Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and along with "Hamlet", is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers. "Romeo and Juliet" belongs to a tradition of tragic romances stretching back to antiquity. The plot is based on an Italian tale translated into verse as "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet" by Arthur Brooke in 1562 and
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks the title is unconfirmed and may have been related to a zoo incident in Egypt, or possibly even a fire that occurred at a circus. Kerouac often based his fictional characters on friends and family. In later years, Burroughs did not consider "And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks" worth retrieving from obscurity. In the 1986 documentary "What Happened to Kerouac?" he dismissed it as "not a distinguished work." According to James Grauerholz, numerous attempts were made by Kerouac and others to get the book published, until Burroughs brought a lawsuit over the use of quotations from the manuscript