The Prologue of
Romeo and Juliet
Act 1, Prologue
•
What words do you see that are associated with love? What words do you see
that are associated with hate?
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.
• 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-crossed lovers take
their life
Whose misadventured piteous
overthrows, do with their death
bury their parent’s strife.
The fearful passage of their death
marked love, and the continuance
of their parents’ rage….
+
Which but their children’s end,
naught could remove, is now the
two hours traffic of our stage.
=
The which if you will patient ears
attend, what here shall miss our toil
shall strive to mend.
Romeo and Juliet starring…
Juliet
-daughter of Capulets
-isolated character
Tybalt
Juliet’s cousin
 Foil to Romeo
 Passionate
 Fiery, hot-blooded
 inflexible

Juliet’s Nurse
Ignorant
 Comical
 Old
 Fickle

Lord and Lady Capulet
Juliet’s parents
 Look at love as
a good match
-impatient
-old

Romeo






Son of Montague
Passionate
Naïve
Helpless
Cry baby
Lovesick
Mercutio
Friend of Romeo
 Witty
 Foil to Romeo
 Intelligent
 Romeo’s voice of
reason

Benvolio
 Romeo’s
cousin
 peacemaker
Paris
-supposed to marry Juliet
-a count
Friar Laurence
Romeo’s counselor
 Loved and respected
 Attempts to do what is
“right”

Some Pick Up Lines from the 1600s
(from the book of Wit and Language)
“a kiss is but a minute’s joy; your words are
Delphian oracles”
“you are a flame of beauty, sweet and
delicious as the feast of love”
“you are the rising sun which I adore”
“I wear you in my heart”
“your breath casts sweet perfumes”

Themes and Motifs
Love as a cause for violence
 Individual versus society
 Inevitability of fate
 Remember!! This is a play about two
fighting families!! The Romeo and Juliet
saga is simply just thrown into the mix!
