O, Juliet Part 28

She took my face in her hands and laid her lips on my forehead. I held her fingers to my cheeks, not wishing to release them and dreading the last sight of this beautiful angel. But with a wounded cry she stood and, taking her torch from the wall, strode away into the dark of the catacomb's aisle.

I looked down upon Romeo's face. Strangely, I felt heat flowing into my limbs.

"Here we are, my love, alone at last. No one to harry us. Here in the peaceful calm."

I touched his skin and found it warm.

"Are you still close enough to hear?" I whispered. I bent down and spoke into the cusp of his ear. "I'm frightened. Not of fiery h.e.l.l or shrieking harpies overhead. Only of failing to find you."

I kissed him one last time.

"If there is any justice in the world, I will."

I fumbled at my side and found the handle of Romeo's blade. I placed its tip above my breast and prayed for strength and grace.

"Oh, happy dagger," I prayed, "take me home!"

"Juliet . . ."

My name was being called. I heard it as if from a distance and I saw a point of light before my eyes.

A star . . . the one at the tip of Taurus's chin. I was speeding through the blackest of night skies, but where it once was filled with glittering points of fire, it now but showed the one constellation-the bull in all its power and glory.

Those fixed points grew larger and brighter, glowing like each was a sun unto itself. But the light did not blind me. No, no. The whole of the heavens had gone from black to white.

White as clouds. Clouds endlessly changing their shapes into faces and fabulous creatures. Oh! Now I could see there was blue sky. Blue as a summer's day. And a wall. A garden wall, ivy tendrils and flowery vines tumbling gracefully down.

Then I saw it. A ladder set against the stone, and I heard my name called again.

"Ju-li-et!"

I began to climb. It was high, this wall, but my legs and arms carried me up and up, my heart bursting with hope and joy.

"Come to me, love. Come to me now!"

His hand reached down, that hand with its woven band of gold. He gripped me tight and lifted me up and into his warm embrace.

Romeo smiled. "See where you are."

Above in the changing clouds I saw for the briefest moment the shape of the G.o.d of Love. Below was the Garden of Sweetest Delights. Flowers in the colors of silk danced in the soft breeze on broad meadows. A grove of ancient olives and walnuts and figs shaded a clear rushing stream. And there beside it, contentedly grazing, two white horses.

But the garden, I could see now, was walled on only three sides. From where we stood on high, I saw in the distance lands of great majesty. Mountains. Deserts. A city of golden spires. A sunlit sea. All stretching to infinity.

Romeo came close, his sweet breath caressing my face.

"This is ours," he whispered. "For eternity."

HISTORICAL NOTES.

Cosimo de' Medici, for his extraordinary service to the Republic of Florence, was named at his death Pater Patriae- Pater Patriae-"Father of the Country." Through his singular efforts and investments in learning and the arts, and Poggio Bracciolini Poggio Bracciolini's scouting for the lost books of antiquity, Europe emerged from the Dark Ages into the brilliant light of the Renaissance.

Cosimo's daughter-in-law Lucrezia Tornabuoni de' Medici Lucrezia Tornabuoni de' Medici became the foremost woman of the age-shrewd businesswoman, supporter of the greatest artists of the day, and primary patron of Sandro Botticelli. Lucrezia's marriage to Piero de' Medici was an unusually happy one, and their firstborn son, Lorenzo-taking up the reins from his grandfather Cosimo-presided over the Golden Age of the Italian Renaissance. For his brilliant leadership and patronage of the arts and philosophy, he came to be known as "Lorenzo the Magnificent." Her younger son she named Giuliano. Two of her grandchildren became popes. But Lucrezia de' Medici's greatest personal achievement had nothing to do with her offspring or the patronage of others. became the foremost woman of the age-shrewd businesswoman, supporter of the greatest artists of the day, and primary patron of Sandro Botticelli. Lucrezia's marriage to Piero de' Medici was an unusually happy one, and their firstborn son, Lorenzo-taking up the reins from his grandfather Cosimo-presided over the Golden Age of the Italian Renaissance. For his brilliant leadership and patronage of the arts and philosophy, he came to be known as "Lorenzo the Magnificent." Her younger son she named Giuliano. Two of her grandchildren became popes. But Lucrezia de' Medici's greatest personal achievement had nothing to do with her offspring or the patronage of others.

