I was just told that Romeo or Juliet from Shakphre's "Romeo & Juliet" play was a Plantagenet. Can anyone confirm this? I always thought that these characters were just Myths, but then again Shackspear [spelling] did write a lot of plays on actual people such as "Henry V", "Lion in Winter", "MacBeth"; I guess I shouldn't be too surprised! If they are real, then is Hamlet, or Ivanhoe real as well?

Romeo was supposed to be a Montague, which, in English history, is the same name as Montacute which was a noble family which intermarried a bit amongst the Plantagenets. The Montacute/Montague family were the Earls of Salisbury, and the intermarried with the Hollands (many of whom who were descendants of Edward I Longshanks) the last Montacute Earl of Salisbury left no male heir and his Earldom passed to his daughter Alice who married Richard Neville who then became Salisbury. THIS Salisbury's son was Richard Neville, Earl Warwick, AKA 'Warwick the Kingmaker' who "made" both Edward VI and Edward IV and whose ambitions were a major cause of the Wars of The Roses. If you are like me, you no doubt have not just Plantagenet blood in your veins, but plenty of Neville, Percy, Beaufort, Beauchamp, and, yes, Montacute/Montague. On the other hand, weren't Romeo and Juliet supposed to be Italian? --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it!

On Feb 4, 2004, at 1:25 AM, David Blocher wrote: > I was just told that Romeo or Juliet from Shakphre's "Romeo & Juliet" > play > was a Plantagenet. Can anyone confirm this? > > I always thought that these characters were just Myths, but then again > Shackspear [spelling] did write a lot of plays on actual people such as > "Henry V", "Lion in Winter", "MacBeth"; I guess I shouldn't be too > surprised! > > If they are real, then is Hamlet, or Ivanhoe real as well? Doesn't it depend on what you mean by "real?" Even the characters whose historical reality cannot be challenged, e.g., Richard III, have received treatment at the hands of the dramatist which has rendered their lives in a fashion some think "unreal." It is fair to assert that there is some unreality in all recordation of historical event, and some, maybe much, reality in well-done fiction. The skills, purpose and integrity of the historian and playwright are central to the issue. On the other hand, given the transience of all reality, it doesn't make much difference. It is satisfying to seek out historical evidence, but I would not spend much time worrying about the pedigree of dramatic characters, as such. The playwrights rarely do. Richard Guilford

----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Guilford" <rguilford@voyager.net> To: <PLANTAGENET-DESCENDANTS-PROJECT-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 8:03 AM Subject: Re: [PDP] Romeo & Juliet: Are they real? > > On Feb 4, 2004, at 1:25 AM, David Blocher wrote: > > > I was just told that Romeo or Juliet from Shakphre's "Romeo & Juliet" > > play > > was a Plantagenet. Can anyone confirm this? > > > > I always thought that these characters were just Myths, but then again > > Shackspear [spelling] did write a lot of plays on actual people such as > > "Henry V", "Lion in Winter", "MacBeth"; I guess I shouldn't be too > > surprised! > > > > If they are real, then is Hamlet, or Ivanhoe real as well? > > > Doesn't it depend on what you mean by "real?" Even the characters whose > historical reality cannot be challenged, e.g., Richard III, have > received treatment at the hands of the dramatist which has rendered > their lives in a fashion some think "unreal." When I typed "real" I was asking if they truely existed in our reality, even though their histories could have been stretched a bit! i.e. Laura Ingals Wilder was real by meaning she truely existed, but her depictions from the family series "Little House on the Prairie" were pretty much fictious with a few real events composited into the show. Dracula was also real, but he didn't "suck Blood" he dripped it! So the question was if Romeo & Juliet ever existed in our reality? or were the inspired out of a creative imagination? I personally thought that their suicide was a composite of Cleopatra & Marc Antony.