First folio
| Modern text
| Definitions
| Key line
| |
| Enter Chorus | | RJ I.prologue.1 | |
| CHORUS | | | |
| Two households, both alike in dignity, | | RJ I.prologue.1 | |
| In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, | | RJ I.prologue.2 | |
| From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, | mutiny (n.) riot, civil disturbance, state of discord | RJ I.prologue.3 | |
| Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. | civil (adj.)of civil war | RJ I.prologue.4 | |
| | civil (adj.)seemly, decent, well-behaved | | |
| From forth the fatal loins of these two foes | | RJ I.prologue.5 | |
| A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life; | star-crossed (adj.)thwarted by a malign star | RJ I.prologue.6 | |
| Whose misadventured piteous overthrows | misadventured (adj.)unfortunate, calamitous, disastrous | RJ I.prologue.7 | |
| Doth with their death bury their parents' strife. | | RJ I.prologue.8 | |
| The fearful passage of their death-marked love | passage (n.)incident, occurrence, event, happening | RJ I.prologue.9 | |
| And the continuance of their parents' rage, | continuance (n.)lasting nature, permanence, durability | RJ I.prologue.10 | |
| Which, but their children's end, naught could remove, | | RJ I.prologue.11 | |
| Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; | traffic (n.)dealings, employment, business | RJ I.prologue.12 | |
| The which if you with patient ears attend, | attend (v.)listen [to], pay attention [to] | RJ I.prologue.13 | |
| What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. | miss (v.)be unsuccessful, be inadequate | RJ I.prologue.14 | |
| Exit | | RJ I.i.14 | |