She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate stone On the forefinger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomies Over men's noses as they lie asleep; Her wagon spokes made of long spinners' legs, The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers; Her traces, of the smallest spider web; Her collars, of the moonshine's wat'ry beams; Her whip, of cricket's bone; the lash, of film; Her wagoner, a small grey-coated gnat, Not half so big as a round little worm Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid; Her chariot is an empty hazelnut, Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers. The speech is really divided into three parts. Romeo shares with his friends that he had a prophetic dream the night before that warned him of going to this party hence, the foreshadowing. Maybe that is why Romeo interrupts his best friend. Here, Mercutio is describing a tiny scene. For more on the dramatic function of Mercutio's Queen Mab speech, please. As he and his friends prepare to crash the Capulets' party in disguise where he eventually meets Juliet and falls in love , outside of the party on the street, Romeo and Mercutio begin a debate about dreams: Romeo: I dreamt a dream tonight.
It is perhaps no accident that the movement from light to dark mirrors the movement of the play as a whole. Romeo: Well, what was yours? Mercutio: That dreamers often lie. This reminds us that he is a realist, especially when compared to his buddy, Romeo the dreamer. In other words, she teaches them to 'bear' children or, one could argue, teaches them how to have sex. The spokes of the wagon wheels are made of spiders' legs, the canopy is made of grasshopper wings, and her whip a cricket's bone.
Ben Jonson recounted the tale of Queen Mab during his performance before Anne of Denmark the wife of James I as she journeyed from Scotland to England in 1603 his performance was later printed as Jonson's Entertainment at Althorpe. Under her orders, humans with fae blood including are being drawn into Faerie as well. Mercutio: O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you If you're following along in your copy of the play, these are lines 53-58. The fairy is no bigger than a gemstone and has a team of tiny creatures drawing her chariot. Queen Mab, the Queen of the fairies invoked by Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, seems at first to be as whimsical as Moth and Mustardseed in A Midsummer Night's Dream, as her coach and attendants are described. His words are filled with puns, and his sharp tongue often stings, especially sweet Romeo. To him, lawyers dream of collecting fees and lovers dream of lusty encounters; the fairies merely grant carnal wishes as they gallop by.
Fed up with Romeo's lovesick moping for Rosaline, Mercutio taunts his buddy by saying that Queen Mab must have paid him a visit in the dream Romeo tries to tell him about. So, what is Mercutio's point? In 1627, Michael Drayton wrote a fairy poem called Nimphidia. Songwriter set the first half of the text to music on her 2017 album Regina. Therefore, from Mercutio's point of view, dreams do not imitate reality but the fantasies of human beings. Romeo's final speech anticipates his meeting with Juliet and creates an atmosphere of impending doom, which undercuts the festivities. In juxtaposing lawyers and lovers, soldiers and the fairy entourage, his eloquent speech touches on a number of the play's opposing themes such as love and hate, fantasy and reality, idealism and cynicism.
In 1813, Shelley wrote a poem in nine cantos called Queen Mab. This is that very Mab That plats the manes of horses in the night, And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs, Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes: This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, That presses them and learns them first to bear, Making them women of good carriage: This is she-- Description Mercutio's Queen Mab speech is not only one of the most famous speeches in Shakespeare's classic tragedy Romeo and Juliet, but it is also one of the more famous speeches in all of his collected works. For example, when Queen Mab visits lovers, they dream of love, lawyers dream of money, and courtiers dream of curtsies. Mercutio is down-to-earth, whereas Romeo continues to indulge in idealistic, lovelorn daydreaming. New York: Doubleday and Co.
But I can help put it into context. Analysis Mercutio acts in contrast to the lovestruck Romeo and the peaceful Benvolio — he is a witty and quick-tempered skeptic. A study in the Warwickshire dialect; with a glossary and notes touching the Edward the Sixth grammar schools and the Elizabethan pronunciation as deduced from the puns in Shakespeare's plays. That Mercutio focusses on young women rather than young men is typical of many of Shakespeare's. This is that very Mab That plats the manes of horses in the night, And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs, Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes: This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, That presses them and learns them first to bear, Making them women of good carriage. Dressed as a pilgrim to the Holy Land, Romeo addresses Juliet in character, pretending that he has just come upon a most holy shrine. Queen Mab is a recurring supporting character in the comic book series.
With their masks concealing their identity, they resolve to stay for just one dance. She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate stone On the forefinger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomies Over men's noses as they lie asleep; Her wagon spokes made of long spinners' legs, The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers; Her traces, of the smallest spider web; Her collars, of the moonshine's wat'ry beams; Her whip, of cricket's bone; the lash, of film; Her wagoner, a small grey-coated gnat, Not half so big as a round little worm Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid; Her chariot is an empty hazelnut, Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers. The Nurse tells her that his name is Romeo and he is a Montague. At the beginning of Mercutio's speech Mab seems a whimsical creation, much like the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream. For instance, I can anticipate that students won't know what a courtier is, or even a parson, and neither of those words are defined in the footnotes. Let's start with some background. First things first: if you haven't already, go back and read Mercutio's Queen Mab speech in Act I, Scene 4.
Mercutio teases Romeo for his love melancholy by sarcastically using conventional images of Petrarchan infatuation to underscore Romeo's naive view of love. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns and Goblins Paperback. During this time, I will circulate and help students work through the meaning of challenging words. And in this state she gallops night by night Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love; O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight, O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees, O'er ladies ' lips, who straight on kisses dream, Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues, Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are: Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose, And then dreams he of smelling out a suit; And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail Tickling a parson's nose as a' lies asleep, Then dreams, he of another benefice: Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck, And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, Of healths five-fathom deep; and then anon Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes, And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two And sleeps again. And with this splendour she gallops night after night Through the brains of lovers, and then they dream of love; Over the knees of courtiers, that dream on bowing to gain favour at Court, Over the fingers of lawyers, who immediately dream of fees, Over the lips of ladies, who immediately dream of kisses, Who the angry Mab often plagues with blisters, Because they have eaten candied fruit to sweeten their breath: Sometimes she gallops over the nose of a courtier, And then he dreams of some promotion within the Court; And sometimes she comes with the tail of a pig intended to pay the Church, Tickling a minister's nose as he lies asleep, And then he dreams of another way to increase his income: Sometimes she drives over the neck of a soldier, And then he dreams of cutting foreign throats, Of breaches, ambushes, the finest swords thought to be Spanish , Of toasting friends with overflowing cups; and then right away He hears drums in his ear for battle , which startles and wakes him, And, being frightened, he says a hollow prayer or two And sleeps again. This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, That presses them and learns them first to bear, Making them women of good carriage. Instead of a date with a pretty girl on a starlit night, he intuits that he goes to a date with destiny.