Chapter One. “Star-crossed lovers.”

Our story is a tragic story of love and hate. It's a story of love between two young people and hate between their two families. Hate between the Montagues and the Capulets. The Montague family and the Capulet family were two of the richest families in the beautiful city of Verona, but they hated each other. The heads of the two families hated each other, the children hated each other, even the servants hated each other.

Our story starts on a very hot day in the summer. Everyone was feeling very hot and very angry. Some servants from the Capulet family were walking across the main square in Verona. They were chatting. Suddenly, they heard voices behind them.

‘Look, Capulet dogs!' the voices shouted.

The servants quickly turned round. They saw a gang of Montague servants on the other side of the square. ‘Montague rats!' they shouted back, ‘Let's fight them!'

The Montague and Capulet servants ran towards each other.

‘Fight, fight, fight!' they all shouted.

The good people of Verona were all very afraid. Children stopped playing and ran away. People ran into their houses and closed their doors and windows.

At that moment, a tall young man came into the square. The young man was Benvolio, Lord Montague's nephew. He hated the fighting between the Montague and Capulet families. He didn't like trouble. ‘Stop fighting,' Benvolio shouted. ‘Stop now!'

The servants stopped fighting for a moment, but soon started again. Suddenly, Benvolio saw another young man run into the square. ‘Tybalt!' Benvolio shouted to him, ‘help me to stop this fight. Help me to keep the peace.'

But Tybalt was an angry young man and he loved fighting. ‘Do you really think I'll help you to stop this fight?' Tybalt replied. ‘No way. I'm a Capulet. You're a Montague! There can be no peace between us.'

Tybalt pulled out his sword and attacked Benvolio. The two men started fighting like dogs. Soon, more and more people came into the square to fight. Fathers and sons were there. Brothers and cousins were there. Servants and their lords were there. The noise of the fighting was terrible.

‘Oh, not again!' said one old man, ‘I hate all this fighting. I'm going to find the prince. Perhaps he can stop them.'

He left the square to find the prince. When he arrived at the palace, he asked to see the ruler of Verona. ‘I need to speak to Prince Escalus immediately,' he said.

The prince soon arrived. ‘What is it, old man?' he asked.

‘Come quickly, my Lord,' said the old man, ‘The Montagues and Capulets are fighting in the streets again. Please stop them.'

The prince called his soldier. ‘Get my horse and come with me,' he shouted. The prince and his soldiers went quickly to the square.

The Montagues and the Capulets were still fighting when the prince arrived in the square with his soldiers and their horses.

The sound of the horses was very loud. The prince was very angry. ‘STOP THIS NOW!' he shouted. ‘This is the THIRD fight between Montagues and Capulets THIS SUMMER. This fighting MUST STOP. The people of Verona are afraid and unhappy.'

Then the prince made a terrible threat. ‘If there is another fight like this, you'll DIE.' Everybody stopped fighting. The prince called the heads of the families. ‘You, Capulet, come with me. Montague, I'll speak to you later. Everybody else, go home or I'll kill you all.'

The prince turned away with his horse and left the square. Lord Capulet followed him. Tybalt called his servants and went home. When the square was empty, Lord Montague called Benvolio. ‘How did the fight start?' he asked.

‘It was the servants at first,' said Benvolio, ‘I tried to stop them and when Tybalt arrived I asked him to help me. But he wanted to fight too and he attacked me.'

‘But where's my son?' said Lord Montague. ‘Where's Romeo?'

‘He wasn't at the fight,' Benvolio explained, ‘I saw him walking this morning, but he wanted to be alone. I don't know why.'

‘Yes, he seem sad,' Lord Montague replied, ‘I don't know what the problem is. I've tried asking him, but he doesn't want to tell me.'

‘I'll talk to him, if you want,' said Benvolio, ‘I'll ask him.'

‘Thank you, that's a good idea. Look, here comes Romeo now. I'll leave you to talk to him.' Lord Montague left the square too.

‘Hello, Romeo,' said Benvolio to his friend, ‘why are you so sad?'

‘I'm in love with a beautiful girl,' replied Romeo, ‘I love Rosaline but she doesn't love me.'

‘Poor Romeo. Why don't you forget her? There are lots of other beautiful girls here in Verona.'

But Romeo was still very sad. ‘There's only one girl for me and that's my lovely Rosaline. I'll never love anyone else.'

