As a prologue to the play, the Chorus enters. In a fourteen-line sonnet, the Chorus describes two noble households (called "houses") in the city of Verona. The houses hold an "ancient grudge" (Prologue.2) against each other that remains a source of violent and bloody conflict. The Chorus states that from these two houses, two "star-crossed" lovers will appear (Prologue.6). These lovers will mend the quarrel between their families by dying. The story of these two …showed first 75 words of 6041 total…

…showed last 75 words of 6041 total…has lost two close kinsmen: Mercutio and Paris. Capulet and Montague clasp hands and agree to put their vendetta behind them. Montague says that he will build a golden statue of Juliet, and Capulet insists that he will raise Romeo's likeness in gold beside hers. The Prince takes the group away to discuss these events, pronouncing that there has never been "a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo" (v.iii.309).