Those who have studied Shakespeare’s sources will be critical of my choice of years. As I’ve stated earlier, Luigi da Porto, whose version of the story was penned in the early 16th Century, firmly places the events of the play between 1301 and 1304. This is during the reign of Bartolomeo della Scala, Cangrande’s older brother. Working backwards from there, the events of this book would have taken place about 1276. While this is a fascinating period in Veronese history, with such notable characters as Mastino della Scala (the first) and Ezzelino da Romano (the third), for me it lacked the drama of the Fall of Verona. Verona reaches its greatest heights under Cangrande. That gives it so much farther to fall.
I claim da Porto was misinformed. The feud between the Montecchi and the original Capelletti was indeed buried in 1302, when Gargano Montecchio and his uncles slaughtered the last of the Capelletti in the Arena in Verona. But I have it flare up again in 1315 when another noble family takes up the Capulet name. It will not die for another twenty-five years, when Verona loses everything it holds dear.
Why? Because the horror of Shakespeare’s play isn’t just the demise of the young lovers, but also the death of every young knight in the city. The flower of Verona’s youth is blighted in a single week. For Mariotto Montecchio and Antonio Capulletto, it is very truly a plague on both their houses, but the scourge takes other lives as well. The Prince loses a brace of kinsmen, Mercutio and Paris. From the height that Cangrande lifts it to, Verona falls, never to rise again.
