Queen Mab and The Interpretation of Dreams - in prep

Vocabulary

Use the Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary to help you define the following words:

midwife
alderman
agate-stone = chalendony - a type of quartz
fore-finger
hazel nut
joiner
grub
spinners (plural noun)
spokes (noun)
traces (plural noun)
whip
lash
film
gnat

Commentary:

...the fairies' midwife

A midwife is someone who helps a mother give birth. Spencer (1967) thinks that this person does not help fairies give birth but she assists people give birth to dreams

In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,

'The agate-stone' refers to a seal ring of an English state offical. The stone was usually engraved with a figure, and Queen Mab is about the size of this image (Spencer, 1967 p.192).

Drawn with a team of little atomies

A chariot is drawn (from the verb 'to draw') or pulled by a team or a group of horses. In this case the carriage of Queen is pulled by little atomies or "tiny creatures" (Spencer, 1967 p.193).

Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub

The squirrel gnaws the hazel nut and sculpts like a joiner or cabinet maker, while the grub or woodworm bores holes in it (Spencer, 1967, p.193).

Time out o'mind the fairies' coachmakers

I presume 'Time out o'mind' means something like 'time immemorial' or 'prehistoric' or 'long beyond memory'', although I have never heard this expression before. So, here the fairies' coachmakers, who are squirrel and grub, have been making coaches since time immorial or longer than anyone can remember.

The traces the smallest of spider's webs

The traces are the chains, ropes or leather straps used to attach a horse to a carriage. Here the straps of Queen Mab's carriage are made of a spider's web.

Her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat,

Not so big as a round little worm

Prick’d from the lazy finger of a maid;

The person who drives her coach is a gnat who wears a grey coat. It is about the same size as a maggot that develops is prick'd or removed with a pin or a needle from a lazy servant's finger. According to Spencer (1967) it was the common saying of Shakespeare's day that maggots, or the larvae of flies, would grow in the hands of indolent serving girls.

O’er courtiers’ knees, that dream on curt’sies straight,

A courtier is someone who flatters and/or is a member of a royal court.


ROMEO
I dreamt a dream tonight.
MERCUTIO: And so did I.
ROMEO: Well, what was yours?
MERCUTIO: That dreamers often lie.
ROMEO: In bed asleep, while they do dream things true.
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
Over men’s noses as they lie asleep;
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out o’ mind the fairies’ coachmakers.
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 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 worm
Prick’d from the lazy finger of a maid;
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 curt’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—"

ROMEO: Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!
thou talkst 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 as air,
And more inconstant than the wind, who woos
Even now the frozen bosom of the North
And, being angered, puffs away from thence,
Turning his side to the dew-dropping South


Film versions Queen Mab Speech

Romeo and Juliet Act I Scene 4
Zeffirelli's version on Youtube From minute 1:01
Lhurmann's version on Youtube from minute 1:57 -4:43


Compare Mercutio's thesis on dreams and that of Freud's, and contemporary researchers.

Refer to The Interpretations of Dreams (1900) by Sigmund Freud

Key concepts:

• wish fulfillment - desires are symbolised
• dreams and day dreams have much in common
• repressed wishes come out in dreams because it is safer that way
• dream contents: latent(symbolic); manifest content (obvious and direct)
• socially disturbing wishes are highly symbolic and difficult to interpret
• dream may protect the mind from conflict in the subconscious

p255 Barron's Toefl

Compare with Activation Synthesis Theory - Hobson, A. and McCarley (1977) claim that dreams have no meaning at all. They are created by neural firings in an area in the brain called the pons. The mind just strings the impulses together in some kind of order.

The problem with Activation Synthesis Theory is that people with a damaged pons still dream. This suggests that it is higher brain function that cause us to dream and this lends credance to Freuds' theories.See Guardian Article 2004 Field of Dreams for an up to date overview of the theory of dreams.

Nevertheless, Mercutio appears to agree with both Freud and Hobson & McCarley. He sides with Freud, who proposed that dreams were wish fulfillmentin, in saying that lovers dream of love, soldiers dream of cutting foreign throats and so on. He also agrees with Hobson & McCarley, who claim that dreams are just the mind's attempt to piece together random information.

Lecture: G. William Domhoff - "The Awesome Lawfulness of Your Nightly Dreams" UC Santa Cruz Music Recital Hall - on Youtube

Listen to the introduction to Domhoff's lecture and say what he thinks of the work of Freud, Jung and Hobson & Mcarley.

Freud and Jung interpreters of metaphor

no emperical support for their ideas

the Activation Synthesis Theory completely wrong

Return to Romeo and Juliet Instructions

References

Spencer, T.J.B (1967) Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. The New Penguin Shakespeare

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