Romeo and Juliet Prologue

Romeo and Juliet Prologue. Each line is explained in modern English underneath.

ACT I

PROLOGUE

Two households, both alike in dignity,

Two households with the same reputation

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

In Verona, where the story is set

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

From a grudge going back a long way now turns in to a new argument

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

Where people are killing each other

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

The children of these two enemies

A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;

Fall in love and kill themselves

Whose misadventured piteous overthrows

Whose actions

Do with their death bury their parents' strife.

Stop their parent’s death once they themselves die

The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,

Their love is destined to end in death

And the continuance of their parents' rage,

Their parents continue to fight

Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,

Their parent’s fighting ends once their children kill themselves

Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;

The story takes two hours to tell

The which if you with patient ears attend,

If you listen carefully

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

What you do not yet understand will be explained