Name: ______Date: ______

Romeo and Juliet: The Prologue

Pro = (Latin) before; in front of

Logue = (Greek) to speak or discourse (as in monologue, dialogue, travelogue, epilogue, eulogy, etc.)

The CHORUS is one actor who serves as a narrator. His job is to “hook” the audience’s interest by telling them just enough to quiet them down and make them eager for more. In this prologue, or preview, the narrator explains that the play will be about a feud between two families, (the Capulets and the Montagues). In addition, the narrator says that the feud will end in tragedy. As you read the prologue, determine what the tragedy will be.

(Line Number) (Rhyme Scheme)

______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 misadventured 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.______

On the LEFT HAND SIDE, number the lines.

Circle each of the QUATRAINS. How many are there? ______

Place a box around the HEROIC COUPLET.

Use line 1, count the number of syllables. How many per line? ______

What form is the prologue?______

  1. How many families are involved? ______
  1. “Both alike in dignity” means

______

______

  1. Are they friends? ______

Locate evidence of this. Write the line or lines below.

______

______

  1. What is meant by the statement star-crossed?

______

______

  1. What is the setting? ______, Italy (14th century)
  1. How does the play end?

______

______

Locate evidence of this. Write the line or lines below.

______

______

  1. Provide THREE EXAMPLES of foreshadowing from the prologue

a.)

b.)

c.)

  1. How long will the play take? ______
  1. What does the playwright ask the audience to do?

______

______

  1. Do the families reconcile? Why?

______

______