Romeo and Juliet Act 4 Scene 1 Summary Cliff Notes

Enter Friar ⌜Lawrence⌝ and County Paris.

FRIAR LAWRENCE
On Thursday, sir? The time is very short.
PARIS
My father Capulet will have it so,
And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
You say you do not know the lady's mind?
5 Uneven is the course. I like it not.
PARIS
Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death,
And therefore have I little talk of love,
For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.
Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous
10 That she do give her sorrow so much sway,
And in his wisdom hastes our marriage
To stop the inundation of her tears,
Which, too much minded by herself alone,
May be put from her by society.
15 Now do you know the reason of this haste.
FRIAR LAWRENCE , ⌜aside⌝
I would I knew not why it should be slowed.—
Look, sir, here comes the lady toward my cell.

Enter Juliet.

179

Romeo and Juliet

ACT 4. SC. 1

PARIS
Happily met, my lady and my wife.
JULIET
That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.
PARIS
20 That "may be" must be, love, on Thursday next.
JULIET
What must be shall be.
FRIAR LAWRENCE That's a certain text.
PARIS
Come you to make confession to this father?
JULIET
To answer that, I should confess to you.
PARIS
25 Do not deny to him that you love me.
JULIET
I will confess to you that I love him.
PARIS
So will you, I am sure, that you love me.
JULIET
If I do so, it will be of more price
Being spoke behind your back than to your face.
PARIS
30 Poor soul, thy face is much abused with tears.
JULIET
The tears have got small victory by that,
For it was bad enough before their spite.
PARIS
Thou wrong'st it more than tears with that report.
JULIET
That is no slander, sir, which is a truth,
35 And what I spake, I spake it to my face.
PARIS
Thy face is mine, and thou hast slandered it.
JULIET
It may be so, for it is not mine own.—

181

Romeo and Juliet

ACT 4. SC. 1

Are you at leisure, holy father, now,
Or shall I come to you at evening Mass?
FRIAR LAWRENCE
40 My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.—
My lord, we must entreat the time alone.
PARIS
God shield I should disturb devotion!—
Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse you.
Till then, adieu, and keep this holy kiss. He exits.
JULIET
45 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,
50 On Thursday next be married to this County.
JULIET
Tell me not, friar, that thou hearest of this,
Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it.
If in thy wisdom thou canst give no help,
Do thou but call my resolution wise,
55 And with this knife I'll help it presently.
⌜She shows him her knife.⌝
God joined my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands;
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo's sealed,
Shall be the label to another deed,
Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
60 Turn to another, this shall slay them both.
Therefore out of thy long-experienced time
Give me some present counsel, or, behold,
'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that
65 Which the commission of thy years and art
Could to no issue of true honor bring.
Be not so long to speak. I long to die
If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy.

183

Romeo and Juliet

ACT 4. SC. 1

FRIAR LAWRENCE
Hold, daughter, I do spy a kind of hope,
70 Which craves as desperate an execution
As that is desperate which we would prevent.
If, rather than to marry County Paris,
Thou hast the strength of will to ⌜slay⌝ thyself,
Then is it likely thou wilt undertake
75 A thing like death to chide away this shame,
That cop'st with death himself to 'scape from it;
And if thou darest, I'll give thee remedy.
JULIET
O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
From off the battlements of any tower,
80 Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk
Where serpents are. Chain me with roaring bears,
Or hide me nightly in a charnel house,
O'ercovered quite with dead men's rattling bones,
With reeky shanks and yellow ⌜chapless⌝ skulls.
85 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,
90 To live an unstained wife to my sweet love.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Hold, then. Go home; be merry; give consent
To marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow.
Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone;
Let not the Nurse lie with thee in thy chamber.
⌜Holding out a vial.⌝
95 Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
And this distilling liquor drink thou off;
When presently through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humor; for no pulse
Shall keep his native progress, but surcease.
100 No warmth, no ⌜breath⌝ shall testify thou livest.

185

Romeo and Juliet

ACT 4. SC. 1

The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To ⌜paly⌝ ashes, thy eyes' windows fall
Like death when he shuts up the day of life.
Each part, deprived of supple government,
105 Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death,
And in this borrowed 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
110 To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead.
Then, as the manner of our country is,
⌜In⌝ thy best robes uncovered on the bier
Thou ⌜shalt⌝ be borne to that same ancient vault
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
115 In the meantime, against thou shalt awake,
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift,
And hither shall he come, and he and I
Will watch thy ⌜waking ,⌝ and that very night
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
120 And this shall free thee from this present shame,
If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear
Abate thy valor in the acting it.
JULIET
Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear!
FRIAR LAWRENCE , ⌜giving Juliet the vial⌝
Hold, get you gone. Be strong and prosperous
125 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.
Farewell, dear father.
⌜They⌝ exit ⌜in different directions.⌝