1. Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare Prologue
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 misadvantaged piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents’ 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 with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

2. Shakespeare Made Easy
Announcer: The play is set in beautiful Verona, Italy. The two families of equal, noble rank [the Montagues and Capulets] have a long-standing vendetta, which has recently flared up: their followers have killed each other in civil strife. The children of these mortal enemies were fated to fall in love; their tragic deaths end their parents’ feud.

3. Announcer cont: The subject of our two-hour play is the distressing story of their fatal love affair, the course of their parents’ quarrel, and the resolution of this bitterness by their deaths.
If you will give us your patient attention, we’ll make up for any shortcomings by performing as well as we can.

4. How to Read Shakespeare
Iambic Pentameter—contains five iambic units (unstressed followed by stressed) in each line
Example (from Prologue):
Blank Verse—is unrhymed iambic pentameter
Couplets—two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme; usually punctuate a character’s exit or signal the end of a scene.

5. End-Stopped Line—a line that has some punctuation at its end; reader should pause at punctuation for emphasis.
Example (from Prologue):
Run-On Line– a line that has no punctuation at its end; reader should keep going until punctuation appears.