Romeo & Juliet
The Prologue
Romeo & Juliet – The Prologue
With the prologue, William Shakespeare sets up
the story and gives us the background. This was
a common device in Renaissance drama to allow
the play to get straight into the story without
needing a lot of build-up.
Audiences needed to be engaged from the start
of the play as, if they didn’t like what they were
seeing, they could be very rowdy! It was common
practise to take rot ton fruit to throw at the actors
of you didn’t like the play – a far cry from the
civilised theatres of today.
Romeo & Juliet – The Prologue
Prologue This is written in the form of a Sonnet (a
specificboth
Two households, kindalike
of poem), which is 14 lines
in dignity,
of rhyming
In fair Verona, where we text,lay
where
our every
scene,other line
rhymes except for the last 2, which
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
rhyme with each other.
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
Shakespeare wrote a great number of
From forth the fatal loins
Sonnets, of is
but this these twodevice
a clever foes at
A pair of star-crossed lovers
the start of the playtake their life,
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,
And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove,
Is now the two ours’ traffic of our stage.
The which if you with patent ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
Romeo & Juliet – The Prologue
This is a story about 2 very
similar families. Both are
proud of their status in the
The story takes place in Verona, community
Italy. At this both
Two households, time, Verona
alike was a
in dignity,
city state, which means it had its
own king (or Prince in our story) The two families have an old grudge
against each other. They have an
unwritten rule that they hate each
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, other. There will be members of the
family who break this rule.
But the result of this will be
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
bloodshed, staining the good
names of the families.
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
Romeo & Juliet – The Prologue
These families have children
(Romeo & Juliet)
They will fall in love with each other
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
against their parents’ wishes. This will
result in them committing suicide.
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
This is their sad story
The result of their deaths will
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
be to finally end the feud
between these two families.
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.
Romeo & Juliet – The Prologue
The dreadful story of their love,
marriage and death
The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,
With the ongoing rows
between the two families It seems that the only thing that
making it all worse will bring them to their senses is
And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
a tragedy like the death of their
children
And this is what our play is
Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove,
going to be about.
Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage.
Romeo & Juliet – The Prologue
So, if you’ve got the time to
stay and watch
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
We’ll fill you in on the rest of the
story
Romeo & Juliet – The Prologue
So, everything is set up. We know that the two families in the
play hate each other and have done for a long time. They
probably can’t even remember what they fell out over as it
was so long ago.
We know that the two children of these families will meet and
fall in love – even though they know that their families won’t
like it. They hope that, by breaking the tradition, the families
might make up.
But this doesn’t go well. The two will commit suicide and this
will finally make the families see sense.
