mercutio quotes

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  • 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. —Mercutio starts his famous "Queen Mab" speech with a description of the fairy queen.
    • Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, Time out o’ mind the fairies’ coachmakers. —In his "Queen Mab" speech Mercutio identifies the coachmakers who serve the fairy queen.
    • 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. —In Mercutio's "Queen Mab" speech, how a person's life experiences come back in dreams.
    • True, I talk of dreams, Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy . . . . —In response to Romeo's comment that the "Queen Mab" speech is about nothing, Mercutio replies that that is true, because it's all about dreams, which are nothing. (Romeo has objected to going into Capulet's party because of a dream he had.)
    • Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim, When King Cophetua loved the beggar maid! —After Capulet's party, Mercutio, calling out to the hidden Romeo, scoffs at Cupid and love.
    • O, he is the courageous captain of compliments. —Mercutio sarcastically describes Tybalt as one who will kill you with utmost courtesy.
    • One, two, and the third in your bosom. —Mercutio sarcastically sums up the result of Tybalt's artistry as a duellist.
    • O flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified! —Mercutio jests that love has dried up Romeo.
    • I am the very pink of courtesy. —In an exchange of jests with Romeo, Mercutio boasts that he is the flower of courtesy.
    • A gentleman, nurse, that loves to hear himself talk, and will speak more in a minute than he will stand to in a month. —After Mercutio has hurled a series of naughty jokes at the Nurse, Romeo more or less apologizes for him by saying that he loves to hear himself talk, but means little of what he says.
    • A plague o’ both your houses! —Mercutio, fatally wounded by Tybalt, curses both the Capulets and Montagues.
    • make it a word and a blow —Responding to Tybalt's request for "a word," Mercutio invites Tybalt to fight.
    • Thy head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of meat. —Mercutio jokes that Benvolio, who wants to avoid a fight with the Capulets, is the very person who is most likely to start a fight.

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