She became the greatest poetess of her time.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

Acknowledging those who have helped me in writing my novels is always a pleasure. But during the course of writing and promoting my last two books, an interesting shift occurred. While each individual a.s.sisted and supported me in his or her own particular way, I realized that everyone's efforts had transmogrified into a well-oiled "team effort."

Communication was open, smooth, and easy. Everybody-aside from doing the jobs at which they were experts-all worked laterally, "outside the box," as they say. Agents gave me wonderful story notes; my editor came up with marketing strategies; publicists, my webmistress, bloggers and fellow authors supplied ideas for promotion. Thus enthusiastically surrounded, supported, and protected, I was able to do my job-writing and promoting my books-comfortably and happily.

David Forrer and Kimberly Witherspoon, my agents since the beginning, are simply awesome. Lyndsey Blessing, Alexis Hurley, and Susan Hobson in foreign rights, keep my books flowing out into the rest of the world. Rose Marie Morse and Patricia Burke brought expertise in publicity and Hollywood that beautifully rounded out the agency team and really spiced up the stew.

When it comes to editors, there are none that compare with Kara Cesare-smart, insightful, and compa.s.sionate. I can always count on her to be at my side from soup to nuts and never steer me wrong. Editorial director Claire Zion is a veritable lion, and made the promotional phase of the editorial process a dream. While she is not in my everyday purview, I always know that publisher Kara Welsh is covering my back. Publicists Megan Swartz and Kaitlin Kennedy really "worked the room" with Signora da Vinci Signora da Vinci. When it came to O, Juliet O, Juliet, Caitlin Brown and Julia Fleischaker in publicity, and Ashley Fisher in marketing knocked themselves out. The folks in the art department, who have designed consistently stunning covers for all my books, went way beyond the beyond for O, Juliet O, Juliet.

Many thanks to Roberto Zecca for all his help researching olive growing and pressing in the fifteenth century, the history of Florence, and the hills and villas south of the city.

Thirty-year partner in crime Billie Morton, and dear friend Betty Hammett-my trusted "first readers"-gave me the thumbs-up on this ma.n.u.script. Once I had that, I knew I could breathe a sigh of relief. James "the Padre" Arimond again a.s.sisted me with all things Latin and religious, and my all-around a.s.sistant, Tasya, turned chaos into order.

Special thanks go to my spectacular Web designer, Linda Lazar, for outstanding work on my Web site, and to author friends Christopher Gortner and Mich.e.l.le Moran, who dragged me kicking and screaming into the new world of online promotion and my first-ever "virtual book tour." With the Internet and the blogging community as a conduit, I am connected with my fans in a way I never was before and now, with some sense of who they are, I can express my grat.i.tude to them for their priceless support.

My sourcebook for all versions of Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet wrapped up in one volume was wrapped up in one volume was Romeo and Juliet: Original Text of Masuccio Salernitano, Luigi Da Porto, Matteo Bandello, William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet: Original Text of Masuccio Salernitano, Luigi Da Porto, Matteo Bandello, William Shakespeare, edited and with an introduction by Adolph Caso (Dante University of America Foundation, by special arrangement with Brandon Publishing Company).

It may be unfair to single Shakespeare out from all the other storytellers, but I must, since Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet would never have become so overwhelmingly iconic without him. I have to be honest-I had never read a word of Dante Alighieri until I decided to make him part of my novel-but I was flabbergasted by the beauty of his words, both poetry and prose, on the subject of love. I took great pleasure in finding the right quotes for the right moments in my story. would never have become so overwhelmingly iconic without him. I have to be honest-I had never read a word of Dante Alighieri until I decided to make him part of my novel-but I was flabbergasted by the beauty of his words, both poetry and prose, on the subject of love. I took great pleasure in finding the right quotes for the right moments in my story.

Last, but never least, I give my deepest love and thanks to my darling Max, who simply makes life worth living.

READERS GUIDE.

O, Juliet

ROBIN MAXWELL.

A CONVERSATION WITH ROBIN MAXWELL.

