Prologue: In Shakespeare’s day, the prologue was the introduction. Think of it as a movie preview; the prologue tells the audience what is going to happen in the play. As we read this pay close attention because over the next several class meetings, you will memorize this prologue.
Chorus:
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.
Questions:
1. What is the setting of the play?
2. What is the relationship between the two households?
3. What does Shakespeare mean by “star-crossed lovers”?
4. What happens to the lovers?
5. What is the conflict for this play?
6. What does the chorus ask of the audience in the last two lines? Why?
7. What is the name of the poetic form which Shakespeare uses for the Prologue?
8. What are the last two lines of this poetic form called?
9. How many lines are there?
10. Mark the rhyming pattern out to the side of the prologue (The Rhyme Scheme)
11. Give examples of alliteration. (write one line number and example below)
Chorus:
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.
Questions:
1. What is the setting of the play?
2. What is the relationship between the two households?
3. What does Shakespeare mean by “star-crossed lovers”?
4. What happens to the lovers?
5. What is the conflict for this play?
6. What does the chorus ask of the audience in the last two lines? Why?
7. What is the name of the poetic form which Shakespeare uses for the Prologue?
8. What are the last two lines of this poetic form called?
9. How many lines are there?
10. Mark the rhyming pattern out to the side of the prologue (The Rhyme Scheme)
11. Give examples of alliteration. (write one line number and example below)