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All Site ContentRomeo and JulietAct 5Scene 3
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"crow"
Language
Act 5,
Scene 3
Lines 119a-122

An explanation of “crow” in the stage directions for Act 5, Scene 3 of myShakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Romeo

Here's to my love!
[He drinks the potion]
                             O true apothecary,
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. [Dies.]
[Enter at the other end of the graveyard Friar Laurence with a lantern, a crowbar, and a shovel]

Friar Laurence

Saint Francis, be my speed! How oft tonight
Have my old feet stumbled at graves. Who's there?

Until relatively recently, a "crow" was the name for what we call a crow-bar.  It was called this because the slightly curved and tapered end of the iron bar resembles the beak of crow.