Romeo and Juliet Prologue Explication

The Sonnet

What is a sonnet? A sonnet is a fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in iambic pentameter, that has one of several rhyme schemes. The two most common types of sonnets are Petrarchan, or Italian, sonnets Shakespearean, or English, sonnets A less common type of sonnet is the Spenserian sonnet.

The Shakespearean Sonnet Four parts three 4-line stanzas, called quatrains one 2-line section, called a couplet Rhyme scheme abab for the first quatrain cdcd for the second quatrain efef for the third quatrain gg for the couplet

PROLOGUE 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.

Explication 1 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.

Explication 2 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.

Explication 3 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 Prologue saying. 2 Questions: 1. What is the Prologue saying? 2. What information is being provided? 3. From the Prologue, do we know the outcome of the play? What is it?