Here is the third installment of my look at fathers in
The Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet, and
this time we will visit Frier [sic] Lawrence, the ghostly father. He is a
surrogate for the seldom-seen Lord Montague as well as the spiritual father of
both feuding families. In many ways, he has a greater effect upon the children
of the play more than the heads of the families.
Upon his first entrance Frier Lawrence immediately holds
forth about the properties of herbs and teaching the audience from his vast
experience with nature.
O
mickle is the powerfull grace that lies
In
Plants, Hearbs, stones, and their true qualities:
For
nought so vile, that on earth doth live,
But
to the earth some speciall good doth give.
Nor
ought so good, but strain'd from that faire use,
Revolts
from true birth, stumbling on abuse.
Vertue
it selfe turnes vice being misapplied,
And
vice sometime by action dignified.
Within
the infant rind of this weake flower,
Poyson
hath residence, and medicine power:
For
this being smelt, with that part cheares each part,
Being
tasted stayes all sences with the heart.
This lesson about Mother Nature is a metaphor about Human
Nature and the responsibility of each person to use their virtues to enrich the
world, or else these virtues will turn to vice and destroy each one of us.
Montague, Capulet nor the Prince make such an attempt of fatherly caution on
their children, subjects or the audience. Capulet barks orders to his family
and the Prince makes demands. Frier Lawrence also seems to have offered Romeo
advice on women, and bemoans the fact that he was ignored.
Holy
S. Francis, what a change is heere?
Is
Rosaline that thou didst Love so deare
So
soone forsaken? young mens Love then lies
Not
truely in their hearts, but in their eyes.
Jesu
Maria, what a deale of brine
Hath
washt thy sallow cheekes for Rosaline?
How
much salt water throwne away in wast,
To
season Love that of it doth not tast.
The
Sun not yet thy sighes, from heaven cleares,
Thy
old grones yet ringing in my auncient eares:
Lo
here upon thy cheeke the staine doth sit,
Of an
old teare that is not washt off yet.
If
ere thou wast thy selfe, and these woes thine,
Thou
and these woes, were all for Rosaline.
And
art thou chang'd? pronounce this sentence then,
Women
may fall, when there's no strength in men.
…………………………………………………………………for loving Rosaline.
For
doting, not for loving pupill mine.
…………………………………………………………………me bury Love.
Not
in a grave,
To
lay one in, another out to have.
…………………………………………………………………did not so.
O she
knew well,
Thy
Love did read by rote, that could not spell:
He assumes the role of tutor to the young Montague, showing
him how to be a good man, a good lover. These are conversations that should
take place between father and son, but Montague, through his lack of attention
(created through a lack of stage time) never gets to have these moments of
instruction with Romeo. Perhaps this is an illustration of a situation in which
the son cannot talk to his father about these things, through embarrassment or
lack of communication, but this would just be conjecture.
Lawrence’s lessons seem to have worked because the next time
he returns to the stage, he is ready to marry Romeo and his new love. Again,
the first thing that he offers is a word of caution.
These
violent delights have violent endes,
And
in their triumph: die like fire and powder;
Which
as they kisse consume. The sweetest honey
Is
loathsome in his owne deliciousnesse,
And
in the taste confoundes the appetite.
Therefore
Love moderately, long Love doth so,
Too
swift arrives as tardie as too slow.
Here
comes the Lady. Oh so light a foot
Will
nere weare out the everlasting flint,
A
Lover may bestride the Gossamours,
That
ydles in the wanton Summer ayre,
And
yet not fall, so light is vanitie.
At this moment, he becomes a father to both Romeo and Juliet
in a more concrete way. Through this marriage, he seeks to mend the feud
between the Capulets and Montagues, a feat the heads of those families have
been unwilling or unable to do. This is the most civic-minded action of the
play. The secret wedding, overseen by Lawrence, is the only attempt to quell
the strife that has been tearing Verona apart. Capulet says that he does not
believe it should not be a difficult task, but aside from stopping Tybalt
brawling with Romeo at the family festival, neither Capulet nor Montague do
anything concrete to achieve this objective. Capulet’s proposed marriage
between Juliet and Paris are more to secure his daughter’s position and that of
the family – but would it have benefited Verona?
This man of the church could hope for no other gain than the
well being of the polis, the community that he served, his flock, his children.
This is the role of a Father, and a role that only he assays to fulfill.
When Romeo is in trouble, he runs to Lawrence for
protection, not to his family. Here, Frier Lawrence has the chance to expresses
tough love in his efforts to reconcile his son’s secret marriage with his
public murder.
Art
thou a man? thy forme cries out thou art:
Thy
teares are womanish, thy wild acts denote
The
unreasonable Furie of a beast.
Unseemely
woman, in a seeming man,
And
ill beseeming beast in seeming both,
Thou
hast amaz'd me. By my holy order,
I
thought thy disposition better temper'd.
Hast
thou slaine Tybalt? wilt thou slay thy selfe?
And
slay thy Lady, that in thy life lies,
By
doing damned hate upon thy selfe?
Why
rayl'st thou on thy birth? the heaven and earth?
Since
birth, and heaven and earth, all three do meete
In
thee at once, which thou at once would'st loose.
Fie,
fie, thou sham'st thy shape, thy love, thy wit,
Which
like a Usurer abound'st in all:
And
usest none in that true use indeed,
Which
should bedecke thy shape, thy love, thy wit:
Thy
Noble shape, is but a forme of waxe,
Digressing
from the Valour of a man,
Thy
deare Love sworne but hollow perjurie,
Killing
that Love which thou hast vow'd to cherish.
(…)
What,
rowse thee man, thy Juliet is alive,
For
whose deare sake thou wast but lately dead.
There
art thou happy. Tybalt would kill thee,
But
thou slew'st Tybalt, there art thou happie.
The
law that threatned death became thy Friend.
And
turn'd it to exile, there art thou happy.
A packe
or blessing light upon thy backe,
Happinesse
Courts thee in her best array,
But
like a mishaped and sullen wench,
Thou
puttest up thy Fortune and thy Love:
Take
heed, take heed, for such die miserable.
Again, it is Lawrence who thinks clear enough to come up
with a solution that, in his estimation, will keep Romeo safe, rejoin Romeo
with his wife and reconcile the feuding families. His plans are sweeping and
forward thinking, unlike those of Capulet.
Still as these plans unravel, he plots for reconciliation.
Upon finding Romeo dead, his next idea is to keep Juliet safe but ushering her
into a convent. Capulet, on the contrary, threatens his daughter as opposed to
securing her. Once this course of action is thwarted by Juliet’s suicide, Frier
Lawrence, sacrifices himself and tells all:
I am
the greatest, able to doe least,
Yet
most suspected as the time and place
Doth
make against me of this direfull murther:
And
heere I stand both to impeach and purge
My
selfe condemned, and my selfe excus'd.
Of all the men in The
Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet, Frier Lawrence exhibits the most
characteristics of a parent, of a father figure. His concern is for those in
his care, not for himself, and he treats them as such. At no point does he look
exclusively for his own safety, but his attempts are to enrich others. He
teaches. He offers succor. Maybe Shakespeare is trying to make a comment that
the church is the real father of a community. In any event, the one character
in the play who has dedicated his life to not having his own children is the
only character in the play that makes a concerted effort to look out for them.
-
Andy Kirtland, Co-Founding Managing Director of
The New Renaissance Theatre Company (which also produces
The Unrehearsed Shakespeare Project)
