Queen Mab and the Prophecy of Dreams

Act I, scene iv can be a challenge without first knowing a little about the time period. Remember that earlier in Act I, Benvolio has talked Romeo into "crashing" the Capulet party in order to look at other beautiful women, and Romeo has agreed to go in order to prove that Rosaline is indeed the most beautiful young lady. The problem is that not just anybody can go to the party; you'd have to be on the guest list, and being Montagues, Romeo and his friends are not.



As scene iv opens, that's exactly what the boys are talking about: how to get into the party without being noticed. In this time period, there is a "prompter" at the entrance to the party, and this person announces the guests as they enter. It would be hard to get by without being noticed...But wait! There is one possibility. It is fashionable for young men to wear masks as sort of a whimsical and festive thing to do. Bevolio offers a suggestion through a pun, "We'll measure them a measure and be gone," (line l0), which means they'll dance and look everyone over and leave. That's the plan, but Romeo has a bad feeling about it all which he talks about from line 48 "But 'tis no wit to go." Do the best you can in examining the scene.

Mercutio makes light of dreams (beginning with line 53) in his Queen Mab speech. Queen Mab is the fairy who brings strange dreams to mankind (the audience would have been familiar with her). Mercutio's soliloquy starts out light heartedly, but you may notice that as it comes to an end, his tone is dark, and what were dreams in the beginning turn to nightmarish images. His intentions seemingly began as an effort to get Romeo to lighten up. As this scene ends, though, Romeo mentions that he fears that someone will die as a consequence of going to the party...yet, he goes anyway. Perhaps it is fated!