SHAKESPEARE A RIP-OFF ARTIST ?? Bard Not Originator of R & J Story

                        They were right when they said there's no such thing as an
                    original story. Some critics complained the famous 1961
                    movie "West Side Story" stole its plot from "Romeo and
                    Juliet." But "borrowing" stories is nothing new. Shakespeare
                    based "Romeo and Juliet" on a long, boring poem by Arthur
                    Brooke called "The Tragical Historie of Romeus and Juliet."
                    But Brooke's poem was based on a French story by Pierre
                    Boaistrau, and this story was taken from Italian writer Matteo
                    Bandellom, whose story is supposedly a true account from the
                    11th century. And this chain continues back all the way to a
                    Greek story from around the year 400 A.D. (http://www.romeoandjuliet.com/author/art4.html)