MERCUTIO O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you. She is - TopicsExpress

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 mens 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 spiders web, The collars of the moonshines watery beams, Her whip of crickets bone, the lash of film, Her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat, Not so big as a round little worm Prickd 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; Oer courtiers knees, that dream on courtsies straight, Oer lawyers fingers, who straight dream on fees, Oer 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 oer a courtiers nose, And then dreams he of smelling out a suit; And sometime comes she with a tithe-pigs tail Tickling a parsons nose as a lies asleep, Then dreams, he of another benefice: Sometime she driveth oer a soldiers 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 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 talkst of nothing. - William Shakespeare