No Fear Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare

Get this No Fear to go!

Act 1, Scene 4, Page 3

Original Text

Modern Text



ROMEO
And we mean well in going to this mask,
But ’tis no wit to go.
ROMEO
We mean well by going to this masquerade ball, but it’s not smart of us to go.

MERCUTIO
   Why, may one ask?
MERCUTIO
Why, may I ask?

50
ROMEO
I dreamt a dream tonight.
ROMEO
I had a dream last night.

MERCUTIO
     And so did I.
MERCUTIO
So did I.

ROMEO
Well, what was yours?
ROMEO
Well, what was your dream?

MERCUTIO
     That dreamers often lie.
MERCUTIO
My dream told me that dreamers often lie.

ROMEO
In bed asleep while they do dream things true.
ROMEO
They lie in bed while they dream about the truth.

MERCUTIO
Oh, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
MERCUTIO
Oh, then I see you’ve been with Queen Mab.

BENVOLIO
Queen Mab, what’s she
BENVOLIO
Who’s Queen Mab?

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MERCUTIO
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate stone
On the forefinger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomi
Over men’s noses as they lie asleep.
Her wagon spokes made of long spinners' legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
Her traces of the smallest spider’s web,
Her collars of the moonshine’s watery beams,
Her whip of cricket’s bone, the lash of film,
Her wagoner a small gray-coated gnat,
Not half so big as a round little worm
Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid.
MERCUTIO
She’s the fairies' midwife. She’s no bigger than the stone on a city councilman’s ring. She rides around in a wagon drawn by tiny little atoms, and she rides over men’s noses as they lie sleeping. The spokes of her wagon are made of spiders' legs. The cover of her wagon is made of grasshoppers' wings. The harnesses are made of the smallest spiderwebs. The collars are made out of moonbeams. Her whip is a thread attached to a cricket’s bone. Her wagon driver is a tiny bug in a gray coat; he’s not half the size of a little round worm that comes from the finger of a lazy young girl.

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