When did Shakespeare write Romeo and Juliet?

Orthodox scholars believe Shakespeare produced most of his work between 1586 and 1612, although the exact dates and chronology of the plays attributed to him are under considerable debate Some of Shakespeare's plays first appeared in print as a series of quartos, but most remained unpublished until 1623 when the posthumous First Folio was published by two actors who had been in Shakespeare's company: John Heminges and Henry Condell. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was published in two distinct quarto editions prior to the publication of the First Folio of 1623. These are referred to as Q1 and Q2. Romeo and Juliet is a dramatisation of Arthur Brooke's narrative poem The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet (1562). Shakespeare followed Brooke's poem closely[1] but enriched its texture by adding extra detail to both major and minor characters, in particular the Nurse and Mercutio. Shakespeare also knew "The goodly History of the true and constant love of Rhomeo and Julietta", a prose ...  more