[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 wagon-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 wat'ry 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
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
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 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—
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 wagon-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 wat'ry 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
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
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 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—
