Laurence

( Friar ), the good friar who promises to marry Romeo and Juliet. He supplies Juliet with the sleeping draught, to enable her to quit her home without arousing scandal or suspicion. (See Lawrence ).—Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1597). Laurence , baby-boy whose brief life is the theme of Ro iter Johnson’s poem bearing that caption: “The newne of love at his coming, The freshne of grief when he went, The pitile pain of his absence, The effort at argued content, The dim eye forever retracing The few little footprints he made, The quick thought forever recalling The visions that never can fade— For these but one comfort, one answer In faith’s or philosophy’s roll;— Came to us for a pure little body Went to God for a glorified soul.” Ro iter Johnson, Idler and Poet (1883).