Romeo, whom his friends seem to consider generally very witty and fun, originally thought the party-crashing would be a wonderful idea, but suddenly is overcome by a sense of great foreboding; although they "mean well in going to this mask . . . 'tis no wit to go" (I, iv, 48-49). This annoys Mercutio, who does not recognize Romeo's reluctance as a genuine premonition, but feels it is simply another example of Romeo's lovesick whims. Romeo tries to explain to Mercutio that it is based upon a very disturbing dream, and Mercutio passes that off as silly, telling him that "Dreamers often lie." Here he is not saying that Romeo himself is a liar, but that people should put no faith in dreams. But Romeo is insistent; dreamers lie "in bed asleep, they do dream things true" (I, iv, 52).

This suddenly launches Mercutio into a spee

It is not accidental that Shakespeare begins this play by describing the feud which has separated Verona in two, and the first scene deals, not with love, but with a street brawl. Romeo and Juliet's Verona is a very violent place, and it would be strange indeed if these two children of Verona experienced a sweet and gentle love.

He leaps off the topic of Mab's carriage, however, to describe its route. Mab's function is apparently to drive over the sleeping forms of human beings, and cause them to dream of things appropriate to their station in life. For example, she causes lawyers to dream of fees, ladies of love, and soldiers of warfare. Here, again, this sounds fanciful enough; yet he somehow veers off into a deluge of images that are at complete odds with the sweet, almost childlike story it seemed he was going to tell. It is not enough that soldiers dream of war: they must dream 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" (I, iv, 83-87). In other words, Mercutio began his speech with a reverie and ended with nightmares. Mab does not seem like such a cute little creature now.

ch that alters the entire pace of the scene. Up to now, the conversation has been typical of a group of people walking through the streets-short phrases, a generally relaxed mood. With Mercutio's words, "O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you!" he plunges into a forty-two line speech which is actually composed of only two sentences, giving him barely enough breath to pause between phrases. The gist of the speech concerns Mab, whom Celtic mythology considered to be the midwife of the fairies, and who also is held to be responsible for human beings' dreams.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Queen Mab, Queen Mab's, Lord Capulet, Romeo Juliet, Juliet's Verona, Mab Celtic, Juliet Romeo, Montagues Capulets, queen mab, , romeo juliet, mercutio speech, queen mab hath, moment romeo, mab speech, romeo friends, mab hath, little creature, queen mab speech, dreamers lie,
Approximate Word count = 1393
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)