Q. Why were you drawn to Romeo and Juliet's story?

A. I am a hopeless romantic.

As early as thirteen years old I foresaw myself with a career, and I dreamed of "being friends with the Beatles," which was my way of imagining myself surrounded by extraordinary people. But above all, my future was dominated by a single relationship. I desperately wanted a wonderful husband, someone who understood me and accepted me for who I was-a true "marriage for love." I had no idea what this man might look like or what he'd do for a living. All I demanded-for reasons I'll never understand-was that he possess a pair of "strong, square hands."

On the road to finding my life's partner, I claimed many remarkable men and women as friends. My career, of course, became writing, but the screenplays I began with were broad, bawdy comedies about bawdy broads, ancient civilizations, and extraterrestrials. Later, in my novels, I wrote of the strong, ahead-of-their-time women of history who defied despots in male-dominated societies.

During my search for a soul mate I was always drawn to great love stories, in books, films, and songs. But nothing moved me as profoundly as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet. The first time I saw Franco Zeffirelli's version, I sobbed for half an hour after leaving the movie theater.

It was the perfect romantic tale. Beautiful, tenderhearted, yet pa.s.sionate young lovers, gorgeous language, glorious Italy, family feuds, and a touch of violence. Even the tragic ending wasn't so bad because Romeo and Juliet were reunited in death.

Q. Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet was famously set in Verona, and yet, you set your lovers in Florence at the time of the Medici. Why? was famously set in Verona, and yet, you set your lovers in Florence at the time of the Medici. Why?

A. Of course it's been rejigged a hundred different ways-from Broadway musicals to operas to ballets. Most recently director Baz Luhrmann's feature film starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo and Claire Danes as Juliet. What I didn't know till recently was that Shakespeare's play was not the first telling of "Romeo and Juliet." Since the time of the Greeks and Romans, countless "girl-and-boy-from-warring-families" tragedies have been written. But in 1216 in Florence, two families from opposing factions came to blows when a Donati girl ran off with a Buondelmonti boy, and her cousin was killed at the Ponte Vecchio during the ensuing battle.

This legend apparently took root in Tuscan consciousness, because no less than three writers in the two following centuries decided to commit it to the written word in novella (short story) form.The first, Masuccio Salernitno, set the story in Siena, with Juliet traveling to Alexandria, Egypt, to find her banished husband. Both Luigi Da Porta and Matteo Bandello placed the tale in Verona, with Romeo escaping to Mantua. Those locations "stuck" when, in the sixteenth century, Arthur Brooke wrote the story as a narrative poem, and in 1594 Shakespeare finally took up the gauntlet, immortalizing the lovers in his masterful play.

I had just completed my seventh historical novel, Signora da Vinci Signora da Vinci, the story of young Leonardo and his devoted mother, Caterina, and had become completely immersed in the culture of Renaissance Italy and enamored, in particular, of the glorious Medici family. My divine editor, Kara Cesare, had been urging me to stay in the Italian Renaissance for my next book, an idea I liked, as it meant I could do without long months of monumental, brain-scrambling research once again. She suggested the possibility of using as a character one of her personal favorites from Signora da Vinci Signora da Vinci, the magnificent materfamilias of the Medici clan, Lucrezia Tornabuoni.

Since I dearly wanted a close female confidant for Juliet, a young woman with whom she could celebrate and commiserate, Lucrezia became the perfect "best friend." Having decided on that, I realized I had my place-Florence, where Lucrezia and the Medici lived-as well as the date, a year in which the girlfriends at eighteen were considered ripe and ready for marriage, 1444.

This allowed me the run-up to the social event of the decade, Lucrezia's wedding to the heir of Florence's ruling family, the Medici. It came at a time when the city was at peace, and was prospering with its nexus of bankers, artists, and textile merchants.

And it afforded me another utterly brilliant character-Don Cosimo de' Medici. He was, after all, the man most responsible for the Renaissance happening in the first place, and he would have adored his beautiful, highly intelligent daughter-in-law-to-be. For the family Juliet was meant to marry into, I chose the Strozzi, who were, in fact, second only to the Medici in wealth and power. Allessandra Strozzi was famously fierce when it came to matchmaking for her children. Jacopo-the ignored and bitter "third son"-was a figment of my imagination.

