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ROMEO: I dreamt a dream tonight.
MERCUTIO: And so did I.
ROMEO: Well, what was yours?
MERCUTIO: That dreamers often lie.
ROMEO: In bed asleep while they do dream things true.
MERCUTIO: Oh, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
BENVOLIO: Queen Mab, what’s she[?]
MERCUTIO: She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate stone
On the forefinger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomi
Over men’s noses as they lie asleep.
Her wagon spokes made of long spinners’ legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
Her traces of the smallest spider’s web,
Her collars of the moonshine’s watery beams,
Her whip of cricket’s bone, the lash of film,
Her wagoner a small gray-coated gnat,
Not half so big as a round little worm
Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid.
Her chariot is an empty hazelnut
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers.

These lines from Act 1, Scene 4 are the lead in and beginning of Mercutio’s lengthy “Queen Mab” speech. It is spoken to Romeo and Benvolio, but as the speech continues and intensifies it’s easy to get the impression that Mercutio isn’t speaking to any one specifically, but rather is delivering a forceful diatribe against the dangers of dreaming—or more to the point—of being a dreamer (which Romeo has identified himself as being at the start of this passage).

The Queen Mab speech dominates this scene and defines our understanding of Mercutio, who is a pivotal figure in Romeo and Juliet. You can learn more about what Queen Mab represents in our discussion of Symbols (the third symbol), and you can read more about five specific passages from the long speech in Quotes by Symbol: Queen Mab. You can also read more about the opening of the speech in Famous Quotes Explained (the second quote).

MERCUTIO: 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—
ROMEO: Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!
Thou talk’st of 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

These lines conclude Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech. Mercutio has worked himself into such a mean-spirited frenzy using repugnant words such as sluttish and hag that Romeo feels compelled to stop him. This passage is discussed further in Quotes by Symbol: Queen Mab (the fifth and final quote), and the response Mercutio makes to Romeo’s interruption starting with “True, I talk of dreams,” is explained more in Quotes by Character: Mercutio (the first quote).

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 term
Of a despisèd life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.

In this quote from Act 1, Scene 4, Romeo uses the telling word “stars” as he foretells his inevitable fate. You can read more about this quote in Quotes by Theme: The Inevitability of Fate (the second quote) and in Quotes by Character: Romeo (the second quote).

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