Enter ROMEO.
FRIAR Within the infant rind of this weak flower
Poison hath residence, and medicine power:
For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part,
Being tasted, stays all senses with the heart.
Two such opposèd kings encamp them still
In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will;
And where the worser is predominant,
Full soon the canker death eats up that plant. (2.3.23-30)
The stage direction for Romeo’s entrance (following most of the early editions, but not Q1) is nicely placed: it means (if he sees Romeo) that the Friar can continue to expound on what may well be a favourite theme (has Romeo heard this all before?), now directing his comments to an onstage audience; a good opportunity to establish the dynamics of their relationship. That the flower is immature, having an infant rind– perhaps it has a bud? – makes it appropriate to Romeo, and it’s tempting to imagine him gesturing to Romeo with the flower to make his point, as he draws together his final point about the balance, in people, between grace and rude will. (There’s an interesting little associative cluster here: we know from Ophelia that herb o’ grace is another name for rue– which is a strongly-scented herb – and points to rude. Maybe the Friar has some rue in his basket. The Friar is certainly going to be characterised by his ruth, his compassion, even if it all goes wrong.) The canker death is important here, too: the idea of the bud or the flower being eaten from within by a worm has already been invoked (Montague spoke of a bud bit with an envious worm in 1.1), and here it is again – but it’s now also animated by Juliet’s metaphor, only a few moments before, of this bud of love which she hope will flower in time. Buds, young plants, do not always flourish: the Friar has, after all, begun this part of his speech by noting that the earth that’s nature’s mother is her tomb.
