And then the poem, like the play, ends with a reference to the monumental honour done to the lovers:
"And lest that length of time might from our myndes remove The memory of so perfect, sound, and so approved love, The bodies dead, removed from vaulte where they did dye, In stately tombe, on pillers great of marble, rayse they hye. On every syde above were set, and eke beneath, Great store of cunning Epitaphes, in honor of theyr death. And even at this day the tombe is to be seene; So that among the monumentes that in Verona been, There is no monument more worthy of the sight, Then is the tombe of Juliet and Romeus her knight."
"Come see the Capulets and Montagues,-- Monaldi,--Filippeschi, reckless one! These now in fear, already wretched those."
[Footnote 3: In the original sense of reconciliation; as in _Rich. III_. i. 3. 36:
"he desires to make atonement Betwixt the Duke of Gloster and your brothers," etc. ]
ESCALUS, prince of Verona. PARIS, a young nobleman, kinsman to the prince. MONTAGUE, } CAPULET, } heads of two houses at variance with each other. An old man of the Capulet family. ROMEO, son to Montague. MERCUTIO, kinsman to the prince, and friend to Romeo. BENVOLIO, nephew to Montague, and friend to Romeo. TYBALT, nephew to Lady Capulet. FRIAR LAURENCE, } FRIAR JOHN, } Franciscans. BALTHASAR, servant to Romeo. SAMPSON, } GREGORY, } servants to Capulet. PETER, servant to Juliet's nurse. ABRAM, servant to Montague. An Apothecary. Three Musicians. Page to Paris; another Page; an Officer.
LADY MONTAGUE, wife to Montague. LADY CAPULET, wife to Capulet. JULIET, daughter to Capulet. Nurse to Juliet.
Citizens of Verona; Kinsfolk of both houses; Maskers, Guards, Watchmen, and Attendants.
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 misadventur'd piteous overthrows Doth 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.