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All Site ContentRomeo and JulietAct 2Scene 6
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"Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow"
Allusion
Act 2,
Scene 6
Lines 9-15

An explanation of the Friar’s proverbial allusion in Act 2, Scene 6 of myShakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Friar Laurence

These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness,
And in the taste confounds the appetite.
Therefore love moderately: Long love doth so.
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.

This line recalls the old proverb, "the more haste, the worse speed."

(The Tortoise and the Hare, Aesop's Fables, c. 1912)