ARKCODEX
Dramatis Personae
1Escalus, prince of Verona Paris, a young nobleman, kinsman to the prince Montague and Capulet, heads of houses at variance with each other An old man, cousin to Capulet Romeo, son of Montague Mercutio, kinsman to the prince, and friend to Romeo Benvolio, nephew to Montague, and friend to Romeo Tybalt, nephew to Lady Capulet Friar Laurence, Franciscan Friar John, Franciscan Balthasar, servant to Romeo Sampson, servant to Capulet Gregory, servant to Capulet Peter, servant to Juliet’s nurse Abraham, servant to Montague An apothecary Three musicians Page to Paris; another page; an officer Lady Montague, wife to Montague Lady Capulet, wife to Capulet Juliet, daughter to Capulet Nurse to Juliet Citizens of Verona; several men and women, relations to both houses; maskers, guards, watchmen, and attendants Chorus
2Scene: Verona; Mantua.
Prologue
3
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.