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No Fear Translations of Shakespeare’s plays (along with audio!) and other classic works
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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-crossed lovers take their life,
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-marked love
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children’s end, naught 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.
The Prologue to Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet is a sonnet delivered by the all-knowing Chorus that reveals the main plot points of the play. It also alerts us to the important role that fate will have in the play. Read more about this sonnet and its function in the overall play in Famous Quotes Explained (the first quote). It is also discussed in Quotes by Theme: The Inevitability of Fate (the first quote), which describes the role of astrology in Shakespeare’s time, and in Quotes by Setting: Verona (the first quote).