Lord Capulet returned home after his visit to the prince. He was pleased to see that a young friend, Count Paris, was at his house. Count Paris asked about Capulet's conversation with the prince. ‘The prince is a very fair man. He's angry with us, he's angry with the Montagues too. He's angry with all of us and he's right,' said Lord Capulet, ‘Lord Montague and I must learn to keep the peace. It's easy for us old men, but it's difficult for the younger ones.'

The two men went for a walk in the garden. Count Paris wanted to talk to about Capulet's daughter. ‘Have you thought about me and Juliet? I still want to marry her,' he said.

‘My answer is still the same, sir. My daughter is only thirteen, so she's still very young. But perhaps there's a way. There's a party at my house tonight. Come to the party and meet her. You can talk to her and dance with her. If she likes you, then you can marry her.'

‘Thank you,' said Paris, ‘I'll come to your party. I'll see you tonight.'

Lord Capulet went back into the house. He called his servant and gave him a list of names. ‘We're having a party tonight. Here's a list of people. I want them to come to my party. Go and find them and invite them to my house. Tell them to come for dinner and a ball tonight.'

‘Yes, my Lord. I'll go immediately,' the servant replied.

The servant left the house, but sat on the wall outside. ‘Help! What can I do?' he said to himself. ‘My lord doesn't understand, but I can't read this list. I can't read at all. I must find someone who can help me. Someone who can read.'

At that moment, he saw Romeo and Benvolio, who were still talking in the street. The servant ran to them and said, ‘Please help me, sirs. Lord Capulet is having a party tonight. He wants me to invite the people on this list, but I can't read it. Can you help me?'

Romeo took the piece of paper from the servant. He began to read Lord Capulet's list of names aloud.

‘Signor Martino and his wife and daughters.

Mercutio and his brother, Valentine.

My Uncle Capulet and his wife.

My niece Rosaline.

Signor Valentio and his cousin Tybalt.'

The servant was very happy. He thanked Romeo and then ran off to find the people on Lord Capulet's list.

Romeo turned to Benvolio. ‘Did you hear what the servant said? Rosaline is going to the party. My beautiful Rosaline. My true love. I'd love to go, but, what can I do? It's a Capulet party.'

‘I know,' said Benvolio. But Benvolio was thinking. He wanted Romeo to forget Rosaline. He wanted Romeo to meet some other girls. Then he had a clever idea. ‘Why don't you go to the party?' he said to his friend.

‘Are you crazy, Benvolio? They're Capulets and I'm a Montague. How can I go to their party?'

‘Wear a mask. No one will know who you are. Then you can see Rosaline and compare her to the other girls.'

‘Yes. That's a good idea. Then I can see my Rosaline. I'll go to Lord Capulet's party.'

At Lord Capulet's house, everybody was preparing for the party. Servants were cleaning the rooms, preparing the tables and lighting the candles. The cooks were making a fine dinner. Juliet, Lord Capulet's beautiful young daughter, was in her bedroom. Her nurse was helping her to dress for the party.

‘Oh, I remember when you were just a little baby,' she said. ‘Just look at you now. You're a beautiful young lady in your beautiful dress.'

There was a knock at the door and Lady Capulet came into the room. She studied her daughter.

‘You're lovely, Juliet. Now that you're almost fourteen years old, perhaps we should talk about marriage. How do you feel about getting married?'

Juliet was a bit surprised by her mother's question. ‘Marriage is an honour,' she said, ‘but I've never thought about getting married.'

‘Why have you never thought about it? There are lots of married girls of your age in Verona. Some of them have children already.' Lady Capulet stopped speaking for a moment. Then suddenly she said, ‘Now that we're finally talking about marriage, I've got some news for you. Count Paris came to see your father today. The count wants to marry you. What do you think about the idea?'

Juliet didn't answer. She was still a little surprised. But her nurse was very excited. ‘My Juliet is getting married! Oh, you'll be so happy. Count Paris is a fine man. You'll have happy days and happy nights.'

‘Yes, he's a very fine man,' said Lady Capulet. ‘He's coming to the party tonight. You'll meet him then, Juliet, and I'm sure you'll like him.'

‘I'll try to like him,' Juliet replied with a heavy heart.

Just then, there was another knock at the door. One of the servants ran into the room. ‘They're here, my Lady. They're here. Your guests are arriving for the party. Dinner's ready.'