page_title: Characters in Romeo and Juliet
section_title: Chorus
hierarchical_section_title: Characters in Romeo and Juliet / Other characters / Chorus
caption_attribution_description: English: Illustration of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Act I – Prologue.
context_page_description: William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet contains a relatively distinctive cast of characters. In addition to the play's eponymous protagonists, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, the play contains roles for members of their respective families and households; Prince Escalus, the city's ruler, and his kinsman, Count Paris; and various unaffiliated characters such as Friar Laurence and the Chorus. In addition the play contains two ghost characters and an unseen character.
context_section_description: A Chorus gives the opening prologue and one other speech, both in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet.
  The Chorus is an omniscient character. It appears at the top of the play to fill the audience in on the ancient quarrel between the, "Two households, both alike in dignity / In fair Verona, where we lay our scene". It returns as a prologue to act two to foreshadow the tragic turn of events about to befall the new romance between the title characters.
  The Chorus only appears in the Quarto versions, not in the First Folio.
caption: Woodcut of an actor portraying the Chorus delivering the prologue for the play
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