Prologue to Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare
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;
Whole misadventured 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;
The which
if you
with patient ears
attend
,
What here
shall
miss,
our toil
shall
strive to mend.