Romeo and Juliet (Quarto 2, 1599)

Editor: Roger Apfelbaum
Peer Reviewed
The Prologue.
Corus.
Two housholds both alike in dignitie,
(In faire Verona where we lay our Scene)
From auncient grudge, breake to new mutinie,
Where ciuill bloud makes ciuill hands vncleane:
From forth the fatall loynes of these two foes,
A paire of starre-crost louers, take their life:
Whose misaduentur'd pittious ouerthrowes,
Doth with their death burie their Parents strife.
The fearfull passage of their death-markt loue,
And the continuance of their Parents rage:
Which but their childrens end nought could remoue:
Is now the two houres trafficque of our Stage.
The which if you with patient eares attend,
What heare shall misse, our toyle shall striue to mend.