Romeo and Juliet stands in a long line of tales and legends of immortal lovers. Immortal lovers belong to the passionate, romantic tradition and the romantic note is clear enough in this early play in the Shakespearean canon. It is the characteristic tragedy of Shakespeare's ardent youth and stands quite apart from the great group of tragedies he wrote ten years later.

It is a tragedy of lyric emotion not a tragedy of philosophic insight. The convention of star-crossed lovers is familiar to all romance and this play gives this convention yet another new setting. Perhaps it reflects a disturbance in Shakespeare's own emotional life.

Essentially the temper of this play is a high and serious one. Love comes into life like a sword, touching both man and woman at different times and scorching them with a terrible flame. The boy and girl lovers are doomed souls from the beginning. They are raised into the highest heaven, merely that an envious fate may pluck them down again.

Love is a mighty power, but destiny is mightier still.