SEQUENCE : ROMEO AND JULIET, A SHAKESPEARIAN TRAGEDY

The study of the Prologue

1) What is the Prologue's purpose ?
It is an introduction to the play.
The Chorus, often played by a single narrator, opens Romeo and Juliet with a brief summary of
what is to come on stage. This narrator introduces the main characters and what their relationships
are and announces what is to happen in this story . The Prologue reveals the end of the play right
from the beginning.
2) Pick up the words that are connected to hate and violence.
from ancient grudge (= rancune) break to mutiny (= mutinerie)
where civil blood makes civil hands unclean
these two foes (= ennemi, adversaire)
their parents' strife (= querelle, dispute)
their death
their parents' rage
which, but their children's end, nought could remove.
From the very beginning, the Chorus announces that this play is going to deal with violence. It is
about the feud between two respectable and important families of Verona, and how this hatred is
going to act upon their children's destiny.
3) Pick up the words that are connected to fate.
a pair of star-crossed lovers
their death-marked love
the fatal loins (= entrailles / rejetons) of these two foes
In the Prologue, Shakespeare tackles the theme of fate, destiny, which is one of the most important
ones in Romeo and Juliet. Fate is going to ordain (= dcider de) these characters' lives.
4) Is the poem written in prose or in verse ?
It is written in verse, there is a rhyme at the end of each line. The Prologue is even written in the
form of a sonnet. A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and
specific structure : two quatrains and two tercets or three quatrains followed by two other rhymes
(abab cdcd efef gg, the typical Shakespearian sonnet).
COMMENTARY :
This opening speech by the Chorus serves as an introduction to Romeo and Juliet. We are provided
with information about where the play takes place (Verona), and given some background
information about its principal characters : the two houses of Capulet and Montague, who are
alike in dinity . They form two repectable noble families. The Chorus evokes the two families'
ancient feud (= vendetta) : from ancient grudge break to new mutiny where civil blood makes
civil hands unclean , omitting to say what the cause of such hatred is. The reader has to take it for
granted. (= tenir pour acquis, comme allant de soi) It is a situation that has to be accepted right

from the beginning. Such hatred remains a source of violent and bloody conflict in the city.
Just as the Chorus in ancient Greek tragedies provided a commentary on events in the play for the
audience, so Shakespeare's Chorus sets the scene for tragedy by presenting his two young
protagonists as the victims of fate whose lives are marred (= gter, gcher) from the outset (= dbut,
commencement) by the feud between their families: "From forth the fatal loins (= fateful,
unfortunate, offspring) of these two foes / A pair of star-cross'd lovers (= lovers destined to an
unhappy fate) take their life." The Prologue refers to an ill-fated (= funeste) couple with its use of
the word star-crossed, which means, literally, against the stars. Stars were thought to control
peoples destinies. But the Prologue itself creates this sense of fate by warning the audience that
Romeo and Juliet will die, even before the play has begun.
The prologue is also a sonnet, (by the thirteenth century it meant a poem of fourteen lines that
follows a strict rhyme scheme and specific structure : two quatrains and two tercets or three
quatrains followed by two other rhymes (abab cdcd efef gg, the typical Shakespearian sonnet)).
And it is mainly written in Iambic Pentameters. It is a commonly used type of metrical line in
traditional poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm that the words establish in that
line, which is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". The word "iambic" refers the type
of foot that is used, known as the iamb, which in English is an unstressed syllable followed by a
stressed syllable (. - . - . - . - . -). The word "pentameter" indicates that a line has five of these
"feet".
The Sonnet was a popular form of 16th-century love poem that often explored such themes as love
in conflict. Shakespeare chooses this poetic form to outline (= donner un aperu, brosser un tableau)
the play's main issues of love and feuding and to present another major theme : how true love
ultimately triumphs because the deaths of Romeo and Juliet end the feud between their families.
This is what the Prologue says : which, but their children's end, nought could remove .
As we have said, in the Prologue, the Chorus speaks in the sonnet form, which was usually reserved
for a lover addressing his beloved. The sonnet is a very structured form of poetry, which indicates a
level of order. However, the content of this sonnet two families who cannot control themselves,
and hence bring down disaster on their heads suggests incredible disorder. So we can say that the
Chorus also introduces certain sources of dramatic tension that re-appear throughout the rest of the
play. The total opposition between order and disorder is a central element in Romeo and Juliet.
The Prologue does not merely set the scene of Romeo and Juliet, it tells the audience exactly what
is going to happen in the play. The audience therefore watches the play with the expectation that it
must fulfill the terms announced in the Prologue. The lack of suspense as to the outcome (= rsultat,
aboutissement) of the play serves to emphasize the major theme of fate an omnipresent force
looming over (= planner sur, de manire menaante) Romeo and Juliet's "death-marked" love.

SEQUENCE : ROMEO AND JULIET, A SHAKESPEARIAN TRAGEDY

The study of the Prologue
1) What is the Prologue's purpose ?

2) Pick up the words that are connected to hate and violence.

3) Pick up the words that are connected to fate.

4) Is the poem written in prose or in verse ?