Arthur Brooke (or Broke) (died circa 1563) was an English poet whose only known work was The Tragicall History of Romeus and Juliet (1562), considered to be William Shakespeare's chief source for his famous play Romeo and Juliet. Though ostensibly a translation from the Italian of Bandello, Brooke's poem 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, in which a previous volume had appeared in 1565, the editor being William Painter, clerk of the armoury to Queen Elizabeth shortly after she came to the throne. Painter's piece is considered greatly inferior to Brooke's poem by many critics.
Nothing is known of Arthur Brooke's life except that he died by shipwreck while passing to Newhaven in or before the year 1563. Several years after his death, in 1567, George Turberville published a collection of poetry entitled, Epitaphs, Epigrams, Songs and Sonnets which included An Epitaph on the Death of Master Arthur Brooke Drownde in Passing to New Haven.
Arthur Brooke got the idea for his version of Romeo and Juliet from French author Matteo Bandello's Novelle. He translated the story and added the character of the Nurse.
Famous quotes containing the words arthur and/or brooke:
“O unbelievers,
I serve not what you serve
and you are not serving what I serve,
nor am I serving what you have served,
neither are you serving what I serve.
To you your religion, and to me my religion!”
—Qur’An. The Unbelievers, 109:1-5, ed. Arthur J. Arberry (1955)
“Say, is there Beauty yet to find?
And Certainty? And Quiet kind?
Deep meadows yet, for to forget
The lies, and truths, and pain? . . . oh!
Stands the Church clock at ten to three?
And is there honey still for tea?”
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