Matching Pairs Prologue Pair-UpOnline version Match the lines from the Prologue to Shakespeare's Romeo+Juliet with the modern English translation. by Michelle Sueck 1 The which if you with patient ears attend 2 Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage 3 And the continuance of their parents’ rage, 4 Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean 5 Two households, both alike in dignity, 6 Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove 7 A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life; 8 From ancient grudge break to new mutiny 9 Whose misadventured piteous overthrows 10 The fearful passage of their death-marked love, 11 Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife. 12 What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. 13 From forth the fatal loins of these two foes 14 In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, living in lovely Verona, where our play is set, victims of unfavorable fate, commit suicide. bury their parents’ quarrel. you will see acted in the next two hours on our stage. If you will listen patiently, Two equally respected families, Break out in renewed violence due to an old grudge. Their unfortunate, pitiful deaths The sad story if their ill-fated love, and their parents continuing anger, Which nothing except their children’s deaths could end, the townspeople soil their hands with each other’s blood. The son of one enemy and the daughter of the other, our play will fill in what is missing from the prologue.