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 misadventured 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' traffic of our stage;
            The which if you with patient ears attend,
            What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.