How old was Romeo in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?

Althoughand  in 's  are

often considered archetypal young lovers, Shakespeare does not specify Romeo's
age.

We do know that Juliet was 13 at the time of her
death. To a modern audience, this may
seem rather young for marriage, but in
the Renaissance, women were married as soon as they
reached puberty, due to
the high infant mortality rate. For a woman to bear a male child
surviving
into adulthood, and a second male child in case the first one died in adulthood
(an
"heir and a spare"), she needed, on the average, to bear eight children,
for which
marrying early in her reproductive years was necessary.

For Romeo, the first
thing that gives is a clue to his age is his
impetuous, imprudent character, something that in
drama of this period was
normally attributed to the young. As he is still to a degree under
parental
control, unmarried, and unemployed, and his parents are middle aged rather than
elderly
and feeble, we can assume that he is under 30. He is referred to in
the play as
"young" Romeo:

Nurse: ...
where  I may find the
young Romeo?

Romeo:  I am the
youngest of that name...

Arthur
Brooke's The Tragicall History of Romeus and
Juliet,
which was Shakespeare's main source, describes him as "beardless",
which
would suggest under 18, but older than 14 or so because he is as tall and strong as
adult
men, and referred to as a young man rather than as a child. 

Overall, a range
of approximately 16 to 21 seems most
probable.