Romeo Asks the Friar to Marry Them

Scene summary

At dawn, Friar Laurence gathers herbs in a basket and meditates on them: the earth is at once the womb and the tomb of all that lives, nothing in it is so bad that it has no good, nothing is so good that it does not become abuse when misused, and virtue becomes vice when misapplied. One and the same flower holds poison and remedy: smelled, it strengthens; tasted, it kills. Romeo arrives and greets him. The friar wonders that the young man rose so early and guesses that he did not sleep; he asks whether he was with Rosaline, and Romeo says he has forgotten that name and the pain that came with it. He says he feasted with the enemy and was wounded by someone he had also wounded: he loves Juliet, Capulet's daughter, and is loved by her. He asks the friar to marry them that same day.

The friar is startled at the change: Rosaline was forgotten so quickly, and the love of the young seems to dwell in the eyes, not in the heart. Romeo recalls that the friar scolded him for loving Rosaline, and the friar answers that he scolded the folly, not the love, and that he had ordered love buried, but not so that another could take its place. Romeo says the girl of now gives him love for love, which the other did not; the friar answers that she knew well that he read love by heart, without knowing how to spell it. Even so he agrees to be Romeo's helper, because the alliance may turn the rancor of the two houses into pure love. Romeo says he is in a hurry, and the friar warns him that those who run fast stumble.