Whose play is Romeo and Juliet?

The tragedy tells of two young lovers from the feuding Montague and Capulet families in Verona, Italy. Shakespeare based the plot on Arthur Brooke’s 1562 poem The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet, itself drawn from Italian tales. The whole story unfolds over just a few days, and Juliet is not yet 14 years old. Famous lines such as “Wherefore art thou Romeo?” actually mean “Why are you Romeo?”, not “Where are you?”. It remains one of the most performed plays in the world and has inspired ballets, operas, films and the musical West Side Story.