Why do we want to hear the story of Romeo and Juliet, over and over again, even though we already know it inside and out? For three things: love, pain, and words. The desperate love of the two young people is so strong that they forget everything else around them. For it, they break all the rules. And if they cannot be together, they are willing to die - and they do. Romeo and Juliet alleviate, for young and old alike, the pain of all the accumulated longing that has been impossible to fulfil. And they do so through Shakespeare's words. The master of love sonnets has poured poetry into this rather early drama. Through the mouths of Romeo and Juliet. Into the ears of Romeo and Juliet. And into the ears of the reader. Rarely does the epithet »immortal classic« become such an understatement as in the case of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE [1564-1616], born in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England, is known as the greatest playwright of all time, with his name attached to a long line of immortal plays, including Othello, Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth.