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Friar Lawrence

Romeo and Juliet

Unhappy Fortune! The Plague in the Plays

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Shakespeare killed scores of his characters — by sword, by dagger, by poison, by flame, by drowning, by hanging, by murder, by suicide, by accident — men, women, children, all ages, killed by many means, even by a bear. But the deaths of only two of his central characters can be attributed to the plague, and even then, only by proximate cause, not directly by the plague.
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Banishment: Romeo and Coriolanus

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For two of Shakespeare’s most passionate male characters, banishment holds passionately different meanings. Romeo, banished from Verona, is grief-stricken and in fear of never seeing Juliet again. For him, banishment is the equivalent of death. Coriolanus, banished from Rome, is enraged and contemptuous of the plebeians who he hopes he will never have to see again. For him, banishment is an opportunity for a new life. 
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A Plague and a Scourge

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Mercutio’s curse, “A plague o’ both your houses!” is fulfilled, although not literally. Despite the numerous ways scores of characters die in Shakespeare’s plays, no one in this play or any other Shakespeare play dies of the plague. But the plague is the proximate cause of Romeo’s and Juliet’s deaths.  When Friar Lawrence sends Friar John to deliver a letter to Romeo telling him of Juliet’s fake death,
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Tombs and Wombs

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Friar Lawrence’s rumination on soil as both a tomb and a womb works as a metaphor of one of the play’s central themes. The “misadventure’d piteous overthrows” of  Romeo and Juliet in the Capulet tomb at the end of the play gave birth to a growth of amity between their two families.
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Plagiarizing Himself

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Shakespeare often reused images and metaphors, stealing from himself. The simile in Friar Lawrence’s musing from Romeo and Juliet,

And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss consume.

is echoed in the metaphor of the third quatrain of  Sonnet 73.

In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
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Friars, Friends and Deceivers

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Friar Francis in Much Ado About Nothing (4.1.221), like Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet, is a sympathetic character who aids the romantic interests of the young lovers. Both friars fashion a conspiracy whose central conceit is the fake death of the lady. Friars fare better than the Catholic hierarchy in Shakespeare’s plays, even though the friars are as devious in their means as cardinals and archbishops.
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The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night

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The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,Personification
Check’ring the eastern clouds with streaks of light,
And fleckled darkness like a drunkard reelsSimile
From forth day’s path and Titan’s fiery wheels.Allusion

The earth that’s nature’s mother is her tomb;
What is her burying grave,
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God pardon sin! Wast thou with Rosaline?

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Friar Lawrence
God pardon sin! Wast thou with Rosaline?
Romeo
With Rosaline, my ghostly father? No.
I have forgot that name and that name’s woe.
Friar Lawrence
That’s my good son. But where hast thou been then?

O, she knew well
Thy love did read by rote, that could not spell.
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Source:
Act 2
Scene 3
Line 47

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So smile the heavens upon this holy act

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Friar Lawrence
So smile the heavens upon this holy act
That after-hours with sorrow chide us not.
Romeo
Amen, amen. But come what sorrow can,
It cannot countervail the exchange of joy
That one short minute gives me in her sight.

These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die,
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Source:
Act 2
Scene 6
Line 1

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Connected Notes:
Plagiarizing Himself

What less than doomsday is the Prince’s doom?

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Romeo
What less than doomsday is the Prince’s doom?
Friar Lawrence
A gentler judgment vanished from his lips:
Not body’s death, but body’s banishment.
Romeo
Ha, banishment? Be merciful, say “death,”
For exile hath more terror in his look,
Much more than death. Do not say “banishment.”
Friar Lawrence
Friar Lawrence
Here from Verona art thou banishèd.
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Source:
Act 3
Scene 3
Line 10

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Banishment: Romeo and Coriolanus

O, he is even in my mistress’ case

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Nurse
O, he is even in my mistress’ case,
Just in her case. O woeful sympathy!
Piteous predicament! Even so lies she,
Blubb’ring and weeping, weeping and blubb’ring.—
Stand up, stand up. Stand an you be a man.
For Juliet’s sake, for her sake, rise and stand.
Why should you fall into so deep an O?
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Source:
Act 3
Scene 3
Line 91

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O, shut the door

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Juliet
O, shut the door, and when thou hast done so,
Come weep with me, past hope, past care, past help.
Friar Lawrence
O Juliet, I already know thy grief.
It strains me past the compass of my wits.
I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,
On Thursday next be married to this County.
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Source:
Act 4
Scene 1
Line 45

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Holy Franciscan friar, brother, ho!

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Friar John
Holy Franciscan friar, brother, ho!
 Enter Friar Lawrence.
Friar Lawrence
This same should be the voice of Friar John.—
Welcome from Mantua. What says Romeo?
Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter.

Suspecting that we both were in a house
Where the infectious pestilence did reign,
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Source:
Act 5
Scene 2
Line 1

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Unhappy Fortune! The Plague in the Plays

O comfortable friar, where is my lord?

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Juliet
O comfortable friar, where is my lord?
I do remember well where I should be,
And there I am. Where is my Romeo?
Friar Lawrence
I hear some noise.—Lady, come from that nest
Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep.

O, happy dagger,
This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die.
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Source:
Act 5
Scene 3
Line 153

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I will be brief, for my short date of breath Is not so long as is a tedious tale

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Friar Lawrence
I will be brief, for my short date of breath
Is not so long as is a tedious tale.
Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet,
And she, there dead, that Romeo’s faithful wife.

We still have known thee for a holy man.—

I married them, and their stol’n marriage day
Was Tybalt’s doomsday,
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Source:
Act 5
Scene 3
Line 238

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