| William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Oxford Shakespeare. 1914. | | | |
| Romeo and Juliet | | | | Prologue. |
| | Enter Chorus. | |
| Chor. 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. | 5 |
| From forth the fatal loins of these two foes | |
| A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life; | |
| Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows | |
| Do with their death bury their parents’ strife. | |
| The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love, | 10 |
| And the continuance of their parents’ rage, | |
| Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove, | |
| Is now the two hours’ traffick of our stage; | |
| The which if you with patient ears attend, | |
| What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. [Exit. | 15 | | |
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