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.

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 half 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 elf-locks 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,

And more inconstant than the wind, who wooes

Even now the frozen bosom of the north,

And, being anger’d, puffs away from thence,

Turning his face to the dew-dropping south.

Benvolio.

This wind you talk of blows us from ourselves:

Supper is done, and we shall come too 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 term

Of a despised life, clos’d in my breast,

By some vile forfeit of untimely death:

But He that hath the steerage of my course

Direct my sail!—On, lusty gentlemen!

Benvolio.

Strike, drum.

          [Exeunt.]

Scene V. A Hall in Capulet’s House.

          [Musicians waiting. Enter Servants.]

1 Servant.

Where’s Potpan, that he helps not to take away? he shift a trencher! he scrape a trencher!

2 Servant.

When good manners shall lie all in one or two men’s hands, and they unwash’d too, ‘tis a foul thing.

1 Servant.

Away with the join-stools, remove the court-cupboard, look to the plate:—good thou, save me a piece of marchpane; and as thou loves me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone and Nell.— Antony! and Potpan!

2 Servant.

Ay, boy, ready.

1 Servant.

You are looked for and called for, asked for and sought for in the great chamber.

2 Servant.

We cannot be here and there too.—Cheerly, boys; be brisk awhile, and the longer liver take all.

          [They retire behind.]

          [Enter Capulet, &c. with the Guests the Maskers.]

Capulet.

Welcome, gentlemen! ladies that have their toes

Unplagu’d with corns will have a bout with you.—

Ah ha, my mistresses! which of you all

Will now deny to dance? she that makes dainty, she,

I’ll swear hath corns; am I come near you now?

Welcome, gentlemen! I have seen the day

That I have worn a visard; and could tell

A whispering tale in a fair lady’s ear,

Such as would please;—‘tis gone, ‘tis gone, ‘tis gone:

You are welcome, gentlemen!—

Come, musicians, play.

A hall—a hall! give room! and foot it, girls.—

          [Music plays, and they dance.]

More light, you knaves; and turn the tables up,

And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot.—

Ah, sirrah, this unlook’d-for sport comes well.

Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin Capulet;

For you and I are past our dancing days;

How long is’t now since last yourself and I

Were in a mask?

2 Capulet.

By’r Lady, thirty years.

Capulet.

What, man! ‘tis not so much, ‘tis not so much:

‘Tis since the nuptial of Lucentio,

Come Pentecost as quickly as it will,

Some five-and-twenty years; and then we mask’d.

2 Capulet.

‘Tis more, ‘tis more: his son is elder, sir;

His son is thirty.

Capulet.

Will you tell me that?

His son was but a ward two years ago.

Romeo.

What lady is that, which doth enrich the hand

Of yonder knight?

Servant.

I know not, sir.

Romeo.

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night

Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear;

Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!

So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows

As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows.

The measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand

And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.

Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!

For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.

Tybalt.

This, by his voice, should be a Montague.—

Fetch me my rapier, boy:—what, dares the slave

Come hither, cover’d with an antic face,

To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?

Now, by the stock and honour of my kin,

To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.

Capulet.

Why, how now, kinsman! wherefore storm you so?

Tybalt.

Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe;

A villain, that is hither come in spite,

To scorn at our solemnity this night.

Capulet.

Young Romeo, is it?

Tybalt.

‘Tis he, that villain, Romeo.

Capulet.

Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone,

He bears him like a portly gentleman;

And, to say truth, Verona brags of him

To be a virtuous and well-govern’d youth:

I would not for the wealth of all the town

Here in my house do him disparagement:

Therefore be patient, take no note of him,—

 It is my will; the which if thou respect,

Show a fair presence and put off these frowns,

An ill-beseeming semblance for a feast.

Tybalt.

It fits, when such a villain is a guest:

I’ll not endure him.

Capulet.

He shall be endur’d:

What, goodman boy!—I say he shall;—go to;

Am I the master here, or you? go to.