1    Two households, both alike in dignity,
2    In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
3    From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
4    Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
5    From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
6    A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
7    Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
8    Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
9    The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
10   And the continuance of their parents' rage,
11   Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
12   Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
13   The which if you with patient ears attend,
14   What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.