Friar Laurence's cell — the Friar agrees
A Franciscan picks herbs at dawn. A boy comes asking him to marry a girl he met last night.
Summary
Dawn at Friar Laurence's cell. The Friar enters with a basket — he has been gathering herbs in the early light. The first speech of the scene is one of the play's most-quoted: "the gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night," and within the rind of every flower the Friar holds is both poison and medicine. Two such opposed kings encamp themselves in plants and in human nature alike: "grace and rude will." The speech is delivered before he knows Romeo is on the way, and it will read in retrospect as the play's mission statement.
Romeo arrives, exalted and sleepless. The Friar's first move is to tease him. He recognizes, by the hour and the unrumpled bed, that the boy has not slept, and by the hot color in his cheek what kind of night it has been. Has Rosaline relented? No, says Romeo — Rosaline is forgotten; he loves Juliet, daughter of his family's great enemy, and they wish to marry today. The Friar exclaims: "Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here!" Young men's love, he says, "lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes."
Then he weighs it. Romeo defends himself: this is different; she returns it; this is real. The Friar, after a moment, agrees. His reasoning is not romantic but political and pastoral. This alliance — Capulet daughter, Montague son, sealed by a priest — may be the lever that ends the feud that has been killing the city's young men. "For this alliance may so happy prove, / to turn your households' rancour to pure love." On that calculation he commits. As Romeo bolts for the door, the Friar gives him the line the play will hold against him for the next four acts: "wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast."
- Scene 1The Chorus opens the play with a single sonnet — fourteen lines — that lays out the entire story in advance. Two households alike...
- Scene 2A public place in Verona, Sunday morning. Two Capulet servants pick a fight with two Montagues to be picking a fight. Benvolio...
- Scene 3A young nobleman named Count Paris asks Capulet for Juliet's hand. Capulet says she is too young at thirteen — let two more...
- Scene 4A room in Capulet's house. Lady Capulet calls her thirteen-year-old daughter in and asks how she feels about marriage. The Nurse...
- Scene 5Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio walk in masks through the Verona night toward the Capulet feast. Romeo, reluctant, confesses a...
- Scene 6The Capulet ball, the dance floor full. Romeo sees Juliet across the room and forgets Rosaline within a single line: "for I ne'er...
- Scene 7Outside the Capulet wall, late after the feast. Mercutio and Benvolio have lost Romeo on the way home and call for him through the...
- Scene 8The Capulet orchard. Romeo, hidden, sees Juliet on her balcony speaking aloud of his name and what it costs them. He answers; she...
- Scene 9Dawn at Friar Laurence's cell. The Friar enters with a basket of herbs and reads moral lessons in their double properties — within...
- Scene 10Late morning, a street in Verona. Mercutio and Benvolio discuss Tybalt's challenge and worry that Romeo, in his current state...
- Scene 11Noon at Capulet's garden. Juliet, alone, paces and counts the minutes — the Nurse left at nine; it is past twelve; love's heralds...
- Scene 12Romeo at the Friar's cell, waiting. The Friar warns him again: "these violent delights have violent ends, and in their triumph...
- Scene 13The pivot of the play. A hot afternoon in the public square. Tybalt arrives looking for Romeo and forces a duel; Romeo, freshly...
- Scene 14Juliet's chamber, the same afternoon. Alone, she calls on the night to come quickly: "gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds." It...
- Scene 15Romeo, on the floor of the Friar's cell, hears his sentence. Banishment is worse than death, he insists — and at the Nurse's news...
- Scene 16Late Monday night, a room in Capulet's house. Paris is at the door, paying his respects after Tybalt's death and on the point of...
- Scene 17The longest scene of Act 3. Romeo and Juliet stand at the window at dawn — "it was the nightingale, and not the lark" — and part....
- Scene 18Juliet at Friar Laurence's cell. Paris is there finalizing the wedding order; she answers his courtship with the precise minimum...
- Scene 19Tuesday afternoon, the Capulet house. The household is in motion preparing for Thursday's wedding. Juliet returns from the Friar...
- Scene 20Late Tuesday night, Juliet's chamber. The wedding is at dawn. Alone, with Romeo's dagger laid on the table in case the vial fails...
- Scene 21A short, brisk scene of preparation, set just before dawn on Wednesday. The household has been up all night finishing the wedding...
- Scene 22The Nurse climbs the stairs, pulls back the bed-curtain, and finds Juliet cold. The wedding music outside is still playing. Lady...
- Scene 23Mantua, Thursday morning. Romeo, who has had no word from the Friar yet, is unusually cheerful — he has dreamed Juliet found him...
- Scene 24Late Thursday afternoon, the Friar's cell. Friar John returns from his errand to Mantua with the letter still in his hand. He...
- Scene 25The end at the vault. Paris arrives first to mourn Juliet; Romeo arrives with a crowbar; Paris challenges him; Romeo kills him and...