Romeo and Juliet

Directions:

• Read and annotate the following prologue from the beginning of Romeo and Juliet.
  • Paraphrase the lines in your own words.
  • You may have to look up words that are unfamiliar.
• Underline (highlight in blue) any word or phrase that has to do with hate.
• Circle (highlight in pink) any word or phrase that has to do with love.
• Be prepared for a quiz grade from working with this text at the beginning of class.

Act 1, Prologue

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 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.