ROMEO and JULIET
Act 2, Scene 3:
Page 827;




Setting: takes place in the Friar’s garden where he is collecting flowers and herbs for medicine.

The Friar is making comparisons between plants and humans. Some plants, like humans, that are not used for their rightful purposes, can turn deadly, and some plants, which are usually deadly, can be quite beneficial if used moderately and with intelligent application. Some plants and humans which have a preponderance of evil will be destroyed by that evil; but quite often both good and evil reside in humans and plants, and that which is stronger will triumph over the other. (“Within the rind of this weak flower / Poison hath residence and medicine part.”)
The Friar points to a plant that when smelled can stimulate the user, but if ingested or swallowed, can kill.

It takes place just at dawn. Romeo has not been to bed. He has gone directly from Juliet’s balcony to the Friar to plan the wedding.

Soliloquy: a speech which is delivered by an actor alone on stage revealing her/his inner thoughts.

Paradox: something that is contradictory yet upon closer examination proves to be true.
“What is her burying grave, that is her womb…”
An oxymoron is a combination of two contradictory words (bitter sweet; old news) that expresses a new idea.
Paradox: something that is contradictory and seemingly untrue or impossible, yet upon closer examination proves to be true. It is usually a phrase. Example: A boy who is a genius yet is in a special ed class.

Vocabulary:
Ere: before (pronounced like air)
Womb: uterus (where babies come from)
Tomb: a grave
Chide: to scold

Friar’s speech:
Find examples of personification.
Find examples of metaphor.
Find examples of similes.
Find examples of allusion.
Find examples of paradox.

Personification: giving inanimate objects human qualities.
Allusion: reference to classical mythology, to the Bible or to other pieces of literature.

Check’ring: checkering; gray and white
Flecked: to be spotted with; to have flecks (small spots or dots)
Drunkard: a drunk
Reel: to stagger around in a circle
Titan’s Burning wheels: the wheels on the chariot that is driven by the Sun God.

Osier: Wicker basket
*Notice that upfill is a reversal of the usual order. We would say fill up, but to preserve the unstress/stress iambic pentameter he has reversed the order from fill up to upfill.

Paradox:
The earth that’s Nature’s mother is her tomb. / What is her burying grave, that is her womb.
That which is our final burying place, also paradoxically, is the place that gives us birth. We are nurtured by the plants that grow in the earth and when we die, our bodies will lie in the earth, return to the earth and nurture the plants which will nurture future generations.

Shakespeare continues the mother earth metaphor by: “And from her womb children of divers kind / We sucking on her natural bosom find…”

Vocabulary:
Divers: diverse; many different kinds.
Naught: nothing
Aught: nothing
Vile: hateful, loathsome, abhorrent
Vice: evil

Lines 17 – 22:
Nothing is so bad that Mother Nature does not give it some good properties or qualities; for example: cocaine when used by doctors can have good uses.

Sometimes a plant, which usually has good properties, can be lethal if over indulged in or used incorrectly.

Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied /
And vice sometimes by nature dignified.

Write the phrase; identify what the phrase is (metaphor, personification, etc.), explain what the phrase is saying.