Nov 12 2008
The Friar And The Nurse (a short play I wrote freshman year): Prologue and Scene One
I wrote this frosh year for extra credit. It’s not great. But enjoy.
Prologue
By blind faith the couple he married
And then behind their love was buried
It didn’t solve the war so violent
When the two lives became so silent
Looking after her forever
When she dies a tie was severed
The nurse alone an outcast figure
Her life that she must reconfigure
Both alike in status
Both alike in rank
Both are stricken with the sorrow
Both are loners for the morrow
So they join
Scene One.
(Enter Friar Lawrence, alone)
Friar: Ah, woe is me!
All I feel is misery
Last night I dreamt that upon clouds of gold
Lovers lay their heads
But then I woke
Twas’ just a dream
(Takes out an empty vial.)
This is the empty cask, the used bottle
That killed my charge, that killed my Romeo
The poor sweet boy, naïve in his ways…
He drank the poison of her love, left dead inside
Dead, I say!
(Enter Civilian.)
Civilian: Who are you that shatters this silent night with your cries of sadness?
Who are you that breaks my wall of peace with your foolish shrieks?
Friar: Only someone who cannot find what is missing, a gaping hole in my life.
Civilian: Search elsewhere, then, for I need not your piteous wailings here.
Friar: Pray, sir, do you seek a quarrel, for your words say so, as do your actions. What be your intentions?
Civilian: I seek a quarrel only if you do…sir.
Friar: I hear that harsh mocking tone you throw upon my image. I am a peaceful man, a sad man, and so I plead, displace your anger somewhere else.
Civilian: Fine, then, but let me ask you this? Who are you, so that I may know who to avoid when I further cross your path?
Friar: Do you mean to slander my name? Your intentions are transparent.
Civilian: Praise or slander my name I have no intention of doing.
Friar: Then why must you urge me to tell you so? What would be the purpose?
(Civilian balks and stammers.)
Civilian: Eh, good sir, you badger me with your questions! If you must know, I am from the good house of Capulet. The Capulets seek a man by the name of Friar Lawrence. Please tell me where to find him.
Friar: He went thataway, but have haste, he was running when I last saw him.
Civilian: Do you tell the truth, because if you lie, I will have you hung.
Friar: Look into my eyes. I tell the truth.
(Civilian exits.)
That was quite close, much too dangerous for me…I must find a safer place to grieve.
(Friar exits in the opposite direction.)
