Friar Laurence and Romeo's despair

Scene summary

In the cell, Friar Laurence calls Romeo a fearful man, to whom anguish has clung, and tells him what the Prince has decided: not death, but banishment. Romeo asks the friar to say death, which would be mercy, because exile is more terrible. The friar says the world is wide, and Romeo answers that there is no world outside Verona, only purgatory, torture, and hell. He calls banishment a golden axe that beheads with a smile. The friar speaks of the Prince's mercy, who changed the death penalty into exile, but Romeo says it is torture: even flies may touch Juliet's hand, and he may not. The friar offers philosophy as armor against the word "banished," and Romeo asks whether philosophy can make a Juliet, move a city, or undo the sentence; if not, it is no use, and the friar cannot speak of what he does not feel. He falls to the ground, measuring his own grave.

Someone knocks at the door, and the friar tells Romeo to hide, but he does not get up. It is the Nurse, who brings word from Juliet. She finds Romeo fallen and orders him to rise on Juliet's behalf, since Juliet is in the same state, weeping and calling his name after Tybalt's. Romeo asks in which part of the body his name dwells, so that he may destroy it, and draws his sword against himself. The friar restrains him, calls him a woman in a man's body and a beast, and reminds him what he still has: Juliet is alive; Tybalt would have killed him and was killed by him; and the law that would have given him death gave him exile. He tells him to spend the night with Juliet and leave before the guard for Mantua, where he will wait until the friar publishes the marriage, reconciles the houses, and asks the Prince for pardon. The Nurse gives him the ring, and Romeo takes heart; the friar promises to find his servant and bring news.