The story about Romeo and Juliet, in one form or another, was often told in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but Shakespear`s source was an English poem published in 1562, called `The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet`. It was written at a timewhen the brief vogue for sonnet-writing was at its height. The tragedy of `Romeo and Juliet` was first produced about 1595. From the first it was popular.