Romeo and Juliet Prologue: An introduction to Shakespeare’s language
Purpose:
Learning Goal:
Timeline:
End Product:
Prior Knowledge
Process
This lesson is designed to demonstrate the process of breaking down Shakespeare’s
language so that student feel confident working with the language. This lesson occurs
immediately after an introduction to Elizabethan England.
Students will analyze the text for literal and figurative meanings, confusion, and tone.
One day (plus homework)
Students will paraphrase the Prologue and complete the questions.
Paraphrasing and annotation
1. Hand out the Prologue.
2. Give students two minutes to read it silently and number the lines.
3. Quickly invite immediate responses verbally. (mostly confusion) Do not correct
or instruct here.
4. Play a recording of the Prologue or read it aloud yourself. As students listen,
have them ‘read with their fingers’ – follow along word for word.
5. Ask students to read the Prologue aloud changing readers for each line.
6. Ask students to circle the all of the commas, periods, and semicolons.
7. Students read the Prologue again, this time changing readers at the circled
punctuation. *It is important to choose the readers before starting so they know
the order to keep the rhythm going.
8. Quickly invite responses: what stands out? What is this about?
9. Have students circle words they do not know.
10. Have students share with their neighbors what words they do not know.
11. Give students 5 minutes to look up words they do not know *this will require
them to work together and delegate words within their groups. Define the words
in the margins.
12. Share some of the words with the class.
13. Read it again silently.
14. Answer the first four questions below the Prologue. Discuss.
15. Find the images, words, and phrases about LOVE and HATE. Discuss.
16. Model paraphrasing with the first two lines then students should work on it in
pairs and finish it independently as homework.
Julie Gardieff Leesburg High School
Name_______________________________ Date__________________ Period_______
Romeo and Juliet 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.
1. According to the prologue where does the play take place?
2. According to the prologue what happens to the children?
3. According to the prologue what kind of lovers are the children?
4. Summarize the story in the Prologue in a few sentences.
5. There are two big ideas repeated in the Prologue. List any images, words, or phrases associated
with these two big ideas.
Love
Hate
Julie Gardieff Leesburg High School
Now, PARAPHRASE the complete Prologue. Put it in modern terms/your own words. Your rewrite
should be 14 lines, just like Shakespeare’s version, and should communicate all of the same
information. Yours doesn’t have to rhyme, but you can try if you want to!
1.
Two households, both alike in dignity,
2.
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
3.
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
4.
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
5.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
6.
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
7.
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
8.
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
9.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
10. And the continuance of their parents' rage,
11. Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
12. Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
13. The which if you with patient ears attend,
14. What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
Julie Gardieff Leesburg High School