Read the excerpt from act II of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Which lines convey the reason Friar Laurence is willing
to help Romeo and Juliet get married in secret?
(FRIAR LAURENCE: Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here! Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear,
So soon forsaken? young men's love then lies
Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.
Jesu Maria, what a deal of brine
Hath wash'd thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline!
How much salt water thrown away in waste,
To season love, that of it doth not taste!
The sun not yet thy sighs from heaven clears,
Thy old groans ring yet in my ancient ears;
Lo, here upon thy cheek the stain doth sit
Of an old tear that is not wash'd off yet:
If e'er thou wast thyself and these woes thine,
Thou and these woes were all for Rosaline:
And art thou changed? pronounce this sentence then,
Women may fall, when there's no strength in men. ROMEO: Thou chid'st me oft for loving Rosaline. FRIAR LAURENCE: For doting, not for loving, pupil mine. ROMEO: And bad'st me bury love. FRIAR LAURENCE: Not in a grave,
To lay one in, another out to have. ROMEO: I pray thee, chide not; she whom I love now
Doth grace for grace and love for love allow;
The other did not so. FRIAR LAURENCE: O, she knew well
Thy love did read by rote and could not spell.
But come, young waverer, come, go with me,
In one respect I'll thy assistant be;
For this alliance may so happy prove,
To turn your households' rancour to pure love. ROMEO: O, let us hence; I stand on sudden haste.
