The which, if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
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—
Two households, both alike in dignity (In fair Verona, where we lay our scene), From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life
Their unfortunate deaths put an end to their parents' feud.
If you listen to us patiently, we’ll make up for everything we’ve left out in this prologue onstage.
In the beautiful city of Verona, where our story takes place, a long-standing hatred between two families erupts into new violence, and
Two unlucky children of these enemy families become lovers and commit suicide.
For the next two hours, we will watch the story of their doomed love and their parents' anger, which nothing but the children’s deaths could stop
Citizens stain their hands with the blood of their fellow citizens.
