Romeo then responds that he has another reason for not wanting to go to Capulet’s feast: he has had a dream the previous night that his going to the feast would be the cause of trouble. Mercutio asserts that dreams are untrue: “dreamers often lie” (51). Romeo (once again using a pun) answers that dreamers lie in bed dreaming about events that come true.
In response to Romeo’s claim that dreams are omens of the future, Mercutio launches into his famous Queen Mab speech. Some critics suggest that the character of Queen Mab, who is a tiny magical fairy, comes from the oral tradition of Celtic mythology. Other critics contend, though, that the fairy Queen Mab is Shakespeare’s invention. All of the critics, however, do agree that the word queen, when spelled quean, meant whore; and the name Mab was a common one for prostitutes. In the speech Queen Mab is described as the bringer of dreams. Mercutio’s meaning is clear: prostitutes cannot be trusted, and neither should the dreams created by the troublesome fairy. Mercutio’s speech is funny, silly, and highly imaginative. The speech should be delivered in a light-hearted tone, for Mercutio is trying to cheer Romeo up and make him stop worrying about his dream and stop thinking about Rosaline:
O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
…
She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomies Athwart men’s noses as they lie asleep.
Her wagon-spokes made of long spiders’ legs;
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers;
The traces of the smallest spider’s web;
The collars of the moonshine’s watery beams;
Her whip of cricket’s bone, the lash of film; Her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat
Not so big as a round little worm Prick’d from the lazy finger of a maid. Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, Time out o’ mind the fairies’ coachmakers.
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 curtsies 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 lawyer’s lip,
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. This is that very Mab
That plaits 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—
(53-94)
Mercutio describes Mab as the “fairies’ midwife” (55). Just as a human midwife helps pregnant women bring their children into the world (in place of a medical doctor), Mab brings dreams into people who are asleep. She is extremely small and rides in a wagon made from an empty hazelnut and insect parts and which is driven by a gnat (a small insect similar to a fly). Mab is tiny and insignificant, and – as Mercutio implies – so are dreams.
Mab causes lovers to dream of love (line 72), members of the court to dream of proper etiquette (line 73), and ladies to dream of kisses (line 74). Mercutio implies that all of these dreams are fantasies: they are unreal. Other unreal fantasies created by Mab include lawyers who dream of getting high-paying court cases (76-77), parsons or ministers who dream of obtaining extra money or revenues (79-81), and soldiers who dream of performing heroic deeds on the battlefield (82-88). Mab is also capable of causing mischief or trouble. Ladies whose breath smells from eating stale candy upsets Mab, and she punishes these ladies by giving them blisters (line 75). Mab tangles the manes of horses, which may make them unruly (line 89); and she also damages the hair of elves, which causes them to become malicious (lines 90-91). And Mab apparently also brings erotic dreams to maids or virgins, which makes them ready or eager to become lovers (lines 92-94). Although Romeo tells Mercutio to be quiet, he has obviously enjoyed the speech and would be laughing along with his companions. Romeo even tells a joke of his own when he declares that Mercutio talks about “nothing” (96). The word nothing was also Renaissance slang for the vagina; and thus Romeo implies (1) that Mercutio is being too bawdy in his lines about virgins and (2) that Mercutio’s words are meaningless.
Nonetheless, Mercutio’s speech is successful: Romeo agrees to join the others at the feast held by Capulet. Yet, at the same time, Romeo is not fully convinced that his dream is meaningless:
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date. (107-08)
The stars here, as in the Prologue (in which Romeo and Juliet are described as star-crossed lovers), again indicate the presence and power of fate or destiny. Romeo correctly fears that dire or terrible consequences will follow if he attends Capulet’s feast. His dream has warned him that such will be the case.
Romeo, nevertheless, is so inspired by
Mercutio’s speech to be merry with his companions that he sets his dream aside and proceeds to enter the Capulet household.