>>2175023Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair /vt/, where we lay our scene,
From trumped-up grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil threads 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 ban bury their falseflag'ed strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their worthless rage,
Which, but their IP'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.