Suddenly I had a perfectly logical, believable, and richly textured setting for my scenario and all my characters.

Today in Verona, "Romeo's Castle" and "Juliet's Balcony" are popular tourist attractions. I hope the citizens of that fine city will forgive my literary license, returning the bulk of the story to its earliest Italian roots, Florence.

Q.What surprised you most in your research of Shakespeare's famous tale and why did you decide it needed a fresh twist?

A. One day, in one of those moments of epiphany that writers long for, and only occasionally in a whole lifetime of writing are afforded, I realized that no one had written a historical novel of Romeo and Juliet. I'd been longing to write a great love story, and while every one of my books included a love relationship, the love between a man and a woman had never been its central theme.

Richly lyrical and transcendentally pa.s.sionate as the Bard's rendition was, I'd never gotten a true sense of these two young people who inspired the story. I wanted to know about their inner lives, about their families and the society whose stringent rules and restrictions attempted to keep them apart and brought about their tragic ends.

For research I read the three Italian short stories and used Shakespeare's play as my "skeleton," and as all the writers before me I liberally borrowed, embellished and changed the details to suit my personal tastes. Never did I feel constrained by any of the earlier versions.

I knew that I did not want my Romeo and Juliet to be the fourteen-year-olds as Shakespeare had written them. That age for girls to marry was customary in sixteenth-century England, but not fifteenth-century Florence. Eighteen for a woman and twenty-five for a man was the norm, and that suited me perfectly. I wanted my lovers to have fully formed minds and full-blown pa.s.sions.

I felt I needed something to tie my protagonists tightly together in a complex way-not simply a case of blind l.u.s.t, or even love at first sight (though these are emotions that certainly come into play in my version). The conceit I decided upon was Romeo's and Juliet's mutual love of poetry-in particular their reverence for Italy's greatest poet, Dante Alighieri.

In two of the Italian stories Juliet offers to cut off her hair and don men's clothing to become Romeo's page and follow him into exile. Cross-dressing women, it seems, turn up a lot in both medieval literature and history, so as in Signora da Vinci Signora da Vinci, I was comfortable with my heroine in male drag when the story called for it.

Also in the Italian versions, Juliet does away with herself in various ways, all less violent than with Shakespeare's "happy dagger." She simply wills wills herself to die in one, and holds her breath till she does in two others. The Bard has Romeo expiring in the tomb before Juliet wakes from her self-imposed stupor, but that did not allow for the pa.s.sionate ending I envisioned. I quite liked Bandello having the lovers reunite one last time before Romeo's poison takes effect, and made it my own. herself to die in one, and holds her breath till she does in two others. The Bard has Romeo expiring in the tomb before Juliet wakes from her self-imposed stupor, but that did not allow for the pa.s.sionate ending I envisioned. I quite liked Bandello having the lovers reunite one last time before Romeo's poison takes effect, and made it my own.

Q. How has Dante Alighieri influenced O, Juliet O, Juliet . . . and your life? . . . and your life?

A. The only way I can describe this man's influence with the generations (and centuries) that came after him was that he was a Renaissance rock star-the John Lennon, the Bob Dylan, the Shakespeare of his age. During the b.l.o.o.d.y feuding between the Guelfs and the Ghibellines in the thirteenth century, the Florentine government executed a political screwup that they would regret forever-they banished Dante from the beloved city of his birth for life. After his death in Ravenna, the Florentine government tried to retrieve his remains to place in a monument they had created for him, but his adoptive town would not release his bones.

In subsequent years, Boccaccio (Decameron), who was Dante's first biographer, was paid a small fortune by the Florentine city fathers to give a course of public lectures-the Cathedra Dantesca Cathedra Dantesca-on the writer he idolized. In the early fifteenth century the most sought-after and highly paid scholar in Italy, Francesco Filelfo, taught the Dante Symposia, drawing huge crowds wherever he went. The tradition has continued in Florence from that time to the present day. My Friar Bartolomo is a fictional character, but you can be sure that if Romeo and Juliet had indeed lived in that city, one scholar or another would have been giving those popular lectures.

