"The goodly Hystory of the true, and constant Loue betweene Rhomeo and Iulietta, the one of whom died of Poyson, and the other of sorrow, and heuinesse: wherein be comprysed many aduentures of Loue, and other deuises touchinge the same." Here is Shakespeare's Prologue to his adaptation of the story for the stage: "Two housholds, both alike in dignitie, In faire Verona, where we lay our Scene, From auncient grude breake to new mutinie Where ciuill bloud makes ciuill hands uncleane. From forth the fatall loynes of these two foes A paire of starre-crost louers take their life; Whose misaduentur'd pittious overthrowes Doth, with their death, burie their Parents strife. The fearfull passage of their death-markt loue, And the continuance of their Parents rage, Which, but their childrens end, nought could remoue, Is now the two houres trafficque of our Stage; The which, if you with patient eares attend, What here shall misse, our toyle shall striue to mend." Why the dramatist thought fit to choose a different motive for his tragedy to the one shown in the poem and the novel, we shall never know. He may have found the hatred of the two houses accentuated in an older play on this subject, and his unerring dramatic instinct would prompt him to use the parents' strife as a lurid background on which to portray with greater vividness the "fearfull passage" of the "starre-crost louers"; or the modification may have been due to his reflections upon the political and religious strife of his day; or to his irritation at Brooke's short-sightedness in upholding, as more deserving of censure, the passion of improvident love than the evil of ready-made hatred. Whatever be the reason, the fact remains that Shakespeare, who was not partial to Prologues, has in this instance made use of one to indicate the lines that guide the action of his play, and it is upon these lines that I propose to-night to discuss the stage representation. I divide the characters into three groups. Those who belong to the House of Capulet, the House of Montague, and those who, as partisans of neither of the houses, we may call the neutrals. These include Escalus, Mercutio, Paris, Friar Laurence, Friar John, an apothecary, and all the citizens of any position and standing, the Italian municipalities being ever anxious to repress the feuds of nobles. The play opens with a renewal of hostilities between the two houses, which serves not only as a striking opening, but brings on to the stage many of the chief actors without unnecessary delay. In less than thirty lines we are introduced to seven persons, all of whom indicate their character by the attitude they assume towards the quarrel. We are shown the peace-loving Benvolio, the fiery Tybalt, the imperious and vigorous Capulet, calling for his two-handed sword-- "What noyse is this? giue me my long sword, hoe!"-- his characterless wife, feebly echoing her husband's moodiness--