Romeo and Juliet, Act II, sc. 3
Friar Lawrence’s Soliloquy
Who Is Friar Lawrence?
Friar Lawrence may be the most important character in Shakespeare's play aside from Romeo or Juliet.
Romeo and Juliet is one of William Shakespeare's most famous tragedies. However, if it wasn't for the subject
of this lesson, it could have had a happy ending. Friar Laurence is Romeo's mentor and confidante. But the
thing about the Friar is that he's not always looking out for the best interests of young Romeo.
His soliloquy in Act 2, Scene 3 marks his introduction in the play. Every character in Romeo and Juliet serves a
distinct purpose in moving the narrative forward. Because Romeo trusts the Friar, he tells him of his love for
Juliet, even though she is a Capulet, and he is a Montague. For reasons unknown, the two rival families of
Verona are involved in an epic and sometimes violent family feud.
On the night Romeo meets Juliet, he races from her balcony to Friar Laurence to tell him that he wants to marry
Juliet immediately. But the Friar doesn't believe that two people so young who barely know each other should
be getting married. He even reminds Romeo that he was just in love with Rosaline a mere few days ago.
However, the Friar wishes for nothing more than the rivalry between the two prestigious families of Verona to
end. He believes that if a Capulet and a Montague get married, then the bitter feud will finally be set aside. The
Friar is foremost trying to make peace. He is doing what he thinks is the right thing by marrying Romeo and
Juliet.
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The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,
Check’ring the eastern clouds with streaks of light,
And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels
From forth day’s path and Titan’s fiery wheels.
Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye,
The day to cheer and night’s dank dew to dry,
I must upfill this osier cage of ours
With baleful weeds and precious-juiced flowers.
The earth that’s nature’s mother is her tomb,
What is her burying grave that is her womb,
And from her womb children of divers kind
We sucking on her natural bosom find,
Many for many virtues excellent,
None but for some and yet all different.
O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies
In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities.
For naught so vile that on the earth doth live
But to the earth some special good doth give,
Nor aught so good but strained from that fair use
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse.
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied,
And vice sometimes by action dignified.
Within this infant rind of this small flower
Poison hath residence and medicine power;
For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part,
Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart.
Two such opposed kings encamp them still
In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will—
And where the worser is predominant,
Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.
*notice the light vs. dark imagery
*Mythological sun god who rode a chariot across the sky
*poisonous
*reference to the circle of life
*many
1. What do you notice about the rhyming pattern of this soliloquy?
2. Find an example of each of the following literary devices:
a. metaphor:
b. personification:
c. allusion:
3. What does Friar Lawrence explain about the dual nature of herbs?
4. How does this nature lesson apply to life in general?
5. Compare and contrast Romeo and Juliet’s love to the flower that is helpful when smelled but deadly
when tasted.
6. Poison becomes a significant factor in the play. Why does Shakespeare introduce us to the nature of
poison with Friar Laurence’s speech?
7. Does the Friar respect or resent the circle of life? What is he foreshadowing?
8. What do the last two lines tell you about the Friar’s faith in humanity? What happens if you apply those
last two lines to the play itself – the families’ hate and Romeo and Juliet’s love?