Speech Analysis
Friar Laurence’s Entrance
Questions
•
•
•
•
•
•
What time of day does this scene take place?
Where is Friar Laurence?
Why is this speech in the play? What does it signify?
This is Friar Laurence’s first entrance. What does the speech
tell us about him?
Friar Laurence talks about the dual nature of life. Provide
an example from the speech.
Think about the vice and virtue comments the Friar makes.
Find instances in the play when a virtue turns bad and a
vice turns good. e.g. Romeo and Juliet’s death end their
families’ feud.
•
•
•
•
•
Poison becomes a significant factor in the play. Why does
Shakespeare introduce us to the nature of poison with Friar
Laurence’s speech?
Compare and contrast Romeo and Juliet’s love to the flower
that is helpful when smelled but deadly when tasted.
Compare the Friar’s light and dark imagery at the beginning of the speech with Romeo and Juliet’s love up to this
point in the play.
Does the Friar respect or resent the circle of life?
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 drama itself – the families’ hate and Romeo and
Juliet’s love?
Friar Laurence
The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,
Chequering 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 up-fill 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 nought so vile that on the earth doth live
But to the earth some special good doth give,
Nor aught so good but strain’d from that fair use
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse:
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied;
And vice sometimes by action dignified.
Within the 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.
Light vs dark imagery, morn conquers night. Darkness staggers out of the path of
day. The lines also tell the audience what time of day it is.
Titan: Mythological sun god who rode a chariot across the sky.
ere: Before
dank: unpleasant, damp
osier cage: willow basket
baleful: harmful, poisonous
Friar Laurence is in his garden collecting plants and flowers. He muses how life
both ends and begins in the earth. A “circle of life” reference, foreshadowing the
deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
divers: various
virtues: useful, so many plants can do good
None but for some…: Some have none (virtue), others have some but all are
different.
mickle: large
aught: any part
There is some good in every plant. Even those most poisonous give something
to the earth. The Friar believes in balance, the give and take of life. Nothing is all
good. If virtue stumbles from its true purpose it can turn to vice. Vice can become
good even if the intent is evil.
Is this not exactly what the Friar goes through trying to help Romeo and Juliet?
infant rind: new skin
This flower is medicinal if smelled but is poisonous if tasted.
encamp: enclose them
canker: disease
Flowers are like people. They contain good and bad. If evil dominates, the person
(or plant) will soon die.
This document accompanies “Romeo and Juliet Analysis and Exercise: Part One”
Visit http://tfolk.me/rj1 for more.