ROMEO AND JULIET - PROLOGUE

          ROMEO AND JULIET - PROLOGUE



 [Enter] CHORUS.

      Chorus

     Two households, both alike in dignity(1),

     In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

     From ancient grudge break to new mutiny(2),

     Where civil blood (3) makes civil hands (4) unclean.

     From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
    A pair of star-cross'd (5) lovers take their life;
     Whose misadventured (6) piteous overthrows
     Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.

      The fearful passage (7) 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 (8) of our stage;

     The which if you with patient ears attend,
      What here shall miss (9), our toil shall strive to mend (10).

Romeo + Juliet Opening

ROMEO AND JULIET

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

1. dignity: rank.

2. mutiny: strife, rebellion against law and order.

3. civil blood: the blood of civil strife.

4. civil hands: citizens' hands. The repeated use of the word "civil" creates an irony: the citizens of Verona should be civil—respectful and civilized—, but they are the opposite.

5. star-cross'd: thwarted (. to oppose successfully; prevent from accomplishing a purpose, to frustrate or baffle a plan, purpose)  by the stars.

6. misadventured: caused by bad luck.

7. passage: progress, from beginning to end.

8. traffic: business. The phrase "two hours' traffic" poses a puzzle. On the modern stage, the full text of the play cannot be done in two hours; does this mean that it was cut in Shakespeare's time, or that Shakespeare's actors spoke very fast?

9. miss: miss the mark.

10. mend: repair. This line seemed to suggest that the play or the acting could be revised for the next performance.