The Prologue of Romeo and Juliet

1. The Prologue of Romeo and Juliet

2. Act 1, Prologue • What words do you see that are associated with love? What words do you see that are associated with hate? 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-cross'd lovers take their life;     Whose misadventured piteous overthrows     Do with their death bury their parents' strife.     The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,     And the continuance of their parents' rage,     Which, but their children's end, nought 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.

3. Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene.

4. From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

5. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life

6. Whose misadventured piteous overthrows, do with their death bury their parent’s strife.

7. The fearful passage of their death marked love, and the continuance of their parents’ rage…. +

8. Which but their children’s end, naught could remove, is now the two hours traffic of our stage. =

9. The which if you will patient ears attend, what here shall miss our toil shall strive to mend.

10. Romeo and Juliet starring… Juliet -daughter of Capulets -isolated character

11. Tybalt • Juliet’s cousin • Foil to Romeo • Passionate • Fiery, hot-blooded • inflexible

12. Juliet’s Nurse • Ignorant • Comical • Old • Fickle

13. Lord and Lady Capulet • Juliet’s parents • Look at love as a good match -impatient -old

14. Romeo • Son of Montague • Passionate • Naïve • Helpless • Cry baby • Lovesick

15. Mercutio • Friend of Romeo • Witty • Foil to Romeo • Intelligent • Romeo’s voice of reason

16. Benvolio • Romeo’s cousin • peacemaker

17. Paris -supposed to marry Juliet -a count

18. Friar Laurence • Romeo’s counselor • Loved and respected • Attempts to do what is “right”

19. Some Pick Up Lines from the 1600s • (from the book of Wit and Language) “a kiss is but a minute’s joy; your words are Delphian oracles” “you are a flame of beauty, sweet and delicious as the feast of love” “you are the rising sun which I adore” “I wear you in my heart” “your breath casts sweet perfumes”

20. Themes and Motifs • Love as a cause for violence • Individual versus society • Inevitability of fate • Remember!! This is a play about two fighting families!! The Romeo and Juliet saga is simply just thrown into the mix!