Close Study: Act 4 Scene 1
Juliet & the Friar Create a Plan
FRIAR LAWRENCEHold,[1] daughter: I do spy a kind of hope,
Which craves as desperate an execution.[2]
As that is desperate[3] which we would prevent.
If, rather than to marry County Paris,
Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself,
Then is it[4] likely thou wilt undertake
A thing like death to chide away this shame,
That copest with death himself to scape from it:[5]
And, if thou darest, I'll give thee remedy.
JULIET
O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
From off the battlements of yonder tower;
Or walk in thievish ways;[6] or bid me lurk
Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears;
Or shut me nightly in a charnel-house,[7]
O'er-cover'd quite[8] with dead men's rattling bones,
With reeky shanks and yellow chapless[9] skulls;
Or bid me go into a new-made grave
And hide me with a dead man in his shroud;
Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble;
And I will do it without fear or doubt,
To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Hold, then; go home, be merry, give consent
To marry Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow:
To-morrow night look that thou lie alone;
Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber:
Take thou this vial, being then[10] in bed,
And this distilled liquor[11] drink thou off;
When presently through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humour, for no pulse
Shall keep his native progress, but surcease:[12]
No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou livest;
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To paly[13] ashes, thy eyes' windows fall,
Like death, when he shuts up the day of life;
Each part, deprived of supple government,[14]
Shall, stiff and stark[15] and cold, appear like death:
And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt continue two and forty hours,
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes
To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead:
Then, as the manner of our country is,
In thy best robes uncover'd on the bier[16]
Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
In the meantime, against[17] thou shalt awake,
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift,[18]
And hither shall he come: and he and I
Will watch thy waking, and that very night
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
And this shall free thee from this present shame;
If no inconstant toy,[19] nor womanish fear,
Abate[20] thy valour in the acting it.
JULIET
Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear!
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Hold; get you gone, be strong and prosperous
In this resolve: I'll send a friar with speed
To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.
JULIET
Love give me strength! and strength shall help afford.[21]
Farewell, dear father!
[Exeunt] /
- Comprehension: What is Friar Lawrence’s plan?
- Personification: What is Friar Lawrence personifying? Find and highlight the place in the text.
- Comprehension: List (in your own words) the six things Juliet would rather do than marry Paris.
- Recall:Why aren’t they letting the nurse in on the plan? What happened to change the nurse and Juliet’s relationship?
- Comprehension: Describe how this potion will affect Juliet in detail. (Highlight or point to parts of the text as evidence.)
- Comprehension: How does the Friar plan to reunite Romeo and Juliet?
- Tone: How does Juliet sound throughout this passage (and especially in this line)? How can you read her emotion through her words?
- Predict: What could possibly go wrong with this plan?
[1]Hold: Stop, wait
[2]Craves…execution: demands as reckless action
[3]As…desperate: as that action is unbearable
[4]Is it: i.e., it is
[5]That…it: i.e., you who would meet death itself in order to escape this shame
[6]Thievish ways: Roads infested with thieves
[7]Charnel House: house for storing the bones of the dead
[8]O’ercovered quite: entirely covered up
[9]Reeky: reeking; chapless: jawless
[10]Being then: once you are
[11]Distilled liquor: infusing (the body)liquid
[12]Native: natural; Surcease: stop
[13]Paly: pale
[14]Supple government: flexibility
[15]Stark: rigid
[16]Uncover’d: bare-faced; Bier: a frame or stand on which a coffin rests
[17]Against: in preparation for the time at which
[18]Drift: purpose
[19]Inconstant toy: whim that interferes with your firmness of purpose
[20]Abate: weaken
[21]Help afford: provide help