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All Site ContentRomeo and JulietAct 4Scene 1
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"desperate an execution"
Allusion
Act 4,
Scene 1
Lines 68-76

An explanation of the phrase “desperate an execution” in Act 4, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Friar Laurence

Hold, daughter, I do spy a kind of hope,
Which craves as desperate an execution
As that is desperate which we would prevent.               
If rather than to marry County Paris
Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself,
Then is it likely thou wilt undertake
A thing like death to chide away this shame,
That cop'st with death himself to scape from it;
And if thou darest, I'll give thee remedy.

These lines recall the old proverb, a desperate disease must have a desperate cure. Or, as we might say today, desperate times call for desperate measures.