That poetry could so inflame two lovers in those days I have no doubt. Alberti's poetry compet.i.tion in 1441 (the one I have Juliet sneaking her poem into) was a major cultural event. The great historian Will Durant says of Filelfo that he "made all Italy resound with his erudition and vituperation," and that in the Renaissance "scholarship could be pa.s.sion and literature could be war."

For Romeo-himself an amateur poet-to find a woman who was his creative and intellectual equal, if not his better, would have shaken his world. And for Juliet to discover a soulful, wild-hearted, and secretly subversive young poet determined-as few others were in those days-to be a peacemaker would have been enough to spur her on to great heights of rebellion against a killingly repressive society, even if escape from it meant her death.

Q. Can you share a bit of your own love story?

A. By the time I wrote O, Juliet O, Juliet, I had been married to my own Romeo, Max Thomas, for twenty-five years. Handsome, sensitive, and a bit of a daredevil, he took me from my sedentary life of the mind on white-knuckle adventures I'd never dreamed of having. Our version of the ascent to the apex of the Florence Cathedral dome at midnight was climbing to the top of a ma.s.sive rock formation in Joshua Tree National Park at noon. We committed to our life together on the Hawaiian lava fields of Mauna Loa.

Fortune has blessed me, as it did Juliet, to have found a man to love who "sees me as I wish to be seen, hears me as I wish to be heard, and loves me as I wish to be loved." I have literally followed him through a firestorm. He is my rock and my inspiration.

And yes, he possesses a pair of strong, square hands.

Robin Maxwell would enjoy hearing from you at www.robinmaxwell.com.

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Robin Maxwell lives in the wilds of the California high desert with her husband, yogi Max Thomas. She would enjoy hearing from you at lives in the wilds of the California high desert with her husband, yogi Max Thomas. She would enjoy hearing from you at www.robinmaxwell.com.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION.

1. The role that families played in arranging marriages in fifteenth-century Italy-indeed, in most of the civilized world-was enormous. Children had little or no say in the husband or wife chosen for them. Does it surprise you to know the practice continues even today? In what regions of the world and at what levels of society do you imagine this still happens?2. Lady Diana Spencer was carefully chosen to be the virgin bride of England's Prince Charles. Discuss how you think theirs being an arranged marriage led to the tragic end of Princess Di.3. Did your parents have anything to do with the choice of any of your spouses, lovers, or significant others? Did the level of their influence change as you got older?4. Did you ever openly defy your parents in choosing a lover or spouse? What was the result?5. Did you ever forgo a love relationship because of parental disapproval? Did you regret it, or did it turn out for the best?6. Were you familiar with the Italian poet Dante Alighieri before reading O, Juliet O, Juliet? Many people know of him as the author of The Divine Comedy, The Inferno The Divine Comedy, The Inferno, but were you aware that he and his Beatrice are considered one of medieval history's great pairs of lovers?7. Did you enjoy Dante's writing and poetry about love from Vita Nuova Vita Nuova ( (A New Life) quoted in O, Juliet O, Juliet?8. Did it ring true to you that Juliet and Romeo would connect so strongly via poetry? Have you ever experienced a love connection that was enhanced by a shared interest?9. What qualities made Romeo the perfect lover? What were the most attractive characteristics of Juliet's personality to Romeo? What are the traits in a person that make you you fall the most deeply in love? fall the most deeply in love?10. In fifteenth-century Italy, even friendships between women were constrained and limited, as girls and even married matrons were kept behind closed doors most of their lives. Do you imagine that two young women like Juliet and Lucrezia could sustain a friendship that close and intimate under such conditions? How important did you feel their relationship was to the telling of this story?11. Were you aware of the importance of the Medici family-particularly Don Cosimo-in the genesis of the Renaissance? Did you find yourself thinking what a fortunate woman Lucrezia Tornabuoni was to be marrying into such a family?12. Everyone knows how this story ends. Did you find yourself wishing that the author had allowed one or both of the lovers to live?13. Do you believe Lucrezia should have been able to talk Juliet out of taking her own life?14. If you had been Juliet, would you have chosen to commit suicide?15. Despite Romeo's and Juliet's deaths, was the ending of O, Juliet O, Juliet satisfying to you as a reader? satisfying to you as a reader?

Signora da Vinci By Bestselling Author ROBIN MAXWELL.