Romeo and Juliet — Act 1, Scene 4in modern English, side by side
A Street · Romeo, Benvolio, Mercutio
Romeo, Benvolio, and Mercutio, along with other masked party-crashers, arrive at the Capulet feast; Romeo is gloomy over Rosaline and reluctant to dance, and Mercutio teases him with the wild, rambling Queen Mab speech about the fairy who delivers dreams, before Romeo confesses an ominous feeling that tonight will set something fatal in motion.
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Enter Romeo, Mercutio, Benvolio, with five or six Maskers;
Torch-bearers and others
Romeo
What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse?
So, should we give this speech we prepared to explain ourselves?
Or shall we on without apology?
Or should we just walk in without any apology?
Benvolio
The date is out of such prolixity:
That kind of long-winded formality is out of fashion now.
We’ll have no Cupid hoodwink’d with a scarf,
Bearing a Tartar’s painted bow of lath,5
Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper;
Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke
After the prompter, for our entrance:
We won't need a blindfolded Cupid carrying a painted wooden bow like a Tartar's, scaring the ladies like some scarecrow, or a memorized prologue mumbled weakly after a prompter feeds us the lines just to make our entrance.
But let them measure us by what they will,
We’ll measure them a measure, and be gone.10
Let them size us up however they want — we'll dance one dance with them and be on our way.
Romeo
Give me a torch, I am not for this ambling;
Give me a torch — I'm not up for all that light-footed dancing.
Being but heavy I will bear the light.
Since I'm heavy-hearted, I'll just carry the light instead.
Mercutio
Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.
No, good Romeo, we need you to dance.
Romeo
Not I, believe me, you have dancing shoes,
With nimble soles, I have a soul of lead15
So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.
Not me, believe me. You all have dancing shoes with nimble soles — I have a soul made of lead that pins me to the ground so I can't move.
Mercutio
You are a lover, borrow Cupid’s wings,
And soar with them above a common bound.
You're a lover — borrow Cupid's wings and soar with them higher than the rest of us can manage.
Romeo
I am too sore enpierced with his shaft
To soar with his light feathers, and so bound,20
I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe.
I'm too badly wounded by his arrow to soar on light wings like that, and so weighed down that I can't rise a single inch above my heavy sadness.
Under love’s heavy burden do I sink.
I'm sinking under the crushing weight of love.
Mercutio
And, to sink in it, should you burden love;
Too great oppression for a tender thing.
And if you sink into it, you'll only weigh love down in turn — too much pressure for such a delicate thing.
Romeo
Is love a tender thing?25
Is love a delicate thing?
It is too rough,25
Too rude, too boisterous; and it pricks like thorn.
It's much too rough, too harsh, too violent — and it stings like a thorn.
Mercutio
If love be rough with you, be rough with love;
If love is rough with you, be just as rough back.
Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.
Prick it for pricking you, and you'll beat it down.
Give me a case to put my visage in: [_Putting on a mask._]
Give me something to cover my face with. (putting on a mask)
A visor for a visor.30
A mask for my mask.
What care I30
What curious eye doth quote deformities?
What do I care what critical eye notices any flaws?
Here are the beetle-brows shall blush for me.
These bushy eyebrows can do the blushing for me.
Benvolio
Come, knock and enter; and no sooner in
But every man betake him to his legs.
Come on, let's knock and go in — and the second we're inside, everyone hit the dance floor.
Romeo
A torch for me:35
I'll carry a torch.
let wantons, light of heart,35
Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels;
Let the carefree partiers tickle the rushes on the floor with their heels —
For I am proverb’d with a grandsire phrase,
I’ll be a candle-holder and look on,
as for me, there's an old saying that fits: I'll be the one holding the candle and watching.
The game was ne’er so fair, and I am done.
The game was never so fun once I'm done playing it.
Mercutio
Tut, dun’s the mouse, the constable’s own word:40
Tut, 'dun's the mouse' — that's the watchman's old saying.
If thou art dun, we’ll draw thee from the mire
Or save your reverence love, wherein thou stickest
Up to the ears.
If you're stuck being dull, we'll pull you out of the mud — or out of that swamp of love you're sunk in up to your ears.
Come, we burn daylight, ho.
Come on, we're burning daylight, wasting torches in broad day.
Romeo
Nay, that’s not so.
No, that's not it.
Mercutio
I mean sir, in delay45
We waste our lights in vain, light lights by day.
I mean, sir, that by delaying we're wasting our torchlight for nothing, like lighting candles in daytime.
Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits
Five times in that ere once in our five wits.
Take our meaning the right way — our good sense matters five times more than our showing off.
