<Ul> <Li> Mercutio </Li> <Li> Friar Laurence </Li> </Ul> <Tr> <Th> Role </Th> <Td> Protagonist </Td> </Tr> <P> Romeo Montague (Italian: Romeo Montecchi) is the protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet . The son of Montague and his wife, he secretly loves and marries Juliet, a member of the rival House of Capulet . Forced into exile after slaying Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, in a duel, Romeo commits suicide upon hearing falsely of Juliet's death . </P> <P> The character's origins can be traced as far back as Pyramus, who appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses, but the first modern incarnation of Romeo is Mariotto in the 33rd of Masuccio Salernitano's Il Novellino (1476). This story was adapted by Luigi da Porto as Giulietta e Romeo (1530), and Shakespeare's main source was an English verse translation of this text by Arthur Brooke . Although both Salernitano and da Porto claimed that their stories had historical basis, there is little evidence that this is the case . </P>

What is romeo's age in romeo and juliet