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SC. II.
ROMEO AND JULIET
163
| Fri. John. | Holy Franciscan friar! brother, ho! |
Enter Friar Laurence.
| Fri. Lau. | This same should be the voice of Friar John.— Welcome from Mantua: what says Romeo? Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter. |
| Fri. John. | Going to find a bare-foot brother[E 1] out,5 One of our order, to associate[E 2] me, Here in this city visiting the sick, And finding him, the searchers of the town, Suspecting that we both were in a house[E 3] Where the infectious pestilence did reign,10 Seal'd up[E 4] the doors, and would not let us forth; So that my speed to Mantua there was stay'd. |
| Fri. Lau. | Who bare my letter then to Romeo? |
| Fri. John. | I could not send it,—here it is again,— Nor get a messenger to bring it thee,15 So fearful were they of infection. |
| Fri. Lau. | Unhappy fortune! by my brotherhood, |
- ↑ 5. bare-foot brother] In his account of the Franciscan brothers going abroad in company one with another Shakespeare follows Brooke's poem; but Brooke represents the pestilence as at Mantua.
- ↑ 6. associate] accompany. So Hall, Chronicle (quoted in New Eng. Dict.): "He should have associated him in his journey."
- ↑ 9. house] Delius notes that, according to both Brooke and Painter, the "house" was the convent to which the bare-foot brother belonged.
- ↑ 11. Seal'd up] a duty of the English constable. Herford: "The Middlesex Sessions Rolls contain cases of the trial of constables for neglecting this duty."
