Oil on canvas. Royal Shakespeare Theatre Collection, Stratford-upon-Avon
One source identifies this as Romeo and Juliet, Act II, scene vi, but this is incorrect. In that scene both Romeo and Juliet are with Friar Laurence. This incident occurs in Act IV, scene i, after Paris leaves the Friar and Juliet.
Juliet: O, shut the door! and when thou hast done so,We see the Friar comforting Juliet, the knife now lying on the floor at her feet. As Laurence ponders the problem, he says, "Hold daughter. I do spy a kind of hope. . . ." Like many of Pettie's paintings, this one of the musing Friar and the weeping Juliet, just before he gives her the vial with the potion, catches and communicates a moment of great emotion.
Come weep with me--past hope, past cure, past help!Friar: Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief;
It strains me past the compass of my wits.
I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,
On Thursday next be married to this County.Juliet: Tell me not, friar, that thou hearest of this,
Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it.
If in thy wisdom thou canst give no help,
Do thou but call my resolution wise
And with this knife I'll help it presently.
Richard Altick notes that "In the 1840's, artists were for some reason as devoted to the scene in which Friar Laurence gives Juliet the potion (4.1) as they had been in the immediate preceding years to Juliet and the nurse; between 1840 and 1853, at least ten examples are recorded. None of these paintings left any special mark, though the subject remained current. E. M. Ward's version was prominent in the Royal Academy show of 1867, and as late as 1896, W. P. Frith was represented by the same scene." (296)