In fair Verona where we lay our scene ...

Since I'm busy with the awards show coming Sunday, what better way to procrastinate than to blog. I came across this wondrous find and the hairs on my arms stood upright with questions and awe. I don't know if they were foolish and infatuated. Or perhaps old with burning love. Either way, it goes to show, nobody wants to die alone. And then of course, there is the stark resemblance to the story which boasts the following verses. I wonder if Shakespeare was inspired in the very spot where these lovers lay!

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;
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
Do 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.