Romeo
And we mean well in going to this mask;
But ’tis no wit to go.50
And we mean well going to this masquerade — but it isn't exactly wise to go.
Mercutio
Why, may one ask?
Why, may I ask?
Romeo
I dreamt a dream tonight.
I had a dream last night.
Mercutio
And so did I.
So did I.
Romeo
Well what was yours?
Well, what was yours?
Mercutio
That dreamers often lie.55
That dreamers often lie.
Romeo
In bed asleep, while they do dream things true.
In bed asleep, while what they dream turns out true.
Mercutio
O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
Oh, then I see Queen Mab has visited you.
She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,60
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Over men’s noses as they lie asleep:
She's the midwife of the fairies, and she comes in a shape no bigger than an agate stone set on an alderman's ring finger, pulled along by a team of tiny creatures over the noses of men as they sleep.
Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners’ legs;
The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers;
Her traces, of the smallest spider’s web;65
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 half so big as a round little worm
Prick’d from the lazy finger of a maid:70
Her wagon's spokes are made of long spider legs; the wagon's cover, of grasshopper wings; her harness straps, of the finest spider web; her collars, of moonlight's watery beams; her whip made from a cricket's bone, the lash from a spider's thread; her coachman, a tiny gray-coated gnat, not even half the size of a little round worm plucked from a lazy servant girl's finger.
Her chariot is an empty hazelnut,
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out o’ mind the fairies’ coachmakers.
Her carriage is an empty hazelnut shell, built by the squirrel carpenter or an old grub — fairy coachmakers since time out of mind.
And in this state she gallops night by night
Through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love;75
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:80
And in this getup she rides night after night through lovers' brains — and then they dream of love; over courtiers' knees, who then dream of bowing and scraping; over lawyers' fingers, who instantly dream of their fees; over ladies' lips, who instantly dream of kisses — though angry Mab often punishes those lips with blisters, since their breath is tainted with too many sweets.
Sometime she gallops o’er a courtier’s nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;
Sometimes she gallops over a courtier's nose, and then he dreams of sniffing out some favor to request;
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:85
and sometimes she comes with a tithe-pig's tail, tickling a sleeping parson's nose, and he dreams of a bigger church assignment.
Sometime she driveth o’er a soldier’s neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscados, Spanish blades,
Of healths five fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes;90
And, being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two,
And sleeps again.
Sometimes she rides over a soldier's neck, and then he dreams of slitting enemy throats, of ambushes, of Spanish blades, of drinks five fathoms deep — and then suddenly drums pound in his ear, and he startles awake, and, badly frightened, mutters a prayer or two and falls back asleep.
This is that very Mab
That plats the manes of horses in the night;
And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs,
Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes:95
This is the same Mab who braids the manes of horses in the night and tangles hair into filthy matted knots, which, once undone, are said to bring bad luck.
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 the hag who, when girls lie on their backs, presses down on them and teaches them to bear weight, turning them into women who can carry a man well.
This is she,—
This is she —
Romeo
Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace,100
Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace.
Thou talk’st of nothing.
You're talking about nothing.
Mercutio
True, I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,
Which is as thin of substance as the air,105
And more inconstant than the wind, who woos
Even now the frozen bosom of the north,
And, being anger’d, puffs away from thence,
Turning his side to the dew-dropping south.
True — I'm talking about dreams, which are the children of an idle mind, born from nothing but empty fantasy — as thin and insubstantial as air, and even more changeable than the wind, which one moment courts the frozen north, and then, angered, blows away from it entirely, turning instead toward the dew-dropping south.
Benvolio
This wind you talk of blows us from ourselves:110
This wind you're talking about is blowing us off course.
Supper is done, and we shall come too late.
Supper's over, and we're going to be late.
Romeo
I fear too early: for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars,
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night’s revels; and expire the term115
Of a despised life, clos’d in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
I'm afraid we're too early instead — my mind senses some consequence still hanging among the stars, ready to begin its terrible course with tonight's festivities, and to end, somewhere in my chest, a life I've grown to despise, through some awful, untimely death.
But he that hath the steerage of my course
Direct my suit.
But whoever steers the course of my life, guide my ship.
On, lusty gentlemen!
Onward, my merry friends!
Benvolio
Strike, drum.120
Strike up the drum.
_Exeunt._
Famous lines in this scene
“O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.” line 57
Mercutio's famous set-piece describing the tiny fairy who rides through people's brains delivering dreams tailored to their desires. It shows off Mercutio's manic, brilliant wit and love of language for its own sake, but it also spirals into darker, more chaotic imagery, foreshadowing the play's swing from comedy into tragedy — and it's often cited as one of Shakespeare's most virtuosic single speeches.
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