Which play by Shakespeare features the characters Romeo and Juliet?

The Shakespeare play featuring the characters Romeo and Juliet is Romeo and Juliet. The tragedy follows two young people from Verona whose love is opposed by their feuding families, the Montagues and Capulets.

Shakespeare probably wrote the play between 1591 and 1595. Its story was not entirely original: Shakespeare drew on earlier versions, especially Arthur Brooke’s 1562 narrative poem The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, which itself developed an Italian tale. Shakespeare expanded the material with memorable supporting characters such as Mercutio, Tybalt, the Nurse, and Friar Laurence.

The play was first printed in a quarto edition in 1597, with later quartos providing fuller and more reliable texts. Its balcony scene, secret marriage, poison plot, and tragic ending have made Romeo and Juliet one of the most frequently performed and adapted works in English drama. A common mix-up is treating it as a simple romance; it is formally a tragedy, and the lovers’ deaths result from a chain of family conflict, secrecy, haste, and bad timing.