Romeo and Juliet (1917) Yale/Text/Prologue

by William Shakespeare

Layout 2

 

PROLOGUE

 

[Enter Chorus.]

Chor. Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes 5
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; 12
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

[Exit.]

 

 

Footnotes to the Prologue

1 Chorus; cf. n.
3 mutiny: contention
4 civil: of citizens
6 star-cross'd: thwarted by destiny; cf. n.
9 passage: course
12 traffic: business
14 miss: be wanting