| |
| | 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 | 5 |
| | 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, | 10 |
| | 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. | |