Romeo and Juliet
Friar Laurence
The friar and herbalist
A gentle Franciscan who grows herbs, marries the lovers in secret, and hopes their love will end the feud, with terrible results.
Friar Laurence is a Franciscan monk and a student of plants. At dawn he walks through his garden gathering herbs and reflecting that the same flower can hold both poison and medicine. He is wise, kind and slow to anger, and Romeo and Juliet both trust him with their secrets.
His great hope is peace. He believes a marriage between a Montague and a Capulet could turn the households' rancor into love, and that hope is why he agrees to wed them. He is cautious by nature and warns the lovers that violent delights have violent ends. But when events speed up, his careful plans depend on luck, letters and timing, and he has little control over any of them.
“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
After agreeing to marry the lovers, the Friar shelters Romeo after Tybalt's death, scolds him for despair, and arranges for him to spend a night with Juliet and then flee to Mantua. When Juliet is ordered to wed Paris, he offers her a vial of a sleeping potion and promises to send word to Romeo.
Friar John cannot deliver the letter because of a plague quarantine. Friar Laurence hurries to the tomb alone, arriving too late. He wakes Juliet, hears the watch coming, and runs, leaving her behind. He is taken by the Watch and tells the Prince the whole story, ending in the families' grief and reconciliation.
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