| What do lovers dream of | Love |
| What do courtiers dream of | Courtsies straight (forst mention)Of suits (second mention) |
| What do lawyers dream of | Money |
| What do ladies dream of | Kisses |
| What do parsons dreams of | Benefice |
| What do soldiers dream of | Killing people |
| Midwife | Someone who delivers babies |
| Agate-stone | Gem |
| Alderman | City official |
| Atomy | Tiny particle |
| Traces | Part of the harness |
| Wagoner | Person who drives the carriage |
| Prick’d | Taken |
| Joiner | Person who builds from wood |
| Plagues | Diseases or illness |
| Tainted | Marked or dirtied by |
| Suit | A request or favor |
| Tithe-pigs tail | Payment to the church |
| Parson | A churchman |
| Breaches, ambuscadoes | Ambushes |
| Healths five-fathoms deep | Large drinks |
| Plats | Braids |
| Elflocks | Horses mane |
| Bode | Foretell/predicts |
| Hag | Witch |
| Maids | Virgins |
| What does she do | Fairies midwifeShe gives people dreamsQueen Mab spends her time galloping over the noses and lips of sleepers, filling their dreams with wild fantasies |
| What is mab slang for | W+h+o+r+e |
| How big is mab | Smaller than an agate stone |
| What does she ride in | Queen Mab is a tiny fairy that rides around in a coach made out of an “empty hazelnut” with spider’s “legs” for wheel spokes (1.4.72, 64). The coach is driven by an even tinier “grey-coated gnat” and drawn by a “team of little atomi” (tiny atoms). |
| What dies she act like | Angry she’s a hag She’s a slut |
| What does she have | A whip of crickets bone The lash of film |
| Who says the queen mab speech | Mercutio |
| When does mercutio say the queen mab speech | Before the Capulet party |
| When she is angry what does she do | When she’s in a bad mood, she plagues women who dream of “kisses” with nasty sores (“blisters”) that might just be cold sores but might also be nastier things, like pox from syphilis, and she’s fond of making young, virginal girls have naughty dreams. |
| What is mercutio implying | 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. Mercutio also informs Romeo that dreams “are the children of an idle brain,” which is another way of saying that Romeo is an idiot and his dreams about Rosaline are ridiculous |
| What does this say about dreams | They lie and are not to be trusted |
| What does this say about love | It is childish and small and insignificant |
| What is the purpose of the speech | To tell Romeo Dreams shouldn’t be trusted and love is a lie |
Romeo and Juliet study guide- Queen Mab
August 9, 2019