Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Prologue

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 A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life; Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows Doth 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; The which, if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

Two families, equal in rank, in beautiful Verona, where we set our scene, break out from an old quarrel into fresh violence, where the blood of fellow citizens stains the hands of fellow citizens. From the doomed bodies of these two enemies a pair of lovers crossed by the stars are born; their unlucky, pitiful ruin buries their parents' quarrel along with their death. The terrifying course of their love, marked out for death, and the persistence of their parents' fury, which nothing but their children's end could stop, is now the two hours' business of our stage. If you will listen to it with patient ears, our effort will try to make up for whatever is lacking here.