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.