Page:The Family Shakspeare (1818 Volume 10).djvu/16



Two households, both alike in dignity,
 * In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
 * Where civil bjood makes civil hands unclean,

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
 * A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life ;

Whose misadventur'd 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 re-
 * move,
 * Is now the two hours' traffick of our stage;

The which if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.