Romeo and Juliet (Wisehouse Classics Edition). William Shakespeare

do dream things true.MercutioO, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comesIn shape no bigger than an agate-stoneOn the fore-finger of an alderman,Drawn with a team of little atomiesAthwart men’s noses as they lie asleep;Her wagon-spokes made of long spiders’ 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 wagoner a small grey-coated gnat,Not so big as a round little wormPrick’d from the lazy finger of a maid;Her chariot is an empty hazel-nutMade by the joiner squirrel or old grub,Time out o’ mind the fairies’ coachmakers.And in this state she gallops night by nightThrough 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 tailTickling 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 anonDrums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,And being thus frighted swears a prayer or twoAnd sleeps again. This is that very MabThat plats 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 airAnd more inconstant than the wind, who wooesEven 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 misgivesSome consequence yet hanging in the starsShall bitterly begin his fearful dateWith this night’s revels and expire the termOf a despised life closed in my breastBy some vile forfeit of untimely death.But He, that hath the steerage of my course,Direct my sail! On, lusty gentlemen.
BenvolioExeunt	Strike, drum.

Scene V. a hall in Capulet’s house.

Musicians waiting. Enter Servingmen with napkins
First Servant	Where’s Potpan, that he helps not to take away? He shift a trencher? he scrape a trencher!
Second Servant	When good manners shall lie all in one or two men’s hands and they unwashed too, ’tis a foul thing.
First Servant	Away with the joint-stools, remove the court-cupboard, look to the plate. Good thou, save me a piece of marchpane; and, as thou lovest me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone and Nell. Antony, and Potpan!
Second Servant	Ay, boy, ready.
First Servant	You are looked for and called for, asked for and sought for, in the great chamber.
Second Servant	We cannot be here and there too. Cheerly, boys; be brisk awhile, and the longer liver take all.
Enter Capulet, with Juliet and others of his house, meeting the Guests and Maskers
Capulet	Welcome, gentlemen! ladies that have their toesUnplagued 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 ye now?Welcome, gentlemen! I have seen the dayThat I have worn a visor and could tellA 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 IWere in a mask?
Second Capulet	By’r lady, thirty years.
Capulet	What, man! ’tis not so much, ’tis not so much:
	’Tis since the nuptials of Lucentio,Come pentecost as quickly as it will,Some five and twenty years; and then we mask’d.
Second 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	[To a Servingman] 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 nightLike a rich jewel in an Ethiope’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 slaveCome 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 himTo be a virtuous and well-govern’d youth:I would not for the wealth of all the townHere 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,And 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 endured:What, goodman boy! I say, he shall: go to;Am I the master here, or you? go to.You’ll not endure him! God shall mend my soul!You’ll make a mutiny among my guests!You will set cock-a-hoop! you’ll be the man!
Tybalt	Why, uncle, ’tis a shame.
Capulet	Go to, go to;You are a saucy boy: is’t so, indeed?This trick may chance to scathe you, I know what:You must contrary me! marry, ’tis time.Well said, my hearts! You are a princox; go:Be quiet, or — More light, more light! For shame!I’ll make you quiet. What, cheerly, my hearts!
Tybalt	Patience perforce with wilful choler meetingMakes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.