lay our scene,[3]
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,[3]
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.[3]
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes[3] 5
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;[3]
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows[3]
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.[3][4]
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,[3]
And the continuance of their parents' rage,[3] 10
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,[3]
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;[3]
The which if you with patient ears attend,[3]
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.[3][5]

ACT I.

Scene I. Verona. A public place.[6]

Enter Sampson and Gregory, of the house of Capulet, with swords and bucklers.