Romeo and Juliet Prologue

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Two households, both alike in dignity, 

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In fair Verona where we lay our scene, 

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From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

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Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. 

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From forth the fatal loins of these two foes 

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A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, 

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Whose misadventured, piteous overthrows 

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Do with their death bury their parents’ strife. 

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The fearful passage of their death marked love,

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And the continuance of their parents’ rage,

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Which but their children’s end, naught could remove, 

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Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage; 

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The which if you with patient ears attend, 

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What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.