Footnotes

1. Bad breath

   Queen Mab gallops

   O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream,
   Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
   Because their breath with sweetmeats tainted are.
   (1.4.74-6)

   Sweet confections were used to cover up the bad breath caused by teeth rotting from too much sugar in the diet.

2. Courtiers' dreams

   Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
   And then dreams he of smelling out a suit.
   (1.4.77-78)
   
   

   Courtiers habitually took bribes to use their influence with those higher up.

3. Dreaming of pigs

   Mab tickles the nose of a sleeping clergyman with the tail of a "tithe pig"--one given as part of the tenth that was due to the Church; he then dreams of having the income from another parish (see 1.4.79-81).

4. From fantasy to nightmare

   Like the rest of the speech, the soldier's dream of war starts with the positive (winning battles and drinking), then moves to the terrors (see 1.4.82-88). More on the technology of war.

5. Erotic dreaming

   Mab becomes the origin of erotic dreams in young maidens (1.4.92-94). That Mercutio focusses on young women rather than young men is typical of many of Shakespeare's male heroes.

6. The whole speech

   Mercutio: 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 waggon-spokes made of long spinners' 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 waggoner 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 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. 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--
   
   Romeo: Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!
   Thou talk'st of nothing.
   

< Further reading on this topic. | How to cite this page >