Text:
William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet:
THE PROLOGUE TO ACT ONE
Enter CHORUS.
3
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
6
From forth the fatal loins
of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers
take their life;
Whose misadventured
9
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,
12
unclean.
Is now the two hours' traffic
The which if you
nought could remove,
of our stage.
with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss,
our toil shall strive to mend.
Annotations:
Chorus:
In Elizabethan drama a character, played by a single actor,
spoke the prologue and other linking parts of the play and
was used to explain and comment on the action; this used to
be a choir in ancient drama
1 households:
families
dignity:
nobility, social status
2 lay:
set
3 grudge:
quarrel, long-term hatred
mutiny:
violence, disorder, quarrel
4 civil:
belonging to fellow-citizens; polite, well mannered
5 from forth:
out of
fatal:
causing or ending in disaster or death
loins:
1. (old-fashioned) part of body around the hips between
waist and top of legs;
2. (literary) sexual organs
from…loins: as offsprings
foes:
enemies
6 star-crossed:
ill-fated, unlucky
take their life: 1. are born;
2. take your/ sb’s life: kill yourself/ sb
7 misadventured: unfortunate, unlucky
overthrows:
tragic accidents, disasters that lead to ruin
8 doth:
do (old plural form)
strife:
conflict
9 fearful passage: terrible course
death-marked: doomed to death
11 but…end:
only the deaths of their children
remove:
stop, bring to an end
12 two hours’ traffic: business, activity, performance lasting for two hours
13 attend:
listen to
14 what…miss: what is omitted in this prologue
toil:
acting
mend:
find a solution to a problem; heal; repair
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