Romeo and Juliet

Friar Lawrence is speaking to Paris, who thinks that Lord Capulet wants him to marry Juliet quickly to stop her mourning Tybalt. Friar Lawrence is considering what to do when Juliet appears. She puts Paris off, telling him that she’s here to make her confession to Friar Lawrence, and Paris withdraws.

The despairing Juliet asks Friar Lawrence to provide her with some alternative to suicide; she’s ready to stab herself if the marriage to Paris can’t be prevented. Friar Lawrence comes up with an idea: If Juliet has the strength of will to die by suicide, she might also have the strength of will to go through with a dangerous plan. Juliet eagerly agrees:

O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,

From off the battlements of any tower,

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.

Or bid me go into a new-made grave

And hide me with a dead man in his shroud (IV.1.78-86).

Friar Lawrence explains the plan: Juliet will go home, agree to the marriage, and then take a drug he’ll provide.