Friar Francis is a respected figure in Messina, and we first meet him when he presides over the ill-fated marriage ceremony of Hero and Claudio. After Claudio has brutally rejected Hero, the Friar defends her, claiming that Hero’s appearance during the scene proves she is innocent. He comforts Hero in her distress and tries to persuade Leonato that she has been wronged. He hatches a plot to pretend that she has died from the shock of the slander, so that Claudio will regret his actions and feel more sympathetic towards her. Leonato agrees to the plan, and the Friar is triumphant when he is eventually proved right. After the deception has been uncovered, the Friar happily agrees to marry the reunited Hero and Claudio, and the newly engaged Beactrice and Benedick.
"Hear me a little"
4.1.155
Religion: Catholic
Sex: male
Some Audio Tracks
Hometown: Messina
Job: Holy Friar
Always called: "Friar" or "holy Friar"
About me: "let my counsel sway you..." (4.1.201)
Personal philosophy: "... what we have we prize not to the worth Whiles we enjoy it, but being lacked and lost, Why, then we rack the value, then we find The virtue that possession would not show us Whiles it was ours." (4.1.230-222)
