"In fair Verona, where we lay our scene."
The traditionary story of _Romeo and Juliet_ is fact. The animosities
of the houses of Montagu and the Capulet are matter of the history of
Verona, where, in olden times, Pliny and Catullus were born. Juliet
was buried in the _soutterain_ of Fermo Maggiore, which belonged to an
order of Franciscan friars, and was founded in 1230. Some years ago
the monastery was burnt down, and the vaults and burying-place reduced
to ruins. At this time the stone sarcophagus, the sepulchre of Juliet,
was removed, and placed where it now is, in the entrance gateway of
the monastery. The upper edge of it was entire when it was first put
here, but has since been mutilated, as is represented in the Cut, for
scraps to carry away as relics. Thus noted Mr. Duppa, a few years
since; but we have other pilgrims and fair pens to establish the
identity.
[Illustration: (_Juliet's Tomb._)]
Lord Byron, in a postscript to one of his letters from Verona, dated
Nov. 7, 1816, says, "I have been over Verona. Of the truth of Juliet's
story, they seem tenacious to a degree, insisting on the fact--giving
a date (1303), and showing a tomb. It is a plain, open, and partly
decayed sarcophagus, with withered leaves in it, in a wild and
desolate conventual garden--once a cemetery, now ruined to the very
graves. The situation struck me as very appropriate to the legend,
being blighted as their love. I have brought away a few pieces of the
granite, to give to my daughter and my nieces."[5]
[5] Moore's Life of Byron, vol. ii. 4to. p. 50.
Mrs. Maria Callcott writes, in 1829:--"The tomb now shown as that of
Juliet, is an ancient sarcophagus of red granite: it has suffered from
the fire which burnt down the church, where it was originally
placed."[6]
[6] See a sketch accompanying an Engraving of Verona, in vol.
xiv. of the _Mirror_, p. 321.
Lastly, the accomplished authoress of _Characteristics of Women_ adds
her testimony, and illustrates the fondness with which the relics of
Juliet are cherished, by noting that she met in Italy a gentleman, who
being then "_dans le genre romantique_," wore a fragment of Juliet's
tomb set in a ring.[7]
[7] See p. 118 of the present volume.
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