Romeo and Juliet act 1 prologue?

Answer 1

Two household, both alike in dignity,

(In fair Verona, where we lay our scene)

From ancient grudge breaks new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean,

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,

a pair of starcrossed lovers take their lives

Answer 2

Chrous: Two households both alike in diginity,

( In fair Verona where we lay our scene)

From ancient grudge, to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

From forth the fatal lions of these two foes,

A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,

Whose misadventures piteous overthrows

Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.

The fearful passage of their death marked love,

And the continuance of their parents' rage,

Which, but their children's end, naught could remove,

Is now two hours' traffic of our stage;

The which if you with patient ears attend,

What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

Chorus:ends

Answer 3

A prologue is an introduction to a play which tells the listener/viewer what the play is about, here is the prologue for Romeo and Juliet, it is an iambic pentameter (14 lines of 10 syllables each in an ABAB pattern until the last 2 lines which are a rhyming couplet).

Two households, both alike in dignity,

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

And civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-cross'd lovers take there life;

Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows

Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.

The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,

And the continuance of their parent's 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.

Answer 4

The Prologue to Romeo and Juliet is as follows:

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 parent's strife.

The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,

And the continuance of their parents' rage,

Which, but their children's end, naught 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.

It is written in modern English already so it cannot be translated into the language it is already written in. Don't believe me? Take out any ordinary English dictionary and look up every single word and you will find every word in that prologue listed in the dictionary.

Some of the lines are a bit tricky and so require explanation, but not translation. "Overthrows" means the same thing as "setbacks" or "reverses", so the overthrows of the star-crossed lovers, which are both piteous and as a result of misadventure, together with their death, end their parents' strife. He uses "bury" for "end" to connect with the word "death". It also creates a more final image.

In short, the reason you have trouble understanding this is not that it is written in a foreign language, but that it is written in a complicated way because it is poetry, and Mr. Shakespeare wanted it to be in a particular rhythm with a particular rhyme scheme using metaphorical language. If the line "which if you with patient ears attend" had been written "which, if you attend with patient ears" you would understand it better maybe, but it wouldn't rhyme so well.