The answer is: Tales adapted from Italian stories were popular at the time.
William Shakespeare often included Italy as a setting in his plays and sonnets or made allusion to it. He was very keen on Italian culture and had considerable understanding of the country. Although there is no evidence to support that Shakespeare ever visited Italy, it is believed that he might have learned about it from travelers' stories and French and English translations or adaptations.
It was a shock to the Elizabethan audience; everyone had arranged marriages and high class children obeyed their parents, but this play ruptures the rules
