The Verona Gazette

Following Sunday's masquerade, Romeo did not return home. Instead, he slipped into the Capulet orchard — in direct violation of approximately seventeen different laws regarding trespass and family feuds — and hid beneath Juliet's window.

What he overheard was Juliet, believing herself entirely alone, speaking his name to the night air and wondering — quite philosophically — why his family name should matter at all. Romeo, never one to let an opportunity pass, revealed himself.

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet."

What followed, by all accounts from the Nurse who eventually came looking for Juliet, was several hours of vows, whispered promises, and at least one formal proposal of marriage. By dawn, they had agreed: they would marry in secret the very next day.

In a development that has left this correspondent somewhat speechless, Friar Laurence of the local Franciscan cell agreed — after some hesitation — to marry Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet in private ceremony on Monday afternoon.

The Friar's reasoning: that uniting the families through marriage, however unconventionally achieved, might finally bring peace to Verona. His exact words, as reported: "In one respect I'll thy assistant be; for this alliance may so happy prove to turn your households' rancor to pure love."

The Nurse served as messenger between the two, arranging the details with characteristic enthusiasm. She has told approximately eleven people about it while insisting it is a secret.