Prologue
Two households, both alike in dignity
In fair Toronto, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
Form forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers takes their life;
Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-marked love,
And the continuous 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 ear attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.