Prologue Chart Romeo and Juliet Name:
What it says… / What it means…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 for these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do 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.
Following are questions to consider as you read through the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet.
Prologue Vocabulary: be familiar with the following vocabulary words as you read the prologue; if there are any words you do not know, look them up:
DIGNITY MUTINY CIVIL LOINS PITEOUS
NAUGHT TRAFFIC TOIL STAR-CROSSED STRIFE
Answer the following questions using complete, thoughtful sentenceson the back of your prologue worksheet.
1. What is the subject matter of the play?
2. A Chorus ("group voice") often suggests a moral to be drawn from a play. What does this Chorus say this play will teach us?
3. Does the Chorus suggest that we should sympathize with the lovers or with the parents? Why?
4. What does the Chorus ask of the audience in the last two lines? Why is this so?
5. The Chorus gives away the ending. The story was already well known to Shakespeare's audience, as it is to us.Does knowing the end before you have begun reading the play add to or detract fromthe overall tragedy?
6. What is the style of the Prologue? How does this contribute to its effectiveness?