<P> Come and see, you who are negligent, Montagues and Capulets, Monaldi and Filippeschi One lot already grieving, the other in fear . </P> <P> However, the reference is part of a polemic against the moral decay of Florence, Lombardy, and the Italian Peninsula as a whole; Dante, through his characters, chastises German King Albert I for neglecting his responsibilities towards Italy ("you who are negligent"), and successive popes for their encroachment from purely spiritual affairs, thus leading to a climate of incessant bickering and warfare between rival political parties in Lombardy . History records the name of the family Montague as being lent to such a political party in Verona, but that of the Capulets as from a Cremonese family, both of whom play out their conflict in Lombardy as a whole rather than within the confines of Verona . Allied to rival political factions, the parties are grieving ("One lot already grieving") because their endless warfare has led to the destruction of both parties, rather than a grief from the loss of their ill - fated offspring as the play sets forth, which appears to be a solely poetic creation within this context . </P> <P> The earliest known version of the Romeo and Juliet tale akin to Shakespeare's play is the story of Mariotto and Gianozza by Masuccio Salernitano, in the 33rd novel of his Il Novellino published in 1476 . Salernitano sets the story in Siena and insists its events took place in his own lifetime . His version of the story includes the secret marriage, the colluding friar, the fray where a prominent citizen is killed, Mariotto's exile, Gianozza's forced marriage, the potion plot, and the crucial message that goes astray . In this version, Mariotto is caught and beheaded and Gianozza dies of grief . </P> <P> Luigi da Porto (1485--1529) adapted the story as Giulietta e Romeo and included it in his Historia novellamente ritrovata di due Nobili Amanti, written in 1524 and published posthumously in 1531 in Venice . Da Porto drew on Pyramus and Thisbe, Boccacio's Decameron, and Salernitano's Mariotto e Ganozza, but it is likely that his story is also autobiographical: present as a soldier at a ball on 26 February 1511, at a residence of the Savorgnan clan in Udine, following a peace ceremony with the opposite Strumieri, Da Porta fell in love with Lucina, the daughter of the house, but relationships of their mentors prevented advances . The next morning, the Savorgnans led an attack on the city, and many members of the Strumieri were murdered . When years later, half - paralyzed from a battle - wound, he wrote Giulietta e Romeo in Montorso Vicentino (from where he could see the "castles" of Verona), he dedicated the novella to bellisima e leggiadra madonna Lucina Savorgnan . Da Porto presented his tale as historically true and claimed it took place a century earlier than Salernitano had it, in the days Verona was ruled by Bartolomeo II della Scala (anglicized as Prince Escalus). </P>

Who dies in the first scene of romeo and juliet