliet, all new essays about Shakespeare and the early modern world, revised and reenergized glosses, notes about important themes and literary terms, and new images from the Folger’s unparalleled collection—all based on the most up-todate research. At the beginning of the Folger Shakespeare Library Romeo and Juliet, our General Editors—Patricia Akhimie and Paul Werstine—and Folger Shakespeare Library Director Farah Karim-Cooper will tell you the story of how they came to Shakespeare. Do you have a Shakespeare story? We hope you build one within these pages.