Queen Mab Speech

Compare and Contrast Two Versions

Shakespeare Otway
O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you. Oh! The small queen of fairies
She is the fairies midwife, and she comes Is busy in his brains; the Mab that comes
In shape no bigger than an agate stone Drawn by a little team of smallest atoms
On the forefinger of an alderman, In Chariot of an empty hazel-nut,
Drawn with a team of little atomies Made by a joiner-squirrell: in which state
Over mens noses as they lie asleep; She gallops night by night thro lovers brains;
Her wagon spokes made of long spinners legs, And then how wickedly they dream all know.
The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers; Sometimes she courses oer a courtiers nose,
Her traces, of the smallest spider web; And then he dreams of begging an estate;
Her collars, of the moonshines watry beams; Sometimes she hurries oer a soldiers neck
Her whip, of crickets bone; the lash, of film; And then he dreams of cutting foreign throats;
Her wagoner, a small grey-coated gnat, Of breaches, ambuscadoes, temperd blades,
Not half so big as a round little worm Of good rich winter-quarters and false musters:
Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid; Sometimes she tweaks a poet by the ear,
Her chariot is an empty hazelnut, And then dreams he
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, Of panegyrics flatt-ring dedications,
Time out o mind the fairies coachmakers. And mighty presents from the Lord knows who;
And in this state she gallops night by night But wakes as empty as he laid him down.
Through lovers brains, and then they dream of love; She has been with Sylla too, and he dreams now
Oer courtiers knees, that dream on curtsies straight; Of nothing but a consulship!
Oer lawyers fingers, who straight dream on fees;
Oer ladies lips, who straight on kisses dream,
Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are.
Sometimes she gallops oer a courtiers nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;
And sometimes comes she with a tithe-pigs tail
Tickling a parsons nose as a lies asleep,
Then dreams he of another benefice.
Sometimes she driveth oer a soldiers 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 plats 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!

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