Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.
Be wise. Take it slow. People who hurry trip.
Friar Lawrence · Act 2, Scene 3
Advice he gives Romeo, then immediately stops following. The Friar's tragedy in five words.
Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet
- Role: Confessor, planner, herbalist Family: Franciscan order First appearance: Act 2, Scene 3 Last appearance: Act 5, Scene 3 Approx. lines: 353
Friar Lawrence is a Franciscan friar in Verona, a herbalist with a small garden, and Romeo’s confessor. He’s older, well-meaning, fond of paradoxes. He keeps the cell where Romeo confides about Rosaline and, the next morning, about Juliet. Of every adult in the play he’s the one who treats both lovers as real people with real problems. He’s also the one with a plan — a worse plan than he realises.
What Friar Lawrence wants is the same thing the Prince wants: for the feud to end. He sees the Romeo-and-Juliet marriage as a chance to fix the city. If the Capulets and Montagues can be linked by their children’s love, the grudge loses its reason. He’s not naïve. He’s hopeful. The difference matters less than he thinks it will.
The Friar’s confidence cracks across the play. In Act 2 he’s the steady hand telling Romeo to slow down (“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast”). By Act 4 he’s improvising a potion plan with no margin for error. By Act 5 he’s standing in a tomb full of bodies, and the woman he was trying to save is about to kill herself, and he runs. Shakespeare is careful with him: not a villain, not a fool, just a man who outran his own judgement.
Key quotes
For this alliance may so happy prove,
To turn your households' rancour to pure love.
This marriage might just turn your families' bitterness into love.
Friar Lawrence · Act 2, Scene 3
The Friar's hope, said aloud — that a secret wedding can do what the Prince's threats can't. The play tests this hope to destruction.
These violent delights have violent ends.
Wild joys end wildly.
Friar Lawrence · Act 2, Scene 6
The Friar's warning at the wedding — three acts before he himself tries to outrun the warning with a potion plan and fails.
Relationships
Where Friar appears
- Act 2, Scene 3 Friar Lawrence’s Cell
- Act 2, Scene 6 Friar Lawrence’s Cell
- Act 3, Scene 3 Friar Lawrence’s cell
- Act 4, Scene 1 Friar Lawrence’s Cell
- Act 4, Scene 5 Juliet’s Chamber; Juliet on the bed
- Act 5, Scene 2 Friar Lawrence’s Cell
- Act 5, Scene 3 A churchyard; in it a Monument belonging to the Capulets
Themes Friar embodies
In the app 
Hear Friar Lawrence